Orlando Florida/Disneyworld (Part 2) *CLOSED*

sturll

disney_cjd wrote: »

For and against Disney property is a hard one.

For - great atmosphere, great service, all themed and some better access times to parks etc. HOWEVER shopping and food is a litle expensive. Also you get free transport to all the Disney parts. But which hotel? The value hotels such as All Stars etc are a far way away from anything. If you can streach to the moderate resorts I like the Port Orleans as it has a cool boat ride to Downtown Disney

As for off property, again you need to consider an area. I like LBV best and am not a fan of I Drive but each to there own. If you do not have a car you need a hotel that runs shuttles to the parks and some shops so in LBV you will get shuttles to the parks and to the LBV Factory stores. on I Drive you can get the lynx buses anywhere.

Cheers

Based on having a car......

I never stay at Disney, usually i stay in Kissimmee or there abouts. In fact last time i went i stayed near Old town and loved it. I could walk there in five minutes and just spent most nights going to all the all you can eat places, steakhouses and then going to the bars in Old Town - where you can take kids and they do kids cocktails without the alcohol.

A friend recently stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge. She said it was absolutely fantastic and she loved every minute of it, however she did comment that at times she felt so tired because it was non stop. Even upon retreating of an evening she said she didnt feel like she was getting any rest and it was all full on. She said that next time she would stay off the Disney area to make it feel more like a holiday to Florida rather than a holiday to Disney World.... If that makes sense.

I think wherever you stay you will love it. And you'll probably only know where you would prefer the most the second time you go. But if i had to give my advice it would be to stay on or around the 192 in Celebration going down along Vine street and toward where it changes to Bronson memorial Hghwy. You have everything all within a few hundred yards.

spaceman5

disney_cjd wrote: »

The value hotels such as All Stars etc are a far way away from anything. Cheers

we have just returned from a 2 week holiday at a value resort, we stayed at the pop century resort, only because we got a great deal on a upgrade from our tour operator, originally we was staying in a hotel in the kissimee region, got to say though we are glad we did upgrade, i would not say this resort is that far from anything, the furthest park was magic kingdom, and we where there in less than 15 minutes, downtown disney was literally 2 minutes up the road, and if you wanted to drive anywhere I4 which seemed to be the road to use to get to most places was only a minute away, the accomodation in my opinion for a value resort is as good if not better than a premium accomodation at butlins(i used to work there), if you have ever seen one of these at butlins, there is free transport to and from the resort to all the 4 parks, plus the 2 water parks, and downtown disney.

Then there is the bonus of the magic hours, where each day one park will open one hour early, and another park will stay open generally 3 hours after closing, this is split up daily so u can have magic hours every morning and night, and is only available to resort guests, so is a bonus. Give you a tip, if you want to go on toy story mania at hollywood studios, go on a morning when they have the magic hours(tuesdays while we was there) and fastpass it, as we got in at 08:15, went straight there and the queue time was already over 70 mins long, and when we fastpassed it, we had to wait till 13:00 before we could go back to get on the ride, and the fast passes for that ride are normally gone by 09:30 at the latest, it is a good ride( well u sit in a car and shoot at things) but whether i would queue up for over 2 hours to go on it, i dont know, felt sorry for all the people in the queues waiting for over 2 hours to see people walk straight past them and onto the ride.

The only thing that i would say was a negative, was the food, if you stay on a resort, the food is as much the same on the parks as on the resort, and we found with 2 young children they were somewhat limited, kids meals tended to be, hamburger, chicken nuggets, chicken salad, or macaroni cheese, so they tended to get bored of eating the same things over and over for 2 weeks, mind you so did us adults, but that was the only gripe we had with our holiday, and it is only a small one at that, we flew with travelcity direct, heard so many mixed reviews on here and other places before we went, mostly negative, but we never had one problem we would definetely reccomend them to anybody, we will most definetly use them again in about 8 years time, when the little one who is still in the mrs stomach is old enough, and we have finished off paying for this holiday, lol, HTH Dave

spaceman5

andys15 wrote: »

i was expecting including spending money of £5-6000.

our holiday for everything cost £6000, that was with £2000 spending money, but at the exchange rate u can get at the moment that £2000 went a long way, everything is so cheap out there compared to over here, i had to laugh one day, whilst over there i was talking to an american guy, and i mentioned how i needed to fill our car up, and all he said was how expensive fuel was out there, so i went to a garage expecting the worst, and i struggled to get £25 our money into the car from empty to brimming full, and we had a ford edge, so not exactly a small car, i just thought to myself i wish i could fill my car up for £25 back at home, it costs nearly double that, HTH Dave

vivatifosi

I'm with disney-cjd. If you're staying off property, then its Lake Buena Vista everytime. I'm not a big fan of Kissimmee or the top end of I Drive as they don't feel as green and pretty (though I Drive South of Sandlake Road is nice).
If you are staying at a value resort, personally I find Pop Century way nicer than the All Stars, and it is much closer to the action, being just behind the Caribbean Beach (moderate resort).

However, there is an in-between option: have a look at the hotels on Hotel Plaza Boulevard. They are technically inside Disney, but are generally much cheaper than Disney for an equivalent room. You lose out on the theming, but they are in walking distance of Downtown Disney and the transportation system isn't bad either. My favourite is the Hilton, which is also one of the most expensive. If you get a room overlooking Downtown Disney on a high floor you can watch all of the theme park fireworks in one evening from the comfort of your room. Lovely...

Edited to add: Wyndham has a timeshare in Disneyworld called the Bonnet Creek Resort that may be worth checking out. It often has rented rooms at a reasonable rate. Not sure whether you would be pressured into buying (I've been over to look at it as I am a Disney Vacation Club member) and the accommodation was away from the "sales" area. Very nice accommodation too, and pretty new.

andys15

well i have just booked my flights.
1400 quid with virgin which i think is quite reasonable.

we are probably looking at international drive. i have seen 2 weeks in the travel lodge there for £250, which seems great but unsure wether this is a good idea.

what are peoples tips on the best deals on tickets for disney/universal etc. which are the best ones to go for 7/14 das

spaceman5

for disney you may as well get 14 day tickets as they are only a few quid more than 7 day tickets, just bear in mind if you want to buy 14 day tickets you have to do it from this country, dont wait till you get out there, as they dont do 14 day tickets at the parks, HTH Dave

EDIT: on one website i just checked the 14 day ticket was exactly the same price as the 7 day ticket, so that is a no brainer

little_dumplings

Don't know if i'm posting this in the correct place...or is it all one long thread?
About theme park tickets..just purchased my theme park tickets through Attraction Tickets Direct, quoting tickets4fun.com prices and got a price match no problem and a free 'kids eat free' card! Just for asking! Result! Heard that undercover tourist is also cheap, but didn't trust the shipping from US as going in a couple of weeks. Chickened out of buying from tickets4fun as no sign of ATOL etc. but they do have good reviews

Can't wait to see Mickey now!! whoo hoo!!:D

spaceman5

little_dumplings wrote: »

Don't know if i'm posting this in the correct place...or is it all one long thread?
About theme park tickets..just purchased my theme park tickets through Attraction Tickets Direct, quoting tickets4fun.com prices and got a price match no problem and a free 'kids eat free' card! Just for asking! Result! Heard that undercover tourist is also cheap, but didn't trust the shipping from US as going in a couple of weeks. Chickened out of buying from tickets4fun as no sign of ATOL etc. but they do have good reviews

Can't wait to see Mickey now!! whoo hoo!!:D

travelcity ticket prices are £4 cheaper than the price you paid, but then you probably made that back with the kids eat free card, have a great holiday, we just returned and it quite simply was a holiday of a lifetime,Dave

little_dumplings

Oh dear spaceman, I thought I'd done my research! I should have quoted their prices! I heard that travel city only issue vouchers though, so you have to queue when you get there to swap them for actual tickets, so I wouldn't have bought them. Never mind, I've saved plenty of money just going on a diet ready for my hollies!!!

spaceman5

i dont know about the vouchers thing, as we got ours from them, but was staying on a disney resort, so the tickets where on our room keys, just had to put them through the turnstiles at the gates of the parks, surely if they sent u vouchers u would only have to swap them once, and they would have been good for the whole 14 days, well it dont matter now, you have got them have a great time