Orlando Florida/Disneyworld (Part 2) *CLOSED*

disney_cjd

sukey13 wrote: »

I would hate to be misleading to anyone and I am glad you understand that my villa is actually on one of the closest developments to WDW and is not miles away in Davenport. You just can't lump all villa owners into one pot!

As Disney is actually 5 different parks, I don't know where else you should measure up to other than the main gate? Should you measure to the Magic Kingdom?

Yes Disney is 43 square miles. Yes where do you measure it to, but many take the most convenient measurement and use that. Its marketing thats all.

I am sure it would nto hurt anyone to say x mins to MK, y mins to Ak etc etc. Its not then end of the world to do that is it?

Many people have never been bnefore and if someone says its 10 mins to Disney they would expect to be havign a pciture taken with teh mouse shoprtly after that. Regulars know thats not true.

lincolnuni

Hi,

Im in the process of booking a holiday to Orlando/Florida for the big 2 week holiday in Disneyland etc, however struggling to find some good deals so any help would be greatly appreciated:D

There are 6 adults going and we are wanting to hire 2 cars and stay in a villa close to Disneyland.

Now we have been quoted approx £4100 all in with the villa, flights, two cars - is this a good deal?


Another thing is we wanted to get tickets for Disneyland; we were told by the travel agent that the Disneyland Ultimate Tickets at £265 each were the best thing to go for as we could use them for anything basically.


Im not sure if these prices are the best out there or if there is better ones to be found?

Again thankyou for any help - the holiday is for anytime in Aug/Sep for 2 weeks.

LincolnUni :j:j:j

dazzer68

hi first if your staying in florida youll be going to disney world, not disney land which is in california!
check the disney web site for tickets they are £229 from them direct, and there are some offers on. the disney 14 ultimate ticket only covers the disney parks (the magic kingdom, animal kingdom, epcot, hollywood studios and the water parks,blizzard beach and typhoon lagoon plus the disney quest at downtown disney, which is more than enough for 14 night holiday) it doesnt cover unversal parks, seaworld, wetnwild etc, so look into what the travel agent is saying as it doesnt do all the parks.there isnt one ticket that does that, youll need to buy several.

relynutz

hi guys, a few of my friends and family are seriously considering going to florida in 2011, yeah i know its a long way off but need to start saving now!!!!

there will be 14of us
10 adults and 4 kids age range form 3 1/2 up to 12
have figured that a villa would be best option, but have no idea really about the rest, have been googling different villas and passes ad flights for half the night but was wondering if it is best to book villa first or flights first or which way around>>>
very flexible on dates , happy to go in april, may , june, july, august , or october, or even nov.
any advice greatfully received

Blink_Eden

relynutz wrote: »

hi guys, a few of my friends and family are seriously considering going to florida in 2011, yeah i know its a long way off but need to start saving now!!!!

there will be 14of us
10 adults and 4 kids age range form 3 1/2 up to 12

Hi, we have gone a couple of times with a largish group - 9 of us, and once we did it ourselves and the second time through an agent.

I would suggest booking the flights first as it will be easier to find a villa to match your flights than flights to match the villa, especially for that many people.

Going through an agent may be a bit more expensive, but it takes a lot of the leg work out, especially with that many people - we found that a lot of the flight websites won't let you do searches online for more than about 6 people.

(Or maybe we were just too lazy )

Blink_Eden

Now a question from me -

Mrs Blink is a bit of a culture vulture - we are going to go to the Dali Museum in Tampa, but she also wants to see a bit of "real america". I was thinking of just driving in to Orlando, finding somewhere to park and going on a bit of a walk. Having never been to Orlando itself, does it have a proper "city centre" and is this worth doing. And can anyone recommend anything?
(We are going to see celebration too, I hadn't realised that it was an "artifical", Disney created, town)
We are staying in Terra Verde in Kissimee.
Cheers

disney_cjd

Blink_Eden wrote: »

Now a question from me -

Mrs Blink is a bit of a culture vulture - we are going to go to the Dali Museum in Tampa, but she also wants to see a bit of "real america". I was thinking of just driving in to Orlando, finding somewhere to park and going on a bit of a walk. Having never been to Orlando itself, does it have a proper "city centre" and is this worth doing. And can anyone recommend anything?
(We are going to see celebration too, I hadn't realised that it was an "artifical", Disney created, town)
We are staying in Terra Verde in Kissimee.
Cheers

Hi Mr and Mrs Blink

I am very passionate about Florida and whilst I LOVE Disney it has so much to offer so its nice to hear Mrs Blink wants to do more.

Orlando does have a City centre. It has a Downtown area but this is mainly a business area lots of tall skyscrapers and the like. Also in the evening its not the best place to be.

HOWEVER, there are lots of things to see all within a few hours of Kissimmee. You can head west over to Tampa as you are going and then go a little south and see Clearwater Beach - one of the longests white-est beaches you will see. Lots to do there and some real nice placed to eat like the Villa Glacie (the best Italian).

You can head north (one road, the 429) to Mount Dora and Apoka . Both nice places. Also a little further afieild is the wonderful St Augustine that has it all.

Celebrations is truly and awesome place to visit. There is lots there to do and so much to see. If anything she will love it there and demand you buy her one of those big white baorded houses

Take a look at the Ask Dasiey web site which is part of the Brits Guide to Orlando book. Has lots to do.

Also you have the space centre or at least Coco beach or Daytona although Daytona can be a little hectic. If you really fancy a drive 4+ hours you can not bear Miami!

Cheers

Blink_Eden

Mrs Blink says "Thanks for the pointers CJD."

We go out at the end of March, is there any difference between weekends and weekdays as far as Disney is concerned and being busy? trying to figure out how to fit everything in.

disney_cjd

Blink_Eden wrote: »

Mrs Blink says "Thanks for the pointers CJD."

We go out at the end of March, is there any difference between weekends and weekdays as far as Disney is concerned and being busy? trying to figure out how to fit everything in.

No problems at all

The Visit Orlando web site is good ofr other non Disney things.

And the parks, yep the weekends are busy. There are many locals with annual passes that just go at weekends. If you can avoid the parks then i would. Also take a look at the crowd calenders on touringplans.com and that will give you some pointers. Generall if you are NOT staying at a Disney hoel avoid the parks when they have extra magic hours, so look at https://www.disneyworld.com and the caladeners and pcik what park you fancy. If it has extra magic hours on teh day you wanted to go, pick another park

Cheers
CJD

Mutton_Geoff

Another vote for the excellent book "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World". We bought this before we went and followed the one day adult plan in the MK (with two teenage kids). We went on one of the busiest days of the year (Christmas Eve) and despite best plans, didn't arrive at the car park til 9.30am and into the park just after 10. By 5pm we had done all the major rides, used the Fastpass, grabbed a burger and walked the whole park as well as the orbital train ride.

By 5pm we did feel that we'd "done" MK justice and due to our busy Christmas schedule couldn't stay longer. The book was excellent value and I'd recommend using the Amazon preview function to print the plan you like to follow and print out a couple of A4 copies to help navigation with the family.

Although the park is overwhelming at first sight, if you're interested in the decent rides, then apart from that, the rest is a lot of padding, facade and faux stores selling candy floss (sorry, cotton candy). Read the book in advance and concentrate on what you want to see on the day, it makes it a lot more rewarding that wandering round just joining another one hour queue. We never waited more than 20 minutes for a ride (less with Fastpass) by following the instructions in the book.

We looked around for others that might have a copy in their hand but saw no-one. Even a park staff member came to talk to us when we were sat down reading and asked us what we thought of the guide as they'd heard a lot of good about it.

At the end of the day we were wondering why people would want to go there for more than 2 days in a row, but a fortnight holiday with all the other parks on the agenda would be worth considering. More than 2 days in the MK? Not worth it imho.