First time Florida holiday - need advice!

pelirocco

The best forum for all things Disney is https://www.thedibb.co.uk

cubegame

Perfectly possible to do Disney and Universal in a week.

The Universal parks are relatively small and only need a day each. The four Disney parks can also be done with a day or so each at a stretch. Remember they have very long opening hours if you have the stamina. The right ticket let's you park swap on any given day as well.

gardner1

cubegame wrote: »

Perfectly possible to do Disney and Universal in a week.

The Universal parks are relatively small and only need a day each. The four Disney parks can also be done with a day or so each at a stretch. Remember they have very long opening hours if you have the stamina. The right ticket let's you park swap on any given day as well.

Have to disagree there

OP has two boys age 11 & 12 Universal would be ideal for them the tickets would include studios,islands of adventure,volcano bay,Busch Gardens and one more.......at least 2 of those need at least 2 visits.
By the time cost of tickets for both parks,the heat.the travelling,queuing and the need for a break one week is plain daft.
Granted we went in 2004 for 14 days and more attractions have been added since then,but we did studios twice,park 3 times.Busch once and water. park 4 times (couple of those were late visits after busy day open till 10 pm).We did get 1 day tickets for disney studios which was fantastic but its a fair hike from i drive /universal and we needed a couple of rest days from parks to do other things.

SweetPotatoPie

I disagree with this. It’s doable in a 2 week holiday but absolutely not in a week on your first visit.

cubegame

SweetPotatoPie wrote: »

I disagree with this. It’s doable in a 2 week holiday but absolutely not in a week on your first visit.

We did absolutely everything at Universal and Disney in 6 days on a first visit and didn't exhaust ourselves. That's two adults in their 40s. I'm sure kids of 11 and 12 will have more energy.

SweetPotatoPie

I don’t mean to sound rude but there’s absolutely no way you “did everything”. You may have done things you wanted to but the parks are not small and to do “everything” then it takes a lot of planning. I’ve been going for 15 years and still not experienced everything. And yes, I stay on site and take advantage of EMH etc... There’s too much to do to spend less than a day in each park. For example - you could spend a whole day in world showcase. On your first trip, it’s not about rushing round, it’s about getting your moneys worth. Also, there are no quiet times anymore so your average queue wait time is 45 minutes (more on popular rides).

cubegame

SweetPotatoPie wrote: »

I don’t mean to sound rude but there’s absolutely no way you “did everything”. You may have done things you wanted to but the parks are not small and to do “everything” then it takes a lot of planning. I’ve been going for 15 years and still not experienced everything. And yes, I stay on site and take advantage of EMH etc... There’s too much to do to spend less than a day in each park. For example - you could spend a whole day in world showcase. On your first trip, it’s not about rushing round, it’s about getting your moneys worth. Also, there are no quiet times anymore so your average queue wait time is 45 minutes (more on popular rides).

I think planning is the error. Make something seem more complex than it is and you'll convince yourself it's not possible.


If I recall, we spent 5 hours pottering round the world showcase....that still left us a good 7 hours in the rest of Epcot! I believe we spent another evening there as well after the early closing time of Animal Kingdom.


I maintain we literally did not miss a single attraction that wasn't designed just for small children and we certainly didn't frogmarch ourselves around.

RoyalScot

Thank you everyone for your input, it's been really helpful. We were going to surprise the kids with the trip all planned but have now decided to get their input before we buy park tickets and let them choose! Seems far safer!
Just to be clear, we're in Florida for 13 nights in total, but we wanted to do theme parks first (the first week) leaving us a day at Kennedy Space Centre and the rest of it chilling in Clearwater area. Trying to get the best of both worlds!
Will take a look at that other forum and get booking!

meer53

I agree too, just not possible with 2 kids to do all parks in a week ! You need 3 full days at Universal alone, that's before you set foot in any of the Disney parks. We've been several times and always come home wishing we'd had longer than 2 weeks. We have been for 3 weeks before which was perfect, all parks plus some shopping days too. We've also done Busch Gardens, Tampa, Clearwater and Kennedy Space Centre, they're also full days out. With boys aged 11 and 12 i'd go with Universal, Islands of Adventure, Aquatica, Kennedy Space Centre. I'd also give Daytona a miss, not worth it in my opinion.

headpin

waamo wrote: »

I wouldn't bother with Daytona. It's not the nicest of places. If you can go south Clearwater is lovely, fantastic beach.

Clearwater is southwest of Orlando on the Gulf Coast. Is less than a 2 hour easy drive, assuming no bad jams.

As mentioned https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/index.php is by far and away the best place for the latest and best advice on all things Orlando as well as other Florida bits.