Thinking of doing Disney next year with our whole family (13 of us!). We will have to go during the school summer holidays 2018.
I know some of you have been before so please can you give us your tips.
We are looking at staying in a villa for 2 weeks. How many days do you recommend for Disney and what parks are best to visit?
Would also like to go to universal studios whilst we are there.
Thinking this is going to be an expensive holiday!
I'm at home now so I can reply
My experience is booking for 3 of us (
@Moneyless Man did 6 people I think and he was in charge of everything!)
Anyway, we are about to go on our 3rd trip there in 3 years and we've NEVER stayed on-site.
We've stayed at the Hilton Doubltree at Seaworld (
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel...lton_Orlando_at_SeaWorld-Orlando_Florida.html)
and the Comfort suites at Kissimee just outside Disney (
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel...t_Suites_Maingate_East-Kissimmee_Florida.html) - Which we are going back to again this time because it INCLUDES breakfast each day and as we found at the Doubletree that cost soon adds up over 14 days!!
Now before we go ANYWHERE make sure you read my post about using the ebookers loophole (
https://blog.themoneyshed.co.uk/hotel-ebookers-lowest-price-loophole/ )
It's shaved HUNDREDS off the cost of our accommodation booking!!
We used TopCashBack when we booked at eBookers so I have £230 coming to me which is actually mean to appear about 3 weeks before we leave!
We've flown both indirect with United Airlines (Cheaper price but not an amazing aircraft) and Virgin Atlantic (bit more pricey but larger plane and feels more special). Both get you from A-B
We've got 14 day DisneyTickets which I got from FloridaTix which cost around £270-£280 each I think, again we used TCB for around £30 back
Those 14 day tickets are great as you can use the adventure golf courses at Disney as well which are great fun.
btw FloridaTix let you LOCK IN the price when you buy them but you can pay the balance of the tickets off up until you actually go. You may find that useful as with your party you are probably looking at spending a few thousand on tickets alone!
We've been to Universal everytime. First time I think I bought overkill and got 2 week Universal tickets which covered bother Universal and Islands of Adventure and the harry potter train between them both (WHICH IS AMAZING!)
The second time I used Undercover tourist who offer 1 / 2 / 4 day tickets for universal parks so we just bought a 2 day ticket and that was enough.
THIS time I am wanting to go to Volcano Bay which is the new 3rd Universal Park so that is an additional cost but it is what it is. Attraction Tickets Direct / FloridaTix / Undercover Tourist are currently offering 3 park tickets (universal+islands of adventure+volcano bay) but the only reason I'm holding off at the moment is I am currently in discussion with Universal to get complementary tickets in exchange for a blog post which would cover the base universal parks so I would just have to buy Volcano Bay tickets on the day when we turn up..
I LOVE Universal. I think the areas of the park from Harry Potter to Jurassic Park to Marvel is just absolutely amazing and the rides are something else!
The 2 Disney Water parks are amazing. You can't gauge just how amazing until you get there..
Do you like Dolphins? If course you do? If so then do Discovery Cove (
https://discoverycove.com) - We've done it twice and it's an amazing day with all food and drink included and it's a MUCH slower pace to normal theme parks so it's a nice 'down day'
The Parks are HUGE. Disney alone is the size of Manchester!!! You just can't grasp how big the resort is until you see it in person!
Car Rental - Use Alamo. end of story, you have no idea how easy the whole thing is. Just make sure you take decent car insurance because the last thing you want is to hit another car over there by accident and not be covered.
The reality is that yes, Disney etc all costs money. We've booked this time for Be Our Guest + Chef Mickey, all of which cost extra money but if you go to Orlando you need to accept it is going to cost a LOT of money and when you get there you will fork out more money. You are just going to end up hating your holiday if you go there and wince every-time you have to spend money. Move on! Accept It! and Enjoy it!
Hope this helps, I'm sure others will have experience of staying on-site if that's something you have considered.