Florida - family trip July - Advice

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bigjoe_dub

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Wife and 2 kids (12, 7) hitting Orlando at the end of July for 12 days. Staying on International drive.

Not too sure what to do park ticket wise.

Any advise from peeps here. Is it better to wait until you get there to see what is on offer or would you advise buying your tickets before hand.
 
I think the first thing to do is to make a list of what parks you want to visit.

12 days may seem a lot but you won't get all the parks done in that time if you want to ensure getting everything done in each park.

The tickets are expensive so to get value you really have to do 1.5 - 2 days in each park. Unless you are robots you won't do everyday in the park either. Some days you may go to a water park etc.

So I'd first establish what you want to cover. I'd suggest it's Disney or Universal + Sea world.

Disney has 4 parks plus water parks and you could spend the time just in disney - you get better value for money by buying disney only passes.

Alternatively go to Universal/Isles of Adventure and Sea World and get the flexi ticket which should cover all these plus 2 water parks.

7 year old may want Disney - but from experience I'd rate Seaworld as being the top park with adults and children.
 
Hello bigjoe, I would agree with Peno, We got the Universal 5 park flex tickets which took in universal studios and islands of adventure which are connected, You have sea world, Aquatica and wet and wild which is probably within walking distance as you are staying on Int drive, As for Disney we just went to the magic kingdom because you have to when there so I was told, We purchased those tickets at the entrance , Peno is right about 12 days not being a long time, You will go back time and again to the universal parks to get in as much as you can as there is so much to see and do, Sea world is a must, Wet and wild is a blast with the kids and to be honest we never got to Aquatica, You will need the odd chill out day as well, The Universal 5 park flex tickets and a seperate trip to the disney magic kingdom is the way we went , Best of luck on your experience.
 
thanks Peno / Salaried. The Universal flexi ticket, did you purchase that before you travelled or when you got there?
 
Check if this still true.

Sea World............same ticket gets you in during the day and back in at night (for atmosphere and fireworks)

Free Tram up/down International Drive to Sea World
 
yes i got the tickets with attractions direct or something like that before going.

Can't remember now but I think that was the easiest way to get all the parks we wanted included.

I think you can get those multi park tickets on the ground in orlando but not necessarily at the gates of the parks - they only concentrate on their own parks (I may be wrong on that one)
 
I went with a friend about 10 years or more ago.. My fav was Seaworld, and Universal... we also got tickets for Disney too... we were there for 16 days - and we tried to do as much as we could... its near impossible to fit it all in!!!
We got tickets with our tour operator before we went..
 
Having been with family 3 times in past 5years...last time last year with kids (11 and 6). If this your first trip very easy to try and do everything which believe me is not possible. So first thing IMHO is be a bit ruthless. Given the cost of all the parks i would suggest pick either Disney or Universal. Personally i prefer Universal. Two parks IOA and Universal Studios and also Wet n Wild. We boughta 14day unlimited entry to all three (also allowed you go back and forth between Universal Parks) through Attraction Tickets direct. (they also had an offer that gave us a free pass to Legoland). You could also then get a ticket for sea world. In 12 days i think that would be loads also giving you time to relax/shop etc. Some people can do park after park day after day but there is so much more than just the rides. It is great just wandering about soaking it all up. Just my tuppence worth and Disney Parks also great but just dont overdo it. Whatever you do you will have a ball.Njoy!
 
We got our tickets through the travel agent Joe , I just checked the Orlando forum tripadvisor and attraction tickets get the thumbs up if buying on line, www.attractionticketsdirect.ie, This is a great forum but I would suggest checking out tripadvisor as well, As others have suggested you will need time out at some point during your holiday as you could leave your hotel early and arrive back in the evening , It is not your average holiday but no other holiday will seem the same after Orlando .
 
Disneyworld

We went to Orlando in 2008 with 3 kids aged 11, 8 and 3 - for 2 weeks. We decided to go to Disney parks only, and we had a wonderful holiday!
I did do a lot of planning beforehand, from Guidebooks, websites and friends - and it paid off. We bought our tickets in advance from an American site ( can't remember which one). We bought 7 day tickets, with the Water parks add on, and without park hopper. This meant we could have 7 days in the theme parks and 7 visits to Disney water parks. We went to Magic Kingdom 3 times, Hollywood Studios twice, and once each to Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Our favourite was Hollywood Studios.
We only took one day off from the parks - but we did pace ourselves. On most of our theme park days, we arrived at opening time, and stayed for an hour or two after lunch. So we had a relaxed evening at our villa, a swim etc. On one theme park day, we arrived late afternoon, so we could see the night time parade after dinner in the park. On 5 different days, we visited water parks. We arrived 2 or 3 hours before closing, when it was starting to quieten down, and it was relaxing.
So even though we didn't have complete rest days, we had plenty of 'down time' every day, and we made sure we had a relaxed meal, in air conditioned restaurants, on each of our park days.
It is worth doing some planning in advance. Do you want to get to night time parades or fireworks? You'll need to check which days they are on.
 
www.thedibb.co.uk is a useful research tool.
Remember July is when Florida is at its hottest and most humid so as other posters have mentioned build in some rest days and time by the pool.
And as you'll quickly discover food portions, like the obese Americans who consume them, are huge !
 
Bronte said:
The whole think sounds like torture to me.
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I was thinking the same! But each to their own holiday.....sounds like kids would love it but could be exhausted with heat and apparent hectic "schedule"!
 
Billo said:
Have to disagree.
Stayed on International Drive a few weeks ago, and found portions to be reasonable size by our own standards here.
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I live in Florida for 4-5 months every year.Trust me,there's no comparison in portion sizes.In the US you would never need to eat more than a one course meal.
 
username123 said:
I was thinking the same! But each to their own holiday.....sounds like kids would love it but could be exhausted with heat and apparent hectic "schedule"!
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Exactly, cannot see how one could physically go to a Disney park every day for two weeks. Better to build in plenty of rest days for Mom and Dad.
 
Exactly, cannot see how one could physically go to a Disney park every day for two weeks. Better to build in plenty of rest days for Mom and Dad.
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Day on/Day off...............
 
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