Disney-Florida

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CMAC

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Some helpful souls gave me some good info last year on Disney but emails/PM's are all lost, sorry.

I'm looking to rent a villa this summer (June, or July, or Aug) so anyone got experience? do's and dont's, links to decent villa company/car hire/flights/theme park passes etc etc

Oh and any advice on whats a good price and whats a rip off would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Can't be a lot of help but I'm having to look in to this at the minute. It's HID dad's 60th this year and they are looking for us all to go to Florida and do the parks (not really my thing but I'm in the minority), and stay in a villa.

All I've really found out so far is for a 2 week pass that gets you in to pretty much all of the main parks (Sea World, Disney, Universal) it's just under £500 per person :-O. You can get cheaper all access passes but they wont include all of the parks so you have to compromise on some that you might want to do.

Be good to see if anyone has any useful advice or tips though.
 
havent been to disney though, but twice to Universal studios- we have used home-away--both times and there was no problems at all to rent apartment---car rental we use "e-bilhyra" in swedish, i guess ther is an english site also--e-carrental or so... they look up the best deal on all car rentals.. also no problem...last time we stayed 2 nights in orlando at a hotel close to Universal and we didnt need a car those days,,there was an shuttle to the theme park and we fetch the rental car some blocks away after a those days....then we hedding off to sarasota for 1 week ---then to miami for a couple of nights--then to Bahamas- and finally to key west....

for flights we use skyscanner.....internet is wonderful to arrange own travels----good luck
 
If you pay a visit to the 'Rose & Crown' in the British section of the Epcot Center, don't try playing darts over the heads of other punters ... they don't like it and you'll get banned like I did.
 
We went there a few years ago and I would strongly suggest a good guide book for all round reference.

James villas are good clean and not too far from parks

The basic car is next to useless get one or two upgrades otherwise you won't get your luggage in the car

Buy water and any essential supplies from a local supermarket , especially water ( its very dear in Disney parks) you will need lots!!

When you can eat outside of Disney , it's much cheaper

Take your own sat nav and just buy a north America maps to load on to it, it's cheaper that way in the long run

In my opinion bush gardens is a waste of time and money

Seaworld, great!

Kennedy space centre , interesting but a long day

Loads more stuff to consider , but I hope you and your family enjoy it
 
London mike, Why didn't you like Busch gardens? We bought the discovery cove package and went twice to busch gardens and loved it. Thought sea world was good but discovery cove was just fantastic lazy day.

Back to OP there are plenty of villa rentals look on e bay, holiday lettings or just google.

Oh and as for getting ripped off then expect it for the flights.
 
Lincoln Quaker said:
London mike, Why didn't you like Busch gardens? We bought the discovery cove package and went twice to busch gardens and loved it. Thought sea world was good but discovery cove was just fantastic lazy day.

Back to OP there are plenty of villa rentals look on e bay, holiday lettings or just google.

Oh and as for getting ripped off then expect it for the flights.
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We felt the park was just full of roller coaster rides and the boys thought it would be fun but got there and for whatever reason they didn't like it and moaned most of the time and if they were unhappy then HID , well I'll let you guess the rest.........
 
London mike 61 said:
We felt the park was just full of roller coaster rides and the boys thought it would be fun but got there and for whatever reason they didn't like it and moaned most of the time and if they were unhappy then HID , well I'll let you guess the rest.........
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Ah right, Not good. Shame but the park is huge and the roller coasters are very good.
 
We went last September, and will be booking again this week for this September.

I found a website called 'The Dibb', www.dibb.co.uk, theres a forum on there that will tell you everything you need to know. Loads of full time Disney freaks but loads of useful info.

Theres also a villa owners section with loads of villas for rent. You can pay anything from 350 per week to 2000 per week, depending on if you want loads of space, private pool, games room etc.

Flight wise, depending on where you want to fly from, BA currently have a flight sale on, you;re looking at somewhere around 600 per person direct, in economy, a little less if you don't mind flying indirect, loads of options for this.

If you book flights and car hire through BA, its classed as a package and you can pay a deposit up front with the balance due 8 weeks before you go. Most flight only deals will need to be paid up in full when you book.

re Park tickets, i'd say research what parks you want to go to, then buy tickets accordingly, its really easy to by tickets for every park going but if you are going for 2 weeks you only have so many days available. You will probably want a few rest days, and there are literally scores of quality golf courses within a 30 minute drive. There are 4 Disney Parks, 2 Universal Parks, SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove, about half a dozen water parks, and others I've probably missed, so it's unrealistic to do everything in a fortnight without killing yourself.

One other tip, for Universal, if you book a night in one of the Universal hotels (3 to choose from), you get 2 days of unlimited front of line passes (so you don't have to queue up for hours) and you get to go into the Harry Potter section of the park an hour before the park opens to the general public. Invaluable, in my opinion.

If you have any specific questions give me a shout, happy to help.
 
Have been a few times and always used this place for our tickets, as good a deal as you'll find and very reliable company

http://www.orlando-ticket-deals.co.uk

For car hire try this site, used it a couple of times and again worked out cheapest

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk

Sorry, can't help with the villa as we have always stayed in a Disney hotel.

Fantastic place for your holiday and once you've been you'll want to go back
 
CMAC. How many of you going and what are their ages as that can be a big factor how organise things.
My Son in Law owns a property at Club Cortile, Seven Dwarfs Lane, Kissimmee it's on the Web and can be seen on Google Earth.
 
I went in '92, a long time ago but to get the best overall experience IMO is, if you can afford it, go for 3 weeks.
Even going in the "comfortable" time of September (weather-wise) it's hot and gets very tiring, walking around the parks, going on the rides and most importantly, looking after the kids.

Which is why I mentioned, "3 weeks". A good tip is to plan for plenty of rest days - a day chilling round the pool and recuperating ready for the next days entertainment is the best way to get the most out of your "Holiday".

Have fun and take lots of dosh! :cool:
 
Golfmmad said:
I went in '92, a long time ago but to get the best overall experience IMO is, if you can afford it, go for 3 weeks.
Even going in the "comfortable" time of September (weather-wise) it's hot and gets very tiring, walking around the parks, going on the rides and most importantly, looking after the kids.

Which is why I mentioned, "3 weeks". A good tip is to plan for plenty of rest days - a day chilling round the pool and recuperating ready for the next days entertainment is the best way to get the most out of your "Holiday".

Have fun and take lots of dosh! :cool:
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Second this, first time we did it we did 2 days parks, 1 day off. Depending on what you plan to do, check for bonuses with your tickets; we did Discovery Cove and that was good for 2 days at Seaworld as well, make sure you don't end up paying twice. Make sure you stay for the fireworks at both Disney & Epcot. If you go into a park, head to the back first; most people tend to go to the first thing they see, so early on the back of lot rides tend to have shorter queues. Enjoy.
 
We went in 2007.

The only advice i will offer is stay until they kick you out.

Seriously.

At the end of they day a lot of folk flock to the exits and miss, what I can only describe as the best firework and light show display I have ever seen.

As for donts.

Don't eat at the Black Angus streak house on international drive.

Food isn't great, service is worse and the prices for what is essentially steak and chips is nothing short of extortionate.
 
The pro I go to for lessons and got my custom fit driver from has been advertising a villa for rent in Florida (15 minutes from Disney) on Twitter recently (@ChrisPotterGolf - https://twitter.com/ChrisPotterGolf). No idea what it's like but when I was at the range the other day the prices seemed reasonable.

(Just to be clear I have no affiliation with him other than the fact I have had lessons with him, had a custom fit for my driver and bought my 2nd hand irons from him in the past).
 
I'm surprised at the comments over things being overpriced at Disney. Sure it's not going to be supermarket prices but we didn't find Disney expensive. Buy a large coke cup and FREE refills all day. Kids thought this was brilliant. Saves any messing about IMO. Go in October / November when the kids are at school in the US. Better weather, nice and warm instead of boiling hot, and MASSIVELY reduced queues!!!! Downside will be it gets dark earlier. BUT, we found that after being in there from about 9.30am and it went dark about 5pm ish, we had had enough and were knackered anyway. Unniversal used to be cheap. $90 for 14 day pass, (three years ago when we last went but I believe that Disney has bought these parks and it's now $180 !!!! Gits ! Get a villa, if there are a few of you going, you can all chill out together at night. Pay to heat the pool if in October ! Most, in not all, of the villas available on e bay and such like will be FANTASTIC. Just check for a reasonable games room for the kids to play in. The adults can then chill with a relaxing beer. I can recommend a trip to watch the Miami Dolphins. Three hour trip down, yes. We stayed over in Fort Lauderdale, load of small B+B type things. About $25 to watch the game, high up but bloody awesome experience.
 
We booked through Virgin and had accommodation at Lake Buean Vista - about 10 minutes from the Disney theme parks. We had access to the 4 main Diseny parks, didn't bother with the water parks. We also had access to Universal and Islansds of Adventures.

Fantastic, all of it.

In two weeks we put a couple of grand on a credit card, no danger. We hadn't set any real budget for ourselves, as we knew it was the holiday of a lifetime and we were determined to enjoy it without any financial concerns. Obviously now i'm sticking in the overtime, no danger! Setting a budget is definitely a more sensible approach.

I didn't feel like it was particularly expensive, thought food and drinks were all reasonably priced, and much better quality than I was expecting.

Univeersal is quality, but doesn't have the charm that Disney does.

Only other thing i'd recommend, is utilising the Fast Pass option at Disney, and doing the Single Rider queues at Universal. My two eldest and I wanted to do the Superman 3D ride, but the wait time was 85 minutes - We went down the single rider route, the kids ended up in the same car and I was in the car behind them - queued, on the ride, and out of the building within 20 minutes. I can't fathom why anybody would wait longer than that, unless of course kids are apprehensive.
 
London mike 61 said:
We felt the park was just full of roller coaster rides and the boys thought it would be fun but got there and for whatever reason they didn't like it and moaned most of the time and if they were unhappy then HID , well I'll let you guess the rest.........
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#1stworldproblems
 
smange said:
Have been a few times and always used this place for our tickets, as good a deal as you'll find and very reliable company

http://www.orlando-ticket-deals.co.uk

For car hire try this site, used it a couple of times and again worked out cheapest

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk

Sorry, can't help with the villa as we have always stayed in a Disney hotel.

Fantastic place for your holiday and once you've been you'll want to go back
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Cheers for that, we are off in April and am about to look at booking the essentials, such as tee times. I'm planning on the jet lag kicking in big style so first tee times in the morning will be great.

Oh, and apparently the wife wants me to book some tickets for some parks and rides that they apparently have over there. Who knew? Every day's a school day.... I've told her I may get round to it after I've sorted the golf out.
 
well there is some great advice and tips here fellas (and any ladies), thank you. Bookmarked it for reference as I'll keep coming back to check it out as I start to make bookings- so keep any tips /advice coming :clap:
 
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