Orlando, Florida

SantryRed

Hi all,

Thought I would ressurect this thread!

Heading over to Chicago for the summer with my girlfriend on a J1, and our last stop is going to be Orlando for 10 days from Aug 15-25th.

I was there as a kid but it has been 5 years since I was there, while she has never been there. We're both 21.

We were just going to stay close to International Drive, found a 3 star Best Western just off I-Drive for 500 for the 10 nights. Seems a good deal.

Regarding the parks, well we definitely want to head to both Universals as obviously there is more rides there for us, but also want to do some of Disney as she has never seen it. Are there hopper passes available for Disney? Because I think Epcot/MGM/Magic Kingdom could be done in 2 days. Literally only going Magic Kingdom for the parade and the fireworks. Could it even be done in one day?

Thanks.

galwayjohn89

SantryRed wrote: »

Hi all,

Thought I would ressurect this thread!

Heading over to Chicago for the summer with my girlfriend on a J1, and our last stop is going to be Orlando for 10 days from Aug 15-25th.

I was there as a kid but it has been 5 years since I was there, while she has never been there. We're both 21.

We were just going to stay close to International Drive, found a 3 star Best Western just off I-Drive for 500 for the 10 nights. Seems a good deal.

Regarding the parks, well we definitely want to head to both Universals as obviously there is more rides there for us, but also want to do some of Disney as she has never seen it. Are there hopper passes available for Disney? Because I think Epcot/MGM/Magic Kingdom could be done in 2 days. Literally only going Magic Kingdom for the parade and the fireworks. Could it even be done in one day?

Thanks.

Yup they have park hoppers. You'd really be struggling to it all in one day.

I'm 20 and went over with mates in the summer did a day in each park and ran out of time. Was in Magic from 9am to 1am and could have stayed for longer

naughtysmurf

SantryRed wrote: »

Regarding the parks, well we definitely want to head to both Universals as obviously there is more rides there for us, but also want to do some of Disney as she has never seen it. Are there hopper passes available for Disney? Because I think Epcot/MGM/Magic Kingdom could be done in 2 days. Literally only going Magic Kingdom for the parade and the fireworks. Could it even be done in one day?

Yep, hopper passes available from many places, undercovertourist & ATD are both reputable & reliable

You could visit all three parks in a day but taking into account the heat / humidity and crowds in august I'd allow at least two days & that would be absolute minimum. MGM which is now called Disney's Hollywood studios is afaik the smallest park, the three main ride attractions being Toy Story, Arrowsmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster & Tower of Terror, I'd probably do that one & Magic Kindom parades/fireworks on the same day, allow a full day for Epcot, big park & a lot of walking, Epcot really needs two days imo, get to the parks at least 30mins before opening would be my advice

Gatica

If you want the Disney experience, then you'd have to go to Magic Kingdom. You'd want the full day there, as queuing in the parks will eat into your time. Getting around between parks is also time-consuming.
After that, pick another park that you'd really like to do, e.g. Epcot or Animal Kingdom... I personally wouldn't fancy multiple parks in in a single day.

joe stodge

I wouldn't do multiple Disney parks in one day, but last year we easily done done universal/islands of adventure in one day.

flanzer

Can never understand the Park Hopper option. We went there last year and it's a struggle to get any of the Disney parks done in one day. Maybe Hollywood Studios.

We're heading there at the end of the month and are going to spend 2 days in Magic Kingdom this year.

On a side note, Seaworld are doing a Fun Card this year. It's the same price as a day ticket and you can go back multiple times before the end of the year. That's good value right there!

galwayjohn89

Also if you get the new tickets with RFID chips on them and are going soon there is no need to go to park early. We walked straight through while the old ticket had massive queues at the turnstiles.

You can swap old for new tickets at customer service.

rossie1977

its possible to do all in one day (obviously not see everything) because we tried it last year, we got all but one of the big attractions in the four parks in, unless you have a plan in place forget about trying it in one day though and i don't think it would be possible in winter with earlier closing times, just to point out we were staying on i-drive close to wet and wild without a car

9am breakfast buffet (important)
10am arrive at animal kingdom (i had got the tickets earlier in the morning), even at 10am the park was thronged with people

the first ride we hit was Kilimanjaro Safaris and the wait for that was looong (about 90mins) which kind of ate into our time, we then headed over to Expedition Everest which has a single rider line which meant in and out in a few minutes, down to dinosaur, again long wait and finally over to tree of life and tough to be a bug 3d show

3pm taxi to hollywood studios (by far the smallest of the parks) and arrived in middle of pixar parade on main street (note to self good time to visit as people are watching parade rather than on rides), quick walk over to tower of tower (short queue), next door aerosmith has a single rider line so use it, over to star tours where wait was short, quick lunch and got the free boat to epcot at 5.30pm

epcot is a really big park however the main rides (mission space, soaring, test track, spaceship earth) are scattered near the northern entrance

8.30pm got free monorail to magic kingdom, thunder mountain was closed but queue for space mountain was still huge even with the 9pm parade underway, just about managed to make it out for the 10pm fireworks display, the light show which comes about 10mins after fireworks is probably most impressive thing in entire resort (not to be missed), caught the last showing of Mickey's PhilharMagic. parade was just reaching castle when we got out at 11.10pm

SantryRed

Thanks everyone,

Looks like two days would be best for Disney. The price for a 2 day hopper ticket is crazy and the 3 day park ticket isn't much dearer at all, so just going to go for that instead and have a good go around the parks!

New plan now and we're actually thinking of flying to Miami first and spending two days there and renting a car for 7 days and driving up to Orlando. Can anyone recommend a car hire company? Getting quotes of 150 euro for 7 day rent and pick up in Miami and drop off in Chicago, so pretty happy with that if I'm honest!

flanzer

SantryRed wrote: »

Thanks everyone,

Looks like two days would be best for Disney. The price for a 2 day hopper ticket is crazy and the 3 day park ticket isn't much dearer at all, so just going to go for that instead and have a good go around the parks!

New plan now and we're actually thinking of flying to Miami first and spending two days there and renting a car for 7 days and driving up to Orlando. Can anyone recommend a car hire company? Getting quotes of 150 euro for 7 day rent and pick up in Miami and drop off in Chicago, so pretty happy with that if I'm honest!

Budget car hire through carhire3000.ie is probably the cheapest. Dollar is the very cheapest but they can have nasty hidden charges. Car hire and petrol costs are the cheapest part of your holiday, unlike the prohibitive nature of car hire/ownership in this country. Make sure to get a large enough car (mid size/intermediate), purely for the comfort factor!

frostie500

For the theme parks it's going to be very busy at that time of year (last weeks of summer holidays) so it's crucial that you buy the express tickets. They usually cost an extra fifty quid or something for disney and about 30 at universal but they pay for themselves by letting you get onto more attractions. Universal is the pick of the parks in Orlando if you ask me. It's great value and has the best rides outside of six flags (I think it's in Tampa iirc).

I was in Florida a couple of times last year as a stopover with work and there's a load of new rides opened at the parks since you were there five years ago so just get there early, get the express pass and you'll be grand!

I'd recommend that you's take a trip over to Clearwater in the Gulf. It's got the best beaches in the State outside of Miami and in August the sea breeze would be a welcome addition. On the way back to Orlando you'll pass through Tampa so you should try and talk the girlfriend into a Bucs game even if it's only preseason you'd never talk it down in AF if you didnt go! Usually you'll find that season ticket holders will sell their tickets for half price just so they can recoup some of the cost of a pointless match.

Finally I'd also say that a trip to Cape Canaveral is a must do. It's a fantastic afternoon there and it only costs about $50. I dont have access to any maps at the minute but its to the south east of Orlando (about an hours drive or maybe 90 minutes)

naughtysmurf

frostie500 wrote: »

For the theme parks it's going to be very busy at that time of year (last weeks of summer holidays) so it's crucial that you buy the express tickets. They usually cost an extra fifty quid or something for disney and about 30 at universal but they pay for themselves by letting you get onto more attractions.

As far as I'm aware there is no charge to use the Disney Fastpass system although they have tightened up on checking that you return within the hour allocated that is printed your Fastpass ticket

The Universal Express pass may or may not be needed depending on how busy the park is on the day you visit, you don't have to purchase the Universal Express pass in advance, you can make that call when you are there onsite and see how long the lines are

elhal

I would definately recommend the fast[past tickets for all parks! we bought them at the gate prob about $20 per person, but boy are they worth it, instead of waiting for hours in soaring heat you pop from one ride to the next with minimal waiting time!

flanzer

elhal wrote: »

I would definately recommend the fast[past tickets for all parks! we bought them at the gate prob about $20 per person, but boy are they worth it, instead of waiting for hours in soaring heat you pop from one ride to the next with minimal waiting time!

You can't buy FastPass in Disney. They issue FP for rides to come back within a couple of hours and you can join the short FP queue. Queuing is generally less that 10 mins with FP. You can only get FP tickets every hour or so

I was only there last week btw!

elhal

Oh sorry! I remember now the disney ones were different! be bought fast pass for universal, seaworld and busch gardens if i recall!

PhotogTom

I would second the idea of Kennedy Space Center. One extra tip - there are two roads out of Orlando that take you in that direction. Each of them crosses the St Johns River. At each bridge there is a fish camp (restaurant) but also each has an air boat excursion. Almost certain you'll see tons of gators, especially in summer. Also almost certain you'll have a great time!