Disney/Universal Florida

JB81

Hi

Im just looking on here to see if anyone here has travelled to Orlando to do the Disney/Universal/Sea World etc.. recently.

Im just curious how they went about it? Agent, booked all separately.

And if they have any tips etc.. to help someone deciding to go.

We are planning going in 2025, 2 adults 3 kids. Anyone who has went have a rough idea of budget needed?

Any help appreciated,

Thanks

J

Bummer1234

Been awhile since i was there but said id give you my 2 cents on it from 2019😃

Booked it for myself and my partner (No kids at the time and was before covid) via skyscanner,Went from Dublin to Manchester and onto Orlando with Virgin Atlantic with only a small layover in Manchester (2 and a half hours i think) and was great as we had breakfast there in the airport.

If travelling with kids might be best to go direct to Orlando but if there a big saving don't be afraid to go via UK. On the way home (after 10 days in orlando)we went to new York for 4 days, Then home via Heathrow to Dublin, Found Heathrow abit of a sh!t show if anything so id avoid there if possible but if saving moneys your thing got for it. Flights there and back for 2 adults was €710 so was good at the time but imagine its alot more now.

In orlando we stayed in Rosen Inn International on international drive and found it great, Close to restaurants, 5/10 min walk to small grocery store and a 10 dollar uber drive to walmart. Rosen Inn was motel type spot got food for our room in walmart for the week(cereal,Milk,fruit and snacks but no cooking facilitys),I booked there on booking.com and was good value then and was looking recently again and still found it good value compared to others, it has a bar, a pool (Not sure if there was a kids pool) and free direct buses in the morning to Universal, We got a taxi to Magic kingdom as no busses but wasn't dear.

We got the tickets for universal and disney on attractiontickets.com before we left, They are not at all cheap…Very expensive and was the biggest cost of the whole trip. Sometimes its the price of the theme parks that put some people off going but these places are magical and I said to my partner we will go back when the kids know they have been there.(I looked back on emails and back in 2019 we spent over €1,624 for 2 adult tickets so not cheap).

We spent 2 days in Magic Kingdom and 2 days in universal and its mad the amount of walking you will do so comfortable footwear 😃Make the most of the passs on the phone app and if the little ones allow..Stay for the fireworks…There amazing!

Didn't do sea world but went to NASA one of the days and loved it…was great to see but im abit of a nerd for that stuff.

Your best to try first via the websites like skyscanner,Booking.com and attractiontickets.com and for how many days your there, Include food for every day your eating out (Don't forget tips aswel..they would wreck your head out there). Also see what agents can do for you…might work out cheaper than what you find online so its best to shop around.

naughtysmurf

Haven’t used a travel agent since the 90’s, just prefer & enjoy doing it myself

You’ll need

ESTA for everyone travelling, Flights, Travel insurance, decide on Car hire or just use Uber / Lyft

Accommodation, decide on location(s) either a Pool home, Hotel, Condominium, Townhouse etc

Theme park tickets, usually cheaper to purchase here before you go, have used attraction tickets direct & undercover tourist in the past, different park ticket bundles available

Time to visit, heat is oppressive july & August, May & October were great weather wise

Having been a number of times before & just my 2c, a 14 night trip = 10 park days max in reality as you will need off days for rest, shopping etc, it’s a great but exhausting trip, depending on the age of your kids & budget there is more than enough in Disney & sea world for 10 park days, some parks you’ll visit more than once OR Universal & seaworld is good for 5 full days & will make a significant difference to your costs

naughtysmurf

As regards budget, our last trip was 14 nights in May 2017, we are returning in May 2025

In 2017 we were 2 adults, 2 kids, 18yrs & 12yrs, we did 2 nights at Universal Hard Rock Hotel, 5 nights at Disneys Saratoga Springs & 7 nights in a 3 bed pool home / villa

From memory we didn’t have much change out of 13k for everything not including shopping

Now you can get much cheaper accommodation than HRH & Saratoga we just decided to spend some time onsite, next trip we are doing HRH for 2 or 3 nights & villa for the remainder, personally we like the space of a villa especially for non park days, just think a hotel room will get real small real quick for us anyway

Villa & car hire costs have increased a lot since our last trip, tickets prices increase every year, it’s not cheap

You’ll get lots of info here, mainly geared towards UK but plenty of the info will apply & definitely have a plan imo

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/index.php

JB81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122025508#Comment_122025508

Thank you

JB81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122026035#Comment_122026035

Thanks

JB81

Thanks for the link

JimmyChew

Greetings all. In the initial stages of planning. Looking at 10 nights on I-Drive. As expected the park tickets are hefty! but I get it…

Anyway, anyway all I can seem to find at this stage are 14 day combi tickets, or single day. Has anyone been able to find a 7 day combi ticket? With a 10 night trip a 7 day ticket would be more than enough.

Any assistance greatly apricated 2 x adults, 2 x kids (15, 12)

Thanks

J

splashthecash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122465476#Comment_122465476

I'm nearly in the same position as you - was looking at a cruise on State side but starting looking at doing the theme parks instead - a 5 day pass would be ideal as we wouldn't be going every day but from what I've seen you need to use them consecutive days which is a pain

Not sure if I'd do a hotel stay close by or just rent a nice house. A few of the houses I've been on Air B&B look great and are sometimes located within a community with central bar\pool\restaurant and other facilities with shopping\malls\etc. close by too

Costly alright, but from what I've heard it is a memorable trip.

JimmyChew

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122510670#Comment_122510670

I did a fair bit of digging and came up with something fairly workable 3 day pass for universal, rest day then start a 3 day pass for disney. Its costly but you know yourself. I had a look at Rosen Inn on I drive but a friend roccomended Cabanas which is next to universal and the volcano bay water park. Im close to nailing things down with that combo and more than likely direct flights from Dublin. Hotel looks good, not as expensive as i thought but i'm sure once i start booking they'll get me for some extras. Looks handy enough for the parks and reasonable Uber to some of the shopping spots for the women.

Sheep Shagger

We got a really good package deal with Casidy Travel for flights and hotel, stayed off International drive so didn't bother with the hotel breakfast as plenty of other options and the hotel breakfast wasn't cheap.

We went indirect and saved a couple of grand over going direct with Aer Lingus. Transfer was seamless with American Airlines in Pilidelphia and would absolutely do it again.

Got theme park tickets from Attraction Tickets, they are authorised resellers.

We went for 14 days so got the but 7 days and 7 days combo tickets. If we ere to go back I'd skip Disney and that can bring the ticket cist down significantly.

Crowne Plaza had park shuttles, you can also get users cheap enough to Universal or the outlets as they are close enough to the hotel.

Like anywhere that uses USD, its very pricey at the moment, there's no way to really avoid that.

Cam highly recommend Perkins restaurant on the corner of IDrive for food any time!

xpletiv

Ive been lots of times (over a dozen). Heres my advice:

1. If you can avoid Aer Lingus, do. It means you have to get a connecting flight through USA, but AL transatlantic are poor and extremely expensive for no good reason. My favourite is Delta through Philidelphia or JFK. But if you've young kids, you might have to cough up for the pricey flight to get there faster (like i did last time), but if they can manage it, you'll save a bundle of money going through a US carrier than AL. Hint hint AL, youre waaay too expensive these days at €1100 per person.
2. Split your stay between Universal and Disney if doing both. I would recommend 7 days in Disney, you dont need a rental car there at all. I would recommend at least 3 or 4 days for Universal (and 5 or 6 now with new theme park/water park). But prioritise which is most important. Universal is a lot cheaper.
3. I dont agree with staying off site - you can stay on site (Cabana Bay at Universal, Value resort at Disney or rent DVC points from Davids Vacation Club and go for Saratoga Springs) for pretty similar prices and at least youre near where you want to go.
4. If buying tickets, buy direct is usually my advice, or maybe try undercovertourist or mousesavers. Dont use attractiontickets for USA theme parks. They absolutely screwed people during the pandemic and I have never forgiven them for that.
5. If its 3 kids, then likely youll have to be going during holiday time, which adds up quick. July/August are biblically hot and humid. September is rainy season but much cheaper and slightly cooler.

Dano650

I used Attraction tickets for 2019 and 2023 and found them very good. I know a few other people have used them too and had no issues with them

fitzparker

This is something we are hoping to plan for 2026 (feb mid term or April) 2 adukts 2 kids

I picked feb mid term 2025 as a rule of thumb for prices. indirect flights and 10 nights @ coco Key is €3000 with baggage ( not bad considering we'd pay that to Europe for a week in the summer.

Now to the tickets

Attraction tickets - 14 day tickets to use in both Disney and Universal (all 3 parks) are €4375

if booking separate
Universal 5 day, 1 park per day is €1500

Disney 7 day is €2800

So it basically works out the same, except with Attraction tickets there is a bit more flexibility

all in almost €7500

Add another 3-5k spending money

Does this all sound about right?

jmcgold

We traveled end of April/start of May this year.

Your price for flights and accom. looks very good.

We booked Disney tickets through disneyholidays.ie as they worked out the cheapest. 14-day magic ticket (including park hopping and water parks) was €2400 for 2 adults and 2 children.

Booked 4 day park-to-to park ticket for universal studios and islands of adventure, cost €1300 - this was a buy 2 days, get 2 days free deal with theparkprodigy.com (very good to deal with)

Park hopping is arguably more important for universal.

We did airbnb for 8 nights near disney (no more than 15 min drive to each park) which worked well as traffic can be a demon around orlando.

One splurge we made that was worth it was staying at the loews royal pacific resort at Universal at the end of our holiday. It cost €900 for two nights. Big money, but it's 5-star and you get a free express pass for the universal parks you have tickets for for everyone for each day of your stay. We got express passes for three days by staying two nights. If we bought the express passes separately it would have cost us close to €900 anyway. You still need to have bought your entrance tickets to the parks separately.

The period we went was supposed to be one of the quietest, yet the parks were busy and the express passes paid off. Definitely allow budget for Genie+ for at least one day at both hollywood studios and magic kingdom.

Btw, if renting a car, don't look anywhere beyond alamo. Cheap, efficient, reliable.