Mrs Coolhandluke has said that’s where we are going in 2014 for our hols.

Theme parks for 2 weeks would appear to be my worst nightmare so there must be more there than just endless rides, daft music and garish colours, queues, Americans and fast food.

Can I have some tips and recommendations please?

go over and enjoy the endless rides,daft music and garish colours, queues, Americans and fast food. Honestly its great

You do need to get into the spirit of it. The first time we went (without kids) I wasn’t that up for the ‘Disney’ experience. It is however very good (Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom in particular). Disney have two good water parks as well for a change of pace. There’s a couple of outlet malls which are Ok ish for a little bit of shopping.

Kennedy space centre is also well worth visiting.

Goto the evening fireworks displays in the Disney Parks, make use of the late night opening (gone midnight sometimes, it’s ridiculously quiet and a very different experience).

Book a second holiday to recover and take good shoes, you’ll walk miles.

Suggest that you do parks alternative days. It breaks up the whole thing. our girls love swimming so we get a villa with pool approx 15 mins from disney. We book villa thro small independent uk based agent, had no problems, problems we did have were sorted in 30 mins with a quick email to agent and there rep/pool guy swings round.

Generally the theme parks are full of Europeans during UK school hols so you hear more uk accents than American.

We did ten days there in Feb 2012. It was fab, but bloody hard work doing a theme park every day

Highlights for me were Disney animal, Epcot, and the two universals. And SeaWorld, once you get past the big ‘its our planet and we must look after it, m’kay part, and head for the roller coasters.

It was warm in Feb, and sun was hot making queueing in the glare a sunburn hazard. I have heard in June, that can be horrible.

We had friends who were going a few weeks after us so wrote up some hints and tips for the fast pass system etc. Too much to copy here but if you want it, email me and I’ll mail not back.

If you genuinely don’t want to go let me know. I’ve a wife and two daughters here who could have bags packed for us all in under the hour 😉

Edit: and good shoes! If you do it properly you’ll walk miles, the state of some I saw in flip flops and slingback sandals was 😯

Decent flip flops /sandals a must in the parks in high summer ,
do not eat in the parks (you will crave fresh produce within 5 days !!!)
Don’t take too many clothes
Fully comp insurance a must on hire car
Eat at Chuys on the 192 a must
Mosi repellant afterdark a must
Aquatica great
Try to avoid interstate 4 , we always use back roads with the use of satnav

Florida is a big varied state, you don’t need to spend 14 nights just in Orlando. What about a two centre? Gulf coast with Orlando? Last time we went did 3 nights at South Beach Miami, 3 nights in Key West, 3 nights at Sarasota then 5 nights in Orlando. Been about 10 times now.

Going again this Friday (can’t wait, just wife and me no kids, we’re both 39) for two weeks, again staying in different places. This time 4 nights in Sarasota by the beach, 3 nights at the Disney Beach Club hotel and 7 nights at the Peabody on International Drive.

Just go and enjoy it, don’t think you’re going to do everything in two weeks as you won’t, save something for the next visit.

Like yourself, I wasn’t keen at all on the park thing. I absolutely lapped it all up though, which surprised me. Wear hats, be ready for mid-afternoon thunder, take a packed lunch into parks, set satnav to avoid toll roads.

Make sure you go on the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Spiderman’ rides at Universal. Absolutely unbelievable, jaw dropping stuff. I’m smiling and shaking my head as I type this.

See the Atlantis exhibition at Kennedy. We saw it within a couple of weeks of it opening this year. My wife came up to me and asked me why I was crying. I still don’t know why- the kids were looking at me, baffled.

If you go to the Animal Kingdom, there’s a daily Disney parade- sounds corny. Is brilliant. When the ‘Toy Story’ part goes past, call out “here comes Andy!!!” and watch as the drop to the deck!

Any hotel recommendations folks?

Self catering

Room only

b&B?

learn to waterski / wakeboard – or get a boat to gitmo and learn to waterboard 😯

seriously, loads of places over there

We stayed at Disneys Fort Wilderness in one of the log cabins and did all the usual theme park stuff before we had kids and it was awesome . We did it all over twice again when the kids were toddlers and it was still awesome and we are going back next summer with the kids who are teenagers now . It’s effin great

Mr Beaker and I went last year at the end of August for a fortnight. I have to say it was THE best holiday we’ve had and are going again for 10 days later in the year. Our kids are young and absolutely loved it last year. For food, Maggianos on international drive (Pointe orlando next to the upside down house) ‘authentic’ italian food (even though a chain) fabulous service & food amazing. Also try the Cheesecake factory (normal food & LOTS of cheesecake) and P.F Changs at the Mall of the Millenia – both delicious. We went to Kennedy space centre (prior to shuttle exhibition) well worth the hours drive – amazing exhibits and tour. The water parks at Disney were our favourites, Typhoon lagoon & Blizzard beach. Great rides, or just an hour spent floating around the perimeter in a rubber ring! Magic Kingdom really is what it’s all about – must do first day! Agree with the comment above about the food in the parks – take a packed lunch & eat out in an evening is what we did – otherwise you really will crave fresh non-fried food! All the other Disney parks worth a trip – Epcot our least favourite probably as it had the least rides. Animal Kingdom great for the wildlife & rides. We weren’t too impressed with the outlets but I guess that’s because it’s an outlet! Most things are very easily accessible from the I4 and international drive so not too much driving involved. We stayed at the Sheraton Vistana Resort just round the corner from Disney & couldn’t fault it – Staying there again. We absolutely love it – even Mr Beaker who always said he’d never go!

We found this helpful, it tells you which parks are quietest on which days and other stuff http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brit-Guide-Orlando-2014-Guides/dp/0572044194/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379196220&sr=8-1&keywords=brits+guide+to+orlando+2014
We planned ahead and got to each park for doors opening, went to a water park in the afternoon to chill for a few hours then back to park in the evening.