We’re off to Disney (yes I know it’s a humblebrag) next month & am keen for any tips/things to avoid. We’re not planning on being in Disney everyday so any recommendations of places to eat things to do nearby appreciated.

Book your fast passes as soon as you can.

Have a read of some of the blogs on how best to manage a day / days in each of the parks, plus some ideas of likely crowds. I found this useful but there are others https://www.undercovertourist.com/

Factor in jet lag. Your first couple of days, start early, finish early, then have later nights / fireworks / late openings after a few days.

Go to Kennedy Space Center even if you have no interest in space. Try and coincide with a launch (but the dates / times are fragile so be flexible).

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios are good fun, and the rides are all open, too. Nobody is interested in the rides so you can have them to yourself. Enjoy it for what it is and be a big kid.

I’d second Kennedy – it’s bloody awesome!

Given the UK has had a weekend of 14-hour waits in a Q, I’m sure fast passes will be a benefit! 😉

Book your restaurants now if you plan to sit down to eat (the self service stuff is pretty dire even by fast food standards), they often book up weeks in advance.

I second third the Kennedy Space centre.

Are you staying a Disney hotel or somewhere else?

Not been since I was a kid but we did a fly drive.. Did the theme park thing obviously but Hired a car and went motel hopping as there is a lot to see other than Disney.
I’m just struggling to remember what..

Maybe look up some fly drive blogs or guides for inspiration.

I remember the space center, typhoon lagoon and Venice beech being good. And the everglades.
Dunno how much things have changed though.
Universal studios also good.

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios are good fun

This +100, the year I was there they had Resident Evil and Walking dead and it was like being on the actual sets, totally another level. The whole park is also a performance so there is random stuff happening all night!

If you stay in the park after it closes for normal tickets, you get to do the halloween stuff before the crowds too! You get pushed into a pen for 30 mins over the switch over, then released 30 mins before the gates open again!

Kennedy is amazing. We drove out to Clearwater for a day at the beach, which everyone enjoyed.

+n for KSC. It’s a must-visit, it literally awesome.

Are you staying a Disney hotel or somewhere else?

We’re staying in Disney – already booked up Kennedy Space Center.

Will look into the Halloween nights at Universal

There are some nice places to eat out at Port Canaveral. Rusty’s Seafood place was nice.

Since when has Disney been middleclass?

Since the prices for a weeks visit became the same as buying a house in the North?

Based on my experience Disney Holidays can require a bit of planning, but they require less planning now than previously…

First things first, you now have to book which park you want to go to in advance!  So if you haven’t done this already, do that now!

It requires you to link your tickets to the Disney Parks App (or whatever it’s called now) and then you can book the Parks.

You can no longer prebook “Fastpasses”, they have something called Genie and Genie+, they charge $15 per person per day for Genie+ which may be worth the money.  They also charge for “Individual Lightning Lane” which are in effect paid for fast passes for the new and popular rides.

This page explains it better than I could ever do:

https://familyvacationist.com/disney-genie-trip-planning-service-guide/

Be very aware of the times that booking opens e.g. 7am the day of visit for “Lightning Lane” selections for example as things book up FAST.  Possibly the most stressful 2mins of my life was trying to get booked on the big new exciting Star Wars ride at 9am, stood in Hollywood Studios being stared at by my offspring whilst the people around me whooped and hollered at their app telling them they were booked on. We did get booked on in a later slot, but that was by no means a sure thing as the ride kept breaking down during the first couple of months of service, thankfully we did get to ride it and it lived up to the hype.

https://thedibb.com/ is really useful, it’s like STW for Disney nuts, unsurprisingly Mumsie but loads of useful info and very very active forums.

Worth trying to get out of Orlando on some non-park days.

Kennedy Space Centre is amazing as others have said.

You can swim with Manatees at Crystal Springs which was amazing – we used https://www.fun2dive.com/

How about a swamp tour and see some wildlife?  https://www.kissimmeeswamptours.com/ were ace.

Sporting event?  NFL (Tampa Bay and Jacksonville), College Football (loads of teams but UCF play in Orlando) and NHL (Tampa Bay and Miami) are all playing in October.

Since when has Disney been middleclass?

Since it costs about £5,000 for 2 people to fly from the UK for 2 weeks…

Those Universal Halloween Horror Nights look amazing – totally going to book that.

Sporting event? NFL (Tampa Bay and Jacksonville), College Football (loads of teams but UCF play in Orlando) and NHL (Tampa Bay and Miami) are all playing in October.

Good tips – thanks.

We’ve got tickets to see the Orlando Magic play while we’re out there.

If you are going to do Universal Studios and plan to get Express Passes, consider booking one of the top tier universal hotels (e.g. Hard Rock) for a night as you get the Unlimited Express passes included for the day of arrival and departure. You can check in at 7am if you want and many do.

It was cheaper for us to do this as a family of 4 than just get the Express Passes.

If it’s just the 2 of you, it’s more borderline but it does mean you can have a beer, stay out late (bars etc at City Walk by Universal Studios) and not have to worry about driving back to Disney area.

Since it costs about £5,000 for 2 people to fly from the UK for 2 weeks…

That doesn’t make it middle class, that just makes it expensive. Which isn’t the same thing.

Spending £5,000 to take Tamara and Torquil to Florence and Tuscanny for a fortnight looking at art and tasting wine would be middle class 🙂

Those Universal Halloween Horror Nights look amazing – totally going to book that.

You’re in for a treat.

I worked in Orlando in the early 00’s, running a 100-day acquisition of a company, the locals I worked with referred to it as “Disney Prison” – mainly due to its ability to extract every last one of a visitors dollars.

Second Kennedy, we went to watch a night launch and also visiting the other parks etc.

Towards the end of my work my OH & son came over, we stayed outside of Disney, near Water World – far cheaper hotel & costs, but just day-tripped t the various parks.

TBH I wouldn’t choose to go back.

Since it costs about £5,000 for 2 people to fly from the UK for 2 weeks…

I assume one of those is a child?

Spending £5,000 to take Tamara and Torquil to Florence and Tuscanny for a fortnight looking at art and tasting wine would be middle class 🙂

Surely middle class would be to have Tamara and Torquil in boarding school and THEN do the trip with the wine tasting?

I assume one of those is a child?

Why waste money on children?

Orlando Magic will be great. NBA easier and more engaging than NFL and baseball. NHL great also.

I remember being distinctly relieved when lockdown meant we had to cancel our family trip and got a full refund.

Fortunately the kids haven’t asked about it since.  Fingers crossed it stays that way…

We’ve been loads, but stopped now the kids are grown. Cheesy but fun: We have always gone back to play mini golf at Bonanza Golf and Gifts (7761 W US-192, Kissimmee, FL 34747, United States), several dinners at the Sizzler (sadly closed during Covid), bargain/curiosity shopping at Dollar Tree and Walmart, and the Bass Pro Shop (and that whole Artegon mall) up near Universal is great. If you fancy a drive, the Dali gallery at St Pete’s is superb. Couple of Warbirds and air museums to look at too. River tubing at places like Apopka or Silver River are fun too.

I remember being distinctly relieved when lockdown meant we had to cancel our family trip and got a full refund.

I dreaded it (3 kids, week at Disney, staying in a Disney hotel). It was tough, we had a week on the Gulf Coast winding down afterwards, and KSC is simply the best ‘attraction’ I’ve ever visited. But it was fantastic. It’s only when you got Disney/Universal that you realise what the term ‘Theme’ means in theme park.

Came back recently from a week in Disney and a week in Universal. Did a Halloween Horror Night too.

Disney huge and magic compared to Universal which is like a few Alton Towers stuck together. The Horror Night was good, but less spooky than expected with its 30 Celsius 90% humidity after sunset.

Universal’s security checks and ‘put your bags and loose items in the lockers before riding the coaster’ became a pain.

Guardians of the Galaxy – best ride of the holiday. Beating even Hagrid’s fantastic beasts and Velocicoaster which were the other two favoured by family.

The Disney site my holiday planner (aka SO) used this time and last was https://yourfirstvisit.net very helpful. Even if it meant early mornings and evenings.

You might want to fit in a morning at Shooters World if you’re in Universal. It’s about $15 by Uber if I remember correctly. Pistol, revolver, and shotgun were sufficient for my children to get the idea: it ain’t like the movies.

I’d take a second mortgage, the pound is absolutely dead right now and so you’ll need a chunk of change to pay for all the £5 tips on 2 drinks costing £20 😀

I head to the us a few times a year with work, used to buy a load of stuff whilst i’m out there and now don’t bother – everything’s cheaper in the UK

Kennedy space centre s wonderful.

I can also personally recommend The Shooting Gallery Range – If you’d like something a little different. Handguns are illegal in the UK, but take your passport and $50 sees you fire 50 rounds from a Glock 9mm. Ignore the “machine gun Florida” billboards, this was much more interesting and a real eye opener. Children over 12 can participate.

We used the Fastpass app a few years back – well worth a bit of planning to avoid queueing for rides. Latest version mentioned above (Genie?) should do the same.

Don’t overlook the waterparks – Typhoon Lagoon is amazing! Get there early to grab a good spot.

Stay late at one of the parks to watch the fireworks.

If you are anywhere near Sea world go here for dinner – had a fantastic meal there last time we were in Florida https://www.delmonicositaliansteakhouse.com/about/

This is fun as well if you need a break from the parks. About an hours drive from Orlando and get to hoon about in a V8 powered airboat 🙂
https://wildfloridairboats.com/book-airboat-tours/

KSC – proper amazeballs brilliant. See everything you can.

I can also personally recommend The Shooting Gallery Range – If you’d like something a little different. Handguns are illegal in the UK, but take your passport and $50 sees you fire 50 rounds from a Glock 9mm.

+1 for the Shooting Gallery, super-friendly, super-accessible, super-fun (we shot a Beretta 92 like Martin Riggs). We went there after a recommendation on here and they were much tickled that they got a shout out on a UK MTB forum. 🙂

Both Disney and universal apps are awful.

Disney’s has too much in it and was designed by UX demons from hell. Once you get the hang of it it can be very helpful in its own special way.
Disney WiFi is very patchy.

Universal app simpler but is useless at mapping: no ‘you are here’ and no navigation/walk estimates.
Universal WiFi good.

Both apps have significant shortcomings in what they do and how they do it. Genie can work out pricy so use the guides to make the most of it. Universal FastPass comment earlier was smart: the nice Universal hotels have it included. Plus various early entry to the parks.

Both apps are essential to make the most of your time.

Typhoon Lagoon is amazing!

Agreed. I preferred it to Volcano Bay. Not as big, or as challenging, but more fun. Shame Blizzard Bay isn’t open. That was great fun last time we went.

If you’re going to KSC, if you haven’t already, see if there are any launches while you’re in Florida.

We timed our visit with a space x (ISS) supply launch. Absolutely amazing experience, but made for long queues on the surrounding roads.

PrinceJohn

We’ve got tickets to see the Orlando Magic play while we’re out there.

Awww man…as a Magic fan I’m genuinely jealous! Perhaps you can bring a signed Cole Anthony jersey back to the Kern for me ha!

@pondo glad you enjoyed it.

Since Florida is basically at water level, I can also recommend some spring water swimming. Plenty of options near Orlando. I went to Wekiwa Springs and the water is lovely with some walks in the forest.