Need Tips for Orlando Florida Trip Please....

[d2vasquez]

My father recently passed away and left my brother and sisters money and a request to take a much needed family vacation. Of course since we have all have kids (lots of them!!), going to Orlando, Florida was the family choice.

We have our plane tickets, rooms and pretty much a sketchy agenda of what we want to do there - but I won't lie it seem very overwhelming when I search online about the places there. So I am looking for any tips or suggestions to make the most of my 9 day stay there and am hoping some of you might be able to help us. We have 20 people trying to make plans (eek!) and knowing things ahead of time may help calm the "I have been with my family WAYYY too much nerves!"

Thanks!

[color of my heart]

i'm so sorry about your father <3

are you a AAA member (if you're in the US, of course)? if so, you can get discounted disney tickets, and i believe maybe discounted universal/sea world tickets. when i went to orlando (many years ago), we did disney. and we also did the kennedy space center, which was interesting.

[nun69]

so sorry for your loss my best advice we be that you guys won't be able to do EVEYRTHING together, so don't stress and pick a few things you would like to do with just your immediate family even if that just means a certain restaurant or show you would like to see while you are there....if you are gonna do Disney I recommend checking out www.disboards.com ....I visit here everytime I make a trip to Disney and can usually find some great tips...plus meg is gettign ready to go to Disney maybe she has some great tips best thing ...ENJOY your family!

[ColleenSwerb]

Darla, I'm so sorry for your loss.
While all the family time will be great, having traveled with a large group before I suggest having 1 or 2 nights (or even days) where each family can do something on their own, even if it's just dinner at a different restaurant.

[BrattyMeg]

Sorry for your loss Darla ((Hugs)) Do you know the dates you are planning to go? Disney has a free dining promo right now that's for Aug and Sept dates..you can find some really good deals and with a family that large they do Grand Gatherings to help accommodate a large crowd.

[Julie Billingsley]

hugs Darla

You said Orlando, and I'm guessing that means some time at Disney. Disney has planners for what they call "Grand Gatherings" and they will help reserve meals or lodging for large groups and make things happen for you that ordinary sources won't be able to. Call them at 407-WDW-PLAN and I hope they will be able to make your trip a wonderful time!

edited to add: there isn't a toll-free number for them or other Disney reservations. But once you get someone to work with, you can go email with them instead.

[d2vasquez]

Awww dang - we will be traveling at the end of July since the kids go back to school in August. I will check out that disney board too for some ideas....but I was curious if anyone has gone to Universal to see the Harry Potter thing. Someone told me they only let so many people in on one day and once they reach that capacity, they tell you to come back the next day. Trying to find out if that is true since we won't have that freedom exactly....

[d2vasquez]

Thanks Julie - I will check that out too!

[nun69]

Darla my DD is down at Unviersal now I'll ask her when she gets back on Sat. They have 4 day park passes

[d2vasquez]

Originally Posted by nun69

Darla my DD is down at Unviersal now I'll ask her when she gets back on Sat. They have 4 day park passes

Thank you!

[jessica31876]

Ive been to all the parks recently except Disney. Its been a few years since Ive been there. I can give you any info you need though seeing as how I have lived here 30+ years! If you want to know anything specific just ask

My favorite park for kids and adults is actually not Disney it is Universal and Islands of Adventure. They have all the Nickolodeon characters. I loved the Shrek ride and loved seeing all the characters plus the bigger kid rides (IE for teens and adults) are so much better then Disney IMO. Disney has its charm BUT I think it is more for kids then adults whereas IOA and Universal has a nice mix for both.

[jessica31876]

as for the Universal thing...all parks have a capacity and they do sometimes reach capacity and will turn you away. Like for instance Aquatica reached capacity right after opening and it had to turn people away but the actual "islands" in IOA are all open. Its like a big circle. Ive been to Universal probably 100 times and never been there when it has reached capacity. Even during their peak times like summer and spring break. I have not been since Harry Potter opened though so I dont know how that works with that particular area. I am pretty sure though they just remodeled an existing area because the rides are just like the ones which were there previously so I would assume it is the same as it was when I was last year just looks a bit different.

[Sheriscraps]

I was at the Harry Potter when it first opened last summer and they did not turn people away. The lines were just really long at certain times of the day. I went the next day and the lines were not so bad. So it is a hit and miss kinda thing. Universal and Island of Adventures are both awesome places. They are really the place to go with teens in my opinion. I LOVE Disney, but I think teens will have more fun at the Universal parks.

I did not go, but there was some alligator park that was not very expensive in Orlando. If I go back I want to check it out.

[jessica31876]

There are two gator places in the Orlando area. One called Gatorland which is the larger one. It is in the Orlando/Kissimmee area. It is sooo much fun!! I took like 300 photos the last time I went. You can hold a real gator there and see lots of shows. Plus they just installed zip lines but that is a little pricey. Admission is included when you do the ziplines and reservations have to be made in advance for the ziplines. I so wanna do them but not sure we can afford it right now LOL.

The second gator place is Gator Jungle. It is a smaller/older park which has some shows and it is located just east of Orlando in a town called Christmas, Fl.

At both parks you can see gators up close and they are comparable in price. At the one in Christmas you can take a boat ride through the river which is not something you can do at the one in Kissimmee.

[aggiefamily]

Sorry for your loss Darla.

My best Disney tip is to NOT eat the sugar free brownies. They have Xylitol instead of sugar and it basically acted like a laxative on my youngest. We spent most of the evening finding restrooms.

On our trip (this past January) I used my iphone apps a lot to determine ride waits and to check if fastpasses were still available. The only part of the trip we planned was the meals. I knew well ahead of time where we were eating each night and what time and the rest of the day we were free to do what we wanted.

[BrattyMeg]

Gonna hijack this thread a sec since I was looking at adding a day @ universal to our upcoming trip. Anyways if we want to spend the day at Universal AND do the Harry Potter ride, I need to get the 1 day 2 park pass right? IOA is a separate admission than US correct?

[jessica31876]

yes. IOA and Universal are seperate admission but they are on the same grounds. Make a little extra time to check out Citywalk as well while you are there. There are some great shopping oppurtunities and a huge movie theater plus lots of nice restaurants.

Originally Posted by FlirtatiousBrat

Gonna hijack this thread a sec since I was looking at adding a day @ universal to our upcoming trip. Anyways if we want to spend the day at Universal AND do the Harry Potter ride, I need to get the 1 day 2 park pass right? IOA is a separate admission than US correct?

[BrattyMeg]

k thx..not sure we'll end up doing it, it's quite expensive for my family for a day (over 700!) but we'll see!

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by d2vasquez

Awww dang - we will be traveling at the end of July since the kids go back to school in August. I will check out that disney board too for some ideas....but I was curious if anyone has gone to Universal to see the Harry Potter thing. Someone told me they only let so many people in on one day and once they reach that capacity, they tell you to come back the next day. Trying to find out if that is true since we won't have that freedom exactly....

We went at the end of January (so definitely NOT peak season) and even though the rest of IOA was pretty empty, the Harry Potter area still felt really crowded. I know at one point I actually said how glad I was to not be there in the summer because I couldn't imagine how crowded it would feel. It wouldn't surprise me if they had to limit access to that area or at least make people wait in line to enter.

Part of the problem is while the design of the Harry Potter area feels really authentic to the books and movies, it's totally impractical as theme park. The shops and walkways are all too small (we had to wait in a line just to get into some of the shops) and other than the one or two rides, there isn't really a whole lot to do there. I know they shoe-horned everything into an existing part of the park but I do wish it could have been done better than it was. The butterbeer was awesome though.

One word of caution about the HP ride: it is really intense and scary, a lot more scary than I thought it would be. And if you have anyone who gets any kind of motion sickness, it may not be a good ride for them. I never get motion sickness and even I came off that ride feeling a bit queasy. It's pretty disorienting.

Anyway, I don't know if that helps, haha, but that was my experience.

[BrattyMeg]

does the HP rides have kid swap? Meant to ask that earlier

[jessica31876]

I dont know how much more it is for the 2 park pass but my opinion IOA is so much more fun then Universal. So many more rides to ride there to I think. Then of course you have HP there. So if you chose just one park Meg Id go to IOA over Universal. We had annual passes to both and probably went to IOA 4 times as often as Universal.

[nun69]

I know that Universal/IOA is really teen oriented, but don't count Disney out my DD is 18 and a total Disney nut and will gladly go with us anyday Also it is really fun to walk through downtown Disney {ther eis a Lego store, world of disney store, and lots and lots of other little shops}....we went down there almost everyday we were at Disney they also have Disney Quest {if it is still there}, which is 7 stories of video games for kids and adults alike!! sooooo much fun!

[jessica31876]

I love downtown Disney. I took my niece there and got her one of the My Little Pony buckets. It is basically a little box which you can fill with outfits, hair accessories, brushes and other accessories as well as the ponies for 25 dollars I think. She got tons of stuff stuffed in it! You can do the same with lincoln logs and Mr. Potato Heads. Then there is the Pooh store. Oh it is my favorite. There are lots of other stores I love there as well. It is worth a trip just to walk around even if you do not buy a single thing. The lego figures outside the lego store are really cool too. I love the "tourist"

Originally Posted by nun69

I know that Universal/IOA is really teen oriented, but don't count Disney out my DD is 18 and a total Disney nut and will gladly go with us anyday Also it is really fun to walk through downtown Disney {ther eis a Lego store, world of disney store, and lots and lots of other little shops}....we went down there almost everyday we were at Disney they also have Disney Quest {if it is still there}, which is 7 stories of video games for kids and adults alike!! sooooo much fun!

[nun69]

Darla my DD just called and said they are at IOA and it is really busy right niw and they are gettign ready to have butter beer and they thougth the harry potter ride was pretty kewl

[d2vasquez]

Originally Posted by nun69

Darla my DD just called and said they are at IOA and it is really busy right now and they are getting ready to have butter beer and they thought the harry potter ride was pretty kewl

Oh thank you! All the kids are really wanting to go to IOA and thanks Lynette about the scary tip. We have some little ones that are really wanting to go there just for that and may need to at the very least alert my sister so she can make that call. I have been hunting online for discounts but my SIL lives in GA and says she can get us a 3 day pass at costco that is good through 2012. The trip is already getting a bit pricey so not sure I want to spend that much for a park I may only go for one day.

We live in California and have Disney passes and pretty much go almost every month to the parks so there is no way we will pass it up in FL. We are just on the fence if we will upgrade our current Disney passes to the Premier pass to be able to come and go through all the water and Disney parks as we want. My biggest concern is feeling stressed to see it all and then just coming away not enjoying anything because we rushed to cram it all in.

LOL about the gatorland information - my BIL and DH really want to do this and are begging for one "man" day since the group is really all girls. My girls are willing to give one day for this so it was nice to see the info here.

[jessica31876]

Gatorland is only 20 bucks for adults and 15 for kids under 12 I think and they have some really incredible shows and some awesome photo ops!! They have the gator jumparoo and you can actually feed the gators yourself (you get hotdogs and break them into pieces and throw them into the gators). I really enjoyed going there this winter. There are alot of native birds as well as the gators and a petting zoo. We will go back but probably not til fall/winter LOL