Orlando recommendations

MarkyPancake

If you can afford it I would stay in the Universal Hard Rock Hotel for your Universal days. One night will get you two days of Express Passes included in the cost of the room, as you can get them in the morning before your room is ready on check-in day. It's also close to Universal and you avoid the main bag check, as it has its own one.

The Express Passes are worth it in August. They're unlimited use and include nearly everything. None of the Harry Potter rides were part of this system last time I went. They're expensive to buy on their own, so the hotel deal is great, because you get time in a nice hotel too.

We've done Hard Rock twice now. The first time was one night during our villa stay. We all liked it so much we did two nights the next time, but at the start of the holiday before checking into the villa. We did go back to Universal near the end of our stay, but it sucked not having the Express Passes.

Orlando Ticket Deals and FloridaTix are worth looking at for park tickets. They usually fix their prices for the season, charge you in GBP and send you the actual tickets and not a confirmation you then need to faff around with at guest services when you get to the park.

Look into Disney's Fast Pass Plus system too, as you're able to book ride fast passes a certain number of days before you go.

Expect World of Pandora to be busy, as it's Disney's newest and biggest park expansion in a long time. It's in Animal Kingdom and opens to the public this month. It's got two rides, a merchandise store and a restaurant offering things a bit different to their usual food choices. At night it's illuminated like in the film.

You'll love it! My first trip there was in 1998 and I never thought I would go again, but I've been fortunate enough to have gone back to Florida a number of  times in the last 10 years and have been to California Disney twice (I really like Universal Studios Hollywood too). I appreciate it more each time. All being well, I'm going back to Florida in October. Can't wait!

rustybin

I'm trying to convince myself we need to do Universal. Not done it since 2009 and there is a lot of new stuff. Might just settle on doing Legoland as we've never done that... Save Universal for then Starwars land is open in 2019/2020.

Donnacha

Just booked flights for a our next trip to Orlando next Easter. The plan is to avoid Disney this time round and focus on the new universal water park, the other 2 universal parks, sea world, Kennedy space centre and gator land. We will then go again in a few years once Star Wars land is open.

We did Universal last year and more than happy to do it again, especially as they have a new park!

Abbeygoo

Thanks everyone. Planning in full swing now. Regarding the fast passes at Disney - you can book 3, so which ones would you book? And then how do you book them when you are there?

Universal - I like the idea of staying over. However, the fast passes are $60 each I think- is it worth it?

rustybin

Disney - you book 3 per day in advance (on a rolling 1 month before you arrive basis), then 1 more on the day once you've used those 3. So if you arrived on the 1st August, you could book those fast passes on the 1st July (ish) etc.

You'll want to fast pass anything you can at Animal Kingdom's new Pandora area and the Yeti ride. The 7 Dwaves' Train at Magic Kingdom (if you can). Rock and Roller and Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios. Some rides you can't fast pass for.

We found booking a few days in advance was fine, but if you want to plan it to the absolute nth degree, you'll have to do it a month in advance.

Universal fastpasses are free if you stay at one of their 3 most expensive resorts. In August they're essential. When we went in 2009, we were waiting over an hour for the big rides at Universal - often longer. We had over a week just for Universal so it didn't matter too much....  no kids to amuse.

The longest we queued for anything at Disney last time in August with fast passes was 10-15mins.

Abbeygoo

@rustybin - thanks mate. So say we are planning to go to Magic Kingdom on 26th July - one month before then (and not earlier) I can go and book 3 fast passes for us all.  Then, on the day we go to the park, we use the three and then can just book ONE more?  Or can we keep booking and using as many as we can fit in.

I'm looking at getting a 14 day pass to the theme parks so we have some control over when and how long we visit for - but this fast pass thing seems to rule that out. Sounds like you have to decide which day you are doing which  - thanks pal.

rustybin

Once you've booked your 14 days and activated them on the app, you can decide what your first day will be - say 26th July - then on 26th June you'll be able to book for the 26th July - then each day the option will open up to book 3 fast passes on each of the subsequent 14 days. So on the 27th June you can book for the 27th July etc. 3 per day. You can do all that from your sofa in Manchester a month before you go. Once you're in the park and you get off your 3rd fast pass ride, the app will then let you book one more fast pass for THAT day. It's incredibly clever.

Donnacha

I went last Easter (2016) and we booked our fast pass rides only a few days before we visited the park. They give you options of times based on what you want to do, so you can plan your day. Be prepared to queue though for some rides, and use the fast passes of your guarantee to at least get on 4 rides in a day. If you get in early then head for the most popular ride straight away if its not on your fast pass as it will only get busier throughout the day. We did this at Epcot where we didn't manage to get Test Track on a fast pass, so we got in early and made a bee line for it. We probably queued for 45m-1hr but that was OK compared to the 2 hour wait later in the day, and it wasn't as hot either. Once that was done (and it was great) we had at least another 3 -4 rides guaranteed after than with the fast passes.

We didn't but Universal passes, but we did the 2 parks over 3 days so took our time and took similar approach, we went for the busiest ride first thing. Also use the App in the park as you get a real time view of wait times on rides and you can then decide what to go for there and then if the lines are short.  Harry Potter World will be rammed !!!

Just watch out for the $20 car park every time !!

MarkyPancake

You can manage Fast Passes via the website and the Disney app (make sure you get the Disney World one for Florida and not Disneyland). Disney World has free Wi-Fi in all their parks too.

I'm not really experienced with the new Fast Pass system, as one of our group sorts all this out, as they enjoy doing it and know what they're doing.

World of Avatar's rides are proving very popular at the moment, Flight of Passage is supposed to be amazing. I've heard that Fast Passes are proving difficult to get for this area at the moment, because they're all being taken by resort guests, as I believe they can book them earlier than non-resort guests.

We've got flights and villa booked for October, so just car and tickets to get. We're flying to Miami, then driving to Orlando the next day. We're flying Aer Lingus from London to Dublin, then you do US preclearance in Dublin, so you arrive in the US as a domestic arrival, which means no immigration queues and straight to baggage claim.

Abbeygoo

Superb pal, thanks.

I've been looking into the Universal fast passes .............. and selected 31July / 1August and the total price for 2 days, 4 people was $1,119.92 !!!!

One thousand dollars on top of the admission !!!!!

Oh my god.

Anyway, a hotel room is $400 which gets us 4 people over 2 days so that's worth looking into