Holiday to Orlando in 2017 - Universal or Disney

WildeKarde

Was looking for some advice on the best way to approach booking a holiday for four to Orlando next year. We'll ideally be considering start of July (due to school holidays) but not sure what the best option is booking.

The kids will be 14 and 10 so I'm thinking Universal is the better option but looking the package prices are pretty steep.

I'd like to book onsite at one of them but I'm guessing the package deals aren't the most cost effective. Even taking the cheapest options it's looking at £5k for a room only deal, on economy flights and no park tickets booked either.

Should I dismiss staying onsite? Am I better booking just the hotels and sorting my own flights? What's the best options on buying the tickets? Should I wait till close to the time or book as early as I can?

JimmyMac

Just returned from Orlando yesterday, daughter a little younger at 4 years old but hopefully can advise.

We stayed in a house with friends which worked out a lot cheaper than staying on site, booked via the homeaway website. The house we had is in the link below, perfect place, extremely well looked after and the people we were with have stayed there on 4-5 occasions

F2942: Large Two Storey Villa With Oversize Private Pool ...

Its about 25 mins from disney and about 45 mins from universal, obviously hired a car too, driving was very simple and loads of restaurants and a walmart very close to the house.


In terms of tickets, we were disney only as the little un was too young for universal, went for a 14 day pass which came to about £850 for the three of us but based on the park costs we got our moneys worth out of it and having the passes gave us great freedom to pick and choose when we wanted to go.

If there is anything specific otherwise you want to know just ask as its all fresh in memory!

WildeKarde

I looked at park tickets and think for 4 of us it was about £1200 for Disney and £600 for Universal.

The package deals come with a hire car it seems but not sure why it just didn't have transfers with hire car as an extra.

Isn't the travelling to the sites each day an issue compared to falling out of bed and being onsite?
How does it work with early access?

Was just thinking since it's first time going to be onsite but it's looking to be a really expensive option

JimmyMac

Its useful to have the hire car I would say as there is loads of other things to do around the Orlando area if you have the time, Kennedy space centre was one we did which is about 90 mins away but was well worth it. Also for trying out the different restaurants, can recommend a trip to mannys chop house for a blinding steak!

I personally didn't find travelling to the parks each day a problem, it was all very smooth and disney have the parking organisation nailed. There are also loads of toll roads which are cheap and quiet to get around on, for us it was a trip down the 27, along the 192 and join the toll road at a cost of $1.25 to get straight into the disney area in about 20 mins. The downside is that parking is $20 per day which is a bit steep, you can however get around this if you get a happy person on the gate and sing to them! Honestly it does work, 6 of us in a car singing I wanna be like you from the Jungle book got us free parking!!

It would likely be worth just pricing up the difference in staying on site as opposed to being in a house with the associated costs, fuel is very cheap, cost me $35 to fill up a full size SUV from empty.

The other advantage of the house was a private pool, barbecue for whenever we felt like cooking in and the private space of the lounge to chill in the evening when the kids are in bed.

DJT75

That's the biggest factor here. The kids will be tired, you all will be. Do you want to be sitting in a proxy hotel room twiddling your thumbs or relaxing in your villa?

Villa's are cheap as chips & gives you so much freedom, especially during days away from parks.

JimmyMac

Yeah agree with that, we had other friends there with a 12 and 10 year old and they were out like lights from about 8 after days in the park

Greg Hook

I've been a few times now to Florida. Last time was with my brother's family.

We did all the Disney parks. I've never done Universal so can't comment on which is better but I found Disney to offer a huge variety and more than enough to keep us happy for two weeks. The waterparks were my favourite.

Firstly, the Disney tickets. They often (or permanently it seems) run an offer of 14 days for the price of 7 for the tickets which includes Fast Pass which is absolutely essential as the popular rides can often have queues of 3 hours or more. Fast Pass allows you to book your rides up to 1 (or 2?) days in advance. You get a timed ticket for the ride and you just turn up and use the Fast Pass queue to get straight on, past the massive queue of people dying in the heat!

Secondly, you will save a fortune going for the villa and hire car route. Areas such as Kissimee/Davenport are within 20 minutes drive (all interstate and a piece of cake) from Disney and coming back to your own house at night, relaxing in your own pool etc etc is far better than being cramped in a hotel room especially when it is so hot. Sites such as ownersdirect are worth a browse. You will be amazed just how little it costs to have a massive house for two weeks.

The hire car allows you to explore a bit. Last holiday we definitely needed gaps in the two weeks of no Disney, whilst it is great fun it is extremely tiring. Kennedy Space Center is a must visit if you go to Florida. The hire car allows you to visit the many excellent and dirt cheap places to eat, plus just gives you that freedom.

Lastly, the airline tickets. Depending on how flexible you are there are huge savings to be made if you take a stop somewhere. The various ticket price sites will help you there. A guy at work took his family to Orlando for two weeks over Easter and they saved £3000 by not taking a direct flight.

JimmyMac

It's 30 days in advance for booking fast pass now. 60 days of a Disney resort guest.

There's another Orlando/Disney thread a little below this where it's discussed.

Get the app as it's brilliant, book 3 fast passes. Then once all three are used you can book another and keep doing that.

I found the app invaluable around the park swapping fast passes on the hoof

Water parks are definitely amazing, had a great time at blizzard beach

Greg Hook

30 is it now? That's an improvement. When we went in April 2015 it was definitely only 2 or maybe 3 at most. The app was very useful but kept losing connection for some reason. I imagine they have improved it since I last went.

DJT75

The direct flights we were hoping for never dropped below £1100 per head this August. Even with one stop over it was £950. In the end we're going via Amsterdam & NY. Adds a bit to the journey obviously but we've saved over £11,500 between us (party of 14). We're ALL going for under £4,000.