BLU

iTrader: (27)

Hey Myself and the missus are looking at booking a holiday for ourselves and the family to Florida next year.
We're after info on the best places to book, get tickets to the theme parks and car hire etc.......
We're tied in to summer holidays as the missus is a teacher. Suggestions/advice would be welcome please

FlightMan

Have the same issues re Summer Hols. Here's how we do it.

We:

Rent a villa.
Get car hire from USRentacar
Fly BA or Virgin.
Get tickets from Undercovertourist.
Go for 3 weeks rather than two.
Never do two consecutive park days without a rest day.
Always have a week to 10 days on the Gulf coast to chill.

August it will rain, 100% guaranteed. However if you accept it, and carry on as normal it will not spoil it. The rain is warm, you will be hot, it will cool you down and it tends to leave the parks somewhat quieter so you'll be on rides in 10 or 15 mins.

Enjoy.

little-ginge

there are a few threads here in NSR on Florida - they helped when we were booking ours! this is the more recent one, but if you tap florida into search, you'll come across the others.

https://www.scoobynet.com/non-scooby...again-pls.html

We first went late August, then the 2nd time early September and the thunder storms were amazing! when it rains, you know about it, but as Flightman has said the rain is warm, and it clears the queues

Dingdongler

We were meant to go in the first week of June and I was very thankful for the advice given here.

Thing is we were trying to avoid the school hols and then realised the American schools will have already broken up and the place will be heaving.

We've put it off until either September or Feb/March next year.

Good luck

Mrfastbaz

we used to live inkissimmee about 2 miles from Disney you will find that the rainy season starts around June and usually finsihes around August September you can set your watch by the rain most days... warm though when we cam back over here to live we kept our house for a bit and used to fly with amaerican airlines felt that they were better and cost a little less than virgin/ ba, never used us renatcar always used dollar or alamo collected it from Orlando airport .Hiring a villa is better as the standards that the owners have to maintain in order to obtain a short term rental licence is probably better than a normal hotel/motel and they usually have a pool which is great for a relax after a busy day out. theme parks from our experience should be visited but as the op said never do more than 2 days at parks without a break you will pay for it as they are very hard work physically ....we used to find april nice time to visit and also october still very warm with very little rain be careful where you get your tickets from as there are blackmarket ticket touts who do rip you offusually you find them based outside places like ponderosa restauarants, stores etc and sometimes you can be lucky and get a good ticket other times you dont.. we found buying them from somewhere like undercover or even the palces themselves as they often do deals 2 days for the price of one... etc we never did have 3 weeks split maybe becuase usually its a trip of a lifetime for most and youpack in as much as you can after we stopped living there we used to spend 2 21/2 weeks at a time and never really stopped going to the theme parks with the kids always something newto do...anyway have a great time plan it well and you will enjoy it also dont forget to get your visa which can be done on line now... as the visa waiver process has all changed over the last couple of years check it out online

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

We are going to do this next year also, have abandoned plans to go to Turkey or similar this year and kept 2 grand of the budget to put to next years, kind of thinking it will cost 7 or 8 grand, is that realistic, more/less, for 5 people, 2 adults and three kids, for 2 weeks, havent done this before so not sure how much to allow.

Also, with the parks, which do you recommend, is Disney still appropriate for teenage boys, aged 13, 15 and 16 ?

Mrfastbaz

if you have never been before then you have to do all of the parks although some are better suited to teenagers... disney magic kingdom is worth a look a couple of rides there that they would enjoy but this is geared more to the younger children, mgm is good universal both parks are good especially isalnds of adventure well worht a visit sea world again not really a theme park although they do have some awesome rides there busch gardens near tampa is okay if you have time money wise the flights are the expensive bit at moment they seem to be around 500 upwards for decent flights villas can be anything from about 400 per week for a 4 bed upwards depending when you go but usually worht it tickets not too sure but disney are about 250 300 per person but you get a fair bit of admission ... i would say from our experience 4 adults ie mom and dad (us) and our 2 sons 20 and 22 i would be perpared to spend about 6000 /7000 for flights tickets car hire and villa withspending money probably worth tasking a credit card aswell as you usually run out of money... so i think your estimate is not far off if you want to enjoy yourself properly

jods

I'm chilling by the pool in Kissimmee right now 10:55am and 84F.
It's our place but we do rent it out for short-term lets. If you wanna see our website PM me - I don't think IB look too kindly on people slapping web addresses up for commercial stuff in NSR.

Loads of feedback from previous guests.

Cheers

Mark

jods

We arrived on Friday. Too late for shuttle launch? Noooo - It got scrubbed, It's now set for next Friday. I'll be there with my camera - this will be at least the 4th time I've tried to catch a shuttle launch - never seen one yet! It's going to be emotional for me. I saw the first Concorde to fly out of Manchester Airport, I saw the last three to fly into Heathrow. I'd LOVE to see Endeavour go up - If I do - I'll post up the video / pictures.

Please Dog - Make it so

FlightMan

Keep an eye on NASA's website Jods. There is currently no launch date for Endeavour. Hope it works out for you, it is an incredible experience.

Mrfastbaz

we have been lucky in that we have seen 2 launches ver the years one during the day and the other last time was in 2008 at night incredible or what you cant get any closer than around 6 miles to the launch site but even at that distance you can hear the nosie,sonic booms and still feel the air shimmering with the power of the rockets incredible sight never to be forgotten..

busby330

mate for all the best info on florida holidays i used http://www.thedibb.co.uk/
its for the average joe, but none of it is sales crap. they tell you best deals etc etc.

make sure you visit the old town car cruise fri and sat wicked family night out. got pics of my visit on my facebook.