Florida holidays....
 

We are considering a family holiday to the States this summer and plan on doing the whole Orlando/Disney/theme park thing.

In your experience, what is the best way of going about this?

Would it be better renting a villa and driving everywhere, or would you recommend staying in one of the hotels on I-Drive and using public transport?

Any pointers to decent villas or good deals would be great.

Cheers.

Hello

In either case you really need a car: There are lots of things to see and do outside the reach of the (quite feeble) public transport system.

Steve.

Couple of things to consider.
The summer months are actually quite wet. We first went in May 1998 and it rained everyday, normally mid afternoon to early evening, 2 to 3 hours. And when i say rained, its like walking into a shower.
We've also been in Feb 2001, mid 80's temp, not a drop of rain. Try and avoid the summer months, if you can.
Accomodation I'd say depends on the age of your kids, if they're oler children, go for a hotel, if they're younger, do a villa. When the kids are in they're rooms, you and your wife can soak away the miles of walkign you'll have done in the hot tub!
Above all, enjoy.

get a fly-drive and upgrade the vehicle if you need to .
You do really need a car for travelling about in.

And get a villa off the t'internet direct, do not book the villa from over here
via the travel agent as you will get stung.
Kissimmee has tons of houses.

try these

http://www.villas4all.com/florida-villas.php

http://www.lastminutevillas.net/

http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/USA.htm

The Chief is spot on.

I've just come back and we had a villa with private pool, cost was £380 pw including the heating of the pool (which is normally extra). This was about 10 minutes from Disney and about 20 minutes from Universal Studios and Sea World. Any closer and you pay mega bucks. I can get the details of you like. The girlfriend has them tucked away somewhere.

Whilst we are on hte topic of villas, there are alot that we saw (whilst out and about) had alot of damage still to be repaired from the last batch of hurricanes, some where quite bad :(

Let me know if you want any more details, copy's of maps, coupon books etc. as we have loads.

Darren

It all depends on how much money you are prepared to spend. If money's no object, then I recommend staying at an on-site hotel, probably at both Disney and Universal. This makes a big difference in terms of convenience and access.

Alternatively, I would suggest a villa. I personally wouldn't bother staying on I-drive, it's a bit tacky IMHO.

There are loads of websites with useful info, but start here. Discounts are available on everything if you can be bothered to search around a bit; I would recommend booking flights, car and accommodation seperately :)

I-Drive (International Drive) is a bit seedy now IMHO. The 192 is the road to be on. Its a long stretch of shops, returants, etc.

The only benefit of booking all together with say Virgin is when you get to Orlando international Airport, Virgin have their own line for picking up your rental car.

Although your booking for a car will be with Dollar (as this is who Virgin use) there is an express queue for Virgin customers. This queue saved us about 1 hour as the Dollar queue can be HUGE at peak times.

Also one extra thing. Walking around the parks can take its toll on kids as the parks are huge and the weather is hot. Disney's Epcot is about 550acre's!! But not all of that is open to teh public, but it shows how big some parks are.

Darren

Cheers for the info folks... keep it coming!

Any other recommendations on particular villas would be cool too. :cool:

Been twice...although a while ago now.

You definatley need a car. Don't even consider not getting one.

First time we stayed in a Holiday Inn sort of thing in Kissimee. About 15/20 mins drive to the Disnleyland places.

Second time there were 8 of us and we rented a Villa. This was great as it had everything, including it's own pool.

When we went (10 and 14 years ago now) we had great weather both times (June and October) though we did get hit by the tail end of a hurricane

I think renting a place would be the best bet. And you can always drive down to the Keys or visit Busch Gardens (terrific place).

In fact, take me with you and I'll be your guide. :)

We have been twice now with http://www.travelcitydirect.com/ and stopped in villas both times , there were situated off highway 27 which is about 20 mins from disney , we think this is best way to do it as you can relax by the pool after a hard day at the parks , a car is a must and probably the cheapest way of getting around , I think its best to buy your park tickets in the UK with the exchange rate as it is , what we did some days is , get to the parks early stay while just after dinner then back to the villa for the hottest part of the day and relax by the pool , then back to the parks and have a meal and enjoy some of the best firework / laser displays you will ever see

have fun :)


PS
we went in August both times and had loads of rain / thunderstorms if we were going again i dont think we would go in August :(

Mate, been 9 or 10 times now. Its the best place EVER. You'll love it if you havent been before. There's no where like it.

How old is your family? In my opinion, if you have a young family, there is no where better to stay than ANY of the Disney hotels.

http://www.usatourist.com/english/pl...neyhotels.html .

These all offer completley free transport from the Hotel to any of the Disney Theme Parks / Water Parks / Nightlife and Shopping. Best value for money is the "Allstar" resorts ( cheap but of a very high standard ) up to the "Grand Floridian" which is 5*.

It is that bit more expensive, but if you book the Disney hotels direct ( or through Travel City ) you can get these at not much more than a normal hotel.

I'm not keen on Int. Drive, IMO, its Blackpool ( no offence to anyone from Blackpool ! ) with sun!!!!!

Anyway, thats my opinion mate. Hope I've helped some.

Have a good one! :D

Andy

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/index.php?s=

Mrs Nathan L ;) posts on here and it is a great resource for information.

Nathan..

been there 16 times in last 7 years any info you need drop me a pm


Paul

Talizman,

IMHO, if you are going with a family you need to go for a villa. This allows you to relax more, 'chill' around the pool at 6:00 in the morning while the jet lag wears off and 10:00pm at night while you bathe your feet in the jacoussi after a hard day in the parks.

A car is essential to give you the full Florida experience

Try www.floridasbestvilla.com

Summer months can be very hot and tiring and the queues at the attractions can be quite large.

Most of all, enjoy yourself. Florida is a wonderful place for kids and adults.

Martin

I got back yesterday-staying at Formosa Gardens just off the 192 (turn by the TGI-Fridays/Lobster house).I went with a load of my family and stayed in an 9 bedroomed villa.I left all the arrangements to everyone else but I think it worked out about £1500 a week between 16 of us so peanuts really.

There were some fantastic villas on the estate and we had a heated pool& jacuzzi with critter(raccoons running about on the roof)/insect/alligator proof mesh,games room with mahoosive projection TV,pool table,air hockey,fussball,running machine.

We were about 30 mins from Seaworld/Universal studios and 2 hours from Busch Gardens.The rides are pretty amazing and even queueing is part of the ride at Universal.

The first night we stayed at a motel and it's the last time I'll do that.It was horrible(Holiday Inn,not a patch on UK ones which are at the very least clean) and the others we passed looked no better.

I'd say you definitely have to hire a car over there as I only saw 3 buses in 2 weeks-one Greyhound and 2 school ones.It's a bit daunting when you first drive on the Interstae as traffic passes you on both sides(works surpsisingly well)and the speed limits change frequently and the signs are hard to spot when you're concentrating on not getting squashed between an artic and a Humvee.

There are lakes all over the place and alligators are easy to find at night time-scarily close to the road/buildings.

One last thing-don't go to the Kennedy Space Centre-It's expensive for what it is and pretty crap really IMO.We went to watch a Delta 2 rocket launch which was pretty good but the "attractions" inside were pretty lame and I'm interested in science stuff.

Personally I really enjoyed the space center. The Saturn V rocket is huge... there's a photo from my last visit here

Yup I loved K.S.C. , Wife and two daughters wern't that keen though , the wildlife round that area is awesome also , heres a pic of the rear of the saturn rocket , thats what you call a tail pipe !

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...orida_0062.jpg

That's about as close as you can get to Disney without staying on property. Did you use the short cut into Disney, up Sherbeth Road? ;)

Stayed there twice myself, would thoroughly recommend it :)

Can I recommend an Airboat ride while you are there.

Look up Captain John on the internet, based at a village called Christmas.

Martin

I went in August, nice and relaxing till Hurrican charlie/francis decided to hit us! Different experience!!!

me and the ex didnt bother with a car, we didnt have any problems doing what we wanted to do. rougly had £100 a day with plently left over!

si

Try www.orlandovillas.com They have loads of choice and discount car hire too,
Booked for sept this year again :D
Daz

I went with people who visited it last year and they said a lot of stuff had been moved around and they weren't impressed either.

To see it all you had to pay $37 entry(inc hall of fame down the road)then a further $12(maybe $16)for the tour which lasted 2.5 hours.I didn't want to be on the bus when the Delta 2 rocket was launching so we didn't risk it.Plus why should you have to pay extra to see all there is to see?

There was very little to see inside the complex.There was a "nature" building that was laughable-a few bits of grass and some stuffed animals.Wow.Obviosuly the rockets were awe inspiring but didn't justify the price I thought.

I'm not having a dig at anyone who liked it,I really wanted to like it as space travel fascinates me.

I cant remember which Shuttle we seen launch, but I have to say it is one of the most awe inspiring things I have seen in my whole 23yrs. The noise, the ground vibrations etc........ truly AWESOME.

Then watching the fuel cells etc detach and drop. Its something I really will make sure I see again.

Andy