Wife and I were looking at possibly going to Orlando this summer and doing the theme parks. We have both been before but when we were kids, so it has been at least 15 years or more.
We want to go by ourselves before we have kids, then go again when the kids get old enough to appreciate it.
I've been doing internet research on the parks and hotels...it has changed a lot since I remember.
Seems that Disney has a "Magic your way Pass" where you can pay for a certain length ticket and go to 1 theme park per day in their group...
Universal Studios has something similar because now there is "Islands of Adventure"...
The only parks we have ever been to there were magic kingdom, mgm, epcot, universal, and sea world...and like i said, it has been over 15 years so i'm sure they have added stuff
Basically, has anyone been recently and have any advice about which parks are the best now?
Also need recommendations on hotels... don't want anything outrageous but don't want anything sketchy either.
Thanks!

3/20/2011 7:58:42 PM

if you dont want to use a travel agent, i've seen this book at the bookstores and im sure it's worth its price to give you the level set on whats up at the parks

Little Black Book of Walt Disney World: The Essential Guide to All the Magic (Travel Guide) [Spiral-Bound]



http://www.amazon.com/Little-Black-Book-Disney-World/dp/1593598920

really what you do depends A LOT on the two of you. do you hate lines and refuse to wait? how long of a commute to the park can you stand? do you want to go back to your hotel in the middle of the day for a breather? are there any things that you know you want to see or on the other hand, know what you want to avoid?

id say pick up this book to get started or at the very least drive to b&n and thumb through it

[Edited on March 20, 2011 at 8:27 PM. Reason : link to buy]

3/20/2011 8:27:06 PM

Islands of Adventure is pretty sweet that should be #1 priority for sure.

#2 would be universal.


My recommendation go in the fall when its not so damn hot and go during a weekday. You can fly through lines.... last time i went was late 2009 and the parks were empty on thurs/fri and the lines were 0-10 minutes for the most part. saturdays lines were more like 30-60 minutes which makes a huge difference in their enjoyability.

3/20/2011 8:36:57 PM

my wife and i went to EPCOT and Islands of Adventure last November. we went on a Friday/Saturday and both parks were as empty as I've seen them (with the exception of Harry Potter land at IOA since that is fairly new).

Unfortunately summer is the worst time to go because all the Europeans/Canadians/everyone else is there on holiday.

I would definitely recommend EPCOT from a twenty something perspective. The World Showcase was cool to walk through and study, which would be harder with kids that have small attention spans. Plus, you can drink your way around the world because each country has beers unique to their region. Also, there are good thrill rides in the Future world part of EPCOT (i have a high tolerance for thrill rides and Mission: Space is the most intense ride I've ever been on)

IOA was great too if you like roller coasters. They just added a Harry Potter land if that interests you, but that was the most crowded part of the park. If you go to IOA ride the Hulk coaster. I've been on a lot of roller coasters and that one is one of my favorites.

We stayed at a Howard Johnson off of International Drive for $20 a night. Of course this was in November which is a slow time for them, so I suspect their rates will be higher over the summer. But there are so many hotels in Orlando that it definitely pays to shop around as they are all in competition.

i used to live in Orlando so PM me if you have specific questions about the parks. the only one i haven't been to in the past ~5 years is Sea World and Universal

3/20/2011 9:21:02 PM

we've been planning our trip for this summer and I found this hotel on tripadvisor It got pretty good reviews and it was around $65 a night for July

http://www.comfortsuiteskissimmee.com/

our #1 reason for going is Harry Potter (wife is a huge fan) so we're spending 1 day at Universal, but mostly for that and then two days at Disney. I haven't decided if we're going to get the park hopper option or not. I figured we'd do MGM one day and Magic Kingdom the other instead of worrying about trying to fit everything in.

3/20/2011 9:33:37 PM

^ harry potter is at islands of adventure.

universal is pretty good theyve got some newer stuff, but Islands of adventure has several really good rides like spiderman, hulk, the mummy, etc

3/20/2011 9:45:33 PM

I just got back from Orlando about 10 days ago. We did Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure and Seaworld.

Universal/IoA isn't something you really need more than a day to do and to be honest I wasn't terribly impressed. IoA is better than normal Universal, but honestly they're not that different it just depends on whether you like Marvel/Harry Potter (AoI) or Jaws/Men in Black/Shrek (US).

Seaworld is alright. The shows are enjoyable (excluding Shamu, which is boring).

We didn't do anything at Disney except eat at the Animal Kingdom Lodge one night, but honestly, if I had to do it all over again I'd probably just get some sort of Disney package deal. A few years ago my parents went and got some package that was Disney hotel, meals (at their restaurants, most of which are pretty good), and admission all together.

I'd also go late winter/early spring rather than the dead of summer.

[Edited on March 20, 2011 at 9:47 PM. Reason : ^ Mummy is at Universal Studios, not Islands of Adventure.]

3/20/2011 9:46:18 PM

^ whoops you're right.

The Simpsons ride is one of the best rides ive ever been on as is spiderman.

Both parks are pretty great except the older crap like jaws or the kiddie stuff...

3/20/2011 9:51:08 PM

is IOA more rollercoaster themed? wife really doesn't do coasters, so i'm thinking regular universal would probably be best...

and is animal kingdom included in the magic your way pass?

3/20/2011 9:53:34 PM

crap

yeah, I knew that. We're going to IOA, not Universal

3/20/2011 9:54:18 PM

I'd say IoA is more roller coaster themed, but keep in mind at lot of them aren't traditional rollercoasters like you're find at Carowinds. Most of them (Spider-man, Harry Potter Castle, Simpsons, etc) are the type of rides where you sit in a confided space and they shake you around without you actually moving a ton.

3/20/2011 10:00:03 PM

^ simpsons is at universal

haha even now

3/20/2011 10:00:44 PM

1) stay at a Disney resort that offers you "extended magic hours"
2) get shitfaced at epcot center past midnight

3/20/2011 10:02:32 PM

don't waste your time with busch gardens

3/20/2011 10:02:48 PM

I went to Disney for two days and got the park hopper. I did Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios on day 1. I wish I had spent more time at Hollywood Studios it seemed more fun. Day 2, it was Epcot and Magic Kingdom. I went during Christmas and it was pretty packed. Definitely use the fast pass system and get it for the rides you really want to go on. You can only hold one fast pass at a time. Also it helps to circle on a map before you get there of where you want to go and bring good shoes. There are coupons on the attractions map when you enter and they're usually good for the quick bite places. I basically ate burgers and hotdogs the whole time I was there. I thought about staying in disney but it was cheaper to stay outside. Another thing was I should have bought the tickets at Disney instead of the hotel. The ticket lines in the morning (8am) were not that long for when I went.

I stayed at Lake Buena Vista Fairfield Inn and took their shuttle into Disney for $7. It left at different times but I went at 8am and got back around 11.00pm. The shuttle left pretty promptly at the stated departure time at night. So don't miss the shuttle. There are people there that would have added days in between their disney visit to relax but I was on a schedule.

3/20/2011 10:11:12 PM

Quote :

"^ simpsons is at universal haha even now"

Sorry, yeah. Didn't mean to imply it wasn't, just that it was the same type of "roller coaster" as a lot of what you'll find at Islands of Adventure.

3/20/2011 10:26:38 PM

I really recommend the package tours you can get for Disney. During my brief stint as a travel agent, I booked a lot of Disney vacations and I found that while you spend a little extra money on the Disney lodging in those packages, it makes up for itself in other perks they throw in the packages and you don't have to deal with getting to Disney like you would if you stayed somewhere further away.

3/20/2011 11:00:36 PM

Thanks for all the advice. Good stuff in here.

1. What is the fast pass? What do you mean when you say, "You can only hold one at a time" ?

2. Where can I find the package deals? I looked on expedia/travelocity but most of their packages include flights and we are going to drive.

3. Is hollywood studios the new name for mgm studios?

3/21/2011 5:41:51 AM

^ honestly going to a travel agent will get you some of the best packages deal-wise.

3/21/2011 7:21:00 AM

military gets free admission and a 5 day park hopper- plus dependents are $100/5days. all the local hotels have military discounts as well.

3/21/2011 3:30:04 PM

For serious, check out the extended magic hours.

3/21/2011 3:31:05 PM

So staying on disney would be best?? Would a travel agent really save significant money vs. booking it myself?

3/21/2011 3:40:46 PM

Going back to Orlando for a week in May. We did Magic Kingdom last year because my niece was with us. This year we are looking to do more of the adult stuff. This thread should be very useful.

3/21/2011 3:41:57 PM

^^ they can depending on your plans. Talking to a travel agent is free. I recommend Beeline Travel in Raleigh.

3/21/2011 3:46:40 PM

Quote :

"1. What is the fast pass? What do you mean when you say, "You can only hold one at a time" ? 2. Where can I find the package deals? I looked on expedia/travelocity but most of their packages include flights and we are going to drive. 3. Is hollywood studios the new name for mgm studios? "

1. http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/fastpass.htm
2.http://www.aaacarolinas.com/Travel/Disney/
3. YES

3/21/2011 3:49:34 PM

Package deals are the way to go

Southwest Vacations can package the flight, hotel and theme park tickets together to save you a lot of money.

I would suggest, if you are looking at the cheapest on-campus lodging, to stay at Disney's Value resorts. You still get the extended Magic hours (either get into the park before it opens in the morning or you get to stay after it "closes"). It varies each day what park you get extra hours in and whether its extra in the morning or at night. And you get free shuttles to each of the Disney parks from the hotel. You really shouldn't be spending that much time in your room at Disney anyway. It is just like a motel (exterior entrances). I stayed at the Disney's All Star Music resort a couple years ago for $50/night.

This past Christmas I went to Disney and Universal. We went specifically to Universal to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and I was actually very disappointed. They could have done so much more with the space they had. That should have been an entire theme park by itself. The actual ride (the one that goes through the castle) was lame (though it may have been because we waited two hours to get on it )

I love Disney so much more than Universal. With your Disney ticket, you get the option to "Fast Pass" certain rides. Basically if the ride that you want to go on has a long line, you just go up to that ride's "Fast Pass" kiosk and scan your ticket, you then get a slip of paper with a time to come back and ride. You then come back at whatever time it says on your slip of paper, get in the "Fast Pass" entrance line for the ride and give your slip of paper to the ride attendant. You basically bypass the entire line of people waiting 2 hours to ride Space Mountain. At Universal, they have the same thing there too. That you can bypass the lines. But at Universal, their Fast Pass is an extra cost to the ticket. And I think you can only add Fast Pass at Universal if you are buying a 2 day or more ticket. At Disney, Fast Pass is included in the base price of your ticket, regardless of how many days you purchase.

Also if you are staying on campus at Disney, you can get the stuff you purchase at Disney sent to your hotel. That way you can buy 20 Stitches but don't have to have your husband lug them around in his bookbag all day. They will get sent back to the front desk at your hotel and you can pick them up when you are done at Disney

3/21/2011 3:54:52 PM

are all the disney resorts exterior entrances? My wife gets sketched out about those (too many horror movies)

3/21/2011 3:57:19 PM

I know all the Disney Value resorts are exterior...I think the Polynesian is exterior too

3/21/2011 3:58:59 PM

Exterior entrances?

Is this some sort of anal innuendo I missed out on?

[Edited on March 21, 2011 at 4:04 PM. Reason : I mean, I'd Google it, but I'm a SafeSearch disabled kind of guy.]

3/21/2011 4:03:52 PM

Quote :

"That way you can buy 20 Stitches but don't have to have your husband lug them around in his bookbag all day."

Something tells me this is not a hypothetical

You will die if you ever go to the gift shop in Disney Sea lol.

3/21/2011 4:05:38 PM

Whatever you do, d.on't stay at Disneyworld's Animal Kingdom Lodge. Too much shit went wrong when my wife & I stayed there last month:

-After checking in we were given totally the wrong room. We reserved a room with a king size bed and a pool view and got one with 2 queens and a shitty view of a bush and a fiberglass rock. My wife's mom had even called that morning and was assured that we would be getting the room we'd asked for. We called the front desk and told them we had the wrong room with a terrible view, and the asshole on the other end said "well you get what you pay for." We wasted 30 minutes getting another room.

-Our luggage was supposed to have been sent to our room while we were at the animal kingdom park, but it wasn't there when we returned, and we wanted to go swimming but our swimsuits were in the luggage. We called and they said they'd call back in 30 minutes; an hour passed with no response. Finally they figured out that it had been sent to the wrong room. So it took our luggage a total of 9 hours from check-in time to get to our room.

-We gave them a credit card so that we could charge things to our room, but told them clearly that we wanted to pay cash upon checkout for any charges, instead of charging it to the card. They said that was fine. Then they went ahead and charged the card anyway 2 days into our trip, without telling us.

-My wife's dad put $200 on our account as a gift. The fucking hotel didn't tell us for 2 days, and we could have used it on my wife's birthday at dinner.

-The dumb shits tried to charge us for room service, even though we told them when we ordered that we were using our dining plan points. This required another time-wasting trip to the front desk to clear it up.

-We bought a christmas ornament at Epcot and had it delivered to the hotel. It arrived in a dozen pieces. They told us we'd have to take it back to the gift shop at Epcot for a replacement. What kind of fucked-up customer service is that? What if we were leaving the next day, or didn't have parkhopper passes? At least the shop's manager threw in a free ornament as an apology for a shoddy packing job.

-The hotel is too damn far from the rest of the parks, so the public transit ride takes a good 20 minutes to get anywhere other than the animal kingdom park.

The only redeeming qualities of the Lodge were the attractive decor and the great food at the Boma restaurant. Go for the food but don't stay at the lodge.

3/21/2011 4:26:35 PM

The Dolphin and Swan hotels are pretty good as far as quality and location, though you can definitely tell that they were built in the early 90s.

3/21/2011 4:28:52 PM

The food at Boma is pretty good, but it's way overpriced if you're not on the Disney meal plan. It ran about $100 for my girlfriend and I. Had I known that in advance, I would've gone to the Texas de Brazil instead (which I've heard is very good) where I feel I would've gotten more of my money's worth for the same price.

3/21/2011 4:40:47 PM

^^^LOL I remember that thread. Guy was super pissed off at Disney. It was not the happiest place on Earth for him




[Edited on March 21, 2011 at 4:49 PM. Reason : f]

3/21/2011 4:48:07 PM

what is the disney meal pass?

i'm leaning toward that comfortsuites someone posted above in kissimmee. looks like good reviews, good rates, and shuttle to the parks

does animal kingdom count on the magic pass thing?

3/21/2011 5:11:59 PM

Florida parks in summer =
Florida parks in September =

In 4 days in September 2009, I did Sea World, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Busch Gardens Tampa, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom.

Granted, that is not exactly the ideal way to do it, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice anything.

My personal favorite Florida parks are Busch Gardens Tampa, Epcot, and Islands of Adventure, BUT, since you said your wife isn't into roller coasters (is that all thrill rides in general or just coasters?), I would stick to the Disney parks.

I would look into the AAA package and definitely look into the meal plan.

[Edited on March 21, 2011 at 6:20 PM. Reason : .]

3/21/2011 6:19:54 PM

we like thrill rides, but my wife doesn't like apollo's chariot style rollercoasters... and i don't care to go on them by mysef...

also, we are not members of aaa, so are we ineligible for those packages?

3/21/2011 6:51:19 PM

Islands of Adventure would still be worth it I think. The Harry Potter ride is by all indications (haven't been yet) pretty stunning, and Spiderman is awesome as well. It also has 3 of the best water rides out there (Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls, Jurassic Park River Adventure, and Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges). Definitely worth a stop.

3/21/2011 7:14:09 PM

Quote :

"also, we are not members of aaa, so are we ineligible for those packages?"

Yes, but if you go through another travel agent they have pretty much the same stuff.

3/21/2011 9:16:52 PM

The Spider-man ride is pretty cool. If you like that ride you'll like Harry Potter.

3/21/2011 9:29:38 PM

When potentially spending thousands of dollars on a few days in Orlando I suggest spending a few more dollars and buying this software: http://www.ridemax.com/

It allows you to select start and stop times, what attractions you want to visit and meals/breaks. Then it puts them in order for you allowing you to maximize your fun time and minimize the useless amount of waiting.

3/21/2011 9:50:57 PM

one of the reasons we are going during the summer is b/c our anniversary is june 28 and that is also the date of the final (scheduled) shuttle launch. I was trying to time it around the same time.
I know that there is always a chance (usually pretty good) that ie ends up being delayed at least once...however, if we are down there i'd love to see it.

3/22/2011 5:50:13 AM

Quote :

"are all the disney resorts exterior entrances? My wife gets sketched out about those (too many horror movies) "

I know that all of the value and moderate are. Most (if not all) of the Delux are interior entrances.

3/22/2011 8:03:58 AM

Quote :

"i'm leaning toward that comfortsuites someone posted above in kissimmee."

HOLLAAAAAA

I wish you were going a little earlier so you could report back on its quality but my room will already be booked by the time you go

honestly, I'm not expecting much based on the rates but the reviews on Tripadvisor made it sound like a steal

3/22/2011 8:11:43 AM

kissimmee is a vast wasteland. i vote stay in the resort area.

3/22/2011 10:56:08 AM

I figure it isn't worth a lot of money if we're going to out at the parks all day

3/22/2011 11:04:48 AM

there's a Doubletree hotel right ouside Universal/Islands of Adventure that was decent. It was close enough for a long walk from the hotel to CityWalk and the parks.

3/22/2011 12:40:12 PM

when we go out of town, we aren't the type that stay inside the room all day and cooks meals, etc...

we basically just use the room for showers/bathroom and sleeping at night. we will probably be gone most of each day at the parks and doing things.
With that said, I don't want to stay at some $29 per night dump, but I don't want to spend $texas on a really nice place either.
I read the reviews of that comfortsuites and it sounds pretty decent.

now we have to decide which parks...i think we narrowed it down to magic kingdom, animal kingdom, and universal.

Here is another question... assuming that the space shuttle launch stays on course for june 28, what are the best places to watch it besides the actual Kennedy space center? I read that tickets for those go really fast, especially now that they are discontinuing the shuttle program... and plus I don't want to buy tickets and then it gets delayed and i'm out of my money..

are there any places near cape canaveral that you can pay to park first come first serve and just view it?

3/22/2011 4:16:24 PM

You can get some stunning deals on Stubhub and Priceline's Name Your Own price. http://betterbidding.com/ is a great resource.

I stayed at a 4 star waterpark resort for $40 a night. That was in September, so I figured June wouldn't have deals like that, but looking at Hotwire right now, there is a 3 star hotel in the Disney Main Gate region priced at $36 a night for the dates you are going, and a 3 star Downtown Disney area for $45. What I tend to do is take a look at Better Bidding's list to get an idea of what hotel I may be getting, then I use Priceline's Name Your Own Price to try and undercut the Hotwire price. If I fail, I just book on Hotwire.

3/22/2011 4:31:24 PM

the hotwire site scares me b/c it doesn't show you the hotel until AFTER you book...

3/22/2011 4:48:40 PM