Orlando Disney/Universal Trip Advice

[kitkat9933]

The girlfriend wants to do the standard Orlando bits and bobs, so a couple of questions if anyone could provide advice.

• Would 10 days going to be enough to do the main bits at Disney and Universal?
• How far in advance should we be booking?
• Whens the best time to go that isn't peak school holidays but still good weather etc?
• How much should we be prepared to budget? 5K?
• I assuming hiring a car would be best?

 

[Deleted member 11679]

Hello,

I've been to Orlando twice, once as a family (my wife, mum, dad and brother) and once just me and my wife. In answer to your questions:

• Would 10 days going to be enough to do the main bits at Disney and Universal?

I'd say so, as long as you are happy spending most of the day in one of the parks. It also depends on whether you want to do every ride in every park. If you pick and choose, or plan your day well, you'll have plenty of really good experiences in the time frame.

My advice would be avoid trying to do too much though. Buying park passes for everything in Orlando sounds really inviting, but in reality you can easily do a couple of days in say, Universal Studios, then a couple of days in Islands of Adventure, and then so and so forth in all the parks. You can get package tickets for all the Disney parks or all the Universal parks plus some more.

One thing to factor into your price is car parking if you rent a car. Parking per day is about $25 and can be a bit of a sting if you don't know about it in advance.

• How far in advance should we be booking?

Depends on the time of the year. We're restricted to school holidays, pricing therefore doesn't fluctuate that much (it's just high, permanently). I would advise 6 months out?

• Whens the best time to go that isn't peak school holidays but still good weather etc?

Hurricane season is from mid/end of August onwards. We've been this time of the year and it's been fine, however I would imagine June time might give you great sunshine and no impact from school holidays. American schools do go back late August though so we've always found queues to be minimal around then.

• How much should we be prepared to budget? 5K?

A lot of that will be dependent on your hotel choices and also flights/time of the year. If you want to go Disney hotels and dining, you'll pay more. Happy to go with a hotel near one of the parks? There's plenty to choose from and loads of offers. Make sure you do your research here.

• I assuming hiring a car would be best?

For me, it's a no brainer. Along with the parking though (mentioned above), Google around for the Florida sun pass. It's one of their ways for paying for tolls. It's expensive, and if you don't know about it beforehand you could get caught out.

Hope that helps,

Tom

 

[iamtheoneneo]

1 yes
2 doesn't matter it's all about the time of year.
3 may
4 we did a week for under £1000 each, 1500k would be luxury 5k is ridiculous.
5 not if your doing parks only. your hotel WILL have park buses everyday or at least a way to get to the Disney or universal hub this even applies to hotels in kissemme.

 

[eddiemcgarrigle]

1. Ten days would be enough but you'll wish you booked to stay longer.
2. If you book with Disney and get free dining, you'll need to book everything (including dining) 6 months in advance.
3. May. Longest hours of sunshine, least chance of rain, warm but not too warm, smaller crowds and outwith school holidays.
4. 5k seems excessive but there is a lot of shopping that could be done. Half that is more than ample.
5. Car hire is good. If staying at Disney, it's free. If not, it beats waiting in long lines for buses.

 

[Nitefly]

I am absolutely all over this topic at the moment - on Florida forums every day eagerly awaiting my September trip!

Third week of September is THE time to go. Minimal crowds (touring plans has magic kingdom as 1/10 crowd levels) and you get Halloween horror nights at universal studios to boot. Weather can be a bit sketchy / hurricaney but we had ace weather last time.

9 nights idea ideal IMO. You will not be able to do everything but after awhile you will get theme park fatigue.

Contrary what everyone else here usually seems to think, hiring a car is not necessarily a necessity, at all. You can Uber everywhere in Orlando for peanuts. Plus some hotels charge for parking your car - plus the $20 a day the parks charge.

If you are doing theme parks and can afford it, which your suggested budget suggests you definitely can, absolutely stay onsite in both Universal Resort AND Disney. Staying onsite at the premium Universal resorts gets you unlimited queue skips whilst if you stay onsite at Disney you can book your fast passes 60 days in advance for the whole of your trip. 3 nights at Universal, Disney for the rest, IMO.

 

[JBuk]

I am absolutely all over this topic at the moment - on Florida forums every day eagerly awaiting my September trip!

Third week of September is THE time to go. Minimal crowds (touring plans has magic kingdom as 1/10 crowd levels) and you get Halloween horror nights at universal studios to boot. Weather can be a bit sketchy / hurricaney but we had ace weather last time.

9 nights idea ideal IMO. You will not be able to do everything but after awhile you will get theme park fatigue.

Contrary what everyone else here usually seems to think, hiring a car is not necessarily a necessity, at all. You can Uber everywhere in Orlando for peanuts. Plus some hotels charge for parking your car - plus the $20 a day the parks charge.

If you are doing theme parks and can afford it, which your suggested budget suggests you definitely can, absolutely stay onsite in both Universal Resort AND Disney. Staying onsite at the premium Universal resorts gets you unlimited queue skips whilst if you stay onsite at Disney you can book your fast passes 60 days in advance for the whole of your trip. 3 nights at Universal, Disney for the rest, IMO.

I went September too, the weather was ok apart from a little bit of rain at midday and dinner time a couple of times

The Halloween nights at universal were awesome

Got taxis to most places but sharing fares between 6 of us , had a much needed chill day every few days

Paid around £1000 for 10 days with some park tickets and took another £800 to spend ,the hotel was poor but it was only somewhere to sleep

 

[bartledvd]

As far as disney goes there is no quiet time september used to be walk ons for all the rides now not so much may is looking like the new september for crowd levels and i expect crowds to increase each year significantly given the money being spent on expansion, just had Pandora open Toy story land opens june with star wars galaxy’s edge opening probably around august 2019 and other updates/ refreshes to rides.
Universal seaworld and busch gargens all much quieter especially the latter two. Plan for paying 15-20% tips and sales tax is not included in price you see.

 

[Kreeeee]

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[Nitefly]

Edit - double post

 

[Nitefly]

This guy is right, Halloween at universal Studios was very special and a car is pointless.

I only have two points to add. One is that Busch gardens is by far the best park closely followed by seaworld so don't skip those. The second is never go to the Disney parks on their late opening days, go the day after when it's empty as all the fools will have been on the crowded day before.

I went for fourteen days and did everything there was, but it was a constant sprint the whole time and I wanted another vacation by the end of it.

Yep have Busch gardens planned in this time - as always. It’s not ideal but you can get a bus to pick you up for free that Busch Gardens arrange, for free, that collects you from select destinations. The downsides are being fixed to a relatively short theme park day (you won’t get there for opening) but this isn’t too big of a deal if you’re going during off season.

As for BG being the best park... hmm it definitely has the best (most extreme) roller coasters as a whole, at the moment - not been to seaworld to ride the new Mako coaster but the new breed of hyper coasters (tall and don’t go upside down) tend to make all the 90s style loop loop loop coasters feel really dated. Have been on on Shambhala at port aventura in Spain and that is absolutely the best roller coaster I’ve been on by a long way. Not sure Mako is as good as Shambhala but I’d expect one of those to be BG’s next big purchases.

Sorry got sidetracked - I don’t think that BG is the best park, or at the very least it’s not ‘obviously the best’’. Most of it is in desperate need of a refresh and it has this slightly annoying ‘looping layout’. Still, the animals make a great break and, as said, the rides on paper at least are ultra heavyweight - Cheetah Hunt / Montu ftw! It’s funny that Disneyworld is getting a nerfed family friendly version of Cheetah Hunt in Slinky Dog Dash... don’t really get the fuss tbh.

With the addition of the Harry Potter bits, the Universal Resort is the best IMO. Diagon Alley is really special.

Looking forward to going to Pandora (Avatar) in Animal Kingdom... Flight of Passage only 6 months to go...

 

[Rifte]

I go to Orlando pretty much every 2 years.

Here is my advice

1)10 days is JUST enough IMO if you hit the parks hard (we normally go for 5 weeks when we go.....I know this is unusual). If you want to do it 'all' there are the following :

a)6 Disney parks (includes 2 water parks)
b)2 Universal parks
c)Busch Gardens
d)SeaWorld
e)Discovery Cove (expensive, but dont miss this )
f)Aquatica
g)Kennedy Space Center
h)LegoLand


From my experience you need more than a day in each of the Disney Parks (apart from the water parks and Hollywood Studios...but that will change with Toy Story Land opening in June this year, and Star Wars Land opening 2019)

2)Book it all individually and don't do a package. Its relatively easy and straight forward. Villas in great locations tend to get full quickly, so that might be one to think about first

3)Peak time sucks full stop. Its hot and the crowds are epic. From our experience the best time to go is post labour day, the first two weeks in September. ZERO queues. We normally go from May 1st to June 8 to 10th.

4)The budget it a difficult one and depends on a few factors

a)Do you plan to self cater? Or eat out? This will make a BIG difference
b)Do you plan to do ALL the parks?
c)Do you plan to do a lot of shopping over there, there are some great outlets there.
d)Do you plan to do evening shows like Medieval times and Pirates etc.

5k each for 2 weeks would be plenty IMO, between 2 of you 5k is impossible I believe.

5)Yes get a rental car, its the best way to get around.

 

[Kreeeee]

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[Amor86]

We visit Orlando fairly frequently, normally going in the third week of September ( 5 visits in past 7 years). We absolutely love it, staying in an apartment in Lake Buena Vista, and are going again this May

• 1. We go for 14 days, but this typically means we will visit the likes of Magic Kingdom on more than one occasion. I think 10 days is enough if you plan sufficiently. The Parks we will tend to visit are: Universal (x2 parks), Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney), then you have one of two Disney water parks ( Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon). Of course, Universal have recently opened their own water park with "Volcano Bay".

My advice would be to ensure that you download the My Disney App. This allows you to track wait times and is a good tool for planning. You can fast pass upto three rides a visit which will be important, as some of the newer rides e.g. (Pandora - Animal Kingdom) can have waiting times in excess of three hours!

• 2. Doesn't matter how far in advance you book it. It is more about the time of year. We always usually book late September which seems to be a good time to go. We are going in early May this year, and this is also appparently meant to be a reasonable time in the year in relation to humidity and the general busyness at the parks.

• 3. Budget depends on what you want to do. After apartment and flights and park tickets ( two weeks full access) are booked (totalled c3k), we typically take around 2k for food and spending money. That includes some shopping at a couple of the nearby outlets, and also the Florida Mall/Mall at Milennia.

• 4. Couldn't recommend hiring a car enough for convenience! It will make your life a lot easier, and really isn't too expensive.

 

[Daaaveee]

@Rifte got it pretty much spot on to be honest. You can do 10 days but 14 days makes it more relaxing.

I would never be without a car, even when staying on site (free parking if you do). The Disney buses are fine but you will get sick of the crowds so having your own transport well worth it.

Another vote for late September for the best time to go. We've done April, May, July, September, October and November.

 

[jas72]

1 yes
2 doesn't matter it's all about the time of year.
3 may
4 we did a week for under £1000 each, 1500k would be luxury 5k is ridiculous.
5 not if your doing parks only. your hotel WILL have park buses everyday or at least a way to get to the Disney or universal hub this even applies to hotels in kissemme.

I take a car because I like driving over there but really you can get away without one. If you stay central you can get to the parks with shuttle and uber once you factor in parking at the parks etc the price difference may not be that much.

If you stay on international Drive and don't mind standing around in 37°C 95% humidity then you can get the I-ride trolley which visits most attractions in that area.

You can also stay onsite at both Disney and Universal and sometimes Disney offers free food to tempt you you can always uber somewhere if you get too claustrophobic (I personally couldn't hack Disney 24/7).