Talk to me about disneyland florida.

Myself and my girlfriend went in December. We used Expedia and paid £515ea for flights and 10 nights at a hotel within the free disney bus route. We just used those busses and their monorail thing to get around and walked the rest. The ultimate tickets are definitely worth it and can be bought pretty cheap if you pre-order from the UK. The water tastes funny there though, so I suggest you buy a multi pack of bottled water at the local shop and stick it in the hotel room fridge.
 
I would suggest staying at a Disney hotel for the free buses between the parks makes it easy. With no car you will get bored of the fast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I would suggest getting a taxi to the shopping outlet at the bottom of international drive and then use the I-drive to travel up and down.
 
Just came back from Florida last week, I hired a camaro but you most certainly can get about on public transport. We stayed on I-drive which is a really popular tourist spot and as mentioned most of the big hotels runs free shuttle buses to the main parks, even if you take a taxi you are talking $15 bucks each way so hardly breaking the bank. You certainly can do it cheaply and well on public transport it just requires a bit more planning! all the parks are really close together, Disney is the only one thats a bit a further out but still can be gotten to by bus :).

In short; renting a car is great but it can be done using the public transport no problems at all, the whole area is very geared up to tourists. don't listen to people that haven't stayed there !
 
schizo said:
Massive massive help thank you,did you drive over there or use the public transport ?

What kind of price did you pay ?
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i used public transport and have never had an issue, i-ride, taxi or free busses, never missed anything!

last time we went i paid around £2800 with all the parks and the cove, but it really does depend on what time of year you go, try not to go august time, price is silly and its so hot u cant move without being a swetball :P . plus queue times in aug are nasty!
 
[TW]Fox;26487829 said:
He's sort of got a point, though. The US is not very public transport friendly at all. Everything is aimed around the car, especially more spread out areas. Even things like the road/sidewalk layouts make the concept of walking places seem like an afterthought. Without a car you are limiting yourself to the courtesy shuttles etc which in theory sound great but in reality tie you down and make you do things on somebody elses schedule. On a 2 week trip you will want to see more of the place than just Disneyland and for that you are going to need to transport yourself. It's a bit of a shame to fly for 9 hours and then not see the area you fly to!

The best deals on hotels will be ones which are a drive away from the park. The one I mentioned was about 10 miles away which sounds really far but with a car means a 10 minute drive. You can also rent villas for the whole family at reasonably low cost but again, without a car, this won't work for you either.

This is the country where they even have drive through ATM's :D I go to the US every year and couldn't imagine not having my own transport.

Does your partner drive? Perhaps that's the answer?
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All true but not all that useful for the OP.

Someone else mentioned i-ride it's a really good service. Local busses are full of degenerates and the mentally ill (because as fox says everyone on the US drives everywhere) but i-ride is for tourists and is very easy to use and not a bit rough.

For a non car borne Orlando trip I would suggest you stay somewhere on I drive close to an I ride stop you can then reach universal, SeaWorld, outlets and all,I drive retail and dining with the i-ride. You then can use your hotel's transfer service for going to Disney properties. The alternative is stay at Disney and transfer to I drive for other stuff.

I managed almost three years in Orlando without a car, no doubt you will be fine for two weeks I am there at least once a year for work now and never rent a car unless heading out of Orlando

Taxis aren't overly costly
 
don't go when the americans are on holidays/school holidays its horrendously busy. pure and utter Chaos.

when I went we stayed in Kissimmee and hired cars.
but once your in Orlando we saw plenty of disney/universal buses ferrying people around

your daughter is the perfect age to go we took a 5 and 10 year old, 5 year old was too young to care, 10 year old was too cool to care.

you'l have a blast! the food in the parks seems expensive but the size of it is BIGGGG
google "disneyworld turkey leg" too see what I mean
 
Looked at going a few weeks ago for around £420 per person for flights, accomadation on international drive, car rental, atol prot etc. Unfortuantely we couldnt go due to commitments by my mrs. As everyone else has said most of these things are accessible via resort shuttlebus so nice and easy. Although the price i looked at didnt include park tickets. These vary in price but last time i went i think it was around £180 for an all parks 1 week pass. Another good bet is to go to florida mall as there were a few people selling 2-3 day tickets fairly cheap.
 
We went over the Easter break for 2 weeks. Had a great time. We stayed in a Villa at a community called Windsor Hills which is literally 5mins to Disney property via car. I wouldn't even go to a hotel in my opinion as we enjoy having the space and a private pool/games room etc and a good place to go back to in the afternoon to chill out. But.....It aint impossible to go without a car and stay onsite, I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time still. If I was you I would look at the offers of the free DDP (Disney Dining plan) which they do for the hotels and you can get that all in at Disney's Saratoga Springs and Old Key West resorts. Be prepared for 1 hour journeys if sticking to Disney transport to get from 1 side of Disney World to the other, It's massive and takes long enough in a car! Do not miss Universal Islands of Adventure and Universal Studious, Especially with the new expansion of Harry Potter World that opens on the 8th July which looks absolutley amazing. There were 9 of us with 4 kids under 10 and everybody prefered Universal to Disney, Also Seaworld was better than Disney. The worst park was the Magic Kingdom. Mad busy and the rides are too out of date. We much prefer Disneyland Paris to the Magic Kingdom park in Florida.
 
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If you want to keep costs down but be in the centre of everything, stay on International Drive. I've stayed at the Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando four times now and one of those was when we had no car, so relied on public transport.

The I Ride Trolley goes up and down International Drive so to get to Seaworld or Universal Studios, you jump on that and you are there. Disney requires you to catch the I Ride Trolley to Seaworld then catch the number 50 bus (I think it's the number 50, worth checking beforehand), and this will take you to the Disney Ticket Center and from there, you can jump on another bus or monorail to any of the Disney parks. Buses and the monorail round Disney are free.

If you do want to stay in Disney, then you've the free buses around the resorts and Disney parks. Again if you want to visit Seaworld or Universal, catch the number 50 bus and then the I Ride Trolley.

Can't comment on the hotels at Disney as I've never stayed in one (this year will be my first time for my honeymoon), but the Rosen Inn is pretty good if you just want somewhere to sleep.

You can get some pretty good deals if you shop around. Few years ago the travel agents wanted £2000 each to stay at the Rosen Inn and that didn't include tickets. After shopping around, we got the price down to £1200, including flights, hotel and theme park tickets. Going again this year for our honeymoon and staying at one of the Disney hotels, and we're paying £2500 per person and thats including flights, hotel, tickets, car and one of Disney's dinning packages. We've also upgraded on everything so I don't think that's a bad price.
 
hamesy said:
we're paying £2500 per person and thats including flights, hotel, tickets, car and one of Disney's dinning packages. We've also upgraded on everything so I don't think that's a bad price.
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A very strong word of warning - be very, very careful with any package that includes a car. They are almost always a total ripoff. If its advertised as a 'free' car rather than one you've specifically paid for it almost certainly does not include the CDW, facility fee, registration fee, etc etc. Because of the very strange way US rental pricing works, paying for these items when you get there is normally more expensive than just ignoring the 'free car' and booking a totally separate all inclusive rental package from the UK. The packages we can book from the UK are outstanding value and often 3-4 times cheaper than it would cost somebody walking up to the desk in the USA to book the same level of package.

Please read the small print of your car rental offer VERY carefully before you go and decide whether you are better off just booking a car again.
 
hamesy said:
If you want to keep costs down but be in the centre of everything, stay on International Drive. I've stayed at the Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando four times now and one of those was when we had no car, so relied on public transport.
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You reminded me! I stayed in International Drive, Best Western Hotel! There was a great restaurant close by, called Ponderosa. Was very cheap and it was a buffet. Best Western clients had a special discount.

But as i said, this was 12 years ago (1 year after the 9/11 attacks)
 
[TW]Fox;26490425 said:
A very strong word of warning - be very, very careful with any package that includes a car. They are almost always a total ripoff. If its advertised as a 'free' car rather than one you've specifically paid for it almost certainly does not include the CDW, facility fee, registration fee, etc etc. Because of the very strange way US rental pricing works, paying for these items when you get there is normally more expensive than just ignoring the 'free car' and booking a totally separate all inclusive rental package from the UK. The packages we can book from the UK are outstanding value and often 3-4 times cheaper than it would cost somebody walking up to the desk in the USA to book the same level of package.

Please read the small print of your car rental offer VERY carefully before you go and decide whether you are better off just booking a car again.
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To possibly combat that, you can get all the hire car insurance cover you need here in the UK and save yourself an absolute fortune on it.
 
Has anyone here been out to Florida in late February? I'll be paying for my parents to go out and meet up with my brother and sister-in-law and family who are also out there on holiday. I've looked at some average temperature stats on a few weather websites and it appears temps are low to mid 20s during the day, does this seem to tally with peoples experiences?
 
bazzabear said:
To possibly combat that, you can get all the hire car insurance cover you need here in the UK and save yourself an absolute fortune on it.
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True, but this won't include the extra fees that [TW]Fox was mentioning, like registration fee, car hire facility fee, car rental transport fee, etc, so they'll be supplemental.

if you do want to hire a car in USA, you're certainly better off renting it from the UK (either via a UK broker or a major brand's UK subsidiary, like Avis UK, Hertz UK, etc) as it will include insurances and fees that are often supplemental in USA.
 
Mr Plow said:
Has anyone here been out to Florida in late February? I'll be paying for my parents to go out and meet up with my brother and sister-in-law and family who are also out there on holiday. I've looked at some average temperature stats on a few weather websites and it appears temps are low to mid 20s during the day, does this seem to tally with peoples experiences?
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Yep, the weather is pleasant that time of year. Not cold but may be you won't be swimming much. You will not have the daily thunder and lightening you get in the summer.
 
jon86 said:
True, but this won't include the extra fees that [TW]Fox was mentioning, like registration fee, car hire facility fee, car rental transport fee, etc, so they'll be supplemental.

if you do want to hire a car in USA, you're certainly better off renting it from the UK (either via a UK broker or a major brand's UK subsidiary, like Avis UK, Hertz UK, etc) as it will include insurances and fees that are often supplemental in USA.
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Quite. It's really odd how good a deal we get here through brokers or the rental firms direct with fully inclusive car hire. I've just booked mine for this years trip - it came in at just under £500 direct through the rental agency with all insurance, supplement, etc etc fully included with zero excess. Going to the rental firms US website and putting in exactly the same car type, duration and package and it was over $2000. Insane. More than 50% of that was stuff outside the base rental rate.
 
My sister went there and instead of renting a hotel they found a house with a pool to rent for two weeks. She said it was not that much more expensive and you get a private pool and they rented a car. The water park and universal studios are meant to be highlights with disney land being boring for anyone older than 10.
 
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