A few trip planning ?'s from a newbie!

[SGTex]

Hi all,

I'm planning a somewhat last minute trip to US for the end of April. We've never been before. It will be myself, my 10yr old (Harry Potter fan) DS, 8 yr old DD and my Sister.

We will be in Orlando for 1 week (arriving Saturday, 4/21 and departing Friday 4/27 or Saturday 4/28) we will have a car as we are driving from IL and also want to go to the SeaWorld Parks too.

So... I'm struggling with where to stay. Should I book off-site and rent a house for the week? Ideally I'd love to do a house w/ a pool so we can chill and relax swim conveniently (and have some privacy from each other during the week). Or should I do onsite, so we have the benefits of staying onsite - Early admission and Express passes?

Any suggestions?

 

[Metro West]

So... I'm struggling with where to stay. Should I book off-site and rent a house for the week? Ideally I'd love to do a house w/ a pool so we can chill and relax swim conveniently (and have some privacy from each other during the week). Or should I do onsite, so we have the benefits of staying onsite - Early admission and Express passes?

Any suggestions?

That's going to be a busy week at all theme parks so staying onsite would be to your advantage with early entry and unlimited Express access...however it will be expensive. Since you are going to SeaWorld as well, you can grab the free shuttle from any of the Universal onsite resorts to SW which will save you gas and parking fees. I think if you were going during a slow period you could save money and stay offsite but since you're visiting during a busy period, the extra expense will be well worth it.

 

[Badge]

We went last summer for a week and had a blast. Staying onsite really is the best option simply because of the express passes alone.

I suggest doing one day at Sea World (maybe in the middle of the week to break up Universal a little) and the rest just at Universal. Sea World only has one theme park and it is REALLY limited on rides. Sea World is more of a "show" park...its not bad (Manta is in my top 3 all time favorite roller coasters) but not worth more than a day.

Like Metro said, take the shuttle they offer. Since you will be paying to park at the hotel anyways, you mine as well use the shuttle service so you don't have to pay the $10-15 (or more) parking fee at SW.

No idea what type of money you plan on spending, but the price of onsite hotels get cheaper the longer you stay. However, I just did a quick search on the website and it says no rooms are available for a trip starting on 4/21 and checking out on either 4/27 or 4/28. So, either the website is having problems, or all three hotels are sold out. I would keep checking online (and calling) to see if rooms open up.

Also, you might want to think about purchasing Annual Passes. Since you will be at the parks for 6 days (roughly) you can save money on food and items you purchase. Also, although I doubt it because the rooms seem to all be booked, you MIGHT be able to get a room discount as well. We purchased AP for our week long trip and saved around $50 a night alone. The hotel savings alone made the AP purchase worth it even if we only went once in the year.