Anyone go for 3 weeks and not go to Disney

[Portugal1000]

So our dates are 6th to 29th August (still waiting to book a flight but will hold out a bit longer to see if there is a drop in price). We have booked a week at the beginning at Tradewinds in St Petes Beach which leaves us 16 days in Orlando staying at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. For the last 2 years we have said we would give Disney a miss but then both times, friends/family decided to come with us so we of course had to show them round Disney. Both holidays a bit hectic so just thinking with the uncertainty for off site guests and FP+ we might save the £1000 on Disney tickets and not go. We will go to Universal, Discovery Cove, Seaworld and Aquatica and also buy a Disney waterpark annual pass as we love the waterparks.
Just wondering if anyone else spends a long time there and doesn't go to Disney. What else do you do? I am actually looking forward to a more relaxed holiday, haven't done the beach before and the resort looks great. Also loads going on at Bonnet Creek so cant imagine we will get bored.
Thanks

 

[Elise79]

We have done it the other way - only done Disney and the beach but not universal & sea world.

Would rather do Disney personally but do enjoy the beach too!

 

[flortlebap]

With three weeks I would find it very hard not to do disney but there are plenty of other attractions and places just to relax.

I love orlando in general though so I would quite like to go and stick to the Idrive and universal attractions some time

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

We have been going since 1989 and in October we did our first trip without getting Disney tickets - well we went to the Halloween party for a small Disney fix if that counts

We went to Cocoa Beach, Honeymoon Island, Discovery Cove, Universal, SW, Aquatica and Busch. We also went to a state park, shopping, crazy golf, visited the Disney Hotels, went to an orange grove and time just flew.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

If you buy the Orlando flex ticket plus you get 14 days admissions into Island of Adventure, Universal, Sea World, Aquatica and Busch Gardens for $320 per person. I think there may be one more park they include.

If I were going to all the other parks I definitely could go to Orlando without doing Disney. We never have completely skipped Disney but we have never done ONLY Disney either.

We always go to a different park every day and very rarely repeat a park but if we do repeat it is usually IOA we do twice.

Our next trip in Nov 2015 will be a bit pricey because we are getting the flex ticket for 5 ppl, 3 day tickets to Disney for 5 ppl, plus a MVMCP tickets for 5 ppl and MNSSHP tickets for 5 ppl. But we will also be staying at Bonnet Creek so we will save a ton on our lodging because we own Wyndham points.

 

[Kath2003]

We often do 9-11 days of just Universal/Islands and always find we still need more time! We tend to either hit the parks in the morning or wait and do a late afternoon/evening visit, which is much better for us. We actually feel like we've had a holiday, not run around like headless chickens trying to fit it all in, like we do when we try to fit in all the parks.

We take it slow, relax by the pool, shop, walk etc.

Remember that you can still do meals at Disney hotels and DTD (inc character meals) even if you don't do the parks.

We like crazy golf, too

 

[wayneg]

We haven't yet but after our AP's expire in July we are not renewing, going to do a few trips without Disney. We will still have SW & BG AP's(they cost us less than a day ticket as we tied into a fixed rate years ago) but we are going to do a year or two without Disney passes and explore Florida a bit more.

 

[irisheyes123]

I have done this a few times, I'm here now on a 5 week trip and I only spent 1 day in disney. I'm going to start looking for other places to visit in Florida and explore a bit more .