Florida Part 2 Split Holiday

[Disney Princesses LW]

Hi can anyone recommend a resort we can stay and "rest" in for the 2nd part of our florida holiday will be for 4/5 days and at the end of an action packed theme park holiday.
Plan to do 10 days on site at Disney then 5 days chilling out somewhere, DH has done this kind of holiday before he stayed (he thinks he was only 14) in St Petes and loved it he likes the idea of lying on a beach relaxing in the day, a nice meal at night followed by few drinks of a evening maybe few games of crazy golf etc etc all relaxing before heading home.
My concerns are,
1.we usually dont hire a car on holiday... pointless imo if staying at disney so do we hire it for the last couple of days or are there other options avavaible to travel to the 2nd resort.
2 Airports Can you fly to Orlando airport use ther magical express THEN use another airport to retuen home or will it be easier to return to Disney on departure day use the magical express and return to Orlando airport???
3. The resort...which one to pick although we want to chill before returning home we dont want it too quite with nothing going on???

Has anyone else holidayed this way and not used a travel package ??? got quoted 5K plus virgin package holiday

 

[stephensmum]

We usually stay at Disney & have a 1 or 2 night trip to RPR at Universal in the middle of our stay. This year we are spending 11 nights at Disney, then the last 5 nights at RPR. I had to be persuaded to do this but am now looking forward to it. I think it will be so much more relaxing as I will have FOTL passes, so little queuing, just a walk to the parks and I will have time to enjoy the resort & pool. We don't drive & will get ME on arrival & a taxi to return. You would only be able to get ME when checking out of a Disney resort. We get a taxi from Disney to Universal.

 

[chmurf]

2 Airports Can you fly to Orlando airport use ther magical express THEN use another airport to retuen home or will it be easier to return to Disney on departure day use the magical express and return to Orlando airport???

it's called an open jaw.
I don't know where you're from so let's say you fly out from LGW, you could do
leg 1 : LGW - MCO (orlando)
leg 2 : TPA - LGW (tampa) or MIA - LGW (miami)
you'd just have to get transportation to whatever town you wish to spend the last part of your stay.

Renting a car would seem a good idea if you wish to go to a resort on either coast and chill (or rather grill) on the beach.
Most rental agencies won't charge extra if you drop the car off to another florida agency (I know alamo don't charge extra) Call from Disney resort, they'll pick you up, drive you to the car care center near MK, then drive to other resort/city, and drop the car off the that other city's airport

Apparently Virgin won't allow you to get a multi stop flight (or open jaw)
Opodo.co.uk has this option (click multistop flight link) and enter information for both legs as if they were two one-way trips
Most of the time it's hardly more expensive than a return flight.

I always book my trip as non-package.
The only package I get is from WDTC-UK for accomodation + tickets.
Flight and car are both rented separately when deals are released.

Don't forget that TAs can help you planning

 

[WiganTony]

We have visited the Gulf Coast a couple of times (Treasure Island and Clearwater Beach) and enjoyed the breaks.

1.we usually dont hire a car on holiday... pointless imo if staying at disney so do we hire it for the last couple of days or are there other options avavaible to travel to the 2nd resort.

It isn't that easy to get to Clearwater Beach by coach - most seem to be day trips only, or you would have to get to the Greyhound terminal in Orlando, coach to Clearwater, then a local bus or taxi to Clearwater Beach.

I would suggest a car is the better option (would take around 90 mins Disney to Clearwater Beach), as it would also allow you to explore more of the Gulf coast (or whichever area you choose). I would pre-book a car to pick up from the Disney area and dropping off at your departure airport.

2 Airports Can you fly to Orlando airport use ther magical express THEN use another airport to retuen home or will it be easier to return to Disney on departure day use the magical express and return to Orlando airport???

As noted above, you can get an "open jaw" ticket. If you decided to visit Clearwater Beach, you could fly into Orlando (using Magical Express to get to your resort) and return from Tampa. It may be easier for you for direct flights to return from Orlando, and arrange to drop the car off at the airport there.

HTH.

 

[Disney Princesses LW]

http://www.opodo.co.uk
Love this website just been quoted £530 for flights manc- orlando return tampa - man for end of Aug brilliant prices.
Love the idea of being near Tampa then we could get SW tickets and go BG too, never done BG DS would love it there.

 

[Disney Princesses LW]

We have visited the Gulf Coast a couple of times (Treasure Island and Clearwater Beach) and enjoyed the breaks.



It isn't that easy to get to Clearwater Beach by coach - most seem to be day trips only, or you would have to get to the Greyhound terminal in Orlando, coach to Clearwater, then a local bus or taxi to Clearwater Beach.

I would suggest a car is the better option (would take around 90 mins Disney to Clearwater Beach), as it would also allow you to explore more of the Gulf coast (or whichever area you choose). I would pre-book a car to pick up from the Disney area and dropping off at your departure airport.



As noted above, you can get an "open jaw" ticket. If you decided to visit Clearwater Beach, you could fly into Orlando (using Magical Express to get to your resort) and return from Tampa. It may be easier for you for direct flights to return from Orlando, and arrange to drop the car off at the airport there.

HTH.

Returning to Orlando Airport would possible from Clear Water if its only 90 minutes the plus point of direct flight would be booking with Virgin using Tesco clubcard points to hep pay, although their flights are more expensive

 

[chmurf]

Returning to Orlando Airport would possible from Clear Water if its only 90 minutes

there is always the possibility of congestion on I-4.

Last time I did that trip it was more like 2 hours from Clearwater Marine Aquarium down to DTD.
MCO is still a good 20 minutes away from DTD in relatively light traffic.

I probably wouldn't leave Clearwater (or Tampa area) less than 6 hours before my flight.
3 hours on the road + car return, and 3 hours at the airport as instructed by the airline.

90 minutes is acheivable, but only in optimum conditions, driving ... fast

Clearwater is roughly 110 miles from Orlando. I-4 is mostly limited to 65 or 70mph. Some areas will be 50mph.
Based on a 60mph average (which I think would be in the best case scenario) you would already need 110 minutes to cover the distance. 20 more minutes than the ballpark figure of 90 minutes.
And that's if everything runs smoothly.
As said above, it took me 2 hours last february, not even going to the airport, and I had cruise control set at posted speed limit all the time and never had to brake from Tampa airport area all the way to exit ramp #68

I wouldn't challenge the 90 minutes, as it's possible to do that time, but I need my license too much to try to match that time on the road.

 

[WiganTony]

Apologies - the 90 minutes was based on a couple of our trips at the weekend. You would need to allow much more time to get back on weekdays, especially if you are travelling at "rush hour".