General advice on what to see, do etc

[tazz23]

As a typical student, Ive been working really hard to save money for my holiday to florida, Im going with my boyfriend in september and I think we'll have earnt about £400 spending money each- is this enough to see disney, universal etc? This is our first holiday abroad and we're really excited so we want to get it right!

This site has ben really useful and we're definately going to disney, universal and seaworld- Are there any other attractions worth seeing? Ive heard that dinner shows are good?
Thanx!

 

[allie5]

Hi Tazz. I will try and help. First of all, you are going to have a wonderful holiday! I do have to tell you though, all the theme parks come at a hefty price, so try to work out EXACTLY what sort of thing you MUST see and other things you can leave for another trip. There is SO much, that it is impossible (even with limitless funds) to see it all.

To help you budget, these are rough prices of admission. A 5 day Disney Hopper will be around £150 each. This gives you admission to all the 4 biggies (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and MGM) You can add a Plus feature which gives you an add on water park for another £15 or so. An Orlando Flex ticket can be bought for 4 or 5 parks (Sea World, Wet n Wild, Universal, Islands of Adventure and Busch gardens with the 5 park). The 4 park is about £100 and the 5 park £130 each for 14 days admission.

Single day admission to most major theme parks in Orlando is around £30 per person.

The dinner shows you mention are (in my opinion) over priced, not worth the money and I would pass them up. They will be around £25 a head which includes food and drinks.

One other expensive you may need to consider..if you are renting a car and are under 25, make sure you by the pre pay package otherwise there will be a hefty premium to pay in Orlando.

I would maybe decide on whether to do Disney OR the other parks on the flex ticket to save some cash. On our first trip, we did a single day admission to the Magic Kingdom and then used the Flex ticket for the rest of the trip. This worked well for us.

Have a great trip!

Allie.

 

[pt415999]

Tazz, hate to put a damper on things, but I feel your money is nowhere near enough.
Even if this is "pocket money " after tickets have been paid for, you will have such a tight budget to live on!
Are you going for one week or two?
You can find some good deals on food and if you buy drinks and snacks in the supermarkets, some great bargains can be found, but you will really have to budget daily for what you eat and what about all the shopping??!!
I do not want to put you off the holiday of a lifetime, but I really feel you need more money to take with you, maybe early xmas or birthday money off parents?
Hope you can sort it, sorry to be negative, but don't want you to end up in Orlando skint!

Peter.

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

A wise investment would be to get a guidebook which will help you plan what you must see, and what can wait until another time. By popular consent around this board the "Brit's Guide to Orlando" by Simon Veness is an essential read. Simon is a regular contributor here, and has put together the most comprehensive guide to life, the universe and everything that Central Florida has to offer. More detial of the book can be found here.

Regards

Rob

 

[vernon]

Hi Tazz, to be able to give a reasonable reply we really need a bit more info.
How long are you going for? Where are you staying? Has accomodation been "finally" booked and paid for as there will be some great deals available in Sept. I'm guessing that by your signature at least one of you will be over 21? so renting a car is a possibility. Has the £400 also got to pay for food and drinks.

To be honest I think you're going to struggle, that's not to say it can't be done, but it's going to stretch the people here to come up with a workable plan .

Look forward to hearing a little more so I can see if I can help

 

[signtalker]

Again, not to put a dampner on things IMHO your budget is way too low!!!!.
Its sounds as if you havent bought passes, so just this alone will eat into more than half your savings, and then theres the hidden expenses like drinks and food for day to day, as somebody else has said are you doing 1 week or 2??.

Theres nothing worse than going on holiday(especially to WDW) and having to watch every penny!.

I think you would need to budget about £1000 each to be on the safe side, and make the most of the theme parks etc, again if youre not hiring a car, you will need to think of transportation to the parks(usually hotels provide transport to the WDW parks).,bit not to seaworl, and universal etc(again this depends on where you are staying).

Jules

 

[dcentity2000]

Bonjour toutes les mondes!

I am the elusive named boyfriend of Tazz and am here in her absence to clarify sumthings....

£400 is overhead money - hotel, flights, breakfast, parks, insurance, transport, dinner shows and transfers have all been payed for - no mean thing! So £400 would be for 10 days of food etc. - since we already have breakfast free wiv the hotel, is £40 enough per day for food? And, of course, spending? Car rental won't be happening.

Needless to say we're both looking 4wards to this in a BIG way...
Nice site by the way


Au revoir et merci beaucoup toutes mes amis!
(<< me in Florida bouncing up & down in excitement!)

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Hi and welcome to the DIS Boards. It's easy to eat on a budget in Orlando, so I think that if you're not too extravagant your budget should be fine. I still recommend a guidebook, even more so if you have a tight budget as it will help you get the best value for money.

Have a great holiday.

Regards

Rob

 

[SidB]

£40 a day is easily enough for food. Here's my input.

If your hotel breakfast is buffet style, eat everything in sight. This sets you up for the day, and means you'll only need snacks during the day.

Don't buy food and drink at the parks, buy it from Walmart etc.

If I were you I'd have some cheaper evening meals so that you can splash out on some others. Seeing as you're not driving, you'll be better off eating locally. Let us know where you're staying and we may be able to suggest some good places to eat.

Don't bother with the dinner shows. There are loads of restaurants with entertainment thrown in. Examples that immediately spring to mind are the Rainforest Cafe (not my choice), Jungle Jims (not been there), 50's Prime Time Cafe at MGM (might be better with kids), and Cafe Tutu Tango (a must in my opinion).

Like Rob says, get the "Brit's Guide." Check out the other guides at the library, but my local library only has the 2001 edition of Simon's excellent book. It changes so quickly in Orlando, so do as you're told and buy it. OK. Sorry couldn't resist that.

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Hi there elusive boyfried of Tazz Glad you like the site.

Well, £40 a day on food . . . you're going to be pigging out like royalty over there! There will be plenty to choose from. Like Sid says, stuff your faces at breakfast then you only need to buy a snack in the parks for later on (or you can purchase snacky things in Walmarts, supermarkets (Publix is a goody) to take in with you.

Places like Ponderosa, Sizzlers all offer buffet style dinners. These also are as big as you want them to be - for about $8-10 per person you order a steak, or chicken, and with this comes the entire contents of their buffet - or you can just order a buffet which is a couple of $ cheaper.

Places like McDonalds and Burger King are MUCH cheaper and the food is actually edible

Don't panic - you'll see when you get over there how far your budget will go - and then you can do some shopping

 

[vernon]

Welcome to the DIS as well

Knowing if you're on site, off site ( which I presume) , Idrive or Kissimmee would help. I-Drive has a lot of restaurants in a short walk from most hotels, depending on where your hotel is it might be sensible to check on the I-Drive trolley bus that runs the length of I-Drive.

I-Drive is going to be the easiest area if you're on there.You have the choice of McD's 's, BK and checkers where you can get fed for $10 for the two of you , Pizza Hut (or similar) through diners like Denny's +Shoney's where you should get an adiquate meal for $25-30. Jungle Jim's often does "drink's happy hour" so you'll be able to get a few 2 for 1 beers/cocktails again you should be able to have a decent meal for less than $30 and with drinks less than $50. IMHO the best value "posh (ish)" restaurant is the Olive Garden where you'll get a decent Italian meal ( entrees come with house soup or salad) for about $40 including a couple of beers or a glass of wine. If you go to Universal's City Walk Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville can offer a nice "themed" restaurant without creaming your available money.

In general alcohol ( wine in particular) is expensive in bars and restaurants. If you want to keep costs down I'd suggest buying a case from the supermarket and keeping them in your room ( use the free ice to cool them down, by filling a plastic bag with ice and beer when you go out in the morning, it's best to place the bag either in the sink or bath as it may leak as it melts) at least this way you can have a couple of drinks relatively cheaply.Buy a couple of bottles of spirits a duty free would help to eke it out as well. In the theme parks soft drinks can work out expensive as well, buying a case of gatorade (salt replacement drinks) at the supermarket and taking 2 or 3 of these each day (I top up these drinks with the water from the fountains as that water on it's own has a pretty unique taste ) That will probably save you $10 per day on drinks in the parks ( and YOU MUST drink non alcoholic fluids throughout the day)