Hello, first trip to Disney

[Tiggeriffic27]

Hello,
This is my first post here. Hope you are all well.

My partner and I are planning a trip to Disneyworld in Oct/Nov this year and I can't wait.
We are going for 2 weeks
I wondered if you experienced guys could help me as there is so much to take on i'm getting confused.

We've got our flights sorted.
I'm currently looking into hotels. We want to go room only.
I was thinking of International Drive as we don't really want to drive loads.
What hotels are good here?
We are on a bit of a tight budget, so something basic but clean and comfy will do.

Is it cheaper to buy theme park tickets when we are there or to book in advance before we go?
The same with car hire, we would like to hire a car for a day or 2 to visit a few other places.

Do you plan your holiday alot or do you just go with the flow?
I was thinking about possibly getting a five day disney pass.

Taking a trip to cocoa beach and go on a boat tour
Trip to everglades
and also a trip to Daytona.

Is this too much do you think?
What are your essentials to see and do?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks loads

 

[maleficent_man]

Hey!

Welcome and congrats on your trip! One hotel I can recommend which is just off Int Drive (and handier for I-4 and access to Sea World and Universal) is the Days Inn Lakeside. Now - I know this will not be everyone's cup-of-tea but it is fine (from my experience) if all you want is a room which has a front door with a lock and a bed to sleep in. The room I had was clean and the hotel is well situated. I know some people have reported not liking this hotel. It depends what you are looking for. I use a room to sleep in - not all the other hotel stuff. You can find it for about 17-20 per night by checking the prices on tripadvisor.com

In terms of tickets, the best I have found so far is:http://www.themepark-tickets.com

Can't say how good they are but you will find it cheaper to buy tickets here before you go.

Hope this helps

Nick

 

[Goofyish]

Welcome to the DIS boards

Most hotels in Orlando are on a room only basis.
A couple of good value hotels are IDrive check out:

Best Western Plaza

Quality Inn Plaza

Both are on the sourthern end of IDrive close to shops, restaurants and the Point shopping mall.

Check Expedia for prices etc.

Another option to consider is a two centre holiday; staying for a week on-site at WDW and then moving to IDrive for a week. You get the best of both worlds then. A week at the All Stars or Pop Century resorts will not be that expensive and you don't need a car while staying on-site. Rack rate for Oct/Nov would be around $99 per room/night.

You can buy tickets when you are there, but I like to have the tickets in my hand before I go

To get the most out of a vacation to Orlando a certain amount of planning is a must to take advantage of quieter days in the parks and to make sure you get a good balance between touring the parks, rest days, shopping etc.

A few must sees at WDW:

The day time parades in the parks
Wishes Fireworks at MK
Spectro Magic nightime parade in MK
Fantasmic at MGM
Illumination - Reflection of Earth at Epcot

 

[Kal El]

Hey!

Welcome and congrats on your trip! One hotel I can recommend which is just off Int Drive (and handier for I-4 and access to Sea World and Universal) is the Days Inn Lakeside. Now - I know this will not be everyone's cup-of-tea but it is fine (from my experience) if all you want is a room which has a front door with a lock and a bed to sleep in. The room I had was clean and the hotel is well situated. I know some people have reported not liking this hotel. It depends what you are looking for. I use a room to sleep in - not all the other hotel stuff. You can find it for about 17-20 per night by checking the prices on tripadvisor.com

In terms of tickets, the best I have found so far is:http://www.themepark-tickets.com

Can't say how good they are but you will find it cheaper to buy tickets here before you go.

Hope this helps

Nick

I stoped there for my last 2 trips to Florida and would agree its nothing special but is good enough for a basic hotel. I would recomend it for anyone on a budget.

 

[luvtinkerbell]

Hello,
This is my first post here. Hope you are all well.

My partner and I are planning a trip to Disneyworld in Oct/Nov this year and I can't wait.
We are going for 2 weeks
I wondered if you experienced guys could help me as there is so much to take on i'm getting confused.

We've got our flights sorted.
I'm currently looking into hotels. We want to go room only.
I was thinking of International Drive as we don't really want to drive loads.
What hotels are good here?
We are on a bit of a tight budget, so something basic but clean and comfy will do.

Is it cheaper to buy theme park tickets when we are there or to book in advance before we go?
The same with car hire, we would like to hire a car for a day or 2 to visit a few other places.

Do you plan your holiday alot or do you just go with the flow?
I was thinking about possibly getting a five day disney pass.

Taking a trip to cocoa beach and go on a boat tour
Trip to everglades
and also a trip to Daytona.

Is this too much do you think?
What are your essentials to see and do?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks loads

i would say stay on wdw site cant beat the hotels and you dont need to drive transport is laid on

 

[KayleeUK]

Hello and Welcome the DIS

Have you tried Dreams Unlimited for a room quote - Click Here ?

 

[Miffy2003]

Welcome to the Dis

The Everglades is quite a drive from Orlando, were you thinking of a day trip or would you stay overnight?

 

[vernon]

There are LOADS of dependsies on your questions. I'm presuming there are just the 2 of you?

2 weeks is a decent amount of time to cover Orlando, but if you branch out, you'll be missing things in Orlando. IMHO Disney is MINIMUM 7 days to cover most of it's main attractions (2 days at MK, one each at MGM,AK,Epcot, TL BB), IOA/US 3 days (two if you stay on site at USF), SW and BG 2 days each so you're already up to 13/14 days there. Obviously you can cut out parks that don't interest you (don't like animals you can cut down on time at AK and omit SW) but I think that's a fair assessment of your requirements.

If you don't want to drive loads, and decide you need a week for Disney's parks, then it's worth biting the bullet and staying at least a week on one of Disney's hotels. Yes it ups the cost, but it saves on time and convenience. The All Star's are the cheapest option and for just 2 of you the rooms will do the job just fine. You could then move for your second week to a cheaper option on I-Drive and cover USF and SW (BG as well if time permits). If you're not too bothered about a particular hotel I've used http://www.hotwire.com a lot in the US and in Orlando in particular. I've never had a bad hotel and always got great value for money. If there are just 2 of you, then any room is going to cover your needs (a family of 4 could, theoretically, end up in a room with just one bed as they only guarantee a room that's good for 2 people, unless otherwise stated, I've only had a room with one bed when I booked a "boutique hotel" and I knew that there was a good chance that would be the case. As there was only 2 of us it wasn't a problem). With hotwire ( and priceline) you don't know the actual hotel until after you commit to the booking, but as I said, I've always thought the hotels have been excellent value for money and exceeded their classification ( you can see the star ranking of the type of hotel you'll get)

IMHO if you've not been before, you need some sort of plan. you don't need to stick with it religously, but you need a framework otherwise you tend to overbook stuff and end up with no time left and four parks to visit. Something along the lines of day 1 AK to afternoon the Epcot, 2 MK, 3 TL, 4 shopping/pool 5) MGM/Epcot for dinner 6) BB 7) MK. If for example weather forecast says on day 3 it's gonna be chucking it down, then go to TL on day 2, shop day 3 and MK day 4.

Car hire would be cheaper to book as all inclusive from the UK. Last minute.com have a pretty good carhire area (holidayautos.com ) if there are only 2 of you , you can get by with the smallest car they offer. It's cheaper to book a straight week than for example 5 days so you may want to look at getting one for a week of your holiday. You'll need to drop/collect from the same point so maybe the way forward would be take a shuttle to the airport at the end of a Disney week, collect the car from there and drop it back there on your departure date when you need to get all your stuff to the airport anyway. .