Help please! Disney/Florida firs time with 2 children 5 and 2

[iluvtot]

Hi,
My friend is wanting to go to Florida/Disney next year. She has 2 kids, girl 2 and a boy 5. She want's to know:-
1. the best time to go, she was thinking Easter, but I said I thought it was busy then . Not sure, I haven't been that time. She says she will take DS out of school, so no restrictions.
2. Accomodation. She was thinking about a villa?
3. The best places to go with the kids
4.She wants some relaxation time aswell, so should she split a week at Disney and a week at a beach? Also, she maybe on her own for a week as DH may only be able to get a week off work
5. Rough idea of cost, and should she book a package or do it herself!

We went for the first time 9 years ago, and our youngest were 6, so I don't have alot of experience with Disney and toddlers, so that's why I'm asking you!
Also, I don't particularly like villas', (I love being onsite, so I'm really biased), and as we are now classed as 5 adults, I'm not sure on prices.
Any help and advice gratefully received
Over to you.......

Thanks,
Jules x

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Hi Jules!!

Not sure how much help I will be, but we took our 2 children for the first time last year (they were 4 years old and 9mths), we tried all types of accomodation during the one trip (onsite at Universal, onsite at Disney and a villa - and a Disney cruise thrown in for good measure!!). We thought that we would love the freedom and space of a villa - but actually we were totally wrong and ended up leaving a night early and going back to AKL at Disney!!!

For us, the magic left us when we went off site and I got really sad every night we left!! DS4 also much preferred the elaborate pools with slides and other children to play with, and the novelty of having your own 'basic' villa pool wore off really quickly. The kitchen, which we thought would be really important, turned out not to be so valuable - infact we only really needed the fridge and ate out most of the time (all our hotels had a fridge - so the added benefits of a villa were unnecessary for us too!)

I can see why some people love the added space, but again we were only at the villa to sleep and even though we were in a close area (Lindfields), it still felt like it took ages to get back home after having been onsite.

If this is your friends first trip to Orlando, I don't recommend moving to the coast - she will need 2 weeks in Orlando and then she can space out her park days and plan in some 'chill out' time, but if she does only one week - it will be so rushed and then the second week could well be a boring let down in comparison (I only say this as I have had a few friends who tried to do this on their first trips and they all regretted it - one even ended up back in Orlando to finish all the things they missed!!)

Will your friend be happy driving if her DH has to fly home early?? If not, I would definitely stay onsite at Disney and then she can still take her children everywhere on their transport (and she will have the ME bus for the trip back to the airport too!)

I agree that Easter will be busy and if they are going to take them out of school anyway I would go for early May or October if I was choosing!!

Hope that helps a little!!

 

[iluvtot]

Hi Jules!!

Not sure how much help I will be, but we took our 2 children for the first time last year (they were 4 years old and 9mths), we tried all types of accomodation during the one trip (onsite at Universal, onsite at Disney and a villa - and a Disney cruise thrown in for good measure!!). We thought that we would love the freedom and space of a villa - but actually we were totally wrong and ended up leaving a night early and going back to AKL at Disney!!!

For us, the magic left us when we went off site and I got really sad every night we left!! DS4 also much preferred the elaborate pools with slides and other children to play with, and the novelty of having your own 'basic' villa pool wore off really quickly. The kitchen, which we thought would be really important, turned out not to be so valuable - infact we only really needed the fridge and ate out most of the time (all our hotels had a fridge - so the added benefits of a villa were unnecessary for us too!)

I can see why some people love the added space, but again we were only at the villa to sleep and even though we were in a close area (Lindfields), it still felt like it took ages to get back home after having been onsite.

If this is your friends first trip to Orlando, I don't recommend moving to the coast - she will need 2 weeks in Orlando and then she can space out her park days and plan in some 'chill out' time, but if she does only one week - it will be so rushed and then the second week could well be a boring let down in comparison (I only say this as I have had a few friends who tried to do this on their first trips and they all regretted it - one even ended up back in Orlando to finish all the things they missed!!)

Will your friend be happy driving if her DH has to fly home early?? If not, I would definitely stay onsite at Disney and then she can still take her children everywhere on their transport (and she will have the ME bus for the trip back to the airport too!)

I agree that Easter will be busy and if they are going to take them out of school anyway I would go for early May or October if I was choosing!!

Hope that helps a little!!

Hi Amy
Thanks for that, I will pass it on to my friend.
I agree with you about the driving, and the villa, and staying onsite, and going May or Oct,...and everything really! Great minds think alike!!

Jules x