Ist time Orlando Visit

[PP1]

We have just booked a three week holiday for next August staying in a villa in the Maingate West area
We are a family of 5. The children,s ages are 14 11 and 4. Keeping them all occupied at the same time is going to be fun.
We have just returned from Disneyland Paris and ended up splitting up for part of the time, communucating by mobile phone !
Still waiting for the Bill
Any help or advice would be greatly appriciated but any resposes on the following points would be great.

1. will the two way radios purchased in the Uk work in the States.

2. We plan to buy the 10 day World pass and the 5 park flex ticket. Is this the best Idea

3. If I take my childs Booster cushion should it count towards the luggage allowance

4. How much should we budget for food every day.


Looking forward to recieving your replies

 

[Celestine]

PP1, I can't answer all your questions, but in answer to the walkie talkie bit - they will work, but technically are illegal as they use their emergency frequency or something (you can pick them up for less than $30 if you're like me & don't want to fall foul of the law). In terms of tickets, it depends upon what you want from the holiday, if/when you plan to go back etc. As you've got 3 weeks (lucky you!) this shouldn't be such an issue. Pass on the booster seat question. As to food, it is a "how long is a piece of string" question. If you plan on cooking/eating breakfast in your accommodation, you are going to spend less than if you ate at the parks each day. Numerous sites will give you cost guidelines on restaurants etc. in Disney (esp. if you are doing a chaacter meal), ad for McDonalds change the £ for $ and you're prettty much bang on. You will alo see numerous $2-99 buffets and the like (although this tends to exclude drinks etc.)

 

[allie5]

1. will the two way radios purchased in the Uk work in the States.

Yes, but as the other poster pointed out, they use the US emergency services frequencies, so are actually illegal. All the big stores sell walkie talkies for around $30, so probably better to be safe than sorry.

2. We plan to buy the 10 day World pass and the 5 park flex ticket. Is this the best Idea?

I think you maybe better off with Fun In The Sun Tickets. These arent available to purchase in the UK, but you can still buy them from an outlet in the US and they will post them (many DISers have used them with no problems). These tickets give you 30 days unlimited WDW access (inc water parks, DisneyQuest, Pleasure Island), PLUS entrance to Kennedy Space Center and a few other attractions...oh and you get a free Character breakfast as well! With the current exchange rate, an adult ticket is about £175, which is cheaper than the 10 day hopper!!

3. If I take my childs Booster cushion should it count towards the luggage allowance?

That depends. The scheduled carriers (Virgin, BA etc) DONT, but the charter aircraft arent so good. By those I mean Thomas Cook, Brittania, First Choice, MyTravel etc. Best to call your airline to clarify and GET IT IN WRITING!!

4. How much should we budget for food every day.

Hard question. Eat your main meal at lunch to save money. Use the coupons in the numerous books you will find everywhere. Fast food is very cheap (a BK whopper or McDs Big Macs are 99c). All you can eat buffets breakfasts are around $4, dinners around $10. Its much more expensive in the parks, a counter service meal (sandwich, fries, drink) around $10, sit down lunch $18, dinner $25 per adult.

Hope that helps a bit!
Allie

 

[tartangirl]

I'm not sure all radios purchased in this country are illegal although some certainly are. I'd check out the US frequencies and see if yours can work within them, if not I wouldn't take them.

I think you are in danger of over ticketing yourself as both your tickets give you unlimited access and it will be difficult to take advantage of that even over 3 weeks. Plan out what you think you'll be doing and see where that leaves you. If you plan in spending most of your time in Disney but are also keen to take in both universal parks, Seaworld & Busch then the ticket choice is best as the 5 park ticket is great value. If you plan to split your time between Universal and Disney then I would go for the park hopper for Disney - especially if you have any plans to return (which you will after you've been) as days on park hopper tickets never run out.

The booster does count towards your luggage allowance. When my DD was still using a booster we packed it in an empty suitcase on the way out and then just checked it in on its own for the return.

Cost of food really depends on how often you want to eat out (and then how much you eat). For eating in the villa I'd budget the same as in this country. Food is cheaper but you spend lots of money on drinks. We found that eating out in places such as Citywalk was about $60 for our family (3 adult + 1 child meal + tip).

On top of the meals you'll get stung for drinks and ice-creams in the park ($2.50 a time)

And then dont forget the parking - if you do a park a day then add $8 and if you do Disney and one of the parks from the flexiticket make it $16 - it fair adds up over 3 weeks

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Welcome to the boards PP1.

UK Personal radios work on the 446Mhz band (PMR446 - Private Mobile Radio 446Mhz). This may at one time have conflicted with Orlando Emergency Services, but nowadays they have moved to digital "Ultra 800", so you won't have any bother whatsoever. Technicaly they wont be licenced for use over there, but theres no way you'd get caught, and certainly no-one would complain.
Heres a link to some frequencies used if you are interested :

http://members.tripod.com/columbus_east/disney.shtml


Actualy, in looking for that list, it has inspired me to take my scanner with me.

The other questions have already been well answered and I agree with them



Have a nice trip.

 

[vernon]

I'll leave Q1 as it's been fairly well answered already.

I would agree with the comment you are in danger of over spending on tickets. Granted you'll be there for 3 weeks, but will you want to be going to theme parks all day everyday? IMHO one of the most common spending errors first timers make to Orlando is to find they have bought enought "entertainment" for 6 weeks when they are only there for 3. With all those tickets you run the risk that you go to the theme parks not because you want to, but because you've paid for the tickets. The five park ticket is pretty good value at $215 for 14 days use. It may be worth you considering the 5 day hopper plus ticket, this gives you 5 full days in the main themeparks and I think 2 days at the waterparks. Currently available at $268 per adult ( http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/tickets.htm#plus ). This would give you plenty of entertainment for your whole trip. Obviously the best way is to use a few days of Disney before your activating your USF/SW/BG tickets and you could finish with a last coupel of days at Disney. Disney is the more expensive ticketing option, so I would be as frugal as possible with Disney time (taking whole days in their parks to fully utilise their tickets) and use the cheaper tickets for any half days of parks split with shopping/pool time. IMHO it makes sense to do a half day at say SW or USF then spend a few hours shopping nearby at Belz or the Mall at the Millenium.

You've got quite a lot of time, but you need to be careful of not trying to do too much and end up exhausted at the end of the holiday.

Eating is difficult to judge. It depends on how much and what the older kids like to eat. Staying in a villa will mean you can have cereal, bagels and toast etc for brekkie which helps a lot. Fast food off site will be about $20 for your group, on site nearer $40. A reasonable table service off site ( like Olive Garden will be about $60) on site you're not going to get change from $100. A decent restaurant off site you're looking at $100-120 and onsite probably near to $200. If you like a glass of wine with a meal that can bump it up quickly as it's rare to see a drinkable bottle of wine for less than $25 in the US, a good bottle is going to be $50+ .

 

[juliebro]

Re tickets - we overspent on tickets on the first trip. Easily done. We hadn't realised how tired we would get - and that doing a park every day is a sure fire way to exhaustion!

I would suggest you try to do a plan for your 3 weeks - using the info from the boards to help avoid the busy days. Build in a few 'easy' days - water park or shopping or just lazing by the pool. you can post your first draft plan on the board and see what improvements people may suggest. The Brit's Guide is invaluable.

Once you're happy with the plan - work out what tickets you need. We've always gone for the Park Hopper Plus for WDW. Check out www.ticketmania.com for prices for all the attractions. I think you might find the 5 park flex ticket is not necessary. Just my opinion - others will disagree. We didn't like Wet n Wild at all - nor are we fans of Seaworld (dare I say?) - shock horror!. We do like Busch gardens but it's not the same standard as Universal or Disney. We love US and IOA - and you can get some good '5 days for the price of 2' tickets on the US website.

Hope that helps

Julie

 

[vernon]

We love US and IOA - and you can get some good '5 days for the price of 2' tickets on the US website.

Actually for UK residents they are doing 7 days for the price of two, but as that's still $95 and a Florida fun pass for SW and BG up to Dec 31st is $109, the total is only $10 less than getting the 5 park ticket anyway. I agree with you on Wetnwild, IMHO it's WAY short of the Disney waterparks.