Orlando with little ones!

[janeyb]

I really need some advice from anyone with young children.

We have been fortunate to visit Disney four times over the last few years. We were last there in Dec'08. We have 2 children aged almost 3 and 4 yrs old, so for the stays with them, we have always stayed on-site and just 'done' Disney. It was always so much easier and my eldest daughter loves to re-visit her favourite rides.

By the end of my last trip I was getting so 'parked out' that I said to my husband; "We'll wait a few years until we visit Disney again". Of course as soon as we got home we just wanted to return and although we're planning on another trip next year staying at the WL, we have decided to go on a last minute trip to Orlando in April. We're really looking forward to experiencing everything else that Orlando has to offer and spend more time relaxing.

This is where I would really appreciate any advice anyone an give on things to do outside of Disney with little ones. My husband and I visited Orlando 7 years ago and did Universal/IOA but from what we remember there wasn't that much for little ones. Would we be wasting our money buying a 14 day ticket?

At present we plan to get a Sea World Funcard, visit the beach and just spend ONE day ONLY in the Magic Kingdom at the end of our stay. Is there enough at Busch Gardens to make the drive with 2 young children worth it?

Has anyone purchased a 'Kids eat free' card at all? Is it worth it? does it include a lot of restaurants? We are staying in Lake Buena Vista Area.

I know I've asked lots of questions here but I don't want to waste money on park tickets if the children will be bored!

Any help would be great.

 

[Shooby doo]

First of all if you take US/IOA as one park then there is plenty to keep the kids amused,less so in IOA but the Cat in the hat bit is worth a visit.The kids bit in US has more & as I recall Barney used to be here (?) take their swimming stuff though as there is a whole water bit here where they can run about soaking each other!Seaworld obviously has Shamu's Happy Harbour plus the shows.BG's kids bit is good but I'm just not sure that it's worth the 90 min drive,if they were older then definately.
LBV is our favourite area,up until last trip it was the only area that we had stayed in. Don't know about the card,there are loads of Restaurants in the area (What hotel are you in?) some of which have Kids eat free so maybe worth doing your homework before buying the card.
HTH SD

 

[Gingernut]

We are going this year again with DS who will be 5 then and we're giving WDW a miss, partly *** we're sick of it after 3 visits with him, but partly *** we want to do US again. I agree with shooby doo re the parks and young kids.
We usually find plenty to do when not in the parks - sometimes I wish we could go and not get park tickets but that isn't fair with kids in tow. We always have a game of mini golf and DS loves that. An afternoon round Downtown disney and ghiardellies for ice cream is good fun. YOu could try the cinema also.
If you stay in a villa - we do- we could stay there all day as we all love just hanging round in and out of the pool.
Enjoy your holiday

 

[janeyb]

Thank you both for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it. We will now give BG a miss for this trip...sometimes the reality of young children being dragged around after a long drive just isn't worth all the effort!!!

To be honest I'm really looking forward to enjoying Florida without the pressure of having to be in the parks before they get too busy....Staying late for parade/fireworks...negotiating the crowds with 2 buggys etc etc....Having to plan days around lunch/diner reservations when when on DDP...

We're staying in an apartment at Lake Buena Vista Suites which has a great pool for the girls and I'm looking forward to trying different restaurants in the area. The Ice Cream sounds a great plan...Also the mini golf, I'm sure that would be great fun.

Thanks again.

 

[madmumof2]

Hi. The kids eat free card is only £10 or so, sometimes cheaper depending where you get it, so well worth it if you're planning to eat offsite a lot.

Also, some tickets companies give these cards free when you buy park tickets.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

I just wanted to add that you might be surprised - we took our 4 year old (and 9mth old) last year for the first time, we did all of wdw, seaworld, water parks and universal (we didn't venture down to Busch because we are not fans) - and our son's favourite park (by quite some way) was IOA!!!!(total shock to us - we had only gone for me and DH!! )

I think it helped that we bought him some Dr Seuss books for Christmas so that he knew all the characters - but aside from the characters, I still think the rides at Seuss' Landing would have occupied him for days!!