Soo I am contemplating a nice surprise 16th birthday trip for my daughter, somewhere around January 25th thru 29th. I have just been looking at different hotels on and off resort, since I am trying to keep within a budget. It will just be the 3 of us and i will be driving...my girls love a roadtrip with their mama! I am holding off booking in hopes there may be a free dining or other comparable deal coming out for January. Anyway -- just looking for everyone's suggestions on what to do!! I would love to take her to see the Titanic exhibition, and of course Disney for at least 2 of the days.
Not sure if you are 100% stuck on making this a Disney trip, but here's another idea for you (just to toss out another option).
A 2-day Disney ticket is $93.72 pp plus tax if purchased from the Disney website. Then you would have to add in the price of anything else you decided to do (Titanic is about $22, etc.).
A one-day non-dolphin swim admission at Discovery Cove for your dates is $149 pp. This includes all you can eat breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks, your parking, a free family photo (one per group), and all the activities at the park except for the dolphin encounter. So you could swim with the rays and fish in the Grand Reef, visit the otters and marmosets in the new Freshwater Oasis (which isn't open yet but should be soon), feed the birds in the Aviary, and float around the lazy river. And if Mother Nature blesses you with a hot sunny day, you can do some tanning on the beach. Its easily a full-day park even without the dolphin swim (which takes up only about 45 minutes of your day) and would be an awesome and amazing way to celebrate your daughter's 16th birthday. They only let in 1000 people max per day, so its never crowded, the staff are INCREDIBLE, and overall it feels just like a day of luxury.
Now, for the bonus part.....
With your DC admission, you also get up to 14 days of free admission to both SeaWorld and Aquatica, to be used either before or after (or both) your DC day. So that $149 pp becomes a very, VERY good deal when you figure it includes admission to SeaWorld (normally $81.99 per day) and Aquatica ($44.99 daily admission fee) AND all your food costs on your DC day.
SeaWorld and Aquatica both have great dining plans as well, far cheaper than Disney. For $29.99 pp you can eat all day (including breakfast) as much and as often as you want at SeaWorld. A good help for the budget.
Tons of inexpensive hotels are available on International Drive. We got a one bedroom king suite at the Hawthorn Suites Universal this past January for $75 per night and that included free parking, free internet, free transportation to the theme parks, a daily hot and cold breakfast buffet, and a nightly reception (2 free alcoholic beverages for adults, free soda for the kids, and various light snacks).
So.....if it doesn't have to be Disney, there are some other pretty great options out there too!
I'll wait for our graduation trip to go so big like that !! (i'll get a package!)
