to do or not to do that is the question

[eyeore]

have any of you went to orlando and not done disney?. this will be our 7th trip in june and weve always done all of disney and universal. this year we are unsure about disney. we love epcot and disney hollywood studios and typhoon lagoon but would be quite happy to miss mk and ak. i cant imagine going all the way there and not doing disney. we have thought about non expiry tickets but not sure what to do. just looking for some other opinions please. we will do seaworld and possibly busch gardens also. any other ideas would be great.

 

[Netty]

last year we done all the disney parks,as we had the 14 day ultimates- but saying that we didn't spend all day in a park, i think because we have been that many times that there is nothing really fresh to see.
we went to DeLeon springs and had a lovely day out- made our own pancakes had a stroll around etc. went to the boggy creek airboats,love gong to silver springs,I now prefer to do other things than just Disney!
We still go to Seaworld when we are in Florida though and if we go back this September we would possibly only get a 2 day ticket and go into Disney,we are not that over keen on universal and don't think much of IOA so we'd give them a miss for a few years.
have a look at mapleleaf for tickets

 

[Lizzybear]

I've heard of people visiting Orlando and not doing WDW but personally I couldn't, i'd sacrifice Seaworld and Universal first!! If I wasn't visiting WDW i'd probably just visit another part of Florida/the US in general. At the end of the day, though, I say it's your holiday so do what makes you happy

 

[team harris]

Can't imagine doing Orlando without going to WDW
I might possibly go with the intention of doing other things, but I know we would end up in WDW
We always have 3 days at US/IOA and a couple of other Disney free days (Kennedy Space Centre, SeaWorld), but a Disney free holiday - I don't think so
I'd have to book else where in Florida, or States

 

[Beep]

I could happily not go to the majority the Disney parks, but the one I would not do without going to is Epcot. WS at dusk is my favourite place on earth.

We don't do water parks. I'm not bothered about MK or DHS and quite like wandering around AK but it wouldn't bother me if I didn't go. That being said, I haven't been in the MK for years at night so would like to do that and I haven't see the Osbourne Lights so there are things I would like to see.

The Disney atmosphere is a big part of the holiday for us - well, by that I mean Epcot. We've also taken quite a shine to visiting the resorts to have a good nose around too.

 

[Pegasus928]

When we went in 2006 we spent 2 weeks there and didn't do any Disney parks at all. We did go to DTD though but I'm not sure if this counts.
This was only our second trip as well, but for some reason we just felt we had enough to do, what with the Universal parks, and all the other places we had driven past on the way to a Disney park previously and said 'we must go and check that out' but never got round to.
We didn't feel that we had missed out on anything and had a thoroughly fantastic holiday - as always.

 

[Cinderella]

Hi - I personally couldn't do it but it's really down to personally choice. I guess it depends whether the cost of your non-expiry tickets will be worth it for you, especially if the exchange rate stays like this.

I used to go for less time and not feel I had to do everything when I had an annual pass. But Disney definitely structures their prices so that you're better off spending more time in the parks.

Virgin have some cheap deals on the 7 day Ultimate passes. It might be worth you comparing the prices against the non-expiry tickets.

 

[juliebro]

We didn't go to any Disney park or waterpark at all on our last trip - and still managed to fill the whole holiday with great experiences.

We visited Cypress Gardens, which was a delight on Easter Sunday as there were no crowds.

Fantasy of Flight was excellent too - especially the surprise that DH had arranged for me. I had a flying lesson in a WW2 trainer aircraft!

The Antique Boat Festival at Mount Dora/Tavares was a real taste of American life. I think we were the only Brits there!

After doing the Boggy Creek Airboat tours (both locations) in previous years we tried the Cypress Lake Airboats instead - again very enjoyable.

On other trips we've also been to the Exotic Car Festival and Pie Festival in Celebration, seen Orlando Magic play, visited a winery and music festival.

There's so much to see and do in the area that it's not just possible to do a Disney-free trip, it's highly recommended!

 

[wicket2005]

We are a rarity here as we actually love the Universal parks best and stay onsite at Universal. Last year we were lucky enough to be able to go to Orlando for a second time at Christmas and initially just planned to do Universal and not bother with Disney at all.

However, with it being Christmas time, we thought it would be a shame to miss out Disney and all its decorations so we included Disney. We were really pleased we had made that decision as we found we would have missed Disney if we had not gone and now realise there is no way we would miss either of the two park companies out.

 

[disneyholic family]

if we were planning not to go to WDW, we'd go somewhere other than orlando..

there are so many much much much much much much more beautiful places in america than orlando - which is pretty much one of the ugliest places in america in terms of the underlying geography of the area.....

i could make a list of nicer places but it would basically list every other place in america - any of the magnificent national parks anywhere in the US (they're all stunning and worth a visit), the northwest, the west, new england, the rockey mountains, the smokey mountains, the white mountains, the grand canyon, or if you prefer a city, new york, chicago, san francisco..

the ONLY reason i would EVER go to orlando is to go to WDW....
before WDW was built, not a soul on earth stopped in orlando - it was a place you drove by on your way to miami (which i did multiple times as a child - tooling down I-75)....

orlando is one big swampland....not fit for man or beast....now WDW....that's another story...

 

[Lizzybear]

if we were planning not to go to WDW, we'd go somewhere other than orlando..

there are so many much much much much much much more beautiful places in america than orlando - which is pretty much one of the ugliest places in america in terms of the underlying geography of the area.....

i could make a list of nicer places but it would basically list every other place in america - any of the magnificent national parks anywhere in the US (they're all stunning and worth a visit), the northwest, the west, new england, the rockey mountains, the smokey mountains, the white mountains, the grand canyon, or if you prefer a city, new york, chicago, san francisco..

the ONLY reason i would EVER go to orlando is to go to WDW....
before WDW was built, not a soul on earth stopped in orlando - it was a place you drove by on your way to miami (which i did multiple times as a child - tooling down I-75)....

orlando is one big swampland....not fit for man or beast....now WDW....that's another story...

At the risk of getting flamed.. My sentiments exactly I haven't explored much of Florida (hope to remedy that next time we visit, would love to visit Miami especially ) but even the area around KSC I thought was much more scenic than Orlando. Both me and my bf preferred California over Florida anyway, if we're talking in general rather than in terms of theme parks.