What should we do?

[mickeyluv]

We are heading to Florida on May 12th arriving on May 13th (driving). We originally planned this trip mainly for WDW, but I was thinking of getting a couple of days in at US and IOA. I am clueless when it comes to these parks. Can anyone recommend a good hotel for one night close to US/IOA?

Also what about park passes? We are only going to do 2 days there tops. What type of tickets should we purchase? 2 Adults and one child age 8. We have never been to US/IOA before. We will have our car so I'm assuming we could drive to the parks and park there. Is this correct? Help me please!!

 

[Sylvester McBean]

jump one the online offer of 2 park 2 day tickets for $99.95 each. they'll throw in a free child's ticket for each and then give you 3 extra days free. parking is $9.00 per day. the only offsite hotel we stay at is the holiday inn maingate on kirkman, but only because we have a connection. I wouldn't recommend it otherwise.

 

[yaytezIOA]

If you can, stay onsite, around that time should still be relatively cheap. They have all kinds of great discounts for AAA memebers and a few others, just call them up and ask them. That way you can use your room key for FOTL access. Again, the biggest tip is arrive early. That way you can do both parks in one day if you want, or you can just do a lot of the bigger stuff first and save the other park for the other day.

 

[robvia]

Info about off site hotels can be found in this thread.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1005187

An 8 year old will be boarderline on the height for thrill coasters like Hulk and Dueling Dragons. But there is still a lot of other rides and attractions to go on.

There's two ways you can do this. Book the value resorts at Disney (All Star), and drive up each morning at 07:30am. Disney stays open late all the time, so you could visit IOA one morning, Disney at night, then USF the next morning, Disney at night.

Or, you book the off site hotel close to the parks (like the Best Western), and walk over to save the $9 parking fee.

Either way, you save the most money by stopping at Publix, and stocking a cooler. If you stay onsite at one of the 3 hotels, then you'll really have a great time, but one night is kinda short. To really experience the onsite "feeling" you need 2 nights.

 

[Mom2AAA's]

We always stay on site, it's soooo worth the little bit of extra money that the hotel cost for the simple reason of FOTL! You can do the entire park in one day if you would like, we usually never wait more that 10 to 15 min for a ride! Royal Pacific is beautiful and the pool is great for kids.

 

[mickeyluv]

Thanks for all of your replies. We have decided to just stay at BCV for our first night. We'll do US/IOA another trip I guess.