It’s really difficult to know where to start planning a trip to Orlando given there are so many decisions involved: which theme parks and water parks to go to, which tickets should I buy, where should I stay? I’m going to try my best to summarise my top tips to help you with your planning and I promise all the planning will be worth it – it really is a magical place!
(I should probably note here that I visited with my friend when we were in our early twenties and we did not have any kids in tow – I imagine your itinerary might be somewhat different if you’re taking the little ones!)
- Don’t underestimate how long it takes to do the parks: I really wouldn’t underestimate how long it takes to complete the parks – plus I’d recommend allowing some chill days in between for your legs to recover! We had the beauty of a long summer holiday between finishing university and starting in the real world so actually ended up going for 18 nights. If you have this luxury, I’d say this was the perfect amount of time to cover absolutely everything (maybe you could go Easter to May Bank Holiday to minimise annual leave days and avoid hurricane season) but I think two weeks would be enough if you pick and choose which theme parks to go to carefully. It’s ambitious to try and do more than one park in a day if you’re doing them for the first time.
- Try to avoid hurricane season: Hurricane season runs from June to November so if you can, I would avoid these months if you can – although flights and hotels will be cheaper during these months. I’ve personally had one lucky visit (in July 2015) and one unlucky visit (in September 2017) when we were actually supposed to be on a cruise from Miami but got evacuated to Orlando due to Hurricane Irma! The weather during the July visit was great, hot (c. 35 celcius), mainly dry with a storm for 45 mins or so each afternoon. During the September visit, we were locked in the hotel for three days and all the parks were shut. It’s a potentially expensive gamble to visit during those summer months, you have been warned!
- Stay on International Drive: the on-site Disney and Universal hotels do come with some perks (such as early entry to the parks) but I honestly think you’re better staying on I-Drive for a more manageable price tag and more variety of bars/restaurants for the evening. Downtown Disney and Universal CityWalk are nice to visit for one evening but there’s not enough variety for every night! Also, I have stayed at a Disney hotel at Disneyland Paris and they are a bit much, especially after a full day at Disney – my room was Cars themed – the bed had wheels, the lamp was a traffic cone and the bathroom mirror had windscreen wipers!
- Don’t bother hiring a car: instead I’d suggest selecting a hotel which has a regular, free shuttle bus to the parks. We stayed at the Avanti Resort on I-Drive which had a really good regular shuttle to most of the big parks. I honestly don’t think hiring a car is worth it for a few reasons: it’s expensive to park at the hotel (c.$20/day!) and at the parks ($25/day!), you probably need to queue to find a space at the car park, the car parks are quite a walk from the actual park and, let’s not forget, it means you can’t have a drink during the day! The I-Drive Trolley is cheap ($2 for a single) and regular up and down I-Drive and to SeaWorld and Aquatica. You can also get a cheap Lynx bus from the airport to I-Drive which run every 30 minutes – it’s a bit slow but super cheap ($2)! Uber and Lyft are really easy to use too – link it to your Monzo/Revolut to avoid the conversion charges.
- Pre-plan your schedule: this handy Dibb Forum website shows the best days to visit each park. It may seem like unnecessary admin but it’s definitely best to plan which parks you want to go to and when you visit. You’ll usually need to book your shuttle bus the day before so definitely worth knowing in advance. I’d recommend just visiting one park a day (apart from Universal where you may be able to squeeze both into a day depending on queues). As I said above, it’s worth factoring in a few chilled out days by the pool or for a bit of shopping (the Victoria’s Secret and Nike outlet were really good at the Premium Outlets on I-Drive) and you might want to leave a few days at the end to revisit your favourite parks.
- Fourteen day park passes represent the best value AND mean you can avoid Disney queues: Definitely the best value for Disney and Universal is getting a 14 day pass. If you’re staying longer than 14 days, you can overlap these e.g. start your Disney pass first and start your Universal one after a few days so you’re never without a pass for somewhere. These passes include the theme parks and water parks. The benefit of getting a 14-day Disney pass is that you get the benefit of FastPass+ which allows you to skip the queues – this is absolutely invaluable. You can book three rides in advance on the mobile app and are given an allocated a time to ride. Once you use those three, you can book one more and continue throughout the day. Unfortunately you don’t automatically get the same with your Universal Pass. If it’s crazy busy, you might want to pay for an Express pass for $70 (or stay at one of the Premier Universal Hotels) but this wasn’t necessary when we visited in July. At Volcano Bay (Universal’s Water Park) you will be given a band which works similar to the Disney FastPass+ so you won’t need to queue there. We also booked a Discovery Cove + Seaworld + Aquatica pass but to be honest these weren’t my favourite and I don’t think they’re worth the money. We booked our tickets using OrlandoAttractionTickets.co.uk (you can use the Money Saving Expert code: MSE5 for £5 off the ticket bundles – every little helps!).
- Take your passport to the parks: if you want to get a drink at the parks you need to take your passport – we took our UK driving licences and they wouldn’t let us get a drink! This is especially important if you want to do the drinking round the world at Epcot.
- Don’t forget your ESTA: You can apply for an ESTA here for $14 (pay on your Revolut or Monzo to avoid the conversion charges) – they can take about a week so make sure you leave plenty of time for it to be returned. They are valid for two years from the date of issue so if you’ve visited the US in the last two years you don’t need another one. Also, if you’re booking far in advance, it’s worth waiting until nearer your departure date to submit the application so max out the validity. I always print mine out but not sure you need to in this day and age!
- You can get free water at the Disney parks: you can take your own water into the park but this will soon be warm in the Sunshine State so you can ask for a cup of iced water at any of the Disney parks completely free of charge.
- Take a trip to Senor Frogs: If you haven’t visited a Senor Frogs before you’re in for a treat! This is in the middle of I-Drive and has great Mexican food and great cocktails with fun shows/games throughout. I’d recommend visiting Howl at the Moon next door afterwards where you can request any song to be played by the super talented pianists. Definitely save it for a night when you’re having a day off the parks the next day! Also nearby is Bahama Breeze restaurant which has yummy food and a live band some evenings.
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