Planning a Florida trip

[elbert]

We really enjoyed Amelia Island, which is at the Georgia border and about 2.5/3 hours from Orlando. You can stop in St. Augustine en route.


Sent from my iPad using Baby Bargains

[KrisM]

I'm going to look into renting a house as well. We've done that in other places and like it a lot.

[Melbel]

There is a significant benefit to staying on site for Universal because the lines are ridiculously long and you really do need an express pass (included with premium on site hotels; very pricey on own). Early admission is also a big bonus due to crowds and June heat. For waterparks, Volcano Bay was the winner per my daughter (15) and friends over other options in Orlando. The closest beach to Orlando parks is Cocoa Beach or New Smyrna Beach. You may want to loop the beach visit into Kennedy Space Center since that is also on the coast. There is a Disney Beach resort in Vero Beach we have stayed at. There are pros/cons to different beaches in FL. Our kids like boogie boarding and body surfing which is better on the Atlantic side. Gulf coast has great sunsets. Some beaches have tropical blue water, others a darker shade. For the beach portion, I would definitely check out condos/houses on VRBO/Home Away. If you are still exploring Disney lodging options in Orlando, LBV Wyndham had some great rooms for larger families (bunk beds, kitchenettes, etc) and was reasonably priced for us at the time. Animal Kingdom Lodge was pretty cool, but not worth the up charge during peak months.

[mom2binsd]

I would skip the water park (you can do those closer to home during the summer, really a water park is a water park, I bet there is one near to home/within 2 hours that you could do a day trip during JUly or Aug.)

I would spend more time at the beach, my kids age 11 and 14 were thrilled just to spend 5 days on St. Pete Beach, getting ice cream at Scoops on Treasure Island, going to dinner at a cool beach place called Caddy's where they played bags and had a band playing. Definitely check out VRBO, especially at the beach, although I can't say enough about our new favorite place, Riotel Resort on Treasure Island, it's old school, not fancy but clean, safe and the owner rocks! Big pool, fishing dock out back and across the street from the beach.

No idea on theme parks, we don't do them.

[WatchingThemGrow]

1800 miles sounds tragic for me, but that's awesome if your family enjoys it!! I just checked Frontier and they have flights to Orlando - some in March for $29 and $58 one way. If you keep an eye out and can be flexible, you may find that would give you an easier vacation. Costco travel has some great weekly rates on a car rental ($257 for me next month).

For $60/pp you can get a Disney water parks ticket that lets you into BOTH Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. We liked them both but loved BB more and started there before switching around 3-4pm to TL. Being onsite for that was no benefit bc bus service between the water parks isn't available. For Disney room only reservations, or other Orlando hotel deals, subscribe to undercover tourist and mousesavers. They have great deals.

There are so many great beach areas, but I get burned out moving from place to place in a vacation. If you drive, we've had fun at Hilton Head and Amelia Island as an overnight/half day stop.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[KrisM]

I wouldn't say we enjoy driving 1800 miles, but airfare is out of our price range. I checked for the April dates and it's about $470 round trip, per person on Frontier. Too much for us.

I am thinking of making the waterpark optional and we'll see how it fits, if it does. There are waterparks around here we can do, but not quite as big.

[KrisM]

So it's 1200 miles not 1800 . that helps!

We are still talking about this trip and I think we are going to go ahead and book it. I am thinking of staying at the Dolphin hotel near Disney. I was going to do off site, but decided the on-site benefits would help keep me sane. Dolphin lets you book the Fastpass 60 days out and for the Avatar rides, it is needed still. Then we'd move to one of the Universal hotels with the Express Pass option. I'm deciding between Royal Pacific and Portofino Bay. PB has bigger rooms, which is a bonus with 5 of us.

Here is what we have so far:

Day 1: drive
Day 2: drive and arrive by noon or so. Relax at hotel (Dolphin)
Day 3: Disney waterpark, maybe Epcot for pm
Day 4: rope drop Animal Kingdom and maybe Hollywood Studios
Day 5: sleep in, check out of Dolphin, Universal in afternoon
Day 6: Universal all day
Day 7: Water park, Universal in evening
Day 8: Universal all day
Day 9: check out and drive to beach area
Day 10: Beach day
Day 11/12: Drive home

The beach still might get dropped and we'd just drive home on Day 9 instead. Depends on how DH feels about using that many vacation days. He always has plenty though.

We're still not sure about 1 or 2 day tickets, so Epcot might go. We'd get the Park Hopper Plus tickets to get 1 or 2 days of parks, hoppers, and 2 waterparkdays, but going from 1 to 2 is alot! But, I think the kids would enjoy Epcot again.

The main focus is animal kingdom and Universal for this trip. Only DS1 has been to Universal. We all went to Disney in 2014, so have memories, but it will be just over 4 years between the trips.

[SnuggleBuggles]

FYI kris- starting 1/1 some Disney Springs area hotels will offer the 60 day fast pass booking too. But the location of Dolphin is better.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[KrisM]

I had not read that. Hmm. I'll check it out!

[bnme]

We've been to the Disney and Sea World waterworks and they are all great. Much different to any others we've been to, so I think worth it. If you are getting multi day tickets it may be cheaper to attach water park to that. And you can add it last minute, I think.