Booking Disney Land



Not much for the park tickets. It’s only about £30 difference for the 2 week Disney ticket.
Been a while since we went, but dont think the difference was so little. Still looking at £1800 for a family of 4 for Disney. Then need to add SeaWorld & universal & maybe Busch gardens at approx £140 a day per person.

One of the times we went included the 1st week in September & the queues were minimal. Got repeat rides without waiting & the temperature was slightly better than July & August
 
I’m off in Easter, rearranged from 2020.

A few things to note in the current climate. Car hire is currently v. Expensive due to difficulties in fleet replacements. There’s 5 of us and I need a large car, I was being quoted over £2k from most places. I got a deal from Discount Florida Car Hire for £1.1k in the end.

Secondly, Disney have scrapped the free fast pass system, so you have queue like the olden days unless you pay extra - which I think is $15 per ticket per day.
 
We're staying on Universal un July all being well as the kids are a bit older....also doing Discovery Cove, Sea World and Busch Gardens...etc.

We stayed at Universal for just one night. It gave us unlimited fast pass access for the day of arrival and departure. Definitely worth doing. Discovery cove was brilliant; get there early doors as the day flies by. Don't bother with the dolphin ride though as it's pretty crap (as well as all of the ethical arguments).
 
Looking at potentially doing this in the summer. Covid permitting of course.

I know they have your eyes out but what is the best value way of doing this?

Would have to be summer holidays.

Is the one in Paris any good or is it worth going the whole hog and going Florida?

Just booked up for August for me, the boy and our lass (WAD). Our lass is NHS so got a discount through Blue Light card with TUI. Was still £6k for 10 nights from Manchester staying at Loews Portofino hotel which is attached to Universal. Nearly had kittens when I saw the price of the park tickets for the 3 of us - looking at another £2.5k for 14 day tickets for Disney and Universal.

Last time I went to Florida about 10 years ago I hired a convertible Mustang for about £500 for 2 weeks. Looking at more like £2k now so just going to Uber about and use the free shuttle buses from the hotel to the attractions - at least I can do Round the World at Epcot properly this time.
 
We did 21 nights staying at Disney in 2017 and that was £12k before we’d even got there. I shudder to think what that would cost now.
 
We going for 15 nights at the end of may (for some reason flights were loads cheaper for 15 rather than 14 nights)
Costs slightly over 4k for 2 adults and 2 kids for virgin flights from Manchester and staying in massive villa on Reunion resort.
There's 3 families going so that helps bring the cost of villa down slightly but you can get accommodation a lot cheaper than we have we just went for something really nice.
Villa was booked with Airbnb.

We went for Disney and universal tickets which cost about 2.8k for the 4 of us.

When we first went in 2018 we only got Disney tickets and to be honest I think that's enough especially on your first go. We only got universal as well this time because the brother in law wants to go.

Car hire prices are mental at the minute. To be honest I don't think it's worth it anyway if you are staying off-site as there is parking charges each day at the theme parks.
Even in 2018 when car hire price was normal we didn't bother and just got Ubers or Lyft everywhere, only costs about £10 to Disney and parking alone would have been £25.

Another thing to bear in mind is if you book through Tui they don't go to Orlando international they fly to Orlando Melbourne which is about 90mins away. Might not actually be as bad as it sounds though as immigration at Orlando International can take 2 hours sometimes and Melbourne should be straight in and out
 
Last edited:
Does the age of your kids matter, will they get the most out of it in Florida at say 3 year old?
Haven't been since 2020 thanks so COVID.

My youngest loved it when he was 3, but didn't remember much. He went went again when he was 5 and remembers it well.

He's 7 now and wants to go again but not going to bother while COVID is still around.
 
Haven't been since 2020 thanks so COVID.

My youngest loved it when he was 3, but didn't remember much. He went went again when he was 5 and remembers it well.

He's 7 now and wants to go again but not going to bother while COVID is still around.
Both my brothers have postponed from 2020 and I think are hoping to get late this year or next.

Cheers for the info.
 
Didn’t even realise I’d typed that :lol:

We went to Florida in 2014 when they were 6 and 8. I think around that age is perfect.
Mine were 5,6 and 7 last time and the was a good age. No need for a pushchair etc. The 7 year old wasn't as bothered about meeting people as he was the year before though.
Both my brothers have postponed from 2020 and I think are hoping to get late this year or next.

Cheers for the info.

I reckon it's best waiting. Personally we like the free dining plan and staying onsite. Won't be back until that returns.
Last time I was there, they kept charging me for parking even though I didn't have a car. 😁
 
Last edited:
Looking at potentially doing this in the summer. Covid permitting of course.

I know they have your eyes out but what is the best value way of doing this?

Would have to be summer holidays.

Is the one in Paris any good or is it worth going the whole hog and going Florida?
We did paris as a warm up and is still very good, especially for the littler kids. Should have been to Florida by now but we all know whats been happening the past couple of years. Fancy doing a villa probably 2023/4
 
We going for 15 nights at the end of may (for some reason flights were loads cheaper for 15 rather than 14 nights)
Costs slightly over 4k for 2 adults and 2 kids for virgin flights from Manchester and staying in massive villa on Reunion resort.
There's 3 families going so that helps bring the cost of villa down slightly but you can get accommodation a lot cheaper than we have we just went for something really nice.
Villa was booked with Airbnb.



We went for Disney and universal tickets which cost about 2.8k for the 4 of us.

When we first went in 2018 we only got Disney tickets and to be honest I think that's enough especially on your first go. We only got universal as well this time because the brother in law wants to go.

Car hire prices are mental at the minute. To be honest I don't think it's worth it anyway if you are staying off-site as there is parking charges each day at the theme parks.
Even in 2018 when car hire price was normal we didn't bother and just got Ubers or Lyft everywhere, only costs about £10 to Disney and parking alone would have been £25.

Another thing to bear in mind is if you book through Tui they don't go to Orlando international they fly to Orlando Melbourne which is about 90mins away. Might not actually be as bad as it sounds though as immigration at Orlando International can take 2 hours sometimes and Melbourne should be straight in and out


Good point about the queue, we went about five years ago on BA , the captain announced that Virgin had landed and we may want to disembark quickly to get in front of them in the queue, we did and it was still over two hours.

All the septics got through pronto whilst the tourists were kept waiting, a bit of a bummer after a long flight.
 
Been 4 times starting when the kids were 6 & 7, was absolutely magical that first time, the kids still believed in Santa etc. They thought the characters were real and believed everything at face value, I'll never forget their faces when their favorite character (Pluto) came bounding over to them, they were blown away, me and the Wife had something in our eyes that day.
Been back 3 times since then, 2 years after the first trip to Disney and then 2017 and 2019 to Universal as the kids were older, we book a villa (pool, BBQ etc.) on Highlands Reserve about 20 minutes drive away from the parks, it's the only estate we could find with a pub \ supermarket and restaurants that you can walk (5 minutes away) to. Most of these kind of estates are in the middle of nowhere and you need too drive for everything. The nights we weren't in the parks we'd all either go for a walk for a meal or me and my Wife would walk to one of the two pubs for a few beers, perfect.
 
Last edited:
not these days. You will not get a car for less than £1k for 2 weeks.

Not always. You have to take account of the parking fees everyday.
if you stay on site you can manage without a car and just get an Uber when you want to go off site.

Has it gone that mental? Cost me just over £400 for a mid sized suv (massive as it turns out!) a few weeks back. Unless you’re talking purely summer/school holidays?
 

Back
Top