Family Florida Holiday 2018
This time the children were 8 and 11 and we stayed in a villa. We also stayed at a Universal Hotel for a few nights during the holiday to take advantage of the Express passes. (Not all Universal hotels have this benefit of express passes, only a few selected hotels offer this.)
We flew Premium Economy with British Airways on the 16th October. It was the first time we had upgraded the flights with the children and it was well worth it.
We upgraded our car on arrival to a huge car, a Chevy Tahoe and just paid the extra, you will see from the photo of the car we had.
Our villa was in Legacy Park in Davenport, 15 minutes’ drive from Disney area and 30 minutes’ drive from Universal. We were so impressed with the villa. It had 4 bedrooms, a great games room, we paid for pool and spa heating which I would recommend doing. We obviously booked Universal and Disney tickets but this time we also did some different things too which really made the holiday. This time around the children were getting a bit too big for Disney and although it is obviously amazing, they weren’t into Magic Kingdom as much as when they younger, so we could do this within a day. Hollywood studios can be done in half a day and I would say you need a day at Animal Kingdom. Or split the days and do half and half. Once you pay the parking at one Disney park, it covers you for all the Disney parks, so one day we did Animal Kingdom in the morning and then Magic Kingdom in the afternoon.
We also did this with Hollywood studios, getting there just before it opened which was well worth doing to get the ride you want to do before the queues are too big and then in the afternoon, we did a Disney waterpark. Don’t feel you need to spend all day at each park, splitting the days up with a park in the morning then chilling out in the villa in the afternoon or going shopping or going to another park really worked well for us this time and the first time we did Florida. (My blog for our other holiday explains this too.)
It was Sloth week at Wild Florida while we were there, so I had pre-booked us to meet at Sloth and go on an Airboat ride in the Everglades, this was so good! We were so impressed. It was over an hour’s drive out of Orlando, but it was lovely getting out of the main area and into the countryside of Orlando.
We booked two nights at Universal Portofino Bay during the holiday, so we could take advantage of the Express passes and get on the rides much quicker. Also, me and my husband could go to Halloween Horror nights and use the children’s club to put the children in to have a night at the Horror nights. This all worked out so well. Although we couldn’t check into our room until 2pm, we could arrive from 7am to drop off the luggage and get our express passes. We did just that, we arrived early, got the hotels little boat over to City walk and were able to get into Universal studios earlier than others and get on some of the rides before the park opened. We spent most of the day at Universal/Island of adventure and then went back to the hotel at 2pm and chilled around the pool for a couple of hours before we had to drop the children at the kids club for when we went to the horror nights. The pool area was great, it had a slide, gradual pool and entertainment.
My husband and I went to the horror nights at 6pm and had a couple of drinks in Hard Rock before going in. As we were staying in a Universal hotel, we also had a much smaller queue to get in. We also booked the fast passes for the houses, so we were queuing around 15 min max for houses which had well over an hour queue time for those without the fast passes. Definitely buy the fast passes if going to this. We picked the children up at 10.30pm, they had a great time playing with others in the kid’s club and we got to do what we wanted that night, so it worked out well.
We had Discovery Cove dolphin swim booked for my daughters 11th birthday. We were really impressed with this. On arrival you get your wetsuits, snorkels and put things in your lockers. Swimming with giant sting rays, tropical fish and baby sharks was just lovely. They also have a wonderful aviary where they give you food to feed the birds, which are really tame and land on your arm and let you feed them. The dolphin swim was lovely too but as we expected, the photos are very expensive to buy. It is all-inclusive once in Discovery Cove. Breakfast is provided for you in the morning, lunch and snacks are available to pick up around the park, including soft drinks, teas, coffees, beers and wines are included too. This is an expensive day trip to book, but it is well worth it.
You also get SeaWorld included with Discovery Cove, so we spent time at SeaWorld too. This park has the best adrenaline rollercoaster rides in Orlando. This is a great park to do, especially if you like good rollercoaster rides! This was a highlight too of the children’s holiday. They always love the sting ray pool where you can feel and feed the sting rays.
We went to Old town one evening which I recommend walking around and look in the shops, great atmosphere. Don't forget that with your Disney Tickets you also get use to the Disney crazy golf courses, Summer and Winter crazy golf and also Fantasia Golf. These are great fun.
If you are planning on staying in a villa with family or friends but want your own villa with others in your part close by, I can arrange this. I also walked up to two other villas on the same road as ours that I can book, so this was handy for me to know for when I have customers holidays to arrange who want their own space and villa but travelling with friends or family who want to stay on the same road in their own villa too.
Please feel free to ask if you have any questions or need any further help. I have photos on my business Facebook page and videos, if you look at posts from October 2018 www.facebook.com/DonnaBidwellTC