Orlando theme park tickets

**stefan** · 15-01-2014, 20:12

I am part of a family group of 8 adults and 7 children (ages 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12) going to Orlando during the Easter holidays this year and would like some park ticket advice. Calling all experts on the theme parks please!!

At the moment we are looking at Disney & Universal, and on the ticket front specifically - 8-Day MYW with Water Park etc + 3-Day Universal Pass non-hopper tickets. Tell me what you think regarding tickets based on the children ages above and duration of holiday, with expectation that we will want to spend a few days away from the parks. Would love to do Sea World but this seems really expensive for a 1-Day entrance. Don't want to get a ticket that has too many days on it but also want to remain flexible.

Opinions gratefully received,

cheers,
Stefan, Tunbridge Wells

**steph_goodrum** · 15-01-2014, 21:00

Personally I would cut a couple of days at Disney to perhaps 6? Assuming you are going for 14 days if you have 8 Disney + 3 universal + water park then it is pretty much every day taken care of. The parks will be very busy at Easter and you will appreciate a couple of days of not walking and queing.

With 15 of you going I'm guessing there are going to be some late nights etc and I'm sure a beach day would be welcomed by most of the party for some relaxation. If you are going for 3 weeks then 8 might work but I think you might have a lot of tired overwhelmed children (and somemtimes the adults) on your hands.

Just my personal opinion of course but I know our first trip we went for 16 days and tried to do everything thinking it was the holiday of a kifetime we'd only do once. I know we did Sea World as well and some went to Kennedy but we all came back needing a another holiday (and that was with just one 10 year old and 7 adults.

**Philomena** · 19-01-2014, 09:14

On our first visit to Florida (a long time ago now) we had a 4-day Disney park hopper pass, did one day at Universal as IoA did not exist at the time and we got a one day Seaworld pass which you could then have stamped to get a second day free. We had decided before we went that we would have one park day and one 'rest day' which really worked out for us. On our 'rest day' we visited Cocoa Beach for one day, then St Pete's Beach on another day, Kennedy Space Station which we found fascinating and did a couple of visits to Downtown Disney (one during the day and one evening visit). We even managed to fit in a couple of sessions around the pool!

We still came home cream crackered but the girls loved the variety of the whole experience. They were 10 & 11 at the time.

The one bit if advice I give all my guests is not to overdo the park tickets, especially for the younger ones. I know there are many on here that will disagree with me but I don't think there is much for the little ones these days in Universal as lots of the rides have height restrictions and are a little too 'thrill seeking' for a lot of the kids. Your visits to the parks should be exciting and enjoyable and not a chore just because you have bought the tickets and feel the need to use them and not waste them.

As I say - just my opinion!!!

**Tony G** · 16-01-2014, 16:12

You can save by using an Orlando Flexticket for the Universal parks & Seaworld. It gives you two weeks' unlimited access to:

Universal Studios
Universal Islands of Adventure
Seaworld
Wet n Wild
& Aquatica

There's another version which also includes Busch Gardens.

Check the link at the top of the page, they do some Disney/Universal packages called 'Fun in the Sun'.

Like Steph said above, I definitely wouldn't go nuts with days at the parks - we always have a relaxing days between each park day.

**Dads_Taxi** · 16-01-2014, 16:20

Hi Stefan,
I think you may be over-subscribing to the parks. Everyone is different I know but with kids in the age range you have I would go for maximum 6 days Disney, used as:
One very early visit to Animal Kingdom (the animals are awake in the mornings, get there before it opens) Animal Kingdom can be completed by mid-afternoon if you get there early enough.
One early day and one late day at Magic Kingdom. The rides will be much quieter if you get there as the park opens but you can't expect the kids to stay until the end of the day, and you REALLY need to see the fireworks at the end of the day, hence two days there.
Hollywood Studios, exactly the same argument - one very early day, one late day.
Epcot in my opinion is not going to be a favourite with the kids, but the evening fireworks show is amazing so I'd go for one day there with a later arrival.

Water parks at Easter is my idea of hell! You will spend 95% of your day in a very hot queue and 5% in water. I would recommend skipping them!

I'm no expert on the Universal parks, but I would suggest two days, one for each park, and would HIGHLY recommend that you re-think Sea World because it is just fantastic.

So with 9 park days, you still only get 4 days to rest,and Steph is right, you WILL need to factor some rest days in otherwise it becomes a mission, not a holiday. If you space the days out well, for instance an early start day followed by a late start day followed by a rest day, you can come out of this with your sanity!

One last tip - the first day you wake up in Florida you will find you're wide awake at 6am. That's the day we usually hit Animal Kingdom as the earlier you get there the better.

Cheers.

**Philomena** · 19-01-2014, 18:02

It certainly is Steph but it did not exist when we first travelled to Florida!

**steph_goodrum** · 19-01-2014, 20:34

Originally Posted by Philomena

It certainly is Steph but it did not exist when we first travelled to Florida!

I know we regret some of the ones we didnt get too such as River Country closing but did get to Discovery Island before that closed , it's great how it all keeps changing and taking us back to find new things isn't it?

**Philomena** · 20-01-2014, 10:47

Originally Posted by steph_goodrum

I know we regret some of the ones we didnt get too such as River Country closing but did get to Discovery Island before that closed , it's great how it all keeps changing and taking us back to find new things isn't it?

We were lucky enough to have visited both River Country and Discovery Island on our second visit. It was included in the Disney multi-day tickets FOC! We also did one of the Disney water parks which was also included. I remember it being very busy!

**floridadreamvilla.co.uk** · 20-01-2014, 10:50

I've got fond memories of River Country as I went as a teenager with my family and loved it. That was quite a while ago now though

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Originally Posted by steph_goodrum

I know we regret some of the ones we didnt get too such as River Country closing but did get to Discovery Island before that closed , it's great how it all keeps changing and taking us back to find new things isn't it?