Page 1 of Holiday to Kissimmee/Orlando Next Year. Advice or Tips Needed!!!!

Hi All,

I`m looking to take my family (wife & 2 kids) to Kissimmee or Orlando in the Easter Hols
next year for 2 weeks.
I`d be interested in any advice or tips regarding booking the airline, car hire, hotel/villa (house) and park passes.
I`ve looked briefly on the net but would love to hear from any personal experiences you guys may have had regarding companies etc to use.

Thanks in advance.

Steve.


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One good tip is to take advantage of the various time share/cheap park pass offers, in that you attend a time share meeting in the hope that you will buy one, and in return you get a free breakfast and cheap tickets or in some cases, cash. The trick, however, is to tell them that you are staying at a friends villa for free, so there`s no point them trying to convince you that your hard earned pennies are being wasted paying for hotel bills,and a time share apartment is the thing for you. If you let tthem know this soon enough, you`re fed and up on tickets within the hour - though a trip round some of these places does pass for an entertaining morning.


Live a life you love, use a god you trust, and don`t take it all too seriously

This item was edited on Wednesday, 15th September 2004, 23:32

Sorry to disagrre with you "V", but I personally wouldn`t waste a morning of my hard(ish)-earned holiday at a timeshare presentation (especially with kids in tow!), just for the sake of some free passes.

The best tip I got for when I went to Florida last May, was not to buy any attraction tickets in advance. The hotel, every restaurant, and all the newspapers are full of discount vouchers for pretty much every tourist attraction going.

There is a website called www.wdisneyw.com that is an unofficial guide to Orlando. They are a bit sycophantic as regards Disney, but give honest advice about other attractions and hotels.

Have fun, it`s a great place!
(and watch out for hurricanes!)

Don`t think of yourself as an ugly person. Think of yourself as a beautiful monkey!

You must go to the Islands of Adventure and experience the Spiderman ride. If you do nothing else, make sure you do this...it`s fantastic :D (& I`m not a big fan of Spiderman!).



"Stan is my best friend at church"

If your booking flights independantly, then flying to Miami can save you some money - yes, its a bit of a drive (4-5 hours) to Orlando, but with a bit of planning you can see Miami/the Everglades if you`re there for a while.

Generally, avoid theme parks at the weekend - that when they`re at their busiest, and the Sheraton on I Drive is v.handy for Sea World - leave the car at the hotel, and enjoy the free beer at the Budweiser Academy.

Try Delta Vacations for good deals on flights and villas with pool
Save money by having connecting flights in US, we choose Atlanta - as it`s Delta Airlines main Hub, so just in case we missed the connecting flight - there`d be plenty others flying to Orlando.
Car hire is a MUST - we booked in UK - could not find good deals over the Internet in US
Park/Attraction tickets - you will NOT find deeply discounted tickets anywhere, brought ours from US (cheapest I could find) - see http://www.mapleleaftickets.com/ , based in Kissimmee, who gave us free tickets to play mini golf
Pick up tourist mags/newspapers there for discounts to restuarants, etc
Location - Kissimmee, good place to find rented private accomodation and villas, close to Disney parks
I - Drive, lots of big hotels, shopping and Universal Parks, Sea World
If you`ve been been to Disneyland Paris - don`t bother with the Disney Parks here - make your prioity the other parks, unless you have young kids

This item was edited on Thursday, 16th September 2004, 12:15

Quote:
Sorry to disagrre with you "V", but I personally wouldn`t waste a morning of my hard(ish)-earned holiday at a timeshare presentation

No probs - but in defence of said practice, remember you geta a free breakfast too ( money saved again) and as soon as they know they don`t have a sale, off you go.
Personally I attended 3 of these presentations on my last visit - all first thing in the morning, and save for the first visit, the other were over by 10.00 AM - plenty of time to go and use my 25% off tickets for Disney and Islands of adventure.


Live a life you love, use a god you trust, and don`t take it all too seriously

Quote:
Park/Attraction tickets - you will NOT find deeply discounted tickets anywhere
I beg to differ. At our hotel there was discount vouchers for Gator Land, Seaworld, all of the shows (that Pirate dinner, that Dolly Parton place etc.(none of which I went to!)), all of the crazy-golf places, and Universal where running a special buy two days get one free offer!

Everywhere you go there will be somewhere where you can get discount tickets. You must have just been very unlucky.

ps Don`t beleive the touts who offer you discount tickets, they are often expired and they won;t give you a refund when you bring them back!

Don`t think of yourself as an ugly person. Think of yourself as a beautiful monkey!

You`re right V, my family did the same thing kids in tow and all. Was certainly worth it for free Seaworld tickets! :D

Anyway my one tip I`d offer is try very hard not to get lost driving in Orlando at night as we did and ended up in a rather dodgy part of town....... :o

Rich

This item was edited on Thursday, 16th September 2004, 20:00