Florida advice

My ex's parents live in Lakeland in Florida.

Swimming with manatees was one of the best things I've ever done.
If you have a little one, someone will have to look after them for a bit, but I'd strongly recommend this.
Also a trip to Honeymoon Island!

http://www.fun2dive.com

 

You want to head over to https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/index.php for all your info and advice.

Going for my 3rd time in August, but doing Universal only (16 nights at RPR). My kids will be 12, 14, 16. I'd agree that Universal is probably a bit too old for a 4 year old.

Disney, depending on your tickets, you can do several parks in one day. For example, morning to early afternoon in a water park, then evening at MK or Epcot for the fireworks.

IMHO Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios is a 1 day each park. Epcot a 2 day and Magic Kingdom 2 or 3 days. At Easter Epcot will have a Flower Festival on which is a great way to explore the worlds eating and drinking in each country.  Note, you can't buy alcohol in Magic Kingdom, it's a dry park.

Also, unless you want to spend 90+ minutes queuing, you'll need to pre-book your Fastpasses. Your allowed 3 per day, but the rides are categorised so you can't choose 3 premium rides.

Remember to get your ESTA's sorted (cost $14 per person and last 2 years). Without these, they'll not let you in the USA - Make sure you go to the official site https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html and not one of these third party sites that will charge you for the application.

Last couple of times I've got my park tickets from www.orlandoattractions.com They've an office in Ascot and if you phone (Tony), you can buy with just a deposit. Then pay rest as and when.

But get on thedibb.co.uk everything you need to know is there.

 

It's a few years since I went & I can't remember how we went about getting tickets so can't help you there but I will say the parks are brilliant.

I had visions of Alton Towers type parks where I'd get on about 7 rides all day & be stood sweating in queues all day.

It's nothing like that, I don't think we ever queued more than 20 minutes in 2 Disney Park's & the 2 Universal ones.

The parks are just brilliant, it's hard to describe how but you'll see when you go, just so much better in every way than what we get over here

 

Up until being 15 I'd never been on a plane as we went camping round Europe. Then, in the summer of 1996 we went to Australia to visit family. Due to my dad trying to save a few quid we didn't fly direct though. So my first experience of flying was Manchester-Gatwick-Bangkok-Bali-Sydney. On the way back it was even worse, Sydney-Bali-Singapore-Zurich-Amsterdam-Manchester.

Anyway, on the last leg of the flight from Amsterdam to Manchester, and having been overcast the whole trip back, the clouds suddenly parted just as we flew over Barnsley and the magnificence of Oakwell below. I was convinced it was a sign, and then we kept winning game after game that following season and the rest is history

 

Thanks for this too, that forum looks really good.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone, really appreciated. I bit the bullet and bought the 14 day pass which is on sale with loads of stuff thrown in. Cost £880 (Jesus) for all 3 of us which from all the links posted and advice on forums seems to be a pretty good deal and is the same price as paying for 3 one day tickets for us all

 

Have a great time. We did in 2015. Love it

Out of interest, cos I'm nosey, whereabouts are you staying exactly? Think we are going again in 2018

 

We've booked a 4 bedroom villa with a pool in a place called Hampton Lakes, about 8 miles from Disney. Basically I went snow blind from looking at villas. Used this website in the end (which I used for when I went to Boston). Its costing £1,250 for 11 nights with pool heating.

https://www.vrbo.com/

Also, saved £600 quid across the 3 of us by flying from Gatwick instead of Manchester.

But this is my first time so I would definitely follow the wealth of advice from others in this thread before mine

 

Wow, very close to where we stayed - Reunion Resort.

Am sure you will enjoy.