Florida

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Originally Posted by Splott-light...

you guys are doing it wrong, we've enjoyed Florida hols every year for over 30 years now, we rent a villa in Clermont and live like the natives, we shop at Publix and eat breakfast at our pool every morning, no Bristol or Birmingham accents to deal with and no Europeans hogging the sun loungers, staying in tourist resorts or even on International Drive is rediculously expensive, we stay in the suburbs and hire a car.

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Nice, 30 mins from the parks?, not bad for airports, who do you use for Villas?

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Originally Posted by Splott-light...

you guys are doing it wrong, we've enjoyed Florida hols every year for over 30 years now, we rent a villa in Clermont and live like the natives, we shop at Publix and eat breakfast at our pool every morning, no Bristol or Birmingham accents to deal with and no Europeans hogging the sun loungers, staying in tourist resorts or even on International Drive is rediculously expensive, we stay in the suburbs and hire a car.

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Do you bother with the theme parks? I've been to Miami a few times as you can go to the beach there in December. But I've never been interested in theme parks and thankfully neither have my kids. I've been to Disneyland in California a few times. But that's much less of a commitment. In the '90s, you could go there in the evening for almost nothing.

I like the Gulf Coast…Tampa/St Pete’s, Sarasota…etc.

My Brother in law moved to Tampa about 10 years ago and we were thinking of moving down there. Sadly he passed away earlier this year and my Wife is no longer keen on the idea.

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Originally Posted by goats

Last time I went in 2022, the price had doubled from what I paid in 2018. Looking at it now, I’d say they are charging more than double for the same package I booked in 2018….:shrug:
Food cost a fortune there and the fast pass system for the rides turned from being great (pre booked before you arrive even) to a pain in the arse ( get up at 6am to book on the day) thank god im done with Disney

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we got back a few weeks ago, enjoyed DL in LA, it lacks the occasion of WDW, the 2 parks were decent, we will return

from a cost perspective, the exchange rate is helping a little ( but still not 2 for 1 ) , we ate onsite at disney ( $300 ) to Taco Bella ( $60 ) where as we would normally eat onsite most nights, its now maybe every 3rd evening , we enjoyed the Italian chain Olive Garden this time ( both in LA and Orlando ) , bill came to $ 145

never used the Genie plus ( the new fast pass ), we were sensible about the rides, got on the big wait rides early in the day while the wait times were low, we stayed on site at Wilderness Lodge and had a extra 30 mins early entry, at MK we had ridden Torn twice and 7 dwarfs mine train all before the off-site guests arrived

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Originally Posted by North Cardiff Blue

Sent you a PM, you can move to the alternative, didn't realise this was the main board.

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I'll reply :thumbup:

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Originally Posted by Des Parrot

I did 10 days in the Keys earlier in the year. Probably the most expensive place I’ve been to. Stunning place, we loved it but every fecker expects a 20% tip for doing their job!

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in a few places in LA they had a 30% option :hehe::hehe:

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Originally Posted by Wash DC Blue

Animal Kingdom was great to stay at but the most expensive place I have ever been.
Disney was fine…but no desire to go back.

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we loved AKL, only downside was its so far from MK and Epcot

we have stayed at the Polynesian and Grand Floridian, on the Monorail loop which is great

Turned into an AirBnB thread; Yawn!

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Originally Posted by Splott-light...

you guys are doing it wrong, we've enjoyed Florida hols every year for over 30 years now, we rent a villa in Clermont and live like the natives, we shop at Publix and eat breakfast at our pool every morning, no Bristol or Birmingham accents to deal with and no Europeans hogging the sun loungers, staying in tourist resorts or even on International Drive is rediculously expensive, we stay in the suburbs and hire a car.

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Staying on site was decent a few years ago, easy access to parks when kids are young, no driving, free food on a dining plan and no queuing for any rides….it was dreamy. If I went back I’d probably hire a villa now, pick and choose days at a park and do things more leisurely :thumbup:

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Originally Posted by goats

Staying on site was decent a few years ago, easy access to parks when kids are young, no driving, free food on a dining plan and no queuing for any rides….it was dreamy. If I went back I’d probably hire a villa now, pick and choose days at a park and do things more leisurely :thumbup:

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My brother-in-law does this, they went for 3 weeks this year, stayed in a villa, would get up at a holiday time say 9 am, have breakfast and then head to the parks, sometimes they arrived at lunch time, would moan like hell that the wait times were massive and it was too hot ( we were over there at the same time and it was hot, 36 C most days ) would ride 2 or 3 rides and head back to the pool at the Villa, then they would have a rest day and stay in the Villa :shrug::shrug:

Now we would rope drop at 7.30, get loads of rides done before they had even got in the car, when it got really hot head back to the resort pool or the room for a chill, wait for the afternoon storms to pass and head back in

now for me, the disney tickets are £500 ( be that a couple of days tickets from the US price or the UK 14 day ticket ) and its a massive waste just doing the odd day here the there, you pay all that money for the flights, for the park tickets you might aswell hammer it to death, I can rest at home, I dont travel all that way to rest

I know we are all different but its the only way I can ever see us doing it, and as for rest days, you rest on the 8 hr flight over and then the 8 hour fight home, thats enough rest

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Originally Posted by blue matt

My brother-in-law does this, they went for 3 weeks this year, stayed in a villa, would get up at a holiday time say 9 am, have breakfast and then head to the parks, sometimes they arrived at lunch time, would moan like hell that the wait times were massive and it was too hot ( we were over there at the same time and it was hot, 36 C most days ) would ride 2 or 3 rides and head back to the pool at the Villa, then they would have a rest day and stay in the Villa :shrug::shrug:

Now we would rope drop at 7.30, get loads of rides done before they had even got in the car, when it got really hot head back to the resort pool or the room for a chill, wait for the afternoon storms to pass and head back in

now for me, the disney tickets are £500 ( be that a couple of days tickets from the US price or the UK 14 day ticket ) and its a massive waste just doing the odd day here the there, you pay all that money for the flights, for the park tickets you might aswell hammer it to death, I can rest at home, I dont travel all that way to rest

I know we are all different but its the only way I can ever see us doing it, and as for rest days, you rest on the 8 hr flight over and then the 8 hour fight home, thats enough rest

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Or better yet just sack the parks off completely and head down to the coast :thumbup: Far superior outing, Disney and Universal don't change enough to warrant a trip more than once every 5 years.

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Originally Posted by blue matt

My brother-in-law does this, they went for 3 weeks this year, stayed in a villa, would get up at a holiday time say 9 am, have breakfast and then head to the parks, sometimes they arrived at lunch time, would moan like hell that the wait times were massive and it was too hot ( we were over there at the same time and it was hot, 36 C most days ) would ride 2 or 3 rides and head back to the pool at the Villa, then they would have a rest day and stay in the Villa :shrug::shrug:

Now we would rope drop at 7.30, get loads of rides done before they had even got in the car, when it got really hot head back to the resort pool or the room for a chill, wait for the afternoon storms to pass and head back in

now for me, the disney tickets are £500 ( be that a couple of days tickets from the US price or the UK 14 day ticket ) and its a massive waste just doing the odd day here the there, you pay all that money for the flights, for the park tickets you might aswell hammer it to death, I can rest at home, I dont travel all that way to rest

I know we are all different but its the only way I can ever see us doing it, and as for rest days, you rest on the 8 hr flight over and then the 8 hour fight home, thats enough rest

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Agreed, we used to hit them very early and do all the best rides first before the queues using fast passes along the way, we used to buy the ultimate guide to Disney World, for the fastest, most efficient route to see as many of the best attractions as quickly as possible.

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Originally Posted by blue matt

My brother-in-law does this, they went for 3 weeks this year, stayed in a villa, would get up at a holiday time say 9 am, have breakfast and then head to the parks, sometimes they arrived at lunch time, would moan like hell that the wait times were massive and it was too hot ( we were over there at the same time and it was hot, 36 C most days ) would ride 2 or 3 rides and head back to the pool at the Villa, then they would have a rest day and stay in the Villa :shrug::shrug:

Now we would rope drop at 7.30, get loads of rides done before they had even got in the car, when it got really hot head back to the resort pool or the room for a chill, wait for the afternoon storms to pass and head back in

now for me, the disney tickets are £500 ( be that a couple of days tickets from the US price or the UK 14 day ticket ) and its a massive waste just doing the odd day here the there, you pay all that money for the flights, for the park tickets you might aswell hammer it to death, I can rest at home, I dont travel all that way to rest

I know we are all different but its the only way I can ever see us doing it, and as for rest days, you rest on the 8 hr flight over and then the 8 hour fight home, thats enough rest

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When you arrive in Florida the jet lag means your up at 5am so not taking advantage of that is daft. We were always at the gates early most days for rope drop, it was never so hot in mid October so it was all good. Like you say cane it in the morning and back to pool Pm.
I’d probably still do this even with a Villa, I don’t think I could do August heat and queues mind after having it so easy in the past.

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Originally Posted by goats

When you arrive in Florida the jet lag means your up at 5am so not taking advantage of that is daft. We were always at the gates early most days for rope drop, it was never so hot in mid October so it was all good. Like you say cane it in the morning and back to pool Pm.
I’d probably still do this even with a Villa, I don’t think I could do August heat and queues mind after having it so easy in the past.

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I don't think I've ever experienced jet lag traveling west. You're gaining time. It just takes a short adjustment.

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Originally Posted by goats

When you arrive in Florida the jet lag means your up at 5am so not taking advantage of that is daft. We were always at the gates early most days for rope drop, it was never so hot in mid October so it was all good. Like you say cane it in the morning and back to pool Pm.
I’d probably still do this even with a Villa, I don’t think I could do August heat and queues mind after having it so easy in the past.

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we have done Aug the last few years, it was 36 C a few times this year, thats Hot, we did LA aswell, now that was low 30's but its a dry heat, the Orlando Humidity is mental, I didnt realise till we flew from LA to Orlando and the temps were similar but such a different experience, when you leave the room at 7am and within 15 mins have sweat running down your back you know its hot

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Originally Posted by NYCBlue

I don't think I've ever experienced jet lag traveling west. You're gaining time. It just takes a short adjustment.

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we find 1st morning up at 5 am, 2nd morning 5 am, then 6 for 2/3 days and then its 7 (but we would be up then anyways to hit the parks, so we find its about 5 day

LA was similar though, we were out eating breakfast 4.30 am after going to bed at 10.30pm , so maybe its just you need 6 hours sleep :shrug:

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Originally Posted by goats

When you arrive in Florida the jet lag means your up at 5am so not taking advantage of that is daft. We were always at the gates early most days for rope drop, it was never so hot in mid October so it was all good. Like you say cane it in the morning and back to pool Pm.
I’d probably still do this even with a Villa, I don’t think I could do August heat and queues mind after having it so easy in the past.

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Get back on the plane and fly back home.

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Originally Posted by NYCBlue

I don't think I've ever experienced jet lag traveling west. You're gaining time. It just takes a short adjustment.

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Jet lag or adjusting to time difference/body clock. Whatever, we are always wandering about at 5am with plenty of other British arrivals…

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Originally Posted by goats

Jet lag or adjusting to time difference/body clock. Whatever, we are always wandering about at 5am with plenty of other British arrivals…

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:hehe::hehe: we were staying at Pop Century when the kids were young, went down to the food court about 5.30 am to heat up the little ones bottle , the food court wasnt open, sat around were maybe 10 British families waiting for the place to open at 6 :hehe: only other people around were the cleaners and a few people arriving for work

Christ, never once suffered flying west, what on earth are you all on about. Back to the UK fair enough but even then just sleep on the plane.

Just go back to sleep :hehe:

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Originally Posted by Der Kaiser

Christ, never once suffered flying west, what on earth are you all on about. Back to the UK fair enough but even then just sleep on the plane.

Just go back to sleep :hehe:

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Sleep on a plane? Yeah right….probably done 50/60 long haul flights and it’s yet to happen, even less chance with two young kids!

I have never understood the attraction of a monster commercial theme park that costs a fortune, is crowded, and acts as a money sucking machine for a giant corporation with a soiled past and a tacky present.

Maybe for the kids fed a diet of American cartoons and addicted to spin off stuff. But what is the draw for adults? A good number of posts in this thread (and the other ones Matt used to start of the years) suggest that accompanying kids are just an excuse for adults to deep dive into Walt’s empire.

Why? I must be missing something, but what is it?

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Originally Posted by jon1959

I have never understood the attraction of a monster commercial theme park that costs a fortune, is crowded, and acts as a money sucking machine for a giant corporation with a soiled past and a tacky present.

Maybe for the kids fed a diet of American cartoons and addicted to spin off stuff. But what is the draw for adults? A good number of posts in this thread (and the other ones Matt used to start of the years) suggest that accompanying kids are just an excuse for adults to deep dive into Walt’s empire.

Why? I must be missing something, but what is it?

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You don’t like a rollercoaster ride? It’s come a long way since those “old type fair ground stuff” to be honest…..new types of experience like Avatar take you through places, Star Wars stuff at Hollywood studios too. Simpsons ride is still up there…
Some people only ever go on these types of holiday, some folk just go Tenerife, get shitted and sit by the pool…..others don’t even make it out of wales and talk about politics all the time….:sherlock::hehe:

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Originally Posted by jon1959

I have never understood the attraction of a monster commercial theme park that costs a fortune, is crowded, and acts as a money sucking machine for a giant corporation with a soiled past and a tacky present.

Maybe for the kids fed a diet of American cartoons and addicted to spin off stuff. But what is the draw for adults? A good number of posts in this thread (and the other ones Matt used to start of the years) suggest that accompanying kids are just an excuse for adults to deep dive into Walt’s empire.

Why? I must be missing something, but what is it?

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What holidays do you like that are so good?

If you haven't been, you probably wouldn't understand. That's like knobheads saying what's so good about watching a load of men kicking a little ball around for an hour and a half.

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Originally Posted by goats

You don’t like a rollercoaster ride? It’s come a long way since those “old type fair ground stuff” to be honest…..new types of experience like Avatar take you through places, Star Wars stuff at Hollywood studios too. Simpsons ride is still up there…
Some people only ever go on these types of holiday, some folk just go Tenerife, get shitted and sit by the pool…..others don’t even make it out of wales and talk about politics all the time….:sherlock::hehe:

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None of those options have got me hooked.

I know I was never the target audience for Disney - but I was genuinely interested to understand the attraction to people over the age of 12.

FWIW I am sitting with a beer looking out over the Sardinian coast at the blue sea after 16 days self driving around amazing scenery, historic sites, small villages with bars, restaurants and live music and other stuff a million miles from theme parks. Maybe we are all just wired differently.

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Originally Posted by North Cardiff Blue

What holidays do you like that are so good?

If you haven't been, you probably wouldn't understand. That's like knobheads saying what's so good about watching a load of men kicking a little ball around for an hour and a half.

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No I don’t understand - which is why I asked. But no big deal - each to their own.