Orlando Resort tickets

Where is the best deal on the tickets to:

Disneyworld, Universal and a waterpark in July.

Thanks

Dude, you KNOW this is going to attract canoes.

I didn't think of that, dammit, I just wanted some knowledge.

Oddly enough, I don't have a clue. The last time I went to Universal the tickets were a gift from a club member who's an engineer there...I had loaned him some equipment at an autocross, and it was his VERY generous way of saying thanks.

Hopefully one of the other local guys will chime in with some useful advice.

I think Disney has summer specials right now, I'd go to their direct site.

Most specials for Disney parks for out of state people are vacation packages. Not bad if that's all you want to do, but there are better alternatives.

I'm pretty good at wading through the crap, and can point you in the right direction for most things.

If you plan on having a sit-down meal in any of the Disney parks, make your reservations now. In-park dining is good, but expensive. You are required to put a credit card on file to reserve any in-park restaurant, and most of them are booked full every day. Counter service is hit or miss, depending on what you expect. You can pack in your lunch, so that's the ultimate GRM way to eat in the parks.

When I'm on a computer, I'll post some more info for you.

Alright, now I have a real keyboard.

What kind of water park do you want to go to? Sea World has Aquatica, which is the newest in the area. Disney World has Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. The Disney water parks are supposed to be really nice, but I'm not a water park guy, therefore, I've not been to any of them. Wet'n'Wild is also in the area, but even from the outside, that place looks worn out. There are other small water parks, but admission prices are often close to as much as the nice ones, so it's best to avoid them.

As for lodging, this place is nice. My wife and I have stayed there, and my wife and one of her friends are staying at that property around when you plan on visiting. Special pricing is available through that link.

Univiersal will be a disappointment if you visit those parks just after the Disney parks. They're not kept well, lines are long and unorganized, and generally, the place needs to be run by someone that has more experience. The Universal parks close early because they are within Orlando city limits, and have to abide by their noise restrictions, so keep that in mind. Disney is on their own land in their own town, so they can set off fireworks at 7AM, like when we attended a showing of the recent royal wedding at the Wedding Pavilion (wife's idea), or late like at the second Fantasmic show at Hollywood Studios.

When purchasing Disney tickets, don't bother with the park hopper option. With exception to Animal Kingdom, the parks are all open rather late in the summer, sometimes as late as midnight or 1AM. There's always something to do at the parks, so the only limitation is operating hours. Animal Kingdom closes early so the animals have an opportunity to be rested and kept well.

If you can, purchase tickets as packages. Price per day goes down in levels, starting at I think 3 days.

If you know anyone that works for any of the parks, or someone in your family is into Tumblr or any of the other fandom-related social networking sites and is friends with people that work at any of the parks, ask to be "main gated." At Disney, an employee can get 3 guests in for free, and you get park hopper passes when you get in this way. Our last Disney outing included a visit to Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom, all because we knew someone that could get us in for free.

Parking is expensive. You can get around it at Disney, but I won't post that information publicly. It's a bit of a taboo because no one wants it to go away. Shuttle buses are an option, but they're a poor option because you're stuck on their schedule.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ That's the site for the Disney World parks. Go to the tickets option and it will show you a breakdown of price per day.

https://www.universalorlando.com/Ticket-Store/PurchaseTickets.aspx?ParkTickets Universal tickets are here. Again, buying more than one day reduces the ticket price pretty significantly, and their discount is bigger than Disney's, because they have to compete based on price whereas Disney can get away with charging whatever they want and the parks would still be full.

If you don't mind doing those high pressure timeshare sales talks, you can often get tickets to either Universal or Sea World for free. The Sheraton I linked to is a time share property, and you will be offered one of these talks. We did it, and we walked out with an extra $200 in our pockets just for looking at their newly finished project and saying "no" about 15,000 times. If you have the spare time, it's not a bad way to get free tickets.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

Oh, and don't plan on eating off property for less than you can at Disney. Sure, you can find food close, but it's more expensive, the wait times suck, and traffic is horrible getting off property. The closest restaurants are all chains, and they are all the worst examples of those chains I've ever visited. Anything good to eat will require a trip into Orlando, and won't be worth going to just to save a few bucks. It takes about 45 minutes to get from WDW to decent food, no matter what anyone here says. There is, however, a Del Taco fairly close to Universal and Sea World, and a Cheesecake Factory at the Mall at Millennia. That's close to Universal and somewhat close to Disney, but again, traffic means it's a long ride.

/didn't drink the kool-aide, just BTDT

Amazing, thank you

Said it before and I'll say it again, I love this site

Tourism brings money to my home state. I'm more than happy to help keep the tourism trade going.

If you want to get away for a day, there are quite a few decent go-kart tracks. There's one by Wet'n'Wild that I hear is pretty good. They all have fairly slow karts, though.

I don't live in Florida, but as an out of state family having been to Disney several times recently, I'd say I have to disagree with what some of what Derick said.

I do agree that if you're planning on eating and doing everything within the Disney resort, then the packages a lot of travel agencies/websites offer are a good deal. Otherwise, I'd just go to Disney's website to get the tickets. Unless I haven't found it yet, there are no discount coupons or anything, so the price is the price.

But I would absolutely recommend the Park Hopper option, it's completely worth every penny. I think it's silly they charge for it, but I can't fight that. It's great to be able to spend the afternoon in one park then the evening in another. For example, we may spend the day in Epcot, but then go to the Magic Kindgom at night and watch the parade and fireworks. You can certainly still have fun without the Park Hopper, but I think it's worth it to have the extra flexibility.

Also, we rarely eat in the park. Or should I say we rarely eat the parks' food. We typically pack our lunch, which is awesome that Disney let's you bring food in. On occassion, we eat dinner in the park. We'll go to one of the less expensive burger type joints, and they're fine. Sometimes we eat outside the park at the chain restaurants. We've never really had a problem with them. They're not 5 star, but they're just the same as the ones I have here at home. It's chain restaurant food. I do agree they can get crowded, but you just have to plan for that.

We never stay in the park, we always rent a townhouse. We can get a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house for $500/week. It's perfect, as we have a full kitchen, so we often cook our own dinners. We also have a washer/dryer in the house, so we can do laundry as needed. It's also nice to have a family room, bedrooms for the kids, etc...The townhouse is literally a 5-8 minute ride from the Disney front gate, so it's close. You just have to be careful who you rent from. If possible, find one owned by an individual, not a rental agency. They tend to be better kept when they're owned by a family.

All this Disney talk now has me depressed. We were supposed to be in Disney right now...we were going to spend the last 2 weeks of June there. But we decided to postpone our trip, as we wanted to wait for the Magic Kindom expansion project to be finished. So we're going next June instead.

The park hopper option is half the price of the ticket to begin with. If you want a day or two to park hop, purchase those tickets separately.

I think that depends on how long you buy the ticket for. I think a one day ticket is pretty expensive to add the park hopper option. But if you stay a long time, the cost goes way down. We were buying 10 day tickets, and I think it only added about $60 or $70 to the ticket price to be able to hop for all 10 days.

Their pricing structure is really odd. To buy a one day ticket is big bucks, something around $90. To add a second day adds a lot to the price. Adding a third day costs a bit more still. But once you get past 5 days, adding additional days (up to the 10 day limit) costs almost nothing. The price of a 10 day ticket is only about $15 more than a 6 day ticket. I never understood that.

Set a day aside and go to kennedy space center. It is simply epic, with a side effect of pissing you off that we no longer have a space program. Set aside some bucks and go to Charley's steak house on International drive. Best steak I ever had... Universal is OK, at least the new section, islands of adventure I think it's called? The rest of it, well, if you save some money by not buying tickets for it, you ain't missing much.

In reply to Klayfish:

It's because at that point, you're there to spend a lot of money. They expect people that buy big packages like those to be spending a lot of money on dining and merchandise. Most people that stay for only a couple days aren't normally spending as much money on merchandise and dining.

We have a booked meal/ticket/hotel package for just after Labor day this year. For the 5 day parkhopper etc "princess room suite", it was $2700, IIRC.

How much fun am I going to have? None. Wife and kid? More then me.

In reply to Jay_W:

Islands of Adventure is where the new Harry Potter area is located. Honestly, I wouldn't go to either park, even if I had free tickets, which I have had, and have given away.

The Universal parks could both be done in a single day. Might be worth it to park hop those parks. They do have more roller coasters than the Disney parks, though. If that's your thing, you'd probably like Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.

Which is why we are heading to the beach after Orlando

In reply to Ranger50:

You'd probably get a kick out of Animal Kingdom and parts of Hollywood Studios. The other parks, not so much.

One important point I want to make is that Magic Kingdom is a dry park, meaning no alcohol sales. Every other park has alcohol. MK is BYOB.

Booze makes everything better.

In reply to aussiesmg:

If you are actually going to the beaches by the space center, be careful. Apollo Beach is a nude beach, or at least it was last time I was down that way. You know, just FYI

Plenty of those downunder, but thanks for the update

Ranger50 wrote: How much fun am I going to have? None.

Why not?

I have already been there once. Was as exciting and interesting as watching grass grow, baseball, or paint drying. The other two never have been there.

Always stay on the Disney properties! There are so many specials and things to do for people who stay on property that people who stay off property don't get to do. Don't stay at the way off Disney properties, stay close in. Some of the way off properties suffer from the same travel issues you'd have if you stayed off property.

If nothing else fighting traffic and having to park takes up a lot of your day and eats into the "savings" from staying off property. We've done it both ways and in the long run it's cheaper to stay on property ESPECIALLY if you will have a short 3 day stay or Disney is your main interest. We figured out we lost close to a full day of park time by staying off property in a 3 day stay.

On property you have access to Disney's excellent transportation system plus every day there's a park that opens early and one that closes late just for Disney property guests.

Staying on property also solves many of those reservation issues. On property guests get preferential treatment.

Park Hoppers make the most sense to me as well. I love to begin the day early at one park. Stay till after lunch go back to the room for a quickie, a shower and a short nap then do another "day" at another park all clean and relaxed.

As far as food goes, they keep changing it, but the all inclusive Meal Plan has worked out better for us almost every time. Depending upon the plan you get you get X number of meals a day. We usually get 2 a day as we don't like breakfast. They also throw in a snack with the meal plan.

Shop carefully because sometimes a hot dog counts the same as a sit down buffet at the Crystal Palace. Speaking of Crystal Palace, you won't need a reservation ahead of time there, but you will need to get there hours early to get you name in line. They give you a time to be back and then you go off and enjoy the park. If you eat brunch instead of lunch or breakfast I've never had to wait more than 30 minutes.

Ranger50 wrote: I have already been there once. Was as exciting and interesting as watching grass grow, baseball, or paint drying. The other two never have been there.

Nothing is as bad as baseball and if you can't have fun at Disney, then you can't have fun. The stunt show with cars jumping and bikes on fire? The indoor drive-in restaurant? The rides? The look on your kids faces? Oh man, I can't wait to go back .