My wife and I are planning on visiting Disney World in Orlando soon and need some suggestions from guppies who have been there, or live in the area. Things I want to know are:
How many days we should allow to be able to see most attractions there?
What are the “must see” places?
Should we buy Disney tickets online or at the gate? If online, what would be a good site to purchase from?
Recommended food places (halal of course). I saw plenty on Zabihah.com, but want to get some recommendations.
I have not been to Orlando but I have visited Disney land and Universal studio many many times here in CA. I can tell you this much, buying tickets from the gate is not a a very good option. YOu will be standing and waiting in a long line moving at a snail's pace. Buy em before hand either online or even some tourist shops sell these tickets too. And I guess 4 to 5 days are a good itinerary for Orlando.
Plan on atleast 7 days. Disney parks are huge and you cannot see everything in one day. And since you are going there, you might want to visit the Disney water parks as well.
Buy tickets online. They are cheaper and you can avoid the long queues.
Buy park hopper tickets, so you can hop between parks if you are done early with one. Othewise a day ticket allows you to visit just one park.
heyy i live near there !! stop by my house its lyk 3 hours away. If its ur first time ur gonna love it!!!
theres a whole bunch of really good places to eat like Chaat house everyone loves theres another chinese place thats really good too cant think of the name on top of my head but will get back to u. Major attractions visit the beach there if you dotn live near one. make sure to have some time for Downtown Disney world its great ! hmm they also have a really huge outlet mall if u wanna shop. Lemme know if u need mroe info =)
7 days are enough and more will become same and boring.
If you can afford then stay in Disney itself with higher price off course. You will be able to watch firework from your hotel lobby....above your head if stay at the right place!!
You can buy tickets online or from inside one of resort hotels with many different options. Hotels inside have many different themes.
Contemporary resort for example has train going right to your hotel. Besides you can stay late if you stay inside the resort.
Kissimie is one closest place to stay if you do not want to spend too much money on hotels but will have to leave earlier at night.
All places are good to see. Pleasure Island in Downtown is open till late in Am hours if you want to and can stay up late.
Water parks are great. Must try fall from 90 feet in to water at high speed at blizzard beach if you like thrilling rides.
Keep sun block lotion with you if going in sunny days. (I got burned so bad that I could not sleep on my back for days despite using sun block)
Use buses and trains inside if you want to hop the parks but its very difficult to go different places in one day.
Plan evening hour to go to Downtown and pleasure Island (every evening if possible).
Visit the place for "every video game on earth place" in downtown (forgot the name) where you can easily spend whole day. Its noisy and you get disconnected from the whole world.
Don't have to buy things there...they are expensive and many T-shirts are just useless after a while or few washings. Be selective in buying stuff there. You may spend hundreds of dollars but in the end those things may last only for few days.
Take your own food items in bag if worry about eating halal/zabiha. Pizza is a good option inside. Buy food items before meal time otherwise you may end up spending too much time waiting in line. For some reason everyone there is hungry at 12 noon time or 6-6:30 PM.....
You can also book your time for a particular ride if cannot wait in line and make sure you showed up at that time.
my family and I just visited orlando these past christmas breaks. it was fun, the weather is gorgeous. We went to universal studios and opted for a park hopper pass. unversalstudios online has a deal going where you can purchase a 7 day 2 park ticket for 99 dollars plus tax. we got that and then spent part of each day at the park. universal studios has more movie based rides/experiences, where as the other universal park 'island of adventure' has rollercoasters and a lot of water rides.
food wise, we had a lot of pizza hut lol - we rented a villa to stay in that had a kitchen, so we visited a local halal meat shop and made our own food
n e way whatever you end up doing, have fun - its a fun place
There are 2 restaurants on Orange Blossom Trail ... Bismillah and Apna restaurant. Dont go anywhere else but those two when you want desi food. Excellent food. nice prices, call them upfront and they will have the food ready ..
I think they are 15-20 minutes from Universal and Disney
My wife and I are planning on visiting Disney World in Orlando soon and need some suggestions from guppies who have been there, or live in the area. Things I want to know are:
How many days we should allow to be able to see most attractions there?
What are the "must see" places?
Should we buy Disney tickets online or at the gate? If online, what would be a good site to purchase from?
Recommended food places (halal of course). I saw plenty on Zabihah.com, but want to get some recommendations.
Any other suggestions.
Thanks! :)
Oh I loved Orlando! I have been there 3 times now and hopefully will go again very soon. Its the best holiday to go on with your family.
A week in Orlando is a good time. You need at least one day each for the parks as they are so big and you will have to do lots of walking! All worth it! Hehe! Best time is to go around April - as the weather was cool and perfect when I went last year. Remember as well as the disney parks there is Universal studios which is a separate park, Sea World and there is a huge water park - so thats why a week works well with us when we go. :)
Buy the park tickets from travel agents and ask them for lastest promotions and discounts - do not buy at the gate! I never did that and the queues last 2 hours! Tickets are full price at the gates. If you live in UK, buy group-park tickets from your travel agents there or buy them when you get to Orlando. Buying the tickets for all the parks in one go save a lot of money! My card was called the 'Orlando Magic card' and we got a big family discount.
There is such a wide variety of food to enjoy e.g. the yummy mixed veggie burgers, noodles, pasta, pizza, jacket potato, american lunch buffets, their amazing breakfast meals etc - and you will find plenty of halal food too!
If you have kids, take a buggy even if they are 4-5 years old - they will get tired! Lol!
If anyone in your company is a wheel-chair user with a disable card etc, the person pushing them gets a free ticket into the Disney parks! I found this out when I got there and they gave us a wheel-chair to use in the park too. Wheelchair users jump all ride queues. Queues can be like 3-4 hours long for main park attractions - and we just whizzed past! :)
Like MiamiSweetheartx for most of my life Disney was only a roadtrip away! I used to go at least 3-4 times a year with family, friends, school field trips, etc.
For adults, I think Universal Studios is a lot more fun!! We used to take our family from Pakistan to the parks all the time and hands down, everyone enjoyed the rides and atmosphere at Universal. The rides are a bit more mature as well, and the theme is that you're "riding the movies" so its more recognizable as well.
Another thing I would suggest is to take a day off from the Parks and enjoy the city of Orlando. There are lots of fun touristy things to do in the city itself. I like Ripley's Believe it Or Not museum a lot, the architecture of the building is pretty cool! You should also think about a Dinner Entertainment show like Medieval Times. Pleasure Island, as mentioned above is a lot of fun too!! The water parks are a BLAST!
Anyway, I love Disney. My fiance and I are taking a mini honeymoon right after the wedding since we can't take several weeks of from work right away. We're definitely going to Disney because I've become quite nostalgic for my youth!!
Enjoy and make sure to write us a Trip Report when you get back. Oh! Also, I suggest you find the Disney forums online. There are lots of tips and tricks that will help you with short wait times on lines, best places to buy tickets, etc.
Another tip, and some might disagree with me on this one, are time shares. Since I used to go with my family several times a year, we would once in a while attend those time share presentations. It would take about 1.5-2.0 hours out of our day, but we would get tickets for practically free and discounts on attractions as well. If you have some time on your hands its worth it! Just don't let them con you into buying a timeshare!!
About a week would be good. Disney theme parks are huge. So, you need time to go through all of Epcott, Magic Kingom, Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios. Universal Studios is divided into two parks. The first one is Universal Studios which adults and kids of all ages can enjoy. The second one is Islands of Adventure (my favorite) which as a variety of rides and several roller coasters if thats what you and the kids are into.
There's Pleasure Island, Disney Village. Good halal desi restaurants include Golden Dynasty (halal chinese), Bismillah, Apna Restaurant, Ahmed's.
