Ok Moms! Who Has Been to Orlando??

I haven't been to Orlando in a few years, but I wouldn't recommend it for a honeymoon. It's an hour from the beach (we stayed at Cocoa Beach and drove to Disney), and the beach on the Atlantic side are not nearly as scenic and nice as the gulf. If it's a honeymoon, do they really want to spend all day walking around themeparks in the heat? They'll be exhausted from their day and want to actually sleep all night :) I'd look into the all inclusive resorts on the beach if they want FL. We went to Hawaii and stayed at one, meals were included, as was ocean sports (sailboats, snorkeling, kayaks, etc). So much more relaxing than a themepark and with all the costs of the multiple parks probably even cheaper.

Any tips??
- Purchase a "package" that includes hotel and meals if they will be there for multiple days; these also typical include "park hopper" passes for the Disney parks, but not the Universal parks

Did you do both parks?
- Which two? Disney is a compound that includes multiple parks, resorts, islands, etc. Universal Studios, MGM Studios, Disney... all separate. You also have Sea World and several others right around there.
- If they are HP fans, then definitely plan on Universal as a day trip within a bigger "Disney" trip. If they aren't big "Disney" fans than maybe plan Universal as a day trip within a FL beach trip.

How much did your trip cost?
- EXPENSIVE... this is a hard question to answer. You pay for the park entrances, meals, hotels, rental car, etc. Again... if they like Disney, consider a package deal. It usually includes transportation to/from the airport and within all of the Disney theme parks and resorts.

How many days did you need to see the parks?
- Plan on one full day per park

I keep finding prices for multiple days for each park? do you need that?
- Depends, but not really. If it's just the two of them and they aren't necessarily waiting in lines to get pics with characters, etc you can do a park in a full day (getting there early and planning on staying until aftern fireworkds)

Trying to see both Disney and Universal seems very expencive!
Yes it is! FL theme park vacations are not cheap. They may be able to save money by renting a condo in Kissimee for the week, which would allow them to eat meals in the condo, but be close enough to go back-and-forth. As kids, this is what we did for a week each summer. We lived in FL, so it was cheaper with the FL resident rate/summer rate, but it cut-down on hotels and meals... you would have to rent a car, though.

Funny you ask this now since my DH, teen daughter and a friend are flying back from there as I type.

As a family we were just down there for Christmas and stayed on Disney property, Old Key West. They are like little condos with full kitchens so we were able to save some money by occasionally eating in our room. But since we were there with all the extended family, my husband and daughter did not make it over to Universal to see the Harry Potter thing.

So for Spring Break he promised her and a friend to take them since they are all huge Harry Potter friends. They actually stayed 2 days at Universal and since my daughter's friend hadn't been to Disney they went over there for a couple of days.

I really don't know the cost breakdown of the air, hotel, park tickets etc since I didn't go and didn't pay attention. I can tell you that for 5 days it was over $5000. Now, keep in mind they had 2 rooms, one for my husband and one for the girls (2-18 year olds) so that added a little bit of the cost.

They stayed at the Portofino? at Universal. I found it very interesting that being spring break and high volume weekend, the hotel restaurants closed early. My husband said that they had a hard time finding some place to eat at 7:30 pm on a Friday night! In his opinion, all Universal really had to offer was the Harry Potter attraction. I haven't talked to the girls about that anyway.

They went over to Disney on Saturday and stayed at Coronado Springs, which my husband said he wouldn't stay there again. Now keep in mind, every time we go to Disney we always stay at Old Key West, so I'm sure having the room of a small condo to a 'regular hotel room' was a change.

We also always get 'Park Hopper Passes' which allow us to go from park to park even in one day. In my humble opinion, you could do the Disney Hollywood park (used to be the old MGM park) in a 1/2 day. But that's my thought. I could then spend a day PLUS that 1/2 at Epcot. And then a day at Animal Kingdom and a day at Magic Kingdom.

We have never stayed off property when we go down. I'm sure you can find cheaper hotel rates off property, but staying on has benefits. Busses pick you up at the airport and take you straight to the hotel. There is always transportation between the on property hotels to all the parks. By staying on property, you get special access times to the parks. For example, last night Magic Kingdom was open until 2 am for those staying on property. And other days, you get in early which is a HUGE benefit for some of the more popular rides and attractions! Not to mention little things like going back to rest before dinner or if you buy something, you don't have to carry it around with you, you can have it sent back to your room while you continue to enjoy the day.

When they make reservations. They have to stay at the Floriday Resort. That is the only place to stay. They have to visit the Holy Land. That is all day. The parks is find. Visit the ones that they can afford.