Anyone know anything about Florida, in particular Orlando?

I'm afraid I can't answer anything about the costs as I go for work so don't have to pay.

As for where to stay, it depends what you want. If you want a hotel and to not have to drive to restaurants etc then I-drive is good. If you are looking for a villa and are prepared to drive to places to eat then Kissimmee is better.

Very easy driving over there, clearly signed etc especially getting to the main tourist places. The little free maps you get from the hire car companies are good enough to get you around. I'd sort out car hire before you go, mainly because after a long flight when several hundred people have just been disgourged into the airport you don't want to be having to queue up to find out costs etc. We normally use Alamo but have no idea whether they are the cheapest but they are pretty good.

Park tickets are definitely best to buy in advance in the UK as there are some deals that are only available that way.

Which hotels were you thinking of and I might know something about them ?

Thanks Jelly Baby. Not bothered about a villa really, there is only the 2 of us. Ahh, yes not thought about the fact we'll be knackered from travelling so yes good point about booking the car here.

A couple of hotels that have come up are the Blue Tree Orlando or one of the Hilton ones maybe lake buena vista?? Got to be 4 star really whichever.

edited to say we think we've plumped for the Floridays Resort if you know anything about that one?

I'm afraid I don't know anything about Floridays. I've driven past it and it looked nice though. If you put a shout out for NeoShoegal she is an absolutely expert on Orlando, although she's over there at the moment so probably not around for a week or so. There is also a website call The Dibb (or something similar) which is full of Disney fanatics who spend a lot of time in Orlando.

Hope you have a good time.

No idea about driving as my parents always did that bit! We generally stayed in lake buena vista which is a lot nicer than international drive! x

We stayed in the Crown Plaza off IDrive, which was really nice. Would definitely stay on iDrive rather than kissimme as I remember having to drive for what seemed like ages when we stayed in a villa there with my parents, just to get to the parks.

I booked my tickets online before we went from one of these discount places and got these 14 day pass things for a fairly good price. It meant we could shoot between the parks as we pleased, which worked well for us.

Can't help with which operator to go through as out last holday was booked through TravelCity direct who have obviously gone belly up!

Next feb will be my 6th time in Orlando.

We always used to stay on I.Drive but this year we stayed in Lake Buena Vista and it was lovely and we are going back there next year. It is really close to all the Disney parks and Seaworld, Universal is only 10 mins away and there is really easy access on to the I4. Not all that keen on Kissimmee personally and i think unless you stop down the South end of I.Drive its not very pleasant.

I get my tickets from undercovertourist.com they offer different combinations to those available in the UK and generally work out cheaper.. If doing Disney we buy the Magic Your Way tickets they were doing 6 days for the price of 3 last time i checked.

Next year we are doing a package with Virgin Holidays as i booked really early and got a good deal, this year i booked the flights direct with Virgin Atlantic and the hotel through Hotelopia

Good thing about flying with Virgin is the very generous baggage allowance (2 X23kg per person.. most of the others are 20kg per person) and they fly into Orlando International not Sanford.

Cheapest flights (and what we will be doing in future) are indirect with American Airlines or US airways but it does make for a longer day.

Re car hire... It is much cheaper to sort it before you go.. if you walk up to Dollar/Alamo when you arrive you will probably pay at least double what you would have done if booked in advance.

I do ours with uscarhire.co.uk who use all the big companies like Dollar/Alamo to give you an idea next year for 19 nights inc all insurance & 7 seater Premium SVU we are paying £530 , a car suitable for 2 would probably be around £300 inc all insurances and tank of fuel etc. If you book a package with a tour operator you will be offered a free car, however you have to take their car insurance which is more than booking a car yourself.

Thank you everyone! Thanks Jackie24 for all the tips :-)

Hi

I went last year should have been going for 3 weeks for my honeymoon but because we went with travel city direct and they went bust we ended up booking a last minute thing for 2 weeks.

As for hotels on I Drive i have stayed at both the Enclave Suites and the Homewood Suites by Hilton. Both lovely hotels. They offer transfers to the theme parks and provide breakfast.

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/mcocvhw-homewood-suites-orlando-international-drive-convention-center/

https://www.enclavesuites.com/

In Kissimee we stayed here

https://www.comfortsuitesfl.com/

We have also stayed in a villa in kissimee but tbh in all the times we've been to florida which is about 7 times in the last 10 years the best holidays we've had have been in the hotels with the free transportation to the theme parks.

We drove when we went on honeymoon last year and it was the first time we'd driven over there and it terrified me. I'm sure some people will tell you that you can't go to florida and not have a car but the public transport is fab. If you have a car you have to park it on the car parks in the theme parks at a cost of anything between $8-$10 a day so over a two week holiday it build up.

We got the car as part of a package deal so not sure if it's cheaper to book there or here, make sure you've got a satnav though.

We've been with First choice, travel city direct and the last minute thing that we booked to replace our honeymoon was with a company called Funway holidays.

Personally the last time that we were there (October 2008) I drive had gone down bank a lot from when we were first there in June 2000, the introduction of the big convention centre has changed the area a lot. Kissimee was much better.

For theme park tickets we always buy in advance and from www.attractionticketsdirect.com however if you buy park tickets when you're there a lot of them offer buy a day get a day free kind of deals which can sometimes work out cheaper.