Wait, what? No Disney? Pre-trip report

[Sparksy72]

Wow! That sounds like a great trip, we really enjoyed Busch Gardens and Universal/IOA. It looks like you have a great balance of parks days and relaxing shopping days. Not long now, you must be getting excited.

[Beth_Disney]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

Wow! That sounds like a great trip, we really enjoyed Busch Gardens and Universal/IOA. It looks like you have a great balance of parks days and relaxing shopping days. Not long now, you must be getting excited.

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5 weeks today and we’ll be at Gatwick (touch wood!)

We’ve been to Orlando three times and two of these have been onsite at Disney with a night at Hard Rock Hotel for fast passes. We’ve got the most out of our Disney and Universal tickets which meant the holiday has been really regimented so it’s good to be more flexible with our plans. If we’re tired or it’s raining then we can switch plans around. We went over New Year and just had a one day ticket for Magic Kingdom, Gatorland and spent the rest of the week eating, relaxing and shopping, it was great!

[Sparksy72]

I love a more relaxed trip! I find on our Disney trips we are much more regimented we upgraded to Universal Annual Passes last summer and had a great trip over Christmas. Nice and chilled just like yours! We had some great meals on i-drive too, it’s lovely to be able to stroll out for dinner

[Beth_Disney]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

I love a more relaxed trip! I find on our Disney trips we are much more regimented we upgraded to Universal Annual Passes last summer and had a great trip over Christmas. Nice and chilled just like yours! We had some great meals on i-drive too, it’s lovely to be able to stroll out for dinner

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I need to work out whether upgrading our US pass will be good value but I think as I’ve booked 3 attraction passes means than 2 attraction annual pass upgrade isn’t an option. We’re not really that bothered by water parks.

As we’re staying on International Drive, I think we’ll use Uber to the Universal parks rather than the hire car

[duchy]

Do you really need to go back to TPA to pick up a hire car , isn’t there an Avis location closer ? Just a thought.

[Sparksy72]

Originally Posted by Beth_Disney

I need to work out whether upgrading our US pass will be good value but I think as I’ve booked 3 attraction passes means than 2 attraction annual pass upgrade isn’t an option. We’re not really that bothered by water parks.

As we’re staying on International Drive, I think we’ll use Uber to the Universal parks rather than Uber

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Absolutely, we will get three trips out of our Universal Annual Passes so it was worth it for us. I am not really a water park person either but I loved Volcano Bay. You could be as relaxed or as adventurous as you like.

I think using Uber is so easy, I even used it to go shopping on my own when the boys watched Star Wars at the cinema over Christmas.

[Beth_Disney]

Originally Posted by duchy

Do you really need to go back to TPA to pick up a hire car , isn’t there an Avis location closer ? Just a thought.

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I did enquire about adding an additional 2 days to the car hire so we could pick it up before going to Busch Gardens but BA gave me a ridiculous quote. I think it was about £400! I’ve just checked and the only Avis centre in Tampa is at the airport. It would have been a good solution.

It’ll be a bit of a faff but I’m planning on getting an Uber to the airport, then driving back to the hotel to pick up the luggage.

[Beth_Disney]

BA added the option for us to select our meals on the outbound journey today.

Here are the options - (World Traveller Plus cabin)

I’ve chosen the canneloni, Jack has chosen lamb

But the bullet and ordered our $$. They were ordered from eurochange at a rate of 1.2692