No disney

[dixonsontour]

Originally Posted by Kaz2904

Can I ask please, those of you who go to DTD (is this Down town Disney, BTW?), can you do this if you are not staying on site? I can't seem to find any information out about this.
We aren't going to go for Disney tickets as it's just too expensive and we'll be trying to cram far, far too much into 2 weeks if we do this. Instead, we are going to go for the 5 park bonus tickets, Boggy creek, Kennedy, shopping and maybe now that I've seen it, the eco thingy. It's only 1/2 an hour away from our villa and looks fun. Especially the pick your own stuff .
My in-laws are coming with us and they are thinking about buying 1 or 2 day tickets to get into Disney once they get there but we've ruled out that cost. If we're going, we're going for the 14 day tickets. To expensive otherwise (IMHO).
Getting excited now though

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Anyone can go to DTD - downtown disney. It's free and free parking. Shops and restaurants with a disney atmosphere.

The boardwalk at disney is also free - nice for an evening stroll - you can see epcot fireworks from there and there are entertainers at weekend evenings - we saw a sword swallower a few years ago.

[chelseyleigh]

I personally wouldnt do orlando without disney, for me disney is orlando, i dont think id bother if disney wasnt there but thats just me, each to there own!

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by chelseyleigh

I personally wouldnt do orlando without disney, for me disney is orlando, i dont think id bother if disney wasnt there but thats just me, each to there own!

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it really is, as you say, each to his own. For me, i find Disney overpriced, sickly, overpowering and rather claustrophobic. I never liked the mouse as a kid and i don't now. I would certainly never again stay on site. Whilst we are doing Disney this year, we did drop it last May and never really missed it, doing all of the other parks instead. There really are loads of other things to do in Orlando, to the extent that if you moved MM and co from the equation completely, Orlando is still a fantastic family holiday destination.

[Villainlover]

I have been visiting Florida regularly since 1993 and always visited all the parks (well not DC)

Last year (Oct/Nov) I found WDW to be run down filthy broken toilets, not much 'magic' and the Food and Wine Festival (my fav) has just declined in quality since my first visit.
MNSSHP was very dissappointing No official photo, no sweets offered on leaving etc etc ..

also having a disabled mother and a party of 13 was a nogo for enjoying attractions together .. even when I asked if my mother could wait at spaceship earth disabled entrance while we lined up in the regular line until we could all ride together .. the answer was no

but by far the worst was when we got split up in the safari at Animal Kingdom .. we ended up partway inside the Pangani Trail while our family was waiting at the exit ... completely not happy with that ...

I for one have planned to go next year without paying for the overpriced (always thought WDW was excellent value for money due to standards etc ) WDW parks ..

I will just visit BGs and Universal .. maybe take a drive upto silver springs and st augustine etc ..

I may buckle with the Food and wine festival but really cant justify the cost of a two day pass for the low standard that is disney now..

i am sure there is an abundance of stuff to do other than WDW

[batleyboy26]

We've had 2 holidays in Orlando in 2007 and 2010 when we haven't visited Disney them parks (well, went to Pirates & Princess Party one evening in 2007) and we plan not to visit them again this year apart from doing the Keys to the Kingdom tour at MK. In 2009 we did go to US & IOA but we are even going to give them a miss this year too.

We've never been to Kennedy so think we will go down there and maybe a night at New Smyrna Beach. We've never been on Boggy Creek Airboats either so that is another possiblity. We've not been to Silver Springs for 8 years so may try to talk the menfolk in to this as they weren't overly impressed last time but I lobve it there.

[Guest]

Thanks for the feedback. All our friends are saying we're mad/ cruel to the kids and whatnot but our 2 (although only 10 & 8) are mad about space and really want to go to Kennedy. Lots of other things to do too so I think we're better off not going for WDW tickets.

[Guest]

We hadn't planned on doing Disney at all on our last visit, we just got tickets for Universal, Sea World and Busch Gardens, also went to Kennedy for the Shuttle launch
We ended up going to Epcot as we found out we still had a couple of days on our old tickets.

Next visit at the moment we're not planning on doing Disney.

[bella9]

I've been to WDW about 6 times now but not since 2007 and haven't missed it. I love Orlando and would still visit if the theme parks were not there. We have, however, since visited US/IoA the last three years and DC for the second time last year. There are so many other places to visit and we haven't even scraped the surface yet but so far have visited Miami (twice), KSC, BG, Aq, SW, - several times, probably our favourite. We feel very fortunate to have visited every year since 2000 and just love soaking up the atmosphere, the shopping, dining and just generally chilling out, can't get enough of the place.

[sharlu]

Thank you so much for posting this, I have the same problem. My children are 15 and 11 and have done disney on two previous occassions. Although we love Disney buying all the tickets will prevent us doing other 'special treats' and your posts have helped me to make up my mind. We will visit Seaworld, IOA, Universal, Bush Gardens (serengeti tour), Aquatica (which is only a few minutes from our suite on I drive, so will use for 'down days'), DTD and Boardwalk, Cirque do Soleil, and Airboat ride. Will also factor in a couple of days at a beach - Daytona or Maria Island sound fab. Factor in some lazy days, mini golf and shopping, with a visit to Epcot if we have time our holiday will be complete

[Guest]

We are going in August and do not plan to do disney.
Weve done the parks and there is nothing new grabbing us back and the cost of Disney tickets puts us off also.
So this year we are getting the Orlando Flexi tickets plus and hope to get use of all 6 parks.
I personally could do without all the parks as there is so much more to see and do in Florida but my family do enjoy visiting he parks for the rides etc..

I hope you get the chance to experience all the other things Orlando has to offer...there is always next time if you miss the theme parks !