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Old 25 Jan 19, 08:49 AM  
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Amion68
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First post- 2 week itinerary for April

Hi all, newbie here with a very excited family looking forward to our 2 week trip to Florida in April.

The following is our planned itinerary and I would welcome any feedback/suggestions

Day 1 arrive MIA (18.00)
- undecided on where to stay for first night. Thinking either Fort Lauderdale or an airport hotel
Day 2 - drive up to Cocoa beach area and stay overnight
Day 3 - Kenedy space centre
Day 4 - Orlando (Villa booked on Mission park for 8 nights)
Day 11 - West Coast for 3 nights
Not sure where yet but thinking Naples area?
Day 14-South Beach Miami overnight
Day 15-flight home

We’re a family if four with 2 kids (7 & 13). It’s our first trip to Florida so any suggestions and advice on the above very much appreciated

Edited at 08:53 AM.
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Old 26 Jan 19, 05:06 PM  
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jomarise
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Welcome to the Dibb,

Looks like a good plan, what are you planning on doing in Orlando? We plan our holiday a lot as there are lots of things to think about if visiting the parks. Our teenagers prefer Universal and Seaworld and are not keen on Disney but yours are younger so may prefer Disney. We enjoyed an airboat ride with Spirit of the Swamp. Would also recommend Busch Gardens as a lovely quiet day out. The water parks are great too.

I tried to buy tickets for everything before going and also checked Groupon regularly for deals on food and smaller places to visit. Wonderworks on idrive is great if you get a groupon (too expensive at full price) We also enjoyed Escape rooms (also look on Groupon for bargains)

Kennedy Space centre was good, we haven't been to Miami but are looking at visiting on our next trip.
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Old 26 Jan 19, 05:46 PM  
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Amion68
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Originally Posted by jomarise View Post
Welcome to the Dibb,

Looks like a good plan, what are you planning on doing in Orlando? We plan our holiday a lot as there are lots of things to think about if visiting the parks. Our teenagers prefer Universal and Seaworld and are not keen on Disney but yours are younger so may prefer Disney. We enjoyed an airboat ride with Spirit of the Swamp. Would also recommend Busch Gardens as a lovely quiet day out. The water parks are great too.

I tried to buy tickets for everything before going and also checked Groupon regularly for deals on food and smaller places to visit. Wonderworks on idrive is great if you get a groupon (too expensive at full price) We also enjoyed Escape rooms (also look on Groupon for bargains)

Kennedy Space centre was good, we haven't been to Miami but are looking at visiting on our next trip.
Hi, thanks for your feedback. So my kids are 7 & 13 and both seem more excited about universal than Disney. We have been to EuroDisney so we are thinking 2 days at WDW magic kingdom should do us with 2 or 3 days at universal. I am a bit concerned whether 8 nights is enough, with the water parks etc also appealing for the kids, so am tempted to extend by a couple of nights and scale back a bit on the west coast.

We’ve got the convertible mustang booked which the kids are excited about and I love driving in the US, so the driving doesn’t bother me at all.

Thanks for the Groupon tip. I’ve also got some avios points left over so am thinking I might use them for Kennedy.
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Old 26 Jan 19, 09:14 PM  
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jomarise
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We went the first time for 9 nights and it wasn't enough, we went back last year for 11 nights and it still wasn't enough to do everything. There is just so much to do. I think you just have to work out by doing lots of research what is going to fit in with you the best. Magic Kingdom was so busy when we visited, as was Epcot. We really enjoyed Animal Kingdom and Hollywood studios - the only problem is if you are only visiting Disney for two days, the tickets work out massively expensive, especially in comparison to Universal.

We hired a Maserati last time we went, the kids thought it was absolutely amazing.

Make sure you do plan in down time though, we always say we don't need it but when it comes down to it, the parks and all the working you do can be exhausting. They have a trip planner on here which we use to make a plan.
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Old 26 Jan 19, 09:25 PM  
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Amion68
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Originally Posted by jomarise View Post
We went the first time for 9 nights and it wasn't enough, we went back last year for 11 nights and it still wasn't enough to do everything. There is just so much to do. I think you just have to work out by doing lots of research what is going to fit in with you the best. Magic Kingdom was so busy when we visited, as was Epcot. We really enjoyed Animal Kingdom and Hollywood studios - the only problem is if you are only visiting Disney for two days, the tickets work out massively expensive, especially in comparison to Universal.

We hired a Maserati last time we went, the kids thought it was absolutely amazing.

Make sure you do plan in down time though, we always say we don't need it but when it comes down to it, the parks and all the working you do can be exhausting. They have a trip planner on here which we use to make a plan.
Yes as 50 year old parents I am mindful of the need to plan in some downtime. Some folk on here have said they’ve done magic kingdom in a day, so that is an option and stay in to the evening for the firework. Sure that would take it out of us and we would need to chill the next day, but it’s an option.

I’ve booked us a mustang convertible for our trip, kids are very excited about that too.
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Old 27 Jan 19, 09:37 AM  
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As you’re planning a bit of travelling, be mindful that you don’t get a lot of luggage space in a convertible, especially when the tops down - not sure how much luggage you tend to take.

If you are doing Disney, i’d advise getting tickets before you go so you can book FastPasses to maximise your time if you are only going for a day or 2. There are a couple of ticket sellers who do Magic Your Way tickets, which are for 1-10 days. Undercover Tourist and Orlando Attractions both offer these. These sellers also sell multi day tickets for Universal, which are cheaper than the 14 day tickets you normally get from the Uk. I think Undercover Tourist have an offer on at the moment where you buy 2 day park to park ticket and get 2 days free - as you’re going in April they’ll be valid (expire end May).
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Old 27 Jan 19, 05:56 PM  
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Originally Posted by mason1 View Post
As you’re planning a bit of travelling, be mindful that you don’t get a lot of luggage space in a convertible, especially when the tops down - not sure how much luggage you tend to take.

If you are doing Disney, i’d advise getting tickets before you go so you can book FastPasses to maximise your time if you are only going for a day or 2. There are a couple of ticket sellers who do Magic Your Way tickets, which are for 1-10 days. Undercover Tourist and Orlando Attractions both offer these. These sellers also sell multi day tickets for Universal, which are cheaper than the 14 day tickets you normally get from the Uk. I think Undercover Tourist have an offer on at the moment where you buy 2 day park to park ticket and get 2 days free - as you’re going in April they’ll be valid (expire end May).
Thankyou for the tip, I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with park entry as all I could find was either 7/14 packages or the standard daily rate. This looks like it could be ideal so thankyou so much.

Noted also re the boot space. I am mindful of this from my Calif road trip so instead of taking one large case we will consolidate with a couple of smaller cases (and get good use of the washer in the villa!)
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Old 30 Jan 19, 11:45 PM  
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I've just written this on your original post, so I've coped it here and I'll delete the other one.


Hi, we've driven around a few times, your itinerary sounds good.

If you have to do immigration at Miami (direct flights) I would recommend an airport hotel as you can be there over an hour if you're unlucky. Picking up the car can also take time, and an 'early' night followed by an early morning has always been our preference. Depending on where you choose to stay (some hotels charge parking, it may save a few dollars to get a shuttle bus to and from the hotel and pick the car up the next morning - plus one day less rental.

There's some nice beaches on the way up to Cocoa - have you thought about driving some of the A1A rather than just the I95- Melbourne and Vero are lovely.

Orlando is what it is.

West Coast - we've stayed at Tarpon Springs, Bradenton, Cape Coral, Naples & Venice Beach. Favourite stay was probably Venice Beach. It's a chilled place, close enough to Sarasota for the Ringling Museum etc, and looking for sharks teeth at Caspersen Beach is fun. The Shell Factory at North Fort Myers is less than an hour away too.

Try and eat in one of Mel's Diners as you travel SW Florida - the shiny one at Bonita Springs is fab.

I haven't been to South Beach, so can't comment on that. But if you're driving back to Miami on the 75, I'd recommend stopping at the Everglades Holiday Park for an airboat ride, or the Everglades Safari Park on the 41.

You'll love it - driving is so cheap and easy.
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Old 31 Jan 19, 10:12 AM  
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Originally Posted by archibald View Post
I've just written this on your original post, so I've coped it here and I'll delete the other one.


Hi, we've driven around a few times, your itinerary sounds good.

If you have to do immigration at Miami (direct flights) I would recommend an airport hotel as you can be there over an hour if you're unlucky. Picking up the car can also take time, and an 'early' night followed by an early morning has always been our preference. Depending on where you choose to stay (some hotels charge parking, it may save a few dollars to get a shuttle bus to and from the hotel and pick the car up the next morning - plus one day less rental.

There's some nice beaches on the way up to Cocoa - have you thought about driving some of the A1A rather than just the I95- Melbourne and Vero are lovely.

Orlando is what it is.

West Coast - we've stayed at Tarpon Springs, Bradenton, Cape Coral, Naples & Venice Beach. Favourite stay was probably Venice Beach. It's a chilled place, close enough to Sarasota for the Ringling Museum etc, and looking for sharks teeth at Caspersen Beach is fun. The Shell Factory at North Fort Myers is less than an hour away too.

Try and eat in one of Mel's Diners as you travel SW Florida - the shiny one at Bonita Springs is fab.

I haven't been to South Beach, so can't comment on that. But if you're driving back to Miami on the 75, I'd recommend stopping at the Everglades Holiday Park for an airboat ride, or the Everglades Safari Park on the 41.

You'll love it - driving is so cheap and easy.
Hi, Thankyou for your advice. Our itinerary has changed slightly in that I have added a couple of days to our Orlando stay (mainly to give us sufficient time to properly do Disney).

I was leaning toward an airport hotel on the first night and was considering pushing out the car hire to the next morning too. However whether the car hire firm will let me remains to be seen (Avis, booked through BA).

From your feedback on the west coast, given we will only have 2 nights I am thinking Venice for one night and an Everglades stay over on the final night (not going to do South beach now).
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Old 12 Feb 19, 12:01 AM  
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Hiya, we did parts of that trip this year. We flew into Miami and drove up to boynton beach, stayed the night there then drove up to Kennedy (only my dh and eldest son did KSC) and stayed the night at cocoa beach. Day 3 we drove into Orlando. it worked will for us but my kids are older at 12/15/17

We drove straight back to Miami afterwards but my kids wanted the park time x
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