Where to start for Feb 2023

[Smudge13]

Hello everyone, I've decided to just go for it and visit with my two teenage daughters. We want to do all things Disney and Universal but no clue as to where to start! Any advice greatly received. Thank you.

[simon]

Hello and a great big welcome to the Dibb .
Enjoy your planning it’s a great big part and build up to a Fantastic holiday .
Ask any questions there are loads of fellow Dibbers with a vast knowledge of all things to do with Disney , Universal etc , only to willing to help . 🤓

[cornishfrogboy]

Welcome.

I would guess that the first step would be to put together a loose plan and then start a thread with it. It may well get picked to pieces by fellow Dibbers, refined, suggestions thrown in and eventually it will become refined into a solid plan that you can go forward with.

When? .. you have answered that. One of the two Disney Waterparks will be closed for maintenance. Temperatures will be… ok.

How long are you looking at? I would suggest 15,16 or more days. Getting there and buying the tickets is the main financial pain. Extending the stay simply costs accommodation and food (food costs money whether you are in Florida or at Home). You simply stagger your ticket start times in order to cover the period from arrival to leaving.

Where do you intend flying from and will you consider indirects?

Will you drive?

Do you intend staying on site or off site?

Are your girls into big rides (or even tall enough at 54 inches). This may affect whether you spend on queue jumping through Genie Plus, XPress pass etc.

What is your budget?

You are set on Disney and Universal. That will cost you very approximately £495 plus £275 each for the park tickets. The rest is anybodies guess until you have more detail.

[Smudge13]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

Welcome.

I would guess that the first step would be to put together a loose plan and then start a thread with it. It may well get picked to pieces by fellow Dibbers, refined, suggestions thrown in and eventually it will become refined into a solid plan that you can go forward with.

When? .. you have answered that. One of the two Disney Waterparks will be closed for maintenance. Temperatures will be… ok.

How long are you looking at? I would suggest 15,16 or more days. Getting there and buying the tickets is the main financial pain. Extending the stay simply costs accommodation and food (food costs money whether you are in Florida or at Home). You simply stagger your ticket start times in order to cover the period from arrival to leaving.

Where do you intend flying from and will you consider indirects?

Will you drive?

Do you intend staying on site or off site?

Are your girls into big rides (or even tall enough at 54 inches). This may affect whether you spend on queue jumping through Genie Plus, XPress pass etc.

What is your budget?

You are set on Disney and Universal. That will cost you very approximately £495 plus £275 each for the park tickets. The rest is anybodies guess until you have more detail.

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Thank you so much that's really useful. I'd love to go for longer, but I think we'll only be able to manage a week other wise it will be the following year we need to go due to GCSEs. Still trying to weigh things up. Your points are very much appreciated and will form the basis of my planning - lots of thoughts but need to put down on paper to start I think. Thank you.

[Smudge13]

Originally Posted by simon

Hello and a great big welcome to the Dibb .
Enjoy your planning it’s a great big part and build up to a Fantastic holiday .
Ask any questions there are loads of fellow Dibbers with a vast knowledge of all things to do with Disney , Universal etc , only to willing to help . 🤓

See more...

Thank you very much. Very excited even to allow myself to think about it!

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by Smudge13

Thank you so much that's really useful. I'd love to go for longer, but I think we'll only be able to manage a week other wise it will be the following year we need to go due to GCSEs. Still trying to weigh things up. Your points are very much appreciated and will form the basis of my planning - lots of thoughts but need to put down on paper to start I think. Thank you.

See more...

My only thoughts on a week are these…
Disney.. 4 parks and 2 waterparks.
Universal 2 parks and 1 water park.

Each of those parks is at the very least a day and therefore, you are never going to get any value out of the tickets that you buy.

Flying. It is a 5 hour time zone shift, a 9 hour flight and in addition, you will be lucky to go sub £700pp on directs.

You will be investing a very large amount of money for a very minimal return. If I were you (and I am not you), then I would be looking to wait until I can get in 14 or 15 nights. A good time would be late August and just in time to get your younger folk back into School.
Another good time is Easter School Hols.

[pritch]

think for a week in feb which we did this year, just look at universal studios and volcano bay. disney very expensive for a week only, not cost effective and would be a chore
lots of decent places to stay on i drive on a package, when we got our tickets we also got gatorland free, which filled a day

if your going to only do disney, take a hit and stay on site, and max the week out there

its a big task to do the lot in a week and it may be a bit much for first time visitor