Florida without Disney..

[Cara040]

I’m sure this has been done many times before, but Dd’s school as of yesterday have added 2 extra non pupil days to their summer hols meaning they don’t go back until 7th Sept ( previously 3rd ). We had no intention of going to Florida this year as only went last October. I’m now wondering about 10 days but staying at one of the new value Universal hotels and doing Universal, IOA, Volcano bay, perhaps some shopping etc.
We could fly from Bristol on the Dreamliner which saves the trip to Gatwick overnight hotel etc ( Devon based ) for 10 nights. 2 adults plus Dd (13) for £2536 then just have Universal tickets to buy.
We’ve never not done Disney but want to keep the costs down and we’re planning next to go back 2022?
I’m assuming we can get to I Drive quite easily to eat etc, and as Dd is a bit older it would just be a different Florida holiday.
Just wondered if you’ve not done Disney have you missed it?

[thelegalbeagle]

Didn't do Disney last year, and not doing it this year.

Didn't miss it last year, and don't anticipate anything changing. The fact that a load of work is still ongoing eases the pain. My wife loves the train at MK and it's still off, so we'd miss out on that in any event.

Universal, shopping, baseball and relaxing by the pool will do us just fine.

[JayPR]

Same as thelegalbeagle

Never did it last year and not doing it this year.Never missed it last year and the feelings the same for our visit this year

[alp1972]

Hi we didnt do Disney last year and didnt miss it we had lots of lovely time round the pool , we stayed at Cabana Bay in a family room but didnt even do Universal . We did visit Kennedy which was great and something we hadnt done before , also did bike rides in Celebration which was great and something we really enjoyed and said we would do again this year . We also visited some escape rooms which we all love and Monster Arcades which was a fun few hours . We played some mini golf and shopped , cinema and had some lovely relaxed meals . Dont get me wrong we are doing Disney this year and busy planning it all which we love but we had a great holiday last year and wouldnt hesitate doing it again.

[Cara040]

Thanks for the replies so far. We’ve always stayed on site ( apart from when I went 20 plus years ago) so never had a car out there. If we base ourselves at one of the Universal resorts do you think we could still manage using the Lynx , shuttle buses to get around ?

[Cinderellabella]

We went for a week last august and did universal. We bought the Halloween tickets for Disney, so had one night there - which you can get into park at 4 til around midnight.

[princess allie]

We didn’t do Disney a couple of years ago. I thought I would miss it dreadfully, but in fact I didn’t really miss it at all. It was a different holiday, with Universal, SeaWorld and a visit to the beach, but we really enjoyed it. Going next week and only doing SeaWorld. Disney is my first love and we went last summer and will go again this summer, but when it’s a shorter extra break, I was surprised at how easy it was to skip Disney.

[OrlandoNick]

We have have many non-Disney breaks in Orlando - each time we’ve stayed onsite at a Universal resort and had more time to spend visiting Seaworld, Aquatica, Discovery Cove etc. I love Disney (we’re going back this year) but it was great not having to book restaurants six months in advance and Fastpasses 60 days out. Doing a non-Disney holiday was very relaxing - no advanced planning, no rope drop, no schedule

[doodles]

I would skip Disney at the drop of a hat but I have a wife and 2 young sons who would refuse to talk to me for the whole trip. Therefore I guess the main person who you should be asking if they will miss the mouse is your DD (13).

[7SeasSailor]

We haven't done Disney for a couple of years now. If we need a fix we visit DS.