Florida

[strangeirish]

Yeah, good advice on that one Park.

[paul_oshea]

Parklife we are staying on international drive, a person also mentioned Bahama Breeze for eating. No kids just me and the missus, she isn't great at rollercoasters but she will learn to be fine come the end of it. Although a few years ago we were up at alton towers and she hopped on the oblivion and she started roaring at the control men to stop and let her out that she was going to faint... Embarassing but seriouslly funny at the same time.

The fast passes thingies can you buy them there as add-ons or can you buy them online when buying your normal tickets online. Ive had advice from loads of ppl and everyone seems to think Islands of adventure, universal, mgm and blizzard beach by the sounds of it. THe only thing im kinda worried about in the water parks is i have a dodgy knee that sometimes dislocates and i wonder do you go all over the place in these water parks or are the slides safe enough?!

[ParkLife]

That's actually bit of a problem..re: fast passes. I don't think you can buy the add-ons if you buy them before you go. But in saying that, the last time we went was in September and the parks were fine queue-wise. Try and go to IOA and Universal mid week and you'll be fine. They say to avoid Monday's too...apparently that's the busiest day??? as for the water parks..you'll be fine, slides are narrow enough so you just go straight down without bouncing off the sides. And don't forget the LAZEEE River...it' a huge river that flows around the whole park,you pick up a rubber tube, sit in, relax and the manmade current pulls you the whole way round...sssooo relaxing... My missus was the same with Rollercoasters but I managed to get her on The Hulk..ended up going on it 6 times. You could go to Magic Kingdom first and ease her into it. Space Mountain is very good, it's all in pitch darkness so you can't see the loop the loop and twists :-)) But it is tame enough... and she'll love it. if your doing MK then it's worth your while paying a bit extra and doing Disney studios. Aerosmith and Tower of Terror are there...worth it!! you'd go round the Studios in about 2 hours. One other thing, usually you go to MK and then to Disney village in the evening for a meal. Make sure you book it the minute you get to the park because you could be waiting 2 hours for dinner otherwise. So find a nice restuarant in the Village, get the phone number if it's closed in the morning and ring them the minute it opens. Otherwise you're going to be disappointed!!

[paul_oshea]

fair play parklife, thanks very much for all the info and you too obviously strange one. So you bought the add ons when you got there along with the entry tickets, but you just said earlier go to undercovertourist.com to get the passes so i wouldn't have to queue. not sure what you mean?!

K ive taken all this in and will def do those.

[ParkLife]

Ok.. I've had a more in-depth look for you regards tickets. Forget about the Flexticket as it's for 14 days and your only going for 7.
Go to www.universalorlando.com Get the 2 park unlimited access for IOA and Uni, for $99
and as your only going for 7 days I would recommend getting the fast pass too. Only thing with the fast pass is that it can only be used for one day AND you have to specify the day you want to use it when you buy the tickets.
You can get this for $26 from the same website...you can also print these tickets out before you leave Ireland. Make sure when you go on the rollercoasters you go to the Fast pass Q...some of the rides don't tell you where to go for the fast pass Q and you end up queueing with everyone else.
Just buy the Blizzard Beach tickets at the ticket office cos there's usually no queue to get in.
If your going to Magic Kingdom then I STRONGLY recommend buying before you go. Buy from either Disney world website or Undercovertourist ...1-day ticket.
That's 4 parks there..plus with the Universal ticket if your missus fancies shopping on her own one day you can head back to Universal for more rollercoasters cos you have unlimited access.
Univseral is 3 mins away from Intl Drive, the Disneys are about 20-30 mins drive away.
I've never hired a car..got a mini bus from the airport to the hotel, $5 cab ride to Universal, free shuttle buses to Disney parks, and the I-ride trolley($2) all along Intl Drive that also goes to Seaworld and Aquatica.

[paul_oshea]

cheers parklife def going with what you said. To be honest I like going to the outlet stores, but i might be able persuade her get me the stuff and back on the last day

Thanks again and hopefully this info will help someone else as well in the future. I really really cant wait

[ParkLife]

No probs...let me know how you get on. You lucky effer!!

[theworm2345]

im going at the end of september

I cant wait as i am the biggest kid ever and i love the states. Wondering about getting tickets for parks whats the cheapest way etc and whats worth going to/not going to?!

Haven't been in probably 10 years but you can't miss Disney World (and there I'd recommend the Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom at least those are the two I remember), Universal Studios is OK, maybe a little more exciting roller coasters (though I can't remember if I went in Florida or California), and the Everglades are interesting as well if you like wildlife (though make sure you get a reliable guide, I've heard of people who get brought in and then abandoned if they don't pay extra...and you won't find your way out).

As I recall the only way to get tickets was to just walk up and buy them, and they aren't cheap. You can also buy Fast Passes (or something like that) that let you cut in line on most rides and those are well worth it. Also if you can smuggle in food do it because food is also very expensive. Hell the whole damn thing is very expensive.

[paul_oshea]

Alright lads, thanks for all the advice and stuff.

I ended up not going to MGM, which is now known as Hollywood studios. We went to islands of adventure on saturday and then realised it would be better spent to go to the theme parks on the weekdays. Bought the express passes and then used them once then realised the best thing would probably be to wet them if i wanted to go on a few rides again, i.e. go on a wet ride so that when they scan they dont work and you can still get into the rides more than once(the express passes only get you in to 1 ride once) by explaining they were wet and that they werent scanning!!! Im sure im not the first person to think of this, but it did work. ANyway first ride I went on was the hulk, a good few people offline had told me it was class, but i was seriouslly deflated, it wasnt nearly fast enough and i didnt get that feeling in the stomach where the whole organs lift up. Next up I tried the yoke that flys into the air, ive been on a few of these in my times between six flags and alton towers and one around london, and all of these fired you up, but it was on the descent back down that you really felt them. THere was no quick descent back down and the ride was just about being shot up in the air.

Anyway not going to go on and on, but i think ye get what im getting at. I was let down quite a bit as i thought it was all rollercoasters as oppossed to theme based i.e. like six flags or alton towers. Some rides, like the simpsons, for example was really good, because of the animation but they were not scary or that fast. ON the last day we were told we shoudl have gone to busch gardens if we were looking for fast rollercoasters and plenty of them, a mate had mentioned it to us but we didnt think about it given the fact that no one else had. Anyway after reading about it it appears that would have been the one i would have best liked. The woman went on most of them which proves they weren't scary at all as she went on very few up in alton towers!!

We ended up getting in the following, blizzard beach, aquatica, magic kingdom, seaworld, islands of adventure, universal. We just didnt bother doing hollywood studios for the simple reason that we didnt think it would be worth the money and got enough idea based on what the others were like. Its definitely possible at the end of september to get a couple of parks in in a day if you get expresses passes, and you only want to go on a few of the rides twice. We were lucky in that sense, but we both thought that there is no way we would come when anyway busy, given the queuing that would be going on and then the actual averagness of the rides.

We hired a convertible in the end, all in it cost 170 for the week, and we could return the car empty of petrol as well(because we had gone for this gold inusrance even though i was unaware of that when booking it). Chrysler sebring, it was very good, but we broke the bloody thing at the end, we put in the suitcase before pulling down the hood and it broke it, i couldn't beleive what the whole thing hinges on, two flimsy peices of plastic, but as someone explained to me "thats chrysler manufacturing for you and hence why they are now owned by the people of America!". I would recommend a car to be honest during the period we went, you have complete freedom and we did over 350 miles for the week, without doing any big trips.

All in all, we had a nice week, it was a bit rushed, think parklife mentioned that you would not enjoy it if trying to fit too much in, not sure we tried to fit too many in but we were doing something everyday and a few relaxed days would have been nice as we were up very early every morning and quite tired by the end of the week. So i would recommend 2 weeks. I wouldn't recommend anyone to go who is solely going for the thrill of rollercoasters, check out sixflags instead to be honest, but if you like hte theme side of things is very impressive. The whole place was cheap enough as well, weather was great, hotel was basic but just what we wanted to be honest, just a base.

Again thanks for all the help lads.

[paul_oshea]

oh ya if people like the outlets, id recommend prime outlets, but know yer limits, i spent a serious amount in there on the sunday, way too much after spending over 400 dollars in abercrombie the night before...

[ParkLife]

Ah Paul, you should have told me your were a rollercoaster veteran... I would have suggested BG. But I thought the fact ye were only goin for a week and BG is in Tampa a few hours away...didn't think ye'd be bothered. Six flags is definitely a better place just for rides. But as you said yourself the whole "Theme" part of it is very good. What did you make of Aquatica?? I'm hopin to go in March..want to find out if it's worth going to.
Outside of your disappointment of the rides, anything else stand out for ye? highlights?
Did you do the Jaws ride ..ha..ha... can't believe that's still going.
Did you see the new Harry Potter Park??

[paul_oshea]

the harry potter park wasn't opened parklife, i spose looking back now i did enjoy it more than the post made out, but ya im a rollercoaster veteran so i spose i was going for that and then felt a bit deflated.

Aquatica is good, but not as good as blizzard beach. even if the two big rides in blizzard beach really hurt my ass. i mean seriouslly soar after them, i did them both a couple times more to see if it was just a once off but it wasn't i dont know what it was, maybe my ass is too skinny :d

I did the jaws ride, its funny, but its hard to imagine for those 7 or 8 mins he has to remain that animated the boat guy i mean Simpsons was definitely very good, seaworld rides were good too, nice and quick getting into too. we bought the fastpasses wherever possible.

The highlights would be islands of adventure probably, looking back the whole thing is a bit surreal like a city in itself if ye know what i mean. i think i would def go back for another week or something and do busch gardens deffo. The magic kingdowm was good, different like. Worth seeing anyway, was funny seeing all the kids crying as they were getting on the boat cos they didnt want to leave it and all the parents telling them they would be back evil parents.

I def wouldn't recommend that halloween thing its not scary at all you can see them all coming out and trying to scare the people in front of you, the places they come out of are too obvious as well if they came out of walls it would be far better.

WHat did you like about blizzard beach? There aren't as many good rides in aquatica to be honest, they sell it on the fact you swim under hte water where the dolphins are swimming, but you go down too fast you'll never see them. Its only one ride too though they tried to make out it was more than one!

One highlight of the holiday was we went to howl at the moon, i didnt realise it was a piano bar and put on a request for motley crue with no piano crap only guitars and yer man read it out and made an ass of me. BUt then later on the brits were getting all lairey and putting up money to get the band to change the lyrics to sweet home alabama to sweet home england, so i did my bit for my country and doubled their bet to $20 and they wouldn't match it. so he sang ireland a few a irish songs!!! all in all it was a money scheme for the band but anyway

[strangeirish]

Where did you eat out at and what did you think of the food?

[paul_oshea]

sorry strange one only got this now for some reason never copped it was there.

We went to that place you mentioned, nice wings alright, lovely sauce and generally not too greasy a place. Ate at houlihans, and a few other places, went to that howl at the moon place for a night out and a night out in orlando, but it wasn't great in orlando to be honest, but felt thats cos we didnt know where was good to go!!

Breakfast is the one place we didnt find anywhere too good, "welcome to friendlies", was funny most mornings but the closest to a normal breakfast was in some place i cant remember the name of but could tell you exactly where it is!!

Never knew the corral existed till this trip, have to say loved the place, proper home cooked food and vegetables and a great price. Only thing against it was the deserts as they were very synthetic. But ill definitely eat in them again for lunch when im over next, not a place for a romantic meal or a night out but good and pratical!!