Florida For Family Of 3 - October

[Tony Angelino]

yellowbentines said:

He might enjoy an airboat ride if it's not on the itinerary already? We've been here, a slight detour on the way to the East coast http://www.airboatridesatmidway.com/

What about kayaking? We are also away in 4 weeks and plan trying this out http://www.grandelakes.com/resort-activities/Eco-T...

Yes we looked at the airboat rides - not this particular one but something very similar. Think due to time it's going to be either this or the Dolphin swim. As has been said above it's not particularly cheap but $750 gets us all our snap for the day as well and seen as we are budgeting $200 per day for food and spend it's probably worth the stretch.

Nice problem to have, deciding which to go for!

[Thankyou4calling]

Floridatix are doing a Discovery cove swim ticket with unlimited 14 day access to Seaworld, Aquatica and parking for £189. One day at each bought singly would cost you close to £240.

That's a fair few days covered.

The airboat ride isn't a full day but a really good 3 hours, a very good tour indeed and good value.

[Challo]

We are off next week and have the main bit planned. Been before so we are not worried about Seaworld or Discovery Cove. A friend did the Dolphin swim before but im not sure its worth the money. You go at a set time, normally 5 or 6 in a group and the dolphin does jumps and tricks round you, then you take it in turns to hold the fin while they take you 5-10 metres back to shore. Discovery Cove in general is ok but I wouldn't pay extra for the dolphin swim.

If you are going to Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure make sure you get the park2park ticket as you can then use the Hogwarts Express to go between the to parks.

We are visiting a Giraffe Ranch, Kennedy Space Centre, and also doing a swamp tour on an airboat which will be cool.

Also take a look at the Mall of Millenia which is worth a wander round, plus you have the 2 main outlets as well.

[Tony Angelino]

Challo said:

We are off next week and have the main bit planned. Been before so we are not worried about Seaworld or Discovery Cove. A friend did the Dolphin swim before but im not sure its worth the money. You go at a set time, normally 5 or 6 in a group and the dolphin does jumps and tricks round you, then you take it in turns to hold the fin while they take you 5-10 metres back to shore. Discovery Cove in general is ok but I wouldn't pay extra for the dolphin swim.

If you are going to Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure make sure you get the park2park ticket as you can then use the Hogwarts Express to go between the to parks.

We are visiting a Giraffe Ranch, Kennedy Space Centre, and also doing a swamp tour on an airboat which will be cool.

Also take a look at the Mall of Millenia which is worth a wander round, plus you have the 2 main outlets as well.

Thanks. Been thinking and were probably going to give discovery cove a miss due to us only been there 10 days and it being a bit on the pricey side. We've got universal tickets for the whole trip but not sure about if we get the hog warts tickets. Thanks for the tip will look at that.

[Tony Angelino]

Here at the moment, great week for our first trip to Florida!

[B'stard Child]

Tony Angelino said:

Here at the moment, great week for our first trip to Florida!

Ouch - that could have worked out better!!!

[Tony Angelino]

B'stard Child said:

Ouch - that could have worked out better!!!

So far it's been great! Parks almost empty yesterday (Seaworld) and today (Islands of Adventure & Universal) walked onto almost every ride other than Hogwarts express. Walmart was mental though yesterday with no water or bread left.

Under curfew now (as of 10pm) until Saturday 7am, packed a bag just incase.......

[h0b0]

I was in West Palm beach and Disney last week. It rained a bit but most of the time it was far too bloody hot and humid. I know that does not help the OP and comes as no surprise to most but I have confirmed that Florida can be hot at times.

Good luck OP. I have experienced a few hurricanes and it is intense.

[Tony Angelino]

Half past 5 here now and all good. 4am this morning glued to rolling news channels and it had taken a slight turn towards land and it looked for a while like it could be a direct hit only for it to move back out to sea again and not actually come over land so we got away pretty much unscathed. Have to say the hotel have been fantastic, keeping us informed all the time, changing restaurant menus to buffet only to make sure everybody got fed (hotel rammed, we've actually had people from the coast evacuating to here) and putting on entertainment for kids (loads of films on big screen) and for adults too (live music and a dj). It's made us appreciate how important it must be to be in a decent hotel if something like this does strike cos we would have absolutely shat ourselves had we been in a villa somewhere left to fend for ourselves.

I watched the storm as it passed through about 9am from our 6th floor room and you couldn't hear a peep from it and we probably underestimated how bad it actually was because when we went outside (at least under the veranda as far as we could) we appreciated just how strong it was.

Curfew lifted now and talk of city walk been open from 6pm but we'll just have some snap in hotel and have an early night ready to blitz the parks tomorrow nice and early refreshed after our rest day.