Florida & Disney

Author
Discussion

Sheepshanks

32,901 posts

120 months

Saturday 30th December 2023
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Trustmeimadoctor said:
New move over law in Florida from the 1st
https://www.flhsmv.gov/safety-center/driving-safet...
Been the law for some years, hasn’t it? For a while Police were busting tourists coming out of MCO.

Trustmeimadoctor

12,681 posts

156 months

Saturday 30th December 2023
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Was just emergency vehicles and recovery vehicles before now it's everything basically unless there isn't anyone with the vehicle

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/traffic/article28...

Sheepshanks

32,901 posts

120 months

Saturday 30th December 2023
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Ah - would have helpful if they’d highlighted that in the release!

Trustmeimadoctor

12,681 posts

156 months

Saturday 30th December 2023
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Indeed and still all the bits I've read I'm still not 100% so I'm just going with anything on side of road pull out!

Sheepshanks

32,901 posts

120 months

Saturday 30th December 2023
quotequote all
Trustmeimadoctor said:
Indeed and still all the bits I've read I'm still not 100% so I'm just going with anything on side of road pull out!
I've always done that in the UK anyway, where possible. You don't want to be skimming past vehicles on the hard shoulder.

Trustmeimadoctor

12,681 posts

156 months

Saturday 30th December 2023
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I do the same here as obviously no undertaking makes it sensible but this is Florida I can see this causing more accidents as people start doing this wink

RosscoPCole

Original Poster:

3,335 posts

175 months

Thursday 18th January
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A few questions. The more I read into visiting Disney World the more it sounds like you have to plan it like a military operation, with when to do each ride you want to do to avoid queues, etc.
Is this correct or can you be a bit more chilled and be a bit more ad hoc with your planning?

Trustmeimadoctor

12,681 posts

156 months

Thursday 18th January
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No you can't

Or well you can but you will quite likely end up having a much worse time

Sheepshanks

32,901 posts

120 months

Thursday 18th January
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RosscoPCole said:
A few questions. The more I read into visiting Disney World the more it sounds like you have to plan it like a military operation, with when to do each ride you want to do to avoid queues, etc.
Is this correct or can you be a bit more chilled and be a bit more ad hoc with your planning?
It’s up to you but if you don’t plan you’ll waste a lot of time and you’ll have spent quite a lot of money to be there.

I think they’ve just stopped needing to make park reservations so that will allow a more ad hoc approach. It used to be a right pain if you stayed on site and had included dining as you had to book most decent restaurants as soon as reservations opened 6 mths out, so you had to have your holiday pretty well planned by then.

Don’t forget to step up everyone’s training schedule as the trip approaches.

Fast and Spurious

1,351 posts

89 months

Thursday 18th January
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Sheepshanks said:
It’s up to you but if you don’t plan you’ll waste a lot of time and you’ll have spent quite a lot of money to be there.

I think they’ve just stopped needing to make park reservations so that will allow a more ad hoc approach. It used to be a right pain if you stayed on site and had included dining as you had to book most decent restaurants as soon as reservations opened 6 mths out, so you had to have your holiday pretty well planned by then.

Don’t forget to step up everyone’s training schedule as the trip approaches.
Doesn't sound like a holiday to me!

Actual

777 posts

107 months

Friday 19th January
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Walt Disney World in Winter is great but it does mean leaving the house in the dark to arrive for park opening.

Trustmeimadoctor

12,681 posts

156 months

Friday 19th January
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daylight starts at 07.18 on 1st jan and no earlier that 06:27 in June so pretty much all year you may be starting before daylight

Sheepshanks

32,901 posts

120 months

Friday 19th January
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Actual said:
Walt Disney World in Winter is great but it does mean leaving the house in the dark to arrive for park opening.
One year we went in October and it was unusually busy so they were extending park hours at short notice.

We had 7AM early entry to Magic Kingdom and it was certainty pretty weird getting up at 5.30! It did mean we had a good 2hrs of very few people in the park as few offsite visitors knew normal opening had been moved forward to 8AM.

Trustmeimadoctor

12,681 posts

156 months

Friday 19th January
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Fast and Spurious said:
Sheepshanks said:
It’s up to you but if you don’t plan you’ll waste a lot of time and you’ll have spent quite a lot of money to be there.

I think they’ve just stopped needing to make park reservations so that will allow a more ad hoc approach. It used to be a right pain if you stayed on site and had included dining as you had to book most decent restaurants as soon as reservations opened 6 mths out, so you had to have your holiday pretty well planned by then.

Don’t forget to step up everyone’s training schedule as the trip approaches.
Doesn't sound like a holiday to me!
Disney isn't a holiday
It's an endurance exercise for both your mental and physical aspects

The old joke of needing a holiday to get over a holiday has never been more true than Disney especially if your unfortunately taking kids too

ecsrobin

17,198 posts

166 months

Friday 19th January
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Trustmeimadoctor said:
Disney isn't a holiday
It's an endurance exercise for both your mental and physical aspects

The old joke of needing a holiday to get over a holiday has never been more true than Disney especially if your unfortunately taking kids too
+1.

Universal is a bit more chilled.

alscar

4,230 posts

214 months

Friday 19th January
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This was posted previously by Trustme…

“Disney isn't a holiday
It's an endurance exercise for both your mental and physical aspects

The old joke of needing a holiday to get over a holiday has never been more true than Disney especially if your unfortunately taking kids too”

So true.
We took the kids 3 times and each time stayed 2 weeks on site - Polynesian resort the last 2 times.
Having the ability to relatively quickly go back to the hotel each day to chill or whatever for a few hours made it so much easier on us all.

RosscoPCole

Original Poster:

3,335 posts

175 months

Friday 19th January
quotequote all
alscar said:
This was posted previously by Trustme…

“Disney isn't a holiday
It's an endurance exercise for both your mental and physical aspects

The old joke of needing a holiday to get over a holiday has never been more true than Disney especially if your unfortunately taking kids too”

So true.
We took the kids 3 times and each time stayed 2 weeks on site - Polynesian resort the last 2 times.
Having the ability to relatively quickly go back to the hotel each day to chill or whatever for a few hours made it so much easier on us all.
We have 5 nights booked at the Disney Carribean Beach Resort as it has the Skyliner that takes you into the park. Then we have 9 nights in a villa at Kissimmee. The days staying in Disney will be the busy ones. We can the decide what to do. A must is Kennedy Space Center. As I said in a previous post our travel agent is very knowledgeable and helpful.

Matt Harper

6,631 posts

202 months

Friday 19th January
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Just a quick personal experience, regarding KSC.

I have lived in Central FL since 2001 and visited KSC a few times over the years - mainly to accompany visiting relatives and a couple of Shuttle launches.

I have a younger brother, who lives in Tampa and he'd never been, so we decided to go between Christmas and New Year 2023. We figured it would be pretty quiet. which it wasn't. Silly buggers that we are, we picked a day when there were two rocket launches scheduled - the crowds were extensive.

One of the main attractions for us was the Saturn V exhibit, but it closed early, because it is used as a viewing area for SpaceX launches, so we didn't get to experience it - shame, because, although I'd seen it years ago, my brother hadn't and it genuinely is a mind-melter.

That said, the Atlantis exhibit was new for me and is a very impressive experience, despite the crowd.







The point of this? Check the schedule for the day(s) you plan to visit - launches have become pretty routine these days (so much so, that we don't even bother watching from our back yard anymore).

Also, it was very obvious that a lot of visitors were following their SatNav directions to Kennedy Space Center - and not Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Don't do that....

Trustmeimadoctor

12,681 posts

156 months

Saturday 20th January
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Matt Harper said:
Also, it was very obvious that a lot of visitors were following their SatNav directions to Kennedy Space Center - and not Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Don't do that....
I dunno, the men with the guns I'm sure are very friendly wink

ecsrobin

17,198 posts

166 months

Saturday 20th January
quotequote all
Matt Harper said:
Just a quick personal experience, regarding KSC.

I have lived in Central FL since 2001 and visited KSC a few times over the years - mainly to accompany visiting relatives and a couple of Shuttle launches.

I have a younger brother, who lives in Tampa and he'd never been, so we decided to go between Christmas and New Year 2023. We figured it would be pretty quiet. which it wasn't. Silly buggers that we are, we picked a day when there were two rocket launches scheduled - the crowds were extensive.

One of the main attractions for us was the Saturn V exhibit, but it closed early, because it is used as a viewing area for SpaceX launches, so we didn't get to experience it - shame, because, although I'd seen it years ago, my brother hadn't and it genuinely is a mind-melter.

That said, the Atlantis exhibit was new for me and is a very impressive experience, despite the crowd.







The point of this? Check the schedule for the day(s) you plan to visit - launches have become pretty routine these days (so much so, that we don't even bother watching from our back yard anymore).

Also, it was very obvious that a lot of visitors were following their SatNav directions to Kennedy Space Center - and not Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Don't do that....
The tip we were given and applied for KSC was to jump on the coaches first and tick off the Saturn V, that way its not only quiet but there was no line for the buses there or back. Then continue with the rest of the attractions. Worked well for us at Easter.