Thanks

I've booked a f/drive fortnight in Florida, second half of August ( I know, but I have 2 school age kids, plus my wife is a teacher so it had to be then). I'm looking for recomendations as to family friendly places other than Orlando, we've booked the 1st 3 nights in orlando (Disney Hotel) plus the last 3 nights on 192, already booked for Discovery Cove on one of the last 3 days. Aim is to spend the in-between 9 days/nights touring, ideally going as far south as we feel comfortable doing then back up the west coast, ideally finishing in the St petes area before going back to orlando. Any recommendations as to suitable places for a family with 2 girls (11 & 8 ). We don't mind beaches but we dont want to spend all day every day there. Wildlife is good but we are going to get our fill of Dolphins at Discovery Cove/St Pete's.

You might want to have a look at the Disney 3 or 4 night cruises that leave from Port Canaveral (about 1 hour from Orlando) to take you on a short relaxing cruise of the Bahamas. Not as expensive as you might think (especially with the current $ /£ exchange) and a great experience for kids & adults !

Book direct with Disney Cruise Line then transfer to a specialist US T/A such as Dreamsunlimited for some free onboard credits.

We liked the Sheraton at Sand Key near Clearwater Beach. It had the most awesome beach and the hotel itself had a lovely pool area. Your kids might enjoy the Sea Screamer boat trip out into the Gulf.

We liked The Registry Resort in Naples, which I think has now been renamed The Naples Grand Resort. Naples is probably a four hour drive from Orlando. The beach is stunning. You could do trips to everglades city to see the alligators and manatees from an airboat. There are plenty of restaurants, a large mall with good shopping and an animal park.

There is also an area called Tin City with resturants and bars, where boat trips leave from. You can go out on a twilight boat cruise for a couple of hours and once out in the gulf, dolphins often come and play in the wake of the boat, sometimes you see ospreys as well.

If anyone would like to post a review, please do so HERE.

Thanks.

Pippy

Looking for some advice please. Myself, partner and 6 year old son are going toOrlando 28th April for 2 weeks. My Partner thinks that it won't be very warm in the nights at that time of the year, is he correct? I thought it would be reasonably hot. The second thing is if we all want to go on a ride together at the parks we'll obviously have to leave bags unattended. I have quite an expensice camera which I'd love to use. Would it be resonably secure or would I be better off taking a cheaper camera. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Looking for some advice please. Myself, partner and 6 year old son are going toOrlando 28th April for 2 weeks. My Partner thinks that it won't be very warm in the nights at that time of the year, is he correct? I thought it would be reasonably hot. The second thing is if we all want to go on a ride together at the parks we'll obviously have to leave bags unattended. I have quite an expensice camera which I'd love to use. Would it be resonably secure or would I be better off taking a cheaper camera. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

1. 28th April equates to the first 2 weeks in May and i can say with a lot of confidence that it will not be cold at nights at all. Only place it may be chilly is indoors in the air conditioning.

Here is the Almanac for 29th April 2006 showing an overnight low of 16C :
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KISM/2006/4/29/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA

2. Certain rides have lockers and others have like a netting thing in the car itself to place you stuff. There aren't really that many particularly rough rides, especially not that a 6 year old would be big enough to be allowed on.

A lot of the rides have height restrictions so the 6 yr old may not be able to get on all that you want to go on.

Hi.

Me and my girlfriend want to go to florida in Sept 07. Can anyone recommend who to go with?

We want to stay on I Drive, have a hire car and preferably fly from Gatwick.

Thanks for your help.

I would try Travel City Direct...go for a late deal if you can be flexible ...they have some cracking last minute offers about a month before. really cheap.

We've always been more than happy with Virgin Hols and Virgin Atlantic, we stayed at the Wyndham on I Drive and found it was in a very convenient location for everything, best thing for hols is to shop around on the web....just lately I have found that some packages work out cheaper than DIY! Good luck!

Me and my girlfriend are looking to book to go to Orlando in September, we will not be driving at all and wanted to enquiry as to how easy it is to get around,, We are possibly thinking of staying at the Clarion hotel or the fountains... What is the best for getting to places, a. to eat and go out and b. the themeparks. We were looking at tiki liki as well and does anybody have any info about this hotel.. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have no idea what I am doing..... thanks

if you are not driving then i would advise staying on i drive as i found it easy enough to get to were i wanted to go . if you are planning on going to disney look for a hotel that does the free shuttle. you can use the i ride trolley bus to get to seaworld and the outlet stores and the lynx bus to go to florida mall.depending on were you stay on i drive you could maybe walk to universal. i know the quality suites on canada avenue do the free shuttles to all the parks and it is a nice hotel just behind i drive at the junction with sandlake road. if you go to http://www.iridetrolley.com it will give you an idea of were the hotels are situated.

forgot to say you need to click on trolleymarkermap and it tells you what hotel is near which trolley stop.

Hi, need some help. It is my husband's 50th next year and we we are wanting to go to Florida. Two adults and one child aged 10 is our family and 2 adults and 1 child aged 12 which is my sister's family. We want to go to International Drive, to a hotel for two weeks. Our family then want to go to the coast for a week on our own as my husband water-skis. Can anybody help me with:

1. A good family hotel for us to stay in at International Drive.
2. The best "beach resort" for our week for the water-sking.

We will be sticking to a budget and need good value for money!!

Thanks in advance

Can anyone tell me if £700.00 is enugh for a 2 week holiday in orlando,
i am staying on I Drive, and i have got my disney and universal tickets so it will just be for food etc. This is just for me too.... hope some sone can help i go in 3 weeks time

Hi partygirl24, lucky you! We're not going til September.

You can spend as much as you want in Orlando, and usually much more than you want to! You'll find that the food in the parks is more expensive than outside so if you are watching your pennies that's something to bear in mind.

If you are driving, parking at the parks adds up every day so if you can get a free shuttle from the hotel (if they do one) that keeps the cost down. The only thing we have found is that they do get full. The trolley on I-Drive is good for SeaWorld and Universal and only costs $1.

There are so many different places to eat that you can do it on a budget or splash out.

Then there's the temptation of 'just one more Mickey' in the shops! The merchandise is more expensive inside the parks so if you do want to buy anything look around at the malls for discounts.

Hope that helps.

Hi Party Girl,we are also going to Orlando in 3 weeeks
as Blonde Puff has said you can spend spend spend or
budget and take it easy,we normally take some rolls
and fruit to the parks as the food is quite expesive and
you have to queue so could waste time when you could
be on the rides, Eating outside the parks is reasonable
with lots to choose from,the breakfasts in places like the
Ponderosa , Denny,s ect are good value you can fill up and
last the day.
Have a great time its our 5th holiday there and you always
want to go back
ANN