Hi!
We have finally arrived in Florida. Wendy is super excited, she seems to have overloaded on sugar. This is going to be an interesting week….(#poormike)
Disney Springs
This is a great place to stay. It is cheaper than the official Disney Hotels, but you still get the perks. This includes Magic Hours and 60 days fast pass bookings in advanced (normal tickets only give 30 days). The Magic Hours allows you to enter certain parks earlier/later than the normal opening times. This means fewer people and fewer queues!
All the hotels here have shuttle buses to all the parks, including the waterparks. There are also buses to and from the hotels to Disney Springs. It’s only a 10 minute walk, so we never bothered with them. In the mornings, we got an Uber to the parks as we wanted to get on some rides early and just got a shuttle back. It costs around $12 to the parks and is much cheaper than driving. Parking at Disney costs $22 a day.
This area is also a great place for food, shopping, and entertainment. Some of the eateries also allow the Disney Dining Plan so it makes a nice change from the usual park food. It is also home to the world’s biggest Disney store. There is also a Guest Relations office here, where you can collect tickets and sort out any other Disney issues. Queues are much shorter here than the ones at the parks.
Another 10 mintues down the road, there is a shopping/retail area. Here you will find an array of different chain restaurants, mini golf and a supermarket.
Holiday Inn Orlando
We stayed at the Holiday Inn which is in the Disney Springs area. The hotel was really good. Our room was nice and spacious. There was a fridge/microwave and 2 Queen beds in the room. We also had a nice balcony. The swimming pool is also pretty big here. We only ate food at the restaurant once, but it was pretty good. The only downside to our stay was the housekeeping. They were rather hit/miss.
All in all, it’s probably better to stay at one of the Disney Spring Hotels. You have more freedom here to visit other places but still get the benefits.
We are off to Animal Kingdom tomorrow, see you then!