FLORIDA IN DECEMBER

Well I’m back and a great time was had by all!

I have been to Florida before on several occasions but never at this time of year.  I wondered if we would find it chilly on an evening as stats tend to give a fairly large temperature variance but I need not have worried. Most days it was around 87F in the day and around 79F in the evening. This was great as the summer temperatures I was used to had been very hot to walk round Disney and queue for rides etc. Other than the more bearable weather why should you go at this time of year? Well Christmas of course. We arrived at the end of November so Thanks giving was out of the way and everywhere was getting ready for Christmas.

Disney being no exception. Everywhere had the most impressive Christmas trees and decorations.

Plus, from the end of November up to Christmas they have the Mickeys Very Merry Christmas nights. You do have to pay extra for this at around a $105 per adult although you don’t actually have to have a park tickets as well so if you weren’t going to do Disney you could just do this on its own. They take place at Magic Kingdom and start at 7pm to midnight. You can enter the park with your ticket from 5pm. There are lots of free treats around the park like Hot chocolate and cookies etc at various locations as you walk round. All the rides are open and the shops of course. There is a fantastic Christmas Parade and the highlight is the special Wishes Firework display which is extended for the Merry Christmas night. Not to be missed.  It also snows on main street twice a night as well which was novel.

Florida is a great place to get those last-minute Christmas bargains, with the premium outlets having lots of sales on designer goods. Despite the exchange rate being appalling we managed some great savings on Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Converse and Crocs and came away with lots of bags to show for a few hours shopping. Definitely go to the premium outlets though, not Florida Mall as prices here were expensive in comparison.

We had a couple of days at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon, soaking up the sun and enjoying the pools and slides etc. Bear in mind if you do go in the winter months that Disney close one water-park each year. This year was the turn of Blizzard Beach, so next year will be Typhoon Lagoon. SeaWorld’s Aquatica is still open and from next year you will be able to visit the new Universal Volcano Bay water-park as well. It is important to have these chill out days especially if you are hitting the parks.

The Kilimanjaro Safari in Animal kingdom is a must if you love animals.

Top Tips:

Sign up to Disney Experience online. Make sure you add all your park passes etc to this.

Fast Passes: Around 4 weeks before you go you can start booking fast passes. If you like to get organised. Choose the days you are going to which parks and book those 3 fast passes a day. If you don’t like to be that organised, then you can wait until you arrive. You can still access the fast passing on your account either online or via the Disney app and book your passes as you go.  Certain rides will be booked up if you do this. The one we struggled most with was the new frozen Ride at Epcot. This was never available to fast pass through our stay so we queued for 1 hour and 30 minutes to get one.

The app is great as it lets you see what the wait times are on each ride while you are in the parks without having to walk all the way over to them to check.

Disney Magic Bands. These are something I had not seen before. We paid $13 each to get the bands when we went to collect our tickets on the first day but they were worth it. You just pop them on and they give you entry to all the parks. You do get the cards as well as a backup in case anyone loses their band. They are waterproof so you can wear them to the waterparks too. Just so much more convenient than the cards.

Memory Maker. This is also great. Ours was included in our park tickets for Disney so look out for this offer. If not, you must purchase it. It means anywhere in the parks where you see the Disney Photographers, like in front of certain landmarks, on rides or with characters you get your photo taken and it will digitally upload to your account. You can then download them onto your phone. In addition, Disney go in and add little tweaks like Disney characters which magically walk into shot or borders on photos. The Photographer make ask you to hold out your hand flat, then when you look at the picture online you will have Tinkerbelle or something else on your hand. Its great fun. Plus, you get professional photos of the whole family to keep. When you go on the rides if you have the Magic Bands it automatically knows you have been on and downloads the pictures to your memory maker accounts too.

Budget Tip: Take A Drink. My top tip is to take a bottle of water or drink into the park with you and a sandwich for lunch. In the parks, you will pay $3 for water and $3.70 for soda. Disney have no problem with you taking drink or food into the parks with you so if you are counting the pennies, save yourself some money.

Animal Kingdoms Kali River Rapids Ride: If you don’t like getting wet, Don’t’ ride. You can try a poncho but it still might not keep you dry. I love it but lots don’t. We were drenched.

If you are going and have any specific questions let me know and I will be happy to answer them.

If you are thinking of booking a cruise around the Caribbean I can tag an Orlando Stay on to your trip for you.