Discussions

looking for information or insight into Disneyworld questions from local people.  
Going with 3 teenagers and wondering what do we want to see ?  
Is universal worth $200 per person per day ? or is it geared towards younger ?  
What is a must in Florida ?  
What is not worth it ?  
Looking to make the most of the two weeks there but also looking for cost effective.  
 
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

This is a very subjective question, as everyone will have their own likes and dislikes. My family enjoyed Universal over Disneyworld. Our then-12-year-old was quite bored at Disney. We enjoyed the shows more than the rides and found them much more worth the wait.  
At Universal BE CAREFUL if considering buying the add-on of an express pass. We specifically asked what rides were i:ncluded and were not told the truth. You can get two or three different kinds of maps of the site, one of which shows exactly what rides will honor the express pass and what won't.

I liked Universal Studios way more than Disney. Our kids were tweens and were bored at Disney and had no interest in princesses. The rides are way cooler at Universal and when we went the line ups weren’t nearly as long as Disney. I wouldn’t spend money at Disneyworld again.

With teenagers - Universal is worth the money and give more thrills and entertainment. Disney will probably be a "we saw it and now what" experience.  
 
Seaworld was well liked by our family.  
Check out a dinner show that is themed to your family's interest...lots of options.  
A water park for a day.  
Lots of elaborate mini golfs that are budget friendly.  
Take a drive to Tampa to Busch Gardens - In my opinion this is the best park of them all.  
There will be a million tourist trap attractions so you just have to do the research and go with what your family likes. With two weeks you have lots of time so unless your just wanting to soak up the sunshine you will be spending money on entertainment.  
 
Accomodations - I would recommend renting a house/villa with a private pool. Saves money on eating out and many days the kids just wanted to skip the parks and head back to the house to chill at the pool.

The Disney water parks are fun too. More action rides at Universal. Our fave Disney parks were Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.

We have been there 4 times, the last 2 times with teenagers. I personally love Disney, but as teenagers they were a bit bored there really, as they love thrill rides. They did really like Animal Kingdom, and the water parks. Epcot is really neat if you're into learning about and experiencing different cultures. My teens loved Universal so much! A lot of rides, and geared more towards older kids in my opinion. Well worth the money. We also took the drive to Tampa last time and spent a day at Busch Gardens - it's roller coasters and a zoo, all in one. Teens loved that! We also continued on and spent a day at Clearwater Beach by Tampa - most beautiful sand I've ever seen, lots of neat shops. Teens liked that too. We went to Discovery Cove as well to swim with the dolphins - crazy expensive but a once in a lifetime experience! And it's all inclusive, so the kids thought that was cool. And never crowded, as they only let so many people in each day, hence the high price. But included in the price at that time was a 10 day pass to SeaWorld and Aquatica (SeaWorld's waterpark) which was super awesome as well. So much to do, so little time! We rented a townhouse in Davenport through VRBO (just have to make sure there are lots of positive reviews) and it was so much better than a hotel - everyone had their own space, full kitchen for cooking, had a pool and hot tub, and way cheaper than a hotel for our family of 6.

On universal....tweens loved it and found magic kingdom boring. They did like Epcot and the Disney Hollywood one, but overall we found ourselves wishing we have an extra day at universal and had dropped Disney for one.

I'm a huge Disney fan and love spending as much time as possible there. My husband and I chose to not go to Universal with the rest of the family because we aren't huge fans of big roller coasters.  
If your family loves Harry Potter, Universal is a must go. Lots of thrill rides. More geared towards teens and older.  
It is pricy but would be worth it.  
 
Disney is amazing! Animal Kingdom has Expedition Everest which is a fun roller coaster. Hollywood Studios, has Tower of Terror and Rockin' Rollercoaster.  
 
It all truly depends on what your family enjoys together. If you haven't seen the ocean, take a day and drive over.  
 
The main thing is to take time to enjoy everything! Make sure you plan ahead of time your absolute must see and do. That will help when planning out your days!  
 
If you have any questions, you can pm me and I can maybe give some tips!

We went with 3 teens and a preteen. We did Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom - didn’t do Hollywood Studios but wished we had done it instead of Epcot! We went to SeaWorld and it was Awesome - our favourite day! NASA was a close second - but you have to be into that sort of thing. We went to Universal but only did one park not Both - we did the Universal Studios - Scooby Doo/Simpsons etc! Island of Adventures has the Harry Potter stuff. We liked Universal Studios because our kids are big Scooby Doo Fans and because of cost it would of been close to 200 per person for both!  
Also rent a house or condo - saves huge dollars on food and you can get away from everything for some private quiet time.

We went to Sea World, Universal Studios, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and the Coca-Cola Experience (the Orlando Eye/Madame Trousseau's Wax Museum.  
 
We were two adults two pre-teens.  
 
There really wasn't a skip it moment. Every park has a unique feel to it and I could recommend being at everyone of them for one reason or another.  
If you can get fast passes for Disney, that can cut down on some of the wait time. We got memory maker photo pass as well and were really happy with it but if you're family isn't into the picture with characters or the scenic parts you can save yourself some money there.  
Some must do's if you can:  
 
- Magic Kingdom Night time fireworks, they're awesome, like they ruined fireworks for me forever awesome.  
- Seven dwarfs roller coaster is worth the wait. Space mountain was down for us but maybe it'll be up for you.  
 
Hollywood Studios - Tower of terror is worth the wait, and if you have memory maker photo-pass you can get your reaction shots from the ride at the end. Toy story land, I wish we got to check that out. There's also some cool looking roller coasters there but our kids weren't into them. We checked out a couple live shows, like Beauty and the Beast and the Storm troopers marching, that was also cool.  
 
Animal Kingdom - Night time Safari is awesome, the animals are more active at night and early morning so if you're going to do the safari and you should those are the good times to go. The bugs life experience is awesome you need to check that out. Expedition Everest was our youngest favorite roller coaster of the entire trip. Another ride that you can use your memory maker pass on.  
 
Orlando Eye - 400 foot tall century wheel, highest point in Orlando. Was worth it at night. The wax museum was also a lot of fun, like more fun than we expected. Every interactive.  
 
Universal - Be prepared to get wet, there's a lot of cool water rides there. We sun dried but you can pay for towels and dray stalls and stuff. Simpsons ride was a must do, checking out Harry Potter land was also a lot of fun. Take the train from London to Hogwarts or vise versa. Butter beer was neat but it was also pretty pricey could maybe give that a miss if you're not a super big fan. Also parking garage, only place we had our vehicle out of the sun.  
 
Sea World - Was our last day and to be honest was the perfect way to end our trip, it's chill We managed to see the dolphin and killer whale shows, watch the sea turtles be fed fed sea lions and sting rays, got to see the baby dolphins, there's also some crazy looking coasters there as well.  
 
Some general things, take sun screen, we went mid-November and it was the low 30s the whole time. Be prepared to walk. All the parks are huge. It's quite the walk just to get into them. Good shoes are a must. If you can manage take a backpack with water bottles and snacks.  
Orlando is kind of in the middle of the state, you can check out Busch Gardens in Tampa an hour to the west and Cape Canaveral about an hour to the East. We wanted to but never ended up doing either because there was literally so much to do just in Orlando.  
 
Most importantly, this is your trip, Good value is going to be entirely up to you guys.

We just got back last week!! The weather is hot right now. Universal is definitely worth the money with crazy roller coasters for teens. Magic Kingdom has smaller rides but there is so much to take in to give you the Disney experience  
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