Planning a Trip to Orlando from the UK |a British Family Holiday to Disney and Universal
The planning and organising for an American Disney holiday, for us as a family from the UK was so much more involved than any other trip or holiday I’ve ever got ready for. From choosing where to stay, deciding what to pack and knowing what we needed or should book in advance – to me, being totally honest – it all felt like a bit overwhelming at the beginning and I didn’t know where to start.
On top of the pre holiday planning, having never been on a Disney world family holiday before, I also had no idea what to expect once we got there. Now we are home from our holiday to Disney and Universal Studios in Orlando, as I benefitted so much from reading other families documenting their holidays online, I thought I’d share my experiences too.
I’ve also found that after visiting so many different theme parks and staying at two different resorts during our stay, I’ve had so much to say and share, that whereas normally, I’d write one blog about our time away, instead this time – my one blog post has now turned into lots of different guides, reviews and posts, detailing different aspects of our holiday to Florida from England.
This blog therefore is a way to bring all of my tips and reviews, I’d written since we got back, alongside a few mini diary entries of our time at both Disney and Universal Studios resorts and parks all together.
So, if you are heading to Disney World Orlando and/or Universal Studios from the UK, here’s what I found out before I went, what was really helpful when we were there and what we thought of the whole experience as Florida first timers…
Booking Park Days and Restaurants in Advance at Disney World
Lets start with what I booked in advance. Our holiday was in May 2022, so at our time of booking and going, Disney World park tickets needed to be booked in advance. Before starting to research I have to confess my image of Disney World was of a massive theme park surrounding the Magic Kingdom Castle, I had no idea there were actually four different Disney World theme parks, within Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando – There’s The Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. After doing some research I found out that the Magic Kingdom is the largest and most popular, so we booked two days there and one at each of the others. There are also two water parks and a shopping district called Disney Springs, but these don’t need advance booking.
Universal Studios also doesn’t need to be booked in advance. So for our six days in Disney (we were going for a total of ten days, but had already split this into six at Disney and four in Universal) we had five days booked at the parks and one day left remaining to visit a water park. We found this balance worked really well and although I’d read good and bad reviews about some of the smaller parks such as Epcot, visiting this park was actually one of the highlights of our trip.
I do think if you can though, it’s worth booking in two days to visit Magic Kingdom as there’s so much to see and do there. We went there on our first full day and it felt magical having our first ever Disney experience there with the castle. We then came back on our last day late afternoon, to go on rides we hadn’t experienced before and to then watch the evening fireworks, which really felt an amazing way to finish our time at Disney.
I have also shared more about our park days over on my two mini Disney diaries:
A Day at Epcot Eating our Way Around the World
A Lazy Afternoon at the Pool Before Avoiding the Crowds On Our Evening Trip to the Animal Kingdom
Booking Restaurants Before you go to Disney World For the First Time
Once our holiday had been booked, our travel agent also suggested we book dinner reservations at the parks we were visiting in advance and also dinner bookings if we wanted them for the restaurant at our hotel. At our time of booking you could do these 90 days before visiting in your online Disney account. It was all pretty straight forward and I found this easiest on desktop rather than on my phone, as the availability kept freezing on the phone app when I tried it that way. As first timers I didn’t have certain restaurants in mind, so didn’t mind when the most popular had already gone, but I was surprised at how quickly a lot of the reservation times got booked up across all of the restaurants, so I’d advise booking as soon as you can.
I booked lunch rather than dinner most days and I’m really glad I did. It was nice having that break in the middle of the day to cool down and rest in the air con for a while. There were a few times the kids were really flagging by the time lunchtime came and that break inside really perked them up for another afternoon of lots of walking in the sunshine.
As brits going to Florida Disney for the first time, there were lots of tips I’d read before going and while we were there, that were really helpful. So many in fact I’ve pulled them all together with some extra tips from Disney regulars in this guide – 36 Tips for UK Families Visiting Disney Florida
There’s certainly a lot to think about and plan before going to Disney from the UK and since being home I’ve found out about Fabulous Park Days, a company that sells Disney World guides specifically for UK and Ireland visitors. I would have loved one of these before going, as they detail everything you need to know and do before going, for British families. Andrea from Fabulous Park Days has written a post all about the mistakes to avoid when visiting Disney World, and you can also find out all about the guides over on their website – Fabulous Park Days
One of the tips I found helpful was buying some Disney themed clothes here in the UK before going – there’s so many shops that do Disney ranges – here’s my top picks of what’s around on the high street at the moment. Click on any of the items below you like to be taken over to the brand websites…
Preparing for Flights to Florida as a Family From the UK
Normally I’d start a holiday blog once we’d arrived, but with not flying abroad for so long, and going away feeling such a bigger deal since COVID, I thought I’d also share what the getting ready to go away was like too.
It’s funny, I’ve flown many times with kids and even juggled a few long haul flights alone with my two children, yet despite them being older and this time travelling all together, the lead up felt such a big deal. First up, the pressure of all having to have COVID lateral flow tests a day before took away a lot of my normal holiday excitement. Even more than that though, I had so many nerves around getting everything right with all the different pretravel documentation and thoughts of the journey going smoothly.
Mini Disney Diary – Flight Day
Flight day has actually been way easier than I thought. The tests felt a bit frantic getting it all timed correctly, but we were all negative so that’s the main thing and actually the whole process was pretty straight forward.
We flew Virgin and all we needed to do was show our printed COVID certificates and the NHS passes on our phone at the beginning of the bag drop queue before we went through to departures. It felt easy and simple and way less of a big deal than I’d built up in my head.
The flight was fine – long, but then we were delayed an hour at the gate and a further half hour sitting on the runway waiting to take off.
Once we were up and away though it was great. We flew Premium Economy and the bigger seats felt worth it, especially with all the kids stuff and just being able to stretch out a bit and relax while watching a film. I have shared all about our experiences of flying with Virgin Atlantic over on another post – Is it Worth Flying Virgin Premium Economy with Kids
Once arriving in Florida, our airport and transfer experience was all very straightforward and simple.
We stayed onsite at the Disney Animal Kingdom Lodge which we loved you can read all about our stay over in my review – What’s the Animal Kingdom Lodge Hotel Like for family holidays ?
There is so much to say about our ten days in Orlando and in fact so much we learnt and enjoyed as well as using tips from others, that its become a whole post of its own too – Our Top Tips for a Disney and Universal Holiday from the UK
In conclusion it was an amazing, busy but also sometimes exhausting and hectic holiday – one like no other, where we have been left with memories to last a lifetime.
