Yeh the park tickets we're the most expensive thing last year to pay in one go. Doesn't help that with the weak pound against the dollar, the ticket prices have risen.

Saying that, in the past few days, Disney have dropped their Ultimate ticket prices slightly

We found accommodation surprisingly cheap this year, especially in the Lake Buena Vista area. The tickets weren't so bad when we booked 'em, which was...February time I believe, but they've been jumping around alot. It does all add up though, and the Disney tickets in particular stung abit!

Florida is a great place to go, IOA is just amazing with Busch Gardens well worth the drive down to Tampa as it has some of the best rides there.

Does anyone have experience of how busy the parks will be in September, am currently thinking of going for 2 weeks mid September but unsure of how busy the parks will be then?

Cheers

Hi Davey,

I went to Orlando in September last year (12th-26th) and it's no exagerration to say that the parks were empty. No queues for anything at all. That includes all the Disney parks, Universal, Busch Gardens and SeaWorld. All rides walk on. The only think you have to expect in September, which is off peak remember, is that some rides may be closed due to refurbishment and park hours are drastically reduced from what they are in the summer months. (Magic Kingdom closes at 8pm instead of midnight for example) An example of ride closures last year was Lights, Motors, Action stunt show was out of operation for the duration I was there.

Moreover even the special ticketed events that were on when I was there (Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party & Universal's Halloween Horror Nights) were very quiet too so it really is a fantastic time to go. I'd highly recommend it. :)

Cheers for that Towersfan, it was around the 12th I was looking to book for this year so that sounds like a great time to go :). I take it disney still do the late shows for fireworks in the Magic Kingdom and also the show in MGM on the lake at these times, the missus has never been before so I don't want her to miss them.

Yes, Magic Kingdom park still show Wishes at 8pm before the park closes and if you go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party they show HalloWishes at around 10pm but only on the nights of that event.

As for MGM (now known as Hollywood Studios), yes they still show Fantasmic! but on a drastically reduced schedule, so instead of 7 nights a week in the summer in September it's only shown 2-3 nights a week so you'd have to plan ahead to make sure you see it.

Hope that helps :)

"altontowers1" wrote:

Discoverycove is amazing, the dolphin experience is once in life time :). I can enver understand when some people only attend disney and not orlando its amazing you will love it i would guess, im going florida in october cannot wait :D x

Me too ! It'll be my first trip over there, we've got tickets to Disney, Universal, Busch, Seaworld, Discover Cove and have tickets for Mickey's Not So Spooky Halloween and 3 nights of Halloween Horror Nights (just dying to find out the theme for this years event !)

Halloween Horror Nights theme is based on SAW this year

"DanB" wrote:

Halloween Horror Nights theme is based on SAW this year

I'm not so sure, it's been pretty much confirmed that we'll see a Saw house both at Uni Orlando and Hollywood but general opinion seems to be that it would be overkill if they themed the whole event as just Saw. At the moment general speculation over on the various forums for HHN seems to be going back to the name "Silver Screams" or "From the Silver Screen"

There's a good chance we'll see a Chucky maze this year too :)

Personallly it wouldn't bother me if the whole event got themed as Saw .. I love the films and figure it would lend itself well .... should find out more around the start of July :)

ahhh i see what you mean. I had heard the full event would be SAW based but hopefully not if theres a possibility of a Chucky maze. Seeing Chucky in a live maze, for me, would be very scary!

Are you have a brill time Fallenabyss! I can't contain my excitement im so EXCITED! :D btw I would really appreciate it if someone could get back to me on this, does anyone know wether its worth getting a universal express in other words FAST TRACK when I go LATE october time I have been to Universal before but never went on the 'big rides' and those that atrack alot of ques as I was alot younger and don't know wether the ques are particually long when I will be there if anyone has any indications or percificly knows please get back to me it would be much appreciated thankyou :) x

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Owwww! does no one know :( !? x

We went in the middle of last October and the only queues tended to be on the weekends, midweek you're not waiting much more than 10-15 minutes or so for rides at Universal IoA/Studios. The Busch parks (Busch Gardens/SeaWorld) had more downtime on the rides and generally longer queues but nothing longer than 30-45 minutes from what I remember.

IMO it's not really worth getting the Universal Express tickets unless you're there on a weekend and it's particularly busy. The parks do close earlier though when the Halloween events are on as if you want to go (we didn't) you need to buy a separate ticket, which you can either buy before you travel, at the hotel/endless ticket shops & booths or at the gate.

We're going back next year, but I doubt we'll buy any fast track tickets for any of the parks.

Hope that helps :)

Hi guys,
I'm going Orlando next year, i'v never been abroad before and i'd just like to know what are the rides that you think i must go on whilst im there and what to expect really.

I'm going to universal studios, Busch gardens, Sea world and also Islands of adventure!

By the way does any one know if Sheikra is good as it looks amazing but i dont know if any of you guys have ever been on it and perhaps tell me how it was?

cheers

Theyve finally done the big reveal on the Orlando Halloween Horror Nights website (although hollywood updated a few days ago)... and it looks bloody fantastic ! I was a little apprehensive about the lack of information but it looks like a completely immersive story and decent selection of houses and scarezones anyway check out the website as there's so many cool things to discover !

[url=http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com[/url]

"FallenAbyss" wrote:

Theyve finally done the big reveal on the Orlando Halloween Horror Nights website

Nice :D

39 days till we go

Wish I was going this year, best day at a theme park ive ever had :( although its a shame theyre not using some of the characters like Jack the clown or the Director this year, think it showed more imagination to come up with their own characters rather than just use movies..

Need to pick up a 6th HHN t-shirt as well.. maybe next year :)

Make sure to goto the Bill and Ted show, its the best attraction there by far!

Also when we went last time, the queues were HUGE, and it wasnt availible beforehand, but there was a fast track you could buy on the night, got ours at the Men in Black shop.. it wasnt cheap (around $50 I think) but it bumped us right to the front of every maze and ride that was open, considering some of the mazes had 2 hour queues, I think its more than worth it.

"zs_chris" wrote:

Wish I was going this year, best day at a theme park ive ever had :( although its a shame theyre not using some of the characters like Jack the clown or the Director this year

With next year's event being a landmark anniversary I'd expect to see a few classic HHN characters being used then.

Moley ... sounds like you'll be coming back around the time we'll be going ... I was a little undecided about the event before ... thinking that it wouldn't be a patch on last years ... the intricate story line really sold it for me with last years event and for a while i'd been wishing we'd have gone last year and not this year. But after seeing the attraction list i'm really pleased with everything as theres so much potential !

Chris glad to hear about your experience with the Fast Track ... it's something i'm currently deciding on, and the first night that we go i'm really tempted to get one as it's an off peak night at $30 I think and would mean we could do everything and pick the ones we really want to do on Halloween Night (as i'm guessing we'll only get to do a few mazes that night)

We went on a Thursday a few days before halloween and I can definitely say its totally worth it..

We made the mistake of stopping to watch the pre-show as you enter the park, which was about 20 mins long, and by the time it had finished, there wasnt a maze with less than a 2 hour queue, it really was quite ridiculous - longest queues ive seen in Universal by far.

We stood in a deceptively short queue to start with, only to see it turn a corner and go on for about a mile! after moving about 20ft in half an hour we went to complain in the MIB shop only to find out about and get the fast track, and were in the maze within 15 minutes.

If it was just up the road from me i'd probably not have bothered, but seeing as its the other side of the world, and its was going to be at least a couple of years till I went back, we decided to get them. Definitely worth the extra cash..

Oh, and look out for vouchers for HHN - when we went there were 3 offers we found for cheap tickets

- Burger king had them on the piece of paper on the trays they use

- Coca Cola cans had cheap entry on them

- and I think the other one was Wendys on the trays as well

They were all for about half price so worth keeping an eye out, although there were actually more, but some said FL residents only..