Dam you Mag!!!! *shakes fists!*
Ok so there is tons of different advice I can give depending on what your family are planning on doing.
Staying in a hotel
First time I visited Orlando it was my honeymoon and we stayed in a hotel just off Idrive. It as nice, there was a free bus transfer to Universal. It did not get us there for the park opening but as it was not a busy time of year that did not matter.
they also did 2 buses back in the afternoon/evening. But we also found a cab back only cost less than $10
We never did Disney as we thought it was a bit expensive for what we wanted to do, but there are various shuttles/ buses that go there.
There are two easy ways to get about on Idrive, firstly the I-trolley.
It is ok, it has a basic route that goes up and down Idrive and a little bit further.
http://www.iridetrolley.com/index.html
Or there are they lynx buses.
http://www.golynx.com/
They Lunx buses are the public transport in Orlando so they go a lot further than the I-trolley. I found that the Lynx buses had far better aircon than the I-trolley, well the I-trolley was more of just a fan not actual aircon.
The I-trolley seemed to always be packed with tourists and there were very few places to sit because it was always packed where as the Lynx was not as busy and much cooler, also you get to meet some locals and they do tend to talk to you. We had one Seaworld employee asking us about our day at Discovery cove while we were waiting for the bus.
Staying in a villa
This is one of the other options. It not too expensive if there is a large group of you but you will need to have a hire car which adds to the expense of the holiday.
Parking at the parks is about $15 a day unless it has gone up!
Thats not cheap and it soon really adds up.
Most parks will allow you to drop off and pick up free of charge. So I dont know if your family would be happy to drop you off and pick you up at the end of the day while they do something else.
I stayed at this villa:
http://a1villa.com/
The lakeside one, it was very nice. Big the air con was good had a fan in each room and a nice pool.
It was very close to the entrance to Epcot and it took about 15-20 mins to drive to Universal.
Staying in a Villa is nice as you can go to Walmart and get some food and cook your own meals.
I think next time we go we will probably stay in a hotel or maybe at Vista cay resorts just off Idrive so we dont have to have a car because I did not find it that great having one and it was not cheap either.
Tickets
We got our theme park tickets from this website
http://www.attraction-tickets-direct.co.uk/
Watch out because there are lots of dodgy sites out there offering too good to be true tickets. But also do some checks on ATD as it was over a year ago since I used them. A good place to ask is on the Orlando Trip advisor forum.
They also offer tickets for trips to other places, we spent a day at Clearwater beach and also did an airboat tour. Both were great trips and nice and easy, just meet the coach and sit back and relax.
There are lots of options for theme park tickets, depends what you want to visit, how much time you will have.
The parks tend to make the 2 week + tickets cheaper than just a one day entrance.
There is little point getting 14 days passes for Disney and Universal for a 2 week holiday as you just wont get the use out of them.
Last time I went I got:
Discovery cove ultimate ticket which includes 14 days at Seaworld, Aquatica and Busch gardens and a day at Discovery cove.
Then I also got a universal 2 park ticket for US and IOA.
Discovery cove is an amazing day and if you can afford it I would suggest that you do it! Its truly stunning all inclusive day.
It does not work out that expensive either.
A DC ultimate ticket at the hight of the season next year will cost £227
A 3 park 2 week ticket for SW, AQ and BG will cost £86
If you then just bought a basic Swim ticket for DC at the top price that would be £214
So if you plan on doing DC and SW, AQ and BG then its better to get the DC ultimate ticket.
Money saving
Don't forget you are in America, what ever food/drink you buy you don't need one each because they are usually stupidly big!
Also at the end of a meal don't forget to ask for a doggy bag if you have not finished. When we visited the Olive Garden I noticed on the menu while we were trying to decide if we wanted a starter or not that with a main course meal you got either soup or salad free. glad I spotted that, so in effect you get a free started with you meal! Not sure if that is at all Oliver Gardens or it just happened to be that one we went to.
Buy a big pack of bottled water from Walmart or somewhere like that and take bottles into the park, its a lot cheaper.
Most parks will allow you to take a soft sided cooler in with you so you can take snacks and drink which is a lot cheaper than the price of stuff in the park.
The lockers by the rides are free but dont go over the free period or you will have to pay to get your stuff out, we got caught once on the mummy we thought we could get round a second time but we got delayed so we had to pay a few dollars to get out stuff back.
Hope that is of some help.
