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OK number one. the butterbeer at the WWOHP is the best thing ever ever ever ever in the world. lol I grew up in S FLA and went to disney a couple of times a year so I have quite a few suggestions.
Disney- Nothing tops the grand floridian. Disney hotels on a whole have a lot to offer because you can shuttle in and out of the lands straight from your hotel or even the airport and they will drop off your bags in your room for you. You can also buy stuff in the lands and they will send it to your room.. (no carrying a bunch of crap around a def PLUS!) Other than the grand floridian I would reccomend the Animal Kingdom lodge. I would invest in the night goggles so you could see the animals around your room walking about in the night! AWESOME!
Universal (Wizarding World)- The Royal Pacific hotel is awesome. Very pretty grounds! The Hardrock hotel is also a fun option. There are park benefits but I am more of a disney girl and have only been there a couple times. But I know the RPH is one that I would go to over and over again.
Miami- There are way too many options. My fav restaurant is in Hotel Victor (and I am a huge foodie so this means A LOT).. if you stay here.. you MUST try the food at VIX, it is AMAZING. Other than victor which is right on the beach, there is the Delano.. its an all white hotel and very beautiful. Their lobster with bananas (yes i know, sounds strange) at their restaurant (blue door) is also a must! And of course you have the usual greats like the fountain blu. Hope these suggestions help!
-oh!- and what there is to do in Miami? Its more like.. what isnt there to do! lol. For me, the food is on the top of the list. The nightlife is incomparable. and the beach is always available. If you are spending only 2 days in MIA, I would suggest getting a room at Victor..do the spa thing (world class spa btw).. go to the beach.. eat at victor.. people watch.. do some fun stuff like jet skiing..eat some more.. lay out by the pool.. and go to the erotic art museum.. (if you would like something like that) and go to a lounge.. perfect balance of fun, food and relaxing! Miami is awesome!
@MrsNeutrino:, I think we'd be good friends hahaha! I knew my SO and I were meant to be when he and I had a huge discussion about the benefits of each of the hotels at Disney!
Universal:
Royal Pacific: Great Asian food, some sand beaches, a good outdoor bar, you can walk to CityWalk (walk up margarita bar at Margaritaville or the alcoholic slushie stand which is amaaaaaazing.) I would recommend upgrading to the big-boy level where you get the free drinks-- they knew I wanted a Corona every afternoon and gave me cookies before bed!
Portofino Bay- Get your Italian feel. I haven't stayed here in a long time but they do have some good food on site-- gelato! You'll have to water-taxi over to the parks, if I remember correctly (someone correct me on this if I'm wrong!!)
Hard Rock- When we stayed, we did get a complimentary upgrade, but I feel like this wasn't as glamorous as the other two, especially for a honeymoon? But if you and your FI are rockers, it could be a fun stay? I wouldn't choose it myself.
Disney:
Grand Floridian- This is on my dream list. Go look at some photos. Gorgeoussss. I've never stayed there though, so I can't speak much to it.
Animal Kingdom Lodge- My favorite. The decor is amazing and the restaurant (Boma) is delicious. You can see animals out your window!
Polynesian- If you want a Hawaiian feel? (Though I wouldn't stay here and also at Royal Pacific, you should mix and match the themes a little more, it's worth it!)
Beach Club/Yacht Club- SOs family and I are going here again this fall because it's so beachy and you can walk over to Epcot (our favorite of the parks). I feel like it'd be a good, relaxing place to stay for a honeymoon, if you're interested in laying by the pool!
And WWoHP is amazing! Be ready for some lines/crowds but it's worth it if you love HP, the ride is phenomenal!
As for other hotels, I would never stay out of the park for either place, the perks and decor and food are too good on property. And I've never been to Miami-- when we go to Florida, it's Disney/Universal all the way!
As long as you stay in the park in disney, I dont think you can go wrong. I have heard great things about all hotels espcecially the two mentioned above. My parents stayed at both and loved it. I stayed in the pop culture one when I was younger and it was great. Although, Its not really honeymoon-ey :)
In Miami I stayed at the Palms (I think that was the name?). It was right on the beach and the rooms were amazing!
@MrsNeutrino: sounds like you and i have lots in common!!! LOL! i eat every hour!!! omg. i am gonna get fat on this trip.
thanks for the tips everyone :) makes life a whole lot easier.
@Bostongrl25: I think the disney budget hotels are less glam by far though.. just a normal hotel except you pay more because you are on disney property
@bookworm88: it def seems so!
@spoonoutmyheart: haha! Just don't rent a car and you will be forced to walk everywhere! (on SOBE everything is within walking distance) so you will be fine!
I stayed at the Royal Pacific this past July and loved it. I am SUPA jealous of you right now.. I want to go back to WWoHP so badly!! FI and I had so much fun!
@MrsNeutrino: I agree, the butterbeer was fantastic!!
@spoonoutmyheart: well that depends on when you are going on your honeymoon. If you are going in the summer months ( very very VERY hot, lots and lots of LONG lines) i would suggest at least a day per park that you want to go to. There is magic kingdom, epcot, animal kingdom, disney's mgm studios...i think thats it. so if you are going to all the parks, 4 days. There is downtown disney that has the circque du soleil (however you spell it) that is an awesome show! They also have great little shops there (basin is my absolute fave!) that you MUST make time for. and I would say prob a day for WWoHP..or maybe 2 if you didnt get your share of butterbeer. So, about a week total so you can spend some time enjoying your hotel :)
@spoonoutmyheart: I second the vote for the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I couldn't get a room there last time we went and I was heartbroken :( We just stayed in the plain old All Stars resorts and spent the extra cash on more fun! One thing I learned though, was that you can get a shuttle from your Disney hotel to Universal for about $15 roundtrip per person. You can set it up with the front desk at your Disney hotel. You just have to call them an hour before you want to leave Universal and they'll send the bus for you. It was easy, cheap, and I liked that we didn't have to switch hotels.
And butterbeer is the best thing on earth. Have it as a slushy. Omg. To die for. I'm so jealous. Just be warned that WWOHP is crazy busy. There's a line up for EVERYTHING (or there was when we went in October), even to get into gift shops!!!
Well for your honeymoon you should do it big! The grand Floridian is wonderful but does not come cheap!
In Miami you want to stay in South Beach! We have stayed all over but the best is the W hotel! again its not cheap.. but you will love it!
you all are amazing! thanks for the input!
so stay at disney hotel instead rather than a universal studios hotel? but if we stay at a universal studios hotel... cant we cut in front of the line, or did i read this wrong?
how do you recommend getting to miami? renting a car?
i was gonna purchase our plane tickets to land in orlando and leave from miami to lax.
@spoonoutmyheart: I am not sure about cutting in the lines at universal :-( But I would suggest renting a car to get down to MIA.. it will take about 3.5 hours or so.. (fyi, no one follows the speed limits in FL, you will notice this quickly on the highway lol)
@spoonoutmyheart: I believe there is some benefit to staying at the universal hotels as far as an express line up goes. However, there's an option to purchase an alternate express option on a regular ticket. We did this last summer, and it was fantastic. Totally worth the extra money if you hate standing in lines and aren't planning to spend days on end there. The only thing you couldn't use it for was Harry Potter.
We stayed at the Animal Kingdome lodge for our honeymoon last summer, and it was really cool. Pretty neat to get up in the morning and see what animal is outside your balcony today. Service was good, and the setting was awesome. Sometimes I thought the theming made it maybe look like less of a high end hotel (because it's SUPPOSED to be rustic).
Maybe next time we thought we'd stay at either wilderness lodge or one of the new orleans one. We spent a ton of time in Magic Kingdom and the ferry looked pretty convenient. Or if we were looking to be spendy, either the Grand floridian or the contemporary, since the monorail was even MORE convenient.
Here's a link for the express pass that you can purchase off a regular ticket. There's places to upgrade all over the park, so you'd never miss it.
http://www.universalorlando.com/Tickets/special_offers/UniversalExpress/expresspluspasses.aspx
Oh, and I think this one lets you go to the express line once per ride that's included in the pass, whereas the one that you have the option to purchase if you stay in the hotels has more turns. But, once is enough for most rides in my opinion. The only thing we kind of missed was after I kicked my husbands ass at MIB, and he wanted a rematch, the line was like 70 minutes, so I declined.
i think we are completely cutting out miami now to spend more time at disney! aaah! lol so i really want to stay at the animal kingdom... oh em gee! so i found travelocity to be a lot cheaper than the disney website... by a lot!! the arusha view is cheaper on all the hotel websites compared to the savanna view... is it just because they are having a sale right now? on the disney site, the arusha is more expensive than the savanna view... i believe the savanna is the first option with the animal view and the arusha is the 2nd option with the animal view for a lot more.
travelocity is also having a deal where you buy 3 days and you get + 4 more days park hopper... it's really the price of the 5 days though.
what i want to know is, is the shuttle service free? i read that it's free. airport to hotel vice versa... but the travelocity deal... the savana is more expensive n it says with bus shuttle, and the arusha doesn't say bus shuttle... only that it's 25% Is this just a gimmick??? because i've done the package deal on the disney site and it's free... and they have a page dedicated to it saying it's complementary if you stay at a certain hotel and to call a number to set up... well this hotel is part of it i know that from the package deal i was playing around with.
and do we need more than 1 day to visit harry potter??? we really only want to visit harry potter! or should we do 2 days incase the line is long? are there good rides in the universal because the one here in california is really boring with outdated technology lol aka back to the future from the 90s that's not even updated to hd lol!!
how much is butterbeer because i probably will need lots of cold resfreshment from the humidity! omg. i'm gonna be drench in sweat. lol im so dressing up for this! lol
another dilemma, the flight we're looking at is leaving at may 31 at 10pm from lax, and we'll be arriving at like 5:30am june 1st... so the shuttle picks us up and they keep our luggage at the hotel??? because we want to explore the park... but i'm assuming check in isn't till 3?? or are they not gonna store our luggage? also we're thinking of booking the return flight to leave after checkout... maybe 3pm or 7pm.... is this even possible? checkout is usually 11am right, but can we keep our luggage somewhere so we can roam the park, or do we have to get a locker? and is there a locker big enough?
our hotel stay is only at disney btw.
aaaah so many questions!
Yes, shuttle service from your hotel on site to any of the parks will be free. Disney express from the airport was also included.
I would use the "contact us" chat screen to talk with someone on the Disney site. They referred me to a discount link that I hadn't noticed that worked out cheaper than the expedia rate I'd found. Also, if you want to do a meal plan, if you book outside of Disney you won't be able to sign up for that. Sometimes even if the room rates aren't discounted, there'll be free meal plans or something thrown in.
And you can definitely do Harry Potter in a day. I think there's only three rides in there, and a few gift shops. We managed to suitably see both parks in a day with the express pass. Definitely missed a few things, but hit the highlights.
@spoonoutmyheart: the bus is always free. I feel like the universal in fl you will find the same outdated jaws and back to the future lol And i totally bought the slitherin cloak and walked around in 90 degree weather lol! But thats because I am a loser :-p
so booking with disney is better? i found a coupon code from mousesavers... is there an area at checkout to put the code in because i can't for the life of me find it. if there is a way, then mousesaver says 25% off on the hotel if the code works. i already chatted with a cast member regarding the luggage and she said the hotel will store it.
@MrsNeutrino: see i knew we were like each other!!!! team slytherin all the way! AHAHAHA. i would do that too!!!
we booked it!! booked our flight and animal kingdom. got 7 days for dworld too... now gotta do universal.... do you guys think 1 park would be better? the island one with harry? or is the other park worth seeing? i think we would be at harry most of the day anyway.
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since we've procrastinated so much, we are no longer going to italy since plane tickets would cost us $3000.
but now we're going to florida to cut the cost and save some money for a house.
i'm a disney fanatic. lol we took engagement pictures at disneyland! my wedding theme is an enchanted forest like in fairytales... so disneyworld makes sense! ha! and i started reading harry potter when it first came out so i'm a huge geek about it and i can't wait to have butterbeer! lol
so my question is, what is the best hotel to stay at in disneyworld... both off the park and in the park? and what hotels to stay at around universal?
and where is a good place to stay in miami? we're gonna spend 2 days here too just going to the beach and relaxing... and pretend we're on dexter! hahaha. and what is there to do?
we plan on going may 31