Well this is my first blog post, which is quite exciting. Being the first one, I’m assuming not many people will read it, so rather than detail lots of things about Walt Disney World, I thought I’d just say a little bit about BRiTMiCK and how we came to create it.
I am a big Walt Disney World fan – which if you look through the website, I’m sure you’ll gather pretty quickly. Because of this, a lot of the blogs I read and people I follow on twitter are Walt Disney World related – and as you may or may not know – there is a huge community of Walt Disney World fans out there! Naturally, a lot of them are American and when new deals are announced or ticket prices are set to change, a lot of people tweet and blog about them. And it’s great – it’s fun to hear their enthusiasm. But this is often irrelevant to me as the same offers do not apply in the UK.
Geek Husband and myself
So being a big Walt Disney World fan, and noticing this, I decided that I’d like to start contributing to the British Walt Disney World online community. Initially, I thought I’d just write a blog. But there were so many things that I wish I had known when I was booking my first Walt Disney World holiday, that eventually I decided that a website to convey some of this information might be a good start. So, with the help of Geek Husband, that’s what we did and I’ve spent quite a lot of time writing the content for that. I hope it will be a good place to start if you’re browsing the Internet and trying to decide whether to go or plan your holiday.
One conscious decision I made was to stick solely to Walt Disney World. The majority of UK visitors will in actual fact visit a wide range of Orlando attractions – the Brits tend to visit for two weeks (or a week plus one week at a beach) and therefore have more time to to do other things. I’ve done the same thing. However, it’s not Orlando I love, or the other attractions, they’re not the reason we keep going back and I’m certainly not as knowledgeable on any of those. And over time, our holidays have become more and more Walt Disney World orientated. So because of that, that’s what I’ve focused this site and will be writing my blogs on. Even if you’re only visiting Walt Disney World for a short portion of your holiday, I hope BRiTMiCK can help you get the most out of those days.
Well I know I’m going to have fun writing my blogs and I hope, if you’ve wandered across them, that you have fun reading them!
Hi
Thanks for doing this website, I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to be able to read about and plan our holiday to Florida without ebing bombarded by offers and ads which you just don’t know whether to trust – it’s really quite intimidating.I know you are an authority about all things Disney and do not set out to advise people about other attractions, but I would be really grateful for your advice – if you have any thoughts – about how best to pre-book tickets for Disney World and a single trip to Sea World. We are going next Easter for two weeks. My wife favours the 14 day pass and just go to the parks when we fancy it, I am not sure if this is good value – particularly as we are not staying in a Disney Hotel but in a friend’s house.
Any thoughts you have would be much appreciated – thankyou for the very useful and informative website.
Best wishes
Adam
Hi Adam.
Thanks for your kind words – it’s nice to know all the hard work is paying off and being it is useful for people. I’m more than happy to help if I can. Which tickets to get is always a little difficult if you don’t have definite plans for each of your days while you’re there (it might be worth planning it out a little, just so you can book restaurants etc). The 14 day pass to Disney will offer you the most flexibility – you’ll be able to visit as and when you like – to multiple parks on one day etc. The beauty of this is that even if you don’t go to the parks in the day, you can book a meal at one of the park restaurants and visit in the evening, or just for the fireworks etc. If you’re visiting friends, check if they have an annual pass – if you might go for meals with them, it’s only likely to be in the park if they have annual passes, otherwise it will be else where. However if you think you’re unlikely to just visit for an evening etc, then the next thing to think about is how many times you’re likely to visit Walt Disney World – bearing in mind that’s the 4 parks plus the two water parks. The Ultimate ticket is only best value if you’ll be spending 8 or more days there (although it if the exchange rate is against us, this can drop to 5 or 6 days). If not, then you might want to buy an 8 day (or less) pass. You won’t be able to do this in advance – as they’re the US tickets you would need to buy them at the gates (there’s no discount for buying them in advance anyway). You can choose to add the water parks or park hopping (i.e. the ability to visit more than one park on one day) too. Any more than 8 days visiting and I’d say you’d be better to stick with the 14 day Ultimate pass. To buy that, click this link and it will take you directly to the Disney site where you can purchase just the tickets. For the US ones, you’ll need to wait until you arrive. Of course an added advantage to the Ultimate ticket is that you know exactly what you’re spending.
As for Sea World, you can buy a one day pass online, saving yourself a few £ than the gate-price and print out your e-ticket here in the UK. You’ll pay in dollars though so to save the most, do it when the exchange rate is in our favour (I think it recently just dropped again unfortunately). If you really will only visit once then that’s your best option. Are you sure that you will only be visiting Sea World and Disney though? Have you considered Universal? Islands of Adventure is currently popular for the new Harry Potter section. Online, Sea World is $70, Universal and Islands of Adventure is $135 for two days (e.g. one day each). Again, if you know you won’t visit more than that, then that’s your best value. Any more trips to these parks than that and you might want to consider the Orland Flexiticket – it’s £175 and will give you unlimited access to Seaworld, both Universal parks, Aquatica and Wet n Wild for 14 days. The latter two are water parks though, and it’s worth considering if you’ll visit these if you’re getting the Ultimate Disney Pass, as they have two water parks included in that too.
We’re Disney fans – we get the 14 day pass, visit pretty much for all 14 days and don’t often visit the other parks so it makes sense for us. What tickets you get will depend on how much flexibility you want and how much planning you’re willing to do upfront, to decide which parks you’re likely to visit when you’re there. I hope that helps. Please do ask another question if anything is unclear.