WWYD... a couple days in Orlando (just hubs and I). Best budget things to do?

[Tink113]

Hubs has to travel to Orlando for work so I am tagging along, sans kids. We will be there 2.5 days after his work stuff ends.

We could stay at a family house for $25 a day or we've never stayed on Disney property BUT prices are ouch. Any tips on a deal on a Disney hotel for a night or two?

We could go to a park for a day or 2 but prices are $300-$500 for just the 2 of us. Any tips for cheaper tickets?

Looking for ideas on what to do and try to have a low cost trip. We actually just got back from a Disney cruise with our kids and this was an unexpected work trip that popped up. We are staying at the hotel provided by work for the first half of the week, so i am looking for things for me to do during the day as well.

I plan to hit up the Disney outlet and maybe even forever vintage. We will have a rental car.

 

[Beer Me]

No real advice but some experience. The past couple of years my wife and I have done long weekends staying at a disney springs hotel (doubletree and Hilton buena vista palace). We spent one day at Epcot mainly to check out the festival booths (festival of the arts in our case) and visit disney springs where we book a couple of dinners.

It’s not really cheap. I don’t think there’s any way to get a meaningful discount on one or two day tickets. The hotels we stayed at were $300+ so I’m thinking we might just look at Disney moderates next time. But there are cheaper Disney springs hotels - the new Drury inn seems to be getting good reviews - so that could also be an option.

We have also stayed on I-drive when I attended a conference and hit up some restaurants and attractions in that area without going to a theme park. That can be relatively cheap and a pretty fun little getaway.

 

[Tink113]

No real advice but some experience. The past couple of years my wife and I have done long weekends staying at a disney springs hotel (doubletree and Hilton buena vista palace). We spent one day at Epcot mainly to check out the festival booths (festival of the arts in our case) and visit disney springs where we book a couple of dinners.

It’s not really cheap. I don’t think there’s any way to get a meaningful discount on one or two day tickets. The hotels we stayed at were $300+ so I’m thinking we might just look at Disney moderates next time. But there are cheaper Disney springs hotels - the new Drury inn seems to be getting good reviews - so that could also be an option.

We have also stayed on I-drive when I attended a conference and hit up some restaurants and attractions in that area without going to a theme park. That can be relatively cheap and a pretty fun little getaway.

Thanks for the info

 

[Gr8t Fan]

We usually spend a day or two visiting different resorts on our trips. We park at Disney Springs, take the boat to Port Orleans Riverside, buy a refillable mug, walk around the resort, head over to Port Orleans French Quarter, have beignets in the food court, take a bus to DHS, ride the skyliner, get off at Epcot and walk around the boardwalk, stop at the Yacht & Beach Club, Boardwalk, Swan, Dolphin and walk back to DHS to catch the bus to SSR where we wander around before walking back to Disney Springs.

 

[kathy884]

If you like looking at resorts and grounds, that can be fun. We usually park at the Polynesian and tell the guard we are shopping there and they give us a three hour permit (it's been a while, don't know policies there). We walk around inside in the lobby area, out by the pool, walk the grounds, and sit in a lounger by the beach. Then we take the monorail and do the same thing at the Grand Floridian and Contemporary. If still up for more resort exploring we take the little boat over to the Wilderness Lodge from the Contemporary and explore their grounds / lobby (little geyser by their pool area). This combined with spending time at the pool at our resort makes for a nice day for us.

We also for a more economical park that is world class and much for relaxing than Disney IMHO, really like SeaWorld. The grounds are so lovely and so many great shows. It's our favorite park to visit in Orlando.

A one day ticket is $99 pp if bought online in advance for SeaWorld. You can do two days there for $135 pp (67.50 a day). Gate prices are more, so this is one to decide whether or not you want to do this park in advance. I personally think one day is all you need. We used to do two days on every trip but that was back when they had a second day free deal.

Other smaller attractions in Orlando we have enjoyed are Gatorland (more of an old time Florida attractions - definitely NOT a world class theme park - almost the anthesis of that), and the Titanic attraction on I drive. I figure three hours for Gatorland and an hour and a half for the Titanic attraction.

If you are up for a day trip, the Kennedy Space Center is an hour away and very well done. It was a super enjoyable day, even for someone like me who is not a space enthusiast (educational and entertaining).

For me Disney onsite prices are too high, and we always stay offsite (lots of great offsite deals). The only time as an adult that I've stayed onsite is when DH had a seminar at the Contemporary and his company was paying for accommodations. That was fun and we even stayed an extra night at the convention rate for a five instead of four night stay for the four day conference for him. When it's my dime, though, I'm an offsite girl.

 

[snowwite]

Hubs has to travel to Orlando for work so I am tagging along, sans kids. We will be there 2.5 days after his work stuff ends.

We could stay at a family house for $25 a day or we've never stayed on Disney property BUT prices are ouch. Any tips on a deal on a Disney hotel for a night or two?

We could go to a park for a day or 2 but prices are $300-$500 for just the 2 of us. Any tips for cheaper tickets?

Looking for ideas on what to do and try to have a low cost trip. We actually just got back from a Disney cruise with our kids and this was an unexpected work trip that popped up. We are staying at the hotel provided by work for the first half of the week, so i am looking for things for me to do during the day as well.

I plan to hit up the Disney outlet and maybe even forever vintage. We will have a rental car.

It’s usually just us when we go to visit my daughter. She was a CM for yrs so she’s not interested in spending time off in parks. So I can suggest some non dis places. Leu Gardens is fantastic and have picnic with free movies as well as concerts. Check the website. DD is in Encore and also performs in Winter Garden theater. They have concerts and shows. Winter Garden has a really cute old world feel and a lot of small shops, cafe and coffee shops. They do a large art and farmers market.
Windermere is lovely. It’s walkable and picturesque. My fave place there for breakfast or lunch is Dixie Cream. I sometimes just go to get the fried green tomatoes and a slice of key lime pie for the plane. There is a scenic boat ride there that was quite reasonable and goes along behind all the mansions and the pretty trees with hanging moss.
Take a day trip to Clearwater. It’s about an hour and we love the Palm Pavilion. It’s on the beach, great food, live music on the porch. Gorgeous at sunset. There is a metered lot. The palm trees on the beach were a bucket list item for me. Oh and the restaurant takes reservations on open table.
My dis suggestion would be Boma. My daughter and I went last week and it was good. We walked around and saw the animals. The flamingos were nesting so there should be baby ones. We stopped and chatted with a guide from Botswana. In the past we grabbed towels and sat in a lounge by the pool but this trip we decided not to bother. There are also sitting areas with rocking chairs and inside as well. They have a lovely lobby and gift shop.
We sometimes do the mini golf by the swan and take the boat ride to Epcot, get off and walk back around the boardwalk and grab an ice cream. We did try the bicycle built for four but since not everyone pedaled it was a disaster.

 

[danceintherain]

If I was headed to Orlando with just my husband for a short trip, then I'd probably do Discovery Cove. You can pay a little extra and get admission to SeaWorld and Aquatica too. It's not super duper cheap, but cheap-ish.

If that was too expensive, then I'd probably do Universal.

 

[Narnia_girl]

We do the resort hopping as described above...you can ride all the Disney transport systems and have lunch/snacks at different places. On my recent trip to Orlando for a conference, I had an extra day and had breakfast at Grand Floridian, did the monorail, ferry, boat ride, bus and skyliner. We had lunch at Disney Springs; later we timed our boat ride across lagoon to see the light parade, and then watched the fireworks from the viewing deck at Contemporary.

In the past we've listened to the band in Grand Floridian lobby (check times) and taken a free tour of the Animal Kingdom Lodge restaurants. I've also heard that Wilderness Lodge has a morning tour but have never gotten in on that.

 

[WLWildlife]

OP, I am glad you posted. DH and I are thinking about doing a couple long weekends in the coming winter to try to get some sunshine and get away from the dreary North and it's cold temps. It would not be a Disney trip in any way. I was thinking of local parks to do some trails and see some manatees. We went to the aquarium when we were in St. Pete's years ago. We don't like shopping, or spending a day at the pool so trying to come up with things to do has been a challenge.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

How about a day trip to cocoa beach?

 

[whencanwegoback]

Hubs has to travel to Orlando for work so I am tagging along, sans kids. We will be there 2.5 days after his work stuff ends.

We could stay at a family house for $25 a day or we've never stayed on Disney property BUT prices are ouch. Any tips on a deal on a Disney hotel for a night or two?

We could go to a park for a day or 2 but prices are $300-$500 for just the 2 of us. Any tips for cheaper tickets?

Looking for ideas on what to do and try to have a low cost trip. We actually just got back from a Disney cruise with our kids and this was an unexpected work trip that popped up. We are staying at the hotel provided by work for the first half of the week, so i am looking for things for me to do during the day as well.

I plan to hit up the Disney outlet and maybe even forever vintage. We will have a rental car.

We once spent a week camping at Ft. Wilderness and never went in a Disney park. Youngest was doing Sea World day camp. We'd pick her up every afternoon and do all the "free' Disney stuff. Great stuff at the campground, Disney Springs, riding the boats, and the monorail, (and now the Skyliner). Touring resorts is always great fun. Take a Lyft and do a pub crawl. Jellyrolls is about as much fun as you can hope to have outside a park. And of course the greatest free entertainment: people watching! Have a great time!!