advise needed

me my husband and son of 14 are thinking of going to florida next christmas not sure whether to do xmas day in orlando %26amp; new year at clearwater or should be do both in orlando %26amp; go to clearwater inbetween

advise needed

Orlando will be a zoo of people either holiday and the entire week in between. It%26#39;s the #1 busiest time of the entire year with capacity crowds (wall-to-wall people and very long que lines at parks).

That said, I don%26#39;t think it much matters which way you go, as the crowds usually arrive rigth before Xmas and don%26#39;t leave until after NYD.

advise needed

HI, Keep in mind that Holidays are THE busiest time at Disney. This past year they had to close the MK and not allow more people in b/c it was so crowded. You could look at crowd levels at

www.undercovertourist.com

As far as Clearwater Beach, I%26#39;d say it would be busy and you%26#39;d have to reserve ahead of time-many people in the US, such as myself head South for warmer weather and don%26#39;t forget the kids are on Holiday for 2-3 wks during that time. If you have flexibility, maybe after the Holidays it won%26#39;t be as crowded.

I%26#39;d spend the holiday week in Clearwater, and do the parks the week after NYD if you can.

Thanks for that maybe it won%26#39;t be so crowded next xmas due to credit crunch

unfortunatly our kids only have 2 weeks holiday so can%26#39;t go before 18 dec %26amp; got to be home before 6th jan.we have been before twice in october(halloween)that was not to busy so dont need to do parks so much we may travel around a bit more.thanks for the advise

might try that

I guess my question to you and your group would be, what do you expect in a theme park for entertainment?

If your looking at more extreme rides, I think you might want to avoid the disney parks as they don%26#39;t have much too offer. The disney parks are more gearded towards a younger audience and don%26#39;t have much to offer the thrill seeker (For example out of all 4 disney parks, there is not even 1 roller coaster that goes upside down or that will even offer the ';thrill type of ride person'; even the least bit of excitement.'; However if your looking of attention to detail and good quality shows, then disney has lots to offer. However for the teenagager or adult, disney does not have a lot to offer. The exception, I would say would be Epcot. Epcot park has the whole world pavillion which surrounds a manmade lake an basically has exhibits that represent the whole world. They have not much to speak of in rides but it is definatley an interesting place in terms of learing about different culturers, etc.

If you and your husband, and son, like thrilling rides, I would highly suggest Islands of Adventure and Busch Gardens. These are the only theme parks that offer a decent selection of thrilling rides for the slightly older crowd, imo. The Disney parks, and Uninversal studios, seem imo anyway, to cater more towards young children and the elderly. They offer excellent shows and attention to detail. However they are pretty weak when it comes to thrilling rides. I would say for a party of you age group, you will most likely enjoy Busch Gardens the most. Basically Busch Gardens is a combination of huge (very fast, very scary) rollercoasters and also animals. They have many exotic animals inclucing elphants, giraffes, alligators/crocidless, hippos. etc, and you can way closer to them than at Animal Kingdom which allows you really good picture opportunites.

I would say if your going to the disney parks, don

t bother with the magic Kingdom as it is mostly dedicated towards younger children or Elderly folk. They have very little to appeal to the adult or young teenager crowd. Seaworld also has little to offer adults or young children, unless you are really fascinated by Wales/Sharks/dolphins, in which case you may love it.

Universal Studios, in my opinion also is a pretty weak park for most other than young children. The only ride at this park that held my attention was ';The Mummy'; ride. That ride was pretty good but it was around 30 min wait and the actual ride lasted maybe a minute or 2 at most, so it wasn%26#39;t really worth it. I was pretty dissapointed in Universal Studios to be honest. They have a few decent shows like fear factor, beatlejuice, etc. But all in all I don%26#39;t its worth what they charge. Islands of Adventure on the other hand is a different story. They at least have 2 pretty good rollercoasters in the dueling dragons and the Hulk.

So yeah for two adults and a teenager I would suggest the following parks:

1: Busch Gardens: They have 4 or 5 large rollercoasters. Sheikra is one of the freakest rollercoasters that I have ever been on, world wide. If you are looking for extreme, thrilling rides, Busch Gardens is the place for you. Also this park is modeled after African type animals so you can see elephants, lions, tigers, girages, alligatos, etc, and you get the opportunity to get really close to all of these animals, not to mention for each animal they have a once a day show where they explain all of the animal%26#39;s typical type of environment and life as well as they allow you observe the feeding time, which for most animals is definateley an entertaining experience.

So yeah anyway I guess for a group such as yours, which is older and likes thrilling types of rides I would suggest Busch Gardens and Islands of Adventure. The other parks, while you might find somewhat entertaining, are more geared towards children or the elederly. They offer some really good shows but rides are not so great (for the thrill seeking adult/teenager anyay)

thank-you for your advise.when we went 2 yrs ago we did do a flying vist to busch gardens as limited on time and missed a lot is there much else in that area?

they have just built a new water park next door. Tickets for both can be picked up online at a discount.

There is a huge outlet mall at Ellenton.

but the best thing is the gulf beaches, and waterfront dining, and deepsea fishing, and watching the sunset, and finding shark%26#39;s teeth. I could go on, but I was gushing a bit lol.