06/11/2026
❤️ Cox Family Orlando Adventure ❤️
I meant to post more while away but we literally didn’t stop! So thought I’d share some more pics now that we’re back and a bit of info around what we did on our 12 night holiday over Half Term. I think my biggest worry was that we wouldn’t get value out of our tickets not being there for 14 nights but I was wrong! We definitely maximised our park time so I know we got our moneys worth!
We stayed at the Grove Resort & Waterpark which was absolutely fab.. a brilliant quiet and peaceful location super close to Disney and it was a lovely place to go back to after long days in the parks! We would have liked to spend a bit more time in the hotel and make use of the fab waterpark and facilities but we just didn’t get the time! For large families it’s ideal.. they offer 2 and 3 bedroom apartment type accommodation with full kitchen and washer/dryer facilities.
Our daily plan with our overall fav rides:
Arrival day 1 - shop and early night
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom - Tron, Tiana’s
Day 3 - Epcot - Guardians of the Galaxy, Ratatouille
Day 4 -Hollywood Studios Inc Fantasmic show - Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, Rise of the Resistance
Day 5 -Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure split day - Spider-Man, Simpsons
Day 6 - Animal Kingdom - Avatar Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest
Day 7 -Aquatica - The heated Wave Pool - literally like a bath!!
Day 8 - Epcot and Magic Kingdom split day including Happily Ever After Show - World Showcase and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Day 9 - Epic Universe - Star Dust Racers, Battle at the Ministry and Hiccups Wing Gliders
Day 10 - Seaworld - Manta, Mako
Day 11 - Blizzard Beach - Summit Plummit
Day 12 - Universal and Islands of Adventure Split Day - Hagrids Motorbike Adventure, Velocicoaster
Fly Home Day 13 - Disney Springs and travel home
We decided that we’d spent enough on the holiday already and didn’t want to buy any fast passes/lightening lanes and I have to say on the whole we were v lucky! Our longest queues were in Epcot but the most we queued anywhere was around 1 hour.. on average we queued around 30 mins per ride! We just used the app to check queue times! Epic was our biggest surprise.. we thought we’d be lucky to get on 3 rides all day but managed every single ride in the park except 1!
🍽️ Fav Themed Meal - Sci Fi Dine In - Hollywood Studios
🍽️ Best value meal for our family of 7 - Panda Express
☀️ We were very lucky with weather - it rained overnight and throughout the day on the day we flew home but aside from that it was mostly sunny and around 27 degrees! Perfect!
Top tips (based on what we found):
- Consider visiting parks on event days such as Mickey’s not so Scary Halloween party. The park opening hours are less which seems to make it less popular
- Plan carefully which parks you go to on weekends as those days were definitely busier
- If you have a younger child that you think would struggle with 16 thousand steps in a day, consider hiring a stroller. We used a company called Kingdom Strollers and it was honestly a lifesaver for our just 6 year old twins
- if you hire a car but are staying in a hotel that offers shuttles, consider using it sometimes as parking in the theme parks if you’re staying offsite is $35-$38 per day currently
We had the most incredible time! If you’re thinking about a holiday to Orlando, pop me a message. It can be an overwhelming holiday to book and plan for and I can be there to help from advising/ costing up options based on your wishes as a family, to booking and then supporting throughout until you travel! All at no extra cost ❤️
It really is the most magical place on earth 🫶✨
Jo x
