Honeymoon location decided (semi long)

saraschilling88

Ok ladies, I had posted awhile ago that we were debating between Hawaii and Florida for our honeymoon!!  We sat down and figured out budgeting and decided to go to Florida!!  We figured out we can do most of our Florida honeymoon for the cost of just traveling to Hawaii (without including any excursions or meals there), so that was a major deciding factor for us!!

Our plans so far include Universal Studios, Universal Islands of Adventure, maybe Universals Wet & Wild theme park (there is a pass for all 3).  We are also looking into Discovery Cove and Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay (BG included in the price of Discovery Cove).

We plan to drive to the coast and spend a day relaxing on the beach as well!!  It will be a busy but fun honeymoon for us, and we are very excited about it!!

If anyone has any input on Discovery Cove that would be fantastic, it looks like a lot of fun (and still relaxing) but we would like to know personal experiences from there (whether they are postive or negative)..

Also we are thinking about restaurants in Orlando, my FI thought there was a Planet Hollywood or a Hard Rock Cafe there (anyone know??), also has anyone done any of the dinner shows (Titanic Dinner Event, Pirate's Dinner Adventure, Sleuth's Mystery Dinner Show, or the Wantilan Luau)?  We are looking into them as a possibility.

Thank you again everyone for your input on my previous post!!!

jlesp81

There is a Hard Rock Cafe in Universal CityWalk and I believe Planet Hollywood is located in Downtown Disney.

I've been to a few of the dinner shows in Orlando. (Pirate Dinner Adventure and Al Capones) I prefered the Pirate Dinner Adventure. The food was comparable at both, nothing spectacular, as the shows are more about the entertainment than the food.

libby2483

Congrats on such a big check!

unicorntrees

Hooray! 

It sounds like you will have access to a car, yes? For your day on the coast, I would highly recommend going to St. Petersburg. They have a lot of fun beachy areas there along with all the beach area attractions/restaurants. Tampa has some nice places too. And the drive from Orlando is only about an hour and a half to Tampa. Plus, that's the gulf side, which is the side you want to be on for warm water!

FLsweetpea1979

I used to live in orlando! Universal City Walk (in the same complex as Universal IOA and Universal Studios) has quite a few great restaurants and entertainment options. Emeril's restaurant is there, there's a Margaritaville that often has live music, the Hard Rock Cafe, a dueling piano bar, a karaoke club (where singers sing with a live band and back-up singers), a huge movie theater and several other shops, bars and restaurants.
   Downtown Disney (which has free admission) also has quite a few great restaurants, shops and things to do as well. Planet Hollywood is there, Rainforest Cafe, House of Blues, Wolfgang Puck's Cafe and Fulton's Crab House.  DisneyQuest (a kind of technological theme park) is there as well as the Cirque du Soleil show.
  Wet & Wild is fun, but Sea World has a water park, Aquatica, that I think is actually a little nicer.  And the Disney water parks are amazing.
  I have also always heard very good things about the Royal Pacific Resort's Wantilan luau (which is right next to the Universal complex).
   My absolute favorite side trip from Orlando is St Augustine (about 2 hours away).  It is a gorgeous historical city with really nice beaches.  They have some fantastic bed and breakfasts and beach hotels in that area as well.