If you are lucky enough to be able to travel to Orlando and Walt DIsney World or Universal Studios at any time of year why not have a look to see if there are any special events available and make your date of travel to coincide. Or maybe check to see if there is a concert on in Downtown Orlando – we once arranged a whole holiday around a concert to see My Chemical Romance and Green Day, what a fantastic gig – or a concert or event on at the Convention Center or the Hard Rock Cafe.
There is so much choice and so much to do and look for – here’s a little run through of some of the special events or sporting events you can look for.
In Disney World’s EPCOT park there are both the Flower and Garden Festival – March to June, and also the Food and Wine Festival late August to November, which are both well worth a look. Neither of these events costs anything extra over and above your ticket price and both of them give the park an extra and exciting twist with lots more things to see and do. The Flower and Garden Festival sees an array of new planting areas, butterfly gardens and topiaries of Disney Characters. So pretty and well worth a visit. The Food and Wine Festival brings lots of extra pop up booths for lots of countries not featured in the World Showcase. Each booth features a number of taster dishes and beverages typical of the country for you to try. They can be quite costly if you have lots of them, but if you pick and choose and use the experience to try something you haven’t tried before or something you really enjoy it is great fun. There is so much to see and try, lots of wines and beers and there’s a fantastic atmosphere around the lagoon. We absolutely love visiting you when the Food and Wine Festival is on. The Flower and Garden Festival runs from March 6th to June 3rd. The Food and Wine Festival runs from the 29th of Aug to 23 Nov.
There are also the Halloween Celebrations, which are obviously massive in the States. You can opt for the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or the Universal Horror Nights. Both of these are an extra ticketed event but well worth it depending on crowd levels. The Mickey party in The Magic Kingdom is a very family friendly party. Lots of trick or treat opportunities, so you get a bag to collect candy in. If a member of your party has any allergies, when you are collecting the candy from the trick or treat points tell a cast member and they will give you a special token. These can be redeemed for allergy friendly snacks and treats at special kiosks or points. This way no one gets left out! Tickets for this event start at $79 for adults and $74 for children.
Mickeys not so Scary Halloween starts on Aug 16th.
The characters are dressed up in their Halloween costumes and there’s a night time special parade and the fireworks and light show on the Cinderella Castle. We have watched a couple of vlogs of this year’s party (yes it has started! – and it looks fantastic. The Universal Horror nights – as you’d imagine by it’s title – is a rather more scary adult or older children based event. We have never been to one of these because Mrs Oh! Orlando is way way too scared, but we understand it is a collection of various themed houses – scares a plenty and lots of cult shows/characters featured, such as Stranger Things, and The Walking Dead etc in previous years. This year sees the Ghostbusters at the park and Stranger Things returns. Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights starts on Sept 6 and runs till Nov 2nd.
Christmas celebrations and decorations in the park start early. You can get into the Christmas spirit nice and early with Walt Disney World and, we assume Universal. The Christmas decorations start to go up and the parades and extra events start pretty much as soon as Halloween has ended so you can experience a Disney/Universal Christmas Holiday without having to wait until right into the end of December, when crowd levels are at record levels. Believe it or not Christmas Day is one of the busiest days of the year for WDW.
At Universal you will also find the Mardi Gras celebration and special celebration for the 4th of July, so if you can aim to be around for those you’ll get a lot of extra fun for your ticket price, as they have special parades and events.
At WDW they have summer concerts and parties that are scheduled around the park on various stages – The Galaxy of the Guardians is well worth a look. They also hold fun runs and marathons, concerts and school bands performing.
If you fancy venturing away from the parks you could go and see the local Football team the Orlando Magics. Tickets for the matches start at only $25. Bargain! Or if big toothless Canadians is your thing pop along to the Florida Panthers Ice Hockey! Fancy a drive down the coast? Why not try and grab a hot ticket to watch the Miami Heat play? Or if you fancy seeing a baseball game head on up to Tampa, for the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. The stadium is something else and the ball games go on for ages. Such an event, tailgate BBQ’s on the car park and a real party atmosphere – for us Brits is a real look into American culture, hot dogs and beer and a ball game – great fun.
There is so much on the doorstep! Check out extra events at the theme parks, and sporting events and concerts before you book your holiday, or before you head off on holiday – you just might get lucky and add something extra memorable to what will almost certainly be a memorable visit to Orlando!
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