Traveling to WDW From the United Kingdom

I'm Scott, one of the Administrators on Magictrips, I'm here to help you out with a Walt Disney World trip from a U.K. perspective.

My family and I live in the U.K. We've been to WDW 6 times and Disneyland twice. The girls were aged 5 on the first time and 16 on the last trip we had. We have stayed off-site and on site with Disney, so have experienced a Florida trip from different aspects.

This piece is designed to help visitors from the U.K., both veterans and more especially novices, get a grip of the subtle and not-so-subtle differences in traveling to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I'm going to try to answer any question you may have in advance but, if I've missed anything please ask.

The wonderful news is that you and your family is going to Walt Disney World in beautiful Orlando, Florida. The not-so-wonderful news is that your travels are starting a tad further afield than your U.S. cousins and there's a bit more traveling involved to get to your destination. That said, although Orlando is not one of the great centers of business that attracts multiple daily flights from the world's great capitals, you will find it remarkably simple to get a flight to Orlando, either directly or indirectly.

In the height of the summer season especially you will see multiple charter aircraft arriving daily from Canada, Spain, France, Germany, Brazil, The Netherlands and, of course, the single-largest travel group from the United Kingdom. That coupled with the vast numbers of folks arriving on scheduled carriers brings an enormous number of folks to the Metro Orlando area each and every day. Add to that the substantial number of our Canadian friends who choose to make their journey to Florida part of their vacation by driving to Orlando. All in all that's an awful lot of worldwide humanity arriving in one place pretty much at the same time.

What can you do to make your journey and vacation as pain-free and enjoyable as possible? You start out at a disadvantage in that you are limited to what you can cram into your family suitcases and convince the airline to carry. Your American counterpart can load up the station wagon, fill it full of everything the family would need for an assault on the North face of the Eiger and still have enough room for their neighbors in the back seat. You, on the other hand, have a lot more to figure out. You need to be packing resourcefully. You need to be packing only essentials. Don't bring clothes from home that are likely to be duplicated by purchases early in the trip. Bring clothes that are appropriate for Florida, not your home climate. For our U.K. friends, don't bother bringing anything that plugs into the wall, you are 220V and the United States is 110V. Hair driers and irons either come with the room or can be borrowed from Guest Services.

Unlike almost any other vacation destination on the planet, you're going to have to prepare and do lots of research. Anywhere else, you came to relax and not worry about anything. Arriving in Orlando without a plan of what you are going to do is going to definitely leave a mark. Check out our attached website pages of information. If the answer to your question does not spring out obviously, use the search feature and put in the key part of what you want to find. Once you have found as much as you can digest and you still have questions, don't hesitate to visit our Discussion Forums where there are always plenty of Disneyphiles (that's a polite term for folks that are nuts about Disney) ready and willing to answer your questions.

Other United Kingdom pages in this section to check out:

Getting Started
U.S. Airports
Transportation from Airport
Driving Directions from the Airport to Walt Disney World
Driving in Florida for Brits
Miscellaneous Titbits
English/American Language Translator

Last Updated: May 9, 2009