Thank you so much for your help. I will take a look at the links you kindly supplied. From a financial point of view would you recommend booking flights and hotel separately or as a package deal?

Any idea what the weather is like in October?

Trying not to get excited yet, hoping have saved enough!

Many book flights separately but with the deal mentioned, you can add flights, always good to explore and compare overall prices

October is Wonderful, we have gone many times in October. The Weather is still quite warm, perfect for swimming and the Crowd Levels are on the Lower side, easy enough to manage fun days at the Parks

There are two Special Events at Disney World that are well worth checking out. Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and Epcot's Food and Wine Festival. Those are the Top reasons we visit in October :)

Tip for driving that my friend does. When shes here she wears her watch on one side then switches it to the other when she goes abroad so she knows what side she should be on. Not sure how it would work for you but she swears by it!

Its not so difficult once youre on the road. Its more confusing when your driving a UK car on the wrong side of the road. That confused my head so much!

Great idea though about going to see Winter :) Shes has an amazing story! And will definitely be something your child will enjoy :) I am thinking about booking tickets aswell now.

Thanks for the watch tip - good idea, worth a try.

Do you know what the area of Clearwater is like? Is it safe for a mum & child alone do you know?

Are private rentals a good idea?

I'm a complete novice or dunce to be more accurate when it comes to the Orlando resort thing.

Do you have to buy separate tickets for Disney World, Seaworld, universal, discovery cove etc? My son and i are more animal focused could anyone suggest the best places to visit particularly for up close and personnel experiences.

I would suggest a Hotel in Clearwater. Having all the amenities and security would be top of my list . There are safe and lovely options in Clearwater

Yes, all those Parks are owned by different companies. There are Agents that bundle the Tickets, call them "the one" and such but they are in the end, separate tickets. It is alot more cost effective to buy tickets to one or a few at least, different Parks ( Disney Tickets are priced the more days you play, the less you pay per day )

You can get the Disney Ticket for as many days as you like, if you book a Disney Resort, you can get the 14 day ticket for the price of 7 as part of the deal. Discovery Cove and Seaworld can be a combo ticket. Not sure I would Recomend Universal Parks, that might be pushing it with an 8 year old with Special needs, you might want to scale down and have some rest days, just my thoughts

Its all rather mind boggling!

Thanks so much for the help. I'm wondering if we are better off just doing Discovery Cove, Seaworld maybe Busch gardens? and then moving down to Clearwater to relax on the beach and see winter. We have done EuroDisney (i know, no comparison whatsoever) but found my son then 4 become a little bored halfway through day 2!:) He is more animal orientated. I haven't even looked into Universal Studios, i had just naively assumed it was film based, something my son is also very into (wants to make his own movies one day!:) ) My son is high functioning but thanks for the caution which i've taken on board.

The main reason for the trip is to see Winter, i'm just getting wrapped up and confused with trying to sort out other activities and take advantage of all that Florida has to offer while we are there.

Hi we have 2 autistic children and on our last visit we did Clearwater for the day, we loved it that much we are planning a week on the coast when we go back next year. We are hoping to do Clearwater Marine Aquarium to see winter on our next visit. There are some fab hotels some cheap and some not so cheap. We have hired a condo for a week but is further down on Anna Maria Island. However we did look at the Hilton as it was right on the beach and also Frenchys Oasis Motel. We did Disney last year for the first time in 8 years and it was fab. The staff were much better with regards to our childs needs than Universal were. The drive was straight forward from Orlando to Clearwater. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.