I just saw you may be head to the Keys! We love the Keys and go there almost as often as Disney to Scuba. May I suggest a stop off for some snorkeling at John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo? They require reservations a day or so in advance. Don’t worry about a shut down with the state parks, they aren’t impacted, just national parks.
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I’ll send some specifics but two quicks reactions:
(1) since this is your first visit to the World, make sure you do not crush from ride to ride the first days you are there. You have the luxury of knowing you will hit it ALL over the 21 days, so do what so often a luxury not possible for a family with a couple of days: go slow, notice the details, prepare with websites (like TP) and books with stuff on inside Disney geekdom (like hidden Mickeys, forced perspective, the names on the shops on Main Street, stop and talk to street characters). My DD and I have gone for years, so we always spend the first moments in joyful wonder. Do that!
(2) would you consider adopting me for a month for the family adventure? I don’t eat much, laugh lots, can walk miles with no complaints, and am potty trained. And I know where the best WDW restrooms are.
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Oh lovely, thank you! Yes we’ve got a day set aside to explore them.
Snorkelling sounds great! At the moment the only plan is to drive down probably as far as the Bahia Honda park - I don’t think all the way to Key West is worth it. And find some places to stop, eat, and there’s the Tarpon feeding everyone talks about.
No you would need a salt water one as well some states use a national one that is free. I don’t know what Florida uses but I do know that you MUST have a venting tool. If you don’t know what that is it is a tool used to help the fish swim back down to depths by puncturing it air bladder.
Key West is soooo far. Yeah, I agree stop at Bahia Honda.
Lol my parents are about 15 min north of the tarpon feeding dock for the winter. They go fishing on the party boat there. I was out on a night trip a few years ago. When we got back DW and myself stayed while they cleaned the fish. Everyone else went back to the condo. You would not believe all the sharks at the dock, If you fell in you’d be gone in seconds.
@SimonUK, We went to Volcano Bay on Friday, April 6 last year. I recommend going first thing in the morning one day, so maybe you should plan that for Friday, March 29th since that is when we are going this year. 
I think you will find it crazy busy in the hours between 12 and 6, last year we left around 2ish after arriving at 8:30 (for a 9am early entry, regular open at 10). If you arrive later, most of the rides will have 1-3 hour return times, and unlike other parks you cannot just get into another line as there is no standby lines at all. They also close to capacity daily during the busy spring break season, and you may not be allowed in. It really is important to be there early in the day due to the virtual lines/no standby.
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Well look at that, you just filled the only free day in the schedule! I knew it was empty for something. Seriously, I’ve put it in!
Okay, but point taken on VB. Maybe VB in the morning before our first Seaworld trip on 22nd afterwards? Is Seaworld isn’t needing a ropedrop on much stuff is it?
Where it’s a Volcano Bay break in the schedule it’s more in case we need a rest from the Universal parks, and we’ve already paid for the parking… So more about lazy rivers and wave pools than getting on all the rides.
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Any other must dos you’d recommend in for a day down in the Keys? Or good places to eat?
I did have a feeling it might be more about the lazy river and wave pools for your break, which you certainly can do. The biggest thing is them closing due to capacity which happened that day around noon. They also don’t really publicize that they are closed, the buses will still bring you there, and then you are met with the sign out front letting you know you won’t be entering the park. We saw quite a few sad/mad faces that they made it all the way to the gates without knowing the parks were closed to capacity.
Volcano Bay is fabulous! I do not even like water parks much, but we had the best time. My teens loved it so much, the rides are very thrilling, and they don’t want to go back to the Disney parks anymore. It is all about Volcano Bay for them now.
We don’t eat out much there to save money to fund my scuba and Disney habits! 
. Definitely get some local seafood and key lime pie. I remember the conch house being good, buts it’s been a few years since I visited.
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It’s Spring Break so closing could be an issue. We have Aquatica as a back up I guess, plus free parking there!
My eldest is so looking forward to VB. I’m glad we’ve only got it later in the holiday as for the first two weeks we only have Blizzard Beach. Typhoon Lagoon opens in our last three days of Disney tickets.
I say only, our water park experiences so far are very limited so I think we’ll love them all.
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This is going to be one hell of a trip report!
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You’re not kidding… I’ve been listening to the entire back catalogue of Backside of Magic (my kinda guys) so eager to lots of all the tips and tricks learnt here and there too.
On top of which, we have to make our food budget go FAAARRR so it’ll be full of every money saving tip we can find.
Stopping at Bahia Honda and not going all the way to Key West is a great idea. We love the Islamorada area, it is so beautiful there! I assume you already have a place to stay, if not check out the Islander Resort, it was fantastic. For food we like the Islamorada Fish Company which is right on the water.
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Staying in Miami so it’s just a day trip. It’s our first full day so we’ll be up really early to make use of our jet lag!
I’ve just found $5 discounts for the snorkelling @Incredible_Family recommended, which are just for the 9am session so that could be a good option. (http://pennekamppark.com/pdf/Pennekamp-State-Park-Coupon.pdf) And then on down to Bahia Honda. Stop at the beach there, and then drive back up.
I got a cool ‘audio tour’ for the Keys for a few quid as an android app. It triggers via GPS and tells you about the history of them, so that’ll be fun too.
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Sounds amazing. I realized after I posted that it was probably a day trip. We snorkeled and also went kayaking from Pennekamp on our first trip to the Keys way back in 2000. Have fun!
I will second this I believe it is next to a little Bass Pro Shop.
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@SimonUK Your trip looks amazing!!! When you are at Universal the Aventura hotel has a virtual reality game room that sounds like fun! If you go on the Raglan Road website it will give you the schedule for St. Patrick’s Day at DS (there is an outdoor festival all weekend). When you are in the states most grocery stores have their own “customer card” it’s free to sign up and gives you all the sale prices when you check out. Some also give you a percentage off gas based on what you have purchased (at specific gas stations). For us it is “Stop and Shop” which you can use at Stop and Shop gas stations and Mobil. There are also huge places like Costco.
Can’t wait to hear about your trip!
@qwerty6 the zip lining looked amazing!!!
Thanks Sandy, these are all such useful tips, and ones I’d have absolutely no idea about!
I’m of Irish descent so we did want to do something for St Patrick’s, so that sounds great. Would any of the parks be especially worth visiting too for that celebration?
The whole couponing culture is quite alien to Brits, whether that’s restaurants or groceries or whatever. So I might start up a thread just for everyone’s best coupon tips!