Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

socrates

KarenG wrote: »

Do you mean any deluxe resort or any deluxe villa resort?

I'm not trying to be picky but I will give a different answer depending on which you want.

My favourite deluxe villa resort would be the Beach Club Villas, followed by Bay Lake Tower, followed by Boardwalk Villas. The reason for those is that they are walking distance to at least one theme park, love the themeing, great pools and nightlife on the doorstep.

Favourite deluxe resort - probably the Yacht Club. No villas here though (unless you include the Beach Club Villas which are next door).

All of these are a lot more $$$ than the current Old Key West/ Saratoga Springs offers, unfortunately.

Basically the one where there is an apartment as described in previous posts but is still within Disney for the free transport

wedlock179

Hi, we are staying at this hilton in august and have a car to get us from airport and for our 3rd week at anna maria island but are considering keeping it for the whole 3 weeks. can you get to universal parks on the shuttle buses easily from here and how much is it? can we get to discovery cove easily from here too?We have never stayed at this part before but are pretty independant travellers and like the freedom of a car but are unsure what to do? any advice/info on getting around from here is greatly appreciated!!1:T

johnnyroper

wedlock179 wrote: »

Hi, we are staying at this hilton in august and have a car to get us from airport and for our 3rd week at anna maria island but are considering keeping it for the whole 3 weeks. can you get to universal parks on the shuttle buses easily from here and how much is it? can we get to discovery cove easily from here too?We have never stayed at this part before but are pretty independant travellers and like the freedom of a car but are unsure what to do? any advice/info on getting around from here is greatly appreciated!!1:T

not sure how much transport costs,but for me a car is the best option in orlando if not staying on site at disney.the reasons i say this is because you can come and go as you please at all the attractions you are not always having to clock watch to catch the trolley/bus.i think it also offers far more freedom to visit more places in a day for example disney in morning sea world in afternoon.also it is good to get to places like kennedy and shopping outlets if that is your thing?

obviously this is personal preference, i stayed on i-drive last time i went.

KarenG

socrates wrote: »

Basically the one where there is an apartment as described in previous posts but is still within Disney for the free transport

OK, so my answer still applies then:

KarenG wrote:

My favourite deluxe villa resort would be the Beach Club Villas, followed by Bay Lake Tower, followed by Boardwalk Villas. The reason for those is that they are walking distance to at least one theme park, love the themeing, great pools and nightlife on the doorstep.

Favourite deluxe resort - probably the Yacht Club. No villas here though (unless you include the Beach Club Villas which are next door).

All of these are a lot more $$$ than the current Old Key West/ Saratoga Springs offers, unfortunately.

KarenG

wedlock179 wrote: »

Hi, we are staying at this hilton in august and have a car to get us from airport and for our 3rd week at anna maria island but are considering keeping it for the whole 3 weeks. can you get to universal parks on the shuttle buses easily from here and how much is it? can we get to discovery cove easily from here too?We have never stayed at this part before but are pretty independant travellers and like the freedom of a car but are unsure what to do? any advice/info on getting around from here is greatly appreciated!!1:T

I also prefer to have a car but it can be done easily without if you stay on I Drive (which you are).

The I Ride shuttle runs pretty constantly and will take you to both Universal parks, and both shopping outlets


I assume if your hotel is called the Hilton Seaworld you will be within walking distance, but best to check If you're within walking distance of Sea World Discovery Cove should also be, as they are more or less next to each other (Aquatica also).

I'd personally find it a bit tiresome to go to the Disney parks from I Drive without a car, but many do, and it can be done.

blue_monkey_2

wedlock179 wrote: »

Hi, we are staying at this hilton in august and have a car to get us from airport and for our 3rd week at anna maria island but are considering keeping it for the whole 3 weeks. can you get to universal parks on the shuttle buses easily from here and how much is it? can we get to discovery cove easily from here too?We have never stayed at this part before but are pretty independant travellers and like the freedom of a car but are unsure what to do? any advice/info on getting around from here is greatly appreciated!!1:T

Ooooh, which Hilton? We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club at Seaworld a few months ago. :T They are pretty much the same distance from Seaworld though, just a road seperating them, Garden Inn is just a short walk from HGVC and is nearer Seaworld.

Seaworld is walking distance, 5 or 10 minutes at the most depending on who you have with you. It is further across the car park than it is getting to the entrance!!

Get an i-ride ticket for the week http://www.iridetrolley.com/index.html the 'green' one run stops right outside the hotel and goes to Seaworld (if you time it right). Costs $10 for a 7 day ticket and kids under 12 travel free. However, it does not stop right outside Universal, you'll need to go to red stop 7 (if using the green trolley - which is quicker from Hilton and does not go up i-drive) then walk, get a bus or a cab to Universal. The stops are close together so do not worry if you miss it.

The hotel has a shuttle bus, it is $6 per person to all the big parks and Seaworld is free. However, you have to book both legs and we found they were limited on time for us so we got taxi's. The hotel has a taxi service that is much cheaper than Mears and you just ask at the bell stand for them to get you a cab.

Taxi to Wal-mart is around $18 each way. Florida Mall was $12. All taxi prices include 20% tips.

Parking at the hotel is free. If you drive to Disney you'll have to pay $14 to park each time and hen $10 at Universal. There are no Disney buses to Downtown Disney from any of the parks, you have to go via a hotel which can be time consuming.

Bus to Busch Gardens needs to be booked online beefore you need it but it picks up from Seaworld at 9am daily. It is free if you have a 14 day ticket, $10 each otherwise (although they never asked us for proof).

The Lynx bus stops just around the corner from the hotel. You need the number 50 bus going AWAY from Seaworld. Stand and look towards the (I think) I4 and there is a stop on the left and on the right - the one you want for Disney is on the right, going away from Seaworld. I mention this as there are no signs and someone else was waiting on the wrong side. This bus takes you to Disney and Aquatica - I think you can get one to Universal but we got taxis (around $20 each way IIRC). A weekly ticket for the Lynx costs $12 and you can use all Lynx buses, kids under 6 travel free. Here is the schedule, they are every half an hour: http://www.golynx.com/assets/userfiles/routemaps/50.pdf

Here are the other schedules: http://www.golynx.com/

If you need to ask anything else then please ask.

If it is HGVC I'll see if I can post some pics so you know what you have to look forward to. Blow up cinema screen on Thursday and Saturday nights showing a movie while you swim. Decent priced food onsite too - there is nowhere else to eat that is not a bus or taxi ride away, however the food onsite is good, decently priced and is open long hours. And have look for the turtles and gator in the lake. :T

We will be going back again, for definate.

blue_monkey_2

Also, we ordered a cab to DC but it did not arrive so the hotel shuttle took us for free and we just gave him a tip. It's about a mile so it is walking distance but it would take about half an hour I guess.

On the way back we got a cab and it is a minimum $10 for any short distance, they do not even set the clock - our driver was an ar se so we did not tip him either! Another story there - he even loaded another family with us after we told him where our hotel was and he said it was not fair on him to go to that hotel. And then he took us to the WRONG hotel - and wanted to charge us extra for it. We laugh now, was fuming at the time. DC is walking distance if you can face it after a long day in the pool though, literally come out of DC and walk down the road.

I have to admit, we got taxi's everywhere (even one from Animal Kingdom hotel to Universal which was $100 round trip), where ever you go there are taxi's - shopping malls, theme parks, supermarkets, etc... The only time we got stuck was one day at Blizzard Beach when we could not get back to DTD and there was no cabs so we went to Old Key West and got the Water Taxi instead. If you call Mears you can usually get a cab within a few minutes (did not think about this thinking about it)so just keep a couple of quarters on you for the phone and you only have to ask anywhere and they will call you a cab. We asked in Target and they called a cab for us and it was there within minutes. Local calls are usually free from your hotel room.

We would have had to pay £500 for a car for 3 weeks plus tolls and parking - but we spent no-where near $750 on cabs, buses and the i-ride in 3 weeks and we got cabs everywhere.

blue_monkey_2

socrates wrote: »

Basically the one where there is an apartment as described in previous posts but is still within Disney for the free transport

socarates, glad we have that sorted. I made the same mistake too.

Yes, they look like villas but they have apartments in.

As Karen has mentioned, prices differe significantly. If you search on the Disney website for your dates and then when results come in, check the box for Deluxe Villas Resorts, if they have apartments available it will tell you. If it just says 'standard view/water view - sleeps 1-4' then these are not what you are looking for as they are rooms. Apartments will say will say '1 bed villa. Hope that makes sense.

I just did a search for you 1- 14th April for 4 adults and prices are:

OKW £4225
SSR £4225
Fort Wilderness (Not Deluxe villa but you get a self contained cabin that sleeps 1-6 with cooking facilities: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/cabins-at-fort-wilderness-resort/) £3484
Villas at Wilderness Lodge £5876
Beach Club Villas £5928
Boardwalk Villas £5928

There is also Kidani at Animal Kingdom Villas but that is not available for when you want to travel but I'd expect that to be around £3k per week also.

Have to admit I was shocked by the prices of OKW and SSR because they are usually 50% off but it must because it is Easter or because they have limited rooms - searches for other times of year put the prices at under half this amount, on the other hand Beach Club Villas and the like, used to be around 4.5k per week but the prices of these have gone down.

You can get a Disney hotel for much cheaper than this - Port Orleans is £1700.

I am assuming you are looking for this year though, 2011, you'll not be able to boook 2012 villas until around June-August time.

I do not think I'd pay that amount to be fair, it would be cheaper to stay at a suite elsewhere and get taxi's to the transportation centre everyday. It is $60 from the airport to I Drive and $50 on taxi's per day $820 - which would make it much cheaper to stay at a suite near Disney and Universal but not onsite. Once you get to any Disney resort or park, transportation around is free on the buses and monorail.

We stayed at Hilton Grand Vacation Club http://www.hilton.co.uk/orlandoseaworld and (I just checked prices and they have an offer on) it is £75 a night for a 1 bed suite. I have posted on the post above how we got around as someone else was asking, it was a really good base for us as it is in the middle of Disney and Universal but also walking distance of Seaworld/Aquatica. We paid $25 to get to Disney/Universal by cab one way although you can get a bus but we was not bothered and had already factored $700 for cabs into our money (a car would have cost more). The hotel does run a shuttle to the parks and shopping centres - we met a bloke from 20 miles down the road while we was by the lake feeding the gator.

However, this is just our experience, Orlando is filled with places with suites and apartments. If you have kids, Nickleodean have some. There is also The Hliday Inn, they have Suites.

Obviously it is not Disney but for over £4000 for accomodation, being honest, I would not pay that..... We paid £926 for the week and that included food, that is a FAR cry from £2200 a week and no dining plan.

ETA: I wonder if it is Spring Break and prices have risen to put groups of teenagers off staying there? I've heard bad things from American friends about Spring Break, teens getting drunk and vomiting in the gutter (much like Saturday nights in town) - anyone verify this? They specifically never travel at Spring Break.

wedlock179

Thanks very much for all the info. I think we may get a car for the full 3 weeks as we will be going to Walmart for food, also to shopping malls and about 7 to 10 days at universal parks.We will not be going to Disney, and intend staying a few days on the resort. It is GVC we are staying at. We will pay about £500 for the 3 weeks car hire but I think it will be more convenient and less hassle than getting on and off shuttles and walking in the heat

blue_monkey_2

I can honestly say that we did Islands of Adventure in 1.5 days amd Universal in a morning. And there was about 5/6 rides that we did not go on from both of them - everything else we did do - sometimes more than once 7 to 10 days is pushing it IMO. It's nowhere near the size of Disney.

Seaworld/Busch Garden/Discovery Cove are 1 day parks also, Busch Gardens is an hour or so's drive each way. They are not Universal Parks but part of the Bushe Group so maybe this is what you meant by Universal Parks.

GVC is fantastic and lovely to go to the pool in the evening as it is open til 11pm or Midnight. There are 2 pools but the community pool by reception is better. If you look on Google Maps the resort looks huge but it is easily walkable. We did not see it until the day before we left but you can buy a refillable mug for $14 and you can drink as much starbucks coffee as you like from the station they have there. Certainly worth it if there for 21 days.

If you have children they have lots to do for the children and there is a kids club there too that opens at around 8am some days. My kids never went but we had a list of the activities, we was out every day of the 3 weeks doin something. We are not ones to stay around the pool and we walked LOADS.