Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

jeanniebeanie_2

Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »

Anyone here have any opinions (good or bad) of Wolfgang Puck's eaterie at Downtown Disney? There seem to be several areas; I'm particularly interested in the upstairs Dining Room rather than the Cafe or Sushi Bar.

The reports on Tripadvisor seem to be all over the place from good to bad.

TIA

Have only eaten in the cafe, but have been twice for lunch. The first time was just ok- not great, but not bad. The second time was this May and we went back because friends were keen to try it. Unfortunately the restaurant was plagued with flies. We were sat near to the door originally and asked to be moved further in. The waiter seemed surprised ("Oh REALLY?") at our fly problem, but you could hardly fail to see them, everyone seemed to have a problem. In the end we moved twice.

Unfortunately it made no difference and the constantly wafting flies away from our food ruined our meal. Surprisingly we didn't see flies anywhere else in Downtown Disney that day. I won't be back for thirds.

KarenG

Kaz2904 wrote: »

r.mac, thanks for the tip. I will have to look from home not work as it's blocked for some reason I have spent some time browsing thedibb and have registered on there but as the kids don't know about the holiday yet, I can't let them see me on the computer. I'm on night number 4 of 5 now so will be able to take a peek on Friday night. 3 nights extra work this week should go towards the kids passports, trip insurance and our ESTA forms. Phew!
Am wondering about cutting costs on parking. Disney and universal charge $15 per day for parking. How about free parking on international drive and then using the i-ride? I notice it's $17 for 2 weeks rides so that would cover our trip. It would also save us fuel but then we have to account for things we need to carry. Although if we're not taking big bags of food in, we'll have much less.
I have planned to take the kids school bags with us for them to use as their hand luggage (if they're small enough) and DH and I will also have back packs. I figure that if we put in say 2 muesli bars, 2 pieces of fruit and a packet of crisps, that would be allowed right? Drinks, I think we'll be buying the refillable cups. Or buying a bottle and filling it from the water fountains.
Very excited

Commuting via public transport to save $15 is not the best use of money if you are already hiring a car. It's going to add a massive amount of time to your travelling - depending on connections etc could be well over three hours a day. Believe me, you will not want to spend any extra time doing that unnecessarily (especially in August).

The school bags should be absolutely fine and what you suggest putting in will be OK (you can get away with more than that if that helps).

You know the refillable cups don't exist for you in the Disney parks, right? In the waterparks they do but if you are driving there they are the easiest place to take your own beverages into as the walk to your sun lounger will be very short comparatively

At a Disney park though, you can go to any counter service restaurant and ask for a cup of iced water - free

TooDee

Has anyone got any opinions on transhire.com? They seem the cheapest for our driver who's 21.

Kaz2904

It's a bit of a minefield this money saving in Orlando lark, isn't it ? I'm very concerned that somehow, we are going to end up not having one single meal out in the whole 2 weeks we are there because BiL/ Sil won't want to. I think we'll just have to split up from them if they don't wish to eat out. They've been before (5 years ago) and think they know everything yet when we were looking at tickets and whatnot they were going on and on about how expensive the tickets were which we were finding. They haven't found anything cheaper yet though. They also didn't think that you have to pay to park at any of the parks but you do and they also said that you can take picnics into the parks every day which you're not allowed to do. I feel I have been somewhat misinformed .
So...... Costs...... Breakfasts each day (at least 2 out hopefully), lunches (at least 2 out hopefully), tea times (again, at least 2 out but hopefully 6/8). Parking $15 x 13. Fuel (20 minutes from Orlando so approx $1/1L and 50 miles per day = $20 per day enough do you reckon?).
Am wondering now if a budget of $200 per day is feasible? I think I'd better try to set it at $300 per day plus some extra left over for splurges at the mall?
I really need to spend some time working this out but unfortunately, I have to go to bed now. I'm tired and I'll oversleep otherwise
Catch up later and hopefully read this whole thread whilst the kids are in bed tonight. Then, I can make some notes!

TooDee

eating out in America is so super cheap esspecially when using vouchers etc i'm sure you'll be able to manage a fair few times.

delwynshd

Guys

Just to let you know, Virgin have 10% off online for all holidays departing before the 31 March 2012

However the Virgin Retail stores have 10% off all holiday for all dates

Just another saving tip from MEEEEEE!!!!

Thanks
Del

meer53

Re : Parking at Disney/Universal/Seaworld etc. Just a tip from me - pay it, it's worth it ! Believe me, in August when you've spent a full day in the parks, all you want to do is find your car and get in it as quickly as possible ! That's after you've opened all the doors to let the 1000 degree heat out ! Our kids refused to get in until i'd started the engine and the air con was running.
At Universal we used the Preferred Parking Service, it's extra, but you get to park nearer the entrance, they park the car for you and they bring your car back to you when you're ready to go, and the air con is already running, it's fab ! Think it was about 7 usd more.

KarenG

Kaz2904 wrote: »

It's a bit of a minefield this money saving in Orlando lark, isn't it ? I'm very concerned that somehow, we are going to end up not having one single meal out in the whole 2 weeks we are there because BiL/ Sil won't want to. I think we'll just have to split up from them if they don't wish to eat out. They've been before (5 years ago) and think they know everything yet when we were looking at tickets and whatnot they were going on and on about how expensive the tickets were which we were finding. They haven't found anything cheaper yet though. They also didn't think that you have to pay to park at any of the parks but you do and they also said that you can take picnics into the parks every day which you're not allowed to do. I feel I have been somewhat misinformed .
So...... Costs...... Breakfasts each day (at least 2 out hopefully), lunches (at least 2 out hopefully), tea times (again, at least 2 out but hopefully 6/8). Parking $15 x 13. Fuel (20 minutes from Orlando so approx $1/1L and 50 miles per day = $20 per day enough do you reckon?).
Am wondering now if a budget of $200 per day is feasible? I think I'd better try to set it at $300 per day plus some extra left over for splurges at the mall?
I really need to spend some time working this out but unfortunately, I have to go to bed now. I'm tired and I'll oversleep otherwise
Catch up later and hopefully read this whole thread whilst the kids are in bed tonight. Then, I can make some notes!

DITCH THE IN LAWS (LOL just kidding )

They are partly right in some of what they say. Tickets do feel more expensive compared with five years ago - someone online did an interesting comparison which showed that tickets had pretty much followed the cost of living BUT five years ago the £/$ exchange rate was great for us in the UK, and tickets are sold in $. Although you buy UK tickets in £ they were originally $ so the cost incurred by the ticket vendor is relatively higher or lower depending on the exchange rate (albeit they buy / order in bulk at a given time).

Parking at the parks has not been free for a long time, can't remember when it was introduced but it was definitely at least ten years ago, and might be a lot longer ago than that. So they are wrong there.

They were probably OK taking picnics into the parks at that point, and you still can in some parks today, so they are right there.

I think it's madness to not eat out when in Orlando, because it is really cheap (compared to here). it would be a shame not to have a few meals out at least.

I don't know exactly what you will be driving and how far but $20/day sounds extremely high to me. I'd be amazed if it was as much as $10 a day to be honest. I'm trying to think about what we spend normally in Orlando and I don't think it's as much as $10 a day. As an example, we drove around California last month (travelling long distances some days, up to 300 miles), and our total gas spend was about $25 a day. No way will you be driving as far as that

Hope that helps :beer:

Kaz2904

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I suppose that with an intermediate car, it won't be a big gas guzzler. I reckon we'll be doing at least 60 miles per day so I was guessing at fuel as in mpg. I found the site where you can check your cheapest fuel costs and there is a petrol station near our villa which is one of the cheaper.
I just can't imagine going all the way to Florida and not eating out at all!
Now though, I have to save up and pay for the holiday!

KarenG

Kaz2904 wrote: »

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I suppose that with an intermediate car, it won't be a big gas guzzler. I reckon we'll be doing at least 60 miles per day so I was guessing at fuel as in mpg. I found the site where you can check your cheapest fuel costs and there is a petrol station near our villa which is one of the cheaper.
I just can't imagine going all the way to Florida and not eating out at all!
Now though, I have to save up and pay for the holiday!

60 miles a day sounds like quite a lot to me for the Orlando parks (on average). Whereabouts are you staying?