Orlando Florida/Disneyworld (Part 2) *CLOSED*

Louisa_Jane_2

hbk2006 wrote: »

Hi all, I wonder if you can offer some advice for a first time visitor to Florida? We are off to Orlando in March 08 (2 adults) for 1 week and plan on going to Sea World and Gatorland.

Does anyone have any other advice on places to go (not theme parky ie Disney etc) that won't cost an arm and a leg?

We will be staying just off I.Drive and will not have a car so easily accessible please!!

Thanks guys! :beer:

Have a look on https://www.thedibb.co.uk

Backbiter

valiant23 wrote: »

This thread has grown to 57 pages long and has masses of useful information.

I know because over the course of a day or so I read through it from start to finish. Now you've decided that people will have to trawl through posts for another destination in order to reduce the number of stickies?

I guess the look of the board is more important to the mod's than it actually being useful to the members.

Madness.

Agreed- keep it as it is.

mjr600

Gatorland burned down last November (tastes like Chicken) has it reopened ?

popapapa

Just a quick mail to all of you contributing to this thread.

It's our first time in Orlando and we are extremely happy, could not have done without the helpful advice on this site. We are only 3 days in and everything is just magic!

So far we found that if you book your economy car at Alamo, they will indeed try to get up to upgrade - we resisted as per advice and found that all economy cars are indeed fantastic! we are driving a Frontera (brand new)!

Thank you Chris and everyone else!!

jo03

If anyone needs a good book to plan with Simon/Susan Veness' book - brits guide to orlando 2008 is now out. Best price I can find it for is £7.49 at Waterstones. This price is online price instore price is double.

KarenG

mjr600 wrote: »

Gatorland burned down last November (tastes like Chicken) has it reopened ?

It's been opened again for a while - we went in August and it was OK then (though they still haven't yet managed to replace the 3D Gator head that used to be the entrance)

Dave_and_Aleks

Just wanted to share a recent success story regarding booking this hotel for our upcoming 17 nights in Orlando (stayed before, liked it very much, great prices, great location).

Finding a good price over Christmas/New Year was no mean achievement as some travel agencies didn't have the full 17-night availability whereas others did. Prices varied wildly and we ended up booking through three separate agencies to cover all 17 nights.

The first agency charged in advance and the other two agencies would have done the same had I not had the idea of e-mailing the hotel first and asking if they would price match.

The result was that the hotel didn't only price match but reduced the resort fee payable nightly from $6.75 to $2.50. Overall, I have saved (before the 12.5% tax) $463/£222 on the room rate and $72.25/£35 on the resort fee - which almost pays for one flight (booked well in advance, flying American Airlines, Manchester-Chicago-Orlando on Christmas Eve and back again 17 days later via Dallas and Chicago - £343 each). We also get to earn Gold Crown points whereas booking via the travel agencies would not have got us the points (10 points per $1 spent) Result!

Just goes to show if you don't ask, you don't get. :T :T :T

hbk2006

KarenG wrote: »

It's been opened again for a while - we went in August and it was OK then (though they still haven't yet managed to replace the 3D Gator head that used to be the entrance)

What was your experience of Gatorland? I was really looking forward to it but have read a lot of bad reviews. :(

Poppy9

Chris25 wrote: »

Mrs7ones wrote: »

How much spending money do we need for a 14 night holiday in Disney?
We are a family of 5..... kids aged 12, 8 and 17, and plan to stay in one of the Disney hotels. Park tickets will be bought before hand, so i just need a rough idea as to how much cash we will need for eating.... We plan to hire a car, so won't be tied to eating in Disney.

It doesn't matter if you are eating in Disney as the food is not that expensive. Unless you eat like pigs or want 5* everyday a typical meal will cost you in $s what you pay overhere in £s. So if you spend £50 on lunch here for 5 of you it will probably cost you $50 (£25).

When we go to Orlando we buy all our park tickets in advance so the only money we need is for food and if we want to shop. We are not big shoppers though (here or abroad) and prefer to relax by the pool if we are not parking.

You won't need much cash as it's just as easy to use CC/DC so take a couple of cards with you (read Martin's article on which cards to use abroad).

KarenG

hbk2006 wrote: »

What was your experience of Gatorland? I was really looking forward to it but have read a lot of bad reviews. :(

Well, we enjoyed it for a few hours diversion. It is a little bit hokey but it is entertaining and makes a nice break from the slickness of the Disney/Universal/Busch parks.

I wouldn't say it was a must do (unless you are travelling with gator fans ). We've been to Orlando quit a few times so we partly went to do something different.