Orlando

[carpetmonster]

In case anyone wanted to go, I must break it that The Holy Land theme park didn’t survive the pandemic and is now deed. The Total Wine just down the road from it has the best beer selection in Orlando if you’re in the area tho. 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

On 12/05/2022 at 22:46, carpetmonster said:

In case anyone wanted to go, I must break it that The Holy Land theme park didn’t survive the pandemic and is now deed. The Total Wine just down the road from it has the best beer selection in Orlando if you’re in the area tho. 

I wanted to go there in an ironic way as a committed Atheist and see how long it’d take before i got asked to leave. 
 

Flying to Orlando today from Glasgow to Melbourne with TUI, never flown this route before so interested to see what the smaller airport is like. 

[carpetmonster]

3 hours ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

I wanted to go there in an ironic way as a committed Atheist and see how long it’d take before i got asked to leave. 
 

Flying to Orlando today from Glasgow to Melbourne with TUI, never flown this route before so interested to see what the smaller airport is like. 

I’m sure they’d have still been quite keen to take your cash mate. Maybe you could’ve slipped a yamulke on when inside for shits and giggles. 
 

I’m sure it’ll be fine. Googlemaps makes it an extra 20 minutes into Kissimmee over Sanford, but an airport’s an airport’s an airport. I only ever notice if they’re particularly good (Tampa, Dublin) or a massive pain in the arse (Toronto Pearson, both Houstons) 

Edited May 16, 2022 by carpetmonster

[welshbairn]

Re airports, Dublin is indeed a fine airport, as are any of the few that have airside beer gardens. Incidentally Inverness got voted the best small airport in Europe this year, don't know who by.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

7 hours ago, carpetmonster said:

I’m sure they’d have still been quite keen to take your cash mate. Maybe you could’ve slipped a yamulke on when inside for shits and giggles. 
 

I’m sure it’ll be fine. Googlemaps makes it an extra 20 minutes into Kissimmee over Sanford, but an airport’s an airport’s an airport. I only ever notice if they’re particularly good (Tampa, Dublin) or a massive pain in the arse (Toronto Pearson, both Houstons) 

Just in the car hire queue, can tell its getting used to handling this volume but would recommend using MLB over MCO now in all honesty, no trams to get on, no 2hour immigration queue and a pretty spectacular landing. 

[MP_MFC]

If anyone is looking at going this year still, TUI are doing some really good deals for September. Flight only about £500 return.

[The Golden God]

Anyone who’s been this year, what’s the vaccine requirements?

[carpetmonster]

2 hours ago, The Golden God said:

Anyone who’s been this year, what’s the vaccine requirements?

Anyone over 18 (non-US citizens at least) must show proof of vaccination to enter the US

ETA - might be useful - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/emergencies/covid-19-faqs-for-travel-to-the-us-information.html

Edited July 6, 2022 by carpetmonster

[PB1994]

Looks like I might be going to Orlando for 2/3 weeks in a couple of years.

Not been since I was a teenager and will be taking the then 9 and 3 year old Bairns with us.

Whats the best way to go about getting park tickets etc and how much spending money would be a good amount? Presuming you’d be eating out for most of the meals?

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

20 hours ago, PB1994 said:

Looks like I might be going to Orlando for 2/3 weeks in a couple of years.

Not been since I was a teenager and will be taking the then 9 and 3 year old Bairns with us.

Whats the best way to go about getting park tickets etc and how much spending money would be a good amount? Presuming you’d be eating out for most of the meals?

Its all about how you want to do it, guessing disney will probably be your most likely park destinations with a 3 year old? Id suggest a 14 day magic your way ticket. Hard to know what prices will be at that point. But some travel agents will bundle the tickets into your package. Your options for travel are Tui from Glasgow, British Airways connecting through London, Aer Lingus via dublin or Virgin from Edinburgh/Manchester etc, the US airlines dont feature in packages but tend to be more expensive and involve complicated transfers in the states. 
Prices are up with the shit exchange rate because the tories are fucks and have tanked the economy. But regardless you can eat to any budget, theres cheap,middle tier and expensive restaurants in close radius to the toursity spots. Americans dont do fine dining so id avoid their ‘premium’ restaurants, we tend to stick to long horn for steaks, flippers for pizza and Freddy’s for burgers! Theres some nice places in disney springs to eat, woolfgang puck is very good. In terms of a daily budget it depends how much shopping you do etc but £120 could do lunch breakfast and dinner out if you eat at parks its more expensive (but the disney quick service places arent too bad).

[welshbairn]

Remember ordering oysters once in the States and they came with toasted processed cheese on top. 

[PB1994]

On 29/08/2022 at 13:17, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Its all about how you want to do it, guessing disney will probably be your most likely park destinations with a 3 year old? Id suggest a 14 day magic your way ticket. Hard to know what prices will be at that point. But some travel agents will bundle the tickets into your package. Your options for travel are Tui from Glasgow, British Airways connecting through London, Aer Lingus via dublin or Virgin from Edinburgh/Manchester etc, the US airlines dont feature in packages but tend to be more expensive and involve complicated transfers in the states. 
Prices are up with the shit exchange rate because the tories are fucks and have tanked the economy. But regardless you can eat to any budget, theres cheap,middle tier and expensive restaurants in close radius to the toursity spots. Americans dont do fine dining so id avoid their ‘premium’ restaurants, we tend to stick to long horn for steaks, flippers for pizza and Freddy’s for burgers! Theres some nice places in disney springs to eat, woolfgang puck is very good. In terms of a daily budget it depends how much shopping you do etc but £120 could do lunch breakfast and dinner out if you eat at parks its more expensive (but the disney quick service places arent too bad).

Thanks!

Will definitely be planning on going to Disney. Would like to do Universal as well but that might be a bit expensive. Going out with my mum and dad so they will be sorting out all the flights.

We will be staying in between Disney and International Drive. Won’t be looking to be going to any fancy places to eat. Just to kid friendly places that hopefully serve something half decent. Will go out for breakfast a couple of times but I imagine we will mostly do that in the hotel. Will be eating out for lunch and dinner most nights I’d say.

Hopefully me and the mrs will get a night out without the kids but f**k knows if there are any decent places to go for drinks etc.

[MP_MFC]

Just back today and fucked with the jet lag. We had our two (well now three) year old with us so happy to answer any queries about that fun and games. Direct flights from Edinburgh were a god send as opposed to transferring with BA. 

RE Disney v Universal we got our Disney tickets before we left (14 day memory maker thing) which I think came in about £400 each and I know the price has jumped up again for next year already. Having been a few years ago, we knew Universal doesn’t have a lot for smaller kids so we were playing that by ear but decided to just can it and take some extra Disney days rather than spending £250(ish) for tickets per person for a couple of days at universal. 

If you are doing it on a budget, I can recommend the Rosen Inn at LBV for a good enough hotel - usually ridiculously cheap on TUI and VH. 10mins from Springs and about 20 at most to animal kingdom (furthest park). 

We noticed big time the jump in prices - combo of US inflation and our exchange rate but, as an example, to buy a 16oz bottle of juice in a shop ie Walmart would be about $2 so similar to a newsagent here and in the parks you’re looking at $4 for a draft drink / 5 a bottle. 
 

if you’re driving it’ll open up your options a lot more - plenty of decent places in and around and all catered well for our girl - can echo the shouts for longhorn and flippers and add in chilis, Olive Garden, fords garage as some of the better places we ate as well as the usual Denny’s, Perkins and ihop - didn’t get to try Wolfgang at Springs but can heartily recommend Chicken Guy and the Earl of Sandwich (although the sheer amount of Union Jack usage did throw me off!)

If hiring a car is your plan, hopefully it will be better in a few years as the prices just now are way out of hand - we started off at 900 for a ‘full size’ for 16 days and after many cancels and rebooking eventually got a big dirty pickup for 730 but generally a lot more expensive than before although gas is a lot cheaper than here still (again less so than it used to be but it’s about 90p a litre). 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

If anyone is a regular or wants a wee break from the Parks i recommend Winter Garden, they have a big brewery and food market place the tacos and bbq are superb. Its your quintessential american small town vibe with a main street (plenty really good non chain options). They have a wee farmers market. Daniels Cheesesteaks are the best ive ever tasted, the shop looks dodgy as but the food is amazing. 

[djchapsticks]

Eyes firmly on what's going on out there. There's a tropical storm off Cancun that's expected to become Hurricane Ian later today. Early models suggesting it was going to directly smack central Florida, it's trended West in last 24 and now forecast to hit mid-panhandle (and still tracking west with each update) but I'm flying out on Wednesday when it's going to be coursing through the Gulf. So this will almost certainly cause a delay in getting out.

The further west it goes, the less likely of delays being signficant.

[Hard Graft]

Daughter just back from Orlando where the family of 4 (Kids aged 8 and 6) did 15 nights. She told me that they had spent about $3000 on food alone.  Could not believe it until you break it down to $50pppd for 3 meals and snacks and drinks and it does not last long when you look at the park prices for water and soft drinks.

[honestly united]

57 minutes ago, Hard Graft said:

Daughter just back from Orlando where the family of 4 (Kids aged 8 and 6) did 15 nights. She told me that they had spent about $3000 on food alone.  Could not believe it until you break it down to $50pppd for 3 meals and snacks and drinks and it does not last long when you look at the park prices for water and soft drinks.

We've been a few times and always stayed at a Disney hotel to get the dinning plan. Even just the quick service plan saves a fortune, 2 full meals and 2 snacks per day. If you look around its not just burgers and pizza, you can get some decent meals. Also get free soft drinks at your hotel. If you can still get it its worth looking at, along with the other perks like, park happy hour, free transfers from airport and to the parks etc. Rooms arent the biggest compared to others in Orlando (about Premier Inn size) but mid scale up are pretty decent.

[Rugster]

On 25/09/2022 at 09:24, djchapsticks said:

Eyes firmly on what's going on out there. There's a tropical storm off Cancun that's expected to become Hurricane Ian later today. Early models suggesting it was going to directly smack central Florida, it's trended West in last 24 and now forecast to hit mid-panhandle (and still tracking west with each update) but I'm flying out on Wednesday when it's going to be coursing through the Gulf. So this will almost certainly cause a delay in getting out.

The further west it goes, the less likely of delays being signficant.

You're probably on it but this site is pretty good

 

https://zoom.earth/#view=26.04,-75.49,6z/map=live

 

[djchapsticks]

8 minutes ago, Rugster said:

You're probably on it but this site is pretty good

 

https://zoom.earth/#view=26.04,-75.49,6z/map=live

 

Our arrival time is 3pm on Tuesday which would put hurricane roughly here at present (IF it follows the track. Cutting in east would be worst case scenario). About 100 miles offshore and about 200-250 miles southwest of Orlando.

Obviously the further south that trends the better as winds will be lessened so just hoping the forecast is for calm enough winds by then that they are still allowing flights in or at worst, redirect us to Jacksonville (another 100 miles northeast where it will still be calm by that point.)

Don't fancy two days milling about London waiting for it to clear, would rather be there and just hunker down for the first day.

Edited September 26, 2022 by djchapsticks

[Rugster]

6 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Our arrival time is 3pm on Tuesday which would put hurricane roughly here at present (IF it follows the track. Cutting in east would be worst case scenario). About 100 miles offshore and about 200-250 miles southwest of Orlando.

Obviously the further south that trends the better as winds will be lessened so just hoping the forecast is for calm enough winds by then that they are still allowing flights in or at worst, redirect us to Jacksonville (another 100 miles northeast where it will still be calm by that point.)

Don't fancy two days milling about London waiting for it to clear, would rather be there and just hunker down for the first day.

Good luck - hope it works out ok!