Orlando - Next Weekend, so what have I forgotten?

[Adenauer]

Matt Harper said:

I believe the OP arrived from Germany - hopefully he can confirm.

Correct, we flew in from Amsterdam though

[Steamer]

Excellent stuff!! Great photos too... very much like the look of that hire car!

I went probably 20 years ago now and it was brilliant - then all of sudden, after years of holiday snobbery, avoiding tourist traps and only going to places steeped in culture and ancient history... I though, 'I wanna go to Florida again!'... just me and a friend - no kids, lets have some fun and eat big food.

Can you (or anyone else thats been recently) give a rough idea of prices?

[Mr E Driver]

Steamer said:

Can you (or anyone else thats been recently) give a rough idea of prices?

Mr E Driver said:

I recommend buying 'The Unofficial Guide to Disney'to anyone planning on going to the parks. Will give prices too.

Try here

Edited by Mr E Driver on Monday 9th August 12:37

[Steamer]

Mr E Driver said:

Steamer said:

Can you (or anyone else thats been recently) give a rough idea of prices?

Mr E Driver said:

I recommend buying 'The Unofficial Guide to Disney'to anyone planning on going to the parks. Will give prices too.

Try here

Edited by Mr E Driver on Monday 9th August 12:37

Thanks for 'googling that for me' - it had crossed my mind, but I thought I'd ask a few other PH'ers first

[Adenauer]

Steamer said:

Can you (or anyone else thats been recently) give a rough idea of prices?

We bought the unnoficial guide that's been recommended and it was a great help.

With regards, to prices, it wasn't as cheap as people often make out, well certainly not the parks and the food. Breakfast for two adults and two kids at Dennys was always about 40 dollars and an evening meal somewhere half decent such as Olive Garden was always around 70 - 80 dollars for the four of us. Sure, there are the 'all you can eat' buffets for 7.99 etc, but I took one look in a Golden Corral doing that deal and it was like a manky service station, but with added queues, no ta.

Clothes certainly are cheap though, I paid 39 dollars for a pair of Levis 501 jeans, and T-Shirts and stuff like that are 10 - 20 dollars for pretty decent stuff.

[Deva Link]

Steamer said:

Can you (or anyone else thats been recently) give a rough idea of prices?

Prices of what? There's a huge range of everything, and it depends what you want to do. It's good value, I think, but it's not "cheap".

[clonmult]

Deva Link said:

Matt Harper said:

That is a smart tip DL - you should keep 'em to yourself - as they lose their value if everyone is aware.

As it's been exposed (not by me) to the millions of people on TheDibb, an extra 2 or 3 here aren't going to make much difference!

Thats one that I hadn't seen at thedibb. Entertaining site at time, definitely get all sorts over there ...

We're off to Orlando in just over a weeks times, those pictures from Adenauer just make me want to jet off right now!

[MoonMonkey]

Excellent thread.. we went at Easter and so want to go back next year.

Top tip: goto Walmart or similar and stock up on Meguirs car cleaning stuff which is el cheapo compared to the UK (at least half price)

[Adenauer]

I've just remembered a couple of worthwhile tips about the car rental. I don't know if this applies to all of the rental companies but Hertz gave us a car with Satnav (well worth the extra 50 dollars), and probably even more useful was the Sunpass on the numberplate (2.50 dollars per day), meaning that we didn't have to stop at any toll booths, that was excellent

[Mr E Driver]

Is it possible to load up a UK satnav with USA maps?

We went to the 'Ponderosa' a couple of times for the IIRC the .99c buffet in the afternoon but some were better than others and it is only at a selected time.

[SwanJack]

Mr E Driver said:

Is it possible to load up a UK satnav with USA maps?

We went to the 'Ponderosa' a couple of times for the IIRC the .99c buffet in the afternoon but some were better than others and it is only at a selected time.

Yes - as far as 'Tom Tom' is concerned.

[Deva Link]

Adenauer said:

I've just remembered a couple of worthwhile tips about the car rental. I don't know if this applies to all of the rental companies but Hertz gave us a car with Satnav (well worth the extra 50 dollars),

I got that free (I assume because the car we got had its own nav system although there was no disk for it). The Hertz "NeverLost" system was almost totally useless and if I'd paid I'd have asked for my money back. The routes it chose were just ridiculous time and time again, and I tried all the different route settings.

Adenauer said:

and probably even more useful was the Sunpass on the numberplate (2.50 dollars per day), meaning that we didn't have to stop at any toll booths, that was excellent

That is pretty useful, but they don't explain it very well. A key thing is the maximum fixed charge is $10 per rental (plus toll charges) - they explain it like it's $2.50 for every day in which case it wouldn't be worth it. You also used to have to agree to it an advance, but now it just kicks in the first time you drive through an auto toll.

[Adenauer]

We had the Hertz Neverlost system and I found it worked fine, each to their own I suppose

Mind you, I didn't have a bloody clue where I was going anyway

[Robatr0n]

Deva Link said:

Mr E Driver said:

You can turn right on red at most traffic lights when there is nothing coming towards you and you can pass either side with care on the I4

Everyone does it but strictly "undertaking" isn't legal on Freeways and Interstates, only on more minor roads.

And before you turn right on red (and this is sometimes enforced) you're supposed to come to a stop.

One other thing is the "move over" law - it's been in place for some years but is being enforced now, sometimes as a trap. If you see an emergency vehicle at the side of the road you have to move over and leave a clear lane or slow to 20MPH below the limit.

Edited by Deva Link on Thursday 8th July 23:10

Listen to this advice!

Also, you have to put your dipped lights on when it's raining.

[Robatr0n]

I should have read the date! D'oh!

Looks as though you had a fantastic trip, thanks for sharing.

[clonmult]

SwanJack said:

Mr E Driver said:

Is it possible to load up a UK satnav with USA maps?

We went to the 'Ponderosa' a couple of times for the IIRC the .99c buffet in the afternoon but some were better than others and it is only at a selected time.

Yes - as far as 'Tom Tom' is concerned.

But at a cost? How much are the US maps for a TomTom?

When I last changed phone, I went for a basic Nokia touch screen device (5230) and loaded it up with the (free) maps for Florida.

[Deva Link]

Adenauer said:

We had the Hertz Neverlost system and I found it worked fine, each to their own I suppose

Mind you, I didn't have a bloody clue where I was going anyway

It would always get you there, I presume, but I've been to Orlando maybe 20 times and I know my way around pretty well. I have the fairly crap Mercedes sat nav here so I'm used to ignoring it. The main issue with the Hertz one is that the mapping was very out of date and there's a lot of new roads in Orlando - it tried to take us 40 miles to go to a shopping centre 5 miles away.
I've got a feeling the routes were biased to avoid taking left (across the traffic) turns - at least it seemed like that.

[Adenauer]

Deva Link said:

Adenauer said:

We had the Hertz Neverlost system and I found it worked fine, each to their own I suppose

Mind you, I didn't have a bloody clue where I was going anyway

It would always get you there, I presume, but I've been to Orlando maybe 20 times and I know my way around pretty well. I have the fairly crap Mercedes sat nav here so I'm used to ignoring it. The main issue with the Hertz one is that the mapping was very out of date and there's a lot of new roads in Orlando - it tried to take us 40 miles to go to a shopping centre 5 miles away.
I've got a feeling the routes were biased to avoid taking left (across the traffic) turns - at least it seemed like that.

Reading that makes me think you're right. When we first arrived a trip to Walmart was in order to watch some fat people, I typed in the address and it took about 35 minutes to get there, and we seemed to go in a massive circle. The trip back took about 5 minutes and surprised us all.

[Wheelrepairit]

We had a sat nav with our hire car, never used it once.

We brought a map in the uk, before we came over, from a uk guy who loves florida and is a map maker by trade.

Came in at under a tenner I think, and was one of the best maps ive ever used, full of so much infomation, about shops,theme parks,places to eat, blah blah blah.

See www.orlandomaps.co.uk for details

Just looked at the site above to make sure its correct and notice they now do map as an iphone app, for all you flash bods out there.Only £2.99

Edited by Wheelrepairit on Tuesday 10th August 16:37

[fatpasty]

Bring back an old thread!


Going to Orlando in a few weeks time and looking in to info on what is good to do and not. Anyone been recently? Anyone recommend good places to eat etc?

Staying down International Drive. Have purchased the flex ticket to go to all the parks apart from Disney.