Florida & Disney

[Actual]

Chuffedmonkey said:

a couple of Malls around the area.

Avoid malls especially Florida Mall on Orange Blossom Trail.

The shopping is at Factory Outlets but everywhere wants to be an outlet these days.

Best factory outlets are at opposite ends of International Drive
Orlando International Premium Outlets
Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets

Of course all stock is specially produced for clearance at outlets.

[Actual]

scouseVR6 said:

we are not going to hire a car and just use the taxis and buses

You need a car just to cross the road from one side to the other.

[x5tuu]

Actual said:

Chuffedmonkey said:

a couple of Malls around the area.

Avoid malls especially Florida Mall on Orange Blossom Trail.

The shopping is at Factory Outlets but everywhere wants to be an outlet these days.

Best factory outlets are at opposite ends of International Drive
Orlando International Premium Outlets
Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets

Of course all stock is specially produced for clearance at outlets.

Nike stock at both Vineland and Int. isn’t made for the outlets - certainly not the trainers and sportswear - that’s why resellers queue to get in them first every single day.

The better Nike outlet with actual outlet prices is at Orlando Outlet Marketplace (5209 I-Drive, opposite Deezerland). Much less resellers stripping shelves and actual bargains to be had.

I picked up a few pairs of dead stock Huraches and AF1s 10days ago for $35/pair and a pair of Jordan Super Play sliders for $13.

[Muzzer79]

Actual said:

We do villa but don't cook much more than snacks as US grocery stores are vast but basic and don't seem to have the equivalent Finest or Taste the Difference ready meals.

Why would you want to eat ready meals on holiday?

[Actual]

Muzzer79 said:

Why would you want to eat ready meals on holiday?

A week of fast food and a la carte eating out gets a bit tedious and expensive.

I've got the facilities so I can eat what I like can't I?

[Sheepshanks]

Chuffedmonkey said:

I thought clothing would be cheaper, I wanted a new pair of Jeans (Levi's), possibly new trainers or boots but they are cheaper in the UK. Crocks if that's your thing are cheaper Wife got a pair about 25 pound cheaper then the UK (Barbie). We visited Disney Springs and a couple of Malls around the area.

My wife wanting to spend days shopping in Florida drives me mad. It's costing £500+/day to be there so doesn't seem particularly cost-effective.

[Matt Harper]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

x5tuu said:

scouseVR6 said:

We are going end of May early June so hoping its a bit quieter, we are not going to hire a car and just use the taxis and buses

It won’t be - prime time for lots of end of term school trips, end of term university trips, some US schools will be finished for the summer then too. Be prepared for large groups of kids in matching T-shirts running raucous through the parks.

There will be a lot less brits though.

Spring break! Prepare for the dudes
[Img]https://partyfavorz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Spring-Break-2020.jpg[/thumb]

Spring Break is March/April here.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Other states other times though although maybe not end of may
But end of may is memorial Day and that's not a good time to be there as it's one of the very few national holidays

Also avoiding south American holidays is wise and UK so it leaves about 3 days in Feb

[Tony Angelino]

Timothy Bucktu said:

We are in Florida now. One thing that immediately springs to mind is...its ferociously expensive everywhere!!
I mean inside the parks you kind of expect it...soft drinks are $5 a pop. Ice creams and the like...$6. Burger and chips...$16 all plus tax (so nearly £100 a pop for four of us!). We now buy sandwiches in the morning and take them in the parks.
Eating out...we did it once a few days ago when we first arrived. But after leaving with a £130 lighter Chase card (food, plus tax, plus the obligatory 20% tip) for four people for a very basic meal...we now buy stuff from Walmart and cook it in the villa. Which is also pretty expensive, but not quite so much.
We think the UK is expensive...but my God the US is crazy now.
I know PH members are all millionaires, and will no doubt ridicule anyone talking about expenses...but just be prepared for the huge cost is all I suggest to the normal people. I'm not struggling, and knew things had got bad here so was prepared...its not till you see it though that it hits home.

We have just returned last week and we also found it a bit more pricey than we were expecting. A bit of adjustment and cloth cutting here and there left it manageable though. We pay a bit more to stay in the Hard Rock on Universal for convenience so we had fast passes and early entry to the parks so these are extremely valuable. Wait times for just about all rides 10 minutes max, more often than not basically walking straight on. You can't use them on Hagrid though, Harry Potter areas are still by far the busiest in the park.

For example on food/snacks, a pack of 12 pastries/donuts from Walmart for about $6 (really nice, nothing like what they are at home) and a couple of boxes of Lucky Charms cereal plus milk sorted out most of our breakfasts on the go, we did the typical Brit abroad thing and took our own teabags and used the in room nespresso machine. You could get 12 bottles of coke zero from Walgreens for $8 so we kept sticking them in the room fridge and took a couple into the parks each day, as long as they are sealed you are OK. Then a mixture of free ice cold water from the drinks machines and a soft drink refil shared between us for $17.99 on an odd day sorted us out.

We don't drink so a big feed at the local Millers (nacho/zingers platter to share and a burger/ribs/pasta type main meal each) was $80-90 plus $20 tip, including soft drink refils for us all. 'Ole Red on I Drive was a touch more expensive but you had the live music and it was nicer too so probably worth the extra.

We got a 2 park 2 day ticket for 3 people at Seaworld/Busch Gardens for £420 before we went and this including all day dining on both days and whilst the food isn't fine dining it's the usual BBQ/chicken/pasta/pizza and perfectly good value considering you can go back every 1.5 hours so we had 2x main meals with a snack of fresh fruit and a drink in between.

We don't hire a car so we needed to use Uber, we found these considerably more expensive than previously, trips last time (2009) were typically $8-10 dollars and the same journeys this time around $15, this can though be due to the surge pricing model.

[98elise]

Actual said:

98elise said:

It's one of the reasons we always have a villa.

We do villa but don't cook much more than snacks as US grocery stores are vast but basic and don't seem to have the equivalent Finest or Taste the Difference ready meals.

Having the villa means we have a good breakfast every day in the villa with just supermarket stuff, and snacks to hand whenever we want them. We also have a fridge stocked with beer and cold drinks. When we go out we take a couple of frozen bottles of water each in a back pack.

We probably eat out once every two days plus we get take outs a few times.

It really keeps the food and drink costs reasonable.

Edited by 98elise on Sunday 10th September 12:12

[Timothy Bucktu]

I'll post this here before I forget...I've found a way to avoid the $30 Disney car parking charge. If you park in Disney Springs for free (a shopping mall that only complete fools would shop in), you can then get on a courtesy bus to the nearest corresponding park resort and walk into the park. It's a bit of a faff sure, but the parking charges quickly ramp up! Busses run until at least midnight back to Springs so there's no chance of getting stranded. The bus journey is usually around 30 mins or so, and they run almost one after the other.
As for food...Golden Corral is probably considered a riff raff's buffet restaurant, but the food and service is better than anything I've experienced in the UK...its really good and one of the cheapest.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

All the above if you want to do it with the most hassle
Disney springs is great for food shopping meh (excluding the Lego store)

Disney is not a place to go on a budget you will have a misserable time they have made sure of that

Getting the bus from springs is possible but horrendous

Just pony up on the parking or get an Uber!

If you want to go cheap stay at a hotel and get their shuttle bus in! Then you avoid car hire too


Golden corale is about on a par with waffle House great if you want to see fights and get fag ash in your food

Sizzler is an option for cheap too.

Dont go buying a double cheese burger and an extra bun to make 2 burgers.


Chipotle is good for very large portions at reasonable prices that you can split

Disney don't want you if you are going to look at prices that's why they like Americans they go for 2 or 3 nights and just spend as they live off their credit cards anyway

It's very different for us spending 2 weeks there


Ps I'm not trying to be a dick (even though it sounds like it)

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Sunday 10th September 14:42

[Sheepshanks]

Timothy Bucktu said:

I'll post this here before I forget...I've found a way to avoid the $30 Disney car parking charge. If you park in Disney Springs for free (a shopping mall that only complete fools would shop in), you can then get on a courtesy bus to the nearest corresponding park resort and walk into the park. It's a bit of a faff sure, but the parking charges quickly ramp up! Busses run until at least midnight back to Springs so there's no chance of getting stranded. The bus journey is usually around 30 mins or so, and they run almost one after the other.

To me, this is another one of those things that, bearing in mind you're probably spending £500+/day to be there do you really want to spend the best part of an hour at either end of a possibly long day to save $30?

However, if you are going to do it, they have from time-to-time done busses directly back to Disney Springs in the evening, so look out for those.

[ecsrobin]

Sheepshanks said:

To me, this is another one of those things that, bearing in mind you're probably spending £500+/day to be there do you really want to spend the best part of an hour at either end of a possibly long day to save $30?

However, if you are going to do it, they have from time-to-time done busses directly back to Disney Springs in the evening, so look out for those.

+1 Especially when you have tired children in tow.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Sheepshanks said:

Timothy Bucktu said:

I'll post this here before I forget...I've found a way to avoid the $30 Disney car parking charge. If you park in Disney Springs for free (a shopping mall that only complete fools would shop in), you can then get on a courtesy bus to the nearest corresponding park resort and walk into the park. It's a bit of a faff sure, but the parking charges quickly ramp up! Busses run until at least midnight back to Springs so there's no chance of getting stranded. The bus journey is usually around 30 mins or so, and they run almost one after the other.

To me, this is another one of those things that, bearing in mind you're probably spending £500+/day to be there do you really want to spend the best part of an hour at either end of a possibly long day to save $30?

However, if you are going to do it, they have from time-to-time done busses directly back to Disney Springs in the evening, so look out for those.

The polite version of what I said

[Sheepshanks]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

If you want to go cheap stay at a hotel and get their shuttle bus in! Then you avoid car hire too


Golden corale is about on a par with waffle House great if you want to see fights and get fag ash in your food

Sizzler is an option for cheap too.

Years ago I remember Ponderosa Steakhouse used to be a pretty decent low-cost buffet place but they've had something of a chequered history - I think a few remain in the Orlando area (there were many hundreds of them across the US) but I just had a quick look at Trip Advisor and the reviews are very mixed.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

They serve a function
But as do does Panda express, chick-fill-a, Moe's, steak and shake
There are many and sorry but all u can eat buffets should be restricted to las Vegas.

Cheddars is decent and reasonable so is cracker barrel

BJ's is good and nice beer but alot more money we were about 140 for 2 of us

There isn't anything wrong with a carls jnr either

There are plenty of places to eat and 99% will allow you to split meals

Also you don't need to give in to the fking stupid tipping, this time I'm limiting my self to 15% and rejecting anywhere where they don't actually do a decent amount of work

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Sunday 10th September 16:22

[RosscoPCole]

Wow! Lots of interesting replies and things to think about. Has anyone had experience with Ever After travel agents? They have great reviews and seem to personalise holidays for their customers.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

What are you after as there really isn't a need to use an agent

[Timothy Bucktu]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

Sheepshanks said:

Timothy Bucktu said:

I'll post this here before I forget...I've found a way to avoid the $30 Disney car parking charge. If you park in Disney Springs for free (a shopping mall that only complete fools would shop in), you can then get on a courtesy bus to the nearest corresponding park resort and walk into the park. It's a bit of a faff sure, but the parking charges quickly ramp up! Busses run until at least midnight back to Springs so there's no chance of getting stranded. The bus journey is usually around 30 mins or so, and they run almost one after the other.

To me, this is another one of those things that, bearing in mind you're probably spending £500+/day to be there do you really want to spend the best part of an hour at either end of a possibly long day to save $30?

However, if you are going to do it, they have from time-to-time done busses directly back to Disney Springs in the evening, so look out for those.

The polite version of what I said

All good...just throwing an option out there that's all. The shuttle bus was actually really easy.