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Just got back from 3 wonderful weeks in Orlando. We had a great villa at Eagle Pointe which was a great location. Pool was warmer than the bath! The pool heating is worth every penny. Went to Magic Kingdom, MGM, Epcot (missed Test Track again due to technical difficulties - does that thing ever get going!), Animal Kingdom (very disappointing as usual), Universal (during the opening of Jimmy Neutron - one of the first to ride it and had to buy my 3 year old the toys afterwards!), Islands of Adventure (disappointed with their lack of organisation, especially with the express system where queues were longer than the normal ones) and Sea World. First two weeks all parks were very quiet and walked on all rides. Third week all were packed and we spent more time shopping and in the pool. Went to Disney Boardwalk for the first time (on our last night!).
Ate at the usual Pizzeria Uno (kids pay by weight for their meals), Bennigans, Red Lobster, Kobe, Chevys (very good), Longhorn, Perkins, and of course Burger King's 99c double cheeseburgers!!
Weather was fantastic as usual. Shopping spent a fortune, but got a lot - including a pair of trousers for my son for 77c and 16 pairs of shoes between us (buy one get one half price can be a real pain sometimes!). Beltz seems very quiet nowadays, just like Lake Buena Vista Factory Outlets. Premium Outlets seemed the busiest. New Millenia Mall is worth the experience, but not within my budget! Found lots of bargains in Super Target, Wal-mart, K Mart and Sam's Club (they let us in without a membership card!)
Oh - I'm missing it already!
Rebecca
Daniel Ramsey
27-04-2003, 11:02
What was so disapointing about AK? lack of rides? They were still building that ugly carnival type of ride at the Chester & Hester area. We loved the park in 2001 but I did think it just has to have time for maturement, you do know there is going to be a huge new attraction added in the next couple of years? A Mount Everest ride with a Yeti theme.On our last trip our family stayed for two weeks in december and only went to WDW, not enough time for the other parks. Was Universal trashy like I keep hearing? I am only asking because I am planning a 4 week stay in january and I want to especially see Sea World, the Peabody Inn march of the ducks, US and IOA and hopefully a shuttle launch or a tour of the cape and NASA for my kids.
We were disappointed with AK mainly because of the lack of rides. Because of the layout it always seems crowded and hot. The Chester & Hester area just seemed really tacky and all the rides there had long queues. We tried Tarzan Rocks and I totally agree with whoever renamed it Tarzan Sucks! We did the Safari first which was our main objective. After that just couldn't wait to get out of there, and ended up in Epcot for the afternoon which was empty and very relaxing.
We are not too keen on IOA as it seems to be full of teenagers in large groups. There aren't so many rides for younger ones once you have done the Seuss Landing area. I got annoyed there when we queued up for Pteranodon Flyers which states that the attraction is only for children 36 - 56 inches and adults may only ride if accompanied by a child who meets this requirement. The wait said 10 mins. We waited for 25 mins as we watched adults going on in pairs and alone (on a 2 seater ride). Why bother with the height restriction if they are going to let anyone on! It just made our wait twice as long and much more frustrating. No point complaining - what would they do?
We prefer Universal which has more shows and ride queues seem shorter. But we got an express ticket for ET ride and then queued for 20 -25 mins as we watched all the other people without express tickets overtaking us. Not really much of an express system (although I must say it does speed up the wait times most of the time). Just boils the blood when you have bothered to get the ticket so that you can stand around waiting with a screaming 3 year old:(
We love Sea World. You just have to go - I will say no more. If you want to do US IOA and Sea World really think about a Flex Ticket. It makes better use of your time in the parks. You can get there early, do all the rides with no queues, then be back in the pool by 3pm to cool off.
Have lots of fun planning your trip - that's half the fun for me.
Rebecca
The Pizzeria Uno with kids food paid for by weight? Is that the weight of the food or the child? Its just that my 10 year old son weighs a mere 3 stone 10 so we could buy him a lot of food if its done by his weight.:D
Ha! It would be a cheap meal for me if the kids paid by weight for what they ate :D
They weigh the kids when you go in and the kids meal costs in cents whatever they weigh in lbs. So my kids meals were 30c and 50c! And the portions are good for kids meals.
Rebecca
floridadreamvilla.co.uk
27-04-2003, 23:17
We've been to the one next door to Chilis on the 192 and it's on the weight of the child - they have a big pair of scales when you go it the door. Food pretty good too and always a lot quieter than Chilis.
quote:Originally posted by chris
The Pizzeria Uno with kids food paid for by weight? Is that the weight of the food or the child? Its just that my 10 year old son weighs a mere 3 stone 10 so we could buy him a lot of food if its done by his weight.:D
Daniel Ramsey
28-04-2003, 01:21
I must check that out!:D my son 9, is just a beanpole, and my grandaughter 5 is just a little hypersmart waif:)
Two years ago while we were renting for two weeks of WDW I just bought regular year round passess for each of the family, myself a Premium pass, I think its if you plan on visiting the parks over 10 days its cheaper than a Park Hopper. Plus my PAP gets me free parking and discounts shopping. There is the multi park pass for US, SW, WnW and thats what we will get. Another thing about getting a year pass is if we return next year earlier its still good! so our trip is next jan. and if the next year is dec. we can use them again.
A dumb question here for the Brits, how do you folks manage to drive on the RIGHTside of our highways?[?]:D
The steering wheel is on the right side! Plus after driving all over Europe with our own cars, driving in the States in the correct cars is a piece of cake! - Apart from the fact that you don't have roundabouts of course;)
Daniel Ramsey
28-04-2003, 02:06
Sure we have roundabouts, it how you respond when another traveler askes where something is, you say, "Its roundabout over there!":D
I think its amusing at times to see frustrated drivers trying to pass me when I drive a fully loaded concrete mixer up a hill a 15mph in low gear, the engine tached out struggling with a turning top heavy load of 24 tons (12 yards,48,000lbs.@2,000lbs. a cu. yd.)here in Alaska, and during the winter on solid iced roads and snow we do this. We get hundreds of ditchdivers during the winter here, nobody except tourists drive the speed limit here, if its 65mph on our sole highway to Anchorage everybody has to do 85. Even in the winter, its crazy with how our locals drive.
Well Daniel I will admit to sitting in the front passenger seat with my eyes closed when my husband is driving through a rain storm (call it torrential downpour at the very least) because I can't see a darn thing, and he's tail-gating one of the fearsome truck monsters that is going at least 80mph. No wonder I am getting grey hairs - actually I lie, what are hairdressers for but to hide these things!
I'm the sensible one, it rains like that I either crawl along at 20mph or I stop altoghether! But he swears they are the only ones that can see anything and that's the safest thing to do.
I used to be terrified of driving in the States thinking if I did anything wrong it would all be a disaster. All I can say in Florida 99% of the drivers are really polite, and if you are used to driving around near London it's a piece of cake. Now map-reading is another matter! She says as one who can map read and direct us all over France, and cannot think laturally as your maps do, so I get completely lost. And it is always when the petrol tank is low, and my mobile phone is just about to run out. I call it going the scenic route - it's how you see the real Florida:)
Daniel Ramsey
28-04-2003, 04:24
In the US things are bigger, faster and further I suppose than in Europe, myself I have never been overseas but have been across our states many many times, its a big land with many interstate highways.
Please mention this advice to DH, trucker do not like cars close behind them, we worry so much about a small car getting between us and when we turn. Also is debris that can hit your car and damage the windshield, I tell my wife to NEVER drive closer than 300' behind a concrete mixer as there is always pieces of small gravel that falls off the back of the truck. I noticed too that Fla. drivers appear polite but the big thing I saw was that 95% of the cars on the road were new, either silver or white. In Alaska its common to see cars and trucks with little or no body remaining because of the winter salts applied on the roads, plus our roads are so broken and uneven because of the extreme cold and buckling a new vehicle is quickly transformed into a well worn cracked windshield, rusted and loose suspension means of transportation.
The first time we went to Florida, we went for 3 weeks. We drove from Orlando for Fort Lauderdale and it was a very relaxing ride. ( I hate driving in UK as I find some drivers quite arogant. We went to Bush Gardens and the heavens opened to say the least. Even with the fast wipers on you could not see a thing. It didn't give us much warning. One minute there were a few drops of rain the next you could not see a thing in front of you. It was very scary. I didn't even know where the side of the road was. We struggled at a snails pace hoping no one would come up the back of us until we could make out a sign for a garage and pulled in there with a sigh of relief. There we stayed untill it passed over. I have never seen rain like that. Now every time it rains in Florida I am very wary encase we are in for another torrential downpour.Maggie
Daniel Ramsey
28-04-2003, 18:23
I remember living in Houston, Texas and almost everyday in the summer about rush hour time in the evening there would be literally walls of tropical downbursts, you could drive several blocks and the sun would be out, mostly it was the built up heat in the late afternoon from all the skys****er buildings that would trigger the tropical downpours. And when it rained the water could not drain off fast enough and often there would be 3' of water on the roads.
Also is hurricanes...... I was in Houston when it was hit by one in 1983 I think,hurricane Alicia it was called, massive flooding, lots and lots of trees toppled, power lines down, no power for two weeks.
Awesome thunderstorms in the southwest thats for sure, In Alaska we rarely see much more than just windy days though last month we had 100 mph plus winds, did about $5 million damage.
every time we have landed in Orlando there has been a storm massive fork lightening and huge blobs of rain my boys actually look forward to it, its as if weve actually "arrived" compared to UK storms the lightening is really impressive. We also found it strange how polite other road users are when trying to turnout of our hotel on what seemed to be a very busy duel carriageway we got to the junction the cars slowed and we were let out !!! if only this would happen when I`m trying to get the boys to school at 8:40 ha ha
Daniel Ramsey
29-04-2003, 16:49
Being an American I'll let you in on a little secret, we can spot foreigners a mile away, we all have these camcorders and we wait to find a chance to film something stupid or outrageous that we get money for on TV like "Americas most Dangerous Drivers"
Believe it or not....;)
If you really want to get strange looks from locals try walking to a restuarant !