Trip report 13/05/04 to 27/05/04

Hello, just got back friday morning and here are some trip highlights and lowlights.

Breezed through security and immigration at Sanford Airport in double quick time. Team of girls checking forms in the queue to make sure everyones was correct when you reached the front. Guy at the desk was happy and smily (for a change) and our pram and cases were waiting for us in the baggage reclaim.
Zero points to Alamo though, too few staff and child seat had to be asked for after getting keys and it was grubby but not as bad as expected. Downside was i had to pay $80 for it when i was under the misguided impression from Thomas Cook that everything was prepaid.

Had a chill out by the pool on the friday and then negotiated the seemingly never ending roadworks on the 192 to have an early evening look around Disney Marketplace which was absolutely heaving with people.
Went to Magic Kingdom on the saturday. Had been advised in the past that this was the best day to go due to most people being in transit on saturdays.I think that may no longer be the case as MK was horribly busy.Even the area around Liberty Square/Haunted Mansion was jam packed with people.

Sunday saw us head to one of favourites, Disneys MGM studios. This was not as busy as MK had been and little Lucy loved Playhouse Disney, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast etc. Weather very hot and very dry with even the locals complaining about the excessive heat saying it was summer weather in springtime and what on earth did July and August hold.

Tuesday saw us head for Islands of Adventure and the girl at guest relations advised us against buying an all day express pass as she said the park wasn't that busy (even though citywalk and the surrounding area seemed busy to us). Once inside we realised how right she was, it was embarrassing in Seuss Landing which took us an hour to go on everything twice! There were no queues for any rides in IOA which was great as we went on everything we wanted, didn't stand in line at all all day and therefore didn't get too tired and got back to the villa early enough to have a good play in the pool.
It was a different story when we went to Universal Studios the day the Mummy opened. No Mummy express passes available after 10AM and also other rides such as MIB saw express passes gone by early afternoon for the entire day. Using Baby Swap we managed to go on The Mummy twice each as there was no one checking how many times the people in the baby swap room had been on!This seemed to be a bit of a feature around central Floridas theme parks, that there are staff shortages, for instance at Busch Gardens some rides had to stop operating at times due to staff shortages!

Went to MGM again, Typhoon Lagoon twice and Animal Kingdom. Shopped till we dropped at The Mall at Millenia (3 times) but were dissapointed with the Premium Outlet mall at Lake Bryan. That had been a very good mall when in opened in 2000 and was still good in 2002, but has gone back a bit in our opinion. Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores on the 535 are in our opinion a better bet for outlet shopping, although they do not have as many stores as Premium Outlets do, the shops at the 535 outlet are tidier and have a better range eg The OshKosh shop, CArters and Gap are better here.

Loved every minute of it bar the crowds at MK, had some lovely meals such as at Pacinos, Olive Garden, Romanos Macaroni Grill and are planning our next trip for 2 years time.

Sounds like you had a great time. 2 years will soon pass, and then you'll be back again!!:D:D:D

Looks like you went anti-clockwise in IoA like we did on both our previous visits! We had a very similar experience with very little crowd on all day (it was Tuesday as well but a week before you; perhaps Tuesday is a quiet day at IoA). Suess Landing was embrassingly empty while even Hulk and DD were seldom full. Our longest wait was for Dudley Do-right and even that was just 15 minutes. We never used UE anywhere and having arrived at 9am, finished everything by 3:45pm!

I am surprised that you found Premium Outlet Malls inferior to Mall at Millenia. I am not a shopping person, but my impression was quite the opposite. Moreover, my wife is a confirmed shopaholic and she thought that MaM was good but lacked the choice of POM to which she went twice.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Nostromo
Looks like you went anti-clockwise in IoA like we did on both our previous visits! We had a very similar experience with very little crowd on all day (it was Tuesday as well but a week before you; perhaps Tuesday is a quiet day at IoA). Suess Landing was embrassingly empty while even Hulk and DD were seldom full. Our longest wait was for Dudley Do-right and even that was just 15 minutes. We never used UE anywhere and having arrived at 9am, finished everything by 3:45pm!

I am surprised that you found Premium Outlet Malls inferior to Mall at Millenia. I am not a shopping person, but my impression was quite the opposite. Moreover, my wife is a confirmed shopaholic and she thought that MaM was good but lacked the choice of POM to which she went twice.
[/quote]

I didn't find it inferior, to be honest they are 2 different kinds of Mall.
We just found that POM was not as good as it had been on our last 2 visits. As an example, the OshKosh outlet at Lake Buena Vista Factory stores on the 535 was better laid out, had more stock, was tidier and had more helpful staff than at POM.
It doesn't mean we won't visit POM again, just that the gloss of being new has worn off a bit as it was really lovely when it opened in 2000.

The Mall at Millenia is more for window shopping due to the prices although Both Macys and Bloomingdales offer the 11% tourist discount card on production of UK ID and their prices aren't too bad when compared to those in the UK.

Can you tell me more about the tourist discount card?

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by KevinTHFC
Can you tell me more about the tourist discount card?
[/quote]
Basically in Macys-Burdines and Bloomingdales you must go to the customer services desk and say that you are a UK visitor and would like a UK visitor discount card.You show them your UK id eg Passport, drivers licence etc and then fill in a small card with your name and address. Both stores then give you an 11% tourist discount card valid for 30 days for use in their store.
It is valid against sale items as well, for instance my wife bought something that was 30% off in the sale and had an additional 25% off on the day in question. She got the 30% off, then the 25% off and then also got the additional 11% tourist discount took off as well.

Another top tip, my wife bought a pair of shoes at Nine West in the Florida mall and then a few days later saw the same shoes at Nine West at the Mall of Millenia marked down 30% in the sale.
She showed them her receipt at the Mall at Millenia and they gave her a 30% refund. Apparently all shops do this in the US, so don't be shy if you see something you've already bought at a higher price marked down in a sale at the same shop or another shop in the same chain of shops. She also did this at Banana Republic as well.