Rode Jimmy Neutron

[netmum]

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]

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.

[netmum]

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

[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.

[netmum]

Ha! It would be a cheap meal for me if the kids paid by weight for what they ate

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]

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.

[Daniel Ramsey]

I must check that out! 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?[?]

[fiona]

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]

Sure we have roundabouts, it how you respond when another traveler askes where something is, you say, "Its roundabout over there!"

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.

[fiona]

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