Including preparing to go on your trip, Disney World, Universal Studios, Titanic the Exhibit, Kennedy Space Center, and where to get Florida's great citrus to take home.
Preparing to Go
The first step is to call a travel agent. If you want to do more than just Walt Disney World, it's best to stay for at least a week. You should book your airfare, room, rental car, and even tickets to Disney World and Universal Studios right away, so you can avoid alot of headaches when you get there. After you've confirmed your trip, go to the bookstore and pick up a travel book specific to where you're going. We like Birnbaum's Disney World book the best, but if you're doing other stuff, the Fodor's Orlando, Disney World, and Universal Studios book might be better. Some travel books even have coupons that'll save you money on dinners and stuff like that.
Where to Stay
No question about it, if you're going to Disney World at all, you should stay at one of the hotels in the park itself. If you've got the money, it's best to spend the extra and stay at least at a mid-grade or better hotel. They do have cheaper ones (the All Star Sports and Music hotels), but we didn't like them too much. The rooms were really clean and fairly nice, but the kind of people staying there were those who obviously couldn't afford more, and acted like a bunch of morons. That's what you get when you charge $79 a night. If you don't want to stay in the park at all, there are plenty of nice hotels in Orlando and Kissimmee. The only problem is that the farther away you are, the more likely you will run into traffic jams on busy days. Our relatives liked the Hilton at Disney Village, which is not technically in the park, but is withing walking distance of the Disney bus system.
Where NOT to Stay Delta Orlando Resort
What can we say? You'd expect a "resort" to have something going for it....but this one falls far short. We had to change our room the first night we were there because the room they gave us was not clean to our expectations. (We've stayed at Motel 6, and they have better housekeeping). Add to that the Shriners using the hotel as their personal recreation hall (making David have to get up at midnight and give some singing shriners a peice of his mind) and you have what I call a place to avoid.
Rental Car or Transfers? Staying At a Disney Hotel-Even if you only plan on visiting Disney parks during your stay, it really helps to have a rental car. Your guest pass will get you free parking at all the parks lots and it's much quicker to drive yourself than wait for anything in the Disney transportation system to get there. The monorails are quick, but they don't go everywhere. More than likely, you'll need a bus to get where you want to go sooner or later and they're pretty slow. Not Staying At Disney Hotel-You definitely need a rental car. Any transportation that Orlando or Kissimmee hotels may provide probably won't be free and will be unreliable. Be prepared, however, for a $6 per day parking fee at Epcot, Magic Kingdom, MGM, and Animal World lots, since you aren't staying at a Disney hotel. The charge is $7 for the lots at Universal and Sea World.
Wanna see where all the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle missions lifted off? It's only an hours drive from Orlando.
Titanic The Exhibit
Naturally, this being the amusement park capitol of the world (which makes the amount of tourists flowing through pretty high up there), what better place for a permanent exhibit of Titanic artifacts? If you can find a couple of hours in there somewhere, check it out. We've been to lots of different Titanic artifact displays and we're never dissapointed. It's at the Mercado Marketplace, located on International Drive. For more information, check out the exhibit's website.
Florida Oranges
The best place by far is Orange World, located at 5395 W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy. (US Hwy 192), a short driving distance from WDW. They've got a big selection of Florida citrus and other gifts and the prices are reasonable. Keep in mind just how reasonable: If you call them and order them to be shipped to your home, a bushel will be about $40. If you climb in the car, make the short drive and carry them on the plane yourself, the same bushel will cost just $18! For a couple of dollars more, they'll give you a nice box to make it easier to carry on the plane. Do NOT check them in-the airline agent was nice enough to tell us that it would be orange juice by the time we got home if we checked it in.
Email / knighton@cablespeed.com
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