Disney/Orlando tips?

[Fat Tone]

Hey all!

Just got back home. Orlando was pretty wet when we flew out ~18:00 Tuesday but that was about it. The weather channels were REALLY talking it up since last week.

Will post my thoughts on the trip a little later.

Cheers,

T.

[ND66]

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[Fat Tone]

Here's a potted summary I wrote while failing to sleep on the return flight.

The flight: Virgin do a great job of looking after you and filling the 8.30hr flight. A choice of ~10 movies plus tv shows, games etc. An 8“ isn't a substitute for the cinema but it kept us all happy. I fit in the seats reasonably well too - something EasyJet could learn about in their 'cattle class'.

The hire car: A Chevy Impala. Suited a family of 4 just fine and the trunk took all our luggage. The power steering knocked a little on tight turns - is this normal on a 27k miles vehicle? We booked Budget through usrentacar.co.uk and got the Gold package - it was so nice not to get the heavy sell on upgrades, insurance etc that we've always had before in the USA.

The Villa: Wow, what a corker! Situated just 3 miles from exit 58 on I-4, it was well placed for sub-30 min journeys to Disney. Due to a mix up on the original booking we got upgraded to this 5-bed 4-bath monster with pool, spa; games room, 52“ HD TV etc etc etc.

The Pool:: Not huge, but great fun and used every day. How nice to do a few dozen lengths at 7am before the kids come down, and not turn blue in the process

Disney: We did the big 4 plus DisneyQuest and Blizzard Beach. We followed advice from TourGuideMike.com to avoid the crowds as much as possible, and generally has a really great experience. I love that Disney do the FastPass. Thinking about that, they must do it purely for guest satisfaction. Busch Gardens wanted an extra 25 bucks each for their QuickQueue system, and Alton Towers in the UK is even worse. Well done Disney. We were even lucky enough to score Dream FastPasses at Epcot
Highlights: Tower of Terror (scared the sh*t out of me, both times!) and the car stunt show at Hollywood Studios, and IllumiNations at Epcot.
Price is pretty good if you make good use of your tickets. We got Utlimate, which let's you do anything and everything Disney for 14 or 21 days - as we made 8 trips that's only ~35 bucks a time.
Other attractions: Kennedy Space Center ( pretty good, unlucky to not 'see' anything, spent a load on jackets for all us 'boys', saw a wild manatee and alligator), Boggy Creek (a brilliant experience), Busch Gardens (expensive, 2nd-rate compared to Disney. Would have been cheaper with a flex ticket but we didn't have the time for SeaWorld, Universal etc).

The Weather: fairly typical for the most part. Generally very hot and humid with the odd afternoon thunderstorm. The only prolonged rain were the day we went to a water park LOL and Fay rained a lot on our last day.

The food: We self catered a fair amount, generally taking sandwiches to the parks. We had one big meal at lunch time and soon realised that carrying it around in your stomach in that heat wasn't a good idea.
We visited TGI Fridays and a few diners ( Perkins, Dennys, Bob Evans, Ponderosa). We found it hard to eat healthily and also not to be rushed. I don't want to be rude, but large people were a far greater proportion of the population wherever we went than anywhere else I've seen, not that I can talk! Eating out is generally cheap c/w the UK although the supermarkets aren't.

The shopping: generally similar prices to the UK, even with the current 1.9-2.0 exchange rate.

The flight back: That's where I am now, writing this inbetween meals and duty-free trolleys while forcing the kids to get some sleep. Tropical Storm Fay only delayed us a little while, so we should be back in Blighty for breakfast.

The Cost: I ain't looking!!!

Overall: Fantastic

[ND66]

No picks yet?

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[Fat Tone]

Hehe. Apart from them being incredibly boring to most people, the issue is that I decided I can get best quality stills from the new camera by grabbing a frame from a vid. When I can taken the odd still they are generally dissappointing.

The trouble is the s/w (Pinnacle Studio V11, which I know has a bad rep for reliability in earlier versions) was time-limited, and that has expired. So unless any murcers have serials they would like to donate I have to buy something. Initial reviews of V12 hint that reliability is ok, and I have found the Ultimate version for ~£80. 1st priority though is that lappy for wifey, and of couse paying the CC bills!!!