electronics purchases in Orlando?

[Fat Tone]

It's just over a month until we visit Florida. There's two things we need/want to buy, and I wonder about taking advantage of the exchange rate and the generally lower prices.

First, wifey needs a laptop for college. Pondering a C2D, 15.4".

Also would love to get a flash HD camcorder, like the panasonic HDC-SD9.

Any chance I can buy these easily in a store in Orlando and make a saving worthy of the potential hassle?

Cheers,

T.

[UtwigMU]

Probably better to buy online (Newegg, direct from Lenovo/HP/Dell...) so have friends buy it for you. Problem is bringing it back and avoiding customs. In Slovenia all the people who brought cheap MacBooks Air and iPhones flew through Spain, Germany, where the luggage goes directly to flight to Slovenia and once they come here they aren't checked since it's internal EU flight, so no customs.

Don't know if they check you if you come to UK from USA In Slovenia no one checks you even if you don't fly in from EU. Also make sure you buy international warranty. Lenovo Thinkpads have global warranty while HPs have both global and country only warranty for instance. This can be upgraded to Worldwide but you need to know beforehand as you have 1 month or so to upgrade it.

[Brian Ellis]

I don't know about the camcorder mentioned, but do remember TV standards are very different in the States. Maybe OK for HD but downsizing to SD may leave you with NTSC and not PAL. Remember also that chargers in the US are sometimes 115 V 60 Hz only.

[Fat Tone]

Thanks. I'm aware of the standards issues, and believe the charger for that model is worldwide, but will of course double-check that, and warranty issues before purchase.

Taking the camera as an example Panasonic have dropped the price and are heavily promoting it here for the summer rush. Reviews last year put it at well over £600, now its on Amazon for £400. So anything less than say $700 and easy to obtain without wasting too much valuable Disney time would be well worth it.

[ND66]

On route 192, just outside of the Disney property, there is quite of few Camera/Electronics stores for 110/220 Volts, as I remember driving by it……

Now, what’s inside and what the prices are, ???, I never walked in any of them.

Maybe someone local would have something more to say about it, but I’m sure their prices are a bit higher because of their locations.

If I wanted to do that, I’d give a call or E-mail to B&H Photo and work out the delivery to where you’re staying. Even overnight delivery wouldn’t cost you more then buying it locally from any of those close to WDW property shops.

Also, you could ask in this Forum, there are more locals on that board.

I did search this place once to find a liquor store that’s close by, and I did.


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[Gurm]

Order online, have it shipped, and make sure it's installed before you come back. I find it hard to believe you'd have to pay import duty on a personal laptop that's already installed and has your e-mail on it... just throw away the boxes, or send them home via the slow boat.

[Fat Tone]

Thanks for the suggestions.

For the lappy: I think we'll wait a while. They are getting so cheap anyway its probably not worth the hassle.

For the camera, I just picked one up on ebay for £325. At that price if I don't end up using it I'm sure I can get my money back on ebay!