Mid-August trip to SW/BG/USF/IOA (part 1 - nuts and bolts)

[Josh Hendy]

We flew down from Rochester NY on Continental via Cleveland and United home via Chicago. Both the airlines had the same, bland, minimal service which was fine. We each had a carry-on suitcase of exactly the right dimensions and this was easy and fast. We booked through Expedia and got a price that was around 1/2 of what we paid 2 years ago when we flew from Montreal.

Rented a "compact" car from Budget (sorry forgot what code, possibly employer discount or maybe Costco). Having joined the Fastbreak program beforehand it was a snap getting the car at MCO, except that ahead of us at the pickup booth there was a big family with a scooter in tow who took forever it seemed to figure out what kind of vehicle they would get. Isn't that what they do at the desks in the terminal? We would have barely noticed the wait except we were tired and sweating like pigs from being unused to the FL heat. In the end we got a Corolla the nice part of which was that it had an extra headrest in the rear seat for our 3rd DD, the drag of which it didn't have a remote key so we actually had to hunt it down in the parking lot with our eagle eyes. That car used practically zero gas in 8 days, and easily carried 5 average-sized people plus all baggage.

We stayed offsite at the Comfort Suites on Turkey Lake Road. For an offsite hotel the driving was almost unbelievably easy and simple, avoiding all of the traffic hotspots getting to and from the parks. A couple of hiccups happened due to bad navigation and Universal parking policies, respectively. Once at night I turned left on Adventure Way instead of Turkey Lake Rd and ended up on I-4 which required going all the way south to SR 535/Apopka/Vineland and then working our way back up north to the hotel. And once when entering Universal on Friday evening they routed us into a garage which was almost completely full. Not understanding that you're (apparently) supposed to just drive around willy-nilly against the one-way arrows until you find something, I ended up exiting the garage and got fired out onto Universal Blvd. We had to turn around in the I-Drive area and head back to the garage. That was annoying. So what do the locals do - just ignore the cones and park wherever they want? Following the minimal "directions" into the garage was a waste of time. Though for $3 parking after 6pm I guess they're not exactly motivated to hire a lot of help ... there is of course something to be said for splurging and staying at an onsite hotel.

We ate at counter service in the parks and ate at a couple of table service places on Turkey Lake Rd, one Chinese and one Vietnamese. The new Wal-Mart on Turkey Lake Rd is very convenient for buying little things plus eating at the McDs was a very fast and cheap eating option for us. Getting out of the theme parks to eat is quieter and relaxing, and since we took practically every afternoon off to rest and swim it worked out well with our schedule to eat offsite. The hotel included free breakfast which was continental plus eggs and do-it-yourself waffles. This was a great boon except DW did complain about their coffee.

Housekeeping in the hotel was kind of irregular and unpredictable which wouldn't usually be a problem because you can just call the desk and they'll send someone around, but in this case the housekeeping staff didn't seem to give a cr4p what the desk asked them to do, they showed up or didn't show up as they pleased. A local I chatted with in the HRRR queue told me that this is because many places now contract out housekeeping and there is no real motivation to do anything except follow the letter of the contract.

Hotel had free wifi which was nice. I have no idea what people did in the old days, like 3 years ago, when they didn't have to check their email for 1 or 2 weeks while on vacation.