This has been posted before on the old community boards, before the server went down, but although my holiday was 2 years ago, I figured it was worth reposting. You see, I am a member of a group which isn't usually catered for by the guidebooks (though the Brit's Guide from 2001 onwards has at least made an effort, adding a section on "Orlando Without A Car"). I have a disability which prevents me from driving, so I thought I would share some of my experiences of travelling in Orlando by public transport. The guidebooks will usually tell you that this is impossible and that a car is essential in Orlando. Well, it certainly isn't easy (most buses are either half-hourly or hourly, which can mean long waits), but some of us don't have a choice, and as a result, tend to be made of sterner stuff than those wimpish motorists who can't even walk to the shops for a pint of milk and a paper 
My trip report is in 3 parts. This introduction covers some general principles and pre-planning. Week 1 covers my first week in Orlando, which was mainly spent at WDW, while Week 2 was spent at the 2 Universal and 2 Anheuser-Busch parks, which I have collectively termed the "FlexParks", as they are covered by the Orlando FlexTicket (as is Wet 'n' Wild, but I didn't go there). The report is really aimed at non-drivers who have never been to Orlando before, so seasoned veterans can probably ignore most of it. I am really trying to write the guide I wish I'd had before I went.
Most public transport in Orlando is provided by Lynx transport, which gives pretty comprehensive online information at www.golynx.com - it is well worth checking out their site before you go. A weekly pass costs $10 and runs from Monday to Sunday, giving unlimited bus travel. Otherwise, there is a flat fare of $1 for each bus journey made. A schedule book, giving complete timetable information and a bus map of the greater Orlando area costs $3.
Flights: Orlando International Airport (MCO) is much better served by buses than Sanford, where buses pass nearby but don't actually go into the airport, so it is worth forking out for a scheduled flight. I booked one for 28th February 2000, returning 13th March (both Mondays, to fit in with the aforementioned Lynx passes). I flew KLM/Northwest Airlines from my local airport, Bristol, via Amsterdam and Detroit, price £224. I later found that for an extra £20 or so, I could have flown with Martinair direct from Amsterdam to Orlando, cutting out the change at Detroit (and an encounter with a spectacularly unpleasant immigration official - I know these people are paid to be suspicious, but a couple more minutes with this guy and I'd probably have ended up confessing to the Kennedy assassination). Had I known this at the time, I would have coughed up the extra without any hesitation whatsoever.
Accommodation: According to the Rough Guide to Florida, if you are reliant on public transport, then Downtown Orlando is the place to stay. This is not necessarily true - if you want an all-Disney holiday, you can stay on-property, and many International Drive hotels offer free shuttle services to WDW or the FlexParks (but not usually both). But if, like me, you want to visit all the "big 8" parks plus some of the smaller attractions, it probably makes sense to be near the Downtown bus station, as Orlando's bus network is mostly radial, with the bus station as its hub. The bad news is that there are very few budget hotels in the Downtown area - most hotels there are aimed at the business traveller, who can claim their exorbitant fees back on expenses (see http://www.downtownorlando.com/accommodations.asp for full details). And no package holiday will offer you accommodation there, which pretty much forces you to go the independent route. Fortunately, this suits my temperament anyway - I like to be master of my own destiny, and not be told what to do by fascist holiday reps (or Richard bleedin' Branson). However, if any travel agents are reading this, if you were to put together a package that included downtown accommodation and a Lynx pass that is valid for the duration of your stay, I'd certainly consider it for any future trips to O-town.
I eventually settled on the Knights Inn Central Orlando, because it was the cheapest. Bad mistake. Not only is it not particularly central (you won't find it on that web page I've just given you), but the low price is reflected in the quality of the accommodation, and worst of all, it is in a high crime area (East Colonial Drive). When you respond to an advert in the hotel brochure from a pizza firm which promises to deliver to your room, only to be told that they no longer deliver to this area as they are tired of their delivery boys being robbed, you know you're in trouble! Fortunately, my holiday passed without incident, but all the same, I'd advise anyone to avoid this hotel like the plague. Everyone I spoke to said that the Downtown Travelodge is a much better bet, albeit slightly more expensive. The really annoying thing is that when I was first looking for hotels, the Travelodge had a special offer on, which would have given me a room there at the same price as the Knights Inn. I filed it for future reference instead of booking it there and then, and when I returned to the website I was looking at, the offer had gone. Moral: sieze the moment!
As for Downtown Orlando itself, I have to say that it is a much underrated area. I liked it for precisely the same reasons that most tourist firms avoid it - its sheer normality. After the relentless neon barrage of Orlando's main attractions areas, Downtown is a refreshingly unshowy and untouristy place, where you can do normal stuff like popping to the convenience store to buy groceries (my nearest convenience store at the time was the Handy Pantry on Amelia Drive - though they were in the process of building a 7-11 just up the road, which must be open by now - and the walk from my hotel took me through a very pleasant leafy suburban area). Much as I enjoyed the theme parks etc., you can have too much of a good thing. Returning to Downtown at the end of each day helped me keep one foot in the real world - something Unca Walt was firmly opposed to (that's why you won't see any newspapers for sale at WDW). Church Street Station is there to cater to the tourists, and it does it very well, but for the most part, Downtown Orlando exists for its residents, though this may not be true for much longer, particularly if the I-Drive to Downtown tramway ever gets off the ground, though this project has a chequered history (I live in Bristol, so my first thought on hearing about the on-off nature of the metro plans was "sounds familiar"). The Downtown website at www.downtownorlando.com reports several new hotels in development or which have opened since my holiday, including the Westin Grand Bohemian, as mentioned in the Brit's Guide 2000, which is based on early 20th century Vienna (I can just see them at the planning meeting - "hey, a hotel themed around the environment that produced Hitler...I'm amazed nobody's thought of it before!"). I'm worried that I might be a bit like Robert Carlyle in The Beach here, tipping off people about an "unspoilt" area, only to see it ruined by Leonardo di Caprio and his mates. But I realise that Downtown will not be to everyone's taste. For the most part its pleasures are simple ones, such as strolling round Lake Eola Park and admiring the Orange County Courthouse, which dominates the skyline. Now, I'm no architecture buff, but my eyes kept being drawn to this building. While we in Britain have office blocks, Americans have skyscrapers. Exactly the same thing of course, but think of the boring brutalist functionality that the phrase "office block" evokes and compare it to the Art Deco magnificence of the word "skyscraper". It's not a question of size - the Orange County Courthouse is hardly the Empire State Building - but this was my first visit to the States, and I think it was the sheer American-ness of the building that struck me. That style of architecture simply doesn't exist in Britain.
Bibliophiles should also check out Orlando's vast public library. It puts any British library I've visited to shame and is a useful corrective to the tired old stereotype about "dumb Americans".
Finally, a couple of tips for British visitors. These are mentioned in the guidebooks, but they are things I never got used to for practically the whole time I was there, so it is worth stressing them. Firstly, Florida sales tax. This is equivalent to our VAT, and is actually a lot cheaper (6-7% against our 17.5%). But unlike here, displaying prices exclusive of the tax is not only legal, it is the norm. This means that you always pay more than the displayed price for anything - including your hotel room, if you don't book a package deal. Secondly, Florida has a "right on red" law, allowing drivers to turn right at a red light. It can be a bit disconcerting when you think you can cross at a pelican crossing because the green man (who is actually a sort of off-white colour over there) is showing, only to find that half a dozen cars come piling round the corner!
Anyhow, that's enough preliminaries, it's time to write about the holiday itself. Stay tuned....
My trip report is in 3 parts. This introduction covers some general principles and pre-planning. Week 1 covers my first week in Orlando, which was mainly spent at WDW, while Week 2 was spent at the 2 Universal and 2 Anheuser-Busch parks, which I have collectively termed the "FlexParks", as they are covered by the Orlando FlexTicket (as is Wet 'n' Wild, but I didn't go there). The report is really aimed at non-drivers who have never been to Orlando before, so seasoned veterans can probably ignore most of it. I am really trying to write the guide I wish I'd had before I went.
Most public transport in Orlando is provided by Lynx transport, which gives pretty comprehensive online information at www.golynx.com - it is well worth checking out their site before you go. A weekly pass costs $10 and runs from Monday to Sunday, giving unlimited bus travel. Otherwise, there is a flat fare of $1 for each bus journey made. A schedule book, giving complete timetable information and a bus map of the greater Orlando area costs $3.
Flights: Orlando International Airport (MCO) is much better served by buses than Sanford, where buses pass nearby but don't actually go into the airport, so it is worth forking out for a scheduled flight. I booked one for 28th February 2000, returning 13th March (both Mondays, to fit in with the aforementioned Lynx passes). I flew KLM/Northwest Airlines from my local airport, Bristol, via Amsterdam and Detroit, price £224. I later found that for an extra £20 or so, I could have flown with Martinair direct from Amsterdam to Orlando, cutting out the change at Detroit (and an encounter with a spectacularly unpleasant immigration official - I know these people are paid to be suspicious, but a couple more minutes with this guy and I'd probably have ended up confessing to the Kennedy assassination). Had I known this at the time, I would have coughed up the extra without any hesitation whatsoever.
Accommodation: According to the Rough Guide to Florida, if you are reliant on public transport, then Downtown Orlando is the place to stay. This is not necessarily true - if you want an all-Disney holiday, you can stay on-property, and many International Drive hotels offer free shuttle services to WDW or the FlexParks (but not usually both). But if, like me, you want to visit all the "big 8" parks plus some of the smaller attractions, it probably makes sense to be near the Downtown bus station, as Orlando's bus network is mostly radial, with the bus station as its hub. The bad news is that there are very few budget hotels in the Downtown area - most hotels there are aimed at the business traveller, who can claim their exorbitant fees back on expenses (see http://www.downtownorlando.com/accommodations.asp for full details). And no package holiday will offer you accommodation there, which pretty much forces you to go the independent route. Fortunately, this suits my temperament anyway - I like to be master of my own destiny, and not be told what to do by fascist holiday reps (or Richard bleedin' Branson). However, if any travel agents are reading this, if you were to put together a package that included downtown accommodation and a Lynx pass that is valid for the duration of your stay, I'd certainly consider it for any future trips to O-town.
I eventually settled on the Knights Inn Central Orlando, because it was the cheapest. Bad mistake. Not only is it not particularly central (you won't find it on that web page I've just given you), but the low price is reflected in the quality of the accommodation, and worst of all, it is in a high crime area (East Colonial Drive). When you respond to an advert in the hotel brochure from a pizza firm which promises to deliver to your room, only to be told that they no longer deliver to this area as they are tired of their delivery boys being robbed, you know you're in trouble! Fortunately, my holiday passed without incident, but all the same, I'd advise anyone to avoid this hotel like the plague. Everyone I spoke to said that the Downtown Travelodge is a much better bet, albeit slightly more expensive. The really annoying thing is that when I was first looking for hotels, the Travelodge had a special offer on, which would have given me a room there at the same price as the Knights Inn. I filed it for future reference instead of booking it there and then, and when I returned to the website I was looking at, the offer had gone. Moral: sieze the moment!
As for Downtown Orlando itself, I have to say that it is a much underrated area. I liked it for precisely the same reasons that most tourist firms avoid it - its sheer normality. After the relentless neon barrage of Orlando's main attractions areas, Downtown is a refreshingly unshowy and untouristy place, where you can do normal stuff like popping to the convenience store to buy groceries (my nearest convenience store at the time was the Handy Pantry on Amelia Drive - though they were in the process of building a 7-11 just up the road, which must be open by now - and the walk from my hotel took me through a very pleasant leafy suburban area). Much as I enjoyed the theme parks etc., you can have too much of a good thing. Returning to Downtown at the end of each day helped me keep one foot in the real world - something Unca Walt was firmly opposed to (that's why you won't see any newspapers for sale at WDW). Church Street Station is there to cater to the tourists, and it does it very well, but for the most part, Downtown Orlando exists for its residents, though this may not be true for much longer, particularly if the I-Drive to Downtown tramway ever gets off the ground, though this project has a chequered history (I live in Bristol, so my first thought on hearing about the on-off nature of the metro plans was "sounds familiar"). The Downtown website at www.downtownorlando.com reports several new hotels in development or which have opened since my holiday, including the Westin Grand Bohemian, as mentioned in the Brit's Guide 2000, which is based on early 20th century Vienna (I can just see them at the planning meeting - "hey, a hotel themed around the environment that produced Hitler...I'm amazed nobody's thought of it before!"). I'm worried that I might be a bit like Robert Carlyle in The Beach here, tipping off people about an "unspoilt" area, only to see it ruined by Leonardo di Caprio and his mates. But I realise that Downtown will not be to everyone's taste. For the most part its pleasures are simple ones, such as strolling round Lake Eola Park and admiring the Orange County Courthouse, which dominates the skyline. Now, I'm no architecture buff, but my eyes kept being drawn to this building. While we in Britain have office blocks, Americans have skyscrapers. Exactly the same thing of course, but think of the boring brutalist functionality that the phrase "office block" evokes and compare it to the Art Deco magnificence of the word "skyscraper". It's not a question of size - the Orange County Courthouse is hardly the Empire State Building - but this was my first visit to the States, and I think it was the sheer American-ness of the building that struck me. That style of architecture simply doesn't exist in Britain.
Bibliophiles should also check out Orlando's vast public library. It puts any British library I've visited to shame and is a useful corrective to the tired old stereotype about "dumb Americans".
Finally, a couple of tips for British visitors. These are mentioned in the guidebooks, but they are things I never got used to for practically the whole time I was there, so it is worth stressing them. Firstly, Florida sales tax. This is equivalent to our VAT, and is actually a lot cheaper (6-7% against our 17.5%). But unlike here, displaying prices exclusive of the tax is not only legal, it is the norm. This means that you always pay more than the displayed price for anything - including your hotel room, if you don't book a package deal. Secondly, Florida has a "right on red" law, allowing drivers to turn right at a red light. It can be a bit disconcerting when you think you can cross at a pelican crossing because the green man (who is actually a sort of off-white colour over there) is showing, only to find that half a dozen cars come piling round the corner!
Anyhow, that's enough preliminaries, it's time to write about the holiday itself. Stay tuned....
