Got back yesterday from our latest trip to Orlando, which was our 7th time there in the past 17 years. I am not really one for long trip reports so will just add a few tips/thoughts here that may (or may not) be of benefit to other Brits travelling to Orlando.
Journey Out - Went with Virgin as usual and experienced our first ever delay, 2.5 hours due to the knock on effect from severe weather a few days earlier. It was a pain but its not really anyones fault. Also the sound on my seat back TV was not working
Other than that the flight was fine.
Orlando Airport - Usual huge queues at Immigration, took about 30 minutes to get through. Went to drop the cases for the second bag drop and was advised to take them ourselves on the escalator. Much better than having to wait at the second carousel.
Car Hire - got to the Dollar desk, and faced with another long slow moving queue and just 2 people serving. Thank heavens for Dollar express, I went straight to the front of the none existent Express queue, produced my Dollar Express card (thanks to the tip from this site) and 10 minutes later was driving out the airport
Car Upgrade - the sales assistant did ask if we wanted to upgrade our 300C to the luxury version for just $15 a day, I declined so he offered it for $8 a day, I still politely declined and pointed out the bog standard 300C would be far nicer than my 12 year old Renault at home. Surprise surprise, we were given the luxury Touring version anyway at no extra cost.
Villa - stayed in a villa for the first time ever at the easterly end of the 192 by the Turnpike junction. Villas are the future for us, so much more relaxed and easier than spending a fortnight in a single hotel room, space and privacy for all equals a more enjoyable holiday.
Driving - Never really used the toll roads before and previously relied mainly on I4 as our main arterial route, my advice would be to use the toll roads wherever possible, the traffic is much lighter so journey times are less and it was usually only between $0.75 and $1.50 so it was an ideal way to get rid of loose change which I left in the car at the end of each day
Aquatica - the key letters in the name of this park are QU !! We went twice and arrived well before the 10am opening time to be faced with a huge queue waiting for the gates to open, and you then have to walk from the car park past the queue to the opposite end of the parking lot and stand in line waiting to get in the park. After the first hour the queues for all the slides were horrendous and almost 2 hours for the signature Dolphin tube slide. Needless to say I didn't bother. The Rapid lazy river was good though and obviously queue free as you just waded in from the side. In summary I would say they have lessons to learn still about managing the queues to make this a more enjoyable water park and I was disappointed with Aquatica.
Food - Texas De Brazil - wow! What a great concept and superb quality. The salad bar has to be seen to be believed and then you can have as much top quality meat and steak as takes your fancy. I can't say it was good value as the original bill came to $165 for 2 adults and 2 kids with just soft drinks and 2 beers! Thankfully I had picked another tip up from here and joined the TdB loyalty club via email and had a voucher emailed to me for a free dinner to celebrate our anniversary (how fortunate that date fell during our trip
) So that took a full $45 off the bill. Kids were half price as well.
Food - Village Tavern - only called in here on spec for our final meal after a trip to the Mall at Millenia, what a good decision. It was a lovely meal in a clean and upmarket restaurant at a very reasonable price. Will definitely return on the next trip. The one we went to was right off the I4 junction for the Millenia Mall, I presume there are others dotted around.
Food - Golden Corral - What can i say, food is good, quantity is bountiful, choice is unrivalled and the price is unbelieveable. At the one on the 192 I was asked how old our kids were and when I replied 9 and 12 was surprised to see that they still only charged us the kids price which is officially for kids aged 3 to 7!
They also didn't charge for any drinks as we wanted coffee and milk which are ordered at the table so the total price for a Sunday Brunch was $25 for a family of four. Beat that for value.
Food - I made an ADR for Konas cafe at the Polynesian. The food was OK but nothing special but the waiting staff were the only ones in our entire trip that I found to be less than pleasant and amenable. Our waitress was sullen and another staff member looked at me as though I had just dropped off the bottom of her shoe when I asked where the rest rooms were. Shocking really when you consider that the tips they are on will be so much higher than their counterparts in the lesser restaurants because of the high prices charged in the first place. I also didn't appreciate the way that Disney felt the need to tell me what the expected tip should be on the bill and even worked it out for me at 18% and 20%. I left 10% because of the service whereas I never failed to leave between 15 and 20% elsewhere.
Shopping - The main brands that seemed to be worn everywhere were Abercrombie and Hollister. Both have shops in the main malls and the prices are less in dollars than you would pay in sterling in the UK at the sole Abercrombie shop in London. So stock up while you are there. Hollister were slightly cheaper for almost identical products IMHO.
Thats all for now, and to think I said I wasn't doing a trip report
Journey Out - Went with Virgin as usual and experienced our first ever delay, 2.5 hours due to the knock on effect from severe weather a few days earlier. It was a pain but its not really anyones fault. Also the sound on my seat back TV was not working
Other than that the flight was fine.Orlando Airport - Usual huge queues at Immigration, took about 30 minutes to get through. Went to drop the cases for the second bag drop and was advised to take them ourselves on the escalator. Much better than having to wait at the second carousel.
Car Hire - got to the Dollar desk, and faced with another long slow moving queue and just 2 people serving. Thank heavens for Dollar express, I went straight to the front of the none existent Express queue, produced my Dollar Express card (thanks to the tip from this site) and 10 minutes later was driving out the airport
Car Upgrade - the sales assistant did ask if we wanted to upgrade our 300C to the luxury version for just $15 a day, I declined so he offered it for $8 a day, I still politely declined and pointed out the bog standard 300C would be far nicer than my 12 year old Renault at home. Surprise surprise, we were given the luxury Touring version anyway at no extra cost.
Villa - stayed in a villa for the first time ever at the easterly end of the 192 by the Turnpike junction. Villas are the future for us, so much more relaxed and easier than spending a fortnight in a single hotel room, space and privacy for all equals a more enjoyable holiday.
Driving - Never really used the toll roads before and previously relied mainly on I4 as our main arterial route, my advice would be to use the toll roads wherever possible, the traffic is much lighter so journey times are less and it was usually only between $0.75 and $1.50 so it was an ideal way to get rid of loose change which I left in the car at the end of each day
Aquatica - the key letters in the name of this park are QU !! We went twice and arrived well before the 10am opening time to be faced with a huge queue waiting for the gates to open, and you then have to walk from the car park past the queue to the opposite end of the parking lot and stand in line waiting to get in the park. After the first hour the queues for all the slides were horrendous and almost 2 hours for the signature Dolphin tube slide. Needless to say I didn't bother. The Rapid lazy river was good though and obviously queue free as you just waded in from the side. In summary I would say they have lessons to learn still about managing the queues to make this a more enjoyable water park and I was disappointed with Aquatica.
Food - Texas De Brazil - wow! What a great concept and superb quality. The salad bar has to be seen to be believed and then you can have as much top quality meat and steak as takes your fancy. I can't say it was good value as the original bill came to $165 for 2 adults and 2 kids with just soft drinks and 2 beers! Thankfully I had picked another tip up from here and joined the TdB loyalty club via email and had a voucher emailed to me for a free dinner to celebrate our anniversary (how fortunate that date fell during our trip
) So that took a full $45 off the bill. Kids were half price as well.Food - Village Tavern - only called in here on spec for our final meal after a trip to the Mall at Millenia, what a good decision. It was a lovely meal in a clean and upmarket restaurant at a very reasonable price. Will definitely return on the next trip. The one we went to was right off the I4 junction for the Millenia Mall, I presume there are others dotted around.
Food - Golden Corral - What can i say, food is good, quantity is bountiful, choice is unrivalled and the price is unbelieveable. At the one on the 192 I was asked how old our kids were and when I replied 9 and 12 was surprised to see that they still only charged us the kids price which is officially for kids aged 3 to 7!
They also didn't charge for any drinks as we wanted coffee and milk which are ordered at the table so the total price for a Sunday Brunch was $25 for a family of four. Beat that for value.
Food - I made an ADR for Konas cafe at the Polynesian. The food was OK but nothing special but the waiting staff were the only ones in our entire trip that I found to be less than pleasant and amenable. Our waitress was sullen and another staff member looked at me as though I had just dropped off the bottom of her shoe when I asked where the rest rooms were. Shocking really when you consider that the tips they are on will be so much higher than their counterparts in the lesser restaurants because of the high prices charged in the first place. I also didn't appreciate the way that Disney felt the need to tell me what the expected tip should be on the bill and even worked it out for me at 18% and 20%. I left 10% because of the service whereas I never failed to leave between 15 and 20% elsewhere.
Shopping - The main brands that seemed to be worn everywhere were Abercrombie and Hollister. Both have shops in the main malls and the prices are less in dollars than you would pay in sterling in the UK at the sole Abercrombie shop in London. So stock up while you are there. Hollister were slightly cheaper for almost identical products IMHO.
Thats all for now, and to think I said I wasn't doing a trip report
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Here's the 
