NEED HELP!! Visiting Orlando for 1st time

[janine29]

We (myself(29), my 12 yr old daughter & my mother) are travelling on 22nd May and staying at the Quality Inn International for 2 weeks. It is our first visit to Orlando. Can anybody please give me any advice re eating out and night time activities to suit us all. As this is unlike any other holiday I have taken (usually beach holidays) I am unsure of what type of clothing to take for evenings. Can anyone offer me some advice??l

 

[matty624]

Welcome to the boards! This is definitely the best place to get advice and tips, I literally saved a fortune by listening to people, especially at the planning stage.
Have you bought your park tickets? Presuming you're going to Disney or Universal(and you'd clearly be insane to travel to Orlando and not at least visit one or the other) your evenings may well be taken up by activities at the parks. See link for opening hours http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/hours.html
That said (and I'm not an expert in the weather at this time of year) you'll want casual clothing which would suffice if you want to eat out or tour a park, it's probably still warm enough, however late you stay out, to do without any sort of coat. Unbelievably the first time we went to Orlando, not knowing any better, we took coats thinking it might be cool in the evenings! Certainly in August we have never needed a coat, plenty of ponchos for the down pours though! As for where you might eat...Our situation is very different to yourselves, we tend to eat either at the villa or in the parks. Our favourite restaurant chain, strangely, is TGIs. The service you get at any of the locations is amazing (the one at LBV is for some reason slightly more expensive than the ones on 192 or I-Drive etc, but still cheap).
We also liked eating at Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock, an experience you should try at least once.
Sorry to be so lond winded.
Ian

 

[mike230652]

janine,

I'd very strongly recommend you to buy Simon Venness's brilliant book..... " Brits Guide "

We got this for our first trip in 2000............absolutely essential reading, gave great tips and saved us a fortune.

You'll also get great help from this Board, post any questions you have ( whether they seem silly or not !! ). We've all asked the same questions at some time !

mike230652

 

[SpottyDog]

Hiya Janine, it's excitin plannin yer first trip isn't it?

Tell us where yer stayin and do you have a car? Then you'll get loads of advice from those that have stayed at the same place or in that area.

Post all your other questions one at a time in different threads. That way you'll not lose track of all the info yer gonna get.

We love questions, us

 

[UKANGEL]

Hi Janine
Casual clothes will be fine for almost everywhere you go to eat or visit

Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney, or Hard Rock at Universal are great places for all the family, as is the Rainforest cafe at Animal Kingdom or Downtown Disney.

There are loads of places along International Drive to eat, including all-you-can-eat types like Sizzlers, Ponderosa or Golden Corral. If you like seafood/steaks/chicken then Red Lobster is wonderful

EPCOT in the evenings to watch the fireworks is great, as is Downtown Disney for Disneyquest and shopping.

Don't forget all the lovely shopping at the malls too................

...better stop now or I'll ramble on forever!!

Have fun!

 

[signtalker]

Just wanted to say welcome to the boards

im sure once you fire some more info at us, we can help you out, as Spotty Dog says!

You can always visit the onsite hotels in the evening, so how about Animal Kingdom Lodge, you can let your daughter look at the animals there, then have a nice meal at Boma's.

Does your daughter want to do a chararcter meal?, these are always a great hit whatever the age.

Jules

 

[vernon]

Hi Janine, welcome to the DIS. You don't say if you have the use of a car or not. There are a lot of restaurants along I-Drive, but they are a little spread out. There is the I-Drive trolley bus that will be a help to you if you're not driving. As far as what to wear, I would suggest that if any of you feel the cold to take a cardi in the evenings as the air conditioning in some restaurants can be quite chilling. Dress code is almost always casual. Some restaurants that I like and I think would be suitable for your group are The Olive Garden ( very reasonably priced Italian) , Bahama Breeze ( Caribbean twist to more "regular" international food, usually with live reggae music at the outside bar. At this tim eof year it's probably more pleasant to sit outside to eat than inside ) , Cafe TuTu Tango has various entertainment, there are a few international chains like TGI Friday and Tony Roma's that are worth a visit.

There are a lot of great restaurants at the Disney resorts, but if you're not driving they may be inconvenient to get home from .

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Welcome Janine

I love ALL the restaurants that Vernon recommends above and would also add a couple more all on I-Drive:

Darryls
The Crab House - next door to the Mercado centre


I hope you have a great trip and if you can I also recommend "Brits Guide to Orlando" it's a must for a first time visitor. Everyone here will help you with anything so just fire your questions away.

 

[kazzie]

Hi Janine,

Just wanted to say as above that if you buy the Brit's Guide it will make a differnece to what you get out of the holiday I really like the 'Other Orlando' section which proves there is so much do in Orlando that doesn't even involve theme parks

 

[Disney owl]

casual comfy clothes & more important comfy shoes.

when we went out at night we took a cardi for DD as she at times found the airconditioning a little chilly at night. It never bothered the boys.

we enjoyed Race Rock on International Drive & Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney, for very differrent places to eat.

For very cheap but good food Ponderosa, maany outlets

 

[SidB]

We did exactly the same as you three years ago. Same time, same hotel, same questions. "The Brit's Guide" is essential and includes a lot of restaurant reviews. For more reviews of restaurants just do a search here. If your daughter is a fan of MacDonalds, there is one about 50 yards from the hotel. The foods very different to the UK. I'd recommend the steak and egg bagel.

Restaurants I've enjoyed include, The Olive Garden, Tony Roma's, Chilli's (who don't sell chilli !), Cafe Tutu Tango, Kobe, Prime time Cafe at MGM. If you're hungry, or picky eaters, go to the Golden Corral. The selection is amazing. My daughters were eating tuna salad and ice-cream for breakfast ! The hotel restaurant is OK for breakfast, and one of my daughters thought it was the best place to eat.

Pretty much, you can't go wrong eating out. Dress code is casual almost everywhere. You won't need any extra clothes for the evenings. That reminds me, the air conditioning units in the rooms are effective but noisy. We found them too loud to sleep with them on.

You are better off leaving evening adventures later in the holiday as your body-clock tells you to get up at about 5 o'clock to begin with.

I'd advise that you take a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up snacks and drinks to keep in the room. You might want to take some with you to the parks as the food is more expensive.

As a final piece of advise, keep some form of diary. I kept a note of where we'd been, and everybodies best and worst things about the day. You could post it here as advise to the next first-timer.

 

[Leech esq]

The first time we went to Orlando we got the Brit's guide from the library,it's just as useful as the one you buy in the shops!!
If you're driving,it's not as bad as drivng in the uk,but ,some of the signs are set out differently,altogether a wonderful experience.
If you have a look at what's on offer in the Orlando visitor's guide or the brit's guide and then ask questions,there's always someone who's been on or done whatever you like the sound of,and can give you their opinion.
Geoff.