Walt Disney is 100 Years Old and His Memory is More Alive Than Ever!! (Orlando)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Orlando
Date:	29/03/02 (459 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A truly wonderful experience

Disadvantages: Disney is a bit pricey

If you've ever gone to bed at night hoping for the best dream ever with a view to being whisked away to your own version of Nirvana then going to Florida may be the closest you ever get whilst awake.

October 2001 saw myself and the family journey to Orlando for 2 weeks in Disney and what a time we had!

Before I start I have to warn you that this is a lengthy op. There is simply so much to say that it's hard to find things to leave out. Unless you are definitely thinking of going to Disney, Orlando then you may want to move onto to the next op and thanks for the 3p. If you are interested then by all means print this one off and read it at your leisure. If you do then please don't forget to come back and rate it! Otherwise, thanks for reading in advance and on with the story...

***Getting There***
We travelled with Airtours who did a competant job. Airtours are a well known travel group that has recently changed it's name to MyTravel Group PLC. A little background so that you know who you are dealing with: The company was founded in 1972 by it's current company executive - David Crossland. He purchased Pendle Travel Services, a travel agency business comprising two stores in Lancashire.

A second travel agency business was acquired shortly after from Albert and Ivy Roberts who had registered it using their initials, A.I.R. Tours giving birth to the Airtours name.

The business expanded and, in 1980, David Crossland started to develop package holidays. A tour operating division was established shortly after. Initially trading as Pendle Air Tours, it is known today as Airtours Holidays (before name change, that is).

In 1982, the company took around 26,000 customers on holiday and by 1986, through organic growth, it had 290,000 customers.

Airtours floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1987.

The Airbus we flew on was nice enough with TVs in the back of the headrest in th
e seats in front and reasonable flight meals. The service was polite and attentive from the cabin crew. The flight takes about 9 hours so the cycle of entertaintment on the TVs can become tedious. There was a rather interesting facility to tune your TV into either straight ahead or straight down views of the surroundings whilst in flight. This meant that you could see where the plane was going and a lot of folks found it more interesting than the movies. Also, there was a computerised map facility, which plotted your progress throughout the flight and gave you the stats about miles flown so far, estimated time left to destination etc.

Notwithstanding that, there were some good movies shown including Bridget Jones and Shrek. Some good features of the flight was the ability to pre-book your meal although this plus the opportunity to choose our seats cost £20 each along with the kids (i.e. 4 x £20 = £80). We didn't go for the Gold Premiere deal, which would have added an extra £500 to the cost of the holiday. This would have given us extra legroom on the seats, more movies to choose from, complimentary alcohol during the flight and a separate waiting area whilst waiting for the flight. This didn't seem worth the cost to me but if you want to go in style then this is for you.

The local airport is Sanford which is relatively small but reasonably equipped for it's size.

***Tiperoonies***
 You'll have to sign a Visa waiver form as standard on the plane before you go through customs. Try and get it absolutely spot on. A rather acerbic American who spotted some minor omissions sent us to the back of a huge queue not once but twice.

 Also, you can purchase tickets for the major theme parks on the plane on the way over. A good idea that may save you some time when you get there.

 The flight seems to go on forever for the kids. The TV will keep 'em occupied for only so long and you do
n't get too much space to move around in (hell on Earth for the little 'uns). Take some reading & writing materials in an attempt to partially pacify 'em but stay patient as it can be an ordeal for your children.

 The September 11th thing has left the US pretty jumpy and security is so much tighter. Do not take anything resembling a gun, knife etc. We got pulled up on the way back for having a plastic toy gun in our case, which we'd won in the arcade!

 Food and fruit aren't allowed into the US. Their laws regarding immigration of both people & perishables are tight so try to ensure that you aren't carrying a plum or something on your way through customs otherwise you'll be in the double-mirror fronted office and strip searched quicker than you can say Minnie Mouse!

***Accommodation***
We decided to stay in Disney itself and chose All Star Movies as my son is a huge Toy Story fan. The hotel is made up of different themes and has a huge Buzz Light Year as well as a similar sized Woody. The hotel is excellent with it's own food court (the food is quite pricey, though); 2 themed swimming pools; Disney store and so on. The food was a pretty basic affair with a self-serve canteen service. There is a bar serving alcohol and cocktails, which we sampled later in the holiday. Drinks were a bit on the pricey side with 330ml bottle of lager costing $4. The hotel itself was spotless at all times although my only criticism would be that the wait for guest enquiries seemed overlong with staff waiting to attend to new arrivals with nobody in front of them and the inevitably lengthy service enquiries manned by only 1 or 2 folks. One day I waited for 20 minutes to make an enquiry. My other gripe would be that the tour rep was rarely on time meaning a half-hour wait for him was common.

The rooms were comfy enough with a maid making the beds each day, a TV with loads of choice of channels, a wall sa
fe, shower and sink and a table and chairs. It had a budget feel to it but then the hotel is classed as a budget option with other Disney hotels offering more up market facilities at a correspondingly higher price.

One of the main reasons for staying here is that we wouldn't have to worry about driving and the Disney hotels are great in that you can queue up outside at the appropriate busstop for the park of your choice. If you want a non-Disney park then transport was possible through a company called Mears. This is quite an expensive affair so you may want to see the tip below. Alternatively you can catch a cab but, again, you pay tourist prices and a friend of mine paid around $40 for a return trip to Sea World.

A lot of folks save on the costs of a formal hotel and stay in apartments. There is so much choice in Orlando that it's hard to know where to turn. It depends on your budget, taste etc but the decision to hire a car will influence your decision, as public transport is rather cumbersome in the States. You'll need a car to get to a lot of venues and you may want to see my tip below about associated costs. Of course, staying outside Disney means that you can get food a lot cheaper. There are "as much as you can eat" deals which a lot of folks fill up on for breakfast meaning that they'll probably only eat once more during the day.

***Further tiperoonies***
 You can save yourself quite a few dollars by getting to the Transportation Centre at Magic Kingdom (via the appropriate Disney bus) and getting a local bus (only $1 charge and 10 cents if a transfer to a 2nd bus is needed.

 If you decide to drive then car hire is easy. It's usually assumed as part of the package so you'll need to tell the tour operator that you don't want it. The cost of transfers to and from the airport stuck another £100 on the cost of the holiday but this was more than offset by the pricey in
surance that has to be arranged in the US. There is a whole tranche of national & local insurances that are compulsory and add up to a deceptively large amount. I would strongly advise breaking this cost down before you agree your package so that at least you know what you are getting in to.

 You can offset the cost of drinks by buying a re-fillable mug, which can be topped up throughout your stay at drink stations. It cost about $9 each but was worth it because you didn't have to pay for non-alcoholic drinks after that (although you get fed up with carrying it every where!).

 There are lots of opportunities to get a caricature drawing of you or the family. The standard is generally high of the artist's offering the service and we had one done of both the kids. They have pride of place in their bedrooms and a wonderful momento of the holiday (cost varies but I think ours cost something like $15)

***Attractions***
This year is a great time to go. Disney are in the middle of their 100 Years of Disney celebrations in homage to the fact that it is 100 years since Walt Disney was born. All sorts of additional events are laid on which we experienced because the celebration started last year. These include special firework displays, shows etc.

The Disney parks are simply breathtaking. We took in all 6 including Epcot; Magic Kingdom; Animal Kingdom; Disney MGM; Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.

Epcot stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow and is full of innovative rides and shows. It's meant to reflect the future of mankind and appeals to the older visitor without losing site of the younger ones. The Test Track is the most popular ride just now which takes you on a mile test circuit at speeds of up to 60mph. For those wanting a slower pace then you can try the World Showcase being a series of recreated lands including Italy, China, Norway etc. There is a mini England equipped with
a fully functional Rose & Crown pub along with a Harry Ramsden's chip shop. Watch out for the Italy section as the mime show caught me out where characters dressed up in Harlequin like outfits put on a show but include the audience. There I am taking video of the family one minute then this strange character appears in my viewfinder the next much to the mirth of the group.

Magic Kingdom is the main attraction and the original park. Split into a series of lands it is a non-stop series of rides and fun. There are loads of food stops to assuage the kiddies but you'll pay for the privilege. Ice creams were $2.50 each meaning a round of 4 could cost you the equivalent of around £8.

If you can get there early it helps with the popular rides. We signed up for the Unlimited Magic Pass, which allowed us special early entrances to the parks on certain days. Ironically, we never had to use it because of the huge drop off in numbers due to the tragic circumstances surrounding that time. There are other advantages with the pass, the main one being that you have paid for a fortnight's access to all of the parks and don't have to worry about it when you get there. Most popular rides included the new Buzz Lightyear ride and the Extraterrorestrial Alien amongst others. You can check out the rides and their details on the Disney website www. Disney.com.

Animal Kingdom is one of the recent additions and is a safari combined with the obligatory Disney rides. Due to the climate, it's a good idea to get there in the morning while the animals are still alert. Main attractions include a mock jeep safari; a 3-D It's a Bug Life show that will literally make you jump and the stage shows. There was a rendition of The Lion King on stage, which we really enjoyed and the whole park is themed on a continent basis i.e. one section was devoted to Asia, another Africa and so on. There is a Dinosaur section including a rather dark thrill ride, which
seemed to be over before we knew it!

Disney MGM is the film studio-themed park that maybe appeals to the slightly more mature taste (say your 5-year-old as opposed to 4 years old). There are some great rides here including the Tower of Terror (my 6-year-old boy and me went on this. I was more scared than he was), the Aerosmith rollercoster, Muppet 3-D show and many more. Again, see the Disney website for more details. We particularly liked the character stops where you could get to meet Disney characters (yeh, I know they're only folks dressed up but the kids don't know that..what's that son? You do know..oh, well) and get their autographs. One of my fondest memories is having the opportunity for my lad to meet Woody and Buzz from Toy Story and having his piccie taken with 'em (posted on my personal website if your interested). There are studio tours including stops to take in sets arranged to demonstrate special effects and features on how movies are put together giving you a behind the scenes look at what goes into making a movie. We found this extremely interesting and the memorabilia on show is awesome.

***Even more tiperoonies***
 It is a FULL day at these venues so try not to make the mistake we did by going to a different one each day without a break - it's hard on the kids as you may be there for up to 12 hours!

 The parades are awesome and well worth claiming your spot for viewing say, up to 30 minutes beforehand. Make sure that you stay for the firework display at each park - you will not have seen anything like it before. All of the parks had their own version and it's hard to pick a winner.

 You can relax a bit more at the waterparks - Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard beach. The kids loved it here and special mention to the inflatable rings you can just chill in and float slowly around in a circuit of the park. Blizzard Beach has the largest freefall water ride in the wo
rld which I fearfully steered clear of. The water parks are sort of recreations of a typical US vacation spot like Hawaii with faithfully recreated beaches and wave pools. There is palm tree setting for sunbeds and so on with a suitable background tape blaring out a constant diet of Beach Boy songs and the like (this got a bit warring after a while as the tape was on a loop).

 Disney now operates a FastPass service allowing you to take a ticket and return to the ride at a certain time without having to queue up. It's only available on selected major rides so you will have to queue up for some. We were lucky in that there was hardly anyone there when we went due to the nervous reaction after September 11th. Normal queuing times without a pass may be up to and over an hour in peak times.

 Those with young children then the parks offer a stroller (US for pushchair/pram) service so you don't have to worry about taking one along. Better still is that you can leave them in stroller stops and take the kids into the show without worrying about where to leave it.

 Eating in the parks is expensive. I did see a few folks with packed lunches, which I'm not sure whether they are strictly speaking allowed but this seemed a good idea if you want to keep cost down.

***Even more attractions***
Maybe Elvis Costello should have written this (you know, with his attractions...oh well) but there are so many other attractions to take in that a fortnight ain?t nowhere near enough time really.

Everyone MUST go to SeaWorld - it is truly wonderful. The best bit is definitely being able to feed the dolphins at a special pool where the park charge you $4 for some small fish but it's worth every cent. The Shamu show is outstanding and we went to both the daytime show and the late afternoon one. A family ticket cost approx £110 for the day (2 adults, 2 kids). Check out the Seaworld website for more details bu
t an absolute must see.

We didn't get a chance to take in The Islands of Adventure and Universal studios but they are generally highly recommended.

***Overall***
The overall cost including spending money and food came to about £5000 for the 4 of us. I mentioned before about the Unlimited Magic Pass and this included a free gift, which we took as a Character Breakfast at Chef Mickey's at Contemporary Hotel, Magic Kingdom. Otherwise, this would have cost around $90 for a family of 4. My son was 6 years old on the morning we booked for and the 2 hours we were there raced past. The breakfast buffet is brilliant and there is a constant flow of Disney characters including Mickey and Minny Mouse, Pluto, Chip and Dale (...so many more...can't remember 'em all..).

As soon as your kids are old enough to understand what's going on (say 5 years old and upward) I exhort you to go to Disney for 2 weeks (or longer). We didn't scratch the surface as far as Florida goes but Disney itself is enough to set any child's imagination ablaze (and adults for that matter). There are some images of our holiday on my own website which you are welcome to visit otherwise more info is available at the Disney site mentioned above and at http://www.Airtours.com.

Would I go again? You betcha!!! We took my mother and father-in-law with us and my erstwhile ma-in-law took about 3 months to come back down to Earth again after we'd come back. Go, go, go if you get the chance. You absolutely won't regret it (and don't forget to send me your piccies!).

Thanks for reading.

Marandina

Points to Note

*Generally £1 = $1.50 as a rule of thumb but check the exchange rate closer to the time.
**The climate in Florida is sub-tropical so be prepared with sunscreen etc. Especially the kiddies who will fry quickly if you don't protect them.

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