A Little Help from a Friend (Orlando)

Member Name: s.gould

Product:	Orlando
Date:	16/10/02 (189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean, Good Transport

Disadvantages: Expensive, Shopping disappointing

I have written a few ops about our holiday to Orlando, Florida already, but these were mainly about Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays and our apartments we stayed at. I thought it would be nice just to write about what I thought about Orlando itself, as it wasn?t what I expected.

I had never been to the US before and didn?t know what to expect. I heard different stories from around America, some nice and some very off putting. People had said how nice it was; other said how dangerous it was. So I went very open minded.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was how clean everything was, and I don?t just mean generally, I mean everything was clean. Pavements, toilets even the bins.

I found the locals to be very nice and friendly, but later I realised that not all Americans are like this. Most out of towners were very arrogant and would be happy to slam a door in your face, I?m not being stereotypical, its just what I found.

The public transport in Orlando is excellent. They have this service called the ?I ride?, which travels up and down International Drive, stopping near most hotels and apartment complexes. You can purchase daily, 3 days, 5 days and 7 day tickets (maybe longer I?m not sure), costing 75c or about 50p a day for unlimited usage ? bargain I must say. These are bought from shops or your hotel, and not on the bus, beware the bus drivers don?t take your money, its all done by a machine on the bus.

They come every 15 minutes, can take about 1 hour to get from one end of International Drive to the other if your going that far, and are a little uncomfortable, but compared to the UK public transport, its brilliant.

The ?I ride? also links to the transport route that takes you to Disney, and costs about £1. Its more like a coach this time and more comfortable. The ?I Ride? also stops earshot of Universal Studios and outside Wet n Wild. Most of the drivers are very friendly and will help you with almost anyt
hing, except for change, so be aware if you decide not to purchase passes for the ?I Ride?.

I found shopping in Orlando very disappointing. Don?t expect bargains, it?s almost the same price in Orlando as back in the UK, if not more expensive. Buy in duty free.
Even the discount shopping centres are expensive, that depend on the unexpecting tourist to think they have a bargain.

We got a taxi to Wal-Mart. This was one of the most interesting shopping experiences I have had. They are cheap and have loads of bargains and sell everything from food to diamond jewellery to shotguns to spare tyres. Don?t expect a big selection of food though; you can buy steaks, big steaks and bigger steaks.

The biggest shock to me was Indian food. I love Indian food and can?t live without it, but Americans don?t know what it is. I asked a helper in Wal-Mart and she looked blank, who asked several colleagues who also didn?t know what a curry was.
The local Indian restaurant in Orlando was expensive; we didn?t even eat there when we saw a prawn vindaloo and rice came to over 18GBP.

Road crossings were hard to deal with, you would get half way across and then they would change. We saw a lot of English people panic when this happened and would run to the other side.

You have to realise before you go that it is a completely different way of life, and the car rules the way.

When it comes to crime, I can?t really say too much, I just didn?t see any. The streets were well light at night and there was plenty of police around.

I was disappointed to find that Orlando was over tourist dominated, of course I expected it to be with Disney there, but I didn?t expect the prices to be that high. I was glad I took my credit card as we ran out of traveller?s cheques half way through the holiday. Restaurants were quite expensive and were a very similar price to the UK, but I was shocked to find the cheapest and nicest restaurants were in U
niversal Studios, especially Hard Rock Café.

Summary: