Orlando Vacation Tips

Going to Orlando, Florida can be a vacation of a lifetime, or a truly miserable, costly mistake. Here are some things I've learned from personal experience and other people's testimonies that will help you save money and time.

Transportation options

I purposely sought out a hotel that had free shuttle service to Disney, Universal, etc. THIS WILL SAVE YOU MONEY. Renting a car is at least $45 a day, plus gas, and parking at Disney, Universal, and Sea World is $14.00 minmum! Besides, who wants the hassle of driving on your vacation? My major mistake: hiring a shuttle to and from the airport. It was expensive ($140 round trip for 4 people) and you had run on their schedule, not your own. You are better off renting an economy car for ONE day to get to your hotel and one to get back to the airport. Use that one rental day to run to Walmart and pick up essentials.

Hotel

I picked a hotel that had free buffet breakfast for the kids. This probably saved us $10 a day. I also picked a hotel that had a microwave and fridge, so I take bag lunches and possibly make dinner. This probably save us hundreds of dollars on lunch alone. Hey, it's not glamorous to brown bag it, but it's cheap! For a family of four, expect to pay $40 plus on lunch if you buy it at the theme parks.

Back to the hotel, when you check in, immediately check for bed bugs and general uncleanliness. The first thing I did was rip off all the sheets and check under the mattress. Bedbugs usually leave tell-tale brown stains on the mattress. Although I didn't see sign of bed bugs, I did notice a huge black hair on the pillow and a small stain on the sheets. I know...ewwwwwwww. Well, most hotels cut corners, sorry to say. I called them immediately and told them to come change the sheets, which they did.

Timing

For timing, the three H's to consider:

1. Heat- If you go in the summer, expect to be fully miserable from the heat.
2. Hurricanes-Late August to early October is prime hurricane season. Nothing would be worse than taking your vacation and having a hurricane hit.
3. Holidays-You probably want to avoid peak times, like spring break. Standing in line for HOURS for one ride is definitely no fun.

We went the second week of October, and I believe that was perfect. It wasn't unbearably hot, but still warm, no hurricanes, the crowds weren't too bad, and the parks had some nice Halloween festivities going on.

Finally, there's an app for that!

We got an phone app for Disney and Universal. These smartphone apps tell you how long of a wait you'll have at different rides. They were very accurate and well worth it!