The 192

www.kissimmee-us192.com
handy 'cos it shows stores and restaurants that could be useful on arrival.

How to get from Sanford to Orlando...with photos!

http://www.kissimmee-us192.com/british/airport_routes.htm

Outback Steakhouse and Thomas Cook Magazine

Outback Steakhouse
Highly recommended by a friend.

http://www.thomascookmagazine.com/category/onboard/

Random hints and tips from folk on the thedibb.co.uk

"Get a cheap white styrofoam cooler from wallmart for about $2. Every morning put a couple of inches of ice in it. Put your drinks.... water bottles, cokes, juice.... in the cooler. Put it in your boot.

In the middle of Summer, the ice will still keep all drinks inside and anything else cool ALL DAY! Unbelievably, there's still ice in there when you empty it at night!

We've done this countless times. In the car parks, when you turn your air con on, but it's still too hot to get inside, it's wonderful to drink ice cold drinks while you wait for the car to cool."

"Take a photo of the row your car is parked in i.e. 'Donald 23'.
This way you will always find your car."

"Dont go mad on special going out clothes, during the day all we wore were shorts and tshirts, and a long sleeve top for the evenings"

"If your doing buffets such as golden corral go at about 3.30pm. Not only is it quieter but there will be more variety as they are putting out all the food for the evening menu which starts at 4pm each day. That way you pay the lunch price which is $2 less but get the evening menu."

"Take sealable plastic bags, for phones, ipods, wallets for water rides"

"photocopy all park tickets in case they get lost!"

"When approaching the Universal Studios car parks always take the left hand lane. When the lanes coming from different directions merge always move over to the left again. This lane always moves faster. When you enter the car park itself and are going up the ramps most people stay to the right but there ARE two lanes so again take the left one and you'll go past everyone else."

All from this thread.

Itinerary

First draft!
http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/planner.php?a=edit&p=1334

Trip Reports

What others get up to on their Orlando visit...
http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=252598

Places and Reviews. So much to see, so little time!

It's just dawned on me, we have more to see than there is time for!
We booked Thomas Cook's Do It All Plus Pass. This gives us:
7 days for:
Magic Kingdom (Reviews)
Epcot (Reviews)
HollyWood Studios (Reviews)
Animal Kindgom (Reviews)

7 admissions to:
Blizzard Beach (Reviews)
Typhoon Lagoon (Reviews)
Pleasure Island (Reviews and changes)
Disney Quest (Reviews)
Wide World of Sports Complex (Reviews)

and 14 admissions to:
Universal Studios (Reviews)
Wet 'n' Wild (Reviews)
Seaworld (Reviews)
Islands of Adventure (Reviews)
City Walk (Reviews)
Busch Gardens (Reviews)
Aquatica (Reviews)

hmm...shame there's not 48 hours in a day!

Fast Passes

How to use 'em

In addition to the parks there's all this to do/see....!

Downtown Disney


State Parks

Disney Quest

Other costs in the parks

Had a quick look. Looks like it's about $8 each for burger and fries.
http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/menus.html#mk

Parking: $12 per park?

Maps

Park maps are here.

Every map you can think of here!

Shop til you drop!

Malls and Outlets

The Loop (includes eateries)

Screeeam!

Orlando video library.
I now know which rides I won't be attempting...most of them seem to be at Busch Gardens!

Videos of rides

This might come in handy when I need to tell the kids which ones I am not going on :-)

Forums and blogs

A few forums that are useful for finding out this 'n' that...


http://www.wdisneyw.com/forums/index.php

www.orlandocrazy.com

www.frommers.com/community

www.thedibb.co.uk/forums

allears.net



And a collection of blogs...

Booked!

It's booked! Okay, so hub and I have been before, on our own, but that was in 1992 for our honeymoon. How could we not take the kids!
I'm planning to use this blog to store and share all things Orlando-ish...places we'd like to see, maps, places to shop and eat....we have two weeks so I doubt we'll get to see everything that I blog about here.
We fly in summer 2009 so I have plenty of time to think and anticipate our trip.
We've booked through Thomas Cook and are expecting to stay in a 3 bed villa in Westridge, somewhere along Highway 27, between Highway 192 and the Interstate 4, and about 20-30 minutes from all the parks and International Drive.