Me and the girlfriend are wanting to go to Florida at the end of September for a 10/14 nights. Fancy doing the non-Disney theme parks for thei rest half then drive down to Miami for the second half. Anyone been recently and got any tips on hotels, car hire or either Orlando or Miami? Tar. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Went in March. Picked a car up from Avis at Orlando airport, was cheapest when I looked and was a good car with no problems. Watch out for hidden costs with tolls at certain car hire companies. Avis was the best in terms of charging the least at each toll and the charge for their device in the car that detects the tolls and automatically pays them for you. Universal was ace. Rosen inn @ pointe Orlando was our hotel. Great location on international drive, loads of pubs / restaurants within walking distance and free parking. Make sure you look at this one and not the other Rosen hotel on I-drive. The room / pool area was nothing amazing, but was great value for money and great location. Stayed at Waldorf in Miami for 2 nights. To be honest 2 nights was enough for us although it was spring break so extremely busy on the beach (too busy loads of teenagers). The hotel was really really nice, but Miami in generally is really really expensive for drinks. The beach is fantastic but that's about if for sightseeing in the day. We did a bus tour round the city but there wasn't loads to see. Used attraction tickets for universal. Tickets got delivered to our house a couple of days after and it included both island of adventure and universal studios, you need a day at both. It also included free entry to wet and wild (only a mile up the road on I-drive from out hotel). Wet and wild is dated but worth going for free. Anything else feel free to ask. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
We went last year at the same time pal. Stayed at Avanti Resort on international drive. Wouldn't recommend the hotel itself but it's well situated. No more than half hour from all the theme parks, but we did the Disney ones as well. As for hiring a car and that. We went with Thomson's, who did a hire car included in the price. We paid for the best insurance before we went and when we got there, got the opion to upgrade the car if we wanted. Because we'd already got the best insurance, the price to upgrade the car wasn't that much, so we managed to upgrade from a standard compact car, to a Dodge Challenger for about £200. Which was my treat from the missus. But make sure it's all sorted before you go. A chap we spoke to had upgraded from the same car as we were meant to have, to a family saloon and it had cost him about $600 as he'd not sorted his insurance or anything prior. I'd recommend the Halloween horror nights too at Universal. Again I'd recommend buying tickets before you go and getting fast passes. There's 8 attractions, and then a few shows and roller coaster open. We got fast passes and managed to get everything in just before it closed at 1am. We spoke to 2 american lads who'd only managed to get half of the attractions in, in the 6 hours that it was open that night. I think we booked our attraction tickets through a company called Florida Tickets. Again, you need to do it all before you go to save a few bob. We didn't make it down to Miami, but a couple of friends of ours weren't overly impressed with it. Everyone's different I suppose though. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
I've been far too many times in recent years! I would definitely recommend stopping on International Drive, there's tons of things to do/places to eat. Get a pass for the trolley and then you can go up and down idrive as many times as you want, it's very very simple to use. This map shows you all the main places where the trolley stops at and there's a list of hotels that are on the route too. We've stayed at the Doubletree by Hilton Seaworld twice and then the Hilton Grand Vacations by Seaworld last time (absolutely amazing but not cheap!). http://www.iridetrolley.com/pdf/marker-map.pdf Quite a lot of the hotels offer free shuttle buses to the theme parks (you have to book a day in advance for Universal) so that would save on parking costs. Grand Vacations at Seaworld where we stayed last time had free parking but a lot of the hotels don't so that would be something worth looking into if you wanted a car (I don't think you would need one for the first part of your stay personally, the itrolley and free shuttles should allow you to move around easily and cheaply). We always get our tickets from here: https://www.undercovertourist.com/ They normally offer free extra days and work out much cheaper than buying from anywhere else. If nothing else, it explains the choices very clearly so you can make an informed decision. They do delivery or you can print your tickets at home (which we did last time). We always book through expedia for flights and hotels as we have found it a good few hundred pounds cheaper doing that than anything from anywhere else (we also get cashback from Quidco). A couple of tips: if you are flexible try changing the day you fly out on, just moving your holiday one day either side can save hundreds of pounds. Clear your cookies between each search - travel websites put their prices up for returning customers. We hired a car for a couple of days from Thrifty. Sorted it whilst we were out there, no problems with it, they upgraded us for free but I couldn't tell you what to, a car's a car. It cost around £50 for two days and they literally did 24hr time periods.
Went last year, stayed at Reunion resort, about 20/30 mins from parks and well away from I-drive (though close enough to Malls etc). Was a great resort in itself, if you want a couple of grown up days away from the parks - sunbathing, golf, drinking, etc. Like others, sorted car well in advance and collection, pickup was a doddle. Enjoy, it's a great place. Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk
I was worried about this as it was late August/early Sept the first time we went but everything was fine. It was very, very HOT then though (40 odd degrees most days), the afternoon rains were a blessing as it felt much better once they were over. There were some beautiful electrical storms every afternoon at literally the same time everyday. We just went for a meal then (or queued up for a popular ride where the queues are inside) and it would all be over in an hour, I can't say it affected us at all. Apart from it being much hotter then, the storms were at a much more convenient time, the last twice we have been earlier in the year and the rains were on a morning which was annoying and were much less predictable generally. One thing which was great though was that it was quite quiet everywhere as my school started back later than most others so most of the summer holiday people had gone home.
You really can't deal with extreme temperatures can you. At what point does the heat start affecting you? And the cold?
I think most people would find 40 odd degrees quite hot to be fair... I'm not sure what temp the heat starts to affect me as I don't really keep an eye on it as such but the cold is a pain in the ass (well, the fingers and toes mainly). The most annoying thing is that a change in temp also affects me, even if it is quite small. So if we've had a warm few days but then the temp drops a couple of degrees I lose all circulation, even though it's not actually that cold (so arriving home from Florida is a nightmare). I can't get anything out of the freezer without using a tea towel and on most days I struggle with things from the fridge (e.g. I'd need a tea towel to pour milk on my cereal). Going on a night out is the worst as by the time I arrive in the pub (even after stepping straight out of a car) my hands are too numb to be able to hold a cold drink - especially not great if we are somewhere where we need to stand up and hold our drinks as I physically can't. Luckily, I have good friends who will hold my drink for me and pass it to me to take sips.
I didn't realise it was that bad. I've never known anyone need a teatowel to pour milk before. Isn't there anything hey can do to improve your circulation?
Nope, it's more about prevention rather than cure, hence the tea towel. The scariest thing is that it's getting worse, it used to only be my wedding finger when I was younger and only when it was really cold but now it's both of my entire hands and feet and it happens at the smallest thing. I found a pair of mittens in France a few years ago that really helped so I bought a few pairs and even though they are bulky and look daft (and have Mickey Mouse ears printed on them) they've changed my life so that was a big plus as I'd never found anything that could help in winter before (infact gloves make it worse).
I'm the exact opposite. I'm at my happiest skiing at anything down to -20C, but over +20C is too hot for me and I can't do anything other than lounge about by a pool or drive around aimlessly in a car with the air conditioning on. Today (I'm in Germany) it was 28C all day which I find almost unbearable. I can't begin to imagine what 40C is like. I would be medium-rare in 2 minutes.
To be honest, it was pretty awful! We spend almost the entire time in shops or the queues of rides for the aircon, it did spoil the holiday a bit. The locals said that it was the hottest it had been for X amount of years so I think we were just unlucky. The times we've been in May have been much, much more pleasant (apart from not being able to predict the rain as easily). Luckily, someone had told us about P20 sunscreen so we've used that everytime we've been and never burned once. I'd never, ever not burned before on any holiday, mainly because I can't be bothered to reapply, but this lasts for 10 hours and is waterproof so you just apply it once and then you can forget about it. If it worked on me who burns just by looking at the sun and it worked on my ginger husband then I reckon it would work for everyone. You need to take it with you though as nowhere in America stocks it. In fact, I think that is my biggest tip for anyone going away somewhere hot - take P20!!
I do a lot of wild walking and I'm often out in the open from 8 until 9 in the evening, for days on end,, which is tricky in hot sun if it's really open with little shade. I've used factor 50 sun cream but over that amount of time it's as much use as a joke book at a funeral. My solution is to cover up but of course I then get really hot and sweaty. Is this the stuff you mean https://www.amazon.co.uk/Riemann-P2...qid=1465066793&sr=8-1&keywords=p20+sunscreen? Might have to try it for my next trip.
Yes, that's it. We put it on once in the morning and that was it for the full day, even if we'd been in the pool for an hour or so. It says it is waterproof for up to 80mins so I'd reapply if it was going to be longer than that. I know you can't tell with people you don't really know as when someone on holiday (who saw my burn) recommended it to me I thought 'ahh, but I bet you don't burn like me' but honestly, neither the husband or I have turned even slightly pink since we started using it and we were out all day in the sun and we always burn normally. The only downside I found is that you can't wear anything white with it as it will leave a yellow stain. After applying I always wiped my hands with a kitchen towel/tissue and you could see the yellow residue. I never spotted it on any other clothes but a white canvas bag I had got stained where it had rested on my shoulder. Just something to be aware of. Ooh, and don't use it straight after shaving - it stings like mad! Double oh, and DON'T get it in your eyes, you will want to rip them out. Other than that - it's ace I think it comes in factors 15, 20, 30 and 50. We normally use the spray but some of the factors only have it as a lotion.
I don't shave on my trips, a shaver is too heavy to carry, which is why I look like Father Christmas when I get back! Thanks for the advice, I'll try some on my next trip in a couple of weeks.
