Randomness

[Asso]

Other than that I want to see Disney World/Epcot and the Universal attractions.

My daughter and my wife (let alone me! ) have found them EXCEPTIONAL!

[Silverbullet]

Any suggestions? Take a lot of Money. Disney world is NOT cheap. If the florida one is like that in California be prepared to wait to see things at Disney world. Very popular.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Well, I'm not that interested in doing many of the rides. I think I'm too old for that and I don't have any kids with me. So I guess I'll save some money by this fact alone. I just want to see the damned things.

But yeah, I'll bring "a lot of money". But what is a lot? The same amount that the trip+hotel cost (arpund $1,600) ? Half of that?

[Distracted]

Well...

A burger and fries will put you back about eight bucks at a fast food counter after waiting in line for an hour. A sit-down meal is more like 30 dollars a head (without drinks) if you can get a table. The shows are mostly extra charge, too. Everything from about 40 bucks apiece for "Breakfast with Mickey" to over 130 dollars a head for the Cirque du Soleil performance in Disney Downtown.

My advice would be to purchase a guide to Disney World and plan your trip in advance. Most of the in-park restaurants require reservations a couple of weeks in advance unless you want to wait a couple of hours to be seated. Good seats at shows may book up a month or more in advance. Spontaneity is nice, but it doesn't work in Disney for meals and sit-down shows unless you want to eat nothing but eight dollar hamburgers at the burger stands.

I would also recommend that you not go in the summer. Florida weather is miserable in June, July and August (95 degrees F and 100% humidity) especially for someone not accustomed to the heat. It's best to in the off season when local schools are in session and the tenperature is jacket weather for Floridians (cooler than 60 degrees F). We go during Mardi Gras usually, which is a holiday in February in Louisiana but not in Florida. The weather then is usually 50's to 60's F and everyone in Florida is in school. We can't do the water parks then, but I'd just as soon not get wet anyway. Unfortunately that strategy didn't work this year for us because the weather was freezing and there was snow in the south US so our flight got cancelled, but that's not likely to happen again, and you probably wouldn't mind Disney in the snow anyway.

There are books to help you do this. This is the one I use. Unofficial Guide to Disney World 2010

I just noticed you were going in May. May will be hot. If you're only there a few days I'd get a park hopper pass so you can go from park to park. When you get overheated in one park you can go somewhere wet and cool off. A five day pass costs about 220 bucks. (I know this because I have 5 unredeemed 5 day passes in my safe at home from our cancelled trip this year ). Get only the number of days you need because once you start using them the remaining days are only good for 2 weeks. Completely unused passes are theoretically good forever but are not refundable. Make sure you understand how things work before you buy passes. Also, you'll use up a lot of your time traveling from park to park unless you plan efficiently. It's almost worth staying in a hotel in the park to save on travel time if you've only got a few days to spend, despite the fact that the hotels in the park are much more expensive, because you could eat up your whole day traveling from one park to another by rental car or taxi.

Complicated enough for you yet?

[Alelou]

May is probably a good time to go to Disney and the rest, KTR. The snowbirds have gone home, and the local kids are still in school. It will probably be hot, but not as humid as midsummer, and you probably won't have those summer afternoon thunderstorms yet. If you're lucky it might even be fairly seasonable.

The amount of air conditioning in use may surprise you. Dress for heat but assume you may get chilled indoors.

There are lots of online sites with recs for the parks. You can also go straight to the park sites and plan your visits (and see how much tickets cost). But just going about on your own, instead of with a family in tow, will automatically mean it's a lot less expensive and that reservations are less of a big deal (unless you want to eat someplace popular).

KSC is a hike from Orlando. You'll probably want to book a tour bus for that. You can do that online ahead of time, too. Or email the hotel and ask them about it. The Orlando Visitors Bureau has a lot of information and coupons too. If you want press credentials, I'd start working ahead of time with your embassy or the space center for that.

For a week, I'd say you're booked enough without adding anything more in there. It's kind of too bad you can't see some authentic Florida culture, but the Orlando area is mostly a post-Disney phenomenon. If you did want to book a more substantial day trip, you could visit the Ybor City area in Tampa for its old Spanish culture. St. Augustine is much more of a hike but even older. I think it's the oldest city on the East Coast, complete with old Spanish forts and such.

Epcot and Seaworld are possibly more fun for people who don't like rides. The rides in Epcot are fairly educational and sedate. My kid won't go on rides so we've been to Seaworld multiple times without ever getting on them. But the exhibits and the shows are fun and frankly I could just watch the dolphins and penguins and puffins for hours. The shark restaurant actually has good food with a nice dark cool view of the shark tank, as well. (Dolphin feeding is way cool, too. If you really want to splurge, book yourself some time at Discovery Cove.)

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Oh dear, it sounds like advanced science...

Like I said, I'm not much interested in rides, which menas I just want to see Disney World (again; I was there in 1979 at age 10). Epcot and Seaworld sounds more up my alley. I'm also not picky about food. I can just as easily grab a burger instead of sittting down at some place which has waiting lines and reservations. So I suppose I can do this a bit "on the cheap".

I will have a look online about park passes and bus rides. It would be so much easier not to worry about that when I get there.

Thanks for all the help! It will definitely help.

[Asso]

Well, I'm not that interested in doing many of the rides. I think I'm too old for that ...

Never old for that!

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

^ Probably depends on the ride... I went on Space Mountain as kid and have never sat on a roller coaster since...

*****

I don't know if you've heard about the Icelandic volcano that has grounded most flights in Nothern Europe.

Iceland's volcanic ash halts flights across Europe

I hope this will be over in a months time when I'll fly away. But you never know with volcanos.

I'm worried about how my parents will get home. They're currently in Spain at my dad's apartment there, and are supposed to fly home sometime this weekend. But if the airspace over Sweden is closed...

[Asso]

I hope everything will be okay, KTR.

[Alelou]

Yes, this is really a calamity. I hope your parents do get home when planned. Nobody has nearly enough ships and trains to make up for a long-term aviation blackout. They said on the news tonight that this could last hours or days or months or even years... :shock:

[Alelou]

This line from an email from my dad today really tickles me. I've been on their walks with them, and we're not talking about a really big area. Personally I don't even know the names of this many of my near NEIGHBORS, let alone their pets.

Oddly, we know a lot of dogs by name on our walking route: Penny, Sassie, Sparky, Kibbles, Casey, Rosie, Molly, Freckles, Sprocket, Caesar, Buddy, Tucker, Taz, Cisco, Lexy and Leo.

(Also, note TUCKER.)

[panyasan]

^ Probably depends on the ride... I went on Space Mountain as kid and have never sat on a roller coaster since...

*****

I don't know if you've heard about the Icelandic volcano that has grounded most flights in Nothern Europe.

Iceland's volcanic ash halts flights across Europe

I hope this will be over in a months time when I'll fly away. But you never know with volcanos.

I'm worried about how my parents will get home. They're currently in Spain at my dad's apartment there, and are supposed to fly home sometime this weekend. But if the airspace over Sweden is closed...

I hope that your parents will be able to return safely. The Dutch national airport was also closed, because of the volcano.

On a some what unrelated note: I am having a terrible headache for a couple of days and my left eye is acting funny. I have lots of trouble to read (and I really want to read a new fic that I have an interest in) or concentrating and doing simple jobs at the office. Me not able to read: if some one wants to punish me, that's the way.

[Alelou]

^ Probably depends on the ride... I went on Space Mountain as kid and have never sat on a roller coaster since...

*****

I don't know if you've heard about the Icelandic volcano that has grounded most flights in Nothern Europe.

Iceland's volcanic ash halts flights across Europe

I hope this will be over in a months time when I'll fly away. But you never know with volcanos.

I'm worried about how my parents will get home. They're currently in Spain at my dad's apartment there, and are supposed to fly home sometime this weekend. But if the airspace over Sweden is closed...

I hope that your parents will be able to return safely. The Dutch national airport was also closed, because of the volcano.

On a some what unrelated note: I am having a terrible headache for a couple of days and my left eye is acting funny. I have lots of trouble to read (and I really want to read a new fic that I have an interest in) or concentrating and doing simple jobs at the office. Me not able to read: if some one wants to punish me, that's the way.

Sounds like a migraine. That really can affect your vision.

[honeybee]

This line from an email from my dad today really tickles me. I've been on their walks with them, and we're not talking about a really big area. Personally I don't even know the names of this many of my near NEIGHBORS, let alone their pets.

Nobody in my neighborhood knows my name. I run into people at the cafe or at the gym - "Oh, you're Max's mother. I didn't recognize you without him!"

Max is a chihuahua. However, without Max, I probably wouldn't know many of my neighbors at all - so his endless pestering of me for walks has an upside!

[Alelou]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/opini ... ef=general

This is an interesting little piece about how the eruption of Krakatoa in the 1880's had a lasting impact on art and also on the science of weather. (Most interesting to me is the theory that Munch's "The Scream" depicts the colorful sky that the dust created in Norway!)