Topic Wiki

Orlando Overview
Orlando is a magical place that's not too far from home and cheap to get to with miles. Obviously, Disney, Universal and SeaWorld are the main attractions, but there are other things to do as well. The theme parks are not just for families with kids; a couple can have an absolute blast as well!

Trip Reports:
@Yehuda's trip to Universal - Quick TR Summary, Detailed TR = 4 parts Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Getting there and getting around:

How long should I go for?
The length of your trip will likely be based on the number of parks you want to go to. Don't rush your day - give yourself a full day per park, walk around slowly, get engrossed in the magical worlds that are Disney and Universal, and wait on long lines all day :P . Some will say that you can do parks in less than a day, which may be true for certain ones, so then do a park and a night activity; don't squeeze in 2 parks in 1 day because you finished 1 park at 3PM.

Air:
MCO is Orlando's airport. You can fly directly from all New York airports. Flying business from NY will have just marginally better seats/service for double the price. The only useful benefit is getting more free checked bags, so if may be worth sending 1 person in your family in J so they can bring an extra bag. As of 1/15, Uber was not allowed at MCO due to an airport fee dispute, so the 2 ways to get an Uber are 1) Take a random hotel shuttle to a hotel and then call an Uber from there (suggested by @Uber on Twitter, but join the ethical discussion of using a shuttle if you're not staying at that hotel) and 2) Move the pin on your Uber map to a road outside the airport so that you can officially request a ride. Once a driver responds, call him and tell him you're actually in MCO and see if he'll agree to pick you up anyway. Below are the direct flight options with one-way Saver prices in Y/J.

HPN:
B6 - miles vary based on the dollar cost of the flight

EWR:
UA - 12.5K/25K
B6 - miles vary based on the dollar cost of the flight
WN - New non-stop flights beginning March 2016 - miles vary based on the dollar cost of the flight but if you're flying with your +1 and you have the Companion Pass, this can be your cheapest way to MCO

LGA:
DL - 12.5K/25K
B6 - miles vary based on the dollar cost of the flight

JFK:
AA/US - 12.5K/25K with AA miles | 7.5K/15K with BA miles
DL - 12.5K/25K
B6 - miles vary based on the dollar cost of the flight

ISP:
WN - miles vary based on the dollar cost of the flight but if you're flying with your +1 and you have the Companion Pass, this can be your cheapest way to MCO

Car:
A car is not absolutely necessary in Orlando, but it will definitely make things easier for you so you can be on your own schedule. Keep in mind, you'll have to pay parking fees at the parks each day. Many hotels have complimentary shuttles to the airport or the parks and some might even have both. If your hotel only has a parks shuttle, you can probably get a cab for the airport trips for cheaper than renting a car. If Minyan and going to the Kosher restaurants are on your radar, then you will likely need a car, although there are hotels that are both near those sites and have shuttles to the parks. See where your hotel is and decide if you need a car.


Where to stay:

Basically, your options are to stay at a hotel in the 10-15 minute range from the parks, at an official Disney or Universal Resort, or renting a private home in the greater Orlando area.

Here are some places that are discussed in this thread:

NameAreaMore InfoComments
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Comfort Inn & Suites Universal Convention Center10-20 minutes from parksWebsiteNot the fanciest, but being a Choice property means there's a BRG possibility. Free shuttle to Universal and SeaWorld. 5 minute walk to Kosher Gourmet restaurant/grocery and 20 minute walk to Chabad.
HotelDisney ResortWebsiteSPG category X; X/night
HotelUniversal ResortWebsiteSPG category X; X/night
"Get your own place"Greater Orlando AreaAirBNB, VRBO, HomeAway, Florida Sandanavian/ Vacation Pool HomesRenting a private home can be great for a family. You'll get more for your money over a hotel - a couple of bedrooms, living/dining rooms, and a full kitchen. There will usually be a pool, and if you look hard enough, you can find one that's enclosed for privacy. The downside is that they're usually not too close to the parks, which means you'll definitely need a car and have to pay for parking at the parks.


What to do:

Theme Parks:

With some searching you might find a travel/tourist website (like Musement) that may have a sale that you can use towards the tickets. For Universal Studios, the cheapest place to buy would be from Chabad of South Orlando or Orlando Torah Academy . Tickets are only sold for the upcoming "season". So in December, you'll be able to buy tickets for January break, but not for Pesach, and in the summer, you likely won't yet be able to get for the upcoming January.

Disney ParksComments
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Magic Kingdom
Epcot
Hollywood StudiosFormerly MGM Studios.
Animal Kingdom

All Disney parks have airline style food at specific cafes. Not very good but at least it's a hot meal without leaving the park. You can see the list of cafes on Chabad's site here.

Universal ParksComments
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
StudiosThe first of the 2 parks built, so it has some of the more classic rides like E.T. and The Mummy, while also featuring plenty of newer rides like Shrek, Minions, and Transformers. There are 1 or 2 roller coasters, and the rest of the rides are more like shows/3D/4D rides. Home to Harry Potter: Diagon Alley. If you have a park-to-park ticket, you can ride the Hogwarts Express train to connect to the HP World in Islands of Adventure. Only Kosher snacks are available here, no real food. As of 1/15, the mix for ButterBeer had a hechsher, but the topping did not, and they won't serve you without it. For a TR on the park, see here.
Islands of AdventureFeaturing rides like Jurassic Park and The Hulk, this park also has 1-2 roller coasters, while the rest of the rides are more of the show/3D/4D variety. Home to Harry Potter: Hogsmeade. If you have a park-to-park ticket, you can ride the Hogwarts Express train to connect to the HP World in Studios. Only Kosher snacks are available here, no real food. As of 1/15, the mix for ButterBeer had a hechsher, but the topping did not, and they won't serve you without it. For a TR on the park, see here.

Other ParksComments
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SeaWorldA very family friendly park, less packed than Disney and Universal. Cheap annual passes as well as combo discounts for SeaWorld and Busch Gardens (which is in Tampa, 1hr away).
LegoLandLocated in Winter Haven, the park is a bit of a distance from the Greater Orlando area - approx. 45- 55 min away from other Orlando parks. LegoLand has an amusement park as well as a water park. If you look online it looks like the 2 are often not open on the same day. Each park costs about as much as the Disney/Universal parks (~$80) and can be greatly enjoyed by children, but can be underwhelming for adults. All rides are "kiddie" rides, some don't even allow adults on. The park is missing the magic of Disney/Universal, but may be much emptier than those parks, so that's a plus. The life-size Lego statues around the park are cool, but their water damage shows that LegoLand just doesn't get the "magic" necessary for an Orlando park. Kids will love the mini coasters and rides, something they might not be able to experience too much in Universal and parts of Disney.
See here for cheaper tickets (~$100 total for 1 adult and 1 child ticket)


Other Attractions & Activities

NameMore InfoComments
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
WonderworksWebsite
Fun SpotWebsite
Titanic The ExperienceWebsiteGeared towards older kids / adults
Ripley's Believe it or notWebsite
Disney QuestWebsite
Cirque De SoleilWebsite
Orlando Science CenterWebsite
Kennedy Space Center - Visitor's ComplexWebsiteTour NASA's KSC. Now features Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Skeleton MuseumWebsite
Event & Family Photography - Chavi Photo Website


Shuls:

NameMore InfoComments
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Chabad of South OrlandoWebsiteDaily Minyanim - Shachris @ 8:00AM and 9:30AM on Shabbos. Mincha/Maariv is 10 minutes before Shkia, which can be difficult to make if you're spending the day in a park. During very peak seasons, they'll have an extra Maariv later at night.
Orlando Torah AcademyWebsiteLocal day school that has Shacharis @ 8:30AM Monday - Friday during the school year (but not week of the 27th - they're on Yeshiva break vacation. (2024) Orlando Torah Academy runs KosherOrlando.org, which organizes and opens shuls in the resorts during busy times; check out the website to signup and find out more about the various minyanim
Orlando Torah CenterWebsiteShachris @ 6:30AM weekdays, 8:00AM, Sunday 8:AM, 7:15AM (Hashkama) and 9:00AM Shabbos (Nusach Ashkenaz) as well as a separate Eidut Hamizrach at 9:AM. Mincha/Maariv is 1:30, and before/after Shkiah, which can be difficult to make if you're spending the day in a park. There's also a nightly 10PM Maariv

Food:

For Kosher food inside the theme parks, see the comments section of the specific park above.

NameMore InfoComments
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kosher GourmetWebsiteA classic deli with slightly pricey/reasonable prices, unlimited fountain soda refills, and mostly-friendly service. You may be able to find discounted gift cards at GreatKosherDeals.com. Next to the restaurant is also a Kosher grocery. The restaurant will give you a bag to go shopping with and you'll bring your purchases back to the restaurant to pay. Mostly (only?) non-perishables sold here. (Certified by the RCF)
Kosher GrillWebsiteReview from shiframeir - Got takeout from here (place was packed and crazy for Yeshiva week), and the food was actually very good though understandably not cheap. Shwarma on baguette was great - even though they threw in this cabbage salad that scared me, it actually went great with the shwarma. Burgers were thick with flavor and decent shoe string fries. Caesar salad with chicken was what it is everywhere but with a real flame grilled piece of chicken. Stir fry wasn't fantastic, but is a nice alternative option on the menu that we enjoyed. Chili wings didn't really have much sauce flavor, but maybe they're better when you don't take it to go.
Review from yeki89 (when this store was a food truck called Kosher on Wheels) - Falafel & fries was very good with large portions and fair prices.
(Certified by the RCF)
Kosher EateryWebsite Dairy and Meat Kosher Restaurant (Certified by the RCF)
Erin McKenna's BakeryWebsitePareve and Gluten Free. Oat products are not Pas Yisroel. Ice Cream is NOT certified Kosher. (Certified by Florida K/Rabbi Sholom Dubov)
Catering by Motti / Motti's BistroWebsiteTakeout food available for Shabbos. Bistro restaurant only open during Yeshiva week
Winn DixieStore LocatorLocated on Apopka Vineland (yes, that's a street name), this supermarket carries Cholov Yisroel milk and many other Kosher products.

« Last edited by sprint on January 12, 2024, 12:06:49 PM »

Author Topic: Orlando Master Thread  (Read 499677 times)

Offline Feivish

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #440 on: January 14, 2015, 10:43:55 PM »
Thanks. Working on it. As long as one person will read it, it's worth sharing.
Yeh... I'm still waiting for you to finish your honeymoon TR.

Offline avadah

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #441 on: January 15, 2015, 01:40:57 AM »
Yeh... I'm still waiting for you to finish your honeymoon TR.
That's what I was thinking when I saw
Now, for the real TR...

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #442 on: January 15, 2015, 09:10:47 AM »
Hehe, it's a lot easier to write a TR about something that happened last week and only lasted 3 days, than to write the last 4 weeks of a trip that ended 6 months ago, unfortunately. I do have Gibraltar almost finished. Hopefully, I'll get to these. I would hate to never do it.

Offline lunatic

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #443 on: January 15, 2015, 09:20:46 AM »
Hehe, it's a lot easier to write a TR about something that happened last week and only lasted 3 days, than to write the last 4 weeks of a trip that ended 6 months ago, unfortunately. I do have Gibraltar almost finished. Hopefully, I'll get to these. I would hate to never do it.

Next time do it like Marco Polo

Offline Joe4007

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #444 on: January 15, 2015, 09:25:20 AM »
Next time do it like Marco Polo
Hopefully there's no next honeymoon

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #445 on: January 15, 2015, 09:30:32 AM »
Hopefully there's no next honeymoon
+1 :) Although, the first time we go to a beach destination, I'm calling it a honeymoon!
Next time do it like Marco Polo
If you recall, I actually planned to do that. I thought it would be easy, but after being sick the first few days in Israel, I fell behind...

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #446 on: January 15, 2015, 09:39:10 AM »
+1 :) Although, the first time we go to a beach destination, I'm calling it a honeymoon!If you recall, I actually planned to do that. I thought it would be easy, but after being sick the first few days in Israel, I fell behind...
Whenever you make a hotel reservation call it a honeymoon...
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #447 on: January 15, 2015, 09:40:21 AM »
Whenever you make a hotel reservation call it a honeymoon...
Yeah, yeah or "anniversary". We'll see how comfortable I am with that the next time I'm in the situation.

Offline lunatic

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #448 on: January 15, 2015, 10:30:29 AM »
Yeah, yeah or "anniversary". We'll see how comfortable I am with that the next time I'm in the situation.

Otherwise, call it a birthday trip

Offline 3yummyboys

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #449 on: January 15, 2015, 11:31:21 AM »
There's always an occasion for a trip, chances are it's someones birthday, anniversary etc.

Offline dealfinder85

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #450 on: January 15, 2015, 12:32:42 PM »
There's always an occasion for a trip, chances are it's someones birthday, anniversary etc.
its always an anniversary of something

Offline noturbizniss

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #451 on: January 15, 2015, 01:00:12 PM »
After some thought, I decided I will do a quick TR of my Orlando trip now and then probably post a much longer version afterwards. I know it's "just" Orlando so why does it need a long TR? Because it's easy since I just went and it's fresh in my mind, because I like writing and had time, and because I think it's written as a good story and some here may enjoy it. BUT, I know it's not practical for a lot of folk, so I'll just the quick rundown now.

Flight:
We flew SW ISP-MCO (the only direct SW flight from NY-MCO) and paid with gift cards that I bought on DDF at a discount. With my CP, it came out to $109 pp RT.

Hotel:
We stayed at the Comfort Inn & Suites Universal Convention Center as a BRG and got upgraded to a suite because it was our anniversary. The hotel is a 5 minute walk to Chabad and 1 of the 2 Kosher restaurants in Orlando, Kosher Gourmet. The hotel also has free breakfast (for Kosher that means yogurts and Nestle hot chocolate) as well as a free shuttle to Universal and some other parks. The hotel was nothing fancy, but it did it's job as a free place, especially with the larger room :)

Universal:
Chabad is generally considered the cheapest place to get Universal and Disney tickets, but Yehoshua found a Black Friday sale at Musement.com and I got my tickets for about $15 cheaper pp than Chabad. I got 2-day passes so we could do 1 park each day, and it turns out they were hopper passes so we could technically go in between both parks on both days.

We did Islands of Adventure on day 1, and it was awesome! Didn't take the full day to go through it all (we went on most of the rides and walked slowly) and Harry Potter World was incredible! They really did a great job. We did Studios on the 2nd day, and it was also awesome! Harry Potter World here was also sick! (Yes, there are 2 HP Worlds) and yeah, I just love these kinda parks. The way they lay them out and design them just puts you in such a magical place :)

Kosher Gourmet Restaurant:
We ate at Kosher Gourmet both dinners and brought sandwiches from home for lunches. KG was a nice no-frills deli with reasonable prices, but medium-quality food. We like the chicken fingers, hot wings and BBQ beef (i.e. pulled beef) sandwich. Grilled chicken sandwich and the steak, onion and pepper sandwich were okay to ehh.

Legoland:
On the 3rd day, we rented a car from Hertz with a free day voucher and drove to Legoland with free tickets courtesy of a DDFer who had extra tickets :) Legoland was really cute, but is clearly geared towards kids. We did go on a bunch of rides, but most rides were too little for adults to even go on. The 3D show didn't come close to similar attractions in Universal, but I had always liked Legos, and therefore enjoyed the park. The mini-world that they built out of Lego included the NY skyline, Las Vegas strip, and other famous sites was really, really cool! It was too cold the last day, so I imagine that contributed to the park being EMPTY, which was pretty cool.

I think that's it, pretty quick TR. Hope it helps some people. Now, for the real TR...

HOW COULD YOU GO TO ORLANDO AND NOT GO TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!!!
READ THE DARN WIKI!!!!

Chuck Norris...
...can still do FT method
...READS THE WIKI!!!

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #452 on: January 15, 2015, 01:04:32 PM »
HOW COULD YOU GO TO ORLANDO AND NOT GO TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!!!
:)
I gave her the option and she said I want HP World.

Offline noturbizniss

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #453 on: January 15, 2015, 01:05:16 PM »
:)
I gave her the option and she said I want HP World.
I wanna do that too, but come on!
When's the last time she was at Disney?
READ THE DARN WIKI!!!!

Chuck Norris...
...can still do FT method
...READS THE WIKI!!!

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #454 on: January 15, 2015, 01:08:11 PM »
I wanna do that too, but come on!
When's the last time she was at Disney?
Gulp. Never. But never at either.

Offline noturbizniss

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #455 on: January 15, 2015, 01:14:57 PM »
Gulp. Never. But never at either.
Arghh!! MISTAKE! I know it's costly, but it is the happiest place on earth. We went for our honeymoon. Did 4 days in disney, 1 in universal and then miami for the weekend.  We felt universal was blah.  Although I've heard HP world makes it much better, but we definitely felt like universal is the cheap step sister to WDW. I am planning to go next year jan/feb with the family.
READ THE DARN WIKI!!!!

Chuck Norris...
...can still do FT method
...READS THE WIKI!!!

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #456 on: January 15, 2015, 01:39:34 PM »
Arghh!! MISTAKE! I know it's costly, but it is the happiest place on earth. We went for our honeymoon. Did 4 days in disney, 1 in universal and then miami for the weekend.  We felt universal was blah.  Although I've heard HP world makes it much better, but we definitely felt like universal is the cheap step sister to WDW. I am planning to go next year jan/feb with the family.
My thought process was that Disney is easier to do with kids anyway, so if we get another chance to go in a few years and iy"h there are kids there, they will appreciate it more than Universal. Of course, it won't be the same as going alone, but we decided on Universal.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #457 on: January 15, 2015, 01:55:42 PM »
I know, I know. I should have been writing my Eurotrip TR. I know, I know. A detailed trip to Orlando is not nearly as exciting as Europe, Australia or Asia. But hey, I did the legwork of writing it up, and I personally think it's a fun read. Enjoy!

Trip Planning and the first night

As soon as my company announced that we’d be getting off for 12 days from Christmas through New Years, I knew it was time to plan a nice, big trip. Unfortunately, that idea was nixed pretty quickly once I realized my wife was going to be amidst final exams in her final semester of undergrad. Awesome for her, terrible for the travel bug. She was scheduled to take her last exam the day work started up again and with busy season starting just 2 weeks later, I knew that if we were going to go anywhere in January, I would have to take days off and it would have to be within those 2 weeks. I had originally dreamed of Hawaii, but my wife told me she didn’t want to go away for a long time since she had to study for a grad school entrance exam that would be given at the beginning of February. Looking back now, I probably could have convinced her to go away for a whole week instead of the 3 days that we did get away for, but that’s in the past, and we had a great time anyway. With the requirement of only travelling for a few days, and her desire to visit Harry Potter World, MCO became the logical choice.

Hotel: A long time ago, I booked a BRG at the Comfort Inn & Suites – Universal Convention Center for the chance that perhaps January would turn into an Orlando trip. No risk if the trip wouldn’t work out, just the upside that if MCO became the destination, we’d have a free hotel stay. It wasn’t for the dates we would end up needing, but if you follow the BRG thread, you’ll learn that BRGs can be quite flexible.

Airfare: Staying domestically meant Southwest and the SW CP was going to be the way to go. SW (or WN for the professionals) in the NY area only flies direct to MCO from ISP, and being a good 6 weeks out, flights were still pretty cheap. I had recently bought a nice chunk of discounted SW gift cards, so it was cheaper for me to pay cash than use points. The RT cost for 1 person was $218 after the savings from the gift cards. Factor in my wife coming along for free as my companion, and that’s $109 pp RT. The only issue was that my CP was expiring in Dec ’14. I filled the forums up with my nerves as I tracked my CP progress from getting 2 SW CCs, to hitting the spend, to having the statements close on 1/2/15, to the points transferring to SW on 1/4, to having a pending notification on my account that my CP status wasn’t official yet, to finally getting CP status and adding my wife to the flight the morning of our flight, 1/5. (I had booked her a seat with points on the flight way back when I booked my ticket just in case, and I cancelled that ticket as soon as she was added on as my companion.)

Once I had the hotel and airfare, I worked on planning the itinerary, buying park tickets, finding discounts on restaurants, renting a car, etc. but we’ll get to each of those as we move along.

Monday 1/5
Because I was going back to work on Monday, I packed my stuff on Sunday. My wife took her last final Monday morning, was going to pack once she got home, and then be ready to leave with me as soon as I got home from work around 4:30PM to catch our 6:40 flight out of ISP (my first time flying out of there).  I’m glad Marco Polo flew this route just 2 weeks before me and convinced me that it’s a really smooth parking-to-gate process. I was planning on leaving work early at 3:30 to give myself an hour to get home via subway, but of course, somehow, I got a message at 3:10 asking if I could help with something. The project took till 3:55PM (with me bugging out) and then I decided to just jump in an Uber. The ride home was about $30 minus $20 referral = ~$10 out of pocket. Not bad for not having another option. I even got home at 4:20PM (10 minutes earlier than I originally planned) with plenty of time to quickly change into more comfortable clothes and jump in the car. My wife was, of course, ready and waiting on time for me, so that helped greatly as well. We jumped in the car and turned on Waze to find a shock that was beyond belief. The ride that I could have sworn was supposed to be only an hour, was predicted to be 1 hr 40 min! That would get us to the Clarion hotel parking lot (where we had booked a parking reservation) at just T-22 and we still had to take the shuttle from the Clarion to the airport! We actually contemplated turning around and trying to take a flight the next morning. Thank G-d, an idea popped into my head to see if Gmaps would have a different route to the hotel. It did! Gmaps had a way to get there in 1 hour 29 min – just 11 minutes faster, but that was enough for me to try and press our luck. I said a few little prayers as we were sitting in traffic and moving along slowly. After a long while, I noticed that the highway now had an HOV lane for 2+ people in a car, and we switched in and started going 60 while everyone else was doing 30! What a gift from G-d! Watching the ETA slowly go down was such a relief and joy. We got to the Clarion at T-45 (again, originally from T-22!). I ran in and waited on line (aaah!) to fill out my paperwork for parking, parked the car, and we were in the shuttle at T-40, 6:00PM exactly. The ride took literally 3 minutes (I could believe how close it was!) and there was no line by SW, although the agent told us that our bags weren’t guaranteed to make the flight was it was past T-45. This happened to us once in DEN and we opted to hold onto our bags, which turned out well since the flight ended up getting cancelled. This time, I figured we’ll take our chances (technically we could have taken our bags with us because they were small enough to be carry-ons) because #1 we had liquids in our bags and #2 the airport is so small that I figured – c’mon, they have to be able to get the bags onto the plane with over a half hour. There was no line by security (TSA Precheck wasn’t even open because there was no line), and we found our gate at T-30 with plenty of time to use the bathroom and make our way to our A35 boarding position. Phew! We couldn’t believe it, but we made it!

ISP is so small that the plane just backed up from the gate with a K-turn and then was on the runway taking off. Onboard, we enjoyed free Nestle hot chocolate, played Monopoly Deal, and my wife read Harry Potter ;).

We landed on time around 9:30PM to find a really cozy airport in MCO. It has a train from the terminals to the main section of the airport (just like DEN) and the airport is just really cozy and nice – not fancy or modern, but nice. The carpeting and smell make it feel like your grandparents’ apartment (maybe that’s to appeal to the many elders on our flight that were likely visiting their second home) and the Disney/Universal/SeaWorld stores immediately brought us into the magical world that is Orlando. We got to baggage claim and hesitantly waited to see if our bags had made it. Within a few minutes, we saw our bags come out the conveyor belt (!) and, once again, breathed a deep sigh of relief. Not having to worry about coming back to the airport in the morning felt great. We headed outside and were ready to use another Uber $20 off. Uber is no longer allowed to be requested in MCO (along with some other airports) since apparently they weren’t paying taxi airport fees. Thanks to some tips from DDFers, I moved my location pin in Uber to a road outside the airport and made the request from there. I called the first driver who responded and told him I was really in the airport. He didn’t seem to mind, but said he was too far away and won’t come. I guess I didn’t move the pin to the best spot. I made a second request and called the driver to find out he was first getting gas but wouldn’t mind picking us up in 10-15 minutes. We got in the cab and found out our driver, originally from the Dominican Republic, had served in the US Marines for 6 years in Afghanistan and his father was from Haifa. Go figure. The 25-30 minute ride to the Comfort Inn cost about $30 - 20 off = ~$10, and we checked into our room. We found out the information for the free shuttle in the morning to Universal (something I made sure was available at this hotel when I booked it) and went up to our room. A few days before we left, I called the hotel and asked to be upgraded to a suite because it was our first anniversary (which was a few days after our trip), and they gladly did so. Fun to use a BRG and get upgraded to a suite.  The room was great. We didn’t need anything fancy for a trip to MCO, and the upgrade gave us a lot of room to spread out. We brought some deli sandwiches for dinner and watched Friends on my laptop (forgot to bring my HDMI cable) before going to bed.
 



Offline EJB

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #458 on: January 15, 2015, 01:58:33 PM »
Whenever you make a hotel reservation call it a honeymoon...

Does that work if you're bringing a kid  ???

Offline morgs

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Re: Orlando Master Thread
« Reply #459 on: January 15, 2015, 02:27:55 PM »
Does that work if you're bringing a kid  ???
Absolutley-tell them its a belated honeymoon because you could not get time off school after the wedding etc etc etc ::)