Orlando
Accommodations in every price range and convenience can be found here. Over 100,000 rooms are spread across thousands of hotels, ranging from tiny, inexpensive properties that line U.S. 192 in Kissimmee to towering high-rise hotels along International Drive and near the parks. There are also thousands of apartment-like accommodations, and bed and breakfast inns.Walt Disney World alone encompasses more than 20,000 rooms over various themed hotels. These range from comparatively inexpensive, motel-like accommodations at Disney's All-Star Music Resort—with giant maracas adorning the exterior and guitar- and piano-shaped swimming pools—to the massiveky huge and also massively expensive Orlando World Center Marriott Resort and
Staying at or near the parks
If you're planning a theme park visit, you should decide which theme park interests you most. Universal has a cluster of intriguing hotels around it, including the widely-acclaimed Portofino and the well-equipped and well-established Radisson Worldgate Resort. Walt Disney World has hotels within the park, plus a half dozen resort hotels right at the gateway to WDW, along a tree-lined drive known as Lake Buena Vista Hotel Plaza. Sea World, located on busy International Drive—quite close to the Orlando Convention Center and the cool pools and chill thrills of
Hotel/motel approaches to children vary—small properties may charge a nominal fee of approximately USD5-USD10 a day for children; in most, kids stay for free. Some budget accommodations even offer free meals for children in their restaurants.
Paying Up
Here's another tip: in the U.S., and certainly in Orlando, rates quoted over the phone or in brochures by large hotels are known in the trade as "rack rates." That is what the hotel charges you if you ask casually or wander in with eyes wide shut. Those in the know will ask a hotel for corporate rates, available if you work for a major national or international corporation, and/or will point out that you belong to the American (or any other nation's) Automobile Association or any association of retired people. If you're a senior citizen, be sure to ask for senior rates, which are nearly always about 10 percent below the quoted rack rate.
If you persevere, particularly at large hotels, you will almost always get a lower rate than any price you see quoted in guide books, brochures or perhaps even on this site. Most of that advice, however, doesn't work too well at small motels and resorts, unless the competition is really fierce. Those smaller properties already operate on such a close profit margin that a 10 percent reduction may mean the difference between tiny profit and flat-out loss.
Travel agents and tour companies can be invaluable if you're not familiar with Orlando. Agents make a small percentage on the deal, paid by the hotel, but they can narrow down the vast field of options to find you something you will like.
Walt Disney World: Motels and low-rise hotels are located all along U.S. 192 on both sides of I-4; both hotels and motels are available inside the park's gates; large, high-rise hotels can be found in the Lake Buena Vista Hotel Plaza at the northern entrance of Walt Disney World, near Downtown Disney and Pleasure Island.
Universal Studios: Hotels and motels cluster around the entrance to the attraction.
International Drive/Sea World: Large hotels and sprawling resort motels line this roadway, which intersects with Sand Lake Road, where a number of smaller properties can be found.
Downtown: A few large hotels can be found here.
Airport: Many major hotel chains have properties near the airport which is, however, nearly a 30-minute drive from the theme parks and entertainment areas of Orlando.
In surrounding towns: Most small towns in the vicinity have motels, and a few—like Winter Park or Mount Dora—also have some handsome inns.
Copyright © 1999-2008 wcities.com all right reserved
