Hello,

personaly i would go to Orlando whatever time of year having the chance to, lol. We have just returned in may, we stayed for 10 days also at the Quality inn on international drive, although there is 2, theres the international or plaza, which one are you thinking of? from what i have heard when it rains it doesnt rain all day, so i wouldnt of thought it would affect you too much, again no expert just what i have heard! We paid around 525 pounds each, so your price seems really good for july & the extra nights!

Will you be driving? If not i have a i ride trolley map here & can tell you whats around your hotel if you like & also what buses to get to disney etc, can save a fortune!

To be honest people say bad things about everywhere, you cant please everyone, at the end of the day its a personal decision, i would definatley go..... you will have so much fun!! I think july is a busy time & should be really hot, buy hey its summer i guess everywhere is gonna be busy to some extent!

Thank you for taking the time to respond. It is the Quality Inn International rather than the plaza. I am "thinking" about driving, but unsure if I want or need to, I like the flexibility having a car can sometimes bring especially after a long day at a park and the hotel does some free transfers to Universal etc altho dont know how much the shuttle is to Disney, but wondered whether I would be better of saving myself the £260 car hire and using buses but taxi's or whatever if we need to.

BUt I do like the flexbility of having a car rather than waiting for buses etc, but how did you find it? And anyway to save a fortune would always be more than welcome!

Thanks again, Karen x

We were at the quality inn international, to be honest it was just what we wanted, 2 double beds in each room, shower, hairdryer, safe tv etc, theres also a fridge. There is a ice machine on the floor aswell by the stairs, which we didnt notice for ages so never used lol.

Anyway its at i ride stop no 15 whichs right outside the hotel, personally we found it fine, driving would have been expensive for us as you got car hire, gas, parking at places etc just mounts up to alot in my opinion for 2 people, next time i would consider it for a few days to go to a beach maybe!? We brought an i ride trolley pass for $10 for the week or its $1.25 per ride, so the pass makes sense, you can get on & off the bus as much as you like, it takes you all up & down international drive so you can get to sea world, aquatica, transfer stop at sea world for discovery cove, you can go to the prime outlets & the premium outlets & many other places.

The lynx bus which we used to get to disney, we took the i ride trolley to stop no 32 before seaworld & crossed the road & waited for the lynx 50 which takes you to disney $2 per trip each way or again you can buy a weeks pass for about $17 i think, which again can save you money. The lynx also goes down international drive & we got the lynx bus to wallmart aswell which was huge!! we also found it cheaper than wallgreens.

The i ride trolley has a map when you get on so you can see the stop numbers & whats at each stop, which is helpfull they run aprox every 20 mins, more frequent than the lynx, obviously depending on which number you want, the lynx will also take you to the florida mall. We didnt find it a problem getting the buses & would do it again, you get to meet some nice people aswell..... the hotel shuttles to disney were about $15 return we were gonna do this but we missed the first one so i said right were getting the bus!! we did this for the rest of our holiday, was cheaper & totally fine.

Also pondeosas do a great breakfast buffet for $3.99 all you can eat, which is a short walk down from the hotel, they give you a card when you go & every $10 spent you get a stamp, when you fill in 10 spaces you get $20 off your next purchace or free if below, which i thought was very good, we didnt eat at the hotel. cici`s pizza have an all you can eat buffett aswell for $5.99 really nice, most places ahve free refills aswell, the hotel is also situated next to the worlds largest mc donalds, we did eat at some nice steak houses aswell.....

Theres some cool museums on international drive aswell, titanic & ripleys believe it or not were good..... the hotel gift shop was very expensive, i needed another stamp & couldnt believe the price, i said for one? lol....

Hi Karen again,

July will be busy, very busy and you will find it rains a lot. However, that is the case from June-September, and with only a short window for your travel dates, I agree with bubble, any trip to Orlando is better than none!!! Even in early November we lost one total day to rain a few years back, there just is no guarantee on the weather, but don't expect clear blue skies and sunshine every day in July.
QII is well located on I Drive and is a solid choice of property. I personally prefer the QI Plaza, but you will probably find that is slightly more expensive, mainly due to the location south of Sand Lake Road. QII is north of Sand Lake, right in the heart of I Drive with some great restaurants in walking distance. Universal and Sea World are easy to get to from there, especially with free shuttles, if not the I Ride trolley will get you very close to Sea World, and close enough to walk (still a bit of a trek) to Universal. Disney would need a trolley and bus ride, and is much further away. If Disney is your priority, I would suggest Lake Buena Vista but again you may find properties are more expensive.
As I mentioned on the other thread, things can get quite heated on forums when people are discussing driving or not driving in Orlando. In my experience, the first year we went (car free) we were totally isolated on Highway 192 (major roadworks taking place, no pavements etc) and had to get a taxi to travel 5 mins to a restaurant on the other side of the road (it's a very wide road). We did have free shuttles to all the parks back then, but it did get annoying having to stick to the timetables. Sometimes we arrived at the shuttle bus to find huge queues of people trying to get on a 20 seater minibus....not good. Things have improved since those days regarding shuttle buses, and it is definitely a good perk to have, but you still have to stick to timetables that don't always fit in with what you want to do in the parks.
Since that first trip, we have always driven. First time driving, we got lost once and since never been lost again. It's an absolute breeze in Orlando and because you can over and under take, traffic moves a lot more freely. Drivers in the US also seem a lot more chilled, maybe because car is king over there, and they don't see driving anywhere as a chore, as many of us Brits do. I would price up the trip with a car and insurance and see what it comes out at, then try comparing with a car free itinerary. You mentioned taxis, believe me, this will seriously add up two weeks, so I would look at buses only.

I do think your hotel location on I Drive may allow you to consider going car free. You are certainly nowhere near as isolated as we were that first car free trip, and you can walk to a lot of things on I Drive. I do think your biggest decision is on park transportation though...go with a car, easy to get to and from parks at a time that suits you (but pay to park at all theme parks) or utilise local buses and trolleys, relying on schedules that don't always fit in with your plans. Toughie.

Hope this helps a bit. Fire away with any other Q's?

how much is it to park at the parks?

i can't remember having to pay for parking in 2004?

maybe someone else just paid it all the time, i was in a big group, so that might have been it?

when we went through on the bus i think it said $10 per day per car!! which would add up if you dont have a car full to share the cost.

We paid $12 in 2006, I seem to remember someone saying it was now $13. It all adds up.

Of course you can park hop during the day and only pay one parking fee.

WOW.

that is a rip off, if you go out ten times, thats 130 dollars (obvious i know haha, but still...) thats extortionate really, seeing as you have already paid for a park ticket to go there.

is this even in the water parks?

maybe carless is the way to go if you are staying on I-Drive?

last time istayed soemwhere quite far (buena ventura lakes) and a car was essential, even if you had to go garage for soem fags or magazines, but seeing as i'm gonna stay on I-Drive, maybe the car can get lost unless its a got a good deal in the package?

yeah i think you pay at the magic kindom sign, the first entry in to everything, waterparks & the 4 main disney parks..... we stayed on i drive & as i said i would use the buses again, had no probs & once you have done it once you know what your doing, not that you dont to start with but you know what i mean, lol. when are you going & did you decide on where your staying yet?

It is another cost to factor in, and quite often gets forgotten about. I do agree though, it is annoying especially having paid for park tickets but you can't really blame the theme parks. It makes total commercial sense, and they know people will pay it.

Last time we went we did budget for the parking, but also made sure we avoided eating in the parks to counteract the cost. I wonder what counter service outlets in Disney parks are charging now for a meal, I'm sure it was $8+ last time we went. It's very easy to overspend in any of the Orlando theme parks......

It is school vacation time so it will be packed.
As far as the weather, take a look at this site- http://www.wunderground.com/US/FL/Orlando.html
you can see the weather history for this location.
July is always hot and humid. It is tropical weather.
May is usually great weather, but they just had two weeks of torrential flooding rains.
So predicting what weather you will have is............

If you go to Disney at the busy times of year, the best way to do it is to get to the parks before they open on a day when Disney hotel guests have not had early entry. You can find out these days from the Disney website. Obviously it will be a lot easier to achieve this with a car rather than public transport, though presumably it can be done! Remember you will be able to get up early because the 5 hour time difference is in your favour, so it won't feel early....It also helps to have a plan of campaign. The touring plans in the 'Unofficial Guide' see http://www.touringplans.com are excellent.

We have been twice in August. It was extremely humid with thunderstorms every afternoon or evening. But we still had great holidays. However the weather was certainly better when we went at Easter, though this is also a very busy time.

Rain /floods/storms tell me about it we were there
annx

Wow, thank you so much everyone for your feedback, it has certainly given me some food for thought, which is sincerely appreciated. I am still uncertain about what to do . . .but thank you

i think you'll be fine and have a great holiday, if the boy has never been there before i think it will be his best holiday yet.

i wish i went there when i was a kid, i was 24 when i went and i still loved it haha

Karen, husband and I are big turkey fans, cant get enough of the place, but we also love florida, we have been 6 times since 2000. It is a totally different type of holiday. You can eat as cheaply or as expensive as you wish without skimping on quality. We do have a car but generally for only part of the holiday, we get a taxi/shuttle from airport as we dont fancy driving straight after flight. we always book our carhire through airline network and have always got a great deal and on most occassions got a free upgrade as they dont have the class we have booked.

hugs la x