FAQ Orlando

All-in-one-place park guides Looking for need-to-know Orlando theme park info organized by park? Click on your destination below. Disney’s Magic Kingdom Disney’s Epcot Disney’s Hollywood Studios Disney’s Animal Kingdom Universal Studios Orlando Universal’s Islands of Adventure Sea World Orlando Each park guide has an overview, and information on dining, surviving, and need-to-know details about each [...] Read more...

Each FAQOrlando park guide organizes need-to-know park info (Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom; Universal Orlando’s Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure; and SeaWorld Orlando) in a single location. Each has five sections: • Park overview: Looking at seven Orlando parks and wondering which ones to attend? Or which one to avoid [...] Read more...

April 2012: Orlando’s major theme parks – Disney World, Universal Studios, and Sea World – offer a handful of small discounts that vary by season. But Orlando’s smaller parks, hotels, rental cars, etc., offer larger discounts if you know where to look. Since guests arrive in Central Florida to see Mickey Mouse or Harry Potter, smaller [...] Read more...

It appears that a lot of people want to avoid paying Disney’s $14 per day parking fee. In an earlier post, I suggested it was easy to do – simply park at a resort and hop a free shuttle bus (or boat or monorail or whatever). I also suggested that Disney could, possibly, tow your [...] Read more...

Joe not-his-real-name Smith arrived at the Orlando airport exactly one hour before his scheduled flight and stood in line for 10 minutes before reaching the ticket counter. Once there, Joe says the airline employee “told me I missed the deadline, could not get on my flight, and my only option was to fly standby. I [...] Read more...

While Disney’s Fast Pass system favors the young and healthy, Universal Studios’ Express Pass favors the rich. Under both systems, guests with proper I.D. may enter a secondary ride line and enjoy a substantially shorter wait time. At Disney, this I.D. (a Fast Pass) is distributed democratically, or at least it appears that way to [...] Read more...

Here’s praise, criticism, and a suggestion for Disney’s Fast Pass system. Disney offers Fast Passes – a paper ticket reservation system – in each theme park, allowing guests to bypass the long line on selected popular attractions. Rides with a Fast Pass option have a kiosk near the entrance. Guests slide their daily admission ticket [...] Read more...

Thieves love tourist areas. People bring expensive cameras, worry less about personal safety, and rarely prosecute criminals because they don’t wish to return to prosecute. Should you worry more in Orlando than you do back home? No, crime happens in small towns too. Should you worry a little? Definitely. And not just in Orlando – [...] Read more...

You hear this often inside the theme parks: “The Sunshine State my sass.” Only they don’t say “sass.” In the summer months – Central Florida’s wet season – the sun shines brilliantly in the morning, half the time at noon, and not at all somewhere between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. At least once, the [...] Read more...

Few guests worry about terrorism or violence inside a theme park. For most, the key security question is: What can I stick in a bag that the security guard will ignore? (All bags, fannie packs, and cameras get searched upon entrance to the parks. To avoid an invasion of privacy, stick embarrassing things in your [...] Read more...