On arrival at the Airport sit down at a coffee bar and have a drink for about 10 - 20 mins, most other passengers will rush to the desk to beat the queue and collect the hire car, now these companys only have a limited number of small economy cars and they always go fast.
When you then go to collect your car, the hire company of your choice will offer you the chance of an "upgrade" for an amazing low price of a few dollars (perday), be carefull here
You should tell the company that you do not want to upgrade your car, it is not your first trip and you will be happy with the car that they give you, all hire cars in the USA are fully automatic and all have airconditioning, it is at this point you will most likly be shown a photo of the "upgrade" car and asked again, you should say again that you do not want to upgrade thank you.
The hire company now has a small problem, all the economy cars have gone, but they can not tell you this as you have already booked and paid for your car, so they now have to upgrade you for free, they will not tell you this but when you leave the desk and collect your car it will not be a small economy car.
If you have been unlucky and you have been given a car that you think is too small once you see it, you can always go back and make the upgrade, this has never happened to me, if fact one year I was given a seven seater people carrier,
Temperatures can be deceiving during the Autum months in central Florida, this is because the cool weather can very often give you a false sence of security about the sun
These temperatures in autum and winter do viry wildly with lows reaching below freezing one day and reaching above 90 the next, From May through until September the heat can be well over 100,
When spending a lot of time outside at the Theme Parks or other attractions do ensure you wear plenty of sunscreen, the higher the factor the better, also ensure you drink plenty of fluids, water of soft drinks, not alcohol., Publix and Wal*Mart both have an excelent range of own brand named drinks that are excelent value for money
If you arrive at the attraction early walk to the back of the Park first, if you arrive late start at the front, the best months to visit the Parks are January, May, September and November ( not the 4th Thursday.. Thanksgiving day)
Most of the Parks have a "Fast Pass" system this works like this.. you Place your main ticket in one of the machines provided outside the ride, the machine givs you a ticket with a time on it, you can then return to the ride at the given time and go to the fast pass queue, you can hold two fast pass tickets at any one time, so get your two tickets together if you see a rides with a long queue then , however take note some rides the fast pass ticket return time is far longer than it would take to join the normal queue
Parking at the Theme parks will cost from $5.00 - $10.00 depending on the car you have, at Universal Studios your ticket will let you return to City Walk later that day without having to pay again, so if you are going to return do keep your ticket safe.
If you visit the Wet'N'Wild water park the car park is at the back of the park, however the main gate to this park is at the front and is on International drive, next to the main gate is River Congo Golf and some Shops and Restaurants, along with a very large free car park, use this car par and save yourself $5.00
Soft drinks and food do tend to be very expensive in these Parks especially if you have a number of young children, it is a good idea to take a cool box with soft drinks and food to the water parks, however do dot try to take beer, as all cool boxes are checked at the main gate and you will not be allowed to take beer past the main gate, however beer is on sale at the park, we have provided a cool box for you to use in our villa.
Whilst you are on holiday you are obviously going to eat out a number of times, however, and especially if you have a number of children you may want to eat in a number of times too, and in that case you will want to buy fruit and veg.
The local Publix and Wal*Mart supermarkets are very good value for most items, however veg tends to be more expensive than the UK, so we do recommend two markets, Websters Farmers Market or Osceola Flea Market
These are not very far from the villa by USA standards, the Websters farmers market will take an hours drive whilst the Osceola Flea market will take from 20 - 30 mins
from details of how to get to both the above markets check shops and markets on my links page or click here to visit now