Orlando Without Going Broke

We had never taken the kids to Orlando. But it finally seemed time. So we started planning early--to raise the money. We travel a lot, but mostly within driving distance. The major expenses of Orlando--airfare, rental car, and park admittance--were going to be more than double what we normally spend on a week's vacation. At an average of per person, each day in a theme park costs , not counting parking or meals. Two hundred dollars a day is what I'd normally expect to pay for lodging, not entertainment alone.

So we drafted a fundraising plan. The kids (and their parents) asked for Disney Dollars for Christmas. This Magic Kingdom currency is fun and colorful and the kids enjoyed getting it as a present. What was best about getting Disney Dollars for Christmas is that my kids already have more clothes and toys than they can use. Plus, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, enjoyed contributing toward this "dream come true" trip. We received 600 Disney Dollars, which paid for our park entrance fees and souvenirs. The kids really enjoyed having Disney Dollars of their own to spend whatever way they chose. Plus, it took the pressure off me. They didn't even ask for this or that at every turn, they had hundreds of dollars of their own to spend any way they wanted.

For the kids’ birthdays, we asked for gift certificates to Discovery Cove, where they wanted to swim with the dolphins (at a cost of per kid). Again, the relatives knew they were giving the kids a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We received toward our visit to Discovery Cove.

Aifare and car rental were put on a credit card. We took in real money (with presidents, not cartoon characters). And that was all we spent while we were there. After paying for airport parking, we came home with about . We spent 8 days and 7 nights and kept our daily costs to a day, in a place that vacuums money like a magnet.

Quick Tips:

Don't pay for snacks, drinks, and lunch in the theme parks. It saps too much cash out of the budget. And you have nothing to show for the money spent on Diet Coke and Giant Pretzels. See my write-up in dining. Bring in food and put the money saved toward seeing the Cirque du Soleil show or squeezing in a fancy sit-down meal.

I have one word of caution: Don't get caught at Magic Kingdom at closing time. It takes too long to get off the island. You have to take a train or boat to the parking lot. We stayed till closing to see the fireworks and it was not worth the two-hour ordeal we endured trying to get back to our car.

Best Way To Get Around:

We rented an Avis car through RCI. Cendant, the parent company of RCI, owns Avis and offers multiple discounts. We got an upgrade, a member discount, and I used a dollar-off coupon. My week-long, medium-sized rental car was under two hundred dollars. Avis' price on gas was .65, which at the time was even lower than what was offered at every gas station we saw in Orlando.

Also, contact RCI early for possible deals on theme park tickets. You have to go through the travel agency division of RCI - they sometimes offer deep discounts on multi-day passes if you buy early. We just missed a deal where we could have purchased 7-day passes for the same price as 3-day passes. If you get your airfare and car rental through RCI, you'll stand a better chance at getting deals on park tickets. Next time, I'll call RCI earlier, much earlier for my transportation and tickets.

Bryan's Spanish Cove is more of a retreat than a resort; you go there to get away, not to find more attractions (or distractions). It's a place you where you can get away find some peace and quiet. The pool is rather small. The resort is small, Located on a short stretch of waterfront on Lake Bryant, The far end of this resort is just two rows of timeshares. But the timeshares are the largest you'll find anywhere. These are not condos; they are apartments, full size and then some with all the conveniences, appliances, and luxuries of home.
The grounds are not overly impressive, but improvements are underway to turn around the outside, as they have turned around the inside of these units. At the time of my visit February 2004, major landscaping work added hundreds and hundreds of plants during our visit alone. The pool is small and plain and the children’s playground is nothing spectacular. The boats and watercraft available for use are older and not terrible inviting. This is not a resort to come to if you are looking for onsite outdoor amenities and activity. However, they do have free access to sister resort Like Tiki that has an onsite water park. It is a place to comfortably come home to and launch from for your demanding visit to Orlando.
The inside of these huge units have been completely rehabilitated in the last year. With a few units still under construction, I stuck my head in to see how they stripped these things bare to rebuild all new fixtures, cabinets, floors, and more.
The villas (what they call each timeshare unit) are huge, more of an apartment than a timeshare. The total square footage of each unit is around 1200 square feet. The sheer space of these units adds to the leisurely, solitude of this resort. A full-length deck or screened balcony comes with each unit. Only a few get a water view of lake Bryant. Ours (and from what I could tell most) balconies had treecover to provide both shade and privacy.

Best Things Nearby:
Bryan's Spanish Cove has location, location, location. In this up-and-coming Lake Buena Vista neighborhood of Orlando, you are a few miles east of Disney World and a few miles west of Seaworld. No matter where you want to go, you are one exit away. And you don't even need to get on the highway to reach downtown Disney, it is just down the road. The setting is a quieter area than most. It's not on one of these commercial stretches overrun with neon blinking signs, fast food restaurants, and souvenir shops. Bryan's Spanish Cove is on a mile or two stretch that primarily hosts large lavish resorts, most notably Sheraton Vistana Resort. The resort nature of the area translates into less traffic, noise, and commotion. There are very few retail stores in the immediate area: a small grocery store, a restaurant, and a drugstore. This is a street where people actually jog on the sidewalk. There is open space on either side of Bryan's where I would expect to see more upscale resort development. Just around the corner, you'll find many exquisite, newly developed resorts on International Drive South, which offers an entirely different mood than the original International Drive. Given the dramatic turnaround underway at Bryan's, I think weeks at this relatively low-priced resort are a wise investment.

Best Things About the Resort:
Bryant's Spanish Cove is a small resort where you can actually escape from the crowds of Orlando to find some peace and quiet. With only two rows of villas and four units to each two-story building, I'd estimate there are only about 70 units in the entire resort. Each timeshare has its own private entrance with ample parking right at your own entrance. You come and go with ease and privacy. No elevators, revolving doors, crowded parking lots, or busy lobbies.

Resort Experience:
Bryan's Spanish Cove is more of a retreat than a resort; you go there to get away, not to find more attractions (or distractions). It's a place you where you can get away and find some peace and quiet. The pool is rather small. The resort is small, located on a short stretch of waterfront on Lake Bryant; the far end of this resort is just two rows of timeshares. But the timeshares are the largest you'll find anywhere. These are not condos; they are apartments, full size and then some, with all the conveniences, appliances, and luxuries of home.
The grounds are not overly impressive, but improvements are underway to turn around the outside, as they have turned around the inside of these units. At the time of my visit in February 2004, major landscaping work added hundreds and hundreds of plants during our visit alone. The pool is small and plain and the children’s playground is nothing spectacular. The boats and watercraft available for use are older and not terribly inviting. This is not a resort to come to if you are looking for on-site outdoor amenities and activity. However, they do have free access to sister resort Like Tiki, which has an on-site water park. It is a place to comfortably come home to and launch from for your demanding visit to Orlando.
The inside of these huge units have been completely rehabilitated in the last year. With a few units still under construction, I stuck my head in to see how they stripped these things bare to rebuild all-new fixtures, cabinets, floors, and more.
The villas (what they call each timeshare unit) are huge, more of an apartment than a timeshare. The total square footage of each unit is around 1200 square feet. The sheer space of these units adds to the leisurely solitude of this resort. A full-length deck or screened balcony comes with each unit. Only a few get a water view of Lake Bryant. Ours (and from what I could tell, most) balconies had tree cover to provide both shade and privacy.

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Good
• Amenities: Very Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Good
• Service: Excellent

We only ate out three times during our seven days in Orlando. A hot dog costs $4 at Disney World and even a can of soda from a machine costs $2.50. I estimate that we would have spent a minimum of $150 a day on food if all four of us dined out daily, $50 of which would have been spent on lunch in the park. Even though the theme parks say that they do not allow "outside food" inside the parks, we brought a picnic lunch in every day to the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Sea World.
Me and my collapsible cooler
On our first day in Orlando, I bought a small collapsible cooler, a little larger than one foot cubed, plus a few blue freezer packs. Every night, I filled four plastic sports bottles half way with water and froze them. In the morning, I'd add tap water to create an ice-cold water bottle for each of us. These bottles worked with the blue cooler packs to keep everything fresh. We packed sodas, juice boxes, sandwiches, animal crackers, yogurt tubes, fruit roll-ups, granola bars, plus individually sized cookies, cakes, chips, and pretzels in the cooler. I stuffed paper napkins and empty plastic grocery bags in the front zippered pouch of cooler, so we had our own garbage bag.
Park policy
In every situation, the cooler was searched by security and I was admitted into the parks without delay or questioning. Once inside the park, we would rent a locker (which are usually located right at the main entrance). Locker rentals cost $5-$7 a day and you get $2 back when you return the locker key. We always went back to main entrance to access the cooler for lunch. We kept a few snack/beverage items in a backpack so we could conveniently access things while touring.
Dinner at home
We ate dinner in the timeshare all but one night. I purchased quick, easy, dinners at the grocery store the day we arrived: hot dogs, taco meal, frozen pizzas, frozen stir fry meals, spaghetti, bag of salad greens, bag, bag of cole slaw veggies, and a fresh vegetable tray. Every night we had a quick, but simple meal, which was truly for the best. Everyone was tired and hungry. I can't even imagine getting back to the timeshare at 6pm after touring all day long and prepping for a dinner on the town. The night we went out for dinner, we had only done a half day at a water park so kids were able to "go the distance" and go out for dinner. I spent $250 at the grocery store for the week. We bought plenty of special treats and fresh fruit to make dining at home special. For the adults, we picked up the ingredients for frozen margaritas and nachos, and enjoyed a quiet evening on the terrace, which cost us a whole lot less than going to a bar.

This is a pristine park. The grounds are meticulously manicured and it is simply gorgeous. Although we went for the featured dolphin encounter, we enjoyed every aspect of our stay.

It is more of luxury theme park with very personalized service, well appointed bathrooms, upscale shopping, and sit down dining. It's not a typical trek around all day and sweat experience. You are given a locker and a beach bag with supplies (diving mask, fins, suntan lotion, towel) and outfitted with a wet suit (full length, short sleeved, or vests depending on the weather). The clean towel supply is never ending with rows and rows available to you in the locker room. We also were able to change out of wet suit for lunch and get a fresh one afterwards, but size choices were greatly diminished after lunch.

As soon as you check in you are given a swim time for your dolphin encounter. The rest of your day will work around that. Prior to the dolphin encounter you have a brief orientation. Then a group of about six people and a guide enter a lagoon together where you are given a interactive dolphin experience. Participants take turns petting, kissing, riding, and giving commands to the dolphin. All the while the guide gives you info on the mammal and the particular animal you are working with. It's really exciting to touch and see a dolphin, but there are limits to this experience. It is very structured and the actual time you spend touching the dolphins is limited. The dolphin encounter is about 30 minutes long.

There are also two pools for snorkeling: a salt water and fresh water. The salt water is a large lagoon style man-made exhibit that is teeming with exotic fish and stingrays. It's really exciting, truly thrilling to be swimming amongst these beautiful creatures. To add a little drama there are scary fish behind glass or Lucite walls in the exhibit and you can dive down to view them. I saw barracudas, but there may have been some small sharks too; I'm not sure because I was swimming with my seven-year-old who was afraid to view the aggressive fish.

The fresh water exhibit doesn’t offer any fish. It is really a chlorinated water feature. It is designed to be a river and you swim downstream, through waterfalls, a bird sanctuary, gardens, artificial ruins, and other exhibits. We had great fun in the river attraction and even though it's pretty basic, we just enjoyed swimming and floating down the current. We went down this man-made river at least three times if not more.

This water park is a members' benefit for owners at Bryan's Spanish Cove. You can get in free on one day only. We paid only $4 to get in.

This pool complex is located at another resort and is not worth committing a whole day to. It best serves your needs if you have a few hours in the afternoon that you want to kill--not enough time to pay the big ticket prices at larger water parks. There's plenty to keep a kid occupied for several hours.

It can also serve kids of all ages. There's a toddler wading pool, multiple pools, slides, and attractions, plus a snack bar, activity area (drawing, bingo, etc) and rows and rows of chairs. They also have themed dinners each night (BBQ, Luau, Mexican, etc.) that you can join in for just a few dollars.

The park is located in a large condo resort and surrounded by buildings. The other users are residents of the village. There is a changing area, bathhouse, bar, snack area, and small store in the pool area. The pool is very well staffed with about four to six lifeguards visible at any point in time.

It's further away than I thought from Bryan's Cove. It wouldn't be on my A-list of things to do, but it's a convenient, cost-effective back-up plan if you find yourself with too much down time.