Orlando hotels

If you are looking to plan an Orlando vacation for the Christmas holiday season we suggest you book your reservation soon. The prices on Orlando hotels is similiar to reservations on a plane, when the plane starts to fill up the prices are going to reflect it. The more passengers who book a particular flight the higher the cost is going to be.

Orlandovacation.com has many great Orlando hotels to choose from and we only charge a $50 refundable deposit if you need to cancel. This is a great deal for the prices will only go higher as this popular season rolls around.

SeaWorld gets into the Halloween Spirit

Well we all knew SeaWorld was going to have to do something since Halloween Horror Nights and Disney's Not-So-Scary Halloween have been such a big hit the past few years. Sea World had to do something to respond with their own big Halloween Bash.

SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular takes place Oct. 7-8, 13–15, 21-22, 28-29 and 31, and is included in park admission. The event begins each day at 11 a.m. Children can dress-up in their favorite costume and play with sea fairies, learn from a ‘school’ of fish or dance with an ice witch.

My favorite Sea World animals,Clyde and Seamore, go out on a Ghostly Pirate Cruise. These loveable sea lions might have bitten off more than they can chew when ghosts and ghouls join forces with boisterous buccaneers to shake up the show. Audiences are invited to embark on this un-boo-lievable voyage into mystery, comedy, and haunted Halloween fun.

Professor Krunchley’s Ooey Gooey Candy Spooktacular – Kids discover the secret to Professor Krunchly’s Ooey Gooey Salt Water Taffy during this special show featuring costumed Shamu and his crew.

Frozen Fun Zone – A “Spooktacular” celebration breaks out in this fun-filled area as an ice witch, roller skating break dancers and a live DJ host interactive games and activities.

Strolling Entertainment - Fun loving sea witches Gummy Worm Wanda, Salt Water Taffy, and Swedish Fish Suzy, along with 35 other fanciful sea creatures, greet, mingle and play with guests making their way through the park. Fanciful flamingoes, an interactive school of fish and live pumpkin fish join in on the Spooky fun.

Getting in Shape for your Orlando Vacation

The Unofficial 2007 Disney World Guide came out this week and it really has some great information. In reading just a few excerts in the guide, I came across a helpful but pretty funny tip.

The Guide mentions that spending one day visiting either Magic Kingdom or Epcot is the equiliviant of walking 10 miles. Wow! That is a lot of walking. In the guide the writer suggest that if a family is planning on visiting Orlando, they should get in shape for their trip by walking around the block together or on rainy days going to the local mall. Another great tip, nobody should bring new shoes on their Orlando trip. Each visitor should have well cushioned and broken in shoes, this will definately cut down on the blisters.

If you are visiting with the Disney parks with younger children we definately suggest planning two days to get through Magic Kingdom.

Orlando Vacation Reservations

We are proud to stay that our vacation sales are up drastically in the past few months and we are working hard to make this trend continue. One of the areas in which are contribute our success is our change in reservation management philosophy.

Over the past few months we have been working with our vacation planning staff on turning guest into Raving Fans. What is a "raving fan" you might ask? Well a raving fan is someone who has such a great experience using a product or service that they just have to tell everyone about it. This is our goal. To make all our guest raging fans.

In my study of turning clients into raging fans, there are three major themes our staff must strive for on every call.

1) Being respectful to our clients and minding our manners by answering questions with Yes Sir and No Sir
2) Always being truthful to our guest and trying to give them ideas which will make their orlando vacation more enjoyable. This does not always mean that our ideas have to include money, in fact we are always teaching our staff on ways to educate our clients on ways to save money.
3) If a call ends in us getting a reservation always thanking the client for thier business. We understand that their are many choices to choose from, especially in Orlando.

Holy Land Experience

If you are coming to Orlando and you want to experience something different on your vacation, we strongly recommend The Holy Land Theme Park.

Recently Marty Williams just visited the park and had this to say,"I've never seen anything better in my life. We came all the way from Texas just to see this, and I can tell you, this is one tremendous missionary effort."

I will have to agree the theme park is promoting the greatest attraction in the World, Jesus Christ, and this alone makes Holy Land's a great attaction. In the coming weeks Holy Land's will be undergoing a lot of changes to attract more guest to it's park. They have hired many consultants with a vast array of theme park experience to help them attract more guest. One of the changes they are going to be undertaking is redesigning of their website and offering more deals to travel companies to promote sells.

Orlando Vacation and Timeshares

I was reading this morning about Disney World opening a new timeshare development at Animal Kingdom. This is great news for area Orlando hotel discounters like Affordable Travel of Orlando, it looks like Disney World management team has decided to go after the timeshare market rather than trying to build more hotel rooms on the Disney grounds.

I was shocked to read this morning that Disney has 6 timeshare projects going on in Orlando right now. I knew timeshares were big, but I had no idea that 15% of all travelers to Orlando were coming to Orlando to go on a timeshare tour or they are going to be staying at a timeshare they recently purchased. This is an astonishing number, especially when you consider 25% of all visitors to Orlando is convention related. So that means of all the visitors to Orlando who are going to the theme parks over 20% of them are staying at a timeshare. That is a huge number and it is going to grow.

Currently Orlando has 19,000 timeshare units and I have read where most experts expect that number to increase three fold in the next 7 years. To tell you the truth, I tickled pink over this news. The more timeshare developers and timeshare projects going on in Orlando the more marketing dollars these companies are going to spend to get visitors to Orlando. All this marketing equals great news for the Orlando tourism.

Orlando Vacation weather in October and November

Yesterday, I was talking with a client who booked a vacation to Orlando, Fl, and she was wondering what type of clothes to bring for her and her family. So today I thought I would write a short summary as to what the weather is like in Orlando during October and early November.

The weather in Orlando during this time of the year is really quite pleasant, actually this weekend the weather is going to be in the mid 80's. This is pretty typical weather for this time of the year not too hot and not too cold. Another great advantage of booking a vacation to Orlando during these beautiful fall months is the rain chances are greatly dimished as compared to the Spring and Summer months when rain showers are the norm during the early afternoon hours.

If you are wondering what to wear on your vacation, I would suggest shorts and comfortable t-shirt or golf shirt. You might want to bring a wind breaker for the night times, because sometimes, not often, the tempature might drop to the upper 50's.

Scottish Higland Society

Seminole County Convention and Visitors Bureau will be rolling out their 2007 marketing campaign this morning. In looking their campaign I noticed where they are giving $50,000 for marketing and promoting the Scottish Highland Games.

In all my times of living in Central Florida, I have never heard about the Scottish Highland Games so I decided to do a little research and this is what I found out.

Area Scottish societies gather each year to compete in rigorous athletic events, dancing and piping to celebrate their rich heritage. This event is sponsored by the Scottish-American Society of Central Florida, and the Games feature such crowd favorites as tossing the Caber, Sheaf Toss and Hammer Throw, as well as the second-largest highland dance competition in the Southeastern United States.

This sounds like a really fun event!

Orlando Vacation Outlook is very positive for 2007

In light of Disney kicking off their “Year of a Million Dreams”, the tourism outlook for 2007 is very positive. There are several key components which we look at to predict the forecast for the coming year. Of these the most important aspect is what type of campaign are the theme parks going to run for the upcoming years.

“It’s quite simple, the more money Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld put into a marketing campaign the better off everybody is in Orlando. It is all about creating a buzz and then running with that buzz to get people to come here.” Say Trey Duling, vice president for Affordable Travel of Orlando.

The Year of a Million Dreams is really quite an awesome campaign. Disney World is going to be giving away over 1,000,000 different prizes which range from unlimited Fast Pass coupons to a complete 5 star Mickey vacation adventure.

On October 4, 2006, the Spangler family won the first contest. Their name was drawn from over 50,000 contestants, and their grand prize was a 90 minute uninterrupted tour to Magic Kingdom all by themselves. Yes, they were the only ones in the park for 90 minutes! Now that is really cool.

It is yet to be announced what Universal’s major 2007 campaign is going to be; but Sea World has already been promoting a new Shamu show called, “Believe”.

Brand New: Encantada Resort

Each unit in Encantada Resort has its own patio with a private, screen-enclosed pool. Plantation window blinds, patio furniture, and all major appliances are also included. In addition, every home includes ceramic tile throughout, except for the bedrooms. All available options have been added to these beautiful homes! The community boasts a 9,000+ sq. ft. clubhouse and each unit also includes a new washer/dryer.

Epcot: Between China and Germany

The minimal theming done to this area was simultaneously a test of color and thematic matching with its surroundings and an attempt to entice some African governments to sponsor a pavilion at Epcot. When sponsorship never materialized, the area became a minor shopping and refreshment area.