Rare find: Cheap, tasty hotel food in Orlando

by Leigh Caldwell on

Yes, those are French fries. Real, freshly cut French fries. And they’re awesome.

What’s more awesome is that you can get those French fries, and the accompanying double bacon cheeseburger for $5.99 at the new CoCo Key Hotel and Water Resort in Orlando. And you can wash it down with a $1.50 large soda.

Oh, and that cheeseburger? Freshly grilled right in front of you and put on a bun that was baked in-house that morning.

A bargain on a hotel room is not hard to come by in Orlando these days, but if you have to pay $18 for a sandwich and $3.99 for a soda at the hotel, is it really a bargain in the end?

That’s why I was so impressed with the food prices at this new resort. Besides the aforementioned burger and fries at lunchtime, CoCo Key offers up an amazing full breakfast buffet, complete with an omelet bar, for $11.99 ($5.99 for kids). There’s also a reasonably priced full-service restaurant open for dinner.

CoCo Key is the latest renovation of the original hotel built on Orlando’s International Drive – which opened as the Hilton Inn South in May 1970, 17 months before the ribbon was cut at Walt Disney World.

The big attraction here is the 54,000-square-foot water park on property, which has three big water slides and plenty of splash play areas and shallow pools for little kids.

The hotel partners with Universal Orlando Resort to offer vacation packages and free transportation to the park. (You can also get shuttles to SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica and Walt Disney World.) Regular rates start at $99 per night. Resort execs say they are booking packages like crazy in conjunction with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opening in June.

Just eat at the hotel before you go to the park, because I can pretty much guarantee you that Hogwart’s food will be more expensive.

Walt Disney World offers free tickets for stranded European travelers

by Leigh Caldwell on

Walt Disney World is offering free one-day park hopper tickets to travelers stuck in the Orlando area because of the air travel disruption in Europe.

The tickets will be available today and Wednesday and are good for admission to the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT (to see the spring Flower and Garden Festival, perhaps), Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. These passes also include admission to Disney World’s two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon.

To get a free Disney World ticket, you must show a canceled airline ticket or expired boarding pass for a European flight, as well as a passport or other photo ID. You can also get reimbursed for Disney’s $14-per-day parking fees if you have to pay them to get to the parks.

SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Aquatica started offering a similar deal over the weekend.

The Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau is maintaining an online list of of hotel and attraction discounts available to those stranded by the volcanic ash cloud.

%Gallery-88501%

Five travel gift ideas for Mother’s Day

by Tom Johansmeyer on

You need options – fast. Mother’s Day is less than month away, and moms want to travel. They want to get out on the road, be treated like royalty and experience all the luxuries for which they don’t have time day to day. With a whole world at your disposal, how do you choose? Well, I poked around and thought you might be interested in the following deals for Mother’s Day. Here are five ideas that will at least get you started.

1. Residence Inn by Marriott
At all 588 hotels, Residence Inn will be dishing out 50 red roses for moms – that’s 29,400 red roses you don’t need to remember to buy! Also, all guests – kids and dads included – will get free hot breakfast every day, free internet access and plenty of space in the guestrooms.

2. La Posada De Santa Fe Resort & Spa
Art, culture, fine dining and pampering are the norm in Santa Fe, and La Posada does it right. With its Mother’s Day Celebration package, good from May 1, 2010 to July 5, 2010, the resort kicks in a $200 spa credit (good at the RockResorts spa), a pair of specialty turquoise margaritas at the Staab Lounge and a bottle of champagne with chocolate-diped strawberries.3. ONE Bal Harbour Resort & Spa
Is there a stylish mom you need to take care of next month? ONE Bal Harbour has the answer. Ship her off with her friends for a girls-only getaway, where she can truly get away from the demands of motherhood for a little while. The resort’s “Sun, Stay and Shop” package includes two cocktails at the hotel bar, breakfast every day and a VIP shopping experience that’s got a car service, personal consultation and a special discount at Saks Fifth Avenue’s 5th Avenue Club.

4. Concorde Hotels & Resorts
Get mom off to the City of Lights this Mother’s Day for three night at the century- old, landmark Hotel Lutetia. With the “Centennial Offer,” this Parisian hotel includes a double room, buffet breakfast daily and a 100 euro gift voucher (for a celebration dinner, maybe?).

5. Abercrombie & Kent
Okay, this is top of the line. If you’re a fan of our Daily Pampering column, consider this to be up your alley. Check out an A&K “Journeys for Women” trip, which give moms and daughters the chance to bond while experiencing a foreign culture.

Are Disney’s buses dangerous?

by Leigh Caldwell on

Walt Disney World has long touted its comprehensive bus system in a long list of reasons while staying at a Disney resort is a great value. When you stay “on property” at Disney World, you get free transportation to all the Disney resorts, theme parks and other recreation areas.

But three bus crashes in a two-week span, including one that killed a 9-year-old boy, have critics saying a computer system inside Disney’s buses could be too much of a distraction.

The “Magic in Motion” system routes buses in real-time, rather than scheduling all the routes in advance of a shift. The system requires bus drivers to input a 5-digit code into a computer on the bus before they arrive at their destination. It’s a feat Disney says is easily accomplished while waiting at a stoplight or parking gate.

But some Disney bus drivers and a local union leader told the Orlando Sentinel that the system is distracting and requires drivers to take their eyes off the road.

For its part, Disney says it is developing software to further automate the system so that drivers don’t need to enter anything into the on-board computers.

And that’s great. Disney, and any other travel company for that matter, should be continually innovating to improve safety. But for what it’s worth, authorities say that distracted driving did not contribute to any of the three recent Disney bus crashes.

Anytime there is an accident at Walt Disney World, people panic and seem to overlook the fact that tens of thousands of people ride on these buses every day, at a 40-square mile resort dotted with 4- and 6-lane highways. The bus system is as complex as many cities. In fact, its fleet is larger than the city bus systems in Tampa and Orlando.

There are going to be accidents.

Personally, I’m more worried about a scene I see nearly every time I drive on Walt Disney World property: A family driving a rental car 60 miles per hour in unfamiliar territory, while mom takes pictures out the window and dad talks on his cell phone and messes with the GPS.

That’s distracted driving at its best.

What does your mom prefer this May?

by Tom Johansmeyer on

What does the mom in your life prefer? Whether you’re thinking about your wife or your own mom – not to mention anyone who’s given you a motherly nudge throughout your life – consider the gift of travel this may. The Preferred Hotel Group’s Mother’s Day program, IPrefer, offers a unique set of resort escapes at hotels across the United States. The “IPrefer Resort Escapes are valid until July 31, 2010. Sign up online (it’s free), and your favorite mom will enjoy a $75 daily activity credit, breakfast for two every day, a guaranteed room upgrade, late check-in and check-out and complimentary internet access.

Also, every participating resort will have a special amenity waiting for your favorite mom upon arrival. At The Palms Spa, a luxury Aveda spa at The Palms Hotel & Spa in Miami, Florida, discounts are available, and the theme is culinary at The Sanctuary Kiawah Island in South Carolina.