Looking to surprise your loved ones and add the “cherry on top” to your upcoming theme park vacation? Look at the condo option
Hotel rooms are cramped – even for two lovebirds, the only place to walk to is the bathroom. Every time you want a drink, you need to get dressed and bring your wallet. A condo, on the other hand, offers so many advantages at the same price!
A 2-3 bedroom condo in Orlando will cost you $500-$1,000 for a week. This is good for between 2 and 6 people and often more thanks to pull-open couches. Just as good fences make good neighbors, separate bedrooms make good vacations, especially when travelling with family. A tighter price range is $650-$800 a week; the same as a $100 a night hotel room will cost you – per room!
Condos Have These!
Does a hotel room come with a washing machine and dryer that doesn’t require coins? Does a hotel room come with a fully packed kitchen? How about a spacious family room with a comfortable couch?
And then there are the bathrooms! Condo bathrooms are much bigger than hotel bathrooms. The master bedroom often has its own bathroom. Towels? Every vacation condo is packed with towels of all sizes.
Go Local!
The best part of a vacation condo is in what it doesn’t have. Condos don’t come with coffee, sugar and laundry detergent. This encourages you to go local – and pay a visit to the supermarket. Your shopping list should include:
- detergent and fabric softener
- coffee
- sugar
- breakfast – cereal or pastries
- milk
- dinner!
When you get home from a long day at Disney or Universal, pour yourself a cup of coffee and put a laundry in.
Skip the Fast Food!
One of the worst parts of theme park travel is the endless junk food. Sure, it’s fun at first; but after your 15th burger, it gets boring and you just can’t justify the calories for the cost or taste. When you stay at a condo, you can eat two of your three meals a day at home – breakfast and dinner. Cereal, pastries or a full-on bacon and eggs breakfast is fine for mornings.
For dinner, buy pasta, some chicken or salami and vegetables at the supermarket and you’re going to save $7-$10 per person every day. Splurge on dinner at a *good* restaurant.
Other Condo Benefits
When you take a day off from the theme parks, a condo is the perfect “base of operations.” By the end of your hotel stay, you end up building a “pyramid of souvenirs” that covers most of the tiny room table. A condo lets you properly store your shopping bags, souvenirs and “spoils of war.”
Taking a day off in between theme park visits? Most condos have a clubhouse that is open to visitors. Best of all, it won’t be as crowded as the hotel clubhouse. You’ll usually find a pool, a place to suntan and games for the kids (and adults who are kids at heart).
When you add it all up – added privacy, the kitchen, indoor laundry, a family room and the money and calories you save on condo-prepared meals, there’s no getting around it – a condo is a viable option for your theme park vacation!