Orlando, FL recommendations?

Beebopalooa

We are honeymooning in Orlando at the end of next May, and neither of us have ever been to Florida. Other than the parks in the area, does anyone have any recommendations for places to stay at/eat/visit, etc? We are on a pretty tight budget, so suggestions on how we can save money on some of the local attractions would be really appreciated as well.

Thank you!

waltersj08

How long are you staying? Are you renting a car? Are you planning on going to any of the theme parks, or trying to avoid them all together?

erollis

If I remember correctly it is either International Drive or Universal Blvd in Orlando that have plenty of hotels, shopping, dining and some themed attractions (sea world and ripley's?) along it. 

There is also a two story Mc Donalds that serves yummy pizza and so much more! This is the only Mc Donalds I like anymore. There is also a trolley that you can take up and down the road to get places. And several stores sell tickets to local attractions including a spot in the Mc Donalds. The hotel lobbies will have pamphlets that may have coupons/ discounts to places.

The hotels along this stretch have busses that will take you to the theme parks (Disney and Universal). It has been two years since I have been to Orlando and I have only stayed off Disney property once. 

We stayed at a Best Western just off one of those roads. It was clean. Staff was friendly and breakfast was more then cold cereal and fruit. I think it cost around $70 per night (may have been less). We didn't need to take any busses or trolleys because we had a car (we drove to Florida).

Knittibell

Groupon and Living Social have had Orlando deals lately! I've stayed at the Lowe's Royal Pacific several times and love it, but it's not cheap. You can go 20 min from the parks and get a much better deal.

midgetthemighty

We stayed at a place called Lake Eve resort and it was very very nice. Close enough to DisneyWorld if you're interested in that but not so close that the traffic is nutso from it.

fjw2012

If you plan on going to Universal I highly recommend booking your lodging through them. FI and I have vacationed there the last two years and it was super reasonable. Park tickets for 4 days, and hotel accommodations for $600. We've stayed at both the Econolodge resort and the Holiday Inn Express. Holiday Inn Express was small, but they had a great free breakfast. Econolodge is set up like an expensive resort, but is reasonably priced. We paid an extra $50 when we got there and got a king sized room with a jaccuzi right by the pool, it was very nice!  They also have some higher end hotels for $100 or so more a week. All of the hotels are on or around the area of International Drive, which is close to other attractions like the Ripley museum and the titanic experience. Also, if you don't want to spend the whole time at Universal, you can go to the activities tab (if you book online) and change the number of days for the park tickets, but still keep the hotel for the length of your stay. They also allow you to buy tickets for seaworld, aquatica and wet and wild on their website for a discounted price. Finally, if you have AAA use it to book. You get a good discount, plus free cups that you can reuse while you are in the park. The refills on the cups were 89 cents last year, so it saves you a ton of money on drinks.