USA '14 – Round Up – Neil Thompson

It has become something of a tradition to do a round up post at the end of our Florida holidays and so this is it.

Here I group together all the posts to allow you to quickly find the post most relevant to what you are interested in. If you want to do a comparison you can find the round ups for 2009 and 2011 also.

Finally, this was all correct in April 2014 but is subject to change – check the links to the official sites provided to see if it holds true now. And enjoy!

Things to do

Places to Eat

You’d be hard pressed not to find somewhere that you want to eat out in Orlando as the place is packed with a wide range of restaurants to suit all tastes and pockets.

From the list below Cracker Barrel was the cheapest (helped by it being ‘dry’) and The Cheesecake Factory was the costliest based on bill size for our party of four. Don’t forget to tip which will add 15% minimum to your bill.

Here are some of our favourites:

Perkins – great breakfasts – check out my favourites the Tremendous Twelve and the Magnificent Seven.
The Cheesecake Factory – the enormous portions for the mains sadly prevent you from getting to the cheesecakes, which is a shame. Buy to take away and eat at home.
Cracker Barrel – a good value family restaurant serving traditional style food
Bahama Breeze – another good, more upmarket, restaurant, probably my favourite with a wonderful Shrimp Creole and Key Lime Pie
Red Lobster – great for fish, obviously!
Downtown Disney (official site) – plenty of choice from McDonalds to themed restaurants to relaxed dining.

Places to Shop

Plenty of bargains to be had in the US, particularly in clothing if you like their styles and fit. Here are some places we like to shop:

Shopping – blog post on where we went
Lake Buena Vista – mainly clothes but also a good character outlet selling cheap Disney stuff
Dollar Tree – America’s answer to Poundland but remember that by the time you add tax it is actually Dollar oh Seven Tree!
Wallmart – Asda’s owner and you will notice some similarities, such as the George clothing brand, and some differences – they are huge places
Premium Outlets – Higher end clothes retailers
Barnes & Noble – Book store. There is one opposite Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse on West Sand Lake Road. Pay a visit before getting a great steak!

Americana & Trivia

Various topics mentioned in the posts that capture the essence of both America and the holiday:

By Day

This is a list of all posts in the order that they were posted:

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