The Best Western Hotel was a treat after doing three Airbnb’s. But I hadn’t factored in some housekeeping given the length of the stay here. Here’s some tips to “family living” in a hotel.
Choosing Accomodation for Disney World
I booked this place so we could go to Disney World (what else is there to do in Orlando??). I’d found it on booking.com or lastminute.com i forget which. It turned out this place was going to be hundreds of dollars cheaper for us than doing an Airbnb in the Disney World vicinity.
Everyone was happy with that because it represented a little luxury – cleaning was covered and it had a pool. Also turned out that public transport to Disney World sucks if staying at nearby Airbnb places so we would have had to rent a car ie super expensive! Fortunately the hotel Lake Buena Vista area runs shuttle buses every 40mins to all the four parks for free! Another cost saver in what was already an expensive trip just because of ticket prices.
Laundry in a Hotel
The little niggle I hadn’t factored in was laundry! Hubby will tell you this is one of my pet peeves. I get worked up if there are no clean clothes. Because we had brought awareness to this mindset road block of mine I mitigated the issue as much as possible. We were there five nights and I’d only packed three sets of clothes for myself and the young ones. In spite of being in Orlando when it’s autumn, it was still super hot so at the end of a day out-and-about I wanted to chuck my sweaty clothes in the wash. That meant each night I would dump every in the bath tub, pour body wash over it and stomp on it until the soap was well absorbed by the clothing. Then I’d rinse each item and squeeze it out before hanging it out on the veranda to dry in the scorching morning sun. That was another God-send! We had a little balcony facing south east that meant I had a place to hang everything and the clothes dried super quick.
If we didn’t have a place to hang the clothes outside, the alternative is to let it drip dry in the bathroom then move the clothes into the air-conditioned room where it will dry out quicker by hanging on chairs or tables. A good idea is to carry rope so you can hook up a clothes line in the bathroom.
Laundry danger averted! Was looking forward to the next Airbnb which had a washing machine- or so it said! (but that’s a story for Cuba).
Eating in a Hotel
We were spending a significant amount of our budget in tickets to Disney World (even two days is pricey). So I was adamant we were going to not eat out.
On our first day we found out where the supermarket was and once the younger two were napping I walked the mile there. (Yep, I said ‘mile’. Took me a while to adjust to the american metric.) It was a super easy walk, in spite of the heat, because it was so flat (i was still comparing to the same distance back home where I would’ve had a steep hill to climb just to get out of our street).
I picked up milk and cereal and some plastic bowls and cutlery. Plus I picked up bread and Nutella in preparation for Disney World the next day. And of course I had to pick up some junk to try out the american cookies and chocolates, which wasn’t enjoyed very much. We stuck with the brands we liked, like M&M’s. I also picked up precut fruit and bottles of water. Amazingly we actually ate out very little, saving ourselves loads just because of small grocery shops like this.
Playing in a Hotel
We were spending a significant amount of our budget in tickets to Disney World (even two days is pricey). So I was adamant we were going to not eat out.
On our first day we found out where the supermarket was and once the younger two were napping I walked the mile there. (Yep, I said ‘mile’. Took me a while to adjust to the american metric.) It was a super easy walk, in spite of the heat, because it was so flat (i was still comparing to the same distance back home where I would’ve had a steep hill to climb just to get out of our street).
I picked up milk and cereal and some plastic bowls and cutlery. Plus I picked up bread and Nutella in preparation for Disney World the next day. And of course I had to pick up some junk to try out the american cookies and chocolates, which wasn’t enjoyed very much. We stuck with the brands we liked, like M&M’s. I also picked up precut fruit and bottles of water. Amazingly we actually ate out very little, saving ourselves loads just because of small grocery shops like this.
The best feature of this hotel was the pool. There were no rules about kids being supervised so after the two little ones were cooled off I’d take them upstairs for a long hoy bath (and then to do bath time laundry that they helped me with) and the older two stayed in the pool for hours. We’d have to go fetch them when it got dark.
They worked out a way to enter the hotel through the fire exit. They would run up the eight flights of stairs so that they didn’t have to through the hotel lobby to catch the lifts up. I preferred to go back up via the lift because the two babies demanded to be carried. Hubby didn’t swim with us that week because he’d lost his togs. He would stay back in the hotel room and do some yoga.
Summary
Looking back on that stay it was an easy stint and we surprised ourselves with how on budget we were. Super grateful for the experience!
- Look around for deals in hotels that have free shuttle services to where you want to go to save you hiring a car
- Wash clothes with body wash or shampoo in the bath tub or shower and hang it out to dry on the balcony or on the rail in the bathroom.
- Find out where the nearest supermarket is and stock up on easy to prepare foods that need no cooking or can be warmed in a microwave
- Pack water bottles and snacks wherever you go
