294 Vineland Rd.
Kissimmee, FL 34746
407-390-0710 

Rating: NYPD Pizza - Best Pizza Restaurant in Central Florida

Pizza restaurants abound the Central Florida area. Having tried nearly all of them, we believe that NYPD consistently delivers the best product. NYPD is consistently rated the best pizza by locals in the various Orlando food rating publications, and for good reason.

This is New York style pizza. NYPD pizza just tastes good - the pies are well crafted works of art stuffed with tasty fresh toppings.

By the way, if you are visiting Orlando on vacation, never order a pizza from a flyer delivered to your vacation home door or hotel room by an independent unknown vendor. We have heard horror stories of people that have ordered pizza in this manner. Always order from a reliable pizza company. If you order from NYPD, we believe you cannot go wrong.

Stick to NYPD. They have various locations throughout the Central Florida area, so call the above location for a location near you.

Large pizza with toppings will run you about $20.

Halloween Horror Nights ® at Unversal Studios ® started out as a means to attract residents and tourists during a relatively slow time in the Orlando tourist calendar of October and November. The Universal Orlando® Resort’s Halloween Horror Nights® 2009 has since become a global phenomenon attracting people from all over the world.

For certain nights in September, October and November, one of Orlando’s most popular parks, Universal Studios Florida ®, is transformed into a massive haunted house.

The event is now in its 19^th year. The Horror Nights experience has been modified and continuously improved into what many consider to be the best Halloween experience in the world.

Hotels around Universal Studios ® fill up fast for this event and are indicative of how popular the event has become. For those who are looking to make a long weekend or week out of it, and perhaps visit Walt Disney World ® or Sea World ®, you may want to consider renting an Orlando vacation home. The homes are great economical alternatives, and can typically sleep from four to sixteen people, boasting private pools, garages and fully equipped kitchens.

We will update you when the theme and ticket prices for the Universal Orlando® Resort’s Halloween Horror Nights® 2009 if you are a subscriber to our feed above.

The Universal Orlando® Resort’s Halloween Horror Nights® 2009 is definitely not for young children.

For more information on Universal Orlando® Resort’s Halloween Horror Nights® 2009, click HERE to visit their site directly

Bubbalou’s Bodacious Barbecue, Orlando FL

5818 Conroy Rd
Orlando, FL 32835

(407) 295-1212

Rating: Best BBQ Barbecue Restaurant in Central Florida

We have tried pretty much every BBQ joint in Central Florida. We did like Smokey Bones, but since it was closed down it has pretty much left Bubbalou’s on its own in terms of better BBQ in Central Florida.

Fast and efficient service the concept is locally owned and operated with only a handful of stores around central Florida.

The store we listed above is closer to Universal Studios as there are currently none around the Walt Disney World or Kissimmee area in which many of the vacation homes we write about cater to. Call them at the above phone number if you want to find out the closest location to you.

Great ribs, giant onion rings and fast at the counter service. This is a no frills restaurant that relies on wait for it – good food to keep it busy. Great garlic bread and we love their sweet sauce. If you have room, order one of the little pecan pies.

We have had discussions with local BBQ aficionados if Bubbalou’s really is the best BBQ in town, once in while an obscure restaurant will be thrown out there, but consistently Bubbalou’s is the best. Many major corporations (some with thier own catering operations) use Bubbalou’s just for their BBQ product for catering certain events.

Rib dinner with soda will run you about $14 a person. View on our map link below.

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Once again, Sea World ® has increased their ticket prices. The new price increase (1) (the third in the last year) for a regular one day admission is still priced about five cents below Walt Disney World ® and Universal Studios Orlando ®.

It is interesting that Orlando area parks have aggressively increased their park prices given the current face of the economic crisis, and the fact the number of tourists to the area have plummeted since November 08.

Sea World’s parent company is Busch Entertainment Corp., which also owns Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Aquatica, a major Orlando water park.

The standard Sea World ticket has gone up approximately 15% since October 2007, bringing the one day standard price closer to its multiday pass. This encourages visitors to purchase the multiday and capture the ancillary revenues via their outlets for their Orlando vacation.

Some Orlando parks are able to package their tickets with on-site hotels, further encouraging tourists to stay on site rather than book an outside hotel. Please see our other blog posts on the value opportunity this creates for vacationers. Despite these changes, Orlando area vacation vacation homes still present the best value in the market on a per square foot basis(2).

SeaWorld Orlando

A typical hotel hotel room runs approximately 325 square feet in size. The average nightly rate in Orlando for that hotel room runs around $80 per night depending on the time of year or .25 cents per square foot if you are evaluating a cost average based on size. Two hotel rooms could tightly accomodate eight people for a total of $160 per night.

For a three bedroom vacation villa/home that will sleep eight to ten persons, it will run around the same amount ($160/night) depending on time of year, amenities and subdivision. Such a vacation home/villa will be roughly 1,800 square foot on average. Therefore, for a much larger home, your per square foot cost is .09 cents per square foot, plus you get the use many amenities that typical Orlando hotels do not have such as a fully equipped kitchen, private garage and private pool.

In summary, Orlando vacation homes/villas represent significantly better value than hotels if you are traveling with 4 or more persons. Based on our caluclations, hotel rental rates run around .25 cents per square foot while vacation homes are in the .09 cents per square foot range on average.

Why would you book a hotel in Orlando? Please consult our blog postings for helpful tips, consumer information and community reviews.

Gay Days this year will be June 2 – June 8, 2009. An anticipated 140,000 attendees are expected. The week long event consists of a whole calendar of festivities(1). Gay Days started with approximately 3000 attendees its first year in 1991 as a one day event. Gay Days is now a global phenomena producing over $100,000,000 of economic stimulus into the Orlando Florida economy over seven days.

There are various host hotels for the event, but for those attendees looking for a more functional economically alternative accommodation, an Orlando vacation home rental can make a lot more sense. Such homes boast up to seven bedrooms, fully equipped kitchens, garages and many with their own pools.

Gay Days has become a week long Orlando event. Typically, the first Saturday in June at 3.00 PM the main attraction is the famous Gay Day parade. In addition, there are events going on during the week all over Orlando so be sure to check the calendar above.

Be sure to also check out the Gay Days Expo in the convention section of the Royal Plaza Hotel in Lake Buena Vista.

Not many people realize that economically Gay Days is the largest activity in the Orlando events calendar. It is bigger in attendance than many major conventions including PGA.

Gay Days Orlando Florida

The race has been held every February since 1959 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The race was originally held in part on the actual beaches of Daytona, but now consists of 200 laps on the 2.5 mile track at the infamous speedway.

If visiting the area, it is no secret that Daytona Beach hotels sell out early and command top prices. Many Daytona 500 fans will look at staying in Orlando for some or all of their stay in order to get more reasonably priced accommodations and perhaps visit some of the theme parks while in the area. An Orlando vacation home rental might make the perfect stay.

If you do stay in Orlando during the 500, we recommend getting up very early the day of the 500 as traffic tends to be packed. When 200,000 people try to squeeze into such a small area, the roads get clogged. Last year we left at 4.00 AM and it took us about 1 hour to arrive at the speedway. Friends of ours who stayed in Daytona at a local hotel who left just 2 hours before the race took almost 3 hours to get to the track.

Daytona-500-2009

1. Privacy in a secure residential environment.
2. Space for your buds.
3. Home style amenities to please every member of the team. 
4.  Most vacation homes are south of Orlando, so they are convenient to

          the stadium in Tampa. In fact, most homes are within 70 miles or a mere

          1,232 football field lengths away from the actual Super Bowl site.

So as you think of accommodations that will make your Super Bowl experience special, don’t pass on Orlando area vacation homes as the perfect option play! Click on our blog posts and independent community reviews to learn more about renting vacation homes in the Central Florida area.

Bike Week in Daytona Beach Florida this year is February 27^th to March 8^th 2009.

Bike week is now a global phenomenon attracting over 500,000 bikers. Due to the limited number of Daytona hotels, renting a room in the area can be an expensive affair. Many bikers visiting the Daytona area will stay at least in part in the Orlando area as the hotels tend to be more affordable.

For those bikers particular about their bikes, renting an Orlando vacation home may make perfect sense, as these homes typically offer full garages to overnight your prized possessions.

Bike Week Daytona Beach 2009

The Daily Telegraph, a major newspaper in  in the UK, reported today the UK economy could shrink as much as 10% in 2009 (1). This forecast was not totally dismissed by the Centre for Economics and Business Research also based in the UK who estimated GDP in real terms will decline a more conservative 2.5% (1B) - still a decline of historic proportions.

As we have outlined in a prior post (2), the UK is the largest detached international market feeding the Orlando tourism economy. The impact of a major recession in the UK could wreak havoc on the local short term rental market which includes hotels, vacation homes and timeshare rentals.

The peak travel months for the British to Orlando are June, July and August. The UK is also a big market filler in the early fall when the domestic market for Orlando is relatively slow. Orlando has relied on the British in September to help “fill in the gaps”.

On the bright side, the British and the European Union governments have begun to implement a series of economic stimulus measures on a massive scale (3). The timing and effectiveness of such efforts remains to be seen, but if you live and work in Orlando, the health of the UK economy will most likely effect you.