Cost effective European Areas/Cities
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@Carnival-Boy I cannot imagine spending a week in Venice. It was wall to wall tourists to the point where you couldn't even walk down the street without stopping every few minutes. It was decaying and dirty, with tons of abandoned and crumbling buildings, and it didn't smell very pleasant. There were hustlers and panhandlers everywhere, because they go where the tourists are, and Venice was one of the only places we went (along with Brussels) where I was super glad I was wearing a money belt. Also "cheap restaurants where the food is plain but perfectly edible" doesn't sound like a very good recommendation. There is so much amazing food in Europe, why settle for "edible"?
Lots of people love Venice. I have no idea why, but different strokes for different folks. I would classify it as the most overrated place we've visited in Europe. -
@Dominica said:
@Carnival-Boy I cannot imagine spending a week in Venice. It was wall to wall tourists to the point where you couldn't even walk down the street without stopping every few minutes. It was decaying and dirty, with tons of abandoned and crumbling buildings, and it didn't smell very pleasant. There were hustlers and panhandlers everywhere, because they go where the tourists are, and Venice was one of the only places we went (along with Brussels) where I was super glad I was wearing a money belt. Also "cheap restaurants where the food is plain but perfectly edible" doesn't sound like a very good recommendation. There is so much amazing food in Europe, why settle for "edible"?
Lots of people love Venice. I have no idea why, but different strokes for different folks. I would classify it as the most overrated place we've visited in Europe.Important to note, we were there really close to the first of June, if that matters. I'm sure in April it is better as the tourist season isn't in full swing.
It's important to note that we loved Italy so much that we continue to seriously consider moving there permanently and plan to live in Italy much of next year. That Venice is the worst city we've visited is in contrast to the unbelievable amount that we love Italy in general (and I fully support Venice's desire to separate and no longer be Italy.)
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@IRJ April - May is a great time to visit Europe. It's the shoulder season, so it's neither as crowded or as hot as the summer season. In fact, any place in northern Europe will be downright cold then, while southern Europe will be pleasantly warm to possibly hot.
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I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets." The streets are lined with people selling Chinese trinkets that have no connection to Venice, in many cases they don't even bother writing Venice on them. It's like the whole city is an Chinese off-brand hot topic.
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@Dominica said:
@IRJ April - May is a great time to visit Europe. It's the shoulder season, so it's neither as crowded or as hot as the summer season. In fact, any place in northern Europe will be downright cold then, while southern Europe will be pleasantly warm to possibly hot.
It's May now and our friends who were in The Netherlands the last few days wrote to us and were like "save us, it is so cold". They are happily in Spain now enjoying the sun.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets."
I've never been to Disney World but, Disney land was pretty dirty.. as was much the rest of SoCAL.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets."
I've never been to Disney World but, Disney land was pretty dirty.. as was much the rest of SoCAL.
WDW has its ups and downs. Used to be better. WDW is far better than DisneyLand and tons bigger. I've done both. WDW is unique and special, even if not great. Some things that they do no one else does, so I recommend doing it at least once for most people. Not because it is the best thing ever, but simply because it can be done well and is really unique and interesting.
If you are visiting the US and have ten places to pick, I might not put it on the list. But if you are visiting the US and get to go to only one single place, it's my top pick - because it is like a weird microcosm of America. If that makes sense.
For Americans it is really hard to quantify the recommendation, but I say that it is worth a trip to at least once for most people. Expensive and you can't cut corners and get the experience, so it is an investment, but done well it can be pretty nice.
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But Disney World is all fake, just things for tourists. That's the big negative. There is no "Disney culture" or meeting the "real Disney people". It's not like that. Disney's value is embracing that it is all fake . Everything is a show put on for the tourist.
Venice is like this. It's all a show. It's all a put on just for you.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets."
I've never been to Disney World but, Disney land was pretty dirty.. as was much the rest of SoCAL.
My sister works for WDW in one of the Orlando resorts in the park. She manages the front desk and a few other things. They treat their employees really well, which makes me happy to spend some money there. They also have the food of the world thing in Epcot every year... which while entirely fake and cheesy, is a lot of fun. We are planning on going down again this year.
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@coliver said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets."
I've never been to Disney World but, Disney land was pretty dirty.. as was much the rest of SoCAL.
My sister works for WDW in one of the Orlando resorts in the park. She manages the front desk and a few other things. They treat their employees really well, which makes me happy to spend some money there. They also have the food of the world thing in Epcot every year... which while entirely fake and cheesy, is a lot of fun. We are planning on going down again this year.
I didn't eat inside DisneyLand. $25 for a Fast Food equivalent meal. No Thanks
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@coliver said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets."
I've never been to Disney World but, Disney land was pretty dirty.. as was much the rest of SoCAL.
My sister works for WDW in one of the Orlando resorts in the park. She manages the front desk and a few other things. They treat their employees really well, which makes me happy to spend some money there. They also have the food of the world thing in Epcot every year... which while entirely fake and cheesy, is a lot of fun. We are planning on going down again this year.
I didn't eat inside DisneyLand. $25 for a Fast Food equivalent meal. No Thanks
Walt Disney World doesn't seem that expensive, or at least not that I remember.
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Granted my trip to DisneyLand was a "Business" Trip haha.
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@coliver said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets."
I've never been to Disney World but, Disney land was pretty dirty.. as was much the rest of SoCAL.
My sister works for WDW in one of the Orlando resorts in the park. She manages the front desk and a few other things. They treat their employees really well, which makes me happy to spend some money there. They also have the food of the world thing in Epcot every year... which while entirely fake and cheesy, is a lot of fun. We are planning on going down again this year.
Yes Disney is one of the best employers. They pay relatively well, allow flexible schedules (even unskilled jobs), and give great benefits. On top of all that, they also have one of the best employee training programs. Having Disney on your resume is a really good thing for Orlando area employers, because they know you have to have good customer service skills.
The parks themselves are not worth the money unless you take advantage of them in the off season. I can tell you this with certainty growing up in Orlando. Any ride waits longer than 10 minutes is garbage and you shouldn't have to pay to stand in line. I have been Disney parks and had plenty of days where you just walk on to the rides. This is when the parks make sense.
Epcot is a great place to have a date night. The other parks are more children oriented, but Fort Wilderness is also a place that adults will enjoy.
Disney prices actually used to be higher if you consider inflation. Park admission has slowly gone up over the years, but the extras like drinks and food have not followed suite. I can remember paying $2.50 for a drink when I was a kid. That was absolute robbery when you could get a soda from Walmart for $.35 from the machine. Drinks are now like $3.50 or so if I remember correctly. Food was also really expensive in the 90s. It is still expensive now, but more reasonable as inflation increased.
I believe Disney figured out that locals will come dine at their restaurants at a regular basis if their prices are somewhat reasonable. The in park restaurants are pretty good, but Disney also has restaurants in downtown Disney that are open to everyone. I knowa fewpeople that go to Disney restaurants for date nights regularly.
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@IRJ said:
@coliver said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets."
I've never been to Disney World but, Disney land was pretty dirty.. as was much the rest of SoCAL.
My sister works for WDW in one of the Orlando resorts in the park. She manages the front desk and a few other things. They treat their employees really well, which makes me happy to spend some money there. They also have the food of the world thing in Epcot every year... which while entirely fake and cheesy, is a lot of fun. We are planning on going down again this year.
Yes Disney is one of the best employers. They pay relatively well, allow flexible schedules (even unskilled jobs), and give great benefits. On top of all that, they also have one of the best employee training programs. Having Disney on your resume is a really good thing for Orlando area employers, because they know you have to have good customer service skills.
The parks themselves are not worth the money unless you take advantage of them in the off season. I can tell you this with certainty growing up in Orlando. Any ride waits longer than 10 minutes is garbage and you shouldn't have to pay to stand in line. I have been Disney parks and had plenty of days where you just walk on to the rides. This is when the parks make sense.
Epcot is a great place to have a date night. The other parks are more children oriented, but Fort Wilderness is also a place that adults will enjoy.
Disney prices actually used to be higher if you consider inflation. Park admission has slowly gone up over the years, but the extras like drinks and food have not followed suite. I can remember paying $2.50 for a drink when I was a kid. That was absolute robbery when you could get a soda from Walmart for $.35 from the machine. Drinks are now like $3.50 or so if I remember correctly. Food was also really expensive in the 90s. It is still expensive now, but more reasonable as inflation increased.
I believe Disney figured out that locals will come dine at their restaurants at a regular basis if their prices are somewhat reasonable. The in park restaurants are pretty good, but Disney also has restaurants in downtown Disney that are open to everyone. I knowa fewpeople that go to Disney restaurants for date nights regularly.
We used to live about an hour from Disney when I was a kid (in the 90's). We used to go once or twice a month, my father got vouchers from his employer, I remember it being a lot of fun when I was a kid especially Epcot (which my siblings didn't like). I recently went back last year and Epcot is still my favorite. I also enjoyed Hollywood Studios, although that is apparently not going to exist anymore. We used to go exactly when you mentioned, at one point it felt like it was just us at the park, we went on the Star Tours ride like 8-10 times in a row by ourselves.
Although my absolute favorite thing in Florida has to be St. Augustine. We were like 30-40 minutes from that when we lived in Florida, if people haven't been I recommend it to everyone.
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@coliver said:
@IRJ said:
@coliver said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets."
I've never been to Disney World but, Disney land was pretty dirty.. as was much the rest of SoCAL.
My sister works for WDW in one of the Orlando resorts in the park. She manages the front desk and a few other things. They treat their employees really well, which makes me happy to spend some money there. They also have the food of the world thing in Epcot every year... which while entirely fake and cheesy, is a lot of fun. We are planning on going down again this year.
Yes Disney is one of the best employers. They pay relatively well, allow flexible schedules (even unskilled jobs), and give great benefits. On top of all that, they also have one of the best employee training programs. Having Disney on your resume is a really good thing for Orlando area employers, because they know you have to have good customer service skills.
The parks themselves are not worth the money unless you take advantage of them in the off season. I can tell you this with certainty growing up in Orlando. Any ride waits longer than 10 minutes is garbage and you shouldn't have to pay to stand in line. I have been Disney parks and had plenty of days where you just walk on to the rides. This is when the parks make sense.
Epcot is a great place to have a date night. The other parks are more children oriented, but Fort Wilderness is also a place that adults will enjoy.
Disney prices actually used to be higher if you consider inflation. Park admission has slowly gone up over the years, but the extras like drinks and food have not followed suite. I can remember paying $2.50 for a drink when I was a kid. That was absolute robbery when you could get a soda from Walmart for $.35 from the machine. Drinks are now like $3.50 or so if I remember correctly. Food was also really expensive in the 90s. It is still expensive now, but more reasonable as inflation increased.
I believe Disney figured out that locals will come dine at their restaurants at a regular basis if their prices are somewhat reasonable. The in park restaurants are pretty good, but Disney also has restaurants in downtown Disney that are open to everyone. I knowa fewpeople that go to Disney restaurants for date nights regularly.
We used to live about an hour from Disney when I was a kid (in the 90's). We used to go once or twice a month, my father got vouchers from his employer, I remember it being a lot of fun when I was a kid especially Epcot (which my siblings didn't like). I recently went back last year and Epcot is still my favorite. I also enjoyed Hollywood Studios, although that is apparently not going to exist anymore. We used to go exactly when you mentioned, at one point it felt like it was just us at the park, we went on the Star Tours ride like 8-10 times in a row by ourselves.
Although my absolute favorite thing in Florida has to be St. Augustine. We were like 30-40 minutes from that when we lived in Florida, if people haven't been I recommend it to everyone.
Back then MGM (Hollywood) Studios was a much smaller park compared to Epcot and Magic Kingdom
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@coliver said:
@IRJ said:
@coliver said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I like to describe Venice as "a dirty Disney World where an Oriental Trading Company catelogue exploded on the streets."
I've never been to Disney World but, Disney land was pretty dirty.. as was much the rest of SoCAL.
My sister works for WDW in one of the Orlando resorts in the park. She manages the front desk and a few other things. They treat their employees really well, which makes me happy to spend some money there. They also have the food of the world thing in Epcot every year... which while entirely fake and cheesy, is a lot of fun. We are planning on going down again this year.
Yes Disney is one of the best employers. They pay relatively well, allow flexible schedules (even unskilled jobs), and give great benefits. On top of all that, they also have one of the best employee training programs. Having Disney on your resume is a really good thing for Orlando area employers, because they know you have to have good customer service skills.
The parks themselves are not worth the money unless you take advantage of them in the off season. I can tell you this with certainty growing up in Orlando. Any ride waits longer than 10 minutes is garbage and you shouldn't have to pay to stand in line. I have been Disney parks and had plenty of days where you just walk on to the rides. This is when the parks make sense.
Epcot is a great place to have a date night. The other parks are more children oriented, but Fort Wilderness is also a place that adults will enjoy.
Disney prices actually used to be higher if you consider inflation. Park admission has slowly gone up over the years, but the extras like drinks and food have not followed suite. I can remember paying $2.50 for a drink when I was a kid. That was absolute robbery when you could get a soda from Walmart for $.35 from the machine. Drinks are now like $3.50 or so if I remember correctly. Food was also really expensive in the 90s. It is still expensive now, but more reasonable as inflation increased.
I believe Disney figured out that locals will come dine at their restaurants at a regular basis if their prices are somewhat reasonable. The in park restaurants are pretty good, but Disney also has restaurants in downtown Disney that are open to everyone. I knowa fewpeople that go to Disney restaurants for date nights regularly.
We used to live about an hour from Disney when I was a kid (in the 90's). We used to go once or twice a month, my father got vouchers from his employer, I remember it being a lot of fun when I was a kid especially Epcot (which my siblings didn't like). I recently went back last year and Epcot is still my favorite. I also enjoyed Hollywood Studios, although that is apparently not going to exist anymore. We used to go exactly when you mentioned, at one point it felt like it was just us at the park, we went on the Star Tours ride like 8-10 times in a row by ourselves.
Although my absolute favorite thing in Florida has to be St. Augustine. We were like 30-40 minutes from that when we lived in Florida, if people haven't been I recommend it to everyone.
It's alot harder to get in free these days. I used to get in free a few times a month before and constantly had free tickets that went to waste. Every part time employee got tons of tickets they could give out free. Too bad they dont do that anymore.
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@IRJ said:
Back then MGM (Hollywood) Studios was a much smaller park compared to Epcot and Magic Kingdom
Still is. It has actually shrunk, not grown, in the years since.
The Studios are the smallest at something like half the size of the Magic Kingdom. The MK is likewise about half the size of EPCOT. The Animal Kingdom is them larger than the other three combined.
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@coliver said:
Although my absolute favorite thing in Florida has to be St. Augustine. We were like 30-40 minutes from that when we lived in Florida, if people haven't been I recommend it to everyone.
I like that town a lot. Home of the Datil pepper.
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@IRJ said:
Yes Disney is one of the best employers. They pay relatively well, allow flexible schedules (even unskilled jobs), and give great benefits.
That must be new. I've had friends that worked there and it was amazing it was even legal. But people beg to work there, so there is no need for them to do anything more than the minimum. It's a "luxury" job to get to have.
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@IRJ said:
Disney prices actually used to be higher if you consider inflation. Park admission has slowly gone up over the years, but the extras like drinks and food have not followed suite.
Some things like food prices have come down, but the quality has plummeted. In the 2000s it was a food destination. Now it is mediocre at best. It's really sad that they abandoned the foodie project that they had had. It really turned things around.
But the admission prices have gone way up while the amount of time that they give you in the park have gone way down. Just in the past three years our effective entrance cost has more than doubled while inflation has been low. The value is nowhere near what it used to be.
