According to the article Disney World theme park revenues were close to matching last year’s numbers. But part of that swing came as the weeks for the year fell in favor of 1st quarter 2010 verses 2009. When you take the year’s largest ten days of park revenue and put it in one quarter, it will make that quarter look mighty good. But the results are only temporary for the next quarter will look anemic in comparison.

The bottom line tourism in Orlando is down. Occupancy at most hotels are down 10% this year verses last. The economy and the weather are two of the main culprits. It has been cold this winter. Where the months of January and February are great for in-state travel, this season this year has had to deal with one blast of arctic air after another. Floridians like nice weather and are not coming to enjoy the magic.

What does all of this mean…well, the economic recovery looks to be slow moving at best. People are focused on paying off debt and are still worried about their jobs. All of this spells a pretty poor year for those looking to do an Orlando Vacation.

The good news is rates for hotels and food will be cheaper. Lines at the theme parks will not be as big an issue, and deals will be offered during the slower travel months when the kids are in school. This is an ideal time to consider coming to Orlando and enjoy a fabulous vacation and do it cheaper than most other times.

I went so far as to find theme park tickets on the site. Those were the same as gate prices with no discounts being offered. All I could say is WOW!

Now I know this airline is one of the largest carriers to Orlando. They advertise they are the most competitive when it comes to their cost of air service….very few if any beat them at their game. However, I thought it interesting that philosophy did not channel over to their vacation package department.

We all know that the economy is in the dumps. Times are difficult and a Disney World Vacation at the prices they are charging is indeed a luxury.

To truly save money take the test…do the math…go to your favorite airline site look for packages. Then select Orlando as your destination. Put in the dates of travel, if you have to put in the airfare, list it and then go back and do the flights separately without the theme park tickets and hotel stay. You will then have a net price for the Orlando vacation package without air. Then go to www.orlandovacationhotels.com and check out a package with a similar hotel.

You will be impressed with the startling difference!

The reason for the additional costs is do in large part to the amenities that Disney World requires on any hotel located inside the park. For instance, Disney requires all park located properties to provide FREE shuttle service to all the theme parks every 30 minutes. This is a nice amenity however, to those who wanted to take their car to the parks, this is a feature but not much of a benefit.

There are other requirements that Disney located properties must endure. For instance, Disney inspects rather frequently the properties that are located inside the gate. This insures the guest that standards are being maintained at a very high level.

All of this however, drives the rates up and in some cases quite significantly. If you perform a rate study of the properties located at the Maingate rather than inside the parks you will find the difference to be glaring.

Is this rate justifiable, maybe! When you buy a Mercedes you know the quality is built into the car…the same holds true when booking a property inside Disney World. When you look outside the parks for the cheaper rates you will find them….however, it is best to stay with a national named franchise to get the assurance that you are going to get a nice room.

Nightly rate… It is generally understood that a Disney World Vacation is quite expensive at least compared to most trips. The high cost of daily theme park tickets is what drives the budget. To combat that many have tried to find attractive nightly rates on their accommodations. A few of the choices we would recommend where there is good quality rooms at reasonable prices would be: Holiday Inn Maingate East Resort, Radisson Worldgate Resort, Best Western Lake Buena Vista Resort and Hawthorn Suites Resort.

Extra Amenities….Here a guest is looking for something out of the ordinary that he may have to pay for at a hotel, but that comes FREE somewhere else. A classic would be a free breakfast. Here a family of four could eat at the hotel and save the cost of the meal generally saving as much as $40 daily. Some properties to consider would be the Baymont Inn and Suites Maingate West or the Hawthorn Suites Resort.

Larger space…Lets say you have a family of five or even six and you are looking for nice accommodations. Most people would like to have them all stay in one room or suite. This is a way to save money. Some of the best lodging values where space is important in the Disney World market are: Hawthorn Suites which accommodates up to five people. The Fountains two bedroom Suites handle very nicely six guests and the Windwood Bay condos and SeraLago Suites provide bedding for up to eight guests.

Whatever the need, if one searches www.orlandovacation.com they will find exceptional accommodations providing outstanding values from those demanding a five star hotel to those on a tight budget.

The question is…will it produce the numbers. The answer is a resounding “yes”. Universal Studios has always basked in the shadow of Mickey, Minnie and the gang down the street. They were thought of as a “me too” park. Something had to give, and Harry Potter seems the right ingredient to make it work.

Harry Potter hits a home run for it addresses the target age for Orlando vacation prospects. Those 6 to 10 year olds are the ideal ages for a trip to Disney World and Universal Studios. Since Disney has virtually had the market to itself, no doubt this move, and for that matter, any move will bring more guests to return to Orlando. The more guests in the city, the more they will take in the Harry Potter rides but they will also sample the treats awaiting them down the street at Disney World. And as the tourists flock to Orlando in 2010, many will want to sample SeaWorld as well.

The best way to sample all that Orlando has to offer is through a package deal where you get super value, some FREE tickets to attractions while staying at a first class hotel or private vacation pool home. Why not take a look at the deals that await you at orlandovacationhotels.com…you will be glad you did.

They all believe that 2010 will start off on a high note. They state the first quarter will actually show significant improvement (up 10%) over the corresponding period of 2009. They also believe that nightly rates will inch up by as much as 5% as more leisure travelers escape to the warmer weather of Florida.

As Bill said, the domestic market is what we are concentrating on. Americans are more resilient in difficult times. They still like to vacation with the family and will spend reasonable money to have a good time. He said he envisioned much less competition from foreign travel due to the sagging dollar.

“As a people we are conditioned in the states to look for a good deal….”value” is the name of the game and that will be the case for 2010. There will be significant leisure travel for Florida and in particular in Orlando we are forecasting a greater demand than last year. However, we are making these statements based on the economy inching its way out of the recession and no major terrorist threats on the home front”….he said.

Major climatic weather is not figured in our equation either. Bill has read as most prognosticators that the hurricane season for 2010 maybe more troubling in the late summer and fall this year over last. If this be the case, the Orlando lodging market will be hurt in the third quarter.

All in all…what he said that might effect the leisure travel for you in 2010: the first quarter (January through March) will be up 10% with rates up at least 5%. The remainder of the year will depend to a great extent on the overall economy, the climate and the threats to our society.

This new project of town homes is located in the stylish development called Legacy Park and they are literally seven minutes from the entrance to Disney World. These first class town homes offer both two and three bedroom homes for the family that wants to spread out and enjoy their vacation. Think about it….here the kids can have their own bedroom while mom and dad are down the hall.

The Towns are not dolled up with the amenities like that of an Executive Home with a private pool, but the attractiveness to these units is the low nightly rate.

These quality built homes sold to investors in 2006 for $250,000 each.

Where The Towns don’t offer private pools with their rental units, they do have a nice community pool and clubhouse. Each home also has a laundry room, nice dining area and fully stocked kitchen. All of the bedrooms are located upstairs. The master bedroom has a Queen bed and the second and third bedrooms have twins. This is ideal for families with young kids, for they can be put down to sleep while the older family members can each other downstairs in the great room.

If you are looking for low attractive rates on spacious accommodations for your upcoming Disney World trip, you will definitely want to consider staying at the Towns of Legacy Park.

Therefore, if we are looking for Hotels in Kissimmee, FL we are actually searching for hotels near Disney World…they are one in the same.

I won’t go into the history of Kissimmee even though their past is fascinating. What I will do is tell you that there are a myriad of hotels in the Kissimmee market that are there primarily for vacationers to enjoy as they are doing Disney World this year.

Let’s look at a few nice ones that you might want to check out on www.orlandovacationhotels.com.

First…there is the brand new Holiday Inn Maingate East which sports interior entrances to all rooms, a gorgeous restaurant and lounge, a sumptuous pool and spa area and of course the top of the line service you would expect at a first class Holiday Inn.

The SeraLago Hotel and Suites is across the street from the Holiday Inn and is located only 3.5 miles to the entrance to Disney World. They provide scheduled Free shuttle throughout the day to the parks. This older hotel has been well maintained and is very clean. If you are looking for nice, clean accommodations at a super price, the SeraLago would be an excellent choice.

The Radisson Worldgate Resort is located only 70 seconds from the entrance to Disney World. They also provide free scheduled shuttle service to not only Disney World but also to Universal Studios and SeaWorld. If you are looking for attractive first-class rooms complete with Queen beds and a FREE refrigerator and you desire a very good deal on a low nightly rate…then the first class Radisson has to be on your list.

Finally the Maingate West Resort at Disney World is must see. This first class condo hotel has it all! A 42” flat screen television in your room along with your kitchenette complete with a refrigerator and microwave. Don’t forget the Queen beds and the marble vanities in the bath area. Here you are located only one minute and 20 seconds to the entrance to Disney World and the hotel provides FREE shuttle. Also, they offer a Free delicious continental breakfast to all their guests.

The Kissimmee Hotels listed here are excellent choices when setting up this year’s Disney World vacation. Check them out…you will be glad you did.

It is interesting to note, the best way to find attractive discounts on travel is through the internet. According to internet statistics, the number one legitimate business sporting the largest revenue stream and the most traffic year in and year out is travel. Therefore, if you will search under a common term, it will take you no time to find attractive deals on accommodations for your upcoming Disney Vacation.

If you choose to perform this search, I might suggest you look for Hotels Orlando for nice accommodations close to the area you where you will be spending most of the time. Most tourists who visit Orlando, want to spend their time at Disney World. Here is another statistic that I found of interest: 43% of all hotel reservations are determined by the hotel’s close proximity to the attraction or event drawing the traffic to the market. If you are going to spend the majority of your time at Disney World, it stands to reason you want to stay in a hotel near Disney World.

Many internet sites will give you a ranking system or testimonial guidelines as to how the hotel is received today in the market. Where rankings such as five-star and four diamond might have been important in the past, most tourists have found that the new system makes it easier to judge the overall quality of one’s property both as to cleanliness, hospitality and of course, service.

Price is just one of the ingredients you as a potential guest should search for. Searching the web under a term such as cheap hotels Orlando may produce results that you show you low prices you very well may not be happy with our selection. “Cheap” may mean low price, but if the room you are about to rent is filthy, or if the walls have holes in them or your toilet or air conditioning doesn’t work, I dare say you will not be too excited about the accommodations even though you got it at such a low nightly rate.

Best of luck to you as you spend time looking on the internet for the best hotel deals in Orlando. By the way, you may want to save yourself some time and view orlandovacationhotels.com, I think you will find it to be a most attractive site on the web.

The same deal holds true when pricing Kissimmee Vacation Packages. No there is nothing going to come to you FREE… But, if you are looking for the very best deal on attraction tickets to go along with your first class accommodations, then bundling the two products to make a package is definitely the way to go.

I just took a call from a Orlando Vacation Hotel prospect who wanted to bring his two kids (4 and 6 yrs old) to Orlando. He was appalled to discover how expensive the one day attraction tickets were. He said, “man, I can’t afford that, I need something much cheaper.”

I went to the drawing board and put together his plans complete with a two-day pass to SeaWorld along with a two night hotel stay in a four star resort all for $298 plus tax for his party of three. What he wanted was to spend quality time with his kids while they were out of school. By bundling his two day tickets to SeaWorld along with a first-class hotel, we were able to accomplish what he wanted and to do it well within his budget.

Today, the tourist business is facing difficult times. Hotels and a few licensed ticket providers are coming together to offer exceptional deals on both services…especially when they are bundled together. If you are looking for an outstanding deal on a complete Orlando vacation, you will want to check out bundling your attraction tickets including Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld to make an attractive Orlando Vacation package.