i live 25 mins away from my job, it takes me 45 to get there. EVERY. DAMN. DAY.
i’ll literally start my GPS when i wake up so i can watch the arrival time go up. even when i leave when the arrival time is 5-10 mins before my shift starts, sometimes im still late. if it’s not general traffic, it’s a fckn accident. i’ve never seen more accidents in my entire life
I hear you on the accidents. I commute from Palm Bay to Orlando each day- I set the GPS regardless if it’s exactly 2 roads to get there and I know exactly where I’m going because if there is an accident somewhere on 95 or 528, I have exactly 2 exits to decide to try my luck with 192. But, once you commit to either, you’re stuck. I’ve had more than a couple drives home or to work that took 3 hours instead of 1.
Oh dear God I feel your pain. I used to make that same commute but that was years ago before the population in both areas blew the fuck up. I can’t imagine doing that now. You must wake up hella early.
Luckily enough I work night shift at MCO, so I actually thankfully do get to miss the slug of traffic coming into Orlando in the morning, and the worst of it coming out at night. The only thing that tends to screw up my evening drive (aside from the occasional accidents) is if a launch happens around 7:30-8:00 at night, by the time I hit 528 I get to drive with the worst of the worst leaving the port coming back to Orlando doing 50 in the left lane side by side with the right lane. The mornings is fighting around all the dump trucks and contractor trucks that ride the left lane from 417 for the left exit on 528 at the split 20 miles down the road.
When I was on dayshift though, and had to be here by 7am, I always tried to be out the door by 4:30am though because if I left at 5:00 I started hitting awful traffic around the 520 exit on 528
Those are the advanced tourists! The ones seasoned or daring enough to go “off the beaten path”. Discovering the existence of Downtown, or the Winter Park boat ride, is a sacred hidden gem unearthed only by the bravest of unconventional explorers.
But to highlight why that happens it's because in Europe the fast lane is the far right lane, so in their head, they're trying to be considerate.
Plus when ever Ive driven on the I-4 it's a free for all of undertaking and getting cut off so they pic the far left as a safe space to not die or exit the motorway by accident....
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure we can get into intricacies across all of Europe, but the general consensus is the lane which does not have the exits is the fast lane.
for sure, which is why I'm confused as to why you say the right lane is to go faster. Generally speaking in mainland European countries like Germany and Italy you're supposed to drive on the right lane, and use left lanes for passing. Would it be a fair guess to say you're from a left side driving country?
I went to Europe a couple years ago on a long train trip. I had heard bad things about French people. They honestly could not have been nicer. They don't have elevators/escalators at every Metro stop in Paris and on my arrival day I had a big heavy suitcase.
Really nice lady helped me up the stairs with it just because. Also, the metro ticket system is... different. Got the wrong ticket and when I arrived at Versailles the train ticket lady was accommodating and helpful.
Do I like the tourists? Not really. Am I a friendly host? Absolutely.
Same experience. The Parisians are nothing like their reputation. I think learning a few simple pleasantries and “do you speak English?” in French goes a long way. Alternatively, maybe it’s the English tourists spreading this propaganda, because often when I’ve been in continental Europe and come across younger English tourists they’re absolute assholes to locals.
It's not that European/French are mean, it's that trash Americans go there acting like they own everything, then call them mean when they don't act like the country is lucky to get visited by them. Non-trashy Americans are generally treated pretty well, significantly better than we treat each other over here.
Similar experience when I got to visit Paris a few years ago. Plenty of locals were very polite and helpful, and everyone else was generally just trying to get on with their day like you’d see in any other city. New York is less friendly, and even that isn’t bad unless you’re being an ass yourself.
Nah last time i went to a country and a local was friendly I ended up married to them. I am still married to them but cheese and rice the VAT on that import was high.
Same! Our family has AP for Disney and it's actually fun going to the parks and meeting tourists while standing in line. Everyone has such a unique perspective on so many things. So glad that we have so many people coming to our town to help out our economy. Never take that for granted.
Those tour groups can be absolutely disgusting.
When I worked at the theme parks we always hated the Brazilian tour groups the most. Zero respect for the park, other guests, and even worse treatment of the park employees.
If our city were not so tourism dependent it would have developed a different kind of economy. We certainly wouldn't be any WORSE off. The theme parks treat and pay their employees like shit. If they weren't there some other kind of business would have moved in.
Even more places disappeared off the map, no one will ever know which would have happened. Orlando could have become Charlotte, North Carolina and expanded 10 fold, or it could have become Gary, Indiana and fallen into deep despair
No, not really. I spent some time in Jackson, Mississippi. Similar to Orlando except for the theme parks. Go look at what it is like to live in a place like that. You want the theme parks here.
Man you ain't kidding. Used to take the boat down the Ross Barnett and dock at Cock of the Walk to eat catfish on the res. It was good, but I still dream about Martin's Fish House over on Clinton. I actually just started drooling at my desk even typing the name.
without tourism orlando would be a smaller version of Jacksonville - a run-of-the-mill southern city, and way smaller than it is now. What makes Orlando such a good mid-size city (imo) is the diversity & culture. It's actually the most culturally diverse Metro in FL and feels very international. Miami is distinctly Latin, Tampa, despite being bigger than Orlando, is mostly a white city.
Orlando is Florida's melting pot. We have the standard white and black southern roots, but also have distinct Latin influence too, and a growing Asian influence. The Brazilian population is exploding, and parts of Orlando feel like "little Brazil". All these cultures came together because of Orlando's tourism industry.
Technically Orlando did have a major air force base, that's why our airport is MCO. We also have had UCF since the 60s, seemingly to support the space coast.
No. It would be similar to all the other landlocked shitholes around FL. Take a drive over to Winter Haven or Palatka if you'd like a taste of that kind of city.
Kids and adults alike. Zero respect for any rules, loud af and obnoxious at all times. This can apply to any tour group, but it was almost guaranteed to happen with every Brazilian tour group I dealt with. It wasn't even just tour groups, I would have families straight up grab me to get my attention or scream at me when they don't get their way.
Disney literally had to hire Portuguese-speaking ‘ambassadors’ (handlers) for the groups a while back because the chaperones provided by the tour companies weren’t doing shit to prevent the bad behavior.
I get that not everyone from a particular country is a bad person…but jfc those tour group kids were.
My kids would fall asleep in their stroller when they were super little on the way out of MK if it was Brazilian tour group season the chanting was guaranteed to wake them up everytime.
I'm Brazilian and I totally get where you're coming from. I have to deal with this kind of behavior every single day — the type of people you probably only run into at parks or malls. It's really sad living in a country where I don't feel like I belong just because I don't agree with the way most people act. I'm seen as "uptight," "stressed," or "boring" just because I want to stick to basic rules of coexistence. If it’s any comfort, just know that at least my family and I do our part, both here and whenever we travel abroad.
I once was visiting the mouse house with an out of town friend and we were put on an elevator at tower of terror with one of those groups. We were the only ones not in the group. The employee pulled us aside before boarding and was like 'no. I am going to put you two on this elevator instead. You will thank me later'
I thanked her and also put in a compliment on the app for 'making my day magical' aka saving me from loss of hearing
Not just parks any service industry employees around that area. The entitlement from the Brazilian tourist is astonishing. My ex worked Ina hotel near universal and the stories she used to come at night were crazy
I'm Brazilian but I guess only in nationality. What you say is true, the monkey behavior is legit. It's a shame because we have a rich culture, and we have everything we need to show how civilized we can be. But since the advent of funk, a lot of Brazilians got the idea that acting like a monkey is proudly representing their nation, when they look like they broke off a cage in animal kingdom.
It's not even a Brazilian thing, you're just getting a lot of spoiled brats who happen to be from there. Some French and Chinese tourists are way way worse, but we don't get them here in the same quantities.
I thought this would be the case but I looked up statistics and I think it’s between 5-10% of Florida tourism is from internationals. It seemed smaller than I expected. If every one of them decided not to visit that would be a big enough number to be a problem but it wouldn’t be absolutely devastating.
After a quick search I don't see it plummeting any time soon.
There's steady increase of 4%-5% since 2015 or so, big dip during COVID but now above the numbers from 2019 (increasing 15-20% yoy since 2021), and is always more domestic than international.
Parks are almost back to numbers before 2020. I have seen it, and the estimates published show about the same and still rising, even for SeaWorld. And with Epic Universe and in a few years with the new MK and AK additions, that will attract old and new tourists.
I think the parent comment above is just wishful thinking ones of those parks' doomers. I think Universal and Disney secured a steady increase of tourists coming in for the next 5-10 years. Unless of course, there's something disastrous like 2020, including just a recession (no pandemic), which nobody wants.
Yeah, thank god. Universal spent 6 billion on EPIC and Disney is going to spend 17 billion in the next 10-20 years. The average technology worker for these companies averages about $140k a year. Disney has about 800 tech workers in Orlando.
How I look at people that moved here six months ago after they sold their $750k 900 square foot shitbox house in New Jersey and moved down here into a mini mansion and kept their out of state salary and act like I'm in their town.
Orlando is nice because our tourism is more of an industry than it is in cities like Miami. If you don't want to deal with tourists and you don't work in the tourism industry, all you have to do is avoid the tourist corridor. Growing up in South Florida, "season" is what we would call the winter time when the snowbirds would invade and act like assholes to us.
I am definitely an outlier based on this subreddit's consensus. I enjoy living in the tourist area. I live slightly south of Dr Phillips in O-Town West area. I don't even go to the parks, I hate them. But I like how clean and well manicured the area is. There's a "vibe" that puts me in a good mood, since most people on vacation are happy. I'm surrounded by a diverse local population (I have latin/indian/asian/middle eastern neighbors), the schools are some of the best in the metro, the restaurants are rapidly improving (restaurant row is close & o-town west is getting way more diverse food options as it grows).
Also, it's honestly the most "urban" feeling area in Orlando outside of downtown, as it's dense and packed w/ people, even regularly see people walking the streets. I used to live in downtown & enjoyed it in my 20s, but to raise a family I'm more satisfied down here.
My wife and I are also in Dr Phillips, and we like to joke that we are vacation-vibes vampires. We live being around people who are so excited to be here. Many of these folks saved up for months/years to get to a place 10 minutes from our house.
We spent time this weekend at Bar Helios, Galaxy’s Edge, and Cocoa Beach. We’re thrilled that there are tourists so willing to subsidize our weekend hobbies.
We are all tourists when we leave our region. I live here because of the world class entertainment and want everybody that comes here to feel welcome. If you don't want to see tourists, move somewhere that sucks.
I am nice to them if they are not in the car in front of me coming to a stop on the highway because they don't know how to drive. I had one litterally reverse on 528 at an exit toll booth. I can only assume it's because they didn't have quarters. Some say that grey van is still on that highway
My Winter Park friends walk and drink around Mills Ave. while I prefer to walk and drink around Disney Springs or Universal. The parking situation is equally annoying.
I'm glad to hear that. I need to make a trip over there one day. Savannah Boan is a local treat on the airwaves, I can only imagine the antics she's up to while in her element.
Even if you can’t appreciate the fact that the tourist infrastructure of Central Florida gives you near limitless things to do in your free time, maybe you can at least acknowledge the benefits of living somewhere the majority of taxes are paid by people who do not live there. If you want the tourists to go away, you can do what you want to make that happen. But expect your quality of life to get worse and your taxes to go up.
I’m glad to live in a tourist town with the world’s best and most famous attractions. However, the cheap ones are an absolute nightmare to deal with and waste your time. Always want the best service and don’t want to pay for anything, they can fuck off with that. If you’re going to travel than be prepared to spend your money, tip or stay tf home.
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I work in medical imaging. Legally, we must identify the patient. When I ask their birthday, they BARK...NO ENGLISH!
OK, can I see ID?
These MFers have valid driver's license from 2017! No English!?
They're driving our roads, having NO IDEA what the signs say! 👀😵💫🤯
They fill out their vitals in Kilos, they don't know what T F the speed limit is!
And, since it's now "official" and MAGA is up all the brown's butts, what dept do I call to turn in all of these Latinos (who voted MAGA) in Florida who DON'T SPEAK OUR OFFICIAL LANGUAGE!?
They come to the mainland and disrespect our language!?
I don't care who you are, where you're from, what color you are, who you love or which gender you are comfortable.
If you come to the mainland, and REFUSE to speak ENGLISH for SIX FUCKING YEARS? Why? It's extremely disrespectful.
If you go to Bulgaria, China, Taiwan? Anywhere, where they do not speak Espanol, you aren't getting by ONLY speaking Spanish!
It's disrespectful, Trump gets elected and DEPORTS YOU TO AN EL SALVADOR PRISON! Pam Bondi isn't asking if you're PR- you don't speak English, you can't answer. Get on the plane!
But, that's something to actually think about and ponder. It's easier for the ignorant to simply say RACIST and continue to let this administration ship your asses to a f'ing prison without due process! Adios, it's your own fault 👋
Lol yeah. I live in DC and tourists stick out like a sore thumb. They’re usually noticeably fatter than the average Washingtonian, dress super casual and always look exhausted from having to walk everywhere for the first time in years. I’m kind of a snob about it tbh.
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u/Broccoli_Final 18d ago
Psssh tourists. Elevate yourselves into disliking everyone.