Orlando Summer Heat

Summer Heat: How to Plan and Cope with Orlando Weather

Orlando Summer Heat and How to Beat It

Thank you for listening to The Orlando Local Show, Episode 1. We really appreciate you’re time and hope you find some useful tips for dealing with the Orlando summer heat.

We discussed some strategies for visiting Orlando’s theme parks and planning how to make the most of your day and cope with the summer heat and our tropical weather conditions.

Be sure to check out the related links below to find some of the products we mentioned to help you keep cool.

Related Links

Editor's Choice
Frogg Toggs Chilly Pad Cooling Towel, Sky Blue

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Frogg Toggs Chilly Sport Cooling Towel, 33" Length x 6-1/2" Width, Pink

Check out the Frogg Toggs Chilly Sport Cooling Neck & Head Band Towel! Made from Frogg Toggs’ exclusive hyper-evaporative material, this towel provides 3 to 4 hours of cooling relief, perfect for those days when you’re working in the yard or at a sporting event.


And if you get too hot, just wet the towel in cold water; it will instantly cool you down by up to 30 degrees. It’s hands-free, so you can still get your work done without holding onto a sweaty towel.

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We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
Editor's Choice
HandFan Portable Handheld Misting Fan

The HandFan Portable Handheld Misting Fan is a unique and innovative product that is perfect for hot days. This fantastic fan has a 17ml water tank that can be used to cool and refresh your skin. The misting function is perfect for keeping your face or skin moist, and the seven different nightlights make this fan look fantastic at night. With all the functions controlled by one button, this handy little fan is easy to use and a must-have for those hot summer days.

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Transcript

THE ORLANDO LOCAL SHOW

Episode 1

William: Welcome to the Orlando Local show, episode number one.

Hey, thank you for joining us on our first episode of the Orlando Local Show. My name is William Beem.

Lee: Hi, and I’m Lee.

William: And today we’re going to be talking about the summer heat and dealing with how that is in Orlando.  It gets hot, it gets humid and it can be a sticky mess, but we’ve got some ideas and helpful hints that might help you get through this.

We are going to cover things that you may want to pack and bring to Orlando.  We’re going to talk about some strategies for dealing with the heat and of course we are going to talk about the weather itself and how that comes around.

So let me first tell you a little bit about us.  My name is William Beem.  I am the Orlando local native here and I’ve lived here all of my life. I’ve watched everything grow and change.  I got here before Walt Disney did and within a month of Disney World opening up I was there holding the hand of the woman who was taking me.  Since my mother couldn’t make it, I actually went with her hairdresser.  It was a fun little trip and I’ve still got these two little Dalmatians I bought at the Emporium and took home to my mother.  Actually, she’s still got them and there’s a little price tag on the bottom of them: $1.50.  I don’t know of a single thing I can buy at Walt Disney World for $1.50 anymore.

Lee: There is nothing.

William: No, I don’t think so.

Lee: Pressed pennies.

William: Pressed pennies, I think.  What are you going to spend on them? Like a quarter for a pressed penny?

Lee: Those are pressed quarters.  It’s $1.25 for pressed quarter and it’s 51c for a pressed penny.

William: Wow!  That’s just amazing to me.  Anyways, like I said, I’ve been here all my life; I’ve been kind of watching Walt Disney World and the surrounding area change and grow and that means I never really had to go out there and stay on location to have my experience at Walt Disney World.

On the other hand, my beautiful wife, Lee, has spent a lot of time planning and executing trips coming over from the UK with her and her daughter.  How many times do you think that you guys came over here? It’s seven or eight years you’ve been doing this.

Lee: It’s pretty much that.  We were annual visitors and in the latter years we were making more than one trip in a calendar year and staying for ... well always more than two weeks, usually up to three weeks at a time.

William: So you were two to three weeks.  You were staying on property at a Disney resort so your experience is very different than mine.

Lee: Yes it is.  That was the mortgage gone!

William: Exactly! And that’s one of the things that I think the way I do Walt Disney World as an annual passholder and now that you’re an annual passholder as well, is very different than what you did.  You would go in there and you would start in the morning and you’d go until they kicked you out at night.

Lee: Yeah, we did.  I mean there were plenty of times where we were told, pick a bus.  You’re the last ones in here and tell them where you’re going.

William: It really drives you and our daughter Tové crazy because I’ll go out there and say, “Hey, let’s go do one ride.”  And then leave.

Lee: We just don’t understand that!

William: No, and I just did that when Soarin’ just opened up again recently with its refurbishment and I really wanted to see it, but I didn’t want to spend the whole day out at Walt Disney World.  I had other things to do.

You guys accommodated me.  We went out there and I think we went to Club Cool and looked around at some of the drinks.  We went and rode Soarin’ and then we walked out.

Lee: Yeah.  And Tové looked at you and said, “Are we really going? I thought you were kidding!”

William: Yeah. I had to bribe her with ice cream to leave and she said OK.

Lee: Yes.

William: So we’ve got a couple of different points of view of how to do Walt Disney World.  One of the things that Lee really brings to the table here though is, since she’s done these vacations and like she said, blew the mortgage on it, she’s really good at planning.  And she’s had a chance to look at everything, like what are you going to do, when are you going to do it?  How do you make the biggest bang for your buck?

Lee: That’s really what it is and some of it is learning from experience.  I also learned that there is a wealth of knowledge you can gather from other people’s experiences so hopefully mine will help somebody else out here. There are also things that change.  You know, as you visit the same place year after year or time after time, it gets to a point where you start looking for something different or things that are priorities in the beginning change; maybe if you have kids, certainly their interest are going to change; their attention spans and their stamina and ability to keep up with you and to stay awake.  So if you’re going to be a regular visitor, this is going to evolve over time.

William: And that’s something that you found.  Like going with Tové she was, what? Six years old, I think, when you started.

Lee: Yeah.

William: And she’s fourteen now.  So you’ve seen that change from above a toddler age, but to the teenage years and how that changes with someone going along with you.

Lee: It’s like night and day. But then, Disney World and the other parks as well have also undergone so many changes. It’s a different world from when we started coming.

William: And of course the more drastic change was when you had to put up with me and the fact that I just don’t move as quickly as you do.

Lee: No, we used to book it!

William: I just wanted to give you a little bit of background on us.  We are obviously going to be sharing our opinions and experiences and perspectives throughout the shows.  Not only this one, but the other ones coming up.  But today we are talking about Orlando summer heat.

It is the middle of July while we are recording this. It’s hot. It’s humid.  That can make for an interesting experience when you’re visiting Orlando.  We are particularly kind of focused on the folks in the theme parks for most of the visitor who are going to hit something like that, but it doesn’t matter if you’re going to International Drive, if you’re going to the beaches or lakes or some other activity around here.  Maybe you are going to a race up at Daytona.  The heat is going to be with you all the time and we’ve got a couple of ideas of how you can deal with it.

So let’s start off with kind of the first thing to do.  What are you going to expect and what are you going to pack to prepare for what you expect?

Lee: Well packing is really a start point. I think that’s when things get real. You pull out the suitcases and that’s when you know you’re going somewhere and then you kind of stare at things and think, what goes and what doesn’t go?

You’re going to dress for summer.  You probably don’t want jeans or anything too warm unless you are traveling and you have somewhere that you’re going to be where you’re expecting cooler weather.  But certainly for here, shorts and T-shirts or for the girls who don’t like to wear shorts and prefer skirts, something light and comfortable; preferably loose clothing as well I would say.  There’s nothing worse than being hot and sticky and having your clothes stuck to you in the clammy heat.

Bring comfortable shoes if you are expecting to be walking.  I think you are, as a visitor, at some stage, expect to do some walking.

William: Especially if you’re going to the theme parks.  One of the things that you see a difference in people there is like some of them are going to be walking around in tennis shoes; others are going to be walking around in flip flops or sandals or something like that.  I get the idea.  You don’t have anything wrapped around your feet and they are not getting hot, but on the other hand, I don’t know if those are really comfortable for walking all day long.

Lee: I used to do it. I never used to give it a second thought, but then I’ve always walked a lot so perhaps I don’t pay as much attention.  Maybe it didn’t affect me as much.

I would say if you have the space to do so, bring two pairs of shoes; bring some summery flip flops or something you can wear around the pool, on the beach or something multi-purpose and bring something really comfortable and supportive as well.

William: You really kind of hit on something: around the pool.  So if you’re going to a hotel or a theme park or a water park someplace, you don’t necessarily want to be walking around barefoot.

Lee: You do not!  I’ve learned this the hard way and it’s not that I didn’t know any better.  You just sometimes have a momentary loss of presence of mind and we figured we would run from the loungers to the pool and that was apparently a really bad idea!  It was like walking on hot coals.

William: Well, here in Florida when you’ve got a pool they’ve got the concrete that they put down – something called Cool Deck – and it’s supposed to prevent your feet from burning, but not everybody uses the same thing and it’s going to be hot on some of those stones, particularly if they have been baking out there for a while.

But it’s not just that. If you’re out there with other tourists or other people, they may have dropped things and you’re going to step on those if you’re not paying attention.

You don’t want something cutting into your feet.

Lee: Well, it depends where you are. I think generally pools have rules where there are no glass containers. That doesn’t mean everybody abides by the rules, so expect that there might be the exception.  But just generally keeping shoes on where you can for your own protection is something you’ll appreciate.

William: Especially if you’re going to be someplace out where there is wildlife, because if you suddenly say, oh snake!  And you want to step away from it quickly, you don’t want to leave your shoes behind.

Lee: Yeah, we’ve had one floating under the lounger at the pool.  A thundershower came down and we thought we would just sit there. There was no lightning or anything and you know what the water is like. It rains and then it’s a few inches deep.  And little black snake floated through underneath everybody’s loungers.

William: And that’s the other thing.  We weren’t really going to talk about that so much, but just be prepared.  There’s wildlife in Florida and mostly it wants to leave you alone, but occasionally there are going to be snakes, there are going to be gators and you just want to leave them alone and let them go their own way.  Even if you run across squirrels.  If it’s wild, let it be.

Lee: Yeah, they tend not to bother you. Just be aware. Watch where you put your feet. It’s the usual common sense that applies with this.

William: And you brought up the other thing.  We were going to talk about the weather a little bit. If you’re going to be here in Orlando in the summer time, you’re going to see mostly the same pattern.  It’s going to vary from day to day.  But you’re going to wake up in the morning and it’s going to be warmer than you think for the morning and it’s going to be a bit humid.  That humidity and the heat are going to build up during the day.

Then in the afternoon we have what they call sea breeze collisions. In other words, since Florida is a peninsula, there is going to be a sea breeze from one coast to the other and it’s going to hit somewhere in the middle and that’s what’s going to bring about our afternoon thunderstorms.

Lee: Yes. And just so that you guys know, talking about the humidity in the morning, it seems to be a little bit worse in the morning than what it is often later in the day.  But for the past week I’ve been checking in the mornings and before six o’ clock it’s been between 95% and 98%.  So yeah, you want a soup ladle for the air that you are going to try and breathe.

William:  Oh yeah! You can pretty much cut it with a knife and chew it.  That’s something else.  If you’re into exercising, Lee is a runner. She gets up in the morning because that’s the coolest part of the day and she’s going out running miles and miles in this weather.  That’s the best part of the day, but it’s also still, like you said, the most humid part of the day.  So if you want to have exercise plans, just be prepared for that.

Lee: Yes, I’m not a morning person, but it is absolutely worth it!

William: Well, it’s not only because the temperature is going to be a little bit cooler, but you’ve also brought up the point that the sun isn’t directly overhead and hitting you that way.

Lee: It makes a big difference. It really does. Yes.

William: So if you’re an early morning person it’s still the coolest part of the day, like maybe 80 degrees.

Lee: Yeah, somewhere around there. And you’re going to go crashing through some spider webs.

William: Yeah they rebuild those things every night.

Alright, so you’re going to have afternoon thunderstorms and downpours.  Sometimes you’re going to have lightning, sometimes you won’t.  Please respect the lightning.

Central Florida is basically the lightning capitol of the world. We’ve got two, apparently, they tell us.  One is that we get more lightning than anybody else and two, we get more shark attacks than anybody else. The nice part is if you’re staying in the Orlando area, not too many sharks are going to be jumping out after you.  But lightning ... we’ve been watching the news the past few weeks and there have been a number of strikes that have hit people that were out in the water, just maybe ankle deep or so.

Lee: Well wasn’t it yesterday they were just sitting on the beach? Weren’t they? They weren’t even in the water.  They were on the sand.

William: Exactly.  But you know if you see lightning out there, just respect it.  It can come down and hit you and the chances of being struck by lightning they say are really small.  There’s a greater chance of being hit by lightning than being attacked by a shark.  Well we get both of them here and the chances may be smaller elsewhere in the world, but over here it still happens.  We’ve been seeing it on the news once or twice a week for the past few weeks now.

Lee: Don’t be afraid. Just be aware and respect it.

William: Yeah I’m not trying to scare you. Most people come here and they are not going to be struck by lightning. It’s really not as bad as I’m probably making it sound, but it’s just common sense. You see the lightning, stay away from it.  Get indoors.  Enjoy yourself over there.

The other nice part about our thunderstorms though, is they move by quickly.  They don’t just kind of hang out over your head.  Ten to fifteen minutes and a rainstorm could be started and finished.

Lee: And it does cool things down for a while so straight after that storm you’ve got softer light, you’ve got a cooler feel so go and make the most of it.

William: But also, you’ve got some steam that starts to rise up off of the asphalt and concrete.

Lee: Yes.

William: That humidity!  It’s like you suddenly dump all that water on there and it does cool down the temperature, but then the humidity is going to start picking up again.

Lee: Well I mean I went for a walk after dinner tonight and it hadn’t rained this evening, but when I walked by a little wall you could actually feel the heat radiating off the bricks, even though the sun was gone.

William: And that’s really how it cools off.  That water comes down and the steam evaporates the heat back up.  So it does cool things down overall, but if you’re going to be in the theme park or going down International Drive on the sidewalks just after a rainstorm, give it a few minutes before you venture back out so that way you can let that part pass.

Things dry up here very quickly.  Florida soil is basically a sponge and the water will come down and the stuff on the surface will evaporate quickly. Within fifteen to thirty minutes you almost wouldn’t know it had rained, most of the time.

Lee: It’s really sandy so it’s so porous.  It just all runs through.

William: Well there’s a big aquifer underneath and Florida’s got a lot of caverns. You can’t see them; they are just all under the ground.  So you start digging in your back yard and the next thing you know, you’ve got a swimming pool!

Alright, one of the things I see out at theme parks a lot are ponchos. People seem to prefer ponchos rather than taking an umbrella with them.

Lee: Yes, please take a poncho and not an umbrella.

William: Tell us why.

Lee: Have you ever been in a crowded park where somebody is walking in front of you with an umbrella and they are not the same height as you are?

William: You can’t see a thing!

Lee: No, and you might never again for the rest of your life if they turn suddenly.

William: I know, because they are swinging them around.

Lee: Yes!

William: Well it’s one thing if you’re out trying to enjoy your day at a park or anywhere else, you really don’t want to be lugging around a stick with you.  The umbrella is nice when it’s pouring down rain and you’re standing out in it, and that’s the only time it’s nice.  The rest of the time you’ve got to lug this thing back and forth and you want to go inside and you’ve got to shake the thing off and water sprays on everybody else. Ponchos are a little bit easier to deal with.

Lee: OK, ponchos are really not cool.  Our teenage daughter will tell you very quickly that a poncho is not cool. It’s more cool to arrive at school wet than wearing a poncho!  But the nice thing about a poncho is that if you’ve got a backpack on or you’ve got your purse over your arm you can throw the poncho over the top and you can keep all your stuff and yourself dry. It’s going to be very quick.  Keep a Ziploc bag with you in your bag.  Once you’re done with it, fold it up, stuff it into the Ziploc bag and you can deal with it later to rinse it and dry it out when you get back to your hotel or your villa, or wherever you are staying.  But it’s very portable and very easy to use. I know they are not cool, but they are very practical.

William: Well, let’s look at it this way: most of the people, if they are going to be going into the park for a really long day, they are going to have some kind of a bag with them.  They’ve got some place they can just fold up the poncho and put it in there and pull it out when they need it.

Umbrellas are not quite as convenient.  Even the small ones don’t give you as much coverage and the big ones are too much to try and put inside of a backpack, so a poncho is really a nice easy, portable option.

And it’s not just a matter of rain where people are wearing those. Some people are taking those on some of the wet rides.

Lee: They do. I know that some people don’t want to get wet on a ride and for example, somebody who is going to try and make a flight.  I didn’t find that a problem. We rode Splash Mountain, got absolutely drenched and went straight to the airport afterwards.  We had empty seats next to us. I guess we smelled like a swamp, but it worked for us.

William: OK, so that kind of brings us to something else, too.  Let’s say that you’re here, it’s raining or you go on a wet ride like that and you get soaked.  How long is it going to take you really to dry off?

Lee: Do you know it actually takes longer to dry than what you think because with the humidity your clothes just stick to you.

William: And it kind of stays that way.  One of the things I was talking to somebody, a girl that I know – she’s got a dress that’s made out of the same kind of fabric as swimsuits, so that way if she goes there and gets wet, she says I’m not worried about it.  It’s like a dry wick kind of material.  And that will dry off a little bit faster.  I thought, well that probably works for some people.  I don’t know if it works for everybody.

I know for men’s shirts you can find golf shirts or T-shirts with a dry wick material, but not so much for your pants.

Lee: Well, no, but also you get people wearing kind of athletic clothes as well and some of them are designed to absorb moisture and disperse it very quickly.  I have seen people wearing workout type clothing around the theme parks. Obviously you want to draw a line somewhere; I mean you don’t want your cut off spandex and half tops.

William: No, and that’s something that you just can’t unsee, but you’re right.  I remember I’ve seen a lot of, particularly younger folks than I am, that will go out there with some gym shorts. It’s just easy, casual, it’s cool to walk around and if they get wet or something like that it’s no big deal. It’s not like it’s going to stain their best clothes.

Lee: Yes, it’s practical.

William: Just kind of plan if you’re going to a theme park or somewhere where you’ve got some activity or you’re going to be exposed to the elements, wear something comfortable and easy to care for.

Lee: Talking about comfortable clothing, even when you come here in summer (especially when you come here in summer), bring a lightweight sweater.

I cannot stand sitting in an air conditioner when I go inside and it’s ice cold. I do not like being cold.  And when there is cold air blowing on me and the sun is shining outside I am not happy.  So bring a sweater.

William: You kind of beat me to it. That’s kind of where I was going next. We are talking all this time about the heat, but the truth is, when you go off to any building – if you’re going to a restaurant, or if you’re going into a park or something like that – the air conditioning is going to be blasting cold.  And a lot of people like that.  They want to walk in and they want to feel that chill.  It’s a very dramatic change from the muggy outdoor weather in the summer time to that sudden blast of cold air.

I love it, but you hate it!

Lee: I don’t like it.  And you know the initial blast is not too bad.  You’re hot when you come in from outside, especially if you’ve been outside for a while.  It cools you down, but once your core temperature drops if you are not a person to deal with the cold it can be very uncomfortable.  I mean I take a sweater when we go to the grocery store.

William: And think about that if you’re wet.  If it just rained on you or if you were on a wet ride and you get soaked, you don’t necessarily want to run right into the air conditioning because that’s really going to chill you to the bone.

Lee: Yes.

William: That’s just a couple of our ideas and tips on how to deal with the kind of weather that we have around here.  As far as if you’re taking photographs, you’re going to run into everything from blue sky in the morning, black and gray skies and thunderstorms probably mid afternoon or evening, but sunsets usually after a good thunderstorm ... you get some really beautiful sunsets around here!  Nice orange and pink colors and hues.

Lee: Really pretty!

William: That’s part of your summer weather plan as well.  If you want to be taking some photographs, do it early morning and then around sunset time.  You’ll probably do much better than you would with most of the snapshots during the day, if you’re including the skyline with it.

Lee: And if you’re out and about right after a storm, that’s another good time where the light is often really nice.  It’s kind of softer straight after the storm. You’ve got a short window, but if you’re in a place where you were wanting to take photos and the daylight was too harsh, that’s also a good time for it.

William: And we were talking about packing things.  Something else that we brought up, besides the ponchos.  There are a couple of things that you can buy and you can buy them here in Orlando, you can buy them at some of the gift shops or at some of the parks, but you are going to pay a premium for them here.  You may want to get some of this stuff in advance.

One is a misting fan and another is like a cool wrap towel.

Lee: Yes, and there are a few different kinds that you can get.  There are some branded ones that are very popular as well, but the misting fans are not a problem to fill up. They work where you fill them up with water – you fill the tank with water and usually you want to put some ice in there so the water is cold.  Pretty much anywhere here, if you go somewhere and ask them for a cup of ice, you are not going to have a problem and you can just top up your fan with that.

So if you are able to pack it and if you’ve got the space, you can save yourself some bucks by doing it in advance instead of buying it here.

William: And we’ve got a few of these that we can recommend to you.  We will put them in the show links.  If you are looking for show notes - we will have some links for these items – just go to orlandolocal.com/1 and you will find our notes with everything about this show and of course some of these products that you can look for, in case you want to get them on Amazon rather than waiting until you come here.

So if you are looking for ponchos, you’re looking for a cool towel and if you’re looking for misters, we will put some links in to kind of get you started and you can decide from there what you want.

Lee: Something else that I used to like to do when Tové was younger especially, is she doesn’t deal with the heat as well as I do.  I would have a couple of water bottles and I’d keep some in the fridge to take with us during the day.  But I would also stick one in the freezer. It depends where you are staying or whether you have a freezer available to you, but if you do put a couple of bottles in the freezer the night before when you go to bed.  In the morning grab a little wash cloth or cool towel or whatever you are going to use, wrap it around the bottle because it will stop the condensation getting in your bag, keep it in the bag.  Take the chilled liquid water that is not frozen so you can start drinking from it.  By the time you get around to that second bottle it is going to have defrosted by then or at least in part, and you can start drinking the iced water.  And the cool towel is really nice and cold. She used to like wiping her face and her neck and shoulders with it.  So it’s kind of a dual purpose thing and it protects your bag.

William: And those cool towels are kind of like a godsend.  When you are out there on a hot, sweaty day, especially when you get to the afternoon around one or two o’ clock and further on before sunset, they heat is really building up and the humidity is still up there.  It may not be as bad as in the morning, but I’ll be out there and I’ll just be dripping with sweat and I get one of those cool towels and put it on my face and it is just like, this is perfect!

Lee: Yeah.

William: And it’s amazing how much benefit you get just from putting one of those on your forehead to kind of help you recover.  Yeah, it’s a simple thing, but it is well worth it.

Lee: It’s really effective!

William: One of the things I was going to ask you is – see I don’t have this problem since I’ve lived here all the time – but if you’re traveling when you stay in your hotel room there is usually a little mini fridge, but there isn’t always a freezer part.

Lee: There’s not. That’s why I said depending where you are staying and it’s not going to work if you don’t have a freezer.  Some hotels have a little freezer compartment in the mini fridge.  You might be staying in a villa or somewhere where you actually have a full freezer or at least a small one that you can use.

William: I was thinking that it might be worth asking some of the hotel staff if you can put a bottle in the freezer in the hotel somewhere overnight and then get it in the morning.

Lee: Yeah, you could ask them. I guess that’s going to depend where you’re staying and how busy they are, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

William: The worst thing is they are going to say sorry, no we don’t have a resource like that for you. But if they can I imagine most people at the hotel will help you.

Lee: Yes.

William: So it’s at least worth asking.  If you don’t have a resource in your room to freeze a bottle overnight, ask the hotel staff.  They may be willing to accommodate you and then you can pick it up and take it off with you for the next day.

Alright, so let’s go ahead and get down to some of the strategies and things we were talking about for dealing with just the hot Orlando summer heat.

Number one is drink a lot of water.  And not everybody is a big fan of water. Some people actually prefer wine or coffee instead.  Some people really close to me right now!

But honestly, you need to hydrate.

Lee: You do.  Find something. I mean I am not a water drinker. I just do not drink water, but I will dilute my Gatorade or Powerade and for those who are watching their sugar you do get low calorie and I think Powerade does a zero calorie option as well.  So if that’s a concern for you, even get some little packets of Crystal Light that you can pour into the water.

William: You can get different things.  You can get Crystal Light, you can get Kool Aid, and I think Gatorade has some packets, Powerade has some packets.  So there are probably a number of different brands where you can get some kind of flavouring that’s dehydrated and you can pour into your water.

Lee: Yes, because that’s another thing.  If you aren’t used to Florida water, depending where about you are .... I mean, where we are, it’s actually not bad at all. I know that Disney World for the first few days it took me a while. I used to buy bottled water to brush my teeth because I would just gag at the smell when you switched it on.

William: Keep in mind Walt Disney World was built on a swamp.  It’s got sulphur water around there.

Lee: It’s the sulphur. It stinks.

William: And even though it’s clean, it’s safe, that smell and that taste is still in the water there.

Lee: Yeah, so you might want some means to filter the water, plan ahead, order for delivery a case of water, pick one up at the gas station or at the grocery store.

William: Well exactly. That’s another idea. You can get water .  One of the smart ideas that a lot of people do is they will order things on Amazon and have it shipped to arrive at the same time that you do at your hotel, your villa or wherever you are going to be staying.

Lee: That’s what I did. I never packed a lot of stuff, but it saved me running around and the stuff was all there when I got there. Even sun cream. I mean everything that I wanted: snacks, sun cream things for the room, shampoos.

William: Well exactly. Those are things you are going to need and so long as you mention sun cream, that’s kind of our thing. You need to have some protection for your skin, particularly if you’re going to be wearing shorts and maybe a tank top or short sleeved shirts, which I kind of always do in this kind of heat. Because you can protect your skin with long clothing, but you’re going to sweating heat inside of it.

Lee: Yeah, you’re not going to be comfortable.

William: No, not at all.  So really the idea is wear some shorts and some comfortable clothing, but put on some sun screen.

Lee: And you burn through your clothes as well.  If you are exposed to the sun for long enough and you’ve got thin layers on, which you probably do if you’ve got sleeves on at this time of the year, you can burn and you probably will burn through your clothes eventually.  So yep, sun cream is very important.

And it sounds like a no-brainer, but I’ve seen so many red people around!

William: Oh, yeah!  There are tons of pink and red people going around Walt Disney World, simply because they haven’t applied any sun screen and they are burning.  At the end of their visit I am just wondering how they even are comfortable going home.

Lee: Yeah that’s got to hurt.

William: I mean, you crawl on the airplane to fly out of here and then all of a sudden your whole body is just uncomfortable and you’ve got to sit in that metal tube for a few hours.

Lee: That doesn’t sound like fun.  And it’s not necessarily that they didn’t put any on.  Maybe they did and it wasn’t water resistant or sweat resistant.  A sport sun cream is actually a very good option.

William: Well, you’re looking for a few things when you’re going to buy sun cream or some kind of suntan lotion.  You are looking for something with a good sun protection factor. I prefer SPF 50. I know you will go as low as 30 sometimes.

Lee: Actually I don’t go above 30.  On my face I use a 50 plus, minimum. But on the rest of me ... my skin tans easily and I have always been gradually exposed to the sun now since we’ve lived here.

William: And another thing you want to look for is you want something waterproof for a number of reasons.

One, you are still going to sweat and you don’t want your sweat to remove suntan lotion.  Or if you’re going to get caught in a rain storm or you’re going to go on one of those water rides or even at a water park, you need to get something to make sure you’ve got some waterproof sun lotion.

Lee: And reapply. I mean some of these things say eight to twelve hours.  Reapply it.  I don’t trust something that claims to work for eight or twelve hours.

William: No, I kind of think like every couple of hours I’m looking to see what to do.  And if you’re going to put on one of those white lotions ...

Lee: Rub it in!

William: Rub it in.

Lee: You should always rub it in.

William: We saw a gentleman – we were on vacation at one of the beaches – and we saw a gentleman put this stuff on and he looked like Casper the ghost because he didn’t realize that the suntan lotion is supposed to be rubbed until you don’t see it on you anymore.

Lee: Apparently it takes about ten to fifteen minutes before it starts to become effective, so you should put it on before you go out, but yeah.

William: He must have been very slippery.

Lee: He was waterproof when he got in that pool!

William: Yeah, so please make sure you rub it in thoroughly.

One of the other things we were going to talk about and Lee, this is actually one of yours.  What it’s like for women and girls as far as make up.

Lee: Oh, yeah.  Look, I don’t wear a lot of make-up. I used to wear it because of where I was working. I mean it was just expected as part of the dress code, but honestly in the summer, if you really must.... I know there are some people who will not take out the trash without the full slap on.  If you really must, make sure you’ve got something waterproof.  You just see panda eyes and kind of – it’s like Frankenstein’s bride sometimes.  You are going to sweat. There’s nothing you can do about it.

William: It’s like you’re the wicked witch of the west.  I’m melting!

And some people, like you said, I don’t know if it’s that they just trust it or if they don’t realize how hot it is going to be.

Lee: I think sometimes you don’t realize. And sometimes it’s just part of your routine. I mean I’ve done it. I’ve put on, not a lot, but some make up on because that’s just what I did in the morning. I wasn’t really thinking about it.

William: See, to me it just seems like that has got to be closing off your pores and you want your skin to kind of be able to breathe.

Lee: Well, yes and no. You won’t understand this, but make up generally has some kind of sun protection factor in it as well.  So it can be a dual purpose thing.  For me, I just don’t bother out in the sun, but if you really must, try and see if you can find something waterproof.

William: Well I look at it this way.  If you are going to be out and you are going to have a day in a park, a day doing activities outdoors, just embrace the fact that you’re going to get hot, sweaty and messy and that’s part of its own charm.

Lee: Yeah, I do get it though.  From a different perspective, people go on vacation and they go to the theme parks and people going to Disney World may get the PhotoPass package or MemoryMaker it’s called now.  You are going to feature in a lot of photos and you want to feel good about how you look.  It’s not a cheap package.

William: I think that’s true. But that’s another strategy: you probably want to plan most of your photos early in the day when you are at your best.

Lee: Yes.  Well, you can for some of them. I mean others you don’t really have a choice.

William: You can’t do it for everything, but that’s something I would recommend. If you are going to a theme park, particularly let’s say Magic Kingdom, there are some things you are going to do and rides that are inside and they are air conditioned.  There are some things that you are going to do that are outdoors in the heat.  I would probably recommend planning which ones you are going to do in the morning before it gets too bad.  Make those your outdoor activities and then from 1 pm to 5 pm or 6 pm, that’s when you really want to be hitting the air conditioned activities.

Lee: And another thing, while we were talking about make-up, hair!  With humidity, if you’ve got hair like mine you are going to look like a lion! Take a hair tie.

William: You know most of the women do that.  I’ll see them go braid their hair, put it in a ponytail; they’ll do something to get it out of the way because you are obviously not going to cut off your hair just to go have a day at a park.

Lee: But if it’s off your face you are also more comfortable.  There is something very uncomfortable about hot, sticky hair on your skin when you are already too hot.

William: And if you have little children, think about that for them as well.  They may not be aware of just what it’s like spending a whole day out and just make sure that they are dressed comfortably, they’ve got their suntan lotion and they’ve got their hair out of their face.

Lee: Kids don’t seem to have the same problems with temperature that we do. Have you ever noticed?  It would be snowing outside and I’d have to call Tové back and say, “Could you put some shoes on, please?”

William: When I was a kid growing up here we did not have an air conditioner.  At least not for my first few years.  And then we finally got one of those little wall mount units.  But it didn’t matter. I was outdoors playing with my friends, doing things out in the heat and humidity all the time.

Lee: Yeah.

William: So it just – that was normal to me.  So was going around barefoot. I was like Tom Sawyer.

Lee: Yeah, but I think because little kids especially don’t notice it, they don’t know why they are getting cranky. You’ve got to kind of think ahead for them.

William: Well that brings up another point.  You want to make time for breaks.  The heat is going to get to you, whether you realize it’s coming up on you or not.  It’s not just kids that can get cranky.  I’ve seen adults out there snap and sometimes they don’t realize it’s because they are just miserable from spending too much time in the heat.

Lee: Well heat makes you tired. I know. It’s like you said, I run. Heat generally, no matter what you are doing, it saps your energy. And when you are tired your capacity to be patient is a little bit less.  I think you lose some of your general tolerance, so take that into account and plan the rest breaks maybe at regular intervals or at the very least, at the hottest time of the day.  If you know you are going to take some time out, I’d say from lunch time through to the late afternoon is really the worst of it.

William: It is and that’s why I was kind of recommending that that is a good time to go into the air conditioned rides and maybe do some shopping or you know what? Take a break and go back to your hotel room, or your home or whatever it is.  I guess if you live here you are not going to be going all the way back to your home because that could be a long ride, but if you’re staying close to where you’re having your activity, go back to your room.  Chill out and let the hottest part of the day go by. You can refresh, change clothes and go back for the evening.

Lee: Or plan your movie or whatever it is inside for that time of the afternoon.

William: And you may want to do something like instead of planning a lot of meals, you may want to take a really late lunch or early dinner; or maybe combine the two of them together so that way you are not in the rush of everybody trying to eat at the usual mealtimes and you are satisfied, you’re relaxed and then you can go back out there while everybody else is crowding the restaurants and you’ve got a little bit more space to do what you want to do.

Lee: Yeah, then you can just kind of top up for dinner with some ice cream and cocktails.

William: Oh, absolutely.  Everything is better with ice cream.

Lee: And cocktails.

William: And cocktails.

Some places you can’t get cocktails.

Lee: No, but you can usually get wine.

William: Oh.  Well, we’ll have to try that one time.

Here’s another warning and if you are coming from a hot climate, you know this.

Some of the things that are there to help you cool off and relax are going to be scorching hot when you go to use them!

You sit down on a park bench, especially if you are wearing shorts and your skin touches that metal, it’s going to burn!

Lee: Oh yes!

William: You start up a water fountain and you are expecting nice, cool refreshing water.

Lee: Oh, yeah.

William: Yeah, tell them about that one!

Lee: The trail where I go running in the mornings has some drinking fountains at regular intervals along there and honestly, at 7 o’ clock i the morning if you hit that thing, just step back because that water that comes out ... you could brew coffee in it!  It is just hot!

But what did Tové ask us the one day? Why don’t we have cold water in this house?

William: Yes, why don’t we have cold water?

It’s like, because you live in Florida now!  We’ll have cold water in December.

Lee: Yeah. I watched her a few years ago. She was going to sit down and you know how kids do it.  They sort of back up towards the surface where they are going to seat their butt and I looked at her and realized she was going to sit down and I yelled at her and as I did it, she took a seat and she was like a rocket.  She flew off there and kind of looked back as if something bit her.  Uh, yeah, it’s hot!

William. And there is one other thing.  If you are listening from a really cold climate – and I only know this because Lee, you told me about this – the first time you brought Tové over here you said in the UK, things didn’t melt.

Lee: No, things don’t melt. Like an ice cream. In Scotland.

William: And you gave Tové an ice cream.

Lee: I did. She had never had an ice cream melt on her. I mean, she was able to sit and eat an ice cream as a young child from start to finish, or eat and have her fill, without it collapsing and running down all over her.  We were out in, I think it was Hollywood Studios, and she wanted one of those Mickey ice cream bars.  And you know what those things are like. It’s just ice cream and it’s encased in this chocolate.

William: Like a little chocolate ganache.

Lee: It’s just a thin shell of chocolate. It barely holds it and I was trying to tell her it’s going to melt.  And she had this blank look, like what? I said to her, “You need to eat it quickly. It’s going to melt.”

And I gave it about two minutes and I just watched it in slow motion as it went.  And she looked at it like somebody had stolen it.  Like, well what happened?  Be prepared.

William: Yeah, it’s like if you are coming from a frozen land and you are coming here in the summer time, these things happen.  It’s like water is not going to be as cold as you want if it’s coming from a fountain and ice cream will definitely fall off the stick.

Lee: Yeah and that gel face wash that you bought from Avon that you had to squeeze in the morning.  When you open that cap, do it over the sink. It’s probably all going to fall down there and disappear.

William: Anyways, I hope this has been helpful to you and we just wanted to give you a little bit of advice on what it’s like in Orlando during the summer and how to deal with the heat.

Thank you very much for listening to the original episode of The Orlando Local Show.  We’re glad you are here.  We really appreciate you.

We hope this has been helpful for you and hope you got some good ideas and tips from it.  If you would like to see this in writing, you’re in luck.  Go to orlandolocal.com/1 and we are going to put out a free transcript of the show for you so that way you can see the show notes that are out there, you can get the links to the things that we are recommending and also, you’ve got everything that we shared in a nice written format. It will be easy to take with you to the park or help you plan before you get there.

We are going to be on weekly, so please check back with us and if you’ve got any questions or comments, please let us know, again at to orlandolocal.com/1

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