Orlando in terms of visitors? Just wondering if the usual high season influx has started or not.

The season start more in the early spring.

It is slow but it is usually really slow the first couple of weeks of Dec. Most would agree it is the slowest point of the year. The weekends are still busy with people coming down for a quick trip. Most of the larger chains are reporting they still have rooms to sell for Christmas which is a little unusual this late in the season and with Christmas week being our best week for business. The B&Bs are doing fine. The true season starts Feb and runs through May so we haven't gotten the steady stream of guests as of yet.

Remember, the Keys are a bit more protected from the bad aconomy than some other toursit destinations as they have always had a signifcant amount of drive-in vactionaers from "mainland" south Florida. In fact, some of my friends who live in Miami-Ft Lauderdale have cancelled more expensive, fly-in vacations in favor of driving down to the Keys for a week. This is not to say that the Keys are not hurting with all that has happened, but as the above posters mentioned, we'll have to wait until spring to really see the impact.

Any suggestions about where to stay in Key west for a family of 4? Reasonable? thanks-

Reasonable takes on a whole new definition down here. When would you be visiting and what type of accomodations are you considering?

Just got back from Key West last night,,,and the city is struggling. I was there last year same time.,.,and this year the place seemed empty. If it wasn't for the cruise ships during the day,,,,it would really be empty. All of the people dependent on tourists are complaining.

I read that tourist taxes( hotel & restaurant) are down 30-40% in south Florida.

But overall, it's a great place...weather was warm...and we had a fabulous time.