International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

Some of you might want to pick up some groceries or other necessities close to the hotel. We’ve got three Publix stores located in shopping centres (near a WalMart, Walgreens, or liquor store) in easy driving distance from the hotel; two are easily reached by bus routes traveling up S. Semoran Blvd, the major route just to the west of the hotel complex.

To get onto S. Semoran Blvd:

Drive (or walk, if you’re taking the bus) around the water feature in front of the hotel, then north on Augusta National Dr to the first major intersection with T. G. Lee Blvd. Then turn left onto T.G. Lee Blvd and drive for a very short distance to the major intersection of T.G. Lee and S. Semoran Blvd. Turn right onto S. Semoran and drive north.

Option 1: 6485 South Chickasaw Trail, Orlando

Drive through the intersection with Hazeltine National Drive, through the intersection with Butler National Drive, past a number of strip malls on the right hand side.

At the intersection of S. Semoran and Lee Vista Blvd, turn right onto Lee Vista Blvd.

Drive east along Lee Vista Blvd for a while, through major intersections with S. Goldenrod Road and Narcoossee Road.

At the intersection of Lee Vista Blvd and S. Chickasaw Trail, turn left onto S. Chickasaw Trail.

The Publix should be on the right hand side of the road, near a Wachovia bank. Turn right to enter the parking lot, and you should be able to see the store.
Option 2: 4501 Hoffner Avenue, Belle Isle, FL

Drive north, past the intersection with Lee Vista Blvd to the major intersection of S. Semoran and Hoffner Avenue.

Turn left onto Hoffner Avenue and drive west, past Kempston, Kailua, Mauna Loa, and Kingfish Streets.

You should see the shopping area on your right before you get to the major intersection with S. conway.

The Publix should be on the right side of Hoffner Ave. It looks like there’s an entrance to the parking lot off Hoffner, but you could also turn right at the intersection with S. Conway and enter the parking lot from there also.

There seems to be a liquor store nearby, and a Walgreen’s, so this could be a good place for a shopping trip if you need to pick up more than just groceries.
Taking the bus to Option 2:

The #51 bus travels on S. Semoran and then down Hoffner, turning again at S. Conway; in other words, exactly the same way you’d drive to get to the Publix, which is at the corner of Hoffner and S. Conway. There’s a stop just north of the intersection of S. Semoran and T.G. Lee Blvd; use the airport timing point on the way there, and timing point 4 (corner of Hoffner and S. Conway) to return. Here’s a link to the schedule; it runs every 30 minutes Monday-Saturday and every hour on Sunday.

Option 3: 4048 South Semoran Boulevard, Orlando

Drive past the intersection with Hoffner, then past Gatlin, then past Pershing.

On the left side of the road, there’s Fern Park Shopping Center, with a Publix and a Walmart.

It looks like you’ll have to drive past the shopping center to the major intersection with Lake Margaret Drive, make a left-hand turn onto Lake Margaret Drive, then another left into the parking lot entrance; S. Semoran is a divided highway.
Taking the bus to Option #3:

The #41 bus goes straight up S. Semoran past the Fern Park Shopping Center. You can catch the #41 at a stop just a short walk north of the S. Semoran/T.G. Lee Blvd intersection. Here’s a link to the schedule for the #41. Use the airport timing point on the way there, and timing point 9 (Curry Ford) on the way back.

For both buses, get off at the stop at the T.G.I. Friday’s on T.G.Lee Blvd; you’ll just cross S. Semoran at the intersection and be on your way back to the hotel.

Given that it is an airport hotel near a major roadway and industrial/business park, there aren’t a lot of options for those who need something close enough to walk, as these three grocery stores are the closest to the hotel. There’s a convenience store on T.G. Lee Blvd, on the way to the usual restaurants (before the intersection with S. Semoran), next to a Chinese restaurant that’s fairly new. As I recall from last year, it’s a decent-sized store with good stock, but I don’t think it has fresh produce or anything like that. There’s a Walgreen’s a 15-20 minute walk up S. Semoran, but I can’t recall anything closer than that.

Here’s a link to a Wikimapia:

If you hover your cursor over the outlined places on the map, you’ll see our hotel labelled near the midpoint at the bottom. The Publix on Lee Vista Blvd is labelled towards the right about halfway up; the Publix on Hoffner is labelled towards the left about halfway up (near Lake Conway); the Publix on S. Semoran is labelled at the very top of the page, around the middle.

ICFA has some good evening programming to check out, but maybe you’re looking for something a bit different to do for one evening, something away from the hotel. Maybe you’re coming in a bit early or staying a bit late. Maybe you don’t usually stay for Saturday night’s banquet.

If so, you might want to check out Cirque du Soleil’s show La Nouba at Downtown Disney World. I saw it last year and am going to see it again this year, and I thought some of you might want to know how I’m going to get there on public transit.

I’ll let those of you with a car check out Google Maps for driving directions. If you’re not driving, you could certainly take a cab or get a group together for a shuttle, but if you want to save some cash, it really isn’t that difficult to get around Orlando by bus, especially if you are used to using public transit at home.

There are a couple of different routes you could take. Last year I tried transferring from the #42 Airport/International Drive (see last year’s post for using this bus to get to Florida Mall and the Outlet Malls) to the #50 Downtown Orlando/Magic Kingdom. It worked out well except that I didn’t like the looks of the transfer point near Sea World on the way home: by the side of a highway in the dark. Instead, I transferred to the #111 Airport/Downtown Disney and I think that bus will work much better.

Both the #42 and the #111 begin at the Airport, only minutes from the hotel. You can hop on the hotel shuttle to the Airport and walk down the bus/shuttle area to the public transit stop, or you could pick up the #42 in front of T.G.I.Friday’s on S. Semoran and be there in a few minutes.

The #111 leaves the Airport on the hour and half-hour all day, and takes about an hour to get to Downtown Disney. Or you could pick up the #42 across the street from T.G.I.Friday’s and transfer to the #111 at Florida Mall (the connection times look pretty good).

The #111 does not go into Downtown Disney itself, as the #50 does (at least, it didn’t last year; the schedule now suggests that it does). It runs down Buena vista Blvd, past Downtown Disney (clearly visible on your right, and the bus will announce it also), on its way to the Ticketing and Transportation Center for Walt Disney World. You can get off anywhere along Buena Vista Blvd in front of Downtown Disney, and walk through the area to the Cirque du Soleil on the west side.

To get back to the hotel, you’ll need to cross Buena Vista Blvd; there’s a crosswalk at the parking lot entrance, right near Planet Hollywood, and you just walk up the sidewalk until you come to a stop with #111 listed on it. The area is busy and brightly lit, so I didn’t feel at all worried last year waiting for a bus late in the evening. Take the #111 right to the airport and either call the hotel shuttle, or transfer to the #42 at Florida Mall (getting off in front of T.G.I.Friday’s and crossing S. Semoran) or at the Airport (getting off at the stop right after the intersection of S. Semoran with Lee Vista Blvd). Then it’s a short walk back to the hotel.

Last year I went to the 6pm show and was back at the hotel in lots of time to drop in on the Tuesday night party in the President’s suite.

Helpful links:

Orlando’s transit page, with maps and schedules.

Here’s a link to La Nouba. The show runs twice per evening, Tuesday through Saturday. You can buy tickets now to be held at the ‘will call’ or you can wait until you get there and hope there will still be some seats on sale at the box office (which did seem to be the case last year).

Here’s a link to Downtown Disney which is a shopping area (mostly Disney merchandise) on the outskirts of Walt Disney World. There are restaurants such as Planet Hollywood and House of Blues, and Fulton’s Crab Shack, and the theater for Cirque du Soleil, all bordering a nice little lake where ferries shuttle Disney World guests. So you can have a nice meal, walk around the lake, and then take in the show.

A Wikimapia view of Downtown Disney. I centered it on Planet Hollywood, and you can see the Cirque du Soleil tent on the left side of the page. Buena Vista Blvd is the road marked in yellow, curving along the bottom of the screen. You can see a crosswalk out of the parking lot at the center bottom and another one near what’s marked as Hess Station; the bus will stop every couple of blocks along Buena Vista. The schedule map shows it stopping at Downtown Disney West Side Transfer Center (timing point 3) but it didn’t do that last year, so I’m heading for a stop on Buena Vista just in case. But I’ve marked the location for the transfer center on the Wikimapia; it’s a very short walk from the Cirque du Soleil tent.

Of course, if you just want to do some shopping, check out last February’s entry on taking the bus to Florida Mall and the Outlet Malls. It’s in the archive under February 2009.

Hello IAFA-ers,
I offer this holiday reminder in the hopes of saving you some money:

ICFA Registration (Registration includes one ticket* for the Friday Guest Scholar Luncheon.)

Early before January 01, 2010: $ 105

Regular January 01 – February 01: $ 125

Late & On-site after February 02: $ 160

Student Early before February 01: $ 55

Student Late after February 02: $ 65

If you want to save your hard-earned cash then make sure you register for ICFA-31 before Jan. 01, 2010. In addition, don’t forget the hotel room rate for conference goers is $125 (excluding taxes) and the booking deadline is Friday, February 12th, 2010. Be forewarned, however, that the rooms often sell out well in advance of this deadline, so book early to ensure you secure a spot in the hotel.

On to Orlando.

Graham J. Murphy

Hello IAFA-ers,
The 2010 membership and ICFA-31 pre-registration form has now been posted to our website at www.iafa.org. Click on the “Conference Info” tab and scroll down to the “To attend the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts” section and you’ll find the link to .doc and .pdf versions of the form. In addition, there has been a slight change to the 2010 rates for those of you subscribing to Science Fiction Studies (or for those of you who were mailed the old form before the increase of $1.00 was officially announced). The new rates for SFS are as follows:

domestic individual: $20
domestic institution: $30
foreign individual: $22
foreign institution: $32

As always, make sure you book your hotel room as soon as possible to ensure you aren’t disappointed as ICFA-31 is getting closer.

See you all in Orlando.

Take care,
Graham J. Murphy