This is an interesting and sad article:
Florida's Highway 192 runs up to the gates of the Walt Disney World Complex in Orlando. Lining the highway are dozens of hotels which are now housing hundreds of people made homeless.
www.dailymail.co.uk
Now the I loved The Florida Project, it was my favorite movie of whatever year it came out so I am very familiar with this motel. It's about 7 or 8 miles away from the motel where I stay on the same Irlo Bronson Highway, that main tourist trap area I talk about a lot. The one I stay at is the Maingate Lakeside Resort that is right off Disney property and about a 4 minute drive to Animal Kingdom. It's not purple and uber tacky like the Magic Castle but it's not all that different from the other one they discuss in the article, the Palm Motel.
These are crappy, cheap motels but they're not disgusting. Like a lot of them on that highway mine is huge, it has 400 rooms or so. You can clearly tell it's a bit rundown and I've been in rooms where a light won't work or stuff like that but they always look clean enough and have TV and wifi and a well kept pool area. I mean, what should you really expect for $49/night?
I'm almost positive mine is also a place where people who would otherwise be homeless live. I've seen in some rooms that are filled with possessions. It's an interesting mix because along with those people there are also a fair number of people like me who simply want the cheapest place to stay during a Disney trip.
The guy who took the pics in the article is quite dramatic with statements like:
'It was a complete shock walking into some of these motels. It felt like a third world country and it was hard to believe witnessing people's struggles like this.'
The situation these people are in is clearly a bummer but walking into these motels they don't come off as this freaking awful hellhole or whatever, it's just a bunch of normal people at a motel.
Oh and I don't feel bad for the guy with 8!!! kids. I feel bad for the kids but come on man, what were you thinking? It's not that hard a task to avoid having 8 kids.
And they must be given special rates or something right? I checked the prices for both in the article and they are either the same or more than the $49 I pay. And I've done my research. You all know how I try to go as cheaply as possible. I've probably called 15-20 different motels and $49/night is the best they offer these days. Before I went Disney crazy 2 years ago with buying the annual pass, my last trip was in 2013 and I found one back then for $35/night...The good old days.