Orlando, FL

Being a West Coast gal, when it came to visiting a Disney theme park as kids, the Davis clan headed 7 hours south to Disneyland. I had naturally heard of Disney World, but really had no interest in going out of my way to visit. Disneyland is enough for me, it being the original and therefore the best Disney theme park. Skip ahead to my early 30s and the time arrived for me to visit Disney World.

What prompted this visit you may ask? Work. I signed up to take an analytical investigation methods course so I could be a better worker bee. While I may sound flippant, I really appreciate that my company will pay for me to take training courses. The closest course to DC was in Orlando, so that is how I scored a trip to the happiest place in Florida.

December turned out to be a crazy month for me. I started off the month in Ottawa, headed down to Orlando, FL a few days later, then traveled directly to Phoenix, AZ for a week, flew from Phoenix to Antioch for Christmas and made it back to Reston in time for the New Year. I am still tired from those trips. It was quite an environmental shock to go from Ottawa (freezing cold) to DC (pretty cold) to Orlando (do I really need a sweater cold). Being a professional, I only complained about the climate change every 10 minutes or so. What willpower I have!

The course was very helpful for my job, mostly because it reaffirmed that I am on the right track and I have acquired a pretty solid foundation when it comes to link analysis. There were some very, very cool people in the class and I really enjoyed learning from them. You guys know who you are.

I got to spend a lot of time with Sloane, a fellow student, who is just awesome. Since her agency wouldn’t spring for a rental car (Bad Government! You don’t send a lone woman into a sketchy area of town without a rental car – it just isn’t safe) she and I would pal around trying local restaurants. It helped that we stayed at the same hotel, which was the Marriott Courtyard Orlando Downtown. The problem with this place is that the local police warned us not to walk around at night and there was no place to eat within walking distance anyway. Also, the beds were so hard only Seabreeze would have enjoyed them. I didn’t sleep well for 6 nights because of those stupid beds.

The first night we went to Boston Lobster Feast. I am not going to eat at a seafood buffet ever again. I don’t like seafood enough to make it worth the money and any seafood buffet is a total sacrifice for quantity over quality. I think I ate more chocolate soft-serve than I did actual food.

The next night we headed for Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney is an outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment center located at the Walt Disney World Resort. What I like about Downtown Disney is that it is free. Sloane and I decided to go have Cuban food at Bongo’s Cuban Café. I really enjoyed the food: tostones, flank steak with chimichurri sauce and a virgin strawberry daiquiri. It was also lovely eating outside (in December – Crazy!) and overlooking the lake. After dinner Sloane and I headed to the largest Disney store in the world and were totally overwhelmed.


Sloane and I also ate at a sandwich shop called Firehouse Subs. They serve some nice hot subs there and for those of you that like hot sauce, they have every variety under the sun. Lastly, before I took Sloane to the airport we ended our quest for a good Cuban sandwich at Vega’s. They were great sandwiches and cooked on authentic Cuban style bread. I am not a huge fan of pickles on my sandwiches, but the entire combination of mustard, bread, pickles, and pork all smashed together was absolutely delicious.

While in Orlando I learned a few things about crime. One, never travel on Orange Blossom Trail unless you are looking for transvestite prostitutes. Two, don’t murder your child. I bring this up because they found Kaylee Anthony’s body while I was in Orlando taking a course at the Orange County Sherriff’s Office. When I walked out of the Sherriff’s Office after class, the place was crawling with reporters and there were helicopters flying overhead. I even saw a CourtTV van in front of the county courthouse. It was a total circus. Now I am not qualified to say if she is guilty, but she totally is.

On my last day in Orlando, I decided to go to the Magic Kingdom – by myself. Now I have been to an amusement park by myself once before and I hated it. For some reason I thought that the Magic Kingdom would be different. I was so wrong. I was the only person by themselves that I saw the entire day. It was all adoring families together for the holidays and reveling in each others company. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity which is why I decided to go in the first place, but it was so depressing to be such a loser. It should be called the Suicidal Kingdom for Singles. I did have fun going on the rides and watching all the little kids dressed up as princesses and pirates but I still would have liked to have had someone, anyone with me. Plus I felt compelled to stay the entire day as I paid almost $80.00 to be all depressed. I may have been miserable, but I was bound and determined to get my money’s worth of misery.

On a final note, Disneyland is way better than the Magic Kingdom. Disneyland’s holiday decorations are far better and the Magic Kingdom doesn’t even turn the Haunted Mansion into the Nightmare Before Christmas ride. What’s the deal?

Next Trip: Phoenix, AZ