Well me and Mrs Oh Orlando were talking the other day about our 1st times visiting Florida, and the changes we’ve seen over the years – and there’s been a few…
When I first went in ‘99 it was a culture shock like I’d never experienced (Mr Oh Orlando here) massive roads, huge hotels and even bigger cars! It was a good job back then I was a H.G.V. Driver as the cars were so long! The first thing that struck me from the very get go at Orlando International Airport were the people… being a Brit I’d never experienced customer service on this level. EVERYONE was pleased to see us, EVERYONE smiled and EVERYONE we met couldn’t do enough to help?? I thought I’d landed on a different planet??
Our hotel was a sprawling complex called the Quality Inn International just off the I-4 on International Drive. We got lost 3 or 4 times looking for the room…I kept saying ‘how big is this place’…massive was the answer. The Quality Inn was a medium range hotel with the rooms along the style of mini suites, and as a family of 4 it was ideal for us location wise, right by all the main attractions and being on I Drive there was lots withing walking distance. I remember my kids being so excited at the prospect of visiting the “worlds largest McDonalds restaurant” and trying a real American burger!
(It was exactly the same as the one in Northampton haha).
When we visited the parks for the first time I think I was a little taken aback with the sheer scale of the them. As a lad raised on Alton Towers and the like it was a bit of a shock to see the massive Cinderella Castle at the end of Main Street and it was literally glowing in the Floridian sunshine. I could not for one second begin to comprehend the sheer scale of these places, and at the Magic Kingdom I don’t think one of spoke for at least 30 minutes – we wandered about taking it all in for the first time… what actually made me smile most days was the look on the kids faces when they saw something new, the rides, the shows and the attitude of the staff towards everyone there. I was thinking how can they ever improve on this?? How little did I know!
The Universal Studios visit was amazing as well. From the bus journey in from the hotel looking at all the exciting attractions on International Drive such as the Wonder Works, and Ripleys Believe it or Not, the Racerock cafe and grill (no longer there sadly) and seeing the awesome Wet ‘n Wild water park and thinking we cannot wait to go there! Man alive! So much on one road it was mad! Restaurants, bars places for the family to eat. (Who remembers Chuck E Cheese’s?? $10 each and the kids ran wild in possibly the biggest kids playground and ball pit I’d ever seen!!) one of my funniest memories of this day was the Twister Experience (based on the film of the same name.) we stood there, fans blowing and water spraying everyone, then the Twister hits!! And a “Cow” comes flying right past our heads!! We were laughing when i looked at my daughter and she shouted! ‘Dad!! Won’t anyone rescue the poor cow!!” Bless her!!
The Wet ‘n Wild waterpark was a brilliant day out, so many slides and pools I think we were worn out by midday but none of us wanted to leave! So we kept at it! My abiding memory was seeing the waterskiing lake. Basically a huge lake with a wire all around it, you got on a knee board held the rope and away you go…in my mind I was all over this!! I was gonna show the Colonials a thing or two about kneeboarding!…what actually happened was I was kneeling down ready to go, game face on and TWANG!! The rope was away, I was off the knee board and was dragged on my stomach and face for about 80 yards till I let go of the wire….that was a looooooooonnnnnnnnggggggg swim back to the start I tell you… the kids enjoyed it though….
The shopping amazed us all, we had never seen so many mega stores and so much choice! And when we found out about the clearance outlet well….(anyone here remember Beltz shopping mall?? It was a shock as I’d ever only been around the (old) Bullring in Brum!!)
One memory of going shopping in Orlando on I-Drive was with my son. There had been a massive downpour in the area and we wanted to walk to the huge sports shop called ‘Sports Dominator’ which had a giant figure of a basketball player outside and huge NFL helmet by the door! Anyway it was raining so I had a brilliant idea, buy a poncho from the reception of the hotel, and it was so big both me and my son Ashley could fit In it! So off we walked down the road like a two headed ghost, me wearing the poncho as normal and Ash with his head poking out the arm hole… what a sight we looked! It was so hot after 5 minutes of walking down the road in it we binned it off decided we would rather chance the rain instead. Being July it was ridiculously hot and humid. So what did we do? Coffee shop, I had an enormous washing up bowl size coffee and my son Ash decided on a hot chocolate. Yes, 89% humidity and he has a huge hot chocolate and whipped cream..
The food was an eye opener for us as a first time visitors, we had never seen so much on one plate! One time we visited the Race Rock cafe, a huge dining experience where lobby was 2 40ft artics flanking the doorway! Inside there were all manner of exotic cars and bikes on the walls and ceilings. We ordered the Cajun Gumbo and rice, thinking it would be a normal size dish.. boy oh boy were we wrong. First off came a massive bowl of rice, I asked in all innocence is this to share amongst us? Nope. That was one portion! Then the Gumbo came out in a equally large size! The waitress laughed at our faces and asked if we were British? When I asked why? She explained that loads of Brits share these size dishes! She sent the other portions back and brought extra plates out for us to share! Happy times. Again, the service was second to none. Breakfast time was always fun, the kids were stunned at the choices available, cakes, pastries and buns! Plus cereal and the normal fried goods. Everyday they would have the same things, my daughter would have toast and “funny” bacon with chocolate milk, and my son would have 3 different danishes and any other cakes. All washed down with you guessed it, a hot chocolate! He refused to eat the “funny” bacon because it looked like frazzled BUT didn’t taste like them…kids eh.
When I look back at this holiday i always smile, I wondered then how could they ever improve it as a holiday destination?… well, fast forward 20+ years and boy oh boy! Beltz mall is now the Premium outlets, Wet ‘n Wild has gone to be replaced by Volcano Bay. (In my humble opinion the best water park out, and if you disagree with me you are simply wrong!) the whole of International Drive has had a massive face lift, I’ll be honest here, it needed it. It was looking shabby, but the place is now lively, fun and better for it. I mean you’ve got Top Golf, the Star Flyer, the Orlando Eye and Andretti’s Carting. Brilliant, just brilliant.
This has been a bit of a love letter to the Orlando of old. Never forgotten, but we now embrace the new dynamic Orlando! See you soon folks. Hope you’ve enjoyed my little trot down memory lane!
Rob, Mr Oh Orlando.
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