Last week, I left on a red eye to visit Disney World in Florida for P’s bachelorette, part 1.

We flew with United, who does not have the best reputation for customer service (referring to man who got dragged off the flight a couple of months back), so I was not surprised when one of the staff on the ground checking us in gave us more attitude than an angsty teenage girl who just got dumped. Our layover in Chicago was only about an hour, and the flight was delayed by just over 15 minutes. Considering that we had to go through customs on the Chicago side, United wanted to put us on a later flight for our 2nd flight from Chicago to Orlando. Of course we said no, because we already had tickets to go to the Magic Kingdom right after landing in the morning, and we made the unanimous decision to run from the first gate to our second boarding gate at Chicago. One of the ground crew checking us in was kind enough to offer swapping our seats to the extra leg room seats, right up front, for no extra charge, but when we got to the actual gate and asked about it, another rude United woman bluntly said that it would cost us $60 to upgrade, and that it didn’t matter if those seats stayed empty, the flight attendants might pull out a POS machine and charge us for the seat change. We tried to explain the whole situation to her, of having the short layover, and that it wasn’t our fault the flight was delayed, which might cause us to not make it on the 2nd plane. She would not budge though on the charges. When H tried to ask for her name, she rudely said, with a snide smile, “You don’t need to know my name.”

Luckily, when we went back to the gate a few minutes later, to verify the gate of the 2nd flight, another ground crew member empathized with us enough to switch our seats at no cost, and we arrived at Orlando in time to make our Magic Express bus seat reservation and enter Magic Kingdom by 11AM.

Our schedule was jam packed with rides, seeing shows, and meeting Disney characters. There was some time for snacking:

Mickey pretzel with cheese dip: VERY salty, but once started eating, cannot stop stuffing face with soft pretzel dipped in (VERY SALTY) creamy cheese sauce. Would try to purchase cheese dip separately to take home for mac and cheese.

Dole whip: Refreshing pineapple flavored soft serve, found at all 4 parks (I think). Watch each of the servers at different stands dispense this from their Dole whip machine. Some servers make bigger swirls.

Turkey leg: Flavorful turkey meat, tastes smokey and very tender, falls off the bone. Carrying this around may cause caveman-like behavior. I wanted a 2nd one, but could not find it at the Hollywood park. Apparently only Magic Kingdom and Epcot serve this massive leg of meat now.



Pasta at Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar: We tried to get into Tutto Italia at Epcot, but the hostess told me they were all booked up and that reservations were always required. Not sure if true that they’re all booked, maybe it was because I was dressed in ratty shorts and a tank top, and they had a dress code. We went next door to the more relaxed Tutto Gusto, where luckily, we were seated right away. The server was very friendly and congratulated P on her upcoming marriage. We had the lasagna and the spaghetti and meatballs, shared between the 4 of us. This normally would not have been enough food for me, I admit I’m gluttonous, but after tasting the snacks at each of the different countries around the park all day, I had enough of eating. Despite having very little appetite though, the pasta here was amazing, and we cleaned the plates off.



We also had a bunch of other foods at Disney, but these were some of the most memorable. The Disney standard applies even to their food!

Click here to read about P’s bachelorette, part 2.

We had yet another steak dinner while travelling in Kissimee, this time at the Old Hickory Steakhouse at the hotel:



I wasn’t too excited to try this place, because hotel chain restaurants are not typically my favourite places to visit, but this restaurant was conveniently located just underneath our rooms, and they took reservations, so it was very convenient for a good work dinner. It turns out that they do serve pretty good steak here, although the 8 hours of standing and all the manual labor of packing up the trade show probably contributed to my ravenous appetite. We also had a couple of sides, which didn’t quite stand out for me. The dessert selection sounded good, but again, nothing too special. I’d come here mainly out of convenience.



All in all, a trip with many good memories. The food quality tapered off towards the end, because we were mainly stuck in the hotel without too many options, but perhaps I’m just spoiled in my everyday life at home.

I'm back in Orlando in a couple weeks. 3rd time's the charm?

Go to Orlando Breakfast

Go to Orlando Lunch

After breakfast, we immediately started looking for a place to have lunch. Our trusty smartphones told us that a 30 minute walk would bring us to the World of Beer, which sounded pretty amazing to beer enthusiasts like H and I. From Lineage Coffee, we walked to Lake Eola, went around the park, which was full of people and swans, explored the busy farmer’s market, and arrived at the World of Beer:



Walking into this bar took some courage. The patio looked more welcoming, but it was already full. The servers were all very friendly, but looked like they were way too busy. Nobody greeted us, and we sat ourselves down at a table that was covered in dirty dishes. The place was really busy and really dirty – it smelled like dirty old beer and greasy food. Typical of a bar, I guess.



Eventually, we ordered our tater tots and margherita flat bread, as well as a flight of local beers for me and a pint of some IPA for H. The local drafts did not impress me, and some of them downright tasted NASTY. Maybe it’s the chlorinated water in Florida, but I probably will not come back.

I would go back to Florida to see another rocket or shuttle launch, and for the sunshine. It’s pouring again in Vancouver, as I write this… What else does one do in Florida besides enjoy the sunshine?

Go to Orlando Breakfast
Go to Orlando Dinner

Landed in Orlando (second time this year! at least once more next month!), and picked up H along the way. We were going to spend some time together in Orlando before I had to go back to work. Are you surprised that one of the first things we did was go for coffee?



We took an Uber out to Lineage Coffee, which I sourced out from Instagram (unfortunately, most of my food choices are influenced by Instagram…). The cafe was very spacious, very bright, and appeared to be very clean. Most of the seating was taken up already, but H and I found a little spot by the counter. I had a cappuccino, H had a pourover, and we shared a chocolate croissant. They gave us a regular croissant at first, but we had no troubles exchanging it for one filled with chocolatey goodness. The croissants were gigantic and very fluffy, I would recommend not missing out on it.
I didn’t like the flavour of my cappuccino, probably just personal preference, but I’d come back for the environment and to try a different blend (if I’m ever in the neighborhood again). H seemed to enjoy his coffee, but we both enjoyed spreading the joy and excitement of our upcoming marriage!



H proposed right before we left for coffee, and I am happy to announce that I will be posting all about the wedding planning. I am going to go on the record here to say that I don’t think it will be too stressful (for me at least). My future husband is resourceful when it comes to planning events and he will likely be doing most of the work. I hate making decisions, and I already had to make one of the toughest ones in this wedding (I decided I want to marry him!) so I think it’s only fair that he does most of the researching and coordinating, right?

Jokes. I’ll be sure to pin things to our Pinterest board too.

If you want to hear the story of how he proposed, email me and I’ll send you the story. It fits our relationship perfectly, and I love how it went down.

Go to Orlando Lunch

Go to Orlando Dinner

The final part of this 1 week trip was spent in Orlando, Florida:

For our first meal, we had beer and tacos!

My excitement is mostly because the Yard House has a large selection of beers. It’s true. They had more beers than people in the restaurant, more beers than I had time to look through and read about. The place was packed! Food was OK, come for the beers, and for if you don’t want to hear whoever you’re with, because the music gets pretty loud inside.

This was the Vampire taco, which uses a shell made of cheese instead of regular flour.

Well, that’s basically it for this trip. I had a pretty good time at the conference, meeting new people, learning new things about this industry that I am a part of. I survived the hot water pipe blowing in my hotel room at the Marriott. It was unfortunate that they could only reimburse me $50 for all my troubles.

Go back to New York or Ohio…