On the drive to the hotel, it was clear that one thing we hadn t really thought that much about was

Having being fairly consistently employed for the last 8 years or so, we ve had the money to do a lot of trips, and a lot of them end up involving Central Florida. In the last 2 years, my wife has flown into MCO 6 times, me 5, all for pleasure. Sometimes I admit to being a bit snobbish about Orlando. In many ways, Orlando rent car ireland represents the nadir of western culture. It is a world of fake experiences set up to simulate better real ones in child safe environments intended to appeal to the lowest common denominator of society. Everything from the food to the interactive rent car ireland museums on I-Drive represent these qualities of consumerism and declared ignorance over knowledge and understanding. And yet, I go. Regularly, actually.
rent car ireland This particular trip came about as a way to merge two things my wife and I had discussed doing many times into one, cogent, not obscenely expensive vacation to the Orlando area. One half of the 4 nights would be spent in Orlando itself, shrouding ourselves in the warm glow of SeaWorld and its related attractions (Discovery Cove, Aquatica). The second half would see us take a 4 night Disney cruise aboard rent car ireland the Disney Dream this is their bread and butter route, and stops at their acclaimed private island Castaway Cay. At this point, having cruised regularly over the last 3-4 years and racking up as much experience as we have with other lines, this seemed a good time to be able to compare what Disney really offered. We originally planned to make the trip even cheaper rent car ireland by going with a free stay at the Sheraton Lake Buena Vista (Formerly the Sheraton Safari) near the Downtown Disney entry area of Walt Disney World. About a month and a half before the trip, we ended up flipping our points for that to use in reserving a room for a major trip down the line this year in Rome, and instead decided to pay straight up for a room across the street from SeaWorld at the Renaissance Orlando At SeaWorld.
As is often the case, we stayed overnight at the Westin Detroit Metro on a park and fly package prior to our departure. We were given an inside facing rent car ireland room on the top floor and had plenty of time the next morning to have breakfast. There was a bit of a delay getting out of Detroit due to mechanical issues, but we had nothing substantive scheduled on our first day in Orlando anyhow. No biggie. At least the wireless at Detroit is free for the first half hour or so.
We rented our car through Alamo, which since our last rental with them a couple years ago has instituted a online check-in system in which one can check in with all their applicable info online, then walk to the class of automobile they have and proceed to the exit of the garage with their rental agreement. rent car ireland For reasons we don t understand, of the in-terminal rent car ireland Orlando rental companies, Alamo was cheapest with a 2 door convertible at the time of booking. rent car ireland At about $50 a day, it was more than I d like to spend, but considering that Hertz was requesting upwards of $120 a day for a compact, I was much happier taking this route. We ended up with a practically brand new Chrysler 200 with a convertible top. I was actually very happy with this set up and would probably use Alamo again as a preferred rent car ireland car rental agency over Hertz because of it Hertz charges you $70 a year to have that kind of access to a vehicle. rent car ireland I much prefer free.
On the drive to the hotel, it was clear that one thing we hadn t really thought rent car ireland that much about was going to play a role in exactly how much we left the immediate area: traffic. Lots of it. The drive should have taken us about 17-20 minutes and went well over half an hour. With the holidays people hit the parks hard. At that point, we knew that we made the right call with moving our hotel. Trying to get in and our of Sea World under other conditions would have been nightmare-ish, a fact reinforced rent car ireland in our minds later.
The Renaissance Orlando rent car ireland at SeaWorld is somewhat unassuming from outside, rent car ireland looking not entirely different rent car ireland than a lot of other large resort hotels in the area. Inside, the Renaissance seems vast: It contains a convention center and a huge covered atrium, replete with waterfall, restaurants, bar, fantastic blown glass aquarium , and Wyland mural. With few balconies present for the guest rooms, there s a lot of focus on the inside of the building, a fact present in a great number of hotels from that era (1970s through late 1980s). If this were an urban space, I could see the criticism. In Orlando, where the Contemporary rent car ireland Resort is one of the aesthetic landmarks, it is hard to complain about such an impressive place. Check in offers either cider or champagne, which is a nice touch. Shame Marriott has the worst elite program out there, because I really do like what they offer.
Our room was an Executive Suite, facing SeaWorld on the 6th floor. The room itself was massive 818 square feet as listed by the hotel. The bathroom is quite small, probably only accounting for 1/8 of that space. Clearly the room seems to be intended to match up via connecting doors to make a monster room with the spaces around it for a big family. rent car ireland We aren t such a family, but still enjoyed the cavernous space, the sectional sofa, massive 52 TV, the dining room table, and large windows facing the park. The furnishings are very modern and cool this is probably thanks in large part to a refurbishment that took place in 2011. Did I mention that we really liked this room? We really liked this room.
My wife and I weren t the only people at the hotel. In fact, it wasn t so much SeaWorld visitors using the hotel as it was football fans. The Renaissance was chosen as the official hotel for the Capitol One Bowl, and it seemed that the Georgia Bulldogs were there along with us signing lots of autographs and having team meetings in the convention spaces. rent car ireland Plenty of their fans made the drive to Orlando to watch them too. Lots of flags and t-shirts were seen not only at arrival, but all week long leading up to the game on New Years Day. Naturally, being Big Ten people, we felt completely out of place in this situation, as they were playing Nebraska, the 2nd place Big Ten team and probably the 4th-5th best team in the conference.
Chatter had been had before the week that perhaps we would use our opening night in Orlando to go do something we hadn t done before maybe I-Drive? Maybe a dinner show? With the traffic being what it was, we thought better of both ideas and decided to just take in an easy night of SeaWorld visiting. We had free entry because of our Discovery Cove package, and going to do something for free seemed a lot smarter than going and spending $100+ doing something that might not be as good. The distance from the hotel to the park on foot is negligible. Most of the travel is done across the parking lot, and it takes no more than 7 or 8 minutes door to door.
SeaWorld was pretty busy but not absurdly packed per se. Around the usual pinch point (Voyager s Smokehouse/Sky Tower area) there was a ton of people, but walking around the edge of the park through the Christmas Town area there was nowhere near as many people present. There were no big plans on this evening we d go on some rides, rent car ireland we d maybe see a show if something rent car ireland looked appealing, and see some animals. We got to visit the killer whale viewing area by Shamu Stadium to look at the big guys, passed through the children s area briefly (and got confused as to how to leave), and found ourselves by the arena where O Wondrous Night The Greatest Story Never Told was being shown. The doors were open and accepting rent car ireland guests, and so we made it our first real activity of our visits to the park.
O Wondrous Night shows in the same enclosed theater rent car ireland as the Cirque ripoff A Lure during Christmas time. It is a puppet show with live animals rent car ireland providing backup, and tells the tale of Jesus birth in Bethlehem to the masses. It is the kind of show I d kind of expect in Branson rather than a major Orlando theme park (ie not Holy Land Experience) there s no doubting the religious context here. It is also pretty grandiose, with people on cables, an enormous array of animals including trained doves, camels, goats, sheep, dancers, gospel singers, and the like. It is pretty modern, and to me seems like something TBN would record and broadcast rent car ireland to whomever it is that watches their network. I m not a religious man, so a lot of it is lost on me spiritually rent car ireland though I can see the show is quite impressive and tries hard to be moving. rent car ireland My wife thought it decent but expected more animals (they only really appear rent car ireland at the very end) and less puppets and poppy carols. The thing we were least enthused about? Uncomfortable metal bleacher seats.
We headed from there over to the park s coasters. Manta had a bit of a wait going on, so we went instead to ride the coaster that never has a line; Kraken. rent car ireland Meredith was one and done on this evening rent car ireland while I went around a couple more times to ride before being reminded by my body that I should probably have had my motion rent car ireland sickness patch on if I was planning on doing much more. We did a lot of touring of shops otherwise, looking at merchandise, planning what we might or might not purchase during our time at the park. We left around 10PM to get back to our hotel, and watched the nightly holiday firework show from our window. Pretty fine way to start our trip low impact, high degree rent car ireland of pleasure.
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