|
Orlando - Sandorfi Family Trip, Winter 2003 |
|
Friday, December 26 - Friday, January 2: Tourists R Us
David and C.C. were skeptical but game: we'd weathered rutted roads and bug infestations in Costa Rica, smoky restaurants and never-ending rain in Paris, and all manner of New York City challenges. How hard could it be to handle Orlando for a week? Hah. The trip didn't big on an auspicious note. Our destination, a sprawling condominium community that spanned two sides of a roadway, was Cypress Pointe, and we cabbed it from the airport to arrive there around midnight. The only hitch: we didn't know which unit we'd be in, and Mom and Dad had arranged to meet us at "the clubhouse." Well, naturally, we could not find the clubhouse. Despite a multitude of cell-phone calls and our best efforts to describe exactly where we were standing (out on the street, with all our luggage), they couldn't find us nor describe where they were. At one point, we helplessly watched them drive right by us without even batting an eye. Finally, after an incredibly frustrating 20 minutes trying to connect, we flagged them down as they drove by yet again and managed to get into the condo and settled without anyone killing anyone else. Luckily, by morning, the bright Florida sun made the night nothing more than a bad memory. We spent a relaxing day hanging out and exploring our local environs. Cypress Pointe was located less than a mile from the main entrance to Walt Disney World (which actually put it about 8 miles from the entrance to the Magic Kingdom itself!), right off the main highway through the Disney area. That road was choked with every single chain restaurant known to man, it seemed: everything from Chili's to McDonald's to the Outback Steak House. Fine Dining Central, this was not. Interspersed with the restaurants were a variety of tourist-trade stores (3 T-Shirts for $5!!!), convenience stores, strip malls, and gas stations. And the traffic was hideous, of course, considering how choked with humanity this area was (spending the holidays at Disney World guarantees you'll never be lonely!). Dave and I did a grocery-store run that resulted in buying enough food for a month or so (a word to the wise: shopping with a pregnant, hungry wife in tow is not a good way to keep costs down). Later on, we explored Downtown Disney, a complex that included Pleasure Island (nightclubs), a shopping district, and an enormous movie theater. We caught a showing of the most recent installment of the Lord of the Rings and wandered the shops, enjoying the calm before the vacation storm. On Sunday, Dave worked his magic by parlaying an attempt by the time-share staff to reschedule a time-share presentation (they ran out of sales agents) into four discount tickets to the Magic Kingdom (the original incentive for attending) free of any strings. That meant we got the goodies without ever having to sit through one of those awful "here, buy a time share!" spiels. The frazzled staff was no match for Dave's cool, implacable logic. Go, Dave! Later that day, Miki, Colleen, Sebastian, and Harrison arrived. There was much commotion and fun in the reunion, and we spent an enjoyable day catching up. Colleen presented the parents-to-be with an impressively large "baby stocking" chock-full of goodies, and Sebastian and Harrison regaled Uncle Monkey Hat Dave and Auntie C.C. with stories about what they'd been up to. That evening, Dave and C.C. visited Disney's Wide World of Sports complex, which was pretty impressive. The Adidas Junior Championships of soccer were going on, and we caught part of a match before grabbing dinner at a sports cafe. And C.C. learned that hard way that the perfect pregnancy food is NOT super-spicy buffalo chicken wings. On Monday, we kept things low-key with a pool day, splashing around and goofing off. C.C. and Dave went on a quest for two-way radios and made an impulse buy at a local retailer; C.C. haggled the guy down from $70 to $50 and was proud of her negotiating skills. (Of course, two days later they spotted the exact same model at a local Wal-Mart for $29.99. Can you say "suckers"?) Afterward, we made an early night of it in preparation for the Big Day: the Magic Kingdom! On Tuesday, we awoke at the crack of dawn, determined to beat the crowds at the Magic Kingdom (we'd been warned that the parking lot might actually close down by 10 a.m. due to crowds). We got there, stretching, yawning, and gnawing on doughnuts (thanks, Colleen!) -- at 7:15 a.m. And we scored a parking spot within six rows of the front gates! Woo hoo. To our delight, we were told that they were opening the monorail early, so by 7:30 we were inside the park and ready for a day of fun. Fun for everyone but the pregnant chick, that is -- C.C. was banned from all but the most mellow rides due to her blooming condition. She got a chance to spin with her nephews on the Magic Teacups, then enjoyed singing the "Yo Ho" song at Pirates of the Caribbean, but had to spend most of the rest of the day holding everyone else's jackets, cameras, and assorted paraphernalia while they got to have all the fun. Dad rented a motorized scooter to save wear and tear on his aching hip and managed to terrorize half the park with his antics (yes, he drove the scooter the way he drives his RX-7!). Luckily, he only ran over one person, and she didn't seem much the worse for wear afterward. The crowds were insane, the stress levels were high, and the elder Sandorfis and the Hollands ran out of gas around 4 p.m. The younger Sandorfis decided there was no way they could leave yet -- there were fireworks to be seen! So the group parted ways, with the tired bunch heading back to the condo to collapse. However, CC's fatigue evaporated quickly when she learned there was a maternity-clothing outlet less than a mile away. Reinvigorated, she cajoled Dave into an evening trip, where she made up for her "You can't do anything fun at Disney World" day with a big splurge on cute (well, as cute as maternity clothes can get!) items. On Wednesday, despite their best intentions for a big theme-park day, the younger Sandorfis were all felled by illness. The sniffling group decided to stay low-key with Legos and DVDs, while the elder Sandorfis planned a pool day. Dave and C.C. headed over to Sea World, the one place in Orlando that C.C. was dying to go. Fearing a scene similar to the Magic Kingdom, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the crowds were fairly minimal, the overall park mood was relaxed, and the place was a delight. They signed up for a behind-the-scenes tour and got a look at the animal rehabilitation facilities, which included close-up peeks at convalescing baby manatees and juvenile dolphins. We caught nearly every show and were especially enamored of the "Pets Ahoy!" piece, which featured all manner of non-aqueous animals (dogs, cats, rats, raccoons, pigs, birds) in a perfectly choreographed skit with no trainers in sight. (C.C. delighted in pointing out the positive reinforcement and clicker-training techniques she spotted.) Dave went solo on the flume roller-coaster while C.C. communed with the flamingos, and best of all -- we both got to pet and feed dolphins in Sea World's Dolphin Cove (a first for Dave). The day couldn't have been better -- but suddenly, it was, when we learned we could get a second-day pass for free! Which, of course, we did, fully planning to return. On Thursday, New Year's Day, C.C. and Dave decided to go car shopping. Having determined that we'd need to upgrade our current vehicle to accommodate both baby and dog, we figured that we could do some test-driving and research while on vacation. We hit several dealerships and scoped out a few models, ruling out some on the basis of looks and others on price. (No test-driving, since we had out-of-state licenses.) Then it was time for the big family get-together: dinner at Downtown Disney followed by a showing of Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba. We all met, after some confusion, in Downtown Disney, where the boys discovered Lego Land and the adults swore once more we'd never be back to Orlando during Christmas break. Then we descended upon the Rainforest Cafe for an enormous meal and waddled to the other end of the complex for the show. La Nouba was incredible; Dave and I have seen every Cirque du Soleil incarnation except for one (Zumanity), and we decided that this one probably topped them all. Our favorite act involved a trampoline routine that had athletes bounding up the sides of buildings (no, seriously!). But we had almost as much fun watching Sebastian and Harrison as their jaws dropped watching act after act. Friday rolled around quickly -- our last day! But we still had these free Sea World passes...what to do? So we went back for an abbreviated morning visit and had just about as great a time as we'd had two days earlier. C.C. wanted Dave to win her a stuffed penguin at the arcade, so we played Whack-a-Mole. C.C. kicked everybody's butts and won her OWN pair of stuffed penguins (sorry, Dave! You just can't top a determined pregnant athlete!) and Dave got to carry them around stuck in his fanny pack for the rest of the morning. Another visit to the dolphins, and we were ready to say goodbye to Orlando. We caught a flight back to California just a few hours later, bringing our Sandorfi family fun-in-the-sun trip to a close. |
If you were to wrack your brain trying to decide on a holiday destination that offered a calm, quiet getaway during the heart of the Christmas season, chances are that "Orlando, Florida" would be somewhere near the extreme bottom of the list. Despite that fact, the lure of the theme parks proved too strong for Namo and Napo Sandorfi, who arranged a time-share exchange with the family based mostly on the anticipation of how their grandsons, Sebastian and Harrison, would react to their first taste of all things Mickey Mouse.