Kissimmee for Business

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We intended to have this trip be Business mixed with Pleasure; however, Business clearly won. Regardless, we were really impressed with the hotel we stayed at so it's worth a TravelBlog entry for future reference.


Lodging
Long story short, Matt had a Conference to attend at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando . The conference lasted from Wednesday-Friday and the Gaylord Palms charged $199 per night for a basic room. Obviously, that would add up very quickly and was a bit out of our budget. As a result, we opted to stay at another more "budget friendly" ($66.99 per night) hotel nearby and just commute to the conference every morning. After some research, we booked the Comfort Suites Maingate East due to affordability, location and Hotels.com reviews.

Our own review of the hotel is quite impressive as well. For the price, this is a great place to stay if Disney is in the agenda. The location is right by Old Town which looked interesting and quaint, although we did not get to check it out. The rooms were clean and spacious and included free internet which was ideal since we were there for work. The best part of this hotel was the continental breakfast. I know this sounds silly, but it truly was the best complementary breakfast I've ever had. They had everything from Mickey-shaped chocolate chip waffles, to fresh fruit, to hard boiled eggs and hot chocolate. I have never been so impressed and would definitely stay here again for the breakfast alone. My only complaint about this hotel would be the super slow elevators, but the stairs offer an easy solution.

Although we did not stay at the Gaylord Palms, we did explore the hotel quite a bit during the conference. First let me just say that parking is a complete rip off at $13.00 a day or every time that you park. At one point, we parked, then had to leave again briefly before coming back again. Since we left and came back, we were charged twice that day paying close to $30 just to park. The hotel itself is gorgeous and I'm sure would have been a dream to stay in. The conference rooms were also very nicely decorated and spacious. At one point, Matt and I had lunch at the Cantina by the pool. The food was over priced and not good. All things considered, I probably wouldn't be willing to pay $199 a night to stay here and would rather splurge on the Hilton.

Dining
A lot of our meals were provided at the conference which was nice. As mentioned above, we did eat breakfast at our hotel and lunch at the Cantina at the Gaylord Palms. We also made a special trip to the Tommy Bahama Restaurant at The Pointe. This restaurant has now swiped the title of Matt's and my favorite restaurant. The service, food and atmosphere are all excellent. This time I did order dessert (chocolate cake) and it was well worth it.

Despite Business winning over Pleasure, we still had a nice time away for a few days. Plus, we discovered a new hotel to stay at in Orlando and officially have a new favorite restaurant. 😊

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