Boardwalk Empire - but without the gangsters .... and the bootlegging ....

..... or the guns.

At first I kinda liked HBO's TV drama, Boardwalk Empire.

I was "OH it's dramatised history and I can pretend I am learning"

and it was all done with marvelous tailoring

But mostly, I kept thinking how close it all looked to Disney's Boardwalk Inn and Villas. Admittedly, both Disney and HBO are copying the 1920's New Jersey shoreline and the famous Boardwalks.

However the Disney copy is done with a lot less violent shootings and concrete boots. And Crescent Lake has the ultimate problem that is it less than 6 feet deep. So any bodies thrown in there just bob up to the surface.

what? too crass?

Crescent Lake at WDW is located between the Epcot and Hollywood Studios parks, and is home to Disney's Beach and Yacht Club Resorts, Starwood's Swan and Dolphin Hotels and Disney's Boardwalk Inn and Villas.

(source: Robo on the disboards)

The Epcot resort area is a fabulous place to stay. 5 deluxe hotels to choose from, walking distance to two parks - AND a miniature golf course! Also this is the epicentre of "adult disney" supplied with bars, restaurants and walking access to the food and wine festival in Epcot.

Long term readers will know that I am planning to be at WDW before ZI Convention begins in late June 2014. And when I get to WDW, I'll be staying at the Boardwalk Villas. Right where I can act out my Mr Creasote tendancies without too much walking.

Carnival lights entrance. (source: tripadvisor)

Given its location in the epicentre of the action, staying at the Boardwalk is a pretty straightforward choice.

The resort comes in two parts: The Inn - with standard hotel rooms:

2 Queen beds + sofa turns into single bed + desk + TV unit + bathroom and closet.

 And the Villas - DVC timeshare apartments in 3 sizes: studio, 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom

Basically the same except sofa bed and a kitchenette

Kitchenette in Villa Studio

As there are 5 of us Zontians in our merry group, we are renting a 2 bedroom villa = one of these studios bolted onto a 1 bedroom villa. This gives us 4 beds in 3 separate sleeping spaces, and 2 bathrooms. Plus the 1 bedroom villa has a lounge room and full kitchen!

Lounge room by day, bedroom by night.

You know ..... for all that home cooking one does when at Disneyworld ..... and you think  "hmmm 479 eating places and ... well .... I'd rather buy the ingredients and cook?!"

Fully equipped - ready for 5 hungry Zontians who do not want to miss ANY dishwashing.

 3 TV's, 2 showers, 2 toilets and we will run a raffle every night for who gets to go in the spa!

It's not Zonta, without a raffle.

spot the hidden mickey

This short video gives you a glimpse of both the 2 bedroom villa and the whole resort

 We little band of Aussies will be at the Boardwalk Villas the week before Convention begins.  Enjoying our libations under the palm trees.

Boardwalk Lounge - G & T's all round.

We are hopefully taking advantage of renting DVC points to attain a substantial discount for the room.

I will probably be wearing t-shirt and shorts rather than a spiffy 3 piece tailored suit, but I can still wander around acting like I own the joint - at least for a week.


 And what about you? Will you be visiting, or even staying, at Walt Disney World?

Resort photos are WDW official company shots

How Orlando Hotels made me a better person

Ha! That's a pretty bold claim.

I was reading an article about research from Cambridge University that showed how one's Facebook likes have a strong correlation with personality traits and attributes such as IQ.  So I took the automatic profiling test: "You are what you like" and .... well .....discovered what I already knew - a mix of what I really do like and how I think I want to project myself to others.

So the little app described me as:

All this just from liking The Colbert Report

Using the same logic I bet I could come up with the same result just from what I "liked" at different Orlando hotels!

So starting in Lake Buena Vista, the red-circled tag is the Marriott World Centre Resort, where the ZI Convention will be held.

Almost as many hotels as golf courses

I have already posted on the Marriott World Centre and it being the largest convention room in the USA. Go back and look at my pictures.  You'll see a fairly mundane functional hotel - like a squillion others around the world. Given that it is large and business-like I'm gonna give it my "well-organised" tag.

Here's a bonus video taken from that fancy lift on the front that goes up 28 floors in 18 secs - and looks out over the flat flat Florida landscape.

I also went to visit the Ritz-Carlton! Possibly the most upmarket hotel in Orlando. On my little map, go off the top RH corner and keep going. This place REALLY, so desperately, WANTS to be swanky.

Reminds me of the Premium Outlet Malls. (source; ritz carlton site)

Despite having a HUGE golf tournament going on, and a convention centre full of mobile phone talking, wheely bag pulling be-suited middle aged men, inside was very quiet and plush.

Convention Centre foyer - compare that to the Marriott's stone floored train station approach

There is a massive spa and apparently one of the better ones in the region so I tried to score an appointment, but, once they discovered I was not staying in-house, suddenly nothing was available.

Italian marble and over stuffed chairs in the foyer

It was a whole other world to me - perhaps fun for a while but I felt like I would be role-playing a different being whilst staying here. So it gets the "traditional and conservative" tag which was NOT on my Facebook profile.

UPDATE: I have just caught up with Samantha Brown visiting the Ritz-Carlton, Naples Florida saying that Travel + Leisure have named this the No.2 hotel in the USA and the No. 3 in the world. And the spa is among the best in the USA. You could use this as a base if you are going to the Everglades.

Many many pillows

Back to my little map and in the bottom LHS at the No. 2 is the Waldorf Astoria Hotel

All very American polished. (source: waldorf astoria site)

This place is fairly new - only a few years old, and happens to be placed in an oddity of Disney land purchasing - in that it is surrounded by WDW but not actually on WDW property. So as close as any Disney resort! The Waldorf is putting itself up for direct competition against the Disney Deluxe hotels and have been undercutting the Disney prices. So you could have upmarket luxury at a decent price, whilst staying very close to "the magic"

I stopped by the Waldorf for a look. It is jammed packed in among a bunch of other hotels - a Hilton, Wyndham etc and driving down the street reminds of those new tech/uni/industrial parks that house big corporates & IT companies these days.

Off - over there - in the distance ..... what? well - yes - sometimes I didn't have both hands on the steering wheel.

Inside is all upmarket posh marble too but not as over the top as the Ritz.
 

Foyer with Reception in back.

This time I scored at the Spa - walked in, and they offered to look after me immediately. So I was ushered through and enjoyed a massage from a large, young Brazilian man! (ummm ......). Sorry no photos.

Is it G&T time?

The Bull and Bear steakhouse here is supposed to be one of Orlando's finest (but I haven't been!).
Still, it's very upmarket and comfortable, competitively priced, friendly and inviting. I could be very happy and feel special here. I give this my "calm and relaxed" tag.

However, the Waldorf demonstrates why I strongly recommend staying at the Marriott during the ZI Convention period. Have a look at the drive to get to the Marriott.

The two hotels LOOK like they are across the road from each other - but follow the blue line route. The freeway system - you've gotta love it. Really! You'd better love the freeway cause you are gonna spend a LOT of time on it.

The other big player in the area is the Gaylord Palms Resort. It is located in the centre-bottom of my little map above.

It looks like your average, albeit large, resort - it has pools, gym, spa, convention centre, restaurants etc.

Nothing to see here, keep moving.

The pricing is very competitive - in their sale periods it is possible to get rooms around the $100/night mark. It is very popular with families on vacation.

Standard and very nice rooms

But when you step inside ......

The Old Hickory Steakhouse in the "Everglades" theme

.... there are 4.5 acres of themed gardens representing different Florida highlights! Including the swampy "Everglades" area; St Augustine area with an Italian trattoria;

tropical gardens with waterfalls and koi; and finally - the Florida Keys area with a yacht!

"Would the owner of a blue yacht, please see reception - you are blocking the jetski ramp"

How amazing! So the Gaylord represents my "liberal and artistic" side.

So here are 3 other hotels you could stay at whilst holidaying in the period before Convention begins - each offering a different experience and price tag.

And can you see how you can find out about your personality just from visiting Orlando hotels?

Which one is your preference? Which hotel would you prefer to visit?

All images are mine or from the hotels' official sites. Click the pictures for full size

Convention Hotel bookings now open for Marriott World Center!

Zonta International have announced that accommodation and dining reservations at the Marriott World Center are now open for Convention 2014!

Convention organisers are offering an online registration process to book your accommodation, and your dining reservations too.

ONLINE RESERVATIONS

The first piece of information the process asks for is "what type of guest are you" and from a pop up menu you select your desired room configuration. The choices are (roughly):

• single person in king bed w pull out sofa
• more people in 2 beds
• multiple people with multiple bedrooms

This selection is key as, from that point on, the system appears to only offer you that type of room, no matter what variables you enter. Say you enrolled as a single person wanting a king bed. You can go on to ask for multiple rooms and ask to sleep 5+ people but it will still only offer the original single person, king bed room type.

I discovered this by enrolling as 1 lonely person, and then was unable to compare rooms and prices for you - sigh...

I look forward to someone a bit more savvy than I telling me how to work though that system.

I recommend you work out your accommodation arrangements (single?, sharing?, bringing the kids?) and then start the process.

MARRIOTT OR ....????

I do recommend staying at the Marriott for the convention period - predominately for the convenience. There is not much else around except the Nickelodeon kiddie themed resort across the road expressway. Doesn't even look like a pineapple under the sea! 

Taken from Lv 28 of the Tower. Take care dodging the traffic!

Staying anywhere else will require a 10 - 15 min drive and you would have to park in their multi-story and catch their little shuttle - oh hang it - too much work already! Esp. if I want to stay up chatting with you until 3am!

Due to the heat and school holidays, I also recommend that you do any holidaying BEFORE convention, and finish your trip with convention. Stay where you want to be holidaying (e.g. Hmmm .... a Disney resort??) and then move over to the Marriott.

The Marriott are offering the special convention rate for a week or so before and after the convention - and then the opposite will apply re: travel. You will need a hire car and you will have a 15 min drive every time you want to go somewhere. 

 

ROOM OPTIONS 

Pool view rooms - one of two pools.

The Marriott has 2009 rooms, including 110 suites in 8 configurations.

UPDATE: 
Jane Adams, ZI International Convention Chair, has confirmed that the Zonta rooms available through convention bookings are these Standard rooms. Price variance depends on the number of people in the room. 

The most common room is the Standard - either 1 king bed plus pull out sofa bed; or 2 double beds. Conference flyers have previously revealed that the contract rate for this room is USD $169 plus tax 12.5% = approx. $190/night. At 425sqft this is a pretty comfortable size!

The flyer shows a "double room" at $189 (+tax = approx. $212) and a "quad room" as $209 (+ tax = approx $235). Book NOW Aussies - whilst our dollar is above parity!

DoubleDouble room = 2 x double beds + double sinks in bathroom (source: Marriott World Center)

The Marriott charges different rates for different views ('pool' or 'resort' - aka front driveway, carpark, or convention centre roof) higher or lower floors, connecting rooms, and of course, if you are in one of their suites. I am assuming that they will also charge extra if you use the sofa bed. 

Right now, I am not sure exactly what is offered for conference rooms. I am guessing it will be a lower floor, "resort" view.  For nicer views, go higher than the 7th floor, and preferably "pool" view. Some rooms have a clear view of the Epcot fireworks (probably Tower and West wing pool view). Hopefully soon, all variables will be revealed by the Convention Organising Team and let the planning begin!

 

 

 View on Level 5 East Tower:  courtesy of TripAdvisor

 

Here is an example of one type of suite - the Promenade. There are 10 of these and they offer 2 beds and a separated seating area with a sofa bed. Plus with 477 sqft you score some extra space. Described as having a wall panel separating the sleeping area from the sofa bed, this is useful if someone snores!  The strange side?  They are described as a "non-view" room - whatever that means.

Suites just get larger and more complicated from there: they start adding dining suites and kitchenettes; and making the bedroom a separate room from the living space. 

Although I note there are few rooms with multiple bedrooms - they appear to use interconnecting rooms to achieve that effect. 

Go and have a look at the range of accommodations available at the Marriott World Center.  That page has all the info, photos and floor layouts, for both the standard guest rooms and the suites.

My choice? Who wants to share the International Suite with me? 

6 beds, 2 spas and reception capacity of 100+ people

I can so imagine myself on that rooftop terrace, with my Kungaloosh!

Time to start planning. Get your friends together, get online, and get organised! 

Related posts:
Part 1: The Convention Centre
Part 2: Dining Options