Festive? Are you sure?

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” -Robert Louis Stevenson

Graduation is now past and thirteen years of mini-me’s hard work is in the books. As part of her graduation present, a friend of mine and I took her and her best friend to Disney for a week. We absolutely had a blast. With tropical storm winds it wasn’t near as hot as it normally is, and most days the rain only hit mid-afternoon when we were at the condo resting. I have discovered that my absolute FAVORITE ride is Expedition Everest with Tower of Terror running a close second. Due to my illness and being stuck in a wheelchair, I had to rest midday in order to not stress my body. When I was told I had to do this I wasn’t a happy camper and thought it would spoil the fun for everyone. Boy was I wrong! We ALL completely enjoyed the nap in the afternoon and discovered that we love Disney so much more at night. Not only is it cooler, it is less crowded with lower wait times. We even did the safari ride with just us and the driver/guide and had so much more fun than at other times. So much fun.

Now for the rest of the story. While it was a great trip and we had lots of fun, the condo was far from what was expected. I’m not really a ”stay on property” type of person, just because our timeshare allows for us to stay in many local condos without the added expense. Unfortunately, they were fully booked so I used a free 8 day/7 night trip that we had received from sitting through one of our timeshare’s sales pitches, trying to get us to buy more points. (Ugh! I hate those things!) I booked Festiva Orlando Resort in Kissimmee. Big mistake! Huge! (yes, that was a Pretty Woman reference.) The one bedroom suite with a pull out couch was what they had available, and while comfortable, it just wasn’t up to par with other resorts in the area. The outside was clean but had lots of run down areas upon closer inspection and the rooms were old, run down, and needed some major repairs. There was evidence of a roof leak and damage to walls, the pull out sofa was a love seat that looked like it came from the 70’s, and the mattress in the bedroom didn’t match the box springs and slid every time you sat on it, along with being not very comfortable. The kitchen counter was damaged, there were very few dishes and the cabinets had some serious wear and tear. In saying all of that…was it the worst place to stay? Absolutely not. It wasn’t a huge mistake, I just really wanted to use a movie reference there. It was comfortable, for the most part, other than the extremely quick gecko hanging out in the bathroom to scare Lan, and the tired, old furniture. It was, however, not a place I will choose to stay again.

All in all, this was a great trip and I wouldn’t change a thing about it! We just know where NOT to stay next time!