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Orlando at Christmas: The Most Magical and Most Maddening Time of Year There is a moment, around dusk in mid-December, when Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom flips on its dream lights — 200,000 LED icicles draped over every turret and parapet, turning the whole structure into a glittering ice palace. The crowd around you goes…
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Fall Is Orlando’s Best-Kept Secret (and I’ll Die on This Hill) There is a specific feeling you get walking down Main Street, U.S.A. on a Tuesday in mid-September. The crowds that crammed the place in July have evaporated. You can actually see the pavement. The line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is posted at 25…
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The First Sip Is the Whole Trip Here’s the moment that hooks everyone: you wrap your hand around a chilled cup of frozen Butterbeer, the foam cap wobbling like a sweet, buttery cloud, and you take that first slushy sip. It tastes like butterscotch and shortbread and childhood and a little bit of magic. You’re…
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Dining With Food Allergies at Orlando Theme Parks: You Can Relax More Than You Think If you have a child with a peanut allergy, celiac disease, or any of the dozens of dietary restrictions that turn a simple meal into a calculated risk, you already know the drill: you scan menus before you leave the…
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The Real Cost of Eating at Orlando Theme Parks (and Why It Stings) The first time I tracked every dollar my family of four spent on food during a single day at Magic Kingdom, the number made me put down my churro: $214. That was a quick-service breakfast, a counter-service lunch, two snacks each, a…
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Why EPCOT Is the Only Theme Park in the World With a Festival Calendar That Never Quits Here is a confession that should tell you everything about how I feel about EPCOT: I have planned entire Orlando trips around a bowl of cheddar soup. Specifically, the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup with a pretzel roll that…
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The Best Restaurants at Universal Orlando: My Honest, Eaten-Everywhere Guide Let me start with a confession that will set the tone for this entire guide: the best plate of food I have eaten inside any Orlando theme park in years was the pan-seared sea bass at The Atlantic, a fine-dining seafood room buried in the…
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Why Lake Buena Vista Is the Closest You Can Sleep to Disney Without Sleeping On Disney Here is a fact that trips up a surprising number of first-time visitors: a handful of the hotels closest to the Walt Disney World theme parks are not actually owned by Disney. They sit on a strip called Hotel…
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Orlando Hotels with Water Parks & Pools: The Honest Family Resort Ranking Here’s the dirty secret of Orlando hotel marketing: nearly every resort in town will tell you it has a “water park.” Most are lying — or at least stretching the definition past its breaking point. A zero-entry pool with a single curly slide…
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Kissimmee & Highway 192: Orlando’s Budget-Friendly Base Near Disney I ran a price check the morning I started writing this, and a clean, two-queen room at a national-brand value hotel on Highway 192 came back at $48 a night — about a fifteen-minute drive from the Magic Kingdom parking plaza. That single number explains why…