Plus ça change, plus ça même chose! The old French proverb tells us the more things change: the more they stay the same. I was last in Florida for Christmas in 1999 to celebrate the dawn of the new Millennium with my cousins in Orlando. Remember all the hype around that and the Y2k bug? It all seems like a lifetime away now! Revisiting them for Christmas in 2022 in many ways was re-assuringly familar.
Florida has been a favourite of many British holidaymakers for a long time and for many good reasons: the warm weather; the pristine sandy beaches; the warm welcome of Brits by Americans; and the fact that Orlando is the USA's theme park capital (Orlando's raison d'être if I may continue the French theme is themeparks: Orlando was merely a small town prior to Walt Disney buying huge tracts of land in the 1960s in Central Florida to develop the Magic Kingdom, which celebrated its 50th birthday in 2022).
What most Brits don't seem to realise though is Florida's best weather occurs during wintertime , not summer, when both the hurricane season is over and the weather is at its least humid and most pleasant. Americans do however know this, and, along with Canadians, flock in droves (known as "snowbirds") to spend Christmas (or longer) in America's warmest state in the Continental US for winter.
Getting there couldn't be easier. Many airlines offer direct flights to Orlando MCO from the UK. My favourite way of crossing the Atlantic has always been with Virgin Atlantic.
For several reasons: the service is exceptional; the legroom (even in economy) feels slightly more than that on other airlines; the food (whilst never anything to get overly excited by on any airline) seems that slightly bit better on Virgin Atlantic (who else serves Häagen Dazs ice cream?) and their checking-in process in 2022 couldn't be simpler. I downloaded their app and checkedin online and got the relevant digital tickets for my return flight. It was slightly let down upon checking in to discover the Virgin baggage weighing machines weren't working in Manchester Airport (it appeared the check-in assistants didn't know this however becasuse they were attempting to assist passenger after passenger and blaming the digital tickets, rather than the device). Unfortunately this negated the advantage of online check-in (avoiding the long queue for check-in) but my good humour was restored when the check-in lady on the old-school check-in desk said to me "as it's Christmas I'll overlook the slight luggage excess."
The flight over was wonderful and relaxing and arrived an hour ahead of schedule in Orlando. Anyone who has used Orlando MCO airport before knows it's extremely efficient in its design - monorail trains arrive to whisk you off to immigration and luggage collection. US immigration was also wonderful here - they had put on enough staff and lanes to cope with the influx of "aliens" (that phrase always does make me laugh in this context) since most travellers on the flight were British citizens, with a only a handful of Americans. They were also plesant as well, so by the time I collected my luggage I was in a good mood. Conversely to Manchester, my good humour evaporated when I saw the line to collect my rental car with Thrifty
Time saved by my early arrival was more than wiped out by Thrifty, who simply did not have enough people on their desks for the high demand in Orlando during the holiday season. I watched all the other lines with other rental companies evaporate whilst mine hardly moved. I joked with an American in front of me from Washington DC whether she had a birthday coming soon. A little perplexed she ask me why? I replied by saying you may be celebrating it in the line! [to racous laughter in the line]. The poor service with Thrifty continued when they got me the wrong car (without a SatNav) and then when I did eventually get a car with a SatNav it wasn't working properly (disconcertingly showing the car's position a block away from its actual location).
I last visited Epcot for Christmas 1999 with my cousins, and back then it seemed great value for money. Sadly, this no longer was the case in 2022. The corporate mugging begins the moment you enter the park, where you pay for parking ($25). The ticket price for an adult in 2022 was $125 for day entry, Can you imagine entrance fees for a large family? Yes there options for group / multi day bookings but in 2023 a 7-day ticket for just two adults is coming out at £519!
The experience in the park did not get any better. Whilst there are some new rides, notably Guardians of the Galaxy &. Remy's Ratatouille Adventure the Pavilions themselves in the World Showcase (a microcosm of 11 countries, centred around a lake) are completely unchanged (bar France) from 2000. I was looking forward to a ride on Guardians of the Galaxy only to be greeted by a 2 hour queue. Tip number one: if wanting to get onto the high demand rides, be sure to book a slot through the application beforehand (note though priorty bookings may incurr a higher ticket cost).
The park sadly was simply over-filled (I appreciate Disney, like other organisations are trying to recoup their pandemic losses but high ticket prices, combined with very long lines is an appalling customer retention strategy). Perhaps also Epcot has lost some of his charm for me, having visited many of the actual 11 countries on display. Seeing a mini-replica, having seen the original, doesn't hold the same thrill today. My favourite Pavilion is Morocco which seems to be the most authentic of those on display (but then I may be saying that simply because it's one of the countries I haven't visited). I also rather like France, simply because it is the only country which seems to be serving authentic cuisine not resembling fast food; and they also extended the pavilion since 2000, partly to accomodate the Remy's Ratatouille ride.
The American Adventure, at the heart of the World Showcase tells the tale of the American Revolution and its founding in 1776 by way of wonderful animatronic characters which are really lifelike... or at least they were back in 2000. They were not working on my visit in December 2022 so they were replaced by a carol concert with some wonderful carol singers in Victorian costume, harmonising to several favourites. Their wonderful performance did win me over, but then I am a fan of Christmas so am easily enticed by these things.
A note also about the food on offer at Epcot: I expected much better for the cost. Little better than fast food, it doesn't represent good value for money. It seems to me whilst the rest of the world has moved on with its attitude to food in terms of quality and presentation, Disney seems stuck in the past : a sort of 1980's fast food obsession. I was bitterly disappointed with everything on offer (I had lunch in China and it was both very expensive and most disappointing after giving up on an enormous wait in Mexico). Only France stood out where I had a bite to eat for dinner at the café - with authentic croque monsieur sandwiches and wonderful French pattiseries. The hot chocolate also was wonderful.
Leaving the park and the underwhelming experience continued. A fridge magnet as a souvenir cost $10 and was made in China! Disney has most definitely lost its magic for me!
Next on my bucketlist for Christmas was a visit to Orlando's version of Portofino, Italy at the Portofino Bay Hotel which is part of the Universal Studios resort. You may recall I am a fan of Portmeiron from my blog earlier in the year so I wanted to see how Orlando's replica of Portofino compared. The comparison between the two replicas is interesting,
I think on the one hand, the buildings at the front of the bay here seem almost a like-for-like replica of those to be found in Portofino; but the cliff backdrop and its buildings are missing (this is a product of the fact that Florida is very flat and has no hills!) Conversely, Portmeirion's take is more accurate in terms of its cliff setting, and its greenery and shrubbery, but the buildings are a take on Northern Italian architecture in general, rather than a like-for-like replica of Portofino's buildings. In short: they each have their own charms and each have aspects when compared which are more and less like the original. Neither is a complete true replica of Portofino in Italy.
The hotel was very impressive - extremely clean, and it even has a mini beach by their pool, along with immaculately maintained gardens and lawns.
By chance, I came across the Surfing Santas at the end of a news item one night. I asked my cousins if they'd ever been and if they'd like to go. 'No' and 'yes' were the responses so we made our way to Cocoa Beach for Christmas Eve:
What started as a small family event in 2009 has now grown into a major event each Christmas Eve, with 800 surfing Santas and 10,000 spectators, raising $100,000 for local charities.
Tip number 2: be prepared for cold weather in Central Florida at Christmas! Granted, this was the coldest winter in North America for 100 years but Central Florida's termperatures over Christmas are often erratic (the same happened in 1999 when Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day were all cold with highs around 10C and lows around 3C). Cocoa Beach resembled a scene from a British seaside resort: with spectators in coats, hats and scarves (and not just through festive necessity!). Central Florida's climate is subtropical, rather than the true tropical weather found down in Miami and the Florida Keys, so do be sure to pack at least a light jacket and some warmer clothes in case you encounter a cold snap. However, unlike the UK in winter, it must be said these cold snaps are only very short-lived and on both occassions (1999 and 2022) the temperature quickly bounced back to more balmy termperatures. The hardy surfers were telling us the water was much warmer than the air!(which is believable, since Florida's water temperature at this time of the year is around 18-20C , rather than the 7C we experienced in the air).
I've always been a huge fan of space exploration so it may come as no surprise that top of my list was a visit to NASA.
A day at the Kennedy Space Centre is much more reasonably priced @ $75 . Must-sees there are the Space Shuttle Atlantis (which is much smaller than you would imagine) and the space shuttle simulator, which stimulates the actual forces you would experience in a Space Shuttle launch and re-entry. Having been on various rollercoasters around the world, it's surprising to report that the experience is not as intense as some of our earth-bound rollercoasters!
You can also get the tour via the scheduled buses into the actual Space Centre, to see (amongst other things). the Vehicle Assembly Building where space vehicles are prepared for their launch into space (one of the largest buildings by volume in the World). and the Saturn V rocket. the most poweful rocket ever successfully launched in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Apollo programme to take men to the moon.
Also on display is the control room used for the moon landings, along with footage on the monitors of the actual launches. How exciting it must have been back in 1969 for those involved in the very first moon landings.
I really enjoyed my day at the Kennedy Space Centre - I would strongly recommend a full day here as there is a lot to see and it has defintitely changed since my last visit in late 2001 (back then the Space Shuttle was in regular service; now it is part of the historical exhibits).
Tip number 4: if doing any considerable distance driving in Central Florida in the holiday season be sure to leave early. Florida's population has grown considerably since the year 2000 and consequently the roads in Central Florida can get very congested, especiallly during the festive season. There are also a lot of road tolls in Florida (I opted for an ePass with my car rental, which saves stopping at the tolls). So leaving Orlando after noon to get to St. Augustine (America's oldest city, founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers) did not work out for us. What should have been a 2 hour drive saw us trapped on the freeway for over 2 hours without moving and we had to abandon this trip and turn off the freeway to Daytona Beach instead. St. Augustine is highly recommended (having visited last in 2001) and is a wonderful mix of old colonial Spanish and British architecture, having changed hands several times before becoming part of the USA. They also have a wonderful Christmas lights display against the backdrop of all the historical buildings.
Last, but by no means least, we come to a favourite American pastime at Christmas: driving around to admire their Christmas lights. Outdoor lighting during the festive season splits opinion sharply in the UK, rather like Marmite: people either love or hate the idea with very little in between. [Marmite, for the benefit of those outside the UK is a yeast-based spread with a very distinctive flavour which is an acquired taste. I loathe Marmite, and many others here feel the same way about Christmas lights.] I belong to the camp who unashamedly loves Christmas lights, since as the TV cook Nigella Lawson once said of them: "anything that can bring a little happiness into the world is a good thing in my book". December is the darkest month, so anything to improve the gloom (especially in the UK) is very welcome.
The Disney-created suburb of Celebration used to be the place to go see Christmas lights in Orlando since there was an organised competition amongst homes there for the best-dressed home. However, in 2022 Celebration announced that this would be the last year the competition would take place. We did go over to see them: but it was striking how, unlike back in 2000, many homes were not lit at all: even a few days before Christmas.
Orlandoans also used to spend hours decorating their palm trees so that both the trunk and palms were outlined in lights, often in contrasting colours which looked truly spectacular. This also seems to be a dying art, with just the tree trunks illuminated these days. The decline of Christmas lights was sad to see, and there may be many reasons behind it (the cost of living crisis, environmental concerns, the frantic pace of life and not having time to decorate to the extent of previous decades, etc.). Whilst back in 2000 it was rare to see a house, large or small, that had not decorated for Christmas (with the owner branded as the street "Scrooge"), in 2022 it was almost more like a 50/50 split. Interestingly, my cousins tell me it appears to be a generational split, with ironically the older residents continuing this great American tradition, with younger generations generally not participating.
Tip number 5 then is to visit a more than charming substitute (and with some real history) in the beautiful town of Winter Garden.
Most buildings in Florida are the Spanish-style stucco variety, but Winter Garden, with its brick-built Victorian facades looks more like a small town from New England, rather than Florida. The area was settled in the 1850s by people attracted to the very fertile land in the area which was ideal for citrus groves. At the end of the 19th century, two fires wiped out all the old wooden buildings on the main street (Plant Street), and so the main street was rebuilt in brick over the course of mostly the next two decades. Rather like Didsbury in Manchester: what was once a small Victorian town in its own right became a suburb of the neighbouring city, as Orlando expanded rapidly since the arrival of Disney in the 1960s.
Plant Street has plenty of boutique-style shops, coffee shops, bookshops and small restaurants, as well as the amazing Edgewater Hotel, which opened in 1927. This amazing hotel has preserved its original lobby area, complete with an old telephone exchange and it's like stepping back in time to the early part of the twentieth century. It also gets rave reviews over on Tripadvisor:.check them out!
Winter Garden makes a spectacular effort with its town's Christmas lights. Family-friendly, it thinks about locations where people can stop to take group photos which look truly spectacular. This more than made up for the disappointment of seeing many less residential Christmas lights in general than in 2000.
In closing, a few words about the big day itself. There appears to be a misconception in Britain, that "Americans don't make as much fuss about Christmas because Thanksgiving is a much bigger holiday". Having been in the US twice for both holidays, this is categorically untrue. Thanskgiving is indeed a big holiday in the US, but it is primarily focused around bringing families together, and having a great festive meal and thanks for the Autumn harvest. Christmas, on the other hand, has all the additional activities we take for granted in the UK - the decorating, the gift-giving and the over-indulgent meal on Christmas Day that seemingly goes on for hours! I think there are slightly different emphasis between the US and the UK: Americans spend more emphasis on decorating, especially outside (both public and private) whereas Brits spend more emphasis on the food (Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, mince pies, trifle, and Yule log are all virtually unknown Stateside). This may be a product of how Christmas has evolved in the US in kinder climes, where spending time outdoors is more favourable to eating hearty meals inside in a cold climate. So there are different aspects to enjoy on boths sides of the Atlantic, but the day itself is essentially the same as in the UK.
To answer my original conundrum, based on the old French proverb - yes many things have changed since my last visit for Christmas in 1999, but Floridians in 2023 still heartily embrace the spirit of Christmas.
You can see more of this wonderful festive trip on Instagram