Eric recently attended a work conference at the world’s largest Marriott in Orlando, and we found cheap flights so the kids and I could tag along! February is probably my least favorite month to live in Iowa (there was in ice storm while we were gone), so it was a nice, warm escape right when the winter blues typically set in.

ORLANDO WORLD CENTER MARRIOTT

The Orlando World Center Marriott has six restaurants, a huge outdoor pool, two body slides, River Falls water park with three tube slides and a lazy river, kids’ pool area, nightly laser show, Starbucks, grocery store, Disney shuttles, mini golf, golf course, arcade, poolside activities, and lawn games — all in one place!

There’s something so great about being a kid in a hotel, isn’t there? And this one even made me feel like a child at heart! The water slides are so fun! We never had to wait long for food or slides! Finch sweet-talked the kind man at the front desk into giving us a room with an amazing view!

We spent 10 hours at the pool the first day, got sunburned and never fully recovered, but still made tons of memories. Finch can’t believe it can be 80+° in the winter, and keeps saying we went to Disney World even though it was really just Disney Springs. We stayed four nights at the hotel and thought it was the perfect amount of time!

FAVORITES

Falls Pool Bar & Grill
Breakfast in bed from the Central Pantry (onsite grocery store)
Lounging poolside: eating, soaking up the sun, reading and listening to the great music
App for mobile room key, chatting with the front desk, and to see food options and menus
Disney Springs (there is a free nightly shuttle to and from the hotel)
Nightly Netflix movie-watching
Kids making friends at the pool (it reminded us of the “Camping” episode of Bluey!)
Fun family memories!

I want to travel back in time 11 years to when I was in the depths of postpartum anxiety/depression and reassure myself that it gets so much better ... that I would make it through, have another kid on purpose, and someday even fly with them on an airplane by myself and totally rock it … even if we did have to run through the airport to make our gate change.

So long, Orlando … we will be back next year for Disney!