I lived in Orlando for 18 months when I was in the Navy. I am utterly baffled that people spend thousands of dollars to vacation there. The place is a dump, not impressed. Same goes for Virginia Beach. For anybody who thinks that place is great, my condolences, you must’ve had a rough childhood.
America is increasingly becoming more of a sh*thole.
Our last family vacation was our biggest by far (aided by Dad’s boss lending him the Cessna 310 that Dad flew for him), and included a visit there in 74. I was 20, my sis was 23 single and living on her own. My younger brothers were 15 and 11, and I’m sure enjoyed it. We stayed there one day, then flew over to the Bahama islands of Eluthera (2 days), and then Exuma (2 more days), and loved it. Sis and I would have been glad to have stayed there for the duration of the trip. But no, we stayed another day at the ‘magic’ kingdom before going back to IL.
After that, i referred to those places as “dizzy world”, “six drags”, and “misadventureland”. I saw it as a glorified county fair midway, selling junk and thrill rides at inflated prices.
My wife and I stopped at Virginia Beach for a few hours while driving down the East Coast, and the most interesting and enjoyable thing was watching the F-18’s flying in and out of NAS Oceana.
Other than that, I didn’t see anything interesting there.
Having lived in the Orlando area for over 20-years there is much more to do than Disney.
I recently hosted a female friend for a week.
We started off by going to a drive-in movie. Over the next week we went to swim with manatees near Crystal River. Then went and rented a room in NSB and saw sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. Really good restaurants up there. Went to one called The Garlic.
Rented kayaks near NSB and a herd? of manatees were so curious they came right up to the boats. One picked up my girlfriends kayak drain plug in its mouth and “towed” her boat for a bit. Then rolled onto its stomach and let my girlfriend pet her!
Went to the Old Spanish Sugar Mill in DeLeon Springs which doubles as a pancake house and natural springs. This is another location where the manatees love to congregate in the Winter. Each table has its own griddle. You order the batter you want and they bring it for you to cook tableside.
Last we went south and spent time at Cape Canaveral and beaches in Cocoa.
Orlando a dump? Far from it. Oh, and since you were in the Navy there did you know that OIA was once a B52 base? McCoy Airfield. Which is why Orlando Airport is known as MCO. There is even a B52 on display outside the airport.