Anniversaries, Airplanes, and Amor: An MCO Staycation
Every trip to Orlando International Airport is like the first trip to the airport for me. There’s something nostalgic. The charm of the turquoise textile airside carpet. A warm welcome home from Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. The view of Terminal A from the window seat of the monorail. The rush of a humid breeze swept through the automatic doors as you exit baggage claim. I know I’m home when I’m here. As strange as it may seem, staying at the airport hotel was always at the top of my bucket list. To experience vacationing where other people vacation, instead of living where you vacation. But of course, I never had any good excuse to stay at the MCO Hyatt Regency, because I couldn’t justify paying for a hotel less than 25 miles away from my home.
If you’re a resident of Central Florida, I want to welcome you home. If you’re one of our 68 million visitors, welcome to the City Beautiful.”
August 21st marked one year with Gabriel. We’re both equally hopeless romantics who appreciate a good surpise, quality time, and acts of service. I really wanted to come up with a thoughtful surprise that combined our love for our idea of a good staycation. Gabriel and I both have this undeniable affinity for airplanes and aviation. Mine from an upbringing of travel and his from a connection to his uncle who was a pilot in Venezuela. And seeing that Gabriel hasn’t had the opportunity to travel in the past 5 years until our trip to Puerto Rico, I wanted him to be able to experience the inexplicable feeling of the airport rush that I’ve felt all my life. We always talked about finding the perfect spot to watch the airplanes fly by in the night sky and I couldn’t fatham the idea of staying anywhere else! This staycation was like the big picture. You can’t have one thing without the other. The room with a patio of the runway views, the pool adjacent to the iconic air control tower, the (as I like to call it) Disney’s California Grill of the Orlando International Airport—the Hemisphere bar and grille overlooking the monorail and airstrip. Grabbing breakfast down in the airport, without the hassle of luggage and stress of catching a flight.
And by the weekend, the day of the surprise had finally come. Gabriel had literally zero clue as to where we may possibly be staying. And up until we pulled into the parking garage, he had only been convinced we were headed towards Lake Nona. As we pulled through the parking garage, his confused response was, “I don’t know how an airport hotel is any different than a regular hotel, but okay…” But soon enough, he was like a childhood version of me stepping into the airport for the first time. Filled with a sense of wanderlust, adventure, and excitement.
Our balcony overlooked the runway of Spirit Airlines as the yellow air fleets prepared for takeoff and cleared for landing. We enjoyed each other’s company over a magical dinner as the sun set into dusk, the neon blue lights of the people mover passed back and forth between concourses, and the navigation lights twinkled among the nighttime sky. After dinner, we sipped champagne poolside as planes soared across the painted moonlit airspace.
