TRANQUILITY IN THEME PARK PARADISE… Palisades Resort, Orlando, Florida. A talk with General Manager John Woody

Most families love theme parks and Orlando, Florida is the king, with Disney, Wet’n Wild, SeaWorld/Acuatica and Universal Studios Orlando being the big names, along with many smaller ones scattered over a radius of 30 miles. After walking under the Florida sun for 8-10 hours with kids, family or relatives, the first desire is to extricate oneself from the masses, get off the feet and seek refuge in a cool, quiet environment with some sort of liquid refreshment.

There is a great little resort (99 rooms) near all the attractions, tucked away in a lush reserve about 10-20 minutes from all the activity, that’s like returning home after a long journey. Palisades Resort is part of the SKY Hotels and Resorts of Florida, with its primary goal of giving great value for the buck by ensuring you of spacious, well designed and comfortable guest rooms with full kitchen, washer/dryer, private screened in balconies, swimming pool, Jacuzzi, sauna, fitness room, movie cinema (26 people), internet and many other amenities. There are different floor plans for the 2 and 3 bedroom resort apartments, sleeping 6-8 guests. The rooms are huge and open, with a complete kitchen, dining and living room opening out to your private balcony overlooking a wooded area. Flat screen TV’s are found in the living and bedrooms, along with alarm clocks.

From the moment you step inside and kick off the shoes, the body starts decompressing, ultimately culminating in a glass of wine and a relaxing soak in the Roman-style bathtub. It appears that this was part of their vision and it works beautifully. General Manager, John Woody who’s been in the hotel business for many years gets a lot of positive feedback from families, both American and foreign.

According to Woody, many of the Europeans are vegetarian oriented and buy their groceries at local markets then utilize the full kitchen for feeding the crew. Whether European, Asian, Latin-American or American, food costs are kept to a minimum by in house cooking, and this can mean major savings when you think that a small ice cream costs $5.00 or more at the theme parks.

The living room opens to a large screened in balcony, great for grabbing a book and your favorite refreshment and watching the setting sun through the wooded area. The sitting area easily accompanies up to 6 people.

According to GM Woody, Palisades has been conserving energy by minimizing housekeeping and linen changes, thereby limiting water usage. Nearby trash bins are used for recycling. Extra housekeeping is available at a nominal cost, from $5.00 for towel exchange and trash removal, adding dusting and vacuuming ($15-18.00), to full clean for $30-40.00. Other services include complimentary self parking, taxi service, ice and vending machines, valet dry cleaning, ATM, transport to Disney (free) and local fee for Universal Studios and Sea World.