After a few days of work and pleasure in
Orlando, it was time for me to head back home.For the ride to Orlando International Airport, I opted to take an Uber
for a change.What a great call on my
part as not only was it a quick 25 minute ride, but my driver was one of the
most memorable characters I have ever met.Shelly and I had a great conversation for the majority of the ride.We talked about how she works Uber full time
and only daytime hours.It turns out
that I was lucky to even have Shelly as my Uber driver as she “don’t do
civilians.”Rather than deal with the
headaches and stress of driving locals all over the place, especially after a
night of debauchery at local watering holes, Shelly only accepts airport
pickups and drop off requests now.
Leaving Mickey Mouse Country
Orlando is one of a handful of cities in
America that are popular for conventions and trade shows because of its low
cost and ease of access for business travelers.
While I understand her reasoning for going this route, I couldn’t help
but notice that she was a rather attractive African-American woman and asked
her how often she gets hit on by Corporate Executives. Without missing a beat, she admitted to me
that it happens every now and then, including a recent customer who was overly
obnoxious with the pickup lines. But for
this street smart ex-New Yorker, she “don’t do Executives, either.” We had a great laugh over that before having
a more serious conversation about the “Me, Too” Movement, particularly Bill Cosby. That part of the conversation didn’t go over
as well as we were in disagreement as to whether or not Cosby’s alleged victims
should have spoken up about their sexual assaults decades ago or not. But we both agreed that we were severely
disappointed and saddened by the man Cosby is instead of the beloved actor and
comedian that we grew up with during the Eighties.
Fortunately, that part of the conversation only last a few minutes as we
had arrived at the airport – just over three hours before my scheduled flight.
Waiting for the tram to take me to Terminal B
Despite the extra time that I had, I had to
wait for almost 30 minutes before Air Canada was able to check me in as they
had flights to Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto all within 45 minutes of each
other. Because the Toronto flight was
the last one of the day, the passengers heading to Halifax and Montreal were
given first priority. Following check
in, I spent close to another 30 minutes waiting in line to go through TSA
Security. That was a complete chaotic
process as there were clusters of people just randomly standing in line instead
of listening to the TSA Officers who were trying to organize all of us in five
different lines. Overall, it took me
about an hour to check in and go through security leaving me with 90 minutes to
kill before boarding.
The galley on Air Canada Flight 1677
Since I had plenty of time to grab something to
eat, I headed over towards Bahama Breeze for some dinner. I’ll save the details for a later date, but I
essentially picked it because it was the only restaurant near my gate that
seemed lively and the tropical theme was really appealing. Following dinner, I headed to Gate B94 where
I had a few minutes to spare prior to boarding.
Nothing of significance to note for this flight as it was pretty similar
to my Air Canada flight down to Orlando only a few days earlier. However, I ended up losing my window seat to
a five year old child due to a booking mishap his family had when they made
reservations for this flight.
Air Canada Flight 1677
His father explained to me that Air Canada had
accidentally separated his entire family of four, and because both of his
children were under the age of seven, the Air Canada agents paired the father
and son together in my seat while the Mother and Daughter were sat a few rows
up on the other side of the plane. No
one told me about the change in seating planes when I boarded the flight, but
given my history with Air Canada, I wasn’t surprised, either. The father apologized for the confusion, but
how could any reasonable person be upset given this situation? I was just unsure where I would now sit as it
was full flight. Fortunately, the Father’s
original seat was actually right beside me in the middle row, thus saving me
the trouble of asking one of the flight attendants to help me find a new seat.
Toronto Pearson International Airport
With an estimated arrival time of 1am EST, I
decided to take a nap during the flight.
Toronto has a noise by-law which prevents flights from departing between
Midnight and 6am and arriving between 1am to 6am. So, it was eerily quiet by the time we
arrived at Pearson International Airport as we were one of the last arrivals
for the day. On the bright side,
Canadian Customs wasn’t as busy as a result, so I was able to grab my luggage
and head home all within 20 – 30 minutes of arriving. Since this will be my last business trip for
an indefinite period of time, the only thing I could think of while I headed
for home was when and where my next flight would be. And more importantly, when would I return to
Orlando again?
An eerily quiet Toronto Pearson International Airport
AC 1670 – MCO to YYZ
Operated by: Air Canada Rouge
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300 (twin-jet); Seat: 46A
Departure: 10:26PM EST – Orlando International
Airport (MCO) – Gate B94
Arrival:
12:58am EST – Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) – Terminal 1, Gate
F69
Flight
Time: 2:32; Non Stop Flight – 1090 Miles/1754 Kilometers; Date: March 20-21,
2019
As
America’s favourite pastime, baseball has been a big part of its culture for
over 150 years. Every year, Major League
Baseball teams head to the warmer climates of Arizona or Florida for six weeks
of Spring Training in preparation for the regular season that starts around the
end of March or early April. While I
have been to my fair share of baseball games in the past, I have never once been
to a Spring Training game. That all
changed for me while I was in Orlando and realized that the hotel I was staying
for an upcoming conference I had to attend was less than 10 minutes away from
Champion Stadium – the Grapefruit League home field for the Atlanta Braves.
ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex - Home of Champion Stadium
Champion
Stadium is officially located on the Walt Disney World property at their ESPN
Wide World of Sports location. Not only
was I about to attend my first Spring Training game ever, but this would be my
first time ever visiting this section of Walt Disney World. Opened in 1997, Champion Stadium was
initially intended to be a neutral stadium for Grapefruit League games when
necessary, but ultimately ended up becoming the home field of the Atlanta
Braves like I said. Surrounding the
ballpark were other baseball diamonds that saw young kids playing in a weekend
baseball tournament. There was also a weekend
cheerleading competition going on at the same time inside the HP Field House right
beside Champion Stadium. Already it felt
more like I was in a small town about to go to watch a minor league baseball
game instead of two Major League Baseball teams.
2019 Grapefruit League Spring Training - Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros
Making
my way to the box office, I was a bit shocked that the most expensive tickets
happened to be in the upper deck behind home plate! Usually, upper deck seats are some of the
cheapest tickets you will find throughout all Major League Baseball stadiums. This wasn’t the case here at Champion Stadium,
but for about $45 US, I felt like it was still reasonably priced compared to
other professional sports games I have been to.
Once inside the stadium, however, I quickly understood why they were
that expensive. Compared to regular
sized Major League Baseball stadiums, the upper deck at Champions League is
really the equivalent to the lower 200 level/high 100 level section. Without a doubt, this section has the best
unobstructed view of the entire stadium.
My view during the Atlanta Braves game
Champion
Stadium itself was just very impressive.
Much like the architecture one would find in Florida, the stadium incorporates
Venetian Gothic Revival, Mediterranean, and Spanish influences with
yellow-painted stucco, green-tile roofs, towers, and arches. Down towards the third base line, palm trees
line up along the grassy knolls where fans can sit and watch their favourite
Major Leaguers play as if they were at community ballpark in rural America
instead. A much larger grassy knoll area
is located out in left field for fans to sit while several flag poles dot the
landscape with stadium sponsors in the form of pennants instead of typical
billboard signage. Down the first base
line are more bench seats and a small beer garden for fans to sample local
craft brews. Such a unique, intimate
vibe here at this marvelous stadium.
2019 Grapefruit League Season - Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros
By the
time I had found my seat, the game had already started. I was anticipating this to be a fun,
competitive game to watch. The Houston
Astros won their first ever World Series back in 2017, so their championship
team was still relatively intact. And
while the Atlanta Braves have struggled a lot since their heyday of the
early-to-mid 1990s, they acquired Josh Donaldson during the off-season to help
bolster their offense. Furthermore, it
was St. Patrick’s Day. With the Atlanta
Braves donning green home jerseys for the occasion, it certainly helped to put
the fans into a festive mood.
Fans enjoying the game on the grassy knoll out in Left Field
Robinson
Chirinos opened up the scoring at the top of the 4th inning for the
Houston Astros with a double hit into left field that brought Josh Reddick
home. The Astros then added to their
lead in the top of the 6th with runs batted in coming from Tyler
White and Nick Tanielu to make the score 4-0.
The energy at Champion Stadium was completely deflated at this point with
a deafening silence until Freddie Freeman answered back for the Atlanta Braves. Freeman’s three run homerun fly ball over
right field pulled the Braves within one run at the end of the sixth inning. Unfortunately, this was about as good as it
would get for the Braves as the Astros exploded for three more unanswered runs off
singles from Alex De Goti and Ronnie Dawson at the top of the 9th to
secure the 7-3 win.
And
just like that, my first experience with Spring Training was over. But what an experience it was to see the
Atlanta Braves play one of their last remaining games here before they head off
to their new stadium for the 2020 season.
Although the game itself wasn’t memorable, Champion Stadium certainly
will be for me in the years to come. It’ll
be interesting to see what future Spring Training games I find myself at and
see how those stadiums compare. But for
now, it was time for me to head to downtown Orlando to celebrate St. Patrick’s
Day.
A salute to the fans as the Atlanta Braves leave the field following the game
Since
its inaugural season in 2015, the Orlando City FC have generated a lot of buzz
in Major League Soccer.Although their
on-field success hasn’t quite measured up to their off-field success, it has
always been an interest of mine to watch them play at Orlando City Stadium – a soccer-specific
stadium located right in the middle of downtown Orlando.Fortunately, the timing of my recent trip to
Orlando worked out that the Orlando City FC were in town hosting the Montreal
Impact.
Orlando City Stadium
Orlando
City Stadium is located several blocks west of downtown Orlando in the
Parramore District making it relatively easy to get to.The box office is located at Gate A.You can’t miss it as it has a beautiful mural
of the Orlando City FC’s Lion logo above it, as well as Walt Disney World
signage.Security appeared to not be
letting people in just yet when I arrived just after 2pm EST, but made
exceptions for anyone looking to purchase a last minute ticket.Upon entering, you make an immediate left to
the box office.I ended up buying a seat
in you will be sent an e-ticket to your cell phone and not a physical
ticket.Make sure you have a fully
charged phone with you in that case.
Orlando City Stadium Festival Plaza
With a
couple of hours to spare, I decided to just walk around the festival plaza
located just outside of Gate A to check out all the action.Here fans could find different vendors
hawking products, partake in some interactive games or just relax with a few
beers with their friends.I didn’t see
anything particularly interesting here that grabbed my attention, so I ended up
going the Yard Bar – a beer garden located kitty corner from Gate C.It caught my attention quickly because it is
set up like a beach bar with soft, white sand, picnic tables, and umbrellas.Yard Bar is cash only, but has an ATM machine
near the entrance if you require one.The beer selection is very limited with an average price of $4 US.There are food trucks available here, as well
as classic lawn games, like cornhole, to pass the time.
Upon
making my way back to the stadium, I stopped for a few moments to take in the
Orlando City FC Supporters march. It was
kind of hard not to with the loud chants, drum beats, and flares that could be
seen and heard more than a block away. Soccer
culture is truly one-of-a-kind. You’d
never see anything like this before an NHL, NBA or MLB game, for example. And NFL culture is really just tailgating
pre-game and that’s it. There’s no
cheering or banging of drums or lighting smoke bombs and flares when
approaching the stadium. There’s no
sense of “being at war” against your opponents here. And that’s what I loved about the
Ruckus. They bring that same flair and
intensity to each match like other Supporters clubs do in Europe and other
parts of the world.
Orlando City FC Supporters set off purple smoke bombs prior to kickoff
Orlando
City Stadium is simply beautiful venue.
With a capacity of 25,500, it’s small enough to still retain a bit of that
intimacy with the players on the field.
Soccer-specific stadiums are much larger in size in Europe – almost comparable
to NFL and NCAA football stadiums. The
Orlando City FC Supporters Clubs sat directly behind the team’s net. Just before kickoff, a massive plume of
purple smoke engulfed the entire stadium for nearly 10 minutes. My nose didn’t quite appreciate what my eyes
saw, but it was good see some typical soccer traditions being kept alive here
in Florida.
Orlando City FC vs. Montreal Impact
Sadly,
this would be the biggest highlight of the day as the match just went horribly
wrong for the home team. Montreal Impact
took an early 1 – 0 lead in the 14th minute when Saphir Taider cut a cross back
to a wide open Orji Okwonkwo who buried it past Orlando’s goalkeeper in the
bottom left corner. Less than a minute
later, Shane O’Neill made a costly error in his back pass to Orlando’s defense as
it found its way into the path of Montreal’s Maximiliano Urruti. Despite a last ditch effort by Orlando’s
goalkeeper to protect his net by aggressively charging Urruti, the ball made
its way over to Ignacio Piatti who easily scored his first of two goals of the
game with a wide open net. Without a
doubt, this moment summarized the entire match as the stadium full of cheers
turned into a stadium full of jeers just like that.
Orlando City FC's Ruan Teixeira gets tripped up on the field
The
second half of the match was pretty uneventful until the final minutes when Piatti
scored his second goal in the 80th minute to put Montreal up 3 – 0 all be
assuring an easy victory for the visitors.
Dom Dwyer brought a little life back into Orlando City Stadium by
putting the Lions on the board in the 91st minute of extra time before a melee a
few minutes later ended any chance of a miraculous comeback from the
Lions. Montreal ended up winning the
match 3 – 1. Like I said earlier,
Orlando City FC has a lot of hype off the field. But it’s on field performances lacks
energy. Given that it’s only their fifth
season in Major League Soccer, one can only hope that Orlando City FC will find
a winning formula in due time.
Orlando City Stadium
2019 MLS Season – Week 3
Match:
Orlando City FC vs. Montreal Impact
Stadium:
Orlando City Stadium – Orlando, FL
Date:
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Kickoff:
4pm EST
Attendance:
22,352
Score:
3 – 1 (Montreal Impact)
14 ‘– MTL
– Orji Okwonkwo
15’ – MTL
– Ignacio Piatti (Maximiliano Urruti)
80’ – MTL – Ignacio Piatti (Harry Novillo)
91’ – ORL
– Dom Dwyer (Santiago Patiño, Chris Mueller)
After
landing into Orlando, I headed straight to my hotel hoping that there might be
the slightest chance to check in early.It was only 10:30am EST, so the outcome wasn’t looking too good.I was told that I could wait around for an
hour if I wanted to, but opted to walk around nearby to grab some breakfast
instead.Less than a block away was a
nice little restaurant called Sofrito Latin Café – a Latin restaurant that
specializes in Venezuelan, Colombian, and Cuban cuisine.Venezuela is one of my Top 10 countries to
visit in the world mainly because of its untapped source of ecotourism,
culture, and historical significance in South American history.However, given its current political climate
under President Maduro with its ongoing civil unrest, it’s going to be a long time
before I’ll ever get the chance to visit this hidden gem.For now, Sofrito Latin Café would have to be
my “first experience” of this culture.
Sofrito Latin Cafe - A Little Taste of Venezuela
Upon
entering the café, you have two choices – sit at the bar and order directly
from there or place an order with the cashier near the entrance like you would
at a pizzeria and then grab yourself a free table in the dining area. I wanted to sit outside on the patio, so I
placed my order with the cashier, grabbed a small stand with my order number on
it, and then proceeded to the back of the café where the patio was located. Despite the beautiful sunny weather, I was
the only person who chose to sit outside on this particular morning. Whatever.
It just means I sit wherever I wanted to without being disturbed.
Enjoying a cold Polar Pilsen - a Venezuelan beer
Breakfast
consisted of a Polar Pilsen and a cachapa.
Brewed by Empresas Polar, Polar Pilsen is a very light and sessionable Pilsner
with aromas of grainy and sweet Malts followed by citrus and apple
flavours. Cachapa is a sweet corn
pancake filled with Queso de Mano (handmade white soft cheese) topped with
cream. A Venezuelan delicacy, I found the
cheese to be very chewy and pungent. Although
I could’ve paid a little extra to add slices of pork or shredded beer on top, I
figured a basic cachapa alone would fill me up sufficiently for the next few
hours. The overall cost with tax and tip
was just under $20 US, so a bit expensive for a standard breakfast. However, it gave me some insight as to what
the Venezuelan food culture is like. I
just hope I can visit one day to enjoy it directly from the source.
Cachapa - a Venezuelan sweet corn pancake filled with Queso de Mano
The
next morning, I decided to go back and order an Omelet de Jamon y Queso. It’s a ham and Gouda cheese omelet served
with applewood bacon, fried yucca and Cuban toast. For $8.50, it was a good breakfast, but not
great. I paired this up with a Spanglish
– a light-bodied American Lager brewed by Miami’s Veza Sur Brewing
Company. It’s an average light-bodied
American Lager with a crisp, clean finish.
Although it had very sweet Malt and fruity flavours, much like my
breakfast, there was nothing very memorable about this beer. This just made me appreciate my Venezuelan
breakfast from the previous day even more.
Omelet de Jamon y Queso - Ham & Gouda Cheese Omelet
Orlando was an impromptu work trip due to some recent internal restructuring. An extra spot opened up for our biggest trade show of the year, so off I went to get out of this chilly winter weather. However, the trip got off to a bit of a rough start. With a departure time of 6:50am EST, I was
already running late by not leaving my condo until 4:30am EST. Although my cabbie got me to Toronto Pearson
International Airport within 30 minutes, there was a massive lineup for
Security check in when I arrived. For
the first time in years, Security escorted me to a shorter line in order for me
to make it on time for my flight. Sure,
that may have saved me about 15 – 20 minutes.
But the lineup for U.S. Customs was even longer. Overall, the whole process took me close to
an hour. There were people in line with
me who had it worse, though, as their departure times were around 6:40am EST
and 6:30am EST. It goes without saying
that some of these early morning flights were either not going to depart on
time or the lineup for U.S. Customs was deceivingly faster than it actually
looked.
Air Canada Flight #1670
By the time I arrived at Gate F61, Air Canada
already started boarding passengers on my flight. No time for me to have breakfast, so I had to
wait until we arrived in Orlando for that.
First Class had a 4x2x3 formation while Coach had a 2x3x2
formation. This was perfect for me since
it meant I only had to deal with one person the entire flight instead of
two. The plane had about 50 rows in
total and was near full capacity.
Because it was an Air Canada Rouge flight, this meant that the only way
you can watch movies is through the Air Canada app on your phone. Unfortunately, I brought the wrong headset as
I left my iPhone ear buds at home. That
being said, I opted to sleep away as much of the flight as possible as I was
still a bit exhausted.
Orlando International Airport
With the exception of a few minor incidents of
turbulence, it was a relatively smooth flight that allowed me to sleep away a
couple of hours or so. As we descended
upon Orlando International Airport, I noticed it was extremely cloudy – much different
from the sunny skies that embraced me nearly two years ago. The landing was pretty rough – and we arrived
at our gate 35 minutes later than expected – but there was no rain just
yet. So, I grabbed my luggage as soon as
I could and headed to my hotel. The only
plan for today was to make my way to the Orlando City FC match. But first, I needed to see how early I could
check into my hotel as it just a little after 9:30am EST. Plus, I still needed to grab some breakfast.
Orlando International Airport
AC 1670 – YYZ to MCO
Operated by: Air Canada Rouge
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300 (twin-jet);
Seat: 46A
Departure: 06:50AM EST – Pearson International
Airport (YYZ) – Terminal 1, Gate F61
Arrival:
09:43am EST – Orlando International Airport (MCO)
Flight
Time: 2:53; Non Stop Flight – 1116 Miles/1796 Kilometers; Date: March 16, 2019
