The Gaylord Palms Resort: Weatherproofing Orlando

All the way from Idaho and it's overcast, windy and looks like rain here in Orlando, and I really don't care. We've just come a nice long evening swim in the larger of the two pools here at the Gaylord Palms, Orlando's newest hotel.

Why don't we care about the weather? Simple, we're not wandering around Mickey's House. Rather we've spending time in the pool or under the hotel's three connected atriums with 4.5 acres of lovingly landscaped environments verdant with thousands of palms. Great touches like the sound of water in each of the atriums mask any crowd noise and paths wind and wander so you can never really see the whole space at once.

We've been travel writers for over 30 years, and have never seen a place like this. My husband Louis hasn't complained once about cookie cutter architecture he finds too common in tropical climes. He's too busy working away on his web site via the high-speed Internet connections, and seems especially happy at the "people scale" of the layout. This means guests avoid the "golf cart long" hallways of similar 1400-room hotels as there are really four hotels with individual guest room themes - Key West, St. Augustine, Everglades and Emerald bay - each served by its own elevators.

According to Brenda Georghagan, Senior Director of Interior Design for Gaylord hotels. "Every last hotel was designed to evoke a sense of Florida. " The Key West rooms run to bright colors and white walls: St Augustine rooms feature Spanish tile and artful ochre: the Everglades rooms some with what one youngster called "bed bugs" really dragonflies on the coverlets.

[Emerald Bay Guestroom] We've in the Emerald Bay, a 362-guest boutique hotel where every room comes with marble entries and walk-in showers, elevated beds and, to Louis' joy, "room safes big enough to hold a laptop that can be plugged in and recharged in the safe!"

Louis is most impressed with the high tech that runs to several hundred miles of fiber optic cable, things like servers at the pool with headsets so drinks and such arrive fast of the cabanas with high-speed internet outlets, and the room sensors that set temperatures and tell staff who's in and who's out.

I'm more interested in the wonderful Canyon Ranch SpaClub, the food, and the interesting shops The other three motifs offer consistent visual keys and the choice of either one king size bed and walk-in tile or marble showers in 25% of the rooms, or, or family-style rooms with two queen-size beds and a tub for rinsing off the kids. Not that the children need much rinsing. They've their own pool with a water slide that looks like a giant Octopus, but they can track in sand from their own beach. Parents who are here for conventions do increasingly bring children and the hotel's Le Petit Academy can stash the kids while parents dine, or enjoy a round of golf at the championship Falcon's Fire Golf Club just a half mile away.

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