In case you don’t know Kissimmee is a town very close to Orlando. You might consider it a suburb of Orlando. And it is very close to Disney World and Universal Studios.

We spent four nights there. Why? Because we got a “free” stay in a timeshare resort. Yes, we had to sit through a timeshare presentation (more on that later) and the “free” price didn’t include taxes and the “resort fee” which made the price for 4 nights just about $170. Cheap for 4 nights but not free. And the cost for this stay, another week someone (TBD), a one-week cruise for 2 and two sporting event tickets was $250 (actually $400 but included a $150 gift card as well). Again, not bad for all that, but not free. And it still isn’t totally certain that all that stuff will materialize.

Anyway, it was an opportunity to get away for a few days and we chose Kissimmee.

The trip there took over 4 hours because we had to drop off Becky (Marlene’s dog) at the dogsitter’s place in Cape Coral and we stopped for lunch along the way. We got checked into our 1-bedroom unit (pretty basic but with a full kitchen and jacuzzi) at Calypso Cay and went out to Old Town Kissimmee, an entertainment area just a few miles from the resort. But we never got to Old Town because we parked near a huge group of food trucks (probably about 100) and an indoor flea market. Well, Marlene can spend hours in a flea market and we did. She bought some clothes and got a henna tattoo that I thought was pretty nice.

Then we went back to the resort and tried to use the jacuzzi. But the water was lukewarm at best, so it was a short stint in the jacuzzi. A hot tub without hot water is pretty useless.

The second day (the first full day in Kissimmee) featured a trip to Celebration followed by a trip to Disney Springs. Celebration is a cute little town. We wandered around took some photos and had some drinks and nachos at a Mexican restaurant. A pleasant afternoon.

Disney Springs was nice. A good band was playing near the water (and, yes, we danced a bit), the shops were interesting (for Marlene anyway) and there were many dining options (which we ignored – we had dinner at the resort). We were intrigued by the “escape room” attraction but were not attracted to the $55 ticket price.

The timeshare presentation was 8:30am Monday morning, our second full day in Kissimmee. It was billed as “90 to 120 minutes” but of course they tried every trick in the book to keep us until we bought. Well, we were there over 4 hours but didn’t buy anything except 3 days at their resort in Pigeon Forge TN for $199 (with $150 returned in the form of a gift card). We can use that.

A fairly congenial presentation at the beginning but it became increasingly acrimonious as they refused to let us go. We finally escaped. They promised to send me an email with details of the other freebies that we were to get with our $400 investment. But I haven’t seen anything yet. I will have to call them. Annoying.

We “dined” at Cici’s Pizza which was a first for me. An all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta buffet. Not bad and probably a good deal ($12 each) but I really didn’t need all the pizza I ate.

We then went to Universal CityWalk which we expected to be similar to Disney Springs. It was, in the sense that it was lovely and had lots of dining options. And it fronted on two Universal theme parks (which were closed). But it had no live band and no shopping other than souvenirs. Disappointing. But I got some good photos.

On the final day we actually got to Old Town. We didn’t do much more than walk around, but it was pleasant.

The trip back home included a stop at the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa where we both dropped more than $100. That was the most expensive part of the whole trip.

There are two big annual festivals in south central Florida: the Swamp Cabbage Festival in Labelle in February and the Sugar Festival in Clewiston in March. They are similar in that they have a lot of food trucks and vendors of a variety of goods and trinkets and they both have some really fine live music. The big difference is that the Swamp Cabbage Festival celebrates swamp cabbage, which I find disgusting, and the Sugar Festival features sugar. Who doesn’t like sugar?

There was also a very nice Seafood Festival at Babcock Ranch in March. I am not sure that is an annual event, but it was similar in that it had good food, good beer and good music.

I took photos at all three.

All three festivals were worth investing a day. But if you go and eat at one of these, avoid the swamp cabbage.