The Gaylord Palms bills itself as a one-of-a-kind, enchanting Kissimmee, Florida hotel. It has an upscale Water Park, a soaring glass atrium, nine on-site restaurants, 400,000 square feet of convention center meeting space, and over 1,700 hotel rooms and suites, with the best rooms being those that overlook the center atrium area.

We arrived Thursday, December 29, and departed Sunday, January 1. The rooms were great, the food at the restaurants was excellent, ICE and the Circus were very entertaining, and the staff members we encountered were cheerful and helpful.

Our rooms, specially picked by Joyce, had a balcony that overlooked the main atrium area. That certainly and substantially added to our enjoyment - much more that if our room overlooked the gardens or parking area.

We took all our meals at the resort, no need to leave because there were a number of restaurants and quick food services available.

• Our first culinary experience was for the evening meal at MOOR. AA very upscale restaurant. MOOR emphasizes fresh food procured from the land and sea. It works with local farmers and fishmongers to find sustainable and seasonal ingredients that simply taste delicious. We celebrated Michael's 58th birthday there. Great choice, Joyce.
• Saturday was a day with lots of post-season football games on TV. We spent most of our time at Wreckers Sports Bar. Have you ever seen a wall of TVs 37 feet in diagonal dimensions? That is 50 Flat Screens showing just about every sport known. It's a high end pub and a perfect place for a casual dinner and a drink. Now if FSU had not gotten slaughtered by Georgia, I'm sure the food would have tasted even better.
• The Villa De Flora buffet is where Joyce treated us to our New Year's Eve dinner. The salad bar was amazing; one could just eat from there and be completely satisfied. The main menu area included fish and steak and perfectly cooked and displayed scallops. The desert bar was a bit weak; maybe it had been picked over by earlier diners, but we were mostly full from the salad bar and the main buffet, so we were pretty much okay with this.

The resort also had a nice Christmas show, featuring jugglers, acrobats, and trapeze artists. We had center-front seats thanks to Joyce. The show was a mini-Cirque du Soleil with performers up close. Very entertaining!!

Another of Joyce's treats was tickets to ICE. Over 40 world-renowned master artisans had spent over 6-weeks hand-carving approximately 6,700 blocks of ice to create this one-of-a-kind Christmas attraction! With parkas and hand warmers we embarked on a magical journey through larger-than-life, whimsical scenes from the iconic classic 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' carved from over two million pounds of ice. We made our way through over 20,000-square-feet of exhibits and 10 immersive scenes, having a great time (while trying to keep from freezing in the 9⁰F areas).

To give a fair account, however, I have to note that while Gaylord Palms did an excellent job with their panoply of Christmas activities, New Year's Eve was just another night ... no festivities to bring in the New Year. Wish they did something, even if pretty low scale.