Ice Bar Orlando
March 30, 2009
Forever and a day ago, I was lucky enough to go down to Orlando to meet the folks from Izea and to hang with some blogging friends of mine while we toured SeaWorld’s upcoming Manta experience.
During the trip though, we were also treated to an experience at Ice Bar Orlando and boy did I get asked a lot of questions about that experience!
Since a number of folks asked what it was like to go to an Ice Bar and since it was my first experience, I promised back in January (and February and probably March… sheesh!) that I would post some pictures and a recounting of the outing!
Like any true geek, the moment I found out we were going, I went to their website and started looking up every little detail I could. Fortunately, Ice Bar Orlando has a slick website that is also informative… so before going I had even looked up a map of the floorplan that let me know that local twitter friends could meet us in the Chill Lounge after we had experienced the ICEBAR section – so we had a small tweetup* there as well.
Step By Step
Dinner ran late that night – so we were a bit later to Ice Bar Orlando than expected. Having missed our reservation window, we had to wait for the previous group to finish up their time. So we were given little glowing badges and spent a few minutes playing around in the Chill Lounge. Ashley Edwards from Izea, Julia Roy and I couldn’t resist playing around in a ball-bearing chain curtain that hung near the window.
I really wanted to keep the glowing badge – but apparently that wasn’t part of the deal. Still, I got to suit up and go into a bar completely carved out of ice, so I guess I can live without the flashy jewelry.
The ICEBAR itself is pretty awesome. Kept at 27° F, the entire thing (except for the floor, thankfully for those of us capable of falling at the mere thought of ice on the ground) is made out of ice. The furniture is carved out of ice, the walls are ice bricks, there are elaborate ice sculptures around the room. Even the glasses are made out of ice.
Because of the overwhelming “iciness” of the bar, suitable attire is required… Fortunately since no one tends to stock winter clothing in Florida, the bar provides heavily lined ponchos and gloves. As modeled by my friend Ashley.
So we donned our ponchos and gloves and entered the ICEBAR after surrendering our flashy badges. (Can you tell I really wanted a flashy badge? Yeah, sigh.)
It was the nicest feeling after hours spent in the Florida heat. This Colorado gal was happy to be in the chilled air of ‘normal winter’ instead of humid and hot. While I often find myself dreaming of sunny climes on days like today (current outside temperature? 23°F) it turns out that I’m more of a cold weather girl after all. So the chill was refreshing and welcome. We bellied up to the bar where our drinks were served in glasses made of ice (seriously cool! Keeps the drink nice and cold without ice cubes!) And began lounging about on the fur-covered ice couches. I finally had a chance to chill out (yeah, I know) and chat with friends like Carri Bright from Izea (pictured left).
Any rumors that half way through I got fed up with the poncho and removed it are completely true.
Of course, I don’t recommend that for most people – but I was approached by a fellow sojourner from Finland who had removed his as well and we basked in the chilly goodness amidst shock from our warmer climate friends.
We sat around drinking and chatting and taking pictures of everything and anything we could… until the toes on all of our feet started feeling a bit numb – then took a last round of pics (my favorite is this one of Ted Murphy, Izea’s CEO lounging on the Ice Throne…) and headed out into the Chill Lounge to meet some more Twitterpals and regain feeling in our extremities.
A few hours later, we rolled out with the general consensus that Ice Bar Orlando is a must see experience. I know it will be on my agenda next time I’m in Orlando. I can’t wait to show it to GeekDaddy and anyone else I can drag along!
So if you’re in Orlando for a family trip and can steal away from the kids? I highly recommend checking it out. Don’t forget to bring your camera – and if you think of it? Socks are good.
Administrative Note: This post is completely unsolocited by either Izea or Ice Bar Orlando. Requests to post details of my adventure there came from friends and readers. This post is uncompensated in any form. I shouldn’t have to post that, but I wanted to make it clear – this review is 100% the opinion of the author.
*tweetup: meetup of folks who use twitter
Comments
2 Responses to “Ice Bar Orlando”
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That was so much fun! I’m glad we got a chance to hang out and am still in awe over the fact that you weren’t cold at all. I can’t wait to see you at IZEAFest!!!
Carri
@BrightGirl
You know you’re my gal! Hmmm…you know, I possibly smell an “ice” party for IZEAFest!