Mod Betty visits Cabana Bay Beach Resort – A Photo Op Stop!

Mod Betty and Retro Roadhusband rarely stay at the big chain hotels, but when it’s decorated like our house, and looks totally inspired by Wildwood NJ we make an exception.

We just had to see for ourselves what Universal Orlando’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort was all about, and as you can see from our photos, it is quite the Mid Century inspired compound!

The theme harkens back to the years of family vacations traveling across the country, and staying in mom and pop motels.

I haz to be honest, the main draw for us to splurge on a stay here (no, we weren’t comped for this post) was the fact that our pal Jennski had created the artwork that appears above the beds in the hotel! So exciting for her, and so fun for us to see her stuff on a grand scale.

We had hoped to meet up with her – alas the stars did not align, but I promised her I’d share some photos of our visit with her artwork- ta-da!

My dress is made with fabric that Jennski designed as well! total shout out to my uber-talented designer/seamstress Steph Beckman Designs who put together these 2 prints to make one fab frock 🙂

Who says you can’t jump on the bed? Mod Betty does! Until she gets a proper photo of them, of course. Before we mess up the room with luggage 🙂

Our room was small but cheery:
The whole place was a riot of fun colors put together. SO MUCH BETTER THAN BEIGE!

While we’re used to a 28 room motel, this hotel (with 1800 rooms-!!) was a scale we’re not used to. I mean check out this massive lobby!

And this mural at the edge of the “dining hall” – humungus!

Kudos to Charles Phoenix for letting me know to look for it (here’s a link to his photo in front of it) – he was there the same week I was, but we missed each other. Ah, two vintage-loving ships passing in the night!)

All this walking around could make one tired – we were psyched that they had MCM vintage chairs (that’s a Saarinen Womb Chair) to relax in:

Retro Roadhusband wanted to work out ala Jack Lalane, but I said he should maybe just pose like him:

Because I wanted to check out the vintage-inspired bowling alley!

When we got back to our room one thing I missed from being in motels like the Caribbean Motel in Wildwood, was sitting out on the balcony and enjoying the weather.
So we decided to “Wildwood it up” and dragged our room chairs outside for a nightcap 🙂

Cheers!

It was such a beautiful evening, the weather was perfect, especially when we knew how cold it was up home – and this view! Sigh.

Now I will have to give a full disclaimer – staying here was definitely an indulgence dollars-wise, when I knew the $ for one night could’ve paid for an entire weekend and then some in an actual vintage motel. So I did feel a little guilty about not spending our precious cash at a mom and pop place. And it did feel more than a bit corporate.

But I also will say – my hope is that families who would normally shriek at the thought of staying in an actual vintage motel would remember their stay here, and then be more aware of the cool actual vintage mid-century places that still exist – like Wildwood, hello (at a fraction of the price), and be more likely to try them. A gal can dream!

Here’s a link to the property if you want to learn more about it: Universal Orlando Cabana Bay Beach Resort