Exploring The Abandoned & Creepy Hotel I Used To Work At - Kissimmee Florida Hwy 192 Tourist Area
Empty Hotel on Hwy 192 Kissimmee Florida
Transcript
0:03
today's adventure brings me to kissimmee
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florida as a recording of this tuesday
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october 12
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2021
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to a former hotel that i used to work
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out
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back in the poolside area
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about 20 or so years ago at the turn of
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the century
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late 90s early 2000s probably 99 2000
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2001
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cannot remember the precise year or so
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that i was here working part-time at a
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pool bar in the back
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but it was around that time frame
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and it's now kind of desolate
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and closed down
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i'm just gonna
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check it out welcome everyone adam and
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the woo here it has been a heck of a
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long time since i have done a video
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similar
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to this
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used to do quite a bit of
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subject matters like this
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former places that are now desolate
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closed
1:02
i felt like do it i felt like
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i felt like kind of a throwback to
1:04
myself of the old school adventures
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and because there is a tie-in now
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sometimes just going into a closed down
1:10
place really makes no sense if there's
1:12
no back story but there is a back story
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with me i have a history here
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and i have not been on this property
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since i quit this part-time job
1:21
i was working full-time
1:23
40 hours a week
1:25
at the big k it was like kmart's version
1:28
of a super walmart and that kind of
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failed and then i worked there during
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the day and then i would drive up here
1:34
at night
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and the weekends working quite a bit
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and it was kind of a
1:39
bit different for me because i am a
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non-drinker yet i was working at a pool
1:43
bar serving hot dogs
1:45
serving snacks
1:47
and
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you know serving beverages
1:50
and things like that it wasn't really my
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forte but i did it for a while
1:59
i'm heading in used to be a rental car
1:59
place here too i believe thrifty rental
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car
2:02
join me
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shall you went through a series of
2:06
different names the last one being the
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claremont hotel you can see it faded up
2:10
there
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also recall when
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internet
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you didn't have smartphones you had to
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go to a internet cafe there was an
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internet cafe here
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and you can still see the thrifty
2:26
sign there on the side of the wall
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the thrifty and dollar rental car
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sign this was the front office
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rarely would i go in here but if i
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needed to go you know pick anything up
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if they had some notes for me that they
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had left i would go into the office here
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now up top these windows are open you
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have to wonder if any squatters or
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people are living here and i'm probably
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not gonna if there are i'm not gonna
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bother anyone i'm not going to go in
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inside of the rooms it looks as if
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anyone is accommodating even though it
2:55
is not open to the public and you cannot
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rent rooms for the evening
3:00
192 a lot of the hotels through here
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people do live at them
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even though they're not open so just got
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to keep that in mind and
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let everyone
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go about their own business
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also i was noticing over here
3:15
this parking space
3:17
is the most unusual parking space i've
3:20
probably ever seen
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looks like it was something else and not
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a parking spot or maybe for motorcycles
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you'd pull in here maybe parked a
3:28
motorcycle right there
3:30
or maybe it was something else like a
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garden of some sort and they paved it
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over very unusual
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this little alcove
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right there
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that's a fun word
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alcove
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this is peeking in the front window
3:45
looking into the office you can see an
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open sign
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down there on the ground below that file
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cabinet
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obviously
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not open anymore
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i do love the fact that the game room
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sign or the lettering is still there
4:00
above where the game room was
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this is also the kind of the back side
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of the office area
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you see the the weeping
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ceiling fan there kind of drooping down
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as well
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that's also very very secure with this
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walk-in and chain here
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also up top where it says reception area
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you can see some wasp-ness
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it's gonna say it's a real beehive of
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activity but it's more of a real
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wasp-ness
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of activity definitely want to keep your
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distance from those things i'm kind of
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zoomed in quite a bit yeah if i was not
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zoomed in i'd be a little more afraid of
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getting stung by one of these i mean i'm
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still probably only maybe three feet
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from them
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i should probably just walk away because
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you never know what wasp can be
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it can be a little erratic sometimes and
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just i don't want to get stung and to be
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as obvious as humanly possible
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as i go in i'm going to be walking
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around with this
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this rather large umbrella so there's no
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disguising the fact that i would just be
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trouncing around the property
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you know no sneaking
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just very obvious
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very obvious
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it's sunny out so i'm using this as a
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shield from the sun now i did think
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about just driving my car up in here you
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can see that's the shadow of the
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myself and the umbrella here because
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right over here behind these gift shops
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is a completely accessible
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gate you can see people have driven
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through here there's some tire marks
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but i decided not to i decided just to
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park at one of the highway 192 gift
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shops
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and walk in on foot
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there is a gate
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well not a gate but there is a fence
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line here but as you can see
5:46
you know the gate there's no gate there
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at all probably hasn't been
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for years pretty wide open no more cars
5:53
here in this parking lot
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just an empty parking lot
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and the reason a lot of these highway
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192 hotels are
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closed down is because of all the
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on-site hotels with not only universal
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around sea world
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and all that but also disney world wdw
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put a lot of these places out of
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business because
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they inspire a lot of tourists to stay
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on site and on property instead
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of just down the road on the highway 192
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hotels so
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over my tenure in this area my family
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moved here in 1991 i've seen a lot of
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these places
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go by the wayside
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and to reiterate i do not want to bother
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anyone people are living here in fact on
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one of the doors
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over here it has a name of one of the
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tenants the
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possible current tenants
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just really want to see the pool
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bring back some memories for me
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this is the
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elevator here
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oh wow
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look at all these coke
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coat racks
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coat hangers
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fire extinguishers
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each of these buildings have different
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names this is the sea breeze
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well across here is the sea breeze
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and there are active
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hotels and motels now those over there i
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believe are condos off site the next
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property over
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and there's another hotel
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just across the way there even though
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you can't really see a lot of guests and
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a lot of people over there well there's
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one car
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so the one across the way past that
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fence line
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is an open
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motel for the time being now we're
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getting into some familiar
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territory for me
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i don't know if i want to walk too close
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to these doors while i'm not looking in
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the rooms
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can't be too careful
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wow
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yeah the little the little shack still
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over there
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oh in the hot tub area as well
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quite a bit of algae
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says no diving
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you see that they put a tarp over it at
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one point
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a lot of green algae down in there this
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is the same pool four and a half feet
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now i never swam in this
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but i did witness a lot of guests
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enjoying a day after the theme parks
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out here at night as i stood
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right behind that counter this was an
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old maintenance shed this is where they
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stored a lot of tools and whatnot and
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then my boss at the time he worked for a
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gentleman who had the wherewithal
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to basically purchase us and rent this
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from
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the hotel at that time
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and he converted
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the little shed
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into like a snack bar and it was pretty
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genius because it was very busy this
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this hotel was very busy with guests and
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what would happen is
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after the guests would you know they go
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to disney or universal mostly disney
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because that's the closest from here
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they would come back over here take a
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dip in the pool
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or the hot tub right over here
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and they would get up
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go over to me order you know a soda or
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an alcoholic beverage
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or a hot dog or a snack chips nachos
10:45
and then they would get back in the pool
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there was also another little little
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pool
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over there this is bringing back some
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serious remember 20 year old memories
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for me
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another thing i always notice standing
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behind the counter over there
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oh look at this this is it's kind of
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disgusting
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speaking of disgusting one thing i
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always would notice is guests would be
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in this hot tub
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for a while i mean i'm talking like an
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hour
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they would get up
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maybe not an hour let's say let's say a
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half hour they'd go over here get a
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couple of drinks bring the beverages
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back to their friends
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sit back in the hot tub for another half
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get up
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go back over order a couple more drinks
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a couple more snacks
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they'd go back over here maybe take a
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dip in the pool then go back to the hot
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tub at no point
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in that time frame three and four hours
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of drinking lots
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of beverages did they ever go back to
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their room or ask where the restroom was
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food for thought
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recall back in camp
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when you would get in the pool and the
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counselors would always say
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now don't don't tinkle in the pool
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or there will be some a green or a blue
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ring around your body
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they put they put a special ingredient
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in the pool
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has that ever been clarified
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or documented is that even true or is
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that just a scare tactic
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to get people
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not to
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to urine
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inside the chlorine
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you never know
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hey you can see there's people over at
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that other place
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why i'm having some serious flashbacks i
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have not been in here
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in over 20 years i've looked at it from
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behind the fence
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but never been over
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in this area but ooh raccoon there's a
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raccoon down in there
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okay there's a raccoon that has made a
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little
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a little nest in the shade
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i'm not going to bother you i'm not
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going to bother you yep right in there
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you can kind of see the tarp moving
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i gotta bother you
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how's it going
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if i want to get too close
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wild animal out here
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i mean it's probably perfectly perfectly
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fine but
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yeah this is where the magic happened
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i guess you could say
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my view would have been
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from right inside here
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looking out
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at this for hours and hours on end every
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evening
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listening to a lot of stories
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hearing about new rides and attractions
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at disney courses like
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20 years ago
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listening to guests experiences even
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though this was not a
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theme park ran
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accommodation place that's what
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everybody was here for
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and even to this day do not remove pool
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towels
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from this area
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it's a dragonfly got the phone here
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that's a relic look at that
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still has the cord on it and everything
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was a piece of signage here oh signage
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fell right here there's the piece of
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signage right down there
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oh no
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way
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this is open
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it's the pump room
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so the snack bar area is right on the
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other side of that wall oh look at these
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that's this is nice
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a little rust on there
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little relics of the past
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fascinating stuff
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and adjacent well not adjacent but in
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the back of that same building
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was the guest laundry what i'm showing
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is not the guest laundry those are some
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of the rooms guest laundry right here
15:55
is very humid and hot in here
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i just heard something kind of rummaging
16:10
around in the roof i thought someone was
16:12
walking in on me
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but i believe it's another animal up in
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the attic roof area of there startle me
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just a little bit
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i thought it was a human but i think
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it's just another
16:25
another animal up there
16:29
in the roof
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i am really glad i brought this because
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the sun is permeating
16:47
i'm looking back on my former self if
16:47
you will
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just waiting for someone at the other
16:52
hotel to yell at me or someone to walk
16:53
over here and be like what are you doing
16:55
but no one has i mean it's pretty
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obvious
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i'm holding this like a beacon to anyone
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oh yeah you can still see they have the
17:05
counters all set up here
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as well i'd really like to get inside so
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you can see the umbrella look at this
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see in the window
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yeah
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i'm very non-discreet
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in this exploration
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looking in this kind of dirty glass here
17:22
yeah that's it a tiny little area that
17:25
was my workspace
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i would walk in i would slide those
17:29
windows open over there
17:32
start the late afternoon
17:35
i was even here on one new year's eve
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on new year's eve i believe it was maybe
17:40
98 into 99 or maybe 2000 to 2001.
17:44
you know it it could have even possibly
17:46
been
17:47
into the turn of the century i don't
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even recall
17:50
i probably would remember that though i
17:52
think it was probably 98 into 99
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or maybe 2000 to 2001 one of those
17:59
but i worked here that night when the
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the clock struck midnight
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i was standing right here one thing i do
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remember about that evening and of
18:07
course other evenings that i worked here
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is you know people are pretty happy when
18:11
they're on vacation or they're drinking
18:14
and they want to
18:15
tip you
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by purchasing you a drink as well they
18:18
say i'm gonna buy you a drink as well
18:21
of course maybe
18:23
you'll be not drinking
18:25
it was a little difficult i went through
18:27
a couple periods of my life where i
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drank
18:30
probably from 2001 to 2003 when i first
18:32
started playing music i was very nervous
18:35
to get on stage and i kind of felt that
18:37
that would
18:38
kind of help a little bit with the
18:39
nerves but before that i never did and
18:42
then after 2005 i haven't as well
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so the time i was here
18:50
i did not so i had to
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i had to come up with a reasoning and
18:53
i'd explain to people
18:54
that i didn't and some people just
18:56
didn't understand it like why are you
18:57
working at a pool bar now they're not
18:59
they did not serve hard liquor here at
19:01
all it was just
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you know just like canned canned beer
19:06
stuff like that so i would just kind of
19:08
pop the top on it on the can
19:10
pour it in the glass
19:12
that was it so it wasn't
19:14
it wasn't like a full-on deal
19:17
got an overflowing dumpster over here
19:20
now if i was staying here in this
19:22
current state and in this current day
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and age
19:25
at the moment
19:26
i would want to be as far from highway
19:28
192 as possible and i would want to stay
19:30
over here in the kensington area which
19:33
is far removed
19:35
from everyone so i would guess on the
19:38
back side of this building
19:39
is probably where
19:41
if anyone's squatting here that's where
19:42
they're gonna be that would make sense
19:44
that's what i would do as shown right
19:46
the kensington
20:01
this all was used for
20:01
some of the workers that were here
20:09
oh yeah
20:09
definitely
20:10
back around this side
20:12
a lot of
20:13
a lot of debris and this is about as
20:15
close as i'm going to get to those rooms
20:18
just a hunch it's gonna kind of stay
20:21
stay back here and then start heading
20:22
back up towards the front
20:36
oh there's a
20:36
some standing water back in here
21:00
spider web
21:00
just walks through a spiderweb
21:23
getting those florida vibes through this
21:23
little waterway right here
22:13
back out into the elements
22:13
if you want to call the sun an element
22:16
right over in this area is where i would
22:18
park
22:20
my car back then in the late 90s
22:23
early 2000s
22:25
right up here
22:31
don't think it was a completely adjacent
22:31
to the building
22:32
i'd park it like right in this area
22:34
so i parked right over here
22:36
had the key to the building and the
22:38
logger had the key to the building
22:40
i would walk in this very door
22:44
possibility of it being open
22:46
slim to none
22:48
we can try it
23:10
at least i got to look in the window
23:10
though oh here we go
23:25
right over in there and prepare hot dogs
23:25
snacks
23:28
all right in there wow
23:37
that is cool
23:37
you see there's someone on the golf cart
23:39
the next property over driving going by
23:42
they're probably thinking
23:44
huh that guy's fine he's got an umbrella
23:46
that much just how much just
23:48
fell right there on that little grassy
23:51
section
24:00
and there's the pool oh that's the hot
24:00
tub pump house
24:02
the pool pump house was what i showed
24:05
right over inside of there
24:21
wow this brings back memories
24:21
because i would have to go over here and
24:23
show people how to turn the hot tub on
24:27
yes i'd walk over here and turn this
24:29
little knob
24:32
it's amazing how things just like pop
24:33
back in your head
24:35
after
24:36
so many years two decades
24:50
pretty cool and the hose where you could
24:50
wash off
25:11
no water
25:12
but a lot of algae look at that
25:14
get all that algae in there
27:16
obviously i was not the only one with
27:16
the same idea
27:18
it's another umbrella right there
27:20
seen better days
27:22
kind of decomposing but
27:29
this is the way horror films start
27:29
someone ran out of gas out here
27:32
they're stuck
27:34
at this hotel
27:36
of doom
27:39
the sea breeze
27:41
that's the name of this little wing here
27:44
and keep in mind that one across the way
27:45
there is open and there's only call
27:47
people staying there
27:55
crossing over these speed hops or speed
27:55
bumps
27:56
however you refer to them as
27:58
this tree is very ominous as well
28:07
and this is just over here behind
28:07
a restaurant and a gift shop
28:11
expansive parking
29:38
says please do not fill the coolers
29:38
i do like the retro look of this ice
29:40
cube dispenser
29:42
i really like that
29:44
there's another little relic there
29:48
it's called cornelius
29:58
oh there's a nice little breeze going
29:58
through here oh wow
31:25
looks like bob marley was here too
31:25
long time ago
31:32
mud dabbers
31:32
and for those who are really daring
31:35
this staircase
31:37
is not for the faint of heart here in
31:39
the darkness
31:46
it's like this
31:46
coke machine was brave enough to try to
31:48
get up the stairs though or maybe going
31:50
down the stairs
31:53
someone probably tried to either
31:54
scavenge that or they tried to move it
31:57
someone from the company or just someone
31:58
trying to scrap it
32:01
gave up halfway through going either up
32:03
or down
32:16
you can see the name of the hotel next
32:16
to the closed down one which is roadway
32:20
the roadway
32:24
the former one
32:26
here and this is the walk up to the main
32:29
office
32:31
as well you can hear an air conditioner
32:33
unit going on that is not for this place
32:36
that is at the gift shop next door
32:48
these are the type of chairs that would
32:48
have been around the pool
32:50
that i worked out
32:55
possibly the same ones are probably not
32:55
probably when they switched
32:56
switched over to the new name
32:59
probably renovated and redecorated
33:12
so yeah air conditioner unit over there
33:12
at that gift shop
33:52
oh yeah there's definitely
33:52
definitely some people staying in these
33:54
ones i just walked past
34:01
and this is wide open too and there's a
34:01
cooler right here
34:02
so yeah this is just completely
34:04
completely open on this side also
34:10
i don't even want to know what's in that
34:10
cool oh it's being guarded by this
34:11
lizard
34:13
i'm not going to get in the cooler
34:20
and the front reception area is called
34:20
the dragon
34:27
i like this i like how the seats are
34:28
incorporated into the side
34:31
right here
34:41
oh another lizard
34:41
hey just hit off it slithered up into
34:43
that little hole there now when i worked
34:45
here it was a howard johnson's you still
34:48
see it faintly right there howard
34:49
johnson's in
34:51
and then later
34:52
in its existence it became the claremont
34:55
as stated did have an internet cafe
34:58
and a dollar rental car as well as a
35:00
thrifty rent-a-car
35:06
a bygone era of the 192 hotel days when
35:09
they were thriving
35:10
not so thriving anymore and peeking in
35:13
the front window as well
35:15
this is what yet another room that's
35:17
kind of adjacent to the office
35:20
and quite disarray
35:22
noisy air conditioner unit over there
35:25
the gift shop
35:27
the roadway which is still open
35:30
and the property i was just on
35:33
i wanted to also point out how these
35:35
windows up top are also open
35:38
to the elements all those windows
35:43
are
35:43
completely open
35:58
a little relic of my past
35:58
a little
35:59
look into
36:01
part of my life
36:03
and a location that has seen better days
36:08
definitely has seen better days
36:11
the former claremont hotel
36:13
former howard johnson's hotel and a
36:15
place that i worked
36:18
for a short while
36:19
probably about a year or so part time
36:21
every weekend
36:23
back in 1999 2000 2001 around that
36:26
timeframe and that's going to do it for
36:28
today from kissimmee florida
36:31
a very
36:32
warm day
36:34
it's not hot but it's warm
36:37
a few clouds in the sky but none of them
36:38
are shielding the sun
36:41
that's why i had to bring along a little
36:43
extra
36:44
a little this
36:46
i walked around with this the whole time
36:49
a lot of people saw me walking around in
36:50
there no one said anything
36:52
so i figure it's not a problem
36:53
especially since
36:54
people are staying here
36:56
a few of the rooms were occupied
36:58
and the
37:00
two different points were completely
37:01
accessible with no gates or no fencing
37:04
up
37:06
i took it about myself to just walk in
37:08
it's not something i've done in a while
37:10
but
37:10
i wanted to see a little bit of my past
37:13
so i did
37:15
thanks for watching i'll see you in the
37:16
next video the vlog
37:41
i went ahead and drove back over here
37:41
there was a couple things i forgot
37:43
as i looked across at the pool area
37:46
on the other side
37:48
of the structure over there used to be
37:50
water mania it was a water park here in
37:52
central florida that closed and when i
37:54
worked here these stray cats are
37:56
they might be heading over to the hot
37:57
tub area
38:02
yeah water mania used to be on the other
38:02
side of that that's been bulldozed and
38:04
now it's
38:05
i think it's another hotel now
38:08
can't really see it from this
38:08
perspective but you could hear
38:11
guests on the attractions at water mania
38:14
back then 20 years ago
38:16
and it's kind of a funny story that i
38:17
really wanted to bring up that's why i
38:19
headed back over this way
38:25
used to be
38:25
someone's pulling up beside me
38:31
when there was one evening
38:31
when i was at work there was a few
38:33
guests and they were kind of rowdy
38:35
and they ended up
38:36
a couple of the guys who were probably
38:38
like early 20s
38:39
had a few little too much to drink
38:41
started throwing people in the pool
38:43
first it was their friends who were
38:44
staying in some of the rooms they'd come
38:46
out fully dressed
38:48
and they would run out of the pool grab
38:50
them and throw them into the pool fully
38:52
dressed
38:53
and once they did that to all their
38:55
friends
38:56
then they started doing it to other
38:57
guests at the hotel
38:59
it was quite hilarious i hid behind the
39:02
snack bar
39:04
so i didn't get thrown in
39:06
yeah i don't know why i forgot about
39:07
that but i wanted to mention that that
39:08
was quite the
39:10
oh it's a worker here at this motel
39:12
calling the cats over feeding the cats
39:16
that's what's going on
39:17
have yourself a little late night snack
39:20
kitties
39:22
that's gonna do it for today
39:27
okay now the
39:27
truck's pulling off
39:28
fed the cats and
39:30
up there's a bunch more cats over there
39:33
walking over
39:39
okay
39:39
this was extra footage
39:41
that's it