jeff968
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2000
- Messages
- 1,255
Well, my party of 11 is back from our trip to Florida and we had a great time. The trip started with some excitement. On the way to the JFK airport my father in-law realized he didnt have a photo ID. DMV had taken his license away after an accident in November and it was his only photo ID! Phone calls to American Airlines and Motor vehicles resulted in no help and we were told they would NOT let him on the plane. We thought he was going to have to stay behind but when I got to the check-in counter at the airport I was surprised to hear no problem, hell have to go through some extra security checks but we can work around it. It was nice to know that security was tight but not totally unreasonable. We all made it to Florida. That night we stayed at the Days Inn at Seaworld which was cheap ($55 a night through HotelKingdom). Thursday my son, my brother in-law, his son, and I headed to Daytona to watch the Gatorade 125s (the qualifying races for the Daytona 500). Im not a big Nascar fan but it was a lot of fun. The race is a big spectacle and the track was huge. Seeing those cars pass you at 185 mph is something as well. Meanwhile my wife and the rest of the gang checked into the Hilton Grand Vacation Club and went to get food at the Publix down the street. We left the race a little early so we could beat the crowds and make our 5:45 dinner reservations at Chef Mickeys. Despite our early departure we hit traffic all through Orlando which resulted in us getting to the Contemporary just in time. Traffic in Orlando for the entire trip was worse then I ever remembered it including Route 4 and International drive.
Chef Mickeys was great. Great food, all you can eat, lots of fun, and a reasonable price as well. We got back to the HGVC and settled down for the night. Now we spent a total of 11 nights at the HGVC. The first 3 nights was their promo package. For $500 I got three nights in a two bedroom in February and two attraction tickets. The next 7 nights were a time-share week I won on eBay for $675. The last night was a single night rental at $220 for the night. We also had two, two bedroom units so everything was times two. The staff at HGVC was great and was able to work it out so we could stay in the same units for the entire time. Our two, two bedroom units were in the same building and on the same floor, Warwick House.
The HGVC was beautiful. We stayed at the Vistana Resort last year and I liked the HGVC better. The entire development was built in 1995 so all the buildings are the same. The resort has a Bermuda theme and it is not too big. There are about 12 buildings with 8 floors each? They all have beautiful courtyards and the landscaping throughout the resort was very nice. Lots of things to do. There were 3 pools, our building was further away from the main building, so we had one of the pools right next to our building. It was great to walk out at anytime and take a swim. Our pool was definitely the quiet one and was heated. It also had a childrens pool and a very hot hot tub. Now, if you wanted to take a walk you could head down to the main building. This is where the other two pools were located. One large heated pool with a fountain in the middle and a large non-heated pool with a waterfall. We made it into the cool pool only on the days we saw the eighties. There was also another childrens pool and three hot tubs. Everything was going on in this area and my family (kids 12, 9, and 2) wished we were closer to it but it wasnt a big deal. All the activities took place here. You could also find the best shuffle board courts I have seen at a resort, an okay putting green, and a great croquet court. You would just go to the activity center to get the balls/rackets/whatever you needed and then play. They also had very nice basketball courts, tennis courts, and an exercise room. You also could find a smaller arcade room and a nice little store that made fresh sandwiches to order and baked goods in the morning. The prices were high but not unreasonable. We took part in some of the poolside activities. One of our favorites was the daily ice cream social. Everyday at 2:00pm they would come out with two buckets of ice cream and you could make your own sundaes for only $2 each and they were great with all the extras. The poolside restaurant was also very good. We ate there three times and I found the food to be very good. They have special theme nights like Mexican or ribs on certain nights and the prices were reasonable and the food very good. I had a great burger by the pool one afternoon. They also offered poolside massages at $10 for 10 minutes and hairwraps for the girls. There was also a nice playgound for our 2-year-old with soft sand. We spent many of our days hanging out by the pool, swimming, and relaxing. There was also a large walking path that went around the small pond which I walked a couple of times. We had two bad rain days and during one of them we rented the 50 seat movie theater for $20 and watched Shreck. It was a lot of fun. They have free movies for all the guests throughout the week at 8:00pm. We did that one night. The kids took advantage of a few of the activities including a tie-dye tee shirt for $10 and a trip to Wonderworks for $25 first child, $20 for the second. Pizza, transportation, and admission were included and they loved it. It was a three-hour activity. We did our timeshare promo on Friday. Not too bad and there was little pressure. They gave us a light lunch and then we saw a film and spoke with a representative. Hilton has a nice, flexible, points program but it is still too much money and I feel you can do much better with renting. The promo was suppose to be 90 minutes but we were there for 150 minutes because my wife likes to talk and I like to point out the flaws with the reps you should buy math. No big deal. We got it over and enjoyed the rest of the day. A funny thing for you other timeshare renters, when we were there for the first three days under the promo housekeeping visited us everyday. Once our 1 week rental started we never saw housekeeping again until my last day which was a single day rental again. It shows that if you rent you get service, if you trade you get squat (unless you pay extra for it). We rented at the Vistana last year and saw housekeeping everyday but we were paying $170 a night. I was paying only $90 a night for my week so I guess I prefer the savings over the service. You could still go get supplies if you needed them or towels, they just werent brought to you. Overall, I was very happy with the resort.
Saturday we went to SeaWorld. We had a good time. I hadnt been there in five years so they had a couple of new shows. Everyone loved Pets Ahoy. This show uses all kinds of animals but mostly dogs and cats. They do all kinds of tricks. We rode Kraken which was great and only a 5 minute wait. We got our second day free pass but never made it back due to rain at the end of the week. We went to the Cruise night at Old Town in Kissimmee and picked up Krispy Kreme Donuts there as well (I ended up going back three more times). Sunday through Thursday were hang out days. Others in our party went to MGM and Epcot but we hung around the resort. I had some work to do in Orlando as well. The weather got real nice on Wednesday and Thursday with highs in the mid-eighties during the day and lows in the high sixties at night. We went to a number of restaurants to eat and all of them were good including. Bahamas Breeze, Fishbones, Jungle Jims, Logans Steakhouse, Rain Forrest in DD, and the Lonestar steakhouse. We also visited Ripleys believe it or not. Make sure you have your AAA or Orlando magic cards. We got discounts at Seaworld and Ripleys because of the cards.
Unfortunately we woke up on Friday and saw rain and it rained non-stop until Saturday night. I have never seen rain like that in Florida but I guess they needed it. We visited the Belz mall and my son and I visited the Ferrari dealer (but didnt buy anything). We rented the HGVC Movie Theater and made the best of it. Fortunately, we woke up on Sunday morning to find sunny blue skis so we headed off to the Magic Kingdom.
After two days of rain I guess I should have expected it but the lines were unbelievable. We got to the parking booths at the MK at 9:15am. There was a line there. Then we waited to park. Then we waited for tickets (had to convert our leftover 1995s to the new ticket format and get a ticket for my son). Then we waited for the monorail. Then we waited to go through security, Then we waited to go through the ticket booth. I stepped on Main street for the first time at just about 11:00am!!! Ridiculous. I was aggravated and wished wed spent the last day at the hotel but as the day went on the MK has a way of getting to you and I felt better. Thank god for those FastPasses!!! We did the usual stuff and saw the 3:00 parade, which was very nice. My two-year-old was loving it. The highlight had to be our early dinner at the Crystal Palace. My two-year-old loves Pooh and they (especially Pooh) loved her. We got some great photos and a great meal. We left at 7:00 so we could beat the crowds and get back to the resort. It was still warm on Sunday night so the kids and I took a final swim to end our vacation. The next day we headed back to Connecticut and everything went fine but it was a long day.
Overall, a nice, long, trip and high marks to the Hilton Grand Vacation Club. Well, its time to start planning Florida 2003!!!
Chef Mickeys was great. Great food, all you can eat, lots of fun, and a reasonable price as well. We got back to the HGVC and settled down for the night. Now we spent a total of 11 nights at the HGVC. The first 3 nights was their promo package. For $500 I got three nights in a two bedroom in February and two attraction tickets. The next 7 nights were a time-share week I won on eBay for $675. The last night was a single night rental at $220 for the night. We also had two, two bedroom units so everything was times two. The staff at HGVC was great and was able to work it out so we could stay in the same units for the entire time. Our two, two bedroom units were in the same building and on the same floor, Warwick House.
The HGVC was beautiful. We stayed at the Vistana Resort last year and I liked the HGVC better. The entire development was built in 1995 so all the buildings are the same. The resort has a Bermuda theme and it is not too big. There are about 12 buildings with 8 floors each? They all have beautiful courtyards and the landscaping throughout the resort was very nice. Lots of things to do. There were 3 pools, our building was further away from the main building, so we had one of the pools right next to our building. It was great to walk out at anytime and take a swim. Our pool was definitely the quiet one and was heated. It also had a childrens pool and a very hot hot tub. Now, if you wanted to take a walk you could head down to the main building. This is where the other two pools were located. One large heated pool with a fountain in the middle and a large non-heated pool with a waterfall. We made it into the cool pool only on the days we saw the eighties. There was also another childrens pool and three hot tubs. Everything was going on in this area and my family (kids 12, 9, and 2) wished we were closer to it but it wasnt a big deal. All the activities took place here. You could also find the best shuffle board courts I have seen at a resort, an okay putting green, and a great croquet court. You would just go to the activity center to get the balls/rackets/whatever you needed and then play. They also had very nice basketball courts, tennis courts, and an exercise room. You also could find a smaller arcade room and a nice little store that made fresh sandwiches to order and baked goods in the morning. The prices were high but not unreasonable. We took part in some of the poolside activities. One of our favorites was the daily ice cream social. Everyday at 2:00pm they would come out with two buckets of ice cream and you could make your own sundaes for only $2 each and they were great with all the extras. The poolside restaurant was also very good. We ate there three times and I found the food to be very good. They have special theme nights like Mexican or ribs on certain nights and the prices were reasonable and the food very good. I had a great burger by the pool one afternoon. They also offered poolside massages at $10 for 10 minutes and hairwraps for the girls. There was also a nice playgound for our 2-year-old with soft sand. We spent many of our days hanging out by the pool, swimming, and relaxing. There was also a large walking path that went around the small pond which I walked a couple of times. We had two bad rain days and during one of them we rented the 50 seat movie theater for $20 and watched Shreck. It was a lot of fun. They have free movies for all the guests throughout the week at 8:00pm. We did that one night. The kids took advantage of a few of the activities including a tie-dye tee shirt for $10 and a trip to Wonderworks for $25 first child, $20 for the second. Pizza, transportation, and admission were included and they loved it. It was a three-hour activity. We did our timeshare promo on Friday. Not too bad and there was little pressure. They gave us a light lunch and then we saw a film and spoke with a representative. Hilton has a nice, flexible, points program but it is still too much money and I feel you can do much better with renting. The promo was suppose to be 90 minutes but we were there for 150 minutes because my wife likes to talk and I like to point out the flaws with the reps you should buy math. No big deal. We got it over and enjoyed the rest of the day. A funny thing for you other timeshare renters, when we were there for the first three days under the promo housekeeping visited us everyday. Once our 1 week rental started we never saw housekeeping again until my last day which was a single day rental again. It shows that if you rent you get service, if you trade you get squat (unless you pay extra for it). We rented at the Vistana last year and saw housekeeping everyday but we were paying $170 a night. I was paying only $90 a night for my week so I guess I prefer the savings over the service. You could still go get supplies if you needed them or towels, they just werent brought to you. Overall, I was very happy with the resort.
Saturday we went to SeaWorld. We had a good time. I hadnt been there in five years so they had a couple of new shows. Everyone loved Pets Ahoy. This show uses all kinds of animals but mostly dogs and cats. They do all kinds of tricks. We rode Kraken which was great and only a 5 minute wait. We got our second day free pass but never made it back due to rain at the end of the week. We went to the Cruise night at Old Town in Kissimmee and picked up Krispy Kreme Donuts there as well (I ended up going back three more times). Sunday through Thursday were hang out days. Others in our party went to MGM and Epcot but we hung around the resort. I had some work to do in Orlando as well. The weather got real nice on Wednesday and Thursday with highs in the mid-eighties during the day and lows in the high sixties at night. We went to a number of restaurants to eat and all of them were good including. Bahamas Breeze, Fishbones, Jungle Jims, Logans Steakhouse, Rain Forrest in DD, and the Lonestar steakhouse. We also visited Ripleys believe it or not. Make sure you have your AAA or Orlando magic cards. We got discounts at Seaworld and Ripleys because of the cards.
Unfortunately we woke up on Friday and saw rain and it rained non-stop until Saturday night. I have never seen rain like that in Florida but I guess they needed it. We visited the Belz mall and my son and I visited the Ferrari dealer (but didnt buy anything). We rented the HGVC Movie Theater and made the best of it. Fortunately, we woke up on Sunday morning to find sunny blue skis so we headed off to the Magic Kingdom.
After two days of rain I guess I should have expected it but the lines were unbelievable. We got to the parking booths at the MK at 9:15am. There was a line there. Then we waited to park. Then we waited for tickets (had to convert our leftover 1995s to the new ticket format and get a ticket for my son). Then we waited for the monorail. Then we waited to go through security, Then we waited to go through the ticket booth. I stepped on Main street for the first time at just about 11:00am!!! Ridiculous. I was aggravated and wished wed spent the last day at the hotel but as the day went on the MK has a way of getting to you and I felt better. Thank god for those FastPasses!!! We did the usual stuff and saw the 3:00 parade, which was very nice. My two-year-old was loving it. The highlight had to be our early dinner at the Crystal Palace. My two-year-old loves Pooh and they (especially Pooh) loved her. We got some great photos and a great meal. We left at 7:00 so we could beat the crowds and get back to the resort. It was still warm on Sunday night so the kids and I took a final swim to end our vacation. The next day we headed back to Connecticut and everything went fine but it was a long day.
Overall, a nice, long, trip and high marks to the Hilton Grand Vacation Club. Well, its time to start planning Florida 2003!!!
