A Great High School Graduation Vacation Trip Report 6/19 ! :)

Saturday June 29th...Neighborhood shopping day.

We decided due to rain coming that we would do the neighborhoods during the day and leave some time for swimming later. We got up and decided to go over to Golden Corral for a brunch. We do have Golden Corral but they are not close. There is uusally something everyone likes. We came in at the tail end of breakfast, so I was able to get some blueberry pancakes. These were the best ones I ever had. After some breakfast food, I got my usual. The pot roast, mashed potatoes and vegeatables are my favorite. Everyone filled up and we headed out about 12:30.

Earlier in the week we had stopped by a couple of other places on our way in and the only one we liked was Alafaya. This is about 25 minutes southeast of Orlando. We knew we wanted to check it out again, as well as Williamsburg, Goldenrod, Edgewood, Belle Isle, Vista East. We made our way up to Alafaya first since this was the farthest out. I had looked up some areas to check out there. We did go into some big gated community areas. We weren't really sold on the whole gated community but would decide that a semi-gated community would work. We did stop at an open house that I saw. We went in and there was this really lively realator. We got to talk to him and really liked what he had to say. We told him what we were looking for and when and he said he would get back to us. He did mention an area to check out. This would have slightly older homes, but in our price range and a pool. We left and took the drive there, and he was right. We jotted down some streets and semi-gated communities there. We checked out all the other ones on our way to Williamsburg. This little community is 5 minutes from Sea World. We got there and once we started looking around we really liked it here. The houses were what we were looking for and we really wanted to be closer to the parks and the city. Liv and Charlie won't have a bad commute if we found something there. They will travel to Alafaya for school.

When we were all done we picked our top three neighborhoods. They are Alafaya, Econlockhatchee trail. and Williamsburg. It is nice to now have an area that we like.

We decided to pick up something quick to eat, get back so we could do some swimming and pack up. We were able to get everything done we wanted then turned in. We would be leaving in the morning for the BIG SURPRISE for Liv. We were all very excited.

Up next the big "S"...
 
Still waiting for the big surprise....

Hi thanks for still following. I know I have made you wait awhile, I am sorry. It has been a bit difficult here but trying to get back on track. I haven't been able to get on much and just skimmed the SANS thread a bit. I did catch your thinking of me and my trip to NJ, thank you:goodvibes. It was a nice weekend with the teens. We had good weather, my eczema behaved itself a bit.


Looking forward to the surprise

Hi glad to see you are still reading along. Thanks so much for being patient. I am going to reveal...
 


Sunday June 30th... We were up early and did the last of the laundry. I was happy to be able to bring clean laundry home. We weren't exactly heading back home just yet. We were going to be transferring to another resort for a night, this would be Liv's big surprise. We have been going to Disney for years before Universal pretty exclusively. Her favorite resort (and ours) is Animal Kingdom Lodge. I thought it would be nice to save my Disney points over the past few years to be able to go for a night. I made it with over a 100 to spare. I decided to not only get a room there I went all out. I booked a savanna view club level for one night. I got a great summer rate and was thrilled. We would only be staying at the resort. I knew Liv would love this surprise. She worked very hard in school. She got straight A's for 6 years and earned numerous academic and community awards. She ranked 5th in her class and I really wanted to reward her.

She thought we were going home that morning, so I thought. Anyway Brian loaded the car and set the new course in our GPS. Well little miss nosy thought something was up by how I packed. We got in the car and started and I can tell she knows something. Once we were on Disney grounds I told here we were meeting Uncle Mike for one more visit. She thought we were meeting him at the lodge though. She didn't know by her snooping that I had gotten the room. Once we got up to the gate and I gave my reservation the smile got big. We drove up to the entrance and I proceeded to get out. The teens followed me and Brian was going to park. What I didn't know was that when you are club level they send someone out to greet you. This poor guy had to chase me down. LOL!! He got me and said he would check us in the club level floor. Brian pulled into a space and we all went in to check in. I had purposely gotten there early so we could catch the breakfast. We checked in and got breakfast. I put some pics in. There was the traditional oatmeal, bagels, croissants, fruit, deli meats but they had a hot egg dish of some type both mornings. Our first impression of the club level was in awe. We do a lot of club level now that the teens are older. Portofino is still our favorite but this is a close second. After we ate we got our luggage and stored it. We got into our bathing suits, got lockers and sat at the pool. I would get a text when our room was ready.

We had a great afternoon bouncing between the pool and the hot tub. We took a break and went up to the lounge for afternoon snacks. They do a great job on their afternoon snack time. This is where Portofino is weak. The lodge had two kinds of soups, multiple salads, hummus, cheese and crackers, make your own trail mix, cookies and some type of bagged candy. After we filled our bellies we went back to the pool. I did go up to the staff and inquiry about my room, and just as we were finished with our food the room was ready. We took a break got our luggage and went to the room. After we got settled we went for the dinner before heading to the pool. Here there was plenty of choices. They put the hummus back out. They had veggies and dip. There were three hot appetizers. One was a hot dog rolled in corn bread, the other two were prepared by a chef. It was a seafood stew and a small burger type thing. Everything was delicious. The food is from the restaurants so they all have an African preparation to them. After dinner we popped in the room and it was awesome. We had so many animals on the savanna. We hung out a bit then went back to the pool. There were storms coming in about 9 so I wanted to get more time in. We went back down to the hot tub, pool and the teens played ping pong. About 9 the storms rolled in, we went in and had desert time there. The club puts out some nice evening deserts. After that we went to the room and hung out.

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The food was as delicious as it looks.

Up next is our last day there and the trek home with some more pics of the room and the lodge...

Have a great day
 
We stayed in a DVC studio (great cast member discount) but I think AKL is my favorite resort. What a fantastic reward for hard work for Liv!
 
Fantastic surprise, and a great use of the club level food, AKL pools, and room with a view.

I like AKL, but not enough to stay there. We are more a Yacht Club/Beach Club, FQ, and if just me, POP. We all like eating at Boma though.

Sounded like a perfect last night before heading home. Thanks for updating, with some great food pictures.
 


We stayed in a DVC studio (great cast member discount) but I think AKL is my favorite resort. What a fantastic reward for hard work for Liv!
Hi thanks and yes it was a well -deserved reward for her. I am lucky I feel the same about AKL so I enjoyed it just as much.:D We have stayed at several of the moderates there too and AKL is our favorite. I was so impressed with the club level there also.

Fantastic surprise, and a great use of the club level food, AKL pools, and room with a view.

I like AKL, but not enough to stay there. We are are a Yacht Club/Beach Club, FQ, and if just me, POP. We all like eating at Boma though.

Sounded like a perfect last night before heading home. Thanks for updating, with some great food pictures.

Hi, thanks for reading along. I totally get it about likeing the other ones. One of my other favorites is POR in the mansion section. It is so pretty. I would like to try Beach Club one day it gets good reviews. I am going to finish up with our last day there and more pics I enjoy sharing them. What we liked was that the food for the club level comes from all their restaurants especially Boma. The food is great there.
 
July 1st check out day....

We were up early as we wanted to get breakfast and check out the savanna for animals. I was surprised to not see any animals out for breakfast. I know they are usually out and about. We were disappointed that we were only able to see them from the room last night. We headed to breakfast and again everything was great. They have the same offerings except the hotdish is different. We enjoyed our food and headed back to the room to pack up. We decided to stay a little and wait for the lunch offerings to help tide us over. I knew this would put us in late into Virginia but it was worth it. We were to drive about 13 hours that day.

I forgot to mention one of our favorite perks of the club level was the Nesco cafe machine. We were able to get a hot and cold cappuccino, late and some other stuff. It was well worth it. Liv doesn't enjoy coffee so she enjoyed the juices. We packed up and had our stuff brought down and loaded the car. We parked it again and headed in. We walked around a bit and looked at the Mara menu. I had a lot of points leftover and decided we would buy lunch there to take it in the car, this would help the cost of one meal. When we were done we went back up to the lounge for lunch. The nice thing with Disney's club level is you have access the whole day you check out. Universal stops it in the morning on your check out day. We finished up about 12 30 went over to the Mara got our food and left. We said our good-byes and left. We would be on the road until almost 1:30 am when we arrived in Northern Virginia. I wanted less mileage to put on the day we would get home. We slept a few hours, got up had breakfast and was on our way home. We had about a 6-hour drive from there. We ended up getting home at about 4 pm. We cleaned up the house, unpacked the cars and got take out.

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My final thoughts on this trip...

This was a new adventure for us. We have mostly been between Disney, Universal and Cedar Point since 2014 every year. We did in 2017 go to Discovery Cove once and fell in love with it there. Liv really wanted to go back there this year. We try and pick one group of parks each visit due to the cost of tickets. We knew we would get the other parks included with DC. When I was able to get that awesome dolphin swim package with my day it was a no brainer. Another thing we were not use to was staying off-site. We love being on-site for the perks and it makes us feel immersed. I was on a budget this year and I knew that the Sea World parks really don't have a lot of on-site resorts so I decided since we were doing new parks let's try off-site. I will disclose I was on a strict budget this year so I knew this would work well financially. Driving my car down saved a lot of money on airfare and let us have more flexibility having a car.

Sheraton Vistana - The whole family loved this place. It was clean, there was a lot to do, the rooms were nice, the housekeeping was good, and it was in a great location. I am so glad that I took the recommendation for here. My family wants to stay here again even when we move down next summer. I really loved being able to have space from the teens as well as a kitchen. I think my favorite amenity was the washer and dryer in our condo. I loved not having to go home with much dirty laundry.

Sea World parks:
Discovery Cove is just amazing. It is a beautifully landscaped property. It is very relaxing and a nice slow change. The price is a little high but when you add the add ons that you get it is really a good deal. We enjoyed the food there and the dolphin encounter was great.

Bush Gardens this is a really pretty park. There is a lot to do for everyone. I really think we would have enjoyed it more if it was a little cooler. We left early and I would have liked more time there.

Aquatica was a nice water park. It was clean and on the smaller side which was good for this trip. I thought they had a great variety of slides and the food was good. The wave pools are really nice and I love the waterfall that they have. The certified autism center and program are awesome for this park.
We really can't wait to go back here.

Sea World this was the surprise park of the trip. We all had no expectations and really didn't know how we would like it. It turned out to be a great day. We loved the shows and animal interactions. I know there is controversy with this park and I agree they need to change more things. However, they do have a wonderful rescue program and that needs to be remembered.

We really had an awesome week here. I was able to save money and stay on a budget. Did we miss Universal of course, it is our favorite. It was nice to try something different. I will stay on-site again of course but will mix in with some off-site stays. We enjoyed looking at areas we want to move too. It was nice to come home with a plan of attack.

I want to thank everyone for following along on our journey. I enjoyed sharing it with you. If there is any questions feel free to ask. :thumbsup2 :goodvibes
 
Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. I spent an enjoyable morning reading along and I'm looking forward to our AKL stay even more now.
 
Great trip and report.
I'd really like to try DC and Seaworld, but rest of family isn't as interested. We did do a dolphin swim in Mexico, but DC just sounds amazing.
I will stay on-site again of course but will mix in with some off-site stays.
That is how we are too! We have a timeshare (gifted many many many years ago) so trading into a Marriott resort or the SVR is a no brainer-and very low cost for us. I love the convenience of onsite but we are ALL spoiled with space and amenities of our condo (and I am like you-LOVE the washer and dryer!)

I am so jealous of your move to FLorida. My oldest kid is now thinking of going back next fall, trying for another DCP in a gap year between college grad and grad school-possibly staying and trying for FT to get Disney to pay for school. And middle and I are checking out UCF next month when we are down for HHN. Between those two, and DH's oldest daughter and grandson living in Jacksonville...well we might as well move if all 3 DD's are there! I don't even need to be in Orlando-just somewhere a beach is within a couple hours...

Thanks for sharing your trip!!
 
I stayed at AKL in 2008. It's a beautiful resort
Yes it is. I can't wait till we can spend lots of time there. Thanks for following.

Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. I spent an enjoyable morning reading along and I'm looking forward to our AKL stay even more now.
It was my pleasure and thank you for reading along. You are very sweet thank you. Oh you will love it there, can't wait for you to go and hear about your trip.

CFTC
Great trip and report.
I'd really like to try DC and Seaworld, but rest of family isn't as interested. We did do a dolphin swim in Mexico, but DC just sounds amazing.

That is how we are too! We have a timeshare (gifted many many many years ago) so trading into a Marriott resort or the SVR is a no brainer-and very low cost for us. I love the convenience of onsite but we are ALL spoiled with space and amenities of our condo (and I am like you-LOVE the washer and dryer!)

I am so jealous of your move to FLorida. My oldest kid is now thinking of going back next fall, trying for another DCP in a gap year between college grad and grad school-possibly staying and trying for FT to get Disney to pay for school. And middle and I are checking out UCF next month when we are down for HHN. Between those two, and DH's oldest daughter and grandson living in Jacksonville...well we might as well move if all 3 DD's are there! I don't even need to be in Orlando-just somewhere a beach is within a couple hours...

Thanks for sharing your trip!!

You're welcome and my pleasure. Thanks for following. DC is amazing and so are the other parks. Uni is our favorite still. I am spoiled now with the time share so will probably split trips between on site and off.
That sounds awesome for your DDs. Heck yea you need to move there. I would like to be near the beach but with my cats evacuating in a storm would be hard. We will probably be about minutes away. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.
My daughter loved UCF and can't wait to go there next year.
What a nice surprise for your daughter! Your house search sounds like fun.
Thanks for following. I enjoyed doing this for her. I was like a little kid on Christmas morning. I am nervous and excited for searching. We have been in our house a long time.
 
Your pleasure became our pleasure

Your trip report read so smooth and we all got tips on how the touring for you, could be a guide for us

It was so nice Gina guided you about the place to stay
Gina is so good in getting great deals for awesome prices
Very helpful lady!
 
Your pleasure became our pleasure

Your trip report read so smooth and we all got tips on how the touring for you, could be a guide for us

It was so nice Gina guided you about the place to stay
Gina is so good in getting great deals for awesome prices
Very helpful lady!

Yes I agree about Gina. Her suggestions really made a difference on our trip.

Thanks for following and for letting me know the pics of the rides were helpful.
 

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