Double, Double, Toil & Trouble: a Halloween-inspired trip of “two’s” – an October 2016 TR

[greenclan67]

That cake was horrible. I have too say, I love DC. We have been 7 times!! But our last visit Xmas Day, left us thinking we wouldn't be visiting for awhile I have found the food nowhere near as good as before. A lot of the options on menu are gone. Sunscreen is now on wall in different locations with pumps. And they no longer do the complimentary picture. Great pictures.

 

[Lynne G]

Great pictures. We had such a great time each time we go to DC. This last time, we splurged and did the package with the poster. It was a great picture of our kids with the dolphin. And they conveniently packed the poster in a cardboard roll that easily fit in my backpack.

A funny. We went shopping at the outlets. DD was amazed at the amount of luggage that was being wheeled around, opened every so often to stash store bags. Well, low and behold, DD spied a very cute carry on size Vera Bradley bag that matched other pieces of that design she already owned. Lucky she bought it, we needed it to fit the buoy and several other breakable things we had acquired.

We always tend to find some small food later in the night we leave DC. Like to hear where you went, if at all.

 

[Callie]

My love of food is real, I want to try Discovery Cove just for the free food and drinks.

 

[bankr63]

Glad to hear you are safely back from the sunny south. Was their still snow on your lawn when you returned? I saw photos of the Ottawa area on Family Day weekend (friends of mine went there to visit their daughter) and OMG, I could not believe how much of the white stuff was still piled up!!

How was your stay at SVR? Anything new nor noteworthy that we should know about before we arrive in 5 weeks time?

Funny you should ask about snow. There was still lots of snow on the ground when we returned - we don't generally lose our snow pack until well into April, I've had it last into May some years. Snowbanks were a good 7 feet high at the peak this winter; that takes some time to melt away. But we went into yesterday with a forecast of about 2cm (less than an inch) of snow. It started snowing hard at the beginning of the rush hour, and by the time it finally stopped around 8:00 pm we actually had 21.6cm down (about 9 inches). I think the local weather guy is claiming "alternative facts". LOL Unfortunately snowbanks are back up to about 5 feet. I am so ready for the end of winter!

This year was "alternative destination" year, so no SVR. We drove down to Hilton Head Island SC and had a very nice stay at the Waterside resort. Like the reports from FL, the weather was unusually cold, but the sun was pleasant and we got in lots of biking, walking, and went kayaking with the dolphins. The last day, Friday, included a 2-hour power tanning (burning) session by the pool as it finally warmed up enough to take the heavy layers off (about 65F). We also had a surprise encounter with the 5 foot gator resident in the lagoon pond behind our villa. He swam right under our feet as we walked across the boardwalk, kind of surprising because he apparently is quite reclusive.

The jury is out on whether we return to SVR next year. Unless our poor C$ starts to rally a bit, we might very well forgo the US completely next year and trade into Mexico instead. Have been trolling resorts in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta this week looking for options.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We have never visited Discovery Cove before, but I would like to...do you think my 13 year old son (who loves riding all rides in theme parks) would like it here? He is my only concern; I think my other kiddos would love DC.

Well, I can tell you that our son LOVES Discovery Cove.......in many ways, it's a teenagers dream. Hammocks, lounge chairs, beaches, and unlimited food . In all seriousness, though, I have yet to hear of anyone who has said their kids DIDN'T have the time of their life. I know my thrill-loving guys adore DC just as much, even though its a totally different experience. It's a great mid-week destination to help counterbalance the hectic nature of your typical theme-park trip .

What a great day for you all at DC. Sometimes it's the smaller things, like all enjoying warm cookies together, that stick in your mind and make your vacation so special

I totally agree .

Oh I just love DC. I booked a cabana last time and now the kids are like "skip the dolphin, just get the cabana" we are planning Feb 2018 and the kids really want to go back to DC, 3 days at Disney and the other 3 days at aquatics and Seaworld. I'm hoping for a blue Friday sale

I will be anxiously watching the Blue Friday sales right along with ya . I am desperately hoping that they bring back the BOGO annual passes. I am not holding out much hope that we'll renew our Universal AP's once they expire in December (we have a sinking feeling that the opening of Volcano Bay will price us out of the renewal) so I suspect that we'll be back to the SW parks for our 2018 vacations.

That cake was horrible. I have too say, I love DC. We have been 7 times!! But our last visit Xmas Day, left us thinking we wouldn't be visiting for awhile I have found the food nowhere near as good as before. A lot of the options on menu are gone. Sunscreen is now on wall in different locations with pumps. And they no longer do the complimentary picture. Great pictures.

They took away the complimentary printed photo?!?!? That really stinks. I mean, its not a deal-breaker in the grand scheme of things, but it was always such a nice touch (and all those little touches is what made DC so special). Our only food complaint was the cake (thankfully the other SW parks hadn't followed suit and switched it out.....not as of October, anyway) though I did miss the cinnamon sugar pretzels. The warm chocolate chip cookies helped make up for that .

Great pictures. We had such a great time each time we go to DC. This last time, we splurged and did the package with the poster. It was a great picture of our kids with the dolphin. And they conveniently packed the poster in a cardboard roll that easily fit in my backpack.

A funny. We went shopping at the outlets. DD was amazed at the amount of luggage that was being wheeled around, opened every so often to stash store bags. Well, low and behold, DD spied a very cute carry on size Vera Bradley bag that matched other pieces of that design she already owned. Lucky she bought it, we needed it to fit the buoy and several other breakable things we had acquired.

We always tend to find some small food later in the night we leave DC. Like to hear where you went, if at all.

We have always loved the photo packages at DC. We've found the picture quality to be excellent. We have purchased a photo package every time we have done the dolphin swim, and have never regretted the price. Capturing those memories was worth every dollar.

Have you had any success in getting your rates down for your October car rental? Ours are still in the $325 range. Still looking for that big drop down to something more reasonable.

My love of food is real, I want to try Discovery Cove just for the free food and drinks.

It is SO nice to have everything be included once you arrive: I wish every theme park had that option. This was the first time we felt completely at ease to enjoy all the alcohol we cared to sample, even though we are not big drinkers. I was glad we Ubered: it was well worth the $8 each way to have the freedom to enjoy anything we wanted, anytime we wanted.

You, your mom and sis will have to do a DC trip someday!! It would be a spectacular vacation for a girls-only getaway .

Funny you should ask about snow. There was still lots of snow on the ground when we returned - we don't generally lose our snow pack until well into April, I've had it last into May some years. Snowbanks were a good 7 feet high at the peak this winter; that takes some time to melt away. But we went into yesterday with a forecast of about 2cm (less than an inch) of snow. It started snowing hard at the beginning of the rush hour, and by the time it finally stopped around 8:00 pm we actually had 21.6cm down (about 9 inches). I think the local weather guy is claiming "alternative facts". LOL Unfortunately snowbanks are back up to about 5 feet. I am so ready for the end of winter!

This year was "alternative destination" year, so no SVR. We drove down to Hilton Head Island SC and had a very nice stay at the Waterside resort. Like the reports from FL, the weather was unusually cold, but the sun was pleasant and we got in lots of biking, walking, and went kayaking with the dolphins. The last day, Friday, included a 2-hour power tanning (burning) session by the pool as it finally warmed up enough to take the heavy layers off (about 65F). We also had a surprise encounter with the 5 foot gator resident in the lagoon pond behind our villa. He swam right under our feet as we walked across the boardwalk, kind of surprising because he apparently is quite reclusive.

The jury is out on whether we return to SVR next year. Unless our poor C$ starts to rally a bit, we might very well forgo the US completely next year and trade into Mexico instead. Have been trolling resorts in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta this week looking for options.

A friend of mine was in Ottawa yesterday for some sort of weekend getaway, and she posted photos of the snow on her Facebook page. I looked at it, and thought......whaaaaa!?!?!? This was us:

By the time we left for dinner around 5:30, temps had soared to 76 F / 24 C. We had the a/c on in the car on our way to Longhorn's.

Kayaking with the dolphins sounded simply fantastic!! Those experiences make every second of vacation planning worth it.

I don't blame you for looking for a more financially favourable spot to travel to. Our dollar has been maddeningly low for such a long time . I see from your signature that you might have had some success in picking a resort? Very exciting! Will this be your first trip to Mexico or have you ventured there before?

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Saturday, October 22nd (the conclusion)

We had eaten a lot on our Discovery Cove visit…..not so much a series of big meals, more like all-day snacking on everything from the aforementioned cookies and slushies to soft pretzels and chicken tenders……so dinner was, as we had anticipated, going to be minimal. After an initial rest on the sofa in our villa, I peeled myself off the couch and tossed all of our wet swimwear in the washing machine: allowing chlorine to sit indefinitely on the fabric is never good for the longevity of swimsuits. Once I was up, I also took time to check in on social media and give my mom a quick call back home. Steve was content to enjoy the extended opportunity to relax while I did a little personal ‘housekeeping’.

At some point in the evening, we decided it was do-or-die time as far as dinner was concerned: it was either go out to eat now, or we’d lose any of the remaining ambition that we had. We weren’t really hungry, but knew if we passed on a meal altogether the hungries would hit sometime in the night. So, we hopped into the car and decided to have something quick that wasn’t too far away.

And, that had milkshakes . This was a trip of doubles, so a second stop at a vacation favourite didn't seem like a bad idea at all.


Steak & Shake was busy when we arrived, but not packed: we were ushered to a table soon after arrival and a very nervous, obviously very new server came over to clumsily take our order. That initial exchange, all awkward and strange, should have been our signal to RUN…..but, we didn’t, and it went comically downhill from there .


All we could say, as we laughed about it later, was that we were glad this wasn’t our first Steak & Shake experience or it would have been absolutely our last.

Our appetizer (onion rings) which we ordered never came. At all .

My hot dog meal, which I had ordered without onions (ick ), came smothered in them; the replacement took so long for them to prepare that by the time it arrived at our table, Steve had long since finished his burger and fries. The replacement dog was so cold that the cheese wouldn’t even melt on the chili, and I ended up packing it up so I could reheat it in the microwave in our villa and at least eat it in the proper temperature. After the first attempt being wrong, and the second attempt being cold, I was afraid to send it back for a third try .

Our server looked close to panicking when he brought us our bill, and told us we could pay anytime. I had to explain to him that (a) we never received the onion rings which were ordered and on the bill and (b) we didn’t want to leave until we had received our shakes (again, which had been ordered and were reflected on the check but had not made an appearance…..even after the delays with my hot dog ). This was seriously laughable at this point, and Steve and I joked that maybe we should have just skipped dinner after all . After some short discussion with our server (during which we were nothing but patient…..because honestly, I think at that point the poor lad was close to tears) we told him just to take the onion rings off the bill and see if he could have our shakes prepared to go.

Despite the fact that the entire meal was a disaster (well, except Steve’s dinner, which was the only component without issue) we left the poor kid a tip, and a good one at that. We just had an overwhelming feeling that he needed that kindness.


As we took our shakes and the container with my cold chili dog back to the car, we just looked at each other and giggled. Sometimes, that’s all you can do .


Returning to SVR, we drank our shakes while we watched TV, and then headed to the hot tub for a short soak under the stars. When we finally dropped into bed, I think we were asleep within seconds .

Coming up next: a relaxing morning poolside at the resort , a dinner "with character" , and a second night of spooky fun at the Magic Kingdom .

 

[dancin Disney style]

Have I mentioned lately how happy I am to have you back from Orlando? It's just so dull around here without ya.

It seems a few people are happy that I'm back, which is nice. I, however, am not happy to be back. It's never long enough for me. At least I know we have a little getaway of sorts for the first week of July. We are going to national finals in Quebec with GC for 5 days. So not a vacation but it will be fun anyway because one of her former teammates has rejoined the team and we are great friends with her parents. We have already organized our hotels rooms to be side by side, booked some golf and told the girls to expect drunk parents. We won't really be drunk but I enjoy messing with them.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We had a similar Steak N Shake experience. The server that we had was definitely not Kenny quality. He appeared to be very competent and also incompetent at the same time. We ordered our shakes to be served in take out containers(we never finish them while there) as we always do and they were brought in glasses. I ordered parm fries and got plain fries with an onion ring buried underneath. He wrote down everything we ordered including the burger toppings and it was still wrong. Each time he brought things to the table he gave it to the wrong person and almost gave GC's burger to the wrong table. He was overly attentive and came to the table about every 5 minutes to see how we were, if we needed anything or to tell us when parts of our order were due to arrive. It really was comical.

We seem to luck out and make it in there during happy hour so our bill ends up being about $13. Don't you feel weird about tipping in there? I feel like I can't just leave $3, which would be more than 20% but then I also feel weird about leaving $5-6 as if it's way too much. I don't know how those servers make any money. The FL state servers wage is very low...$5/hour

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Well that meal will be chalked up to experience

I can't believe you went in the hot tub after a day at DC, you must be all wrinkly!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Discovery Cove looks so beautiful and relaxing, I am glad it warmed up for the afternoon. Sorry your dinner was a bit of a let down, poor new waiter. The shakes looked yummy and I always crave hot dogs on vacation so even if it was cold it looked really good!

 

[Callie]

Every now and then I have a bad steak and shake experience at the one by my job. If I get my usual lunch server its good, otherwise sometimes I get forgotten. Last time I did a BLT takeout this past week, and it was hard to eat. The fries weren't fresh and so BLAND, and the sandwich was so mushy and TOO MUCH MAYO.

 

[chiamarie]

I love that you two can take any situation and turn it positive! There needs to be far more people like you in the world. It'd sure be a better place if there were more people who laughed rather than complained! Major Props to you two!

 

[Heluvsme]

Gina, Discovery Cove should comp your next tickets, because I am SURE a lot of folks will be visiting because of your trip reports!

My husband and I just bought our family of 4 tickets, based on your rave reviews, for June!! Over $800 later and we are super excited!! This will be our first trip!

Dawn

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

It seems a few people are happy that I'm back, which is nice. I, however, am not happy to be back. It's never long enough for me. At least I know we have a little getaway of sorts for the first week of July. We are going to national finals in Quebec with GC for 5 days. So not a vacation but it will be fun anyway because one of her former teammates has rejoined the team and we are great friends with her parents. We have already organized our hotels rooms to be side by side, booked some golf and told the girls to expect drunk parents. We won't really be drunk but I enjoy messing with them.

That sounds like great fun . Those sports trips can make for some great memories when you're lucky enough to have kids with great parents on the team. Steve and I both still miss those adventures with Jake.....probably as much as he does.

Congrats to your DD and her team!! Nationals are a pretty big deal!

We had a similar Steak N Shake experience. The server that we had was definitely not Kenny quality. He appeared to be very competent and also incompetent at the same time. We ordered our shakes to be served in take out containers(we never finish them while there) as we always do and they were brought in glasses. I ordered parm fries and got plain fries with an onion ring buried underneath. He wrote down everything we ordered including the burger toppings and it was still wrong. Each time he brought things to the table he gave it to the wrong person and almost gave GC's burger to the wrong table. He was overly attentive and came to the table about every 5 minutes to see how we were, if we needed anything or to tell us when parts of our order were due to arrive. It really was comical.

We seem to luck out and make it in there during happy hour so our bill ends up being about $13. Don't you feel weird about tipping in there? I feel like I can't just leave $3, which would be more than 20% but then I also feel weird about leaving $5-6 as if it's way too much. I don't know how those servers make any money. The FL state servers wage is very low...$5/hour

I am beginning to think we may have had the exact same waiter . Poor fella, here I hoped he would have gotten a little better between October and March!

Well that meal will be chalked up to experience

I can't believe you went in the hot tub after a day at DC, you must be all wrinkly!!

The hot tub time was brief that night, but we still squeezed in a short soak. It is so relaxing before bed!

Discovery Cove looks so beautiful and relaxing, I am glad it warmed up for the afternoon. Sorry your dinner was a bit of a let down, poor new waiter. The shakes looked yummy and I always crave hot dogs on vacation so even if it was cold it looked really good!

Once we warmed it up in the microwave, it was really quite tasty . Steve and I managed to polish it off once we were back at the villa .

Every now and then I have a bad steak and shake experience at the one by my job. If I get my usual lunch server its good, otherwise sometimes I get forgotten. Last time I did a BLT takeout this past week, and it was hard to eat. The fries weren't fresh and so BLAND, and the sandwich was so mushy and TOO MUCH MAYO.

Ick.....I'm mayo-phobic to begin with so that would be a deal breaker in my book . Too many condiments of any kind can ruin even the best burger. I hope the shake, at least, was tasty!!

I love that you two can take any situation and turn it positive! There needs to be far more people like you in the world. It'd sure be a better place if there were more people who laughed rather than complained! Major Props to you two!

Aw, thanks but we really didn't do anything special. A negative reaction on our part would not have had any sort of positive outcome, so really.....what would be the point? I think people often forget how far a little gesture of kindness can go. And who knew what that poor kid was dealing with in his personal life? Maybe he was carrying burdens that were making it impossible for him to concentrate at work. By the grace of god go we.

Gina, Discovery Cove should comp your next tickets, because I am SURE a lot of folks will be visiting because of your trip reports!

My husband and I just bought our family of 4 tickets, based on your rave reviews, for June!! Over $800 later and we are super excited!! This will be our first trip!

Dawn

Oh, I am so excited for you guys!! You are going to have an AMAZING time! Did you decide on the dolphin swim admission or the day resort only?

 

[Heluvsme]

We just did the day resort, but have been talking about doing the dolphin swim for just my daughter. She would love it so much, but my husband and I would pass on it because our son, who has some developmental delays, will more than likely want to spend the entire day in the river. We've been watching You Tube videos all evening to get acquainted with it, and we are so excited! Who knows, maybe I'll do it wi my daughter.

 

[bankr63]

Yay! Managed to carve out a bit of time in all the weekend chores to catch up fully. Enjoying the adventure so far. I am absolutely with you on how SVR feels like home. With all the resorts we have stayed at, every one gets compared and is found lacking in some regard. Many are quite nice, including our recent stay at Waterside on HHI, but it was not like home.

Is it the lighting in your villa shots, or have the soft surfaces in been changed over? It looks "warmer" for some reason. I know that our Courts villa is up for some changes later this year.

And to answer your questions, no we haven't necessarily settled on anything yet for next year. We have done Mexico before, A+ and I did Cabo about 5 years ago (Grand Mayan), and I have been to Puerto Vallarta a couple of times a good 20 years ago. The hard part for Mexico is finding a nice place that is not all inclusive. We very much like getting out and exploring, and the all-inclusive fees (paid on top of the trade) are stupid expensive. If we don't find something appropriate, then I am sure we will arrive back home at SVR. First though comes our summer adventures. We have two camping vacations planned so far; May 24 weekend in the Adirondacks, and a couple of weeks in the Thousand Islands region for August. And of course we have front row seats for all of the Canada 150 fun coming this summer as well.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We just did the day resort, but have been talking about doing the dolphin swim for just my daughter. She would love it so much, but my husband and I would pass on it because our son, who has some developmental delays, will more than likely want to spend the entire day in the river. We've been watching You Tube videos all evening to get acquainted with it, and we are so excited! Who knows, maybe I'll do it wi my daughter.

Either way....dolphin swim or not.....you're going to have an incredible time!!

I do the same with the youtube research......while I hate to have "spoilers" when we are trying out a new attraction, I just can't help myself!! This is my favourite video on Discovery Cove. It just sums up the experience so perfectly!

Yay! Managed to carve out a bit of time in all the weekend chores to catch up fully. Enjoying the adventure so far. I am absolutely with you on how SVR feels like home. With all the resorts we have stayed at, every one gets compared and is found lacking in some regard. Many are quite nice, including our recent stay at Waterside on HHI, but it was not like home.

Is it the lighting in your villa shots, or have the soft surfaces in been changed over? It looks "warmer" for some reason. I know that our Courts villa is up for some changes later this year.

And to answer your questions, no we haven't necessarily settled on anything yet for next year. We have done Mexico before, A+ and I did Cabo about 5 years ago (Grand Mayan), and I have been to Puerto Vallarta a couple of times a good 20 years ago. The hard part for Mexico is finding a nice place that is not all inclusive. We very much like getting out and exploring, and the all-inclusive fees (paid on top of the trade) are stupid expensive. If we don't find something appropriate, then I am sure we will arrive back home at SVR. First though comes our summer adventures. We have two camping vacations planned so far; May 24 weekend in the Adirondacks, and a couple of weeks in the Thousand Islands region for August. And of course we have front row seats for all of the Canada 150 fun coming this summer as well.

I don't think the soft surfaces have been changed out since our last stay; if memory serves me correctly, Fountains I had their interiors refreshed around a year ago or so. I know it was in one of our ownership newsletters in the not-so-distant past. The differences you see are almost certainly a result of the lighting.....I was a bit tardy in capturing our customary villa photos and didn't take any pictures until long after darkness fell. I must admit, I do love to see the resort keeping everything looking new and fresh. It's so nice to see the linens and soft surfaces swapped out before the the point that they begin to look worn. I do have to wonder, though, how they manage to keep the duvets and covers in the Fountains bedrooms so sparkly white. I can only imagine how much bleach they use on a weekly basis!!

It sounds like you guys have some amazing summer plans .....hard to believe that there are only 3 months left in the school year. It's nice to be thinking about warm weather, campfires, and beaches. Winter has been long for ME, let alone you guys in the snow belt.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

So we had hoped to make the trip home this past weekend to visit Jake, but Mother Nature had other plans: freezing rain on Friday and Sunday made for potentially poor travel so we erred on the side of caution and stayed put. We were both bitterly disappointed.....we're missing that kid of ours and I know he is missing us, too.....but its a long trip to make if the weather is foul. Heck, its a long trip even when the weather is nice.

We made the best of our impromptu weekend at home and hit up Sea Life Aquarium Michigan yesterday at the Great Lakes Crossings outlet mall. While we didn't get any freezing rain, we did get a good soaking on both Saturday and Sunday, so any outdoor activities were put on hold for nicer weather. As you know, we have been to Sea Life in Orlando twice, so we were curious to see the similarities and differences in the two locations (both which were opened the same year). I thought I'd share some photos of our Sunday Fun-day with you all. Definitely a fun little afternoon destination if you ever find yourselves in Auburn Hills.

The touch pool:

Sting rays:

Tiger fish: my favourites! [correction: Lionfish .... this crazy cat lady needs to brush up on her marine life ]

Jelly fish:

It was somewhat smaller than the Orlando location, but still very nicely done. Definitely popular with families on a soggy March Sunday and well attended. The staff were super friendly and the hands-on exhibits were lots of fun, even for us old fogies.

More October updates coming soon!

 

[JaxDad]

Hi Gina! I'm sorry you did not get to visit your son.

The Auburn Hills aquarium looks nice! We always visit aquariums when we can. We hope to hit a big aquarium this Summer and do some scuba diving in the Keys! And I hate to correct you, but that is a lionfish not a tiger fish. I was just reading about how they have "invaded" the US east coast. They can be pretty dangerous.

 

[3cmom]

The mall you visited reminds me of Opry Mills in Nashville! It used to have an aquarium but flooded a few years ago and that's one thing that wasn't brought back. (The entire mall flooded because it's near a river. Very devastating when it happened.)