Grand Floridian

[ehagerty]

At sunset

 

[YEKCIM]

I keep telling Mrs. YEKCIM, "One day, before I die, I'm gonna spend ONE night at the GF. Alas, our next WDW visit will probably be at the Pop Century...sigh.

~YEKCIM

 

[jann1033]

hey PC is $64 a night during hurricane season er i mean sept ...hm NC mountains or wdw????? since daughter can't go in the fall, maybe hub and i will take a detour farther south and save the family trip for spring or next fall and save all wdw guests from a "strongly opinionated" 2 yr old grand baby

 

[daannzzz]

 

[YEKCIM]

hey PC is $64 a night during hurricane season er i mean sept ...hm NC mountains or wdw????? since daughter can't go in the fall, maybe hub and i will take a detour farther south and save the family trip for spring or next fall and save all wdw guests from a "strongly opinionated" 2 yr old grand baby

Matter of fact, we *are* headed to the VA and NC mountains in October. Managed to snag reservations at Peaks of Otter Lodge and Bluffs Lodge, on the BRP. May take an extra day and take our 8 YO to see Monticello. She is a WDW vet (four visits and counting) but stated on a couple of occasions on last October's BRP trip, "Dad, this is WAY better than DisneyWorld". Go figure.

~YEKCIM

 

[jann1033]

Matter of fact, we *are* headed to the VA and NC mountains in October. Managed to snag reservations at Peaks of Otter Lodge and Bluffs Lodge, on the BRP. May take an extra day and take our 8 YO to see Monticello. She is a WDW vet (four visits and counting) but stated on a couple of occasions on last October's BRP trip, "Dad, this is WAY better than DisneyWorld". Go figure.

~YEKCIM

off the wdw topic....
we stayed at peaks a few yrs back...loved it.. deers right outside our balcony evening and morning.. beautiful with the mist off the lake( except for the giant wolf spider in our room ekk!). we liked monticello and booker t washington park( not too far away from each other, maybe an hr(?) due to mounts. I think we stayed at richmond Va for both)...very interesting to see the contrast between wealthy at monticello and common plantation/ slave at booker t.. we also went to staunton va to a park( can't remember the name right now) that has a number of examples of what farms looked like in europe that was very interesting( we homeschooled our kids so "vacations"="eduamacation" )

 

[YEKCIM]

Took this one with my Canon camcorder (2MP) last October:

~YEKCIM

 

[ehagerty]

BTW, off topic is good - thanks for the water wheel picture

This is an odd grouping - "pictures from a Sea Ray" - but it provides a slightly different perspective - choppy water in front...

GR Pool / Beach

Wedding Chapel

 

[ehagerty]

Hazy, but....

Boats, mostly...

 

[ehagerty]

Birdcage

Chandelier

Outside the tea room

Tapestry

Stained Glass Skylight

 

[ehagerty]

The Beach

Bunny outside Narcoosie's

Original Pool

Building

Walkway from Narcoosie's to Main Building

Building, palm tree, roses

Lagoon View

 

[YEKCIM]

ehagerty.

I must please ask that you stop posting these beautiful pix of the GF and surroundings. You are gonna cost me some BIG BUCKS!

~YEKCIM

 

[ehagerty]

I used to have a goal to stay in each resort at least once. So far, I have stayed everywhere but Contemporary (although I visited my grandparents there in the 70's) and SSR (which we'll try next year, as we are DVC members and my teen sons are into working out). Anyway, there was a AP rate for $199 for the GF about 5 years ago, so we stayed there one night. We had a "view" of the original pool from our balconey - or at least the roof of the hut by the original pool. The room was nice, but not incredible - with more bugs stuck to the balcony than I was expecting. The grounds, entertainment (lobby) and restaurants were great - but we enjoy them regardless of where we are staying. It was worth trying, but but we collectively agreed that we would rather stay at the POR and have the extra $100 for food. It is possible that we just didn't stay long enough to be absorbed into the ambience of actually being there - like visiting Paris vs living in Paris. Of course, we only stay in a resort on the weekends, as we stay at our DVC Sun-Thu nights, so we aren't like to stay longer than 2 days at any other resort - unless we win a contest. In order to do that, we'd probably have to enter....

 

[YEKCIM]

My "one night" comment was really in jest; I guess I sorta' equate staying with the GF as a sign that I have "arrived". I'm almost 52 and "arrival" probably ain't in the cards, if the GF is the benchmark.

Side note: our July 06 WDW trip was part of a company meeting, at the Contemporary, and I have to say that it ruined me. The ability to leave MK, catch the 'rail, hop off at at the CR, change into swimsuit, and be *IN* the pool, all within 10 minutes of walking out the MK gates was a nice piece of "Disney Magic". Doubt we'd be able to do the CR on "our nickel" again, soon, but it was a very nice stay.

On that subject, I have a few decent shots of the CR if you wanna start a thread...

~YEKCIM

 

[ehagerty]

Have you considered the DVC? Staying at the WLV is the next best location for proximity to one of the monorail resorts. We launch to CR and walk over to MK. I am the same age as you are - I bought in to DVC in '92, when I was making low wages - just treated it like an auto loan and kept my car. Did my costs analysis based on using it for 10 years and selling it - or even letting it lapse, if I didn't want it anymore. Since so little was able to be predicted about how it would work at the time, I was only thinking 10 years out. What I have experienced since that time:
- I have been able to rent half my points every year (always turning people down) to defray maintenance fees
- I would have spent more on Disney hotels
- I plan to borrow my DVC points to the max, as even if I outlive my membership, I don't need to be a member when I am 82 (wouldn't mind being a member, but don't NEED to be)
- It is by far the "best performing" asset I have. When my 401k reduced in value by about half along with the rest of the general public a few years ago, my $57 DVC points were probably sell-able at around $80/pt. Current price from Disney = over $100/pt.

Random thoughts on a Saturday night. Trust me, I have not "arrived" either - just made up my mind that I would be going to Disney annually anway, so might as well be a member...

In summary - Buying into DVC is probably the only decision I have made in my life that I have not only never regretted even for one nano-second, but wax enthusiastic 14 years later....

 

[ehagerty]

I do have pictures I was going to post for this resort - but how about if you start it? I'll add to it.

 

[YEKCIM]

I'll do that. Also, our family just finished watching three full carousels of WDW slides, one carousel of which is from the 1974-1975 time frame. I don't currently have a scanner, but may borrow one soon and digitize some of the slides to post here. Some are a real hoot...like me with Elvis sideburns and HAIR on my head! Others are very nostalgic, showing the MK (that's all there was then!) as it was back then. In some ways, little has changed, in others, it doesn't look like the same place. Interestingly, from a technical point of view, the 74-75 stuff, all slides, was shot in three different camera formats: 35mm, 126 Instamatic cartridge and (believe it or not) 110 Instamatic.

~YEKCIM

 

[ehagerty]

My first camera was 110, too. Have many slides (although not of Disney, as I had migrated to a Konica TC by the first Disney visit - 1976). Bought a scanner to scan slides in 2001 - by the time I got around to it, my son had upgraded the PC beyond drivers and they had lost the requisite black paper used for slide scans. Will probably look for a "service" as one time conversion isn't probably worth the hardware in vestment - assuming slides are still OK after years in the attic. I am impressed you still have a working projector - those bulbs were so fragile.

 

[handicap18]

I just bought a slide scanner. Came across at least 6 carousels of slides that my in-laws had taken between 1964 & 1986. One includes their 1986 trip to Disney. I'll definately post some scanned images when I get to that box.

As for the topic at hand, these are from x-mas 2005:
Taken with my Canon S30:

 

[TwoOldPoohs]

Here's an old scanned photo:

It was worth trying, but but we collectively agreed that we would rather stay at the POR and have the extra $100 for food.

ehagerty: I agree. We also got a good rate and stayed at the GF one weekend. The resort is beautiful, but it's like the old saying ... "nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."