I just got back... It was great (except for driving back 2 days to get laid off on Friday - wish they had told me so I could have stayed longer. Got to love IT nowadays!)...
Back on topic,
we tried to do point exchange, but there was "no availability". I called like 3 or 4 weeks out. SO went to web site to find Old fashioned 4th of July celebration, but that was removed from Grand's website. So called them directly (1800-33-GRAND), and was able to book.
Package was check in Sunday, checkout on Tuesday for $1600, but when you add taxes etc. was like 1,900. But then they have a special where you can add onto the package for like $210 / night, so we added a night. So brought price down from something like $600 night, to $500 night. Next year, I'll book maybe the whole week. Sorry for the long financial discussion, but the point I'm making is that at something like 70 points / night, I came way better renting and booking my own (skipping the $95 fee too).
You get the American plan, which is huge breakfast, and dinner. You don't really need lunch, but snacks are fun so brought them, and contraband soda ($3.50 / glass not included, and hubby is addicted).
Here's what our daily schedule was like:
9 - get up and breakfast extravaganza
11:30 - 2:30 drop off DD-8 to child care for events (carnival, butterfly farm, fort adventure).
PICKUP DD-8 and go swimming until 6. (Pool had temp of 88. See my rants about the cold pools at Disney in another thread. This was important, because we had a cold front come in 80's in Chicago, and Mackinac is 10 degrees below that).
That being said, shorts were fine during the day, and then jackets at night for the little ones. Grown-ups wear fancy wear at night (jacket and ties for men, and dresses for women).
Drop off DD-8 for 6-9:30 p.m. adventures - Movies, board games, free game room, and kids dinner... while we enjoyed grown up adult dinner. It was lovely. Good food. View is to die for. ... Water with lush trees, fresh clean air, and huge geraniums (extra puffy and red).
From Chicago, it took 10 hours (because of road construction getting out of Indiana), so we took 2 days. Then for fun, flew in small airplane across to the island. Quick and view was cool. For 3 of us ($65 + 5 tip), but then horse taxi to hotel was $20 (expensive).
At any rate, hubby liked it so much he's asking about going next year.
We saw Fireworks, but they are so far off that this isn't a big deal. However, we went to Fort Mackinaw on July 4th (at no extra cost) for a picnic, and it was really nice. Great food brought in by the Grand, with dancing (Virginia reel), and cannons, etc..
Oh, and some of the rooms have no air-conditioning, which wasn't a problem, because it was cool at night, so we just left window open with a fan. But we had a rollaway for daughter in our room, with the King, and had to move things around so she wasn't next to screen windows (where they set it up...) DD-8 could have rolled out in her sleep to fall 3 floors, I'm surprised they didn't know better....So, if you want A/C, better ask when booking.
Any more q's, just send me an email....
Goldi
