themepark
Wanted: Your trip reports!<br><font color=00cc22>I
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2003
- Messages
- 1,469
Thursday and Friday, March 25-26
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! We have to check out today.
We awoke at 8:20am and began talking about what to do on our last day. We planned to leave at around 2:00pm and head to Tallahassee to visit friends. While we were eating breakfast and getting ready, the phone rang. It was The Cat in the Hat. DD listened while the Cat said things like "Come down to IOA and have a great day...see Thing 1 and Thing 2..." and she said he said a lot of crazy rhyming things. I had arranged for this wake up call the night before. I called the front desk about getting a late check out. I forgot to ask about that at check-in. I called earlier in our stay and was told I had to call back the morning we checked out. At first I was told the hotel was fully booked so there would be no early check outs allowed. When I asked if this applied to Loews Gold members, I was put on hold. I was told that we could have a 1:00pm check-out. Perfect.
It was sunny so the kids decided they wanted to swim. We headed down to the pool. When we arrived at the pool it continued to be sunny for approximately 16 seconds. The clouds didn't seem to affect the kids. I sat in the hot tub for awhile and had some nice conversation with other adults until my kids found me. They monopolized the conversation at that point. Then the other adult's kids found them. Quiet time was over. I got out and headed back for my chair. I was a little chilly now. Still no sun. The kids swam for awhile until it started raining. I moved to a table with an umbrella. It didn't help. We finally left and made our way back to our room. We all showered and finished packing up. We checked out around 12:30 via the TV. We hauled our stuff down to the lobby and the kids waited with the bags while I pulled the minivan up to the hotel front. We loaded up and headed out. I couldn't look back as we left. It's just so sad leaving.
We drove over to the World's Largest PlayPlace McDonalds on Sand Lake. I had read some bad reports here about it, but the kids insisted we go there. It was clean but confusing and unorganized. You get in a line to place your order then you are directed to the counter to pick up and pay. I didn't see how this helped the flow of ordering. We ended up getting 2 Happy Meals, a salad and an extra order of fries for $14. They offered pasta dishes, pizza, and different type foods but it was just too confusing and chaotic. The drink station is located where the flow of traffic is from the counter to the eating area. Bad plan. It was congested and people were spilling stuff everywhere. We ate and the kids took off upstairs to the Play Place. I gave them each $3 to get tokens. They played games for awhile and got tickets for the cheesy prizes (think Chuck E Cheese). They actually had a fair amount of tickets. DS ended up with among other things a deck of cards. This provided them hours of entertainment on our journey north.
We left McD's at 2:00 and headed for Tallahassee. We visited with friends and headed for home the next morning at 11:00. I left in plenty of time to hopefully avoid Atlanta rush hour traffic. But alas, we did not. We sat in stand still traffic south of Atlanta long enough to push us into town during the dreaded Friday rush hour. Three hours later we were north of Atlanta and it was smooth sailing from then on. We arrived home 3 hours later than planned. I vowed to never drive through Atlanta again. Never mind the fact that we have relatives there. They will have to come see us.
I grew up there, but times have changed. I guess I became small town girl somewhere along the line.
We had a great trip and can't wait to go back as soon as school is out. Literally, we will be picking up the kids from school on their last day (a Friday) and heading south (using a different route thru South Carolina and southern Georgia.) DH and another family will be joining us this time. I am still working on getting some pictures together from this trip. I hope I shared something helpful with you guys. I enjoy reading trip reports and will always share my trips too. Thanks for reading!
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! We have to check out today.
We awoke at 8:20am and began talking about what to do on our last day. We planned to leave at around 2:00pm and head to Tallahassee to visit friends. While we were eating breakfast and getting ready, the phone rang. It was The Cat in the Hat. DD listened while the Cat said things like "Come down to IOA and have a great day...see Thing 1 and Thing 2..." and she said he said a lot of crazy rhyming things. I had arranged for this wake up call the night before. I called the front desk about getting a late check out. I forgot to ask about that at check-in. I called earlier in our stay and was told I had to call back the morning we checked out. At first I was told the hotel was fully booked so there would be no early check outs allowed. When I asked if this applied to Loews Gold members, I was put on hold. I was told that we could have a 1:00pm check-out. Perfect.
It was sunny so the kids decided they wanted to swim. We headed down to the pool. When we arrived at the pool it continued to be sunny for approximately 16 seconds. The clouds didn't seem to affect the kids. I sat in the hot tub for awhile and had some nice conversation with other adults until my kids found me. They monopolized the conversation at that point. Then the other adult's kids found them. Quiet time was over. I got out and headed back for my chair. I was a little chilly now. Still no sun. The kids swam for awhile until it started raining. I moved to a table with an umbrella. It didn't help. We finally left and made our way back to our room. We all showered and finished packing up. We checked out around 12:30 via the TV. We hauled our stuff down to the lobby and the kids waited with the bags while I pulled the minivan up to the hotel front. We loaded up and headed out. I couldn't look back as we left. It's just so sad leaving.
We drove over to the World's Largest PlayPlace McDonalds on Sand Lake. I had read some bad reports here about it, but the kids insisted we go there. It was clean but confusing and unorganized. You get in a line to place your order then you are directed to the counter to pick up and pay. I didn't see how this helped the flow of ordering. We ended up getting 2 Happy Meals, a salad and an extra order of fries for $14. They offered pasta dishes, pizza, and different type foods but it was just too confusing and chaotic. The drink station is located where the flow of traffic is from the counter to the eating area. Bad plan. It was congested and people were spilling stuff everywhere. We ate and the kids took off upstairs to the Play Place. I gave them each $3 to get tokens. They played games for awhile and got tickets for the cheesy prizes (think Chuck E Cheese). They actually had a fair amount of tickets. DS ended up with among other things a deck of cards. This provided them hours of entertainment on our journey north.
We left McD's at 2:00 and headed for Tallahassee. We visited with friends and headed for home the next morning at 11:00. I left in plenty of time to hopefully avoid Atlanta rush hour traffic. But alas, we did not. We sat in stand still traffic south of Atlanta long enough to push us into town during the dreaded Friday rush hour. Three hours later we were north of Atlanta and it was smooth sailing from then on. We arrived home 3 hours later than planned. I vowed to never drive through Atlanta again. Never mind the fact that we have relatives there. They will have to come see us.
I grew up there, but times have changed. I guess I became small town girl somewhere along the line. We had a great trip and can't wait to go back as soon as school is out. Literally, we will be picking up the kids from school on their last day (a Friday) and heading south (using a different route thru South Carolina and southern Georgia.) DH and another family will be joining us this time. I am still working on getting some pictures together from this trip. I hope I shared something helpful with you guys. I enjoy reading trip reports and will always share my trips too. Thanks for reading!
