TR: And now for something completely different - a WDW Family did DLR *(new - 4/15: HK Disneyland)*

[hokieinpa]

Whew - all caught up! We just got back from our quick Christmas trip so I'm trying to catch up on all the TRs. Last time I read you had just arrived in San Diego and now you are in Disneyland!

The food you found in San Diego sounds delicious! Snooze seems like the most family friendly and relaxed. And I think both of you are brave for taking 3 kids to the beach and then back out for another meal. A day at the beach with the boys normally wipes me out and I can't face leaving our beach house for the rest of the day!

The zoo park sounds like a great day - lots of fun play areas which is always nice to burn off some energy! Great views of the animals. But I agree that Animal Kingdom has spoiled me for all zoos now!

The Howard Johnson looks like the perfect place to stay! The pirate rooms and water park must have been a blast for the kids!

Love the San Diego video!

 

[kateandy08096]

Love your TR! My daughter and I are heading to DL for the 1st time and we are from NJ. We are WDW vets (over 20 trips) so we are definitely excited to see what DL has to offer. We are also going to San Diego for the first 2 days of our trip. I see that you had a gopro. We will have one also (new to the go pro) what attachments or mounts do you recommend?

 

[Dugette]

Looks like fun at the hotel. We were going to stay there, but I think we have changed our plans. We technically still have it booked, but also booked the Best Western Park Place Inn, which is right across the street from Disneyland. I think the shorter walk (especially with Dug walking slow if his back bothers him) will win out over the cool water playground - but that does look like fun! Glad the kids enjoyed the bunk beds!

 

[Dugette]

I almost forgot - thanks for all the Disneyland tips! Everything was very helpful!

First off, it was way more crowded than we thought it would be. Perhaps it won't be as bad when you go but from what I have heard/read form others it does seem like attendance is noticeably up during the 60th anniversary celebration period ... so just something to keep in mind. Due to this it just took longer to get through things and even just to walk across the park.

This scares me because some of our days are 9's and 10's. At least we should have 4.5 days in the parks to help offset that.

We really liked Blue Bayou. We booked it for lunch for the first seating (11:30am) and got there early, and they actually sat us around 11:15 or so and we were about the third table sat and got right by the water. So if you are thinking of eating there (and I do recommend it - we liked the food and it is something unique to Disneyland) you might want to try that timing - and definitely not matter when you book, check in early and request a waterside table. Olivia loved waving to the people on Pirates

Good to know. This is our one non-negotiable meal. I booked the 11:30 lunch, but also booked an early dinner because there is going to be a new Paint the Night Dinner Package there (that's what I booked). I'm not yet sure if it will be worthwhile, so I'll keep whichever ends up making sense and drop the other. Need to find out more about the package first.

We did lunch at Ariel's Grotto and were pretty happy with the food there (better than expected) and the princess interaction was pretty good

Great, we have this booked too (I booked all my dining over the last few days - maybe I will get around to doing a PTR update?)

Minnie's breakfast at the Plaza in - we had mixed feelings about this. There are a ton of characters, so if you are into that it is awesome - seriously probably the best we have ever had from that standpoint. BUT there were almost too many and often came one on top of the other that it was hard to eat. I overall enjoyed it but I think Judi found it a bit too stressful.

We booked this and I think we'll keep it, but that is good information. Reminds me of the Garden Grill on our last trip where the characters were coming around so fast and furious that it was hard to eat. At least I'll know in advance. I agree with Judi on the stressfulness. But I definitely want Izzy to see Minnie and the other characters, so I think I'll just plan to deal with it.

World of Color is really cool, but my goodness the crowds. We had the special dining seating and got there 45 mins early and were still towards the back. So if you can do a dining package that helps some but still get there at least an hour early, probably more like 1.5 hours. Also, afterwards everyone is basically heading the same way and it is just jammed! Kinda stressful but just try to deal with it as best you can

I think I am going to take my chances on a DIS tip I saw in another thread, since standing an hour or more is just not going to work for Dug. First, we'll do this on our "3" crowd day. Second, we'll pull a blue FP. Third, we'll show up maybe 30 minutes early with all fingers and toes crossed that there are still open spots on the bridge. Seems there often are and it's a very good view. That's my plan right now, at least. The thing that worries me is that it's our last night, so we wouldn't have a chance at a do-over if it's a bad plan.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I came for the trip report, but had to post because you live in my town! Small world & all that.

Now I have to go back and re-read to figure out why you flew out of Dulles.

Always nice to meet someone from my town!

If you haven't figured it out yet it is because we drove to my in-laws in central PA to drop our dogs off to stay with them and Dulles was the best / cheapest option of where to fly out convenient to that

Whew - all caught up! We just got back from our quick Christmas trip so I'm trying to catch up on all the TRs. Last time I read you had just arrived in San Diego and now you are in Disneyland!

The food you found in San Diego sounds delicious! Snooze seems like the most family friendly and relaxed. And I think both of you are brave for taking 3 kids to the beach and then back out for another meal. A day at the beach with the boys normally wipes me out and I can't face leaving our beach house for the rest of the day!

The zoo park sounds like a great day - lots of fun play areas which is always nice to burn off some energy! Great views of the animals. But I agree that Animal Kingdom has spoiled me for all zoos now!

The Howard Johnson looks like the perfect place to stay! The pirate rooms and water park must have been a blast for the kids!

Love the San Diego video!

Definitely had some good food in SD and it continued at DLR! I think that was another reason we kept the stays at the beach relatively short - even still, the kids were wiped by the end of the day!

AK definitely had the theming over the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

We definitely were happy with the HoJo. I mean, it would have been great to stay at the Disneyland Hotel but couldn't beat the combination of price/size of room/water playground that the HoJo provided us!

Thanks!

Looks like fun at the hotel. We were going to stay there, but I think we have changed our plans. We technically still have it booked, but also booked the Best Western Park Place Inn, which is right across the street from Disneyland. I think the shorter walk (especially with Dug walking slow if his back bothers him) will win out over the cool water playground - but that does look like fun! Glad the kids enjoyed the bunk beds!

Well, tough to beat the Best Western Park Place Inn for location, that is right at the spot we crossed the road every morning to get to the parks. If Dug's back might be an issue the HoJo probably is just a tad too far. One of the main reasons we went with the HoJo was for the larger room with 2 bedrooms which was nice for a family for 5 but probably less critical for your family.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I almost forgot - thanks for all the Disneyland tips! Everything was very helpful!

This scares me because some of our days are 9's and 10's. At least we should have 4.5 days in the parks to help offset that.

Good to know. This is our one non-negotiable meal. I booked the 11:30 lunch, but also booked an early dinner because there is going to be a new Paint the Night Dinner Package there (that's what I booked). I'm not yet sure if it will be worthwhile, so I'll keep whichever ends up making sense and drop the other. Need to find out more about the package first.

Great, we have this booked too (I booked all my dining over the last few days - maybe I will get around to doing a PTR update?)

We booked this and I think we'll keep it, but that is good information. Reminds me of the Garden Grill on our last trip where the characters were coming around so fast and furious that it was hard to eat. At least I'll know in advance. I agree with Judi on the stressfulness. But I definitely want Izzy to see Minnie and the other characters, so I think I'll just plan to deal with it.

I think I am going to take my chances on a DIS tip I saw in another thread, since standing an hour or more is just not going to work for Dug. First, we'll do this on our "3" crowd day. Second, we'll pull a blue FP. Third, we'll show up maybe 30 minutes early with all fingers and toes crossed that there are still open spots on the bridge. Seems there often are and it's a very good view. That's my plan right now, at least. The thing that worries me is that it's our last night, so we wouldn't have a chance at a do-over if it's a bad plan.

Glad the tips were of a help, and if you think of anything else you have questions for, don't hesitate to ask.

I was really surprised how crowded it was and our days were listed as 4s or 5s - BUT my understanding now is that crowd levels were higher than expected so they weren't really 4s or 5s. We only had 3 days in the parks so did feel a bit rushed to try to fit in what we wanted so I think having 4.5 days will help a lot .... especially since we were most efficient first thing in the morning (even on non-early entry days) so having more mornings will help!

Yeah, the package came out after we went I believe so didn't look into that - but having the first booking for lunch worked out great for us!

Minnie's breakfast definitely reminded me of your story from Garden Grill - except more different characters rather than the same ones coming by multiple times. Hopefully your adult to kid ratio being more in your favor will help!

I think your idea for World of Color makes a lot of sense. As long as it gives a decent-to-good view I think it will work better for you rather than waiting 1 hour +

I get what you are saying about being nervous with only having one shot then for WOC ... though if it doesn't work out just more ammo to book another trip

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Chapter 18 - San Diego Day 3/Travel/Disneyland - Part 3
October 14th
Why yes, we do want the souvenir mug!
​

Before continuing with the trip report, do want to wish Peter a wonderful birthday - today he turns 4! We had his party yesterday and not surprisingly, trains were the theme. What was surprising was how warm it was out and the kids got to spend some time playing outside during the part. Not what we were planning for a December party!

<--- 4 years ago ....... today ->

*************************************

After having a ton of fun at the Water Playground, we went back tot he room to clean up and get changed for our evening plans. While these plans did not involve going into one of the parks, we did have to walk towards them, which meant our first time passing under the Disneyland 60th Celebration sign:

One things we were not expecting is that the bag check is before you get onto the esplanade between the parks, not as you go to enter either park. It totally makes sense giving the set up and room they have there, just didn't even think of it. This meant that even though we weren't going to a park, we were going through that area and thus had to go through bag-check, and also had to go through it again on the way back. Not a huge deal though

For some reason I took no pictures of the walk - I assume I was just trying to take it all in, and we were a bit of "on a mission" mode to get to our location.

That trip brought us ultimately to the Disneyland Hotel - and more specifically to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar!

This was one of my "must dos" so I was pretty pumped!

Emma had fallen asleep on the walk over and unfortunately there was just no room to even think about taking the stroller inside the bar (really weren't any open seats either - it is pretty small in there!)

So we sat out on the terrace - which was definitely fine, though it was rather warm in the sun. Olivia took the opportunity to start lounging:

She then checked over the menu with her mom. You may notice sleeping Emma in this picture and also the top of the monorail water slide that they have at the Disneyland Hotel over the top of Olivia's head

Here's the drink menu:

The kids both opted for the Polynesian Punch (in souvenir mug) - Sam's Gorilla Grog and Hibiscus Grenadine. They both enjoyed it - I tried it too and it was pretty tasty, a little sweet though

I went with the Shipwreck on the Rocks (in souvenir mug) - Bourbon with freshly Muddled Lemon and Mint with Organic Agave Nectar. This was pretty good, but rather strong and not as refreshing as some of the other drinks. I think if I was inside, out of the sun, and just chilling, I would have enjoyed it more.

Judi went with the Krakatoa Punch (in souvenir mug) - Reserve and Spiced Rums, Orgeat (Almond) Syrup, Sam's Gorilla Grog and Hibiscus Grenadine. She really liked this - nice balance and not too sweet. Probably her favorite of what we tried.

We did order some food too. The kids each go kids power packs - carrots, Nonfat yogurt, sliced apples, bana, whole-grain "fish" crackers, and a water. Kids loved the options this gave them and we saved a few things to have as snacks later.

Judi and I (and the kids had some too split the Ahi Poke (Sushi-grade Ahi, Avocado, Wasabi Yuzu, Sriracha Aïoli and Wonton Chips) and the Panko-crusted Chinese Long Beans (served with Sriracha Aïoli). They actually made a mistake and at first brought out the lettuce wraps instead of the long beans but they corrected that, and I am glad they did as they were great! The poke was good to, but the beans were the standout. The kids liked those too!

For our next round, I went for the Shrunken Zombie Head (in souvenir mug) - Reserve and Aged Rums, Tropical Juices, Falernum and Cinnamon. This was sooooo good - definitely my favorite of the drinks we good. Very refreshing and again, not too sweet. (Also is the coolest mug, I think)

Judi decided on the HippopotoMai-Tai (in souvenir mug) - Light and Dark Rums, Orange Curaçao, Orgeat (Almond) Syrup, Organic Agave Nectar and fresh Lime Juice. She likes this as well - though I think not as much as either the Zombie Head or the Krakatoa Punch.

We took turns using the rest room, which was inside the bar, and walked around - taking our time to see a few effects after people ordered drinks. It was definitely a lot of fun - I would love to just hang out in there with Judi on a date night for a few hours.

They had cool art work on the walls, and some fun collectibles (I especially loved the case with weapon to use in case of hippo attack, but the glass is already broken) and neat light fixtures:

One of the effects:

Overall we really liked Trader Sam's though it did get a bit hot on the lounge (not as much protection from the sun as I had hoped and it was in the 90s that day). Would love to have more time to spend inside - and really want to check out the new one at the Polynesian Village at WDW now!

We then got our mugs (they give you new, clean ones to take with you) and headed back towards Downtown Disney for more apps and drinks, and a DIS meet!

TTFN

 

[annie170]

Happy Birthday Peter! I love that train cake!

Your rooms at Howard Johnson's look great. How nice to have a little privacy. It's interesting how close your hotel was to DL. So different than WDW.

Piranha Pool would be my beverage of choice at Trader Sam's, but all your drinks sounded pretty yummy. That's nice that they give you a clean glass for your souvenir instead of taking home the dirty one. My daughter ran into that a couple years ago with the "kitchen sink" at The Plaza a couple years ago. What a fun place! I hear the one at Disney Springs is pretty awesome, too.

 

[missangelalexis]

You read about how close these hotels are to the parks but I don't think you really believe it until you see it for yourself!

How awesome that your room was ready! It looks really nice. Great pics at the water playground, looks so fun!

Happy Birthday to Peter!

Glad you got to go to Trader Sam's. The drinks and food sound really good.

 

[DisMom1981]

We have driven 3 times from CT- our emphasis has always been in getting there and home and not really stopovers unfortunately. Twice we stopped in Savannah- but not historic pretty Savannah- just right off 95 Davannah. This last time we drove all the way to Jacksonville and stayed at the airport and we drive straight threw on the way home.

With your car- if you are Shipyard fans- I would highly recommend sea dog brewery just outside the hotel plaza/downtown Disney gates. My DH is like you and tried to research good places to try (breweries in particular)- but I think since we leave at 1am we miss a lot trying to get through Eashington by sun up.

 

[afwdwfan]

We also got our first glimpse of how close the two parks are to each other as if we looked to the left of the above view we were able to see the Tower of Terror:

When you're a Disney World veteran, you really can't understand the scale until you see it in person.

I loved all the pictures related to the Pirates of the Caribbean attractions that were in the rooms:

That's a cool touch!

The Water Playground was pretty darn cool! Not overly huge as regards square footage, but plenty of different things for kids (and adults to do) and stuff for different ages as well, as even stuff for Emma including a wading pool with zero entry

The water playground looks like a lot of fun. Definitely a nice feature to have and something you might not necessarily expect from a non Disney resort.

Before continuing with the trip report, do want to wish Peter a wonderful birthday - today he turns 4!

Happy Birthday Peter!

Overall we really liked Trader Sam's though it did get a bit hot on the lounge (not as much protection from the sun as I had hoped and it was in the 90s that day). Would love to have more time to spend inside - and really want to check out the new one at the Polynesian Village at WDW now!

Your visit to Trader Sam's looks very nice, even if a bit toasty. I'm glad you were able to try some of the specialty drinks. Now it just sounds like you need to go buy some extra luggage to haul all those souvenir glasses home!

 

[Li Li]

Finally joining in as I took a bit of a DIS break after my Disney trip. Your trip looks fabulous so far!!! I have nothing but admiration for how you and Judi seem to travel so well with 3 kids. I'm sure it may not feel easy at times but you are all just such a great family!

 

[NJlauren]

Trader Sams look great! As does all the food, and looks like the kids enjoyed it as well!

 

[hokieinpa]

Trader Sams seems like such a fun environment! The terrace looks very comfortable for a nice day but probably not such much on a warm, sunny afternoon! The drinks all sound yummy and the mugs are a fun souvenir!

 

[khertz]

That's a LOT of souvenir mugs!! But why not, right? You can just never have too many!

It's so cool how so many of the "offsite" hotels are so close to the parks! And I love the whole bag check set up. With how easy it is to park hop and how often we did it in a single day sometimes, it was nice not to have to go through bag check several times too.

 

[Dugette]

Before continuing with the trip report, do want to wish Peter a wonderful birthday - today he turns 4! We had his party yesterday and not surprisingly, trains were the theme. What was surprising was how warm it was out and the kids got to spend some time playing outside during the part. Not what we were planning for a December party!

Happy birthday to Peter! Pretty cool that you had such a unseasonably nice day!

We did order some food too. The kids each go kids power packs - carrots, Nonfat yogurt, sliced apples, bana, whole-grain "fish" crackers, and a water. Kids loved the options this gave them and we saved a few things to have as snacks later.

Good to know they have this - Izzy would like it and we will be there around lunchtime, according to plan. Those green beans look good too. Can't wait to go here, as we never made it to the Trader Sam's at WDW.

We took turns using the rest room, which was inside the bar, and walked around - taking our time to see a few effects after people ordered drinks. It was definitely a lot of fun - I would love to just hang out in there with Judi on a date night for a few hours.

Good idea - I think we'll copy you on the restroom-trade-off-scope-things-out-inside plan!

 

[horse11]

Happy Birthday Peter!!!

Love all the pictures and videos. Do you get the videos with a GoPro? I can not remember but thought you had mentioned buying one. If so how do you like it?
Love all the pictures from Trader Sams!!! We are staying at the Poly next may so you have tempted me to try it. I love all the souvenir mugs!! The video of the special effects is cool!!! Makes me want to go there even more!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Happy Birthday Peter! I love that train cake!

Your rooms at Howard Johnson's look great. How nice to have a little privacy. It's interesting how close your hotel was to DL. So different than WDW.

Piranha Pool would be my beverage of choice at Trader Sam's, but all your drinks sounded pretty yummy. That's nice that they give you a clean glass for your souvenir instead of taking home the dirty one. My daughter ran into that a couple years ago with the "kitchen sink" at The Plaza a couple years ago. What a fun place! I hear the one at Disney Springs is pretty awesome, too.

The room was definitely pretty nice - maybe not quite up to "Disney standards" for theming, etc. - but got the job done and we loved having the extra room. And considering it was cheaper than a basic room at Disneyland Hotel, definitely worked for us.

We were definitely looking to stick with the drinks that came with a souvenir mug (they were basically my main souvenir for the trip) and not all drinks came with them - but the piranha pool did sound good. Glad we got new/clean mugs - we asked the waiter "Can we get these cleaned?" and he was just "We'll bring you new one!" - so that was great!

You read about how close these hotels are to the parks but I don't think you really believe it until you see it for yourself!

How awesome that your room was ready! It looks really nice. Great pics at the water playground, looks so fun!

Happy Birthday to Peter!

Glad you got to go to Trader Sam's. The drinks and food sound really good.

It is hard to really picture how close you are until you park the car and see the monorail go by. Also, just a different feeling of there being a wall/fence that you walk by and know that all of Disneyland is on the other side - definitely different than being near WDW which you have to get onto their expanse of land before getting close to any of the parks

We were hopeful but not expecting the room to be ready, so that was a definite plus - just made using the pool a lot easier. The water playground was a lot of fun and I was glad all the kids enjoyed it!

Definitely enjoyed our time at Trader Sam's! Getting there was definitely a priority for me as soon as I starting thinking of a trip to Disneyland!

We have driven 3 times from CT- our emphasis has always been in getting there and home and not really stopovers unfortunately. Twice we stopped in Savannah- but not historic pretty Savannah- just right off 95 Davannah. This last time we drove all the way to Jacksonville and stayed at the airport and we drive straight threw on the way home.

With your car- if you are Shipyard fans- I would highly recommend sea dog brewery just outside the hotel plaza/downtown Disney gates. My DH is like you and tried to research good places to try (breweries in particular)- but I think since we leave at 1am we miss a lot trying to get through Eashington by sun up.

We've only driven down once before and we did do a stopover each way but was just a "let's find a place to rest for the night" - not anything planned (actually we just drove and then when we started to get tired looked for an upcoming Hilton property that we could stay at using points - so really not pre-planned!)

Thanks for the suggestion for Sea Dog - will keep it in mind as we will be staying off site. So far places I know I want to stop at are Dog Fishhead in Delaware (they have their own hotel, hoping to stay there) and Wicked Weed Brewing in Asheville, NC - but a lot more are on the "maybe list"

When you're a Disney World veteran, you really can't understand the scale until you see it in person.

That's a cool touch!

The water playground looks like a lot of fun. Definitely a nice feature to have and something you might not necessarily expect from a non Disney resort.

Happy Birthday Peter!

Your visit to Trader Sam's looks very nice, even if a bit toasty. I'm glad you were able to try some of the specialty drinks. Now it just sounds like you need to go buy some extra luggage to haul all those souvenir glasses home!

It is crazy how close they are - especially with the bag check out front it almost seemed like two sections of one park. Actually, just checked and one could compare them together to EPCOT being the two parks pushed together. And Disneyland is ~55 acres and California Adventure is ~66 acres (the entire Disneyland resort - 1 parks, 3 hotels, DTD, etc is ~515 acres) while EPCOT alone is 300 acres

It was nice to have the water play area as there was something for each of the kids to enjoy.

Well, I planned for the mugs to be my main souvenir so already accounted for room in the suitcase - now room for those and the legos we bought, that was a bit trickier .....

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Finally joining in as I took a bit of a DIS break after my Disney trip. Your trip looks fabulous so far!!! I have nothing but admiration for how you and Judi seem to travel so well with 3 kids. I'm sure it may not feel easy at times but you are all just such a great family!

glad you are here! (and can totally get needing DIS breaks from time to time)

Thank you for your compliments - Judi and I file it under "surviving" the travel with 3 kids, which we will take

Trader Sams look great! As does all the food, and looks like the kids enjoyed it as well!

We all enjoyed Trader Sam's but the heat was a bit much as even though there is some covering, the way the sun-rays were coming in, just hit us pretty hard. And then the inside is really dark so it was such a shock whenever we went in or out.

Food overall was pretty good - definitely a place that if I was traveling with just adults I could see spending a lot of time at and looking forward to checking out the one at the Poly in WDW (hopefully there is more room inside there as we will be there in July - not the time you want to be camped out outside!

Trader Sams seems like such a fun environment! The terrace looks very comfortable for a nice day but probably not such much on a warm, sunny afternoon! The drinks all sound yummy and the mugs are a fun souvenir!

Definitely a fun environment and the type of place one could just hang out for a while in considering the drinks are pretty strong and the food is largely designed for munching on (probably one reason it is hard to get seats inside - people spend a lot of time there)

Overall we enjoyed all the drinks we tried and while not cheap, also feel like they were pretty strong and the bugs are pretty high quality (not cheap plastic or anything, even the kids ones were nicer than your typical kid souvenir mug) so, compared to other option, really a reasonable souvenir!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

That's a LOT of souvenir mugs!! But why not, right? You can just never have too many!

It's so cool how so many of the "offsite" hotels are so close to the parks! And I love the whole bag check set up. With how easy it is to park hop and how often we did it in a single day sometimes, it was nice not to have to go through bag check several times too.

Well, our kitchen cabinet is at least saying "no mas" at this point to the souvenir mugs ... but they were my main souvenir for the trip and I wanted to take advantage of being there!

Hotels are definitely close and definitely just a different feeling to walking to the parks, knowing they are on the other side of a wall/fence, vs. getting onto (or being on) WDW property but still having to travel a ways to be at a park ... you don't really see an explicit "wall" to an individual park.

The bag check set up totally makes sense - and really does give the feeling of them being 2 parts to one whole (and I did check, DLR and CA combined take up less acreage than EPCOT on it's own) .... I just didn't realize that was how they do it prior to getting there, and guess I just didn't think we'd have to go through bag check just to get to DTD from that side.

Happy birthday to Peter! Pretty cool that you had such a unseasonably nice day!

Good to know they have this - Izzy would like it and we will be there around lunchtime, according to plan. Those green beans look good too. Can't wait to go here, as we never made it to the Trader Sam's at WDW.

Good idea - I think we'll copy you on the restroom-trade-off-scope-things-out-inside plan!

Definitely not expecting that warm day! Though we've definitely been having more typical December weather of late and even had some snow flurries on Saturday!

Definitely plenty of food options for the kids at Trader Sam's - or at least out on the terrace. I think the plan will work out for you guys - especially if you have a stroller with you. Hopefully it won't be quite so hot for you when you go thought!

Bummer you didn't get to the Poly Trader Sam's though ... just another reason to book another trip though

Happy Birthday Peter!!!

Love all the pictures and videos. Do you get the videos with a GoPro? I can not remember but thought you had mentioned buying one. If so how do you like it?
Love all the pictures from Trader Sams!!! We are staying at the Poly next may so you have tempted me to try it. I love all the souvenir mugs!! The video of the special effects is cool!!! Makes me want to go there even more!

So we did get a GoPro and we used it some. Anything that was at/near water is generally using the GoPro or when we are moving. But more often than not we just used the camera video capabilities as I would have it out more. It was nice to have it and I am sure we will use it again/more but probably could have lived without it

Oh man, staying at the poly is great as you can just head down for short trips (maybe take turns after the kids go to bed even) - definitely a fun environment!