skylynx
DIS Sponsor in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2003
- Messages
- 1,280
Just back from a long romantic weekend with my DH. (Started out flying in from Chicago without him Friday night as he got stuck at work and had to take a later flight-but it improved from there). Because we were getting in late and wanted to save points, we stayed off property at the Comfort Inn on Palm Parkway. We were quickly reminded how spoiled we are staying on property. I waited a long time on the check in line, and because there were no non-smoking rooms left, we got "upgraded" to a family suite which means where the second bed would normally have been was what looked like a large packing crate with bunk beds inside it and toucans and gorillas painted on the outside. Ok, not my definition of a "suite," but what the heck. Despite the late arrival in Florida, we ate at Earl of Sandwich in DTD and still managed to make a few Coronas disappear at the Adventurer's Club on Pleasure Island before slinking back to the Comfort Suites for sleep. Kungaloosh!
We headed over to Vero Saturday morning and arrived around 10 am. The Christmas decorations were up and it looked fabulous. Our room was ready, which made us happy as we were anxious to start exploring. I think because we did not know to ask for a higher floor room, we were given a room on the second floor that overlooked the pool and had a view of the ocean only if you looked to the side. It was really more poolside than oceanview, but we'll know better next time. It was still nice. I've come to suspect if you don't know to ask for certain room or location (or NOT for a certain room or location), you'll be stuck with the most undesirable. Still...hardly anything to complain about, especially since we were able to get in it at 10 am!
I'd stayed a Vero a couple of times with my parents about ten years ago as hotel guests, and it was even nicer than I remembered. DH and I took a long walk on the beach, then flopped down on the sand and I managed to fall asleep for nearly an hour lying on a bunch of broken sea shells...it had been a tough couple weeks at work and I guess I was more tired than I thought! We saw some remnants of places sea turtles had climbed up the sand banks...so neat. We made reservations at Shutters for dinner. There was a bit of a wait past our reservation time-about 20 minutes) though there were LOTS of empty tables, so maybe they were short staffed. After dark we went to the campfire which would have been cuter if we'd brought the kids along, but the best part was during one of the silly songs a rocket was launched at Cape Canaveral. Everyone just stopped singing and ran to look at the rocket. It looked just like a kid would draw it...a bright light trailing sparks and smoke.
We'd wanted to go in the hot tub, but we've noticed in our last several Disney visits (Both DVC and pre-DVC) that the hot tubs seem to have become alternative kiddie pools. Everytime we wandered by the one at Vero, even at almost the closing time at ten pm, there were at least two small children (like 2 or 3) jumping in and out of the hot tub, floating in tubes, throwing things, etc. I love kids, even those that aren't mine, but I really think the hot tub should not be a kiddie pool. Later this same trip at Animal Kingdom Lodge, there was some mother floating a baby in those one piece bathing suit-life preserver outfits in the hot tub. We saw babies in the hot tubs at Wilderness Lodge, too. One was screaming...perhaps the water is too hot to submerge an infant in, mom? Yikes. Vero has the absolute coolest kiddie play area complete with pirate ship, and yet even though it was not cold out, I saw nearly no kids on the ship...they were all in the hot tub! Maybe Disney could come up with an adults-only hot tub or adults only after a certain hour and enforce it...we would have loved just twenty minutes for a quiet bubble...never happened. So I guess that's my only gripe!
Over to Disney World Sunday morning...checked in at Saratoga Springs (our main home resort and first visit there). Our studio room was available early there, too. It was on the second floor in the Paddocks section overlooking a pond. I love the "french door" look of the patio doors...so classy. Our room was immaculate and everything worked perfectly. This was our first go with the Disney Dining Plan as well, so off we went to get our money's worth. Lunch at the character buffet at Crystal Palace. Then two Dole whip floats while watching Spectromagic...how good can it get? Well, better...the incredible new lighting effects on the castle that were to debut Monday night at the Very Merry Christmas Party were previewed Sunday night. The whole castle seemed to be coated in ice that changed colors and shimmered. During Wishes, all the "ice" "melted" away then came back afterwards. We were so fortunate to see it. Everyone's jaws were just hanging looking at it.
On Monday we visited Animal Kingdom and Epcot, bouncing back and forth until our dinner at Boma (thanks to the Dining Plan). We saw more of the construction on the new DVC buildings...can't wait to see it when it's done!
Returned to Epcot after Boma to see Illuminations, then enjoyed a beer and some good conversation on our SSR balcony.
Tuesday was departure day...we used our last counter service at Wilderness Lodge for breakfast and our last snacks for cheese danish in the Magic Kingdom. It is definitely more than we would normally eat, but made sense if we'd already decided to do one of the more expensive table service restaurants each night. I don't think we'd get the value out of it on a longer stay, and having to make Advance Dining Reservations months in advance meant our meals were really driving which parks we went to and when and how long we could stay. That makes eating just a little bit too important. For the short stay, it worked well, though.
Managed to pop through the Disney Character Warehouse at the new Belz mall (now "Prime outlets") on International Drive while enroute to the airport...the mall has been upgraded to look just like the Premium Outlets across I-4 from Crossroads. Really a nice place now, despite the horrific traffic on I-Drive.
Happy to get home to our king size log bed, but not happy to have to go back to work and read the hundreds of emails that piled up while we were gone. Looking forward to our trip to Vegas next month for the National Finals Rodeo and then back to WDW for the kids surprise trip in January!
We headed over to Vero Saturday morning and arrived around 10 am. The Christmas decorations were up and it looked fabulous. Our room was ready, which made us happy as we were anxious to start exploring. I think because we did not know to ask for a higher floor room, we were given a room on the second floor that overlooked the pool and had a view of the ocean only if you looked to the side. It was really more poolside than oceanview, but we'll know better next time. It was still nice. I've come to suspect if you don't know to ask for certain room or location (or NOT for a certain room or location), you'll be stuck with the most undesirable. Still...hardly anything to complain about, especially since we were able to get in it at 10 am!
I'd stayed a Vero a couple of times with my parents about ten years ago as hotel guests, and it was even nicer than I remembered. DH and I took a long walk on the beach, then flopped down on the sand and I managed to fall asleep for nearly an hour lying on a bunch of broken sea shells...it had been a tough couple weeks at work and I guess I was more tired than I thought! We saw some remnants of places sea turtles had climbed up the sand banks...so neat. We made reservations at Shutters for dinner. There was a bit of a wait past our reservation time-about 20 minutes) though there were LOTS of empty tables, so maybe they were short staffed. After dark we went to the campfire which would have been cuter if we'd brought the kids along, but the best part was during one of the silly songs a rocket was launched at Cape Canaveral. Everyone just stopped singing and ran to look at the rocket. It looked just like a kid would draw it...a bright light trailing sparks and smoke.
We'd wanted to go in the hot tub, but we've noticed in our last several Disney visits (Both DVC and pre-DVC) that the hot tubs seem to have become alternative kiddie pools. Everytime we wandered by the one at Vero, even at almost the closing time at ten pm, there were at least two small children (like 2 or 3) jumping in and out of the hot tub, floating in tubes, throwing things, etc. I love kids, even those that aren't mine, but I really think the hot tub should not be a kiddie pool. Later this same trip at Animal Kingdom Lodge, there was some mother floating a baby in those one piece bathing suit-life preserver outfits in the hot tub. We saw babies in the hot tubs at Wilderness Lodge, too. One was screaming...perhaps the water is too hot to submerge an infant in, mom? Yikes. Vero has the absolute coolest kiddie play area complete with pirate ship, and yet even though it was not cold out, I saw nearly no kids on the ship...they were all in the hot tub! Maybe Disney could come up with an adults-only hot tub or adults only after a certain hour and enforce it...we would have loved just twenty minutes for a quiet bubble...never happened. So I guess that's my only gripe!
Over to Disney World Sunday morning...checked in at Saratoga Springs (our main home resort and first visit there). Our studio room was available early there, too. It was on the second floor in the Paddocks section overlooking a pond. I love the "french door" look of the patio doors...so classy. Our room was immaculate and everything worked perfectly. This was our first go with the Disney Dining Plan as well, so off we went to get our money's worth. Lunch at the character buffet at Crystal Palace. Then two Dole whip floats while watching Spectromagic...how good can it get? Well, better...the incredible new lighting effects on the castle that were to debut Monday night at the Very Merry Christmas Party were previewed Sunday night. The whole castle seemed to be coated in ice that changed colors and shimmered. During Wishes, all the "ice" "melted" away then came back afterwards. We were so fortunate to see it. Everyone's jaws were just hanging looking at it.
On Monday we visited Animal Kingdom and Epcot, bouncing back and forth until our dinner at Boma (thanks to the Dining Plan). We saw more of the construction on the new DVC buildings...can't wait to see it when it's done!
Returned to Epcot after Boma to see Illuminations, then enjoyed a beer and some good conversation on our SSR balcony.
Tuesday was departure day...we used our last counter service at Wilderness Lodge for breakfast and our last snacks for cheese danish in the Magic Kingdom. It is definitely more than we would normally eat, but made sense if we'd already decided to do one of the more expensive table service restaurants each night. I don't think we'd get the value out of it on a longer stay, and having to make Advance Dining Reservations months in advance meant our meals were really driving which parks we went to and when and how long we could stay. That makes eating just a little bit too important. For the short stay, it worked well, though.
Managed to pop through the Disney Character Warehouse at the new Belz mall (now "Prime outlets") on International Drive while enroute to the airport...the mall has been upgraded to look just like the Premium Outlets across I-4 from Crossroads. Really a nice place now, despite the horrific traffic on I-Drive.
Happy to get home to our king size log bed, but not happy to have to go back to work and read the hundreds of emails that piled up while we were gone. Looking forward to our trip to Vegas next month for the National Finals Rodeo and then back to WDW for the kids surprise trip in January!
but I think we did the trip pretty cheaply!
