ohiomom28
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2006
- Messages
- 1,408
We returned late Sunday evening, boy was I ready to sleep in my own bed!!
ARRIVAL: We arrived on 3/5 around 10am. The plane was 10 minutes early so we had to wait for a gate. Finally got our luggage and head downstairs for the rental car and low and behold the Alamo line was pretty backed up. There was only 2 people working and then another showed up and the National Rep started helping too. Moved on to the garage to pick out the car and there were no more midsized SUV's. We ended up with a GMC Envoy after 3 trips to the front of the garage.
We were starving, so we stopped at Ponderosa for lunch, thinking that the hotel probably wouldn't let us check in so early, but we went there after lunch and got right in.
THE HOTEL: We stayed at the Amerisuites Convention Center. Parking lot was pretty empty most of the week. Our room was on the 7th (top) floor, with a view of the hotel next door and the convention center. The room was very clean and well kept. The carpet looked brand new. I thought I read it was supposed to have plates and silverware in the kitchenette, which it didn't, but no big deal. I don't go on vacation to cook. There was a microwave and small refrigerator. The living room portion had a sofa bed, chair, 2 end tables and a coffee table. Then it had a wall separating the bedroom. The breakfast buffet consisted of cereal, milk, OJ, Apple Juice, sausage patties, rubbery eggs, muffins and rock hard bagels. You can also make your own waffles. Those were pretty good.
I was going to give a day by day account of what we did, but I don't remember what we did on what day. It all runs together, but here is a summary.
SHOPPING: Festival Bay is still the same. Empty, but it does have my favorite store (Steve and Barry's). Spent a few hours at The Florida Mall and went to Mall at Millenia for the 1st time. Nothing exciting there.
CITYWALK: Went to CityWalk our first night hoping to eat at Margaritaville, but there was a 1.5 hour wait, so went to Hard Rock Cafe. It was ok. We used our vouchers from the meal and movie deal. I went to the window to purchase another meal and movie ticket for my son and she pointed out that it was cheaper to purchase a meal and ticket directly for my son. DUH!!!! Why didn't I think of that. Anyway, I am glad I didn't, we didnt end up using the movie tickets. Planned to use them our last day there while killing time before our flight, but found out that they don't reimburse for parking at the concession stand. So, we left. I wasn't paying $9 to park to see a movie.
USF/IOA: I was not impressed with these parks at all. We went through each park in about 4-5 hours. We rode everything we wanted to ride and 30 minutes was the longest wait. I really liked Spiderman 3-D
Definately think IOA was the best of the 2.
OTHER THINGS: We went to Pirates Cove to play Putt-Putt
, Olde Town to look around. One night we went to Magical Midway to ride Go-Karts and my son wanted to ride the Swings, after he came down, we were joking around about the sling shot and he and his dad ended up riding that. Keep in mind he is 6 years old. We bought the DVD too! Went to the Outta Control Magic Show again. I didn't find it quite as funny this time. Maybe because I hadn't been drinking. 
I forgot my ID, so they wouldn't give me beer.
My son went on stage and ended up doing the same trick as last year. My BF also was called onstage. It was hilarious. Pizza was so-so, but not that bad.
On Monday, we drove to Tampa and St. Pete's Beach. We went to Daytona on Friday for the Supercross race at the Speedway and drove down by the beach while bike week was going on.
FOOD: Ate at Ponderosa twice. Once for breakfast and once for lunch. Sizzler for lunch, Whistle Junction and Great Western Buffet were gross and do not recommend it to anyone. Hard Rock was good, but expensive. Ate at Race Rock the night before we left and it was awesome. We went last year, but it was better this time. Expensive, but good. Always gotta have Sonic at least once. Ate on the patio at Black Angus one night, also expensive, but good. I used my restaurant.com certificate at Beef O'brady's. It was far away, but really good.
THE RETURN FLIGHT: It was smooth until we hit about TN or KY. Then we hit the storms coming through. It got really rocky and scary. Our return seats were on the wing, so it was really noisy.
Thats our trip, if you made it this far, THANKS!!! Now, I am resting. I need a vacation from my vacation.
ARRIVAL: We arrived on 3/5 around 10am. The plane was 10 minutes early so we had to wait for a gate. Finally got our luggage and head downstairs for the rental car and low and behold the Alamo line was pretty backed up. There was only 2 people working and then another showed up and the National Rep started helping too. Moved on to the garage to pick out the car and there were no more midsized SUV's. We ended up with a GMC Envoy after 3 trips to the front of the garage.
We were starving, so we stopped at Ponderosa for lunch, thinking that the hotel probably wouldn't let us check in so early, but we went there after lunch and got right in. THE HOTEL: We stayed at the Amerisuites Convention Center. Parking lot was pretty empty most of the week. Our room was on the 7th (top) floor, with a view of the hotel next door and the convention center. The room was very clean and well kept. The carpet looked brand new. I thought I read it was supposed to have plates and silverware in the kitchenette, which it didn't, but no big deal. I don't go on vacation to cook. There was a microwave and small refrigerator. The living room portion had a sofa bed, chair, 2 end tables and a coffee table. Then it had a wall separating the bedroom. The breakfast buffet consisted of cereal, milk, OJ, Apple Juice, sausage patties, rubbery eggs, muffins and rock hard bagels. You can also make your own waffles. Those were pretty good.
I was going to give a day by day account of what we did, but I don't remember what we did on what day. It all runs together, but here is a summary.
SHOPPING: Festival Bay is still the same. Empty, but it does have my favorite store (Steve and Barry's). Spent a few hours at The Florida Mall and went to Mall at Millenia for the 1st time. Nothing exciting there.
CITYWALK: Went to CityWalk our first night hoping to eat at Margaritaville, but there was a 1.5 hour wait, so went to Hard Rock Cafe. It was ok. We used our vouchers from the meal and movie deal. I went to the window to purchase another meal and movie ticket for my son and she pointed out that it was cheaper to purchase a meal and ticket directly for my son. DUH!!!! Why didn't I think of that. Anyway, I am glad I didn't, we didnt end up using the movie tickets. Planned to use them our last day there while killing time before our flight, but found out that they don't reimburse for parking at the concession stand. So, we left. I wasn't paying $9 to park to see a movie.
USF/IOA: I was not impressed with these parks at all. We went through each park in about 4-5 hours. We rode everything we wanted to ride and 30 minutes was the longest wait. I really liked Spiderman 3-D
Definately think IOA was the best of the 2.
OTHER THINGS: We went to Pirates Cove to play Putt-Putt
, Olde Town to look around. One night we went to Magical Midway to ride Go-Karts and my son wanted to ride the Swings, after he came down, we were joking around about the sling shot and he and his dad ended up riding that. Keep in mind he is 6 years old. We bought the DVD too! Went to the Outta Control Magic Show again. I didn't find it quite as funny this time. Maybe because I hadn't been drinking. I forgot my ID, so they wouldn't give me beer.My son went on stage and ended up doing the same trick as last year. My BF also was called onstage. It was hilarious. Pizza was so-so, but not that bad.
On Monday, we drove to Tampa and St. Pete's Beach. We went to Daytona on Friday for the Supercross race at the Speedway and drove down by the beach while bike week was going on.
FOOD: Ate at Ponderosa twice. Once for breakfast and once for lunch. Sizzler for lunch, Whistle Junction and Great Western Buffet were gross and do not recommend it to anyone. Hard Rock was good, but expensive. Ate at Race Rock the night before we left and it was awesome. We went last year, but it was better this time. Expensive, but good. Always gotta have Sonic at least once. Ate on the patio at Black Angus one night, also expensive, but good. I used my restaurant.com certificate at Beef O'brady's. It was far away, but really good.
THE RETURN FLIGHT: It was smooth until we hit about TN or KY. Then we hit the storms coming through. It got really rocky and scary. Our return seats were on the wing, so it was really noisy.
Thats our trip, if you made it this far, THANKS!!! Now, I am resting. I need a vacation from my vacation.
