Trips

Lookout Cay — exquisite!

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

This January has been a hot mess as far as temperatures and weather here in Virginia! We’re still digging out from a crazy snow/sleet storm that has wreaked havoc on our roads for days. I’d say I wish that I was in Florida right now but they’re not much warmer so they don’t have it a whole lot better than we do!

Two weeks ago, I was in Florida though, sailing on the Disney Dream in the Bahamas. We embarked from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on a 4-night Bahamian cruise with stops at both of Disney’s private island paradises: Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. Castaway Cay is one we’ve been to many times but Lookout was new to us. Lookout is located on the southern tip of the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas and while it isn’t a ‘private island’ it still has a lot of those same qualities. The area is available to residents of Eleuthera to visit for a small fee for non-commercial purposes.This article has some interesting info about the history of Disney and Lookout Cay. I honestly couldn’t tell you if I saw any locals while there as the entire area is so big that everyone has plenty of room. More on Lookout later… Here’s the towel animal we got on the first night — love the love birds!

The Disney Dream is a lovely ship, first setting sail in 2011. It is the third ship in the Disney fleet, sister to the Disney Fantasy that embarked on its first cruise in 2012. The Dream is in Florida right now for Bahamian sailings but will go to Europe in May to pickup those sailings (European/Mediterranean) for guests until it returns to Florida in September. The Dream has had some renovations over the years, such as the recent addition of Ramone’s Cantina on the pool deck last year for an additional quick service food option. Much has remained the same though and its that classic Disney Cruise vibe that we returned ‘home’ to on our trip. When we were getting ready to set sail, there were a lot of ships going out before us and one was the brand new Disney Destiny (pictured below). The ships had a horn battle and she showed off her new tunes for all to hear. This was a great bonus for us!

The crew this time was the hubs, the daughter, my mom, and one of my nieces. We flew down to Fort Lauderdale and hopped onboard the Dream to enjoy our two connecting verandah staterooms on deck 6 aft. It’s always nice to have connecting verandah (aka balcony) staterooms when you’re traveling with family so you can go back and forth inside the rooms, if needed, but also so the stateroom host can remove the divider out on the balcony to open both up to a larger space. Having a long balcony was a treat for sure. This particular spot on the ship was nice as it didn’t have much hallway noise, was just a floor up from the laundry room, and provided for some interesting views as the ship docked and left each port. There was some docking noise from the staterooms (6182 and 6184) but we weren’t really bothered by it. Being able to watch the ropes shot out and reeled back in when in port was cool though!

Our first day was supposed to have been a day at sea but the Captain moved our Castaway Cay day up as a swap since the weather for its original day later in the week was to be nasty. That ended up being a great move because the weather on our original Castaway Cay was no good: rainy, windy, and cold. The day we got for Castaway was amazing though! Beautiful blue skies, warm breezes, and cold (then cool) water. I didn’t think I’d be able to get into the water at first but sucked it up and got in a float after lunch. We had a cabana reserved for us, Mickey and Minnie Cove Cabana #21. I’ve had cabanas at Serenity Bay (the adult beach) and what used to be the Family Beach (now called the Sandcastle Cabanas) but the Mickey and Minnie Cove ones just opened up in December. We saw them being built when we were on the island from the Disney Treasure back in September. These cabanas are super cute and so fresh! They’re in a little village type of area, right near Serenity Bay, so you take a tram to the first tram stop, then a tram to the second tram stop, get off and get on a Serenity Bay tram and boom, you’re there. Sounds like a lot of tram time but it really isn’t. Plus for families that have never been over to Serenity Bay because they are traveling with kids, you can see some of that area if you have a M&M Cove Cabana. So at Serenity Bay, you leave the tram and are taken via golf cart to your cabana. There about 30 units, 29 which hold up to 10 guests and one grand cabana that holds up to 16. These are super hard to get and run about $1,000/day for up to 6 guests (additional charges for over 6, up to the unit maximum). I’ve talked about cabanas before and these have similar amenities: private unit just for your family with a door, towels, plush furniture, a safe, floats and tubes, a hammock, lounge chairs for the beach plus an umbrella, a freshwater shower (so great!!), sand toys, access to a cabana attendant for anything you need (drink orders, take you to the quick service food location or back to the tram, bring more towels, etc.), a ceiling fan, music to play through the unit, sunscreen, plus snacks and drinks throughout the day like sodas/canned waters plus chips, a fresh fruit bowl, and granola bars. These cabanas have their own quick service barbecue location that is either a short walk or golf cart ride from your cabana plus restrooms are nearby in the cabana village. With sidewalks to each unit and the golf cart transport, getting around was a breeze! Plus, Castaway Minnie came by for meets and pictures too! Our cabana was pretty close to the restroom and cabana bar, which made it a super spot for us! We were right in the cove area of the cabana section so we had a beautiful area to hang out in all day. Quiet and just perfect! The literal only thing wrong with the cabanas is that you eventually have to leave! While the price seems high, these are a hot commodity and I will get one any time I can! This one took a lot of luck and searching since I booked the cruise fairly late and was well under my booking window to add this type of thing on. Success!

Lookout Cay, as I said, was a first for us. I knew that this destination had a very long pier to walk down from the ship to the island. I would say it is a 15 to 20 minute walk depending on your pace. There is no shade but there is a water station about halfway (plus at the tram stop at Mabrika Cove and at the ship on your return — along with cool cloths, which was very welcome after the walk back). I would strongly suggest that you bring a water bottle for use on the walk to/from the ship. For those with mobility issues, like my mom, you meet at a designated place/time in the morning and you can take a cart directly to the island. This information was provided to guests via a push notification on the Navigator app the day before our Lookout day. This was super handy! For those with littles, there are tons of plastic wagons you can use when you leave the ship to transport the kids to the island. Once you’re there though, you leave the wagon behind. Look at that line of wagons!

At the island’s entrance, you board a tram over to the opposite of the island to where most of the activity takes place. You’re arriving at Mabrika Cove and the bulk of the things to do are at the Goombay Cultural Center tram stop. Mabrika is on the west side of the island’s southern tip and Goombay is on the east side. Mabrika Cove has a small retail area and coffee shop plus this is where you’d stop if you have a cabana or are doing certain water excursions. We opted for no cabana here because I wanted to explore! These cabanas are on the west side of the island, away from everything else, and have great views of the ship. There is a separate food area for cabana guests and you are also able to go over to Goombay for anything you need there.

The tram ride is quite pleasant with narration providing information about the island and some of the unique environmental attributes. The ride takes like 10 minutes or less and is too far to walk, in fact I don’t think you can walk at this point, and a nice way to start off your day. You’re provided with towels for your use on the island once you arrive at the Goombay tram stop, which is great so you don’t have to carry those down the pier too. At the Goombay tram stop, you’ll find the other port adventures desk (called Rocky Point) for excursion check-in, one bathroom (literally a single unit but it has an adult changing table available), two stores (Disney T’ings and Treasures of Eleuthera) and several large photo ops. The photo ops are inspired by the characters in Junkanoo headdress style. The hair braiding station is in this area as well. From here, you split off into a variety of directions and can head toward the family beach, Serenity Bay, or toward the Nature Walk. The walkways here are raised boardwalk type of paths and they take you to the various beach accesses, to the food locations and bathrooms, etc. I thought this was lovely and a lot better than a bunch of sidewalks. There are three main food areas, one at the family beach to the right, one between the family beach and Serenity Bay to the left, and then another smaller one at Serenity Bay. There are also bars throughout and Sebastian’s Cove for youth activities is located on the far right side of the family beach area. This area is also where the Junkanoo parades come through and you can watch the performers (see the pictures below).

For the food, expect similar food to Castaway Cay. The big difference here is that there is a lot more covered seating and they have big fans inside the seating areas. If you look at the map of Lookout, these are the four oval pod/bean looking things across from #15 and #16 and the single pod across from #17. I have a picture of one of the areas below. There were also some picnic tables out in the sun too in each area. Ice cream and drink fountains were free flowing in each area. We chose our spot for the day right past #19, the Bow & Ribbon bar, at a beach access in that area. I will say that the early bird gets the best spots here. Our chairs were right at the access and we were able to get an umbrella, four loungers, and a couple of the regular chairs you can sit in the water in. Same type of chairs as at Castaway Cay but newer. Most of our crew did an excursion straight away so we had my mom go and grab this spot while we went out to do that. When we came back to her around noon, the beach was a lot fuller so this was definitely a great strategy. There is a ton of seating on the beach as well as back up in the dunes area so I think the idea that you wouldn’t find a chair is probably a stretch. You just might not find your first choice area if you wait around too long. This spot wasn’t far from the restrooms either or the food, so that was great. By the way, the restrooms had fresh water showers and foot washes outside too, super handy at the end of the day.

The excursion we chose was the one called “Culture, Conservation, and Coral Nursery Walk”, number LPT22. We originally had a midday time reserved but were moved to a 9:15am start the day before. While that wasn’t what I originally wanted, I was so glad we went earlier as it got a lot hotter as the day went on and we would have been miserable. This tour was advertised as 1.5 hours but we were gone a full two hours, so plan accordingly. We had the best time though! This walk was very informative and just as advertised. Our tour guide was Andy and the tour was run by Tour Eleuthera LTD. He did a fantastic job telling us all about the island’s history, its flora and fauna, Disney’s impact from a local’s perspective, and taking us to the various scenic points on the nature trail. The trail is basically sand and cement and wouldn’t be accessible, unfortunately. It is a lot of walking but there are water stations along the trail and you’re encouraged to get a drink at the family beach food area before the tour really gets started. We walked to the limestone cliffs and down to the beach where you can see such great views of the ship plus up to the small lighthouse on the island (thus the name, Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point). I highly recommend this tour for teens and adults, not sure how I feel about it for young kids with the walking and educational nature. At $59/person age 10 and up, this was a steal for us. I took a lot of great pictures and saw places that I would have never just ventured to on my own, even walking on the trail (which is available to all guests without a fee). It was really interesting to hear a local’s perspective on Disney coming in and how much Disney has done for Eleuthera and its people, improving schools, providing educational opportunities post K-12, building infrastructure, and providing jobs. Plus his prospective from growing up on Nassau and moving to Eleuthera was, for lack of a better way to put it, really cool. One neat thing we learned was about Eleuthera’s pink sand. Now, this is really weird until you see it in person, but that sand has all kinds of pink flecks in it which come from tiny microscopic coral insects called Foraminifera. They get eaten and their pale red and pink shells wash up and mix with white sand and coral fragments. When you have it in your hands, it is so strange to look at and when the tide hits the beach and then washes back out, it creates a weird cloud like effect in the water. So hard to get on camera but incredible in person. I’ve been to a lot of beaches and this ranks right up there with the neatest one because of that. In addition to the pink sand, you also have the clearest blue water that will just knock your socks off. An incredibly beautiful day.

After Lookout, we had a day at sea — rainy and windy — so we played a lot of trivia (and didn’t win anything, bummer!) and the daughter and I did some work (college senior, remember?) We watched the Beauty and the Beast stage show that night and quite enjoyed it, as we did the others (The Golden Mickeys and Believe). The food on this cruise was typical cruise food and our favorite menu ended up being the Pirate night menu (which has basically been the same for as long as I can remember). The hit quick service was Ramone’s Cantina, as expected, for its Chipotle style food. So much ice cream was consumed too, which is also very typical of this group, lol.

Debarkation back at Port Everglades the next day was easy peasy, they also have the new face recognition for those traveling with passports, so customs and immigration was a breeze. Going out to get a rideshare was a bit of a mess and I wish I would have just grabbed a taxi van instead. We came off at probably 8:30am and waited for what seemed like forever but but probably was less than 30 minutes. However, we needed an XXL Lyft (or Uber) and after we finally got one from Lyft, it cancelled on us after a couple of minutes. Starting over again with Uber, I got one and it showed up at 9:07am. Once we got picked up, it was about 15 minutes to our dayuse hotel nearby. We used ResortPass to get a dayuse room at the Holiday Inn Fort Lauderdale Airport for the group since our flight home didn’t depart until almost 6pm. None of us felt like hanging out at the airport basically all day. When we arrived at the hotel, we had about a 30 minute wait until the room was ready (official check-in/use period was from 10am-5pm) but we just relaxed in the lobby and walked over to a nearby gas station for some drinks to have for the day. Once the room was ready, we went up. The room was fine, had a bit of a smell like a weird perfume or something from a prior guest, but otherwise was just what we needed. The daughter and I worked again there for awhile and the rest of the crew went down to relax by the pool. It was a cool day but the sun came out and we all ended up putting our feet in the water. The pool there was really pretty and calm and this was a great way to chill before the flight. Another perk of the dayuse room was that this hotel had a shuttle to the airport included, so we just signed up for a time and popped back over to the airport again to catch our flight. I’d absolutely do this again with a late flight out after a cruise coming into Port Everglades.

So the cruise was a blast, loved Lookout, and our cabana day at Castaway Cay was the best. Can’t wait for the next one!

xoxo,

Amber

Disney World holiday memories made!

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

Over Thanksgiving, the fam and I went to Disney’s Hilton Head Island resort to relax and recharge. My sister and nieces came along to share the fun. As always, we had a blast and found some shark teeth to bring home!

Last week, we headed down to Disney World for the daughter’s BF’s first trip! We stayed at Coronado Springs resort at Disney and had a comfy room in the Casitas section of the resort. Most of our time was spent in the parks, trying to cram in as much as we could for his first WDW adventure! We hit all four parks plus the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party in Magic Kingdom. Let’s hit the highlights!

There were several new things on this trip for us… lunch at Rix Sports Bar and Grill and dinner at Three Bridges Bar & Grill, both at Coronado Springs. Three Bridges is located in the center of the lake at the resort and dinner there was lovely being on the water and having a great view of the Gran Destino tower part of the resort. Rix was surprisingly good, can’t believe we had never tried that before! We also met the Mandalorian and Grogu at Hollywood Studios — so much fun! Grogu was super cute and very realistic plus Mando stayed perfectly in character.

The Mandalorian and Grogu at Hollywood Studios
Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs

Also new to us was the Zootopia: Better Zoogether show at Animal Kingdom. This show replaced the It’s Tough to be a Bug show that closed earlier this year. I loved it! Still great effects and the queue to wait for the show has lots of fun things to look at including this cute “Pawdora” jewelry display featuring some of the friends from Zootopia! Here’s a tip, watch Zootopia 2 before this show so you don’t have any spoilers.

Zootopia show poster
Zootopia show poster
Pawdora display at the Zootopia show queue
Pawdora display at the Zootopia show queue

In Epcot, there was a Scentsy display of a handful of larger than life snowglobes that featured fun holiday scenes with accompanying scents that you could experience by getting close to the displays. My fave was Christmas Cottage, scented like oranges, raspberries, cloves, and spice. So nice! These were new this year as well. We also got to see the Living with the Land ride transformed into its holiday version, Glimmering Greenhouses. This attraction gets super busy at night when the lights are really showing off all of the displays inside.

Glimmering Greenhouses
Glimmering Greenhouses
Scentsy snowglobe in Epcot
Scentsy snowglobe in Epcot

While in Animal Kingdom, we were lucky enough to see the Merry Menagerie of puppets in Discovery Island. I’ve seen these before but they get better every year! And the interaction with guests is fun to experience and watch!

Merry Menagerie animal puppets in Animal Kingdom
Merry Menagerie animal puppets in Animal Kingdom

We took a very early ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris and were rewarded with some of the best animal sighting we’ve had in awhile. I don’t think there were any animals that we didn’t get to see! Everyone was out and even frolicking in some cases! The giraffes were super close to the safari trucks too and that’s always such a treat! And the baby elephant, eek!

Rhinos at Kilimanjaro Safaris
Rhinos at Kilimanjaro Safaris
Elephants at Kilimanjaro Safaris
Elephants at Kilimanjaro Safaris
A giraffe at Kilimanjaro Safaris
A giraffe at Kilimanjaro Safaris

At the Very Merry Christmas Party, we collected all of the free cookies and drinks that were available for party guests plus the fun collectible ornament. We brought most of them home to enjoy later but this chocolate and mint covered marshmallow didn’t make it to the end of the party for me! Delish! The parade was better than I remember and the fireworks — incredible! I have always been a huge fan of the Not So Scary Halloween Party but the Christmas party gave it a run for its money this year!

Toy soldiers during the Very Merry Christmas Party
Toy soldiers during the Very Merry Christmas Party
Cinderella Castle projections during the party fireworks
Cinderella Castle projections during the party fireworks
Chocolate and mint covered marshmallow Mickey
Chocolate and mint covered marshmallow Mickey

All-in-all, we had a great time. And despite being exhausted from all the walking (over thirty miles in the four days!), lots of wonderful memories were made. Happy Holidays!

xoxo,

Amber

Some horror and island hopping…

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

About a month ago, the fam and I were finishing up our most recent vacation — a trip to Universal Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights and Epic Universe and a cruise on Disney Cruise Line’s newest ship, the Disney Treasure. We were away for about a week and a half and it was absolutely splendid to be able to spend that time together. Here’s the recap!

We flew in on a Thursday afternoon and checked in at Universal’s Terra Luna resort. This is one of the three new hotels built right near the Epic Universe theme park that opened earlier this year. We’ve stayed at Stella Nova and Helios Grande, so Terra Luna was the last of the three that we needed to try out. It is basically a carbon copy of Stella Nova, but a little farther away from Epic and a flip-flopped lobby layout. We enjoyed our time there but likely will choose Stella Nova when staying in that area again just because it is a little closer to Epic. Otherwise, great experience.

While at Universal, we spent Thursday evening at Universal Studios enjoying Halloween Horror Nights. I went to this event last year for the first time but my husband has been going for years. This time, we brought the Daughter and, of course, went with the RIP Tour option again. This tour is the hands-down best way to enjoy HHN and provides a small group of people (we had 11 in total, I think) a personal guide who takes you straight to the entrance of all of the HHN houses with no wait, provides the backstory info on those houses and the scarezones, gets you up-close seating at the nightly show (“Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay” was this year’s show), makes sure you go through all of the scarezones, allows for rest breaks including one in a private lounge overlooking the park near the Jimmy Fallon show, and the tour offers a buffet prior to the tour to kick off the fun! On that buffet, you can find a lot of the special snack items that are available for purchase out in the park during the event but you get them for free (and however many you want!) You can also load up on sodas and waters so you stay hydrated during the evening. Oh! You also get Express Pass to use at the attractions after your tour is over, but we never end up riding anything. Truly, once you take an RIP Tour, you’ll never go back. The only way to do it ‘better’ would be to do a private VIP tour versus a non-private one but the cost difference is significant on that and I think non-private works great for us!

A 'deviled' egg from Halloween Horror Nights

From the buffet, I present to you a ‘deviled’ egg. In fact, I hate deviled eggs (I don’t eat eggs and I don’t like mayonnaise) but this one is special. It’s actually a dessert! These are called’ Yum Yum Deviled eggs’ and are from the Fallout food stand. Coconut panna cotta filled with Chamoy pineapple bits and topped with mango topping and Tajin make up this dish and it was so good! 10 out of 10!

The show, “Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay”, was a sequel to last year’s show (Nightmare Fuel: Nocturnal Circus”) and it did not disappoint. You can expect the show to be something like a cross between Cirque du Soleil and a burlesque show. Definitely not for the prudes or little kids but there really shouldn’t be any little kids at this event as a whole. Very much for older teenagers, at minimum, or adults. Acrobatics, fire, contortion, dancing, and full of high energy, this show is incredible. Not to be missed. There was a lagoon show this year too but we missed that because of timing (boo!) but there’s only so much you can do in one night!

There were four scarezones: The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane, Masquerade: Dance with Death, Mutations: Toxic Twenties, and The Origins of Horror. If I were to rank them, Masquerade would definitely be first because it was so well done. I would share pictures but… don’t want to scare any unsuspecting readers! Cat Lady would be my next favorite, then Toxic Twenties a close second, and Origins fourth. All were really fun to see and go through, a few times in fact. There were some other enhancements like the zombies at Mel’s Dine-In, chainsaw clowns in Springfield USA, and Club Horror in San Francisco. I’m a sucker for some zombies and quite enjoyed that area.

For the houses this year, ten as usual, with five that were based on licensed properties: Fallout, Terrifier, Jason Universe, Five Nights at Freddy’s and WWE Presents: The Horrors of Wyatt Sicks. Then we had five original concepts: El Artista: A Spanish Haunting, Grave of Flesh, Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters, Dolls Play Dead, and Galkn: Monsters of the North. Everybody had their faves but I’m a big Fallout Fan so that won me over just for the concept. All five IP houses were really well done. We did Jason last and, I swear, I’ve never seen so many Jasons jumping out at you at one time! Terrifier didn’t do much for me but neither did the movies. The originals were all great, as usual, and I loved the Dolls Play Dead house (reminded me of what my sister did to my Barbies when I went on a sleepover) and El Artista the most. Grave of Flesh was right up there though. All-in-all, this was a great year for the houses and the scarezones and I can’t wait until 2026!

HHN entrance medallion
Mel's Die-In

After a very long night at HHN, we dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning to go to Epic Universe. And no, there was no way we were making it at Early Park Admission or even near the regular park opening time! Since we’ve been to Epic a few times now, our focus was mainly on the Isle of Berk and Dark Universe. We had lunch at The Atlantic again (so good!) and snacked around the park for dinner. Luckily we caught one of the How to Train Your Dragon Night Lights, Pouncer, while they were visiting with guests. I’d love to see them all at once, super cute and fun to watch!

Pouncer Night Light

The next morning, we were up early and ready to head back to the airport, where we were meeting the Disney Cruise Line transfers to Port Canaveral for our cruise. Normally, we either drive ourselves to the Port or take the Disney transfers from our Disney resort. However, since we were staying at Universal, that wouldn’t work. Using the airport transfers was crazy easy and something I’ll consider doing again for sure. We got there early, they took our luggage so we didn’t have to fool with it again until it showed up in the stateroom, and got us checked in. That meant — nothing else to do when we got to the Port! Whoop whoop! And since we were sailing Concierge level, we got to the Port, went through security, to the Concierge waiting area for like two minutes, and onto the ship! Couldn’t have been any easier!

Being able to board early is so nice and extra sweet since Concierge staterooms are ready for guests to enter earlier too! We hopped on the ship, took some photos in the Grand Hall, and then had a quick lunch at 1923 (Concierge guests only) before heading to our stateroom. We were on deck 13, forward, port side and it was a lovely location for us. Not far from the elevators, short walk to the Concierge pool deck and down a short flight of steps into the Concierge lounge, two decks up from the quick service food (Festival of Foods) and ice cream, and a short ride down to the laundry room (well used by all during this sailing!)

Sailing with Disney is one of my most favorite things to do for a vacation and we definitely had the best time on the Treasure. It is just under a year old and very similar to the Disney Wish (2022) and the newly added Disney Destiny (which just arrived in Port Canaveral today actually!) Our itinerary was a 7-night Eastern Caribbean sailing which had three sea days, a day at Castaway Cay in the Bahamas (Disney’s private island), a day on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, and a day on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. This was our first time on the Eastern itinerary and I would absolutely love to do it again. St Thomas was stunning as was Tortola and having three sea days gave us time to relax and enjoy the ship. We chose to upgrade to a Concierge stateroom since we were sailing to celebrate the Daughter’s 21st birthday. Nothing like celebrating #21 with free alcohol in the evenings at the Concierge lounge! Seriously though, Concierge is such an upgrade, to which nothing compares. You get so many upgrades like:

  • book excursions and activities first (which means that’s about the only way you can book a cabana on Disney’s private islands)
  • getting to board first
  • Welcome lunch after boarding
  • upgraded in-room toiletries
  • upgraded bedding including a king bed
  • stocked in-room mini-fridge with sodas and waters
  • access to the keyed Concierge lounge for sodas, juices, waters, coffee drinks, tea, snacks, desserts, appetizers, alcohol (free during happy hour!), and so much more
  • access to the keyed Concierge sun deck which has upgraded furniture, upgraded towels, sodas/waters, smoothies, cool washcloths, sunscreen products, hot tubs, and a super fun splash type pool
  • early entry to the nightly shows in the Walt Disney Theatre (best seating!)
  • complimentary popcorn for the shows (movies and theatre shows or just whenever)
  • upgraded table locations in the three main dining rooms, putting you closer to the shows
  • Concierge team members to help with anything you might need during your sailing
  • Private character meets in the lounge
  • Etc!

And talk about spoiled… when you get off the ship, going back to reality definitely stinks! But being onboard with Disney and having that access is truly worth every penny. We spent so much time out on the Concierge sun deck and I can’t tell you how much popcorn and waters we went through. The ships are very large and being able to come back to that little slice of paradise (which was never even remotely crowded, sometimes we were all alone!) was heavenly. The Concierge folks always know your name too and that extra touch is just magical.

Drinks galore!
Concierge splash pool, the seat has water that runs down your back into the pool
Concierge sun deck
Concierge sun deck

We did actually pull ourselves off of decks 12 and 13 every once in a while for breakfast and lunches in Marceline Market (the buffet), a lovely brunch at the adult only restaurant called Palo, watching the shows at night, doing some shopping, enjoying the Haunted Mansion Parlor (no words to describe how perfect this place is!), and so.much.trivia! Oh yeah, and the laundry. So.much.laundry, lol. We love playing trivia on Disney cruises and there was some stiff competition this time around. Every trivia we played was packed and you usually had to know all the answers to even have a chance. Craziness! We played everything from 80s music trivia to general trivia to Disney movie trivia and came so close to winning but alas, never took home a medal. We did win a new game called ‘Go Fetch’ though and got medals for that (woo-hoo!). This game was kind of like Let’s Make a Deal (for those of you old enough to know what that is) where Monty would go out into the audience and ask for anyone who had a particular item. This game gave you points for everything you brought/did to the host, like being the first one to bring him three shoes, or a wedding ring, or to sing him a song, etc. I have never hustled so fast in my life! And next time I’ll know, bring a pocketbook with more random stuff in it!

The main dining rooms on this ship are 1923, Worlds of Marvel, and Coco. This is where you go each evening for dinner and some are open for a sit-down breakfast and/or lunch as well. We had each location twice plus a third night at Worlds of Marvel that was Pirate Night. My favorite theme was the Coco restaurant (visually stunning) but I probably like the food in the Marvel restaurant the best. Each night had a different menu with all types of food to choose from. I will say, do not ever order Linguini Nero if that is an option. Guess what that is? Squid ink pasta. And yes, it is disgusting. I took one for the team, by accident, and can confidently say it needs to be removed from the options. The picture below is the ofrenda at the Coco restaurant.

Coco ofrenda

The nightly shows were Moana, Beauty and the Beast, and Disney Seas the Adventure. Of course, all were superb. It was extremely rocky on the Moana show night so they had to switch the ending a bit (and I’ve heard the other ending was better) but our show was phenomenal. Zero complaints. The actors in these productions are amazing and do incredible work despite the rest of us feeling like we’re rolling out of our seats! There was also a magician onboard, Jessica Jane, and she was quite fun to watch as well. We saw her twice, once in the main theatre and a second time at an adults-only show.

We were on a Halloween on the High Seas sailing which means Halloween activities happen during the cruise, most of which we didn’t participate in (darn lounge, lol). We did, however, do the trick-or-treating on the pool deck and got so much candy! It was like Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Magic Kingdom but at sea… a great time. The characters were out in their Halloween costumes for pictures and such as well, looked like a lot of fun for everyone.

For our Castaway Cay day, we did have one of the coveted cabanas so the day was spent there. Ours was at Serenity Bay, the adult beach, so we spent a good deal of time floating out in the water with the included raft/tube rentals and then the rest of the time lounging in the cabana with the included drinks and snacks. Breaking for lunch was nice too and we were golf-carted over to the restaurant to enjoy that when hunger hit. One of the things I also really like about the cabanas is the freshwater shower at the cabana itself. I hate being sticky with ocean water so having that right at my fingertips is very welcome. Endless towels, cool washcloths, drinks, and comfy furniture with shad doesn’t hurt either! We also saw the new cabanas that Disney is building on Castaway Cay between the existing family beach ones and the adult beach. These look super cute and should definitely help availability since it is near impossible to get one now!

Our two port days were Tortola and St Thomas. We had never been to either so we were quite excited to be able to see those islands. Tortola was beautiful and we had an excursion to Jost Van Dyke for a beach day on that island. We went there via a catamaran ride of about 30 minutes, then an open-air truck for maybe 10 more minutes. The road to get from the marina to the beach was no joke! Straight up and down the mountainside. When we got to the beach spot on White Bay Beach, we were dropped off near the famed Soggy Dollar Bar (currently closed for renovations). The beach was really pretty and so was the water, except for the seaweed. This has been a rough year for seaweed in Mexico and the Caribbean and we unfortunately got that on this beach day too. The folks there did a great job trying to keep it cleaned up though compared to a lot that I’ve seen, so kudos to them for that. It didn’t put too big of a damper on the day. We took the catamaran back to the ship, avoiding the rum punch and therefore major seasickness, and grabbed a few souvenirs at the port before re-boarding.

At St. Thomas, we had a three-part excursion booked. The first stop was Drake’s Seat, high atop the island with excellent views of Magens Bay, where we were headed for stop number two. When we got to Magens Bay, we were blown away by how pretty the entire area was and how clear the water was. We stayed in the water for our entire time there, only hopping out for a quick rinse to throw our regular clothes back on. While out in the water, the Daughter and I even saw sea turtles swimming (in the wild!) right near us. That couldn’t be beat. The last stop was back down near the ship with a ride up the mountain again in the Skyride. This was a little nerve-wracking (let’s just say the Skyride is an old system) but we made it up, experienced some incredible views, and then headed back down to the ship.

After a week on the Treasure, it was time to debark and head home. JetBlue had a little bit of a flight issue (lost a knob, go figure) so we returned home about four hours later than planned. Not a huge problem though as we got some flight credits that I used to book our next flights down to Orlando in December!

Next stop, Hilton Head then back to Disney in December! Stay tuned! I’ll leave you with my favorite towel animal from the cruise!

xoxo, Amber

Back to the Florida sun!

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

In late June, the fam and I hit the road to Orlando to enjoy a week at Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando. Our plan was two nights at Disney’s Boardwalk resort, two nights at Disney’s Polynesian Village resort, and two nights at Helios Grand at Universal. Adding those three hotels to the hotel for the drive to Florida and the hotel for the drive back home to Virginia, five hotels in a week was A LOT. We’re experts at switching hotels and keeping things moving though, so we managed the transitions with relative ease. It’s funny though, our challenge became finding laundry facilities at the different stops to keep our clothes clean and fresh. Florida in June is no joke when it comes to heat and humidity and, as a result of those two fun things, sweat. Lots of sweat. We also had pool time and went to Volcano Bay at Universal, so wet bathing suits needed attention as well. I’m happy to report that we succeeded in finding laundry rooms at each spot and did the needful. Adulting is hard!

The hotels… all three were exactly what we needed for that portion of the trip! Boardwalk was the perfect location to start our trip, since our first Disney day was at Epcot and the second was at Hollywood Studios. Both of these are right near Boardwalk, with Epcot being a super short walk to the park and Hollywood Studios being a quick boat ride over. Our third Disney day was Animal Kingdom, then the move to the Polynesian Village resort, and the evening at Magic Kingdom. The last Disney day was spent oh so happily in the pool at the Polynesian and exploring the resort.

We stayed in the new Island Tower at the Polynesian resort, which is to the far left of the resort and very close to the Wedding Pavilion and the Grand Floridian resort. This resort was built in the area that the Spirit of Aloha luau show used to occupy. We’ve stayed at the Polynesian several times but staying in the Tower was **chef’s kiss**. LOVED the room, the Tower, the vibe of the building and the area, and the new Cove pool beside the tower. The original Polynesian resort features rooms in several longhouses but the tower has all of the rooms in the one big, you guessed it, tower. You can’t access any of the rooms or floors of the tower without staying there, which is HUGE for guests. There are four incredible terraces (two on the front and two on the back) that are large open air spaces for guests to relax and enjoy spectacular views. The two on the front of the tower face Magic Kingdom and the Seven Seas Lagoon area and the two on the back face — well construction right now. They face Disney’s Palm golf course and some road construction. The highlight is that you can also see the monorail track and watch those go by quite frequently. Terrace pics are below. Definitely a highlight of staying in the tower!

Bamboo Forest Terrace
Lava Rock Terrace
Lagoon Reef Terrace
Wave Break Terrace

Boardwalk is always so fun and being that close to Epcot is an absolute treat for us since we tend to spent a decent amount of time there. The headboard of the Murphy bed had Max and Goofy, our favorite father/son duo! Our room had a boardwalk view so we were able to sit out and watch the fireworks from Luminous at Epcot one evening. It was the first time we had a boardwalk view there (we have been there many times but with other views from our room) and it was neat to watch all the folks enjoying the boardwalk activities at night. There are street performers, surrey bikes for rent, carnival games, musical acts, etc. and lots of guests come over to experience something a little different on their trips. Epcot was fantabulous as always and dinner at Via Napoli was as delicious as we come to expect. We hit all of our favorite rides and attractions plus grabbed dessert to go from Karamell Kuche in Germany (oh that caramel…) before heading back for the evening.

Boardwalk at night
Max and Goofy

Hollywood Studios always means Star Wars fun for us but we also wanted to see the updated Little Mermaid musical show and the new Villains show. I have to say that the Little Mermaid show has always been a fave of mine but it is so well done now… majorly impressed with the updates. I wasn’t sure what to expect on the Villains show and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. The storyline isn’t the strongest but the effects and stars of the show did a great job. I’m excited to see how it evolves. We also stopped by the Frozen Sing Along show and the Arendelle historians were super funny, more funny than usual I think. Lots of laughs from us for sure! Dinner was at Hollywood & Vine with Minnie and friends and quite yummy. They were offering a discount for annual passholders that we had to take advantage of, us an seemingly everyone else in there! I heard all of the other tables around us saying they were AP holders as well. Too much savings to resist for us I guess!

Villains Unfairly Ever After

We didn’t spent a ton of time in Animal Kingdom but had a great spot to watch Festival of the Lion King and a blast on Flight of Passage. We split up for lunch with the fam having Satu’li Canteen and me heading over for some classic American goodness at Pizzafari. It was nice to take a walk around the park and see some old faves since we don’t typically spend a lot of time there. Animal Kingdom is a beautiful place to spend the day! Our room was ready over at the Polynesian, so we left the park and got set up in our new room. The hubs had a concert at House of Blues at Disney Springs to attend, so the daughter and I headed out to Magic Kingdom for dinner and a little more fun. Crystal Palace hit the spot with their delish buffet plus Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore. We took one last ride on the Rivers of America on the Liberty Belle Riverboat (it closed permanently on July 7th) and hopped on Haunted Mansion (our fave ride!) for a journey through the darkness. It was almost time for Happily Ever After fireworks after that and the mob scene had plugged up all of the Castle hub area, the side bridges, and all the way down Main Street USA, so we hopped on the boat back to our resort. While onboard, the fireworks started and we were able to watch them (with the music piped in while we were parked at the Grand Floridian resort boat dock) from the water. What a lovely way to end the night!

Fireworks from Seven Seas Lagoon
Liberty Belle Riverboat

The next day was our pool day. No parks, just chlorine and sunscreen. The new Cove pool beside the Island Tower was a great way to relax and refresh. Pretty basic pool but with a cute little Moana themed waterplay area for the littles. We got a lunch snack from the Wailulu Bar and Grill at the tower and then ordered in dinner from Giordano’s pizza delivery. I LOVE Giordano’s and try to get it on most of our trips. Always so good! We ended the night with drinks from the main pool bar and our tower terrace exploration.

Moana waterplay area

It was moving time again the next morning so we packed up and headed to Helios Grand to check in. The room wasn’t ready so we hopped on a bus to Volcano Bay for some waterpark fun. The wave pool occupied a good bit of the day before we switched to the lazy river and then the pool. Unfortunately, the Fearless river was closed when we made our way around to it but there was a vicious thunderstorm on the way anyway, so we ended up leaving the park shortly thereafter. Back to Helios, the rain was going crazy and we got soaked trying to get our bags from our van to the hotel. Since we were still in our bathing suits, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been if we were fully dressed.

Dinner that night was at Flora Taverna, a restaurant in Helios. This restaurant was SO good. I’ve been kind of meh about food in Orlando in general lately but Flora Taverna turned that right around! The service and the food was incredible, so much so that we had breakfast there the morning we left to go home. Expensive but worth every penny!

Helios was such a cool hotel! It even had a tablet in the room that you could control the curtains and lights with! Tablets are becoming more the norm for room service, looking at room charges, etc. but this one controlled the tv, the lights and lamps in all the rooms, the curtains, and you could even make requests for more amenities with it!

Helios tablet

Helios is located right at the rear of Epic Universe park and has its own private guest entrance into the park near Dark Universe. For us, that was perfection! Resort guests also get an hour early entry so we headed into the park and spent time in Dark Universe before heading to Super Mario World before the crowds. It was neat to see the park again so soon after our last visit and to see how many things had changed. There were new food stands, new merch, other stores that hadn’t opened yet, better processes for getting on attractions (no more virtual queue for Battle of the Ministry in Harry Potter!), and more. We spent a very full day in the park and ended with the fountain show at closing. Everything was perfect (except the huge thunderstorm but weather is what weather is) even though we didn’t get everything done that we were trying to. Lunch was at The Atlantic restaurant, another one that was new and incredibly good. Reservations required and worth the park time to enjoy the food there. It is hard to be a vegetarian when you don’t eat fake meat or mushrooms, dining options have just migrated to basically those two things as the vegetarian menu ‘option’ but The Atlantic had the most amazing romanesco dish… still thinking about that thing. Back to Epic though, I think the best there is two days but at least a day and a half. It is so hard to try to cram everything into one day. We go back again this fall but will have Express Passes this time, hopefully helping us get a little done for our day at Epic.

Fountain show at Epic
Romanesco dish at The Atlantic
Helios hotel

The drive back home was definitely interesting for us. So much traffic on I-95, which isn’t unusual but never welcome, and then the hubs got hit with apparently food poisoning so I ended up driving the last five hours or so home the next day. At least we take backroads and more local routes for that portion! Next time, we’re flying to Orlando so they won’t be subjected to my driving and musical accompaniment!

xoxo, Amber

Yes, it truly is EPIC!

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe… the newest theme park to open in Orlando in over 25 years! The daughter and I hopped on a flight earlier this month to head down to see if this new park would live up to the hype. The park officially opens on May 22nd, in just a few short days, but they have had preview days available for guests for several weeks. I knew we had to get there and experience as much as we could while the park was still in ‘technical rehearsal’ and before the crowds really poured in. We had two days at Epic and tried to pack in as much as we could. Let’s discuss!

We stayed at Stella Nova, one of the three new hotels right near Universal’s Epic Universe park. This park is part of what they’re calling the “South Campus” about a 15-minute drive from the original parks and resorts, now called the “North Campus”. Stella Nova, Terra Luna, and Helios Grande are the three new resorts that are located steps from Epic Universe. Stella is right across the road, maybe a 5-minute bus ride or you can walk fairly easily. Terra Luna is slightly farther, on the other side of Stella Nova. Helios actually is located at the rear of the park and has an entrance directly into it, for maximum wow factor.

Stella Nova was the perfect property for this trip. Super convenient to the park and didn’t feel overly crowded during our stay. The room had a great view of the park (you can see the Helios hotel to the left and then park goes to its right) and met our needs for the three nights of the visit. And yes, we did stop on the 3rd floor to see the famed “star ceiling” in the hall and it was quite striking! We quite enjoyed the food court for breakfast each day with the best Belgian waffle I’ve had in a long time and breakfast potatoes that were plentiful and delish!

View from Stella Nova room
Stella Nova room
Breakfast
Stella Nova exterior

Before I jump in to the details on Epic, I wanted to point out that the Coke Freestyle machines are super convenient when you purchase one of Universal’s refillable cups, as they can be used throughout the parks. Bonus, they don’t leak like Disney’s tend to do. I love a good Freestyle machine too since you can get a lot more variety and also have flavored waters and lemonades to choose from when you’re burnt out on soda. I also love that these are purchased for daily use, so if you decide you don’t want to reactivate it the next day, you can use it just for ice and water from the machines for free! You can’t beat fresh water and ice for free in a cup that doesn’t leak and is easy to carry! Universal for the win! Plus, three of the Worlds at Epic Universe have special drinks in their Freestyle machines that are unique to that area. Bonus!

When talking about Epic Universe, many people have had a hard time understanding that it is an entire new theme park. This isn’t a new land or section in an existing park, this is a whole new one! It has five Worlds: Celestial Park, How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic, Dark Universe, and Super Nintendo World. You enter a portal when you go into each World, with Celestial Park running up the middle of the park and being the “hub” to the “spokes” of the other four Worlds. This park is huge and really puts the “park” back into the “theme park” concept. Celestial Park is filled with fountains that have water shows and musical scores to accompany them throughout the day. Trees, seating nooks, little gardens, and even a large fountain with surrounding terraced ground seating fill this area. I was impressed by the beauty and thought that went into creating all the little places to tuck away and take a breath from the typical “go, go, go” theme park touring style. There are many food kiosks, for lack of a better word, throughout this section too. Some are more like huts and others larger in size with a variety of snacks and grab-and-go items to enjoy. Frosty Moon is an ice cream shop and it has crazy good ice cream with two unique toppings of your choosing. Don’t miss that one! There are also Coke Freestyle machines throughout and these have the Celestial Spritz exclusive flavor included. I tried this one and wasn’t a fan, a little too orange for me. Pizza Moon was a good food stop here, quick service style where you go in, find a table, and then place your order using a QR code and the Universal Orlando mobile app. These restaurants also have the Freestyle machines inside (bonus again!) The pizza at this joint is quite unique so try something new on your stop!

Celestial Park

As far as attractions, there are two. Stardust Racers is the main attraction and this is a dueling coaster, unlike any other! Two tracks ride side-by-side, over and under each other, on the smoothest ride you’ve ever had on a coaster! We have the less intense “yellow” side and the more intense “green” but both will definitely have you holding on tight! I loved this ride and can’t wait to go back on it again, maybe with enough nerve to try the green side although two times on the yellow was quite the experience!

Stardust Racers

Celestial Park’s second attraction is the Constellation Carousel. This ride is not one to miss! At first I thought, carousel, meh. Then I saw it in person! Truly a sight to behold, this carousel has animals from the constellations that you ride but they don’t go in the traditional boring circular fashion. These actually rise and fall and move in all directions, along with lovely music, in such a graceful way. The animals are lighted and, while we rode it twice, we missed going back at night to see it in all the glistening glory. Each ride seems to have a different movement pattern and music, so you won’t necessarily have the same experience twice! I really liked that the animals held two guests and have actual seat belts, great for the littles. There are also your typical chariot-style animals that are easier to load into that seat two plus a child, all with seat belts. I rode both styles and enjoyed them equally. Pro tip, watch where the animal is mounted to the floor. Look for the ones that are located inside of the circular floor pieces, those move more!

Constellation Carousel

Moving right along, How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk, is a HTTYD’s fan dream come true! As you enter this portal, you feel like you’ve entered Berk and expect to see dragons and vikings all around! You’ll have three rides here, an incredible show, characters walking around, and the opportunity to meet Toothless, the star of the HTTYD franchise. Prepare for LONG waits to meet him though, but it is worth it! The rides are Hiccup’s Wing Gliders coaster, a chance to fly your own dragon on Dragon Racer Rally, and Fyre Drill where you can practice your aim and likely will be soaked as the reward! There’s also the Viking Training Academy play area for the little ones. Lots of snacks and drinks in this area too plus the Freestyle flavor here is Dragon Splash (I did drink a good bit of this one, lol). We spent hours and hours in this World as we are huge HTTYD fans and couldn’t get enough. Even after that, we still didn’t get to do everything!

Next up, Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic. There’s one ride and one show here, neither of which we did. Truth be told, I’m not a huge HP fan so I have a harder time getting into these lands than some others. I will say that the theme throughout this World is incredible and you really do feel like you’ve been transported to Paris. We tried to see the show but waited a very long time and then it ended up being cancelled. Not wanting to wait another 45 minutes, we decided to bail. The ride here was running on a virtual queue during our visit, which was ridiculously hard to get, and I failed at it all of times that I tried. It didn’t help that the ride didn’t open until 3pm each day so space was super, super limited. You were able to walk into a large part of the initial queue without having ride access, so the daughter and I did that. It looks really cool but, unfortunately, we didn’t get to experience. I do know that since we got back, the ride dropped the virtual queue process but the wait times were running in the three to five hour range! I can tell you that I would not have waited that long for any ride, insanity! There are all kinds of shops and snacks in this area too plus new wands and opportunities to cast spells throughout. If you are a HP fan, you will want to spend a good bit of time here!

Dark Universe is the next portal and an absolute piece of art. We had such a good time in here although we tried not to do everything so we could experience more of this area with the hubs when we go back in June. He’s a gigantic horror fan and this section will blow his mind! We did watch the Burning Blade Tavern’s windmill burst into flames a few times (that alone is mind blowing!) and watched several guests getting spun around on the Curse of the Werewolf roller coaster. Not sure that that one will be on our list next time either though for the vomit factor! Monsters Unchained is the main attraction here and OMG was it incredible. I don’t want to say too much because I haven’t shared the deets with the hubs either but this one is a do not miss for sure. The outer building, the queue, the ride itself… all perfection. This will be scary for the little ones so they should skip. You can even get a monster makeover (for a fee) here too and those were looking mighty fine! You’ll have roaming characters here too to interact with, so don’t miss out! Dark Universe has the Coke Freestyle Screaming Berry drink and I failed to try it but will try some next time!

Super Nintendo World is the last of the portals and it lives up to all the hype and then some. We did Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Hollywood last year but it is much smaller than the Orlando version with fewer rides and overall footprint. Orlando also has Donkey Kong Country with the Minecart Madness ride and yes, your cart will jump the broken tracks for some added excitement here! They have two more rides, Mario Kart and Yoshi’s Adventure. Yoshi’s is more for the smaller set but adults will find it a nice relaxing ride with great views of the land. Mario Kart is interactive and gets some big lines but worth it. There is also special food and snacks in this land along with numerous character meets. A huge draw here is the interactive games that you can play if you purchase a Power-Up band. We’re talking punching blocks, collecting coins, etc. just like in the games. I haven’t done this yet but saw so many guests having the time of their lives doing so… one day that will be me having that fun with them!

There is so much to do and see in Epic Universe that you will easily spend a day there. We had two days and still have plenty left to enjoy. These attractions also have staying power in that you won’t feel like they’re “one and dones” meaning you will find yourself wanting to ride some of them over and over. (Unless you’re the daughter who says two times on Stardust Racers pushed her motion sickness to the limit, despite the Dramamine.) I can’t wait to finish exploring Dark Universe and to get back to Berk. I will definitely be on Stardust Racers again and Mario is calling my name to return to Super Nintendo World. I’m sure I’ll get back into the Ministry to see more Harry Potter goodies too and I know that carousel is on the to-do list for next time. If you’re trying to cram it all into one day, you have the option of Universal’s Express Pass service too. That’s an add-on that is fairly pricey but will allow you to use the Express Pass lines at most attractions (Minecart Madness, Battle of the Ministry HP ride, and Dragon Racer’s Rally are all excluded) to use the much shorter access lines. It is only valid for one use per participating attraction though, so keep that in mind. I was very glad to have visited during the previews so the lines were shorter and the park overall had plenty of room to move around and explore. I am hoping that my return next month will be similar but… not sure yet how that’s going to work out. Fingers crossed!

xoxo,

Amber

The best intentions…

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

Here we are again, two trips down and still no blog post. Geez. I have been quite the slacker lately. I guess this will be another ‘hit the highlights’ post and I’ll try to do better next time. 🤞🏻

In January, the fam and I returned to Disney for the International Festival of the Arts at Epcot. The daughter had two days scheduled to work during the festival as a chalk artist on the bridge between World Celebration and World Showcase. This year, she was tasked with working on a reproduction of a Master with a Disney twist each day. She chose two August Macke paintings, Promenade and Walking in the Park, with some color brightening and the addition of Hidden Mickeys. Each piece takes about three hours to complete and are about 3 feet by 4 feet in size. She works so hard on these pieces, as do all of the chalk artists, with hours of prep time and work on the ground to make these pieces come to life for park guests. Kudos to the entire chalk team! 🏆

Our weather this year was wacky with a capital ‘W’! It was so very cold initially with gloves, heavy coats, and hats each day. Then we were quickly approaching shorts weather not three days later. January is definitely a bizarre month for Orlando weather, each year stranger than the one before. We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort for a couple of nights and then moved over to the Boardwalk Inn resort for the rest of the trip. The HVAC system in our room at Caribbean Beach didn’t know what to do with the cold weather… it was super hot in the room when we got there and we had to have maintenance come in to get it down to something tolerable. Then, of course, it was too cold in the room. I’m not sure which I liked less but being cold is just no bueno! The Boardwalk room didn’t have any issues like that, it was lovely and a nice, spacious corner room! 😍

Oh yeah, the temperatures! Guess who got lucky with a Lightning Lane MultiPass for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom on the first trip day? Yep, me! Well… not all lucky because that day might have hit 50 degrees for a high and we all had our winter coats on. When we rode the ride, of course we got completely soaked and were freezing for a good while afterward. I’m not sure that the hubs has forgiven me for that yet. You had to laugh though! I’ve never gotten that wet on the ride but we ended up in the front of the log and it was like the water was just coming straight for us every time. Yep, that’s me in the front! 😂

Other than the weather, it was a great trip! Fast forward to March… the fam plus a niece headed to Hilton Head for a few days at Disney’s Hilton Head Island resort. We’ve been there many times before and it is a great place for a spring break getaway. The weather here was much more cooperative, after a major storm the day we arrived. We had a great couple of days looking for shark teeth on the beach, trying out some local restaurants, and relaxing at the resort. Al’s Aloha Kitchen and their incredible acai bowls never disappoints!

I always feel like I could stay longer there but this year I was a little bit grateful that we didn’t have a longer trip. The pollen was atrocious for some reason! I guess all of the beautiful Live Oak trees decided it was time to spread their neon yellow cheer all over the island because, holy cow, was it everywhere! I had a runny nose and super itchy, red and goopy eyes the whole time we were gone. Not my idea of a fun time! At first I thought it was the sand that blew in my eyes when I might or might not have been crawling around on the beach looking for shark teeth. 🫣🤭But nope, pollen. So.much.pollen! You know who didn’t care about the pollen? This guy. He was eating the little flowery bits causing the pollen! 🤧

Our next journey will be back to Florida this summer to enjoy more time at Disney and stop over at Universal for a day at Epic Universe! I cannot wait to see this new theme park and live out my How to Train Your Dragon dreams!

xoxo, Amber

PS- This post is dedicated to the Oleman. We lost a beloved member of our family in February and will forever miss taking him along on our journeys and spending our days surrounded by his love. 💔

The tale of two trips…

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

Since my last post, I have been back to Disney twice but have neglected to recap my adventures for my loyal readers! Alas, it is time to get the stories told!

The first trip was in late August. This one consisted of just the hubs and I and we took to the road to begin the adventure. When we arrived in Orlando, we spent two nights at one of my favorite places, the Cabins at Fort Wilderness. You’ll remember those from my last post. It was first time that the hubs enjoyed one of the new cabins and he liked it as much as the daughter and I did back in July. Those things are the best! 10 out of 10. After those two nights, we moved over to Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando to spend two more nights. On our last night, we drove up to Jekyll Island in Georgia for a little beach fun before heading home the next day. We were on the move for the whole trip but had a blast!

OK. So Disney first. We did all of the usual Disney things (and saw the renovated Country Bears Jamboree Show) but were also able to enjoy a special after hours event for Disney Vacation Club Members called Moonlight Magic. This one took place at Hollywood Studios from 9:30pm to 12:30am. All of the attractions were open, we got free snacks, there were special dance parties and characters, and even our own special showing of Fantasmic! So cool. These events are super hard to get signed up for nowadays but I’m so glad I secured a spot for us for this one.

Grizzly Hall show theater for Country Bears Jamboree in Magic Kingdom
Moonlight Magic guide
Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway scene

Universal was a blast! Once we hopped over there, we really had a great time in the parks and at Hard Rock. We spent a decent amount of time in the pool there mid-afternoon each day until the rain kicked us out. Our room was as far away from the lobby as it could possibly be, literally at a stairwell, but that was PERFECT! We could go right down that stairwell and pop out at the pool entrance and at a sidewalk that connected directly to the walking path to the parks. Woot! I love it when we get those types of rooms.

We enjoyed a lot of time in the parks, riding the attractions, checking out the new Dreamworks Land, and giving me time to capture some great shots for future marketing. I had a training event at Universal while there so I was able to pick up some new knowledge and talk one-on-one with some of our sales staff in person which is always so valuable! We were also able to get amped up for Halloween Horror Nights by seeing some of the props that were out and ready for the event to officially start — right after we left, of course.

Owl Post
Gringotts ride queue
Wolverine artwork
Po's Training Camp sign in Dreamworks Land

Up at Jekyll Island, we drove in just for the night to see what we could enjoy on our brief stopover. This island is super unique with Driftwood Beach at the north end and has been home to many TV shows and film productions. No shark teeth for me (darn it!) but this was an interesting place to visit and a new type of beach environment for me with the funky water color and driftwood.

Driftwood Beach
Driftwood Beach
Driftwood Beach, tree roots

The second trip was in mid-September. The hubs, the daughter, and I flew down to Orlando to visit Disney and Universal again for her annual birthday trip. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney and Sapphire Falls resort at Universal for this trip. The Front Desk at Animal Kingdom Lodge was able to snag us a partial savanna view for our ‘resort view’ room, which was super and unexpected. Nice birthday bonus!

Partial savanna view at Animal Kingdom Lodge
Partial savanna view at Animal Kingdom Lodge at sunset

We enjoyed some time at all four parks during our two nights there plus hit Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom on our last night. It was fantastic, as always! Maybe even better than our last one because we scored a super spot for the Boo to You parade on Main Street right across from Casey’s Corner. We had to grab it EARLY but it was worth it. That is our most favorite parade of all of them in the parks. I love seeing the Headless Horseman go by and the Haunted Mansion ghosts!

Headless Horseman
Haunted Mansion ghosts

When we went over to Universal, our room took a while to be ready (because it was a huge Sapphire Suite!) so we spent the afternoon at the pool there. I really liked this pool as it had a neat raised up area across the middle of the pool to act like a bridge/path to get from one side of the pool to the other. The water across is very shallow so you can walk across the pool to find more seating, the restaurant, get to the water slide entrance, etc. Since our room wasn’t ready, we used the Fitness Center showers and changing areas which were very convenient for this purpose.

Sapphire Suite living room
Sapphire Suite king bedroom
Sapphire Suite dining table

Once the room was ready, we got settled in. The daughter, being in college, had some school work to do so she got a big room service order for dinner and got to work. The hubs and I packed up and headed to Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights. Truth be told, work or no, the daughter didn’t want anything to do with Halloween Horror Nights anyway. This was my first time at HHN so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I decided to splurge and get a RIP Tour for us so we could skip all the lines for the houses and get up close seating for the Nightmare Fuel Nocturnal Circus show. This was EXCELLENT! I will be going to HHN next year and we will be doing a RIP Tour again for sure. There are two types, private and non-private. Non-private was what we did, with like 8-10 other people. Our guide was Jason from NJ and he was the best! We finished five of the ten houses in the first hour! We started at 6pm and were totally done by 9pm with all houses and Scare Zones done plus two decent breaks. Then Jason led us over to the show location and put us right in the second and third rows, super close to the stage. After the show was over, we were on our own to continue exploring and had the use of Express Pass for the attractions. Normally, the hubs goes alone and gets the Express Pass for the houses, gets started around 6pm, but doesn’t get finished until like 1am and doesn’t get to see the show (you need to line up early to get a spot). We were done and on the way back to the hotel by like 10:30pm. Amazing!

Let’s dip into the details on HHN. So ten houses and five Scare Zones. Food stands featuring event-themed items for purchase. Merchandise throughout the parks including the famous Tribute Store inside of Universal Studios. Most attractions remain open for the event. The Scare Zones are located in different places in the parks. They had a big one when you first entered the park where some Scare Actors ‘greeted’ the guests with chainsaws and some chasing. There was another themed like a medieval torture faire and one with characters from the Blumhouse films like M3GAN, Black Phone, The Purge, etc. I also enjoyed the zombies in the Swamp of the Undead and probably should’ve gone through it a second time. (Huge Walking Dead fan here.) The Scare Actors have the best costumes and makeup, really movie quality. I don’t know how they pull it off in the Orlando heat. The houses are either based on recent horror movies like A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Insidious: The Further, etc. or original content like Triplets of Terror, Slaughterhouse Cinema 2, and Goblin’s Fest. The houses are like big mazes with Scare Actors that come out at you when you going through, props, excellent sets, fog, sounds (or no sound, in the case of A Quiet Place), etc. You get very immersed in each house as you go through it. Movie quality for sure! Then we have Nightmare Fuel Nocturnal Circus. This is best described as Cirque du Soleil meets a burlesque show. There is fire, acrobatics, aerials, stunts, dancing, and more. Definitely a must see for any HHN guest. By the way, guests are recommended to be 14 and up for this event by Universal. I did see smaller kids there, including the poor little boy crying his eyes out after going into the first Scare Zone, so keep that in mind. I also know of some younger teenagers who love scary movies that didn’t do so when the scary movie on the screen was now in person and in your face holding a chainsaw. The Scare Actors aren’t allowed to touch you, and you are forbidden from touching them, but they do get close.

Scare Actor
M3GAN
Food offering sign
Halloween Horror Nights entrance sign

Phew! That was a lot of recap! Two trips in the span of a couple of weeks might leave you thinking, how do you have enough to do each time? In reality though, we did completely different things on each trip and still left with a few things we didn’t get around to (here’s looking at you, Dead Coconut Club).

We’ll be back in Florida in January (that seems like forever!) but have some fun planned between now and then. Stay tuned!

xoxo,

Amber

The bliss of a cabin in the (Fort) Wilderness…

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

The daughter and I packed up and headed south to Florida shortly after the 4th of July. This wasn’t our first trip to the “Most Hot and Humid Place on Earth in the summer” and it won’t be our last! This stay was split between time at the brand new Disney Vacation Club (DVC) Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and a beautiful one-bedroom villa at Disney’s Riviera resort. We flew down to Florida on Breeze Airways, our first time on that airline, nonstop from Richmond to Tampa. And yes, I am familiar with the geography of Florida and realize that Tampa is a solid hour to an hour and a half from Disney. I wanted to try this airline out and had some time to spare so Breeze and Tampa it was! I did discover that while Breeze was fine, flying into Tampa wasn’t really for me, especially after a pile of delays getting to Tampa (and an arrival that was well after midnight) then a rainy drive in the dark for an hour+ in a rental car. Ah, things sound so much better in my head sometimes…

We finally arrived at Fort Wilderness in the wee hours of the morning (like 2:30-3am I think) and checked into our incredible cabin. There have been wilderness cabins at Fort Wilderness for years and I have stayed in one of the original ones, but these new DVC cabins are replacing the original ones. During our trip, only one loop of the new cabins was open and we were so very lucky to get one of those. Let me tell you, these things are stunning. They fit so well into the vibe of the Fort and the outdoors from the look of the cabins, the incredible amount of windows, and all the furnishings and fixtures inside. The new cabins still have a queen bed and set of bunks in the bedroom but the old pull-out sofa has been replaced by a new queen-size Murphy bed that is a sofa by day and pull-down bed by night. So much more comfortable than the original pull-outs with the bars (anyone who has slept on a sofa bed knows exactly what I’m talking about!) The bathroom was relocated to the opposite end of the cabin and expanded for so much more room when getting ready in the morning. I LOVED the floor to ceiling windows in the living room/kitchen area and the high windows in the bedroom that could let the light in each day. I don’t think I would change a thing about these (except to add a washer/dryer) and can’t wait for all of the original cabins to be replaced!

One of our favorite things about staying at the Fort is renting a golf cart and just riding around. It’s fun to look at the campsites that others have decorated for their stays, to be able to head to Trail’s End and grab Mickey waffles in the morning, and to have our own private transport from the main bus stop back to our cabin each evening. At about $70/night after tax, these are well-worth the convenience and fun they provide!

Our park day was a bit limited on this trip, in part because of the heat/humidity and in part because the daughter was knee-deep in two summer college courses. We spent a good bit of the time in the cabin working (a travel agent’s work is never done!) and relaxing. It was simply divine! We did go to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios though during the trip and enjoyed our time in each, as always. Epcot provided delicious dinner at Via Napoli and Magic Kingdom offered up tasty delights at Crystal Palace. We ordered pizza in one evening from Giordano’s (our fave!) while at the cabin too and that was scrumptious as always.

We were able to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom and loved it! I was never a big fan of Splash Mountain but love the refreshed storyline and new audio-animatronics in this version. We didn’t even get that wet (bonus!)

Once we moved over to the Riviera resort (no more golf cart, boo!), it was a nice upgrade to be in a one-bedroom villa. I decided to split my stay because the one thing missing from the cabin was a washer and dryer and we really needed clean clothes with the heat. I am a laundry nut while on vacation and I really miss it when I don’t have that available. Once we moved over to Riviera, we really went into relax mode. We still hit the parks, as mentioned, but also enjoyed our time together and at Primo Piatto, the super quick service location at Riviera. That little spot puts out some amazing food on the go.

After a couple of days at Riviera, it was time to make the drive back to Tampa to fly home. Knowing that I-4W gets very congested, we decided to leave super early and make a pit stop at the Lakeland Antique Mall in Lakeland (imagine that). This was about 35-minutes or so from Disney (depending on traffic). I tell you, we almost needed pulled out of there. Everything under the sun can be found in that place, especially if you’re a gigantic Disney fan. So much memorabilia (for sale and just for show) plus your usual antiques are packed into every corner. If you’ve ever been to Roundup Rodeo BBQ in Hollywood Studios, you’ll remember the “paper” plates you’re given to eat on. These look like your typical paper plate but they’re actually ceramic. I LOVE those plates and they actually had a stack of them available to purchase. Of course, I came home with two, LOL.

After the antique mall, we hopped back in the car to Tampa. And of course, congestion had set in by then and we were in for a very long ride back to the airport. So much for just another 45 minutes or so! When we finally got back to Tampa, it was again pouring rain but luckily cleared in time for our flight to leave with only an hour or so delay.

Always a glutton for punishment, I’m headed back to Orlando later this month and again in September, so heat and humidity… here I come (again!)

xoxo,

Amber

Fun times on the Isle

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

Not long after coming home from Colorado, we celebrated The Daughter’s first college graduation — Associates Degree is complete! The next weekend, the van was packed and we were on the way to the lovely Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina. This has been our go-to beach for years and years and we couldn’t wait to return for another week of fun in the sun.

A couple of days before leaving, I got a call that our rental home wasn’t going to be available for our stay. 😱After a couple of minutes to process what was happening, I hopped online to find a replacement. It was nothing short of a miracle that there was a fantastic option still available and we had it secured within an hour or so. Phew! Crisis averted. Just a brief panic attack, no biggie.

Arriving at Ocean Isle is like coming home every time. The familiar sights driving into Shallotte, going over the bridge to the island, and then looking at all the house numbers until you find this year’s home base… gotta love it. We hit the jackpot with the last minute house swap. The original one was being renovated and the renovations were running late, thus the reason to have to move. Our replacement was just about a block from the original but the replacement was oceanfront! In all the years we’ve gone to Ocean Isle, we have never stayed oceanfront and it was divine! S-P-O-I-L-E-D now! 😎

So the house. Oceanfront. Very newly renovated and beautiful. Six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a gorgeous view of the beach, and three outside cats! We are all a bunch of huge cat fans and to find three beauties hanging out at the house was a treat! You can bet they were well cared for during our stay with a big bag of food left for the next guests (I hope they did their duty!) The bedrooms were huge, ours had a king bed and a full bed and still had room to walk. With everyone having their own room and bathroom, it was plenty of space and then some for our party of eight. Technically the house sleeps 22 guests but that’s a whole lotta people to have in the same space for a week. Being able to get up in the morning and walk down our own path straight to the beach was incredible. Then coming back to the house afterward and having our own gazebo to drop our supplies and a few different outside shower options was so nice. The homeowners really thought of all the little things that help you have the best time possible. My only real complaint? The refrigerator, lol. It was one of the side-by-side style and it just didn’t hold much. I can’t imagine 22 people using that fridge, that’s for sure. The eight of us had it packed full. If that’s all I had to complain about, then I’d say we were doing pretty good. 🤣

We had several nice meals out, probably my faves were Lucca in Shallotte and The Boundary House in Calabash. Lots of Sunset Slush italian ice was consumed by our crew too. The Town of Ocean Isle has been working on a fabulous new town park and it had the grand opening right before our arrival (what timing!) and we enjoyed visiting that a few times. It is a great space for families and groups to come together for some playtime on the climbing and zip line equipment, at the bocce ball court, in the fountains at the splash pad, or at one of the performances or festival events. Kudos to the town for putting that in. When we visited a lifetime ago, that spot was where the Ocean Isle Beach water slide was located and it has been gone for years. I’m happy to see it being used for the new generation of visitors.

Another wonderful beach getaway is in the books and we already have our time (at that house!) reserved for next year. Can’t wait to be back at OIB!

xoxo,

Amber

Rocky Mountains and ghost stories

/ Amber Benson / Leave a comment

In early May, the hubs and I packed up and headed west to Colorado. His most favorite band ever, Clutch, was playing a special two-night event at The Stanley hotel in Estes Park and we knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime must-do. Besides being a Clutch fan since the beginning, the hubs is also a huge horror and Stephen King fan. Since Stephen King was inspired to write his novel, The Shining, after a stay at The Stanley in the 1970s, this had always been on his bucket list of places to visit. More on The Shining and Stephen King later.

We arrived in Denver super late and grabbed an airport hotel for the night. The next morning, we headed out toward Lyons to make a stop at the original Oskar Blues restaurant location. Oskar Blues is a craft brewery that started in Colorado and has a restaurant in Lyons serving up some amazing food. We actually ate there on the way back through to Denver on the day we flew home as well. Delish food and friendly service. It didn’t hurt that right next door was Lyons Classic Pinball so that made for an easy add-on to our plans for our departure day. The hubs loves Clutch, horror, Stephen King, craft beer, and pinball so we were really ticking off all the boxes on this trip!

After Lyons, we drove ‘the scenic route’ to Estes Park via Route 7. This stretch is gorgeous with several places to pull off and admire the scenery. Snow-capped peaks, wildlife, rivers, lakes… nature’s beauty all around! We returned to Denver same way to be able to enjoy the sights again before flying home.

Once we arrived in Estes Park, it was quickly clear we were in some kind of magical place. I saw elk lounging in the grass before we ever got near the hotel. A cute little downtown area, shops, even a Sinclair gas station were all spotted in minutes. As we pulled up to The Stanley though, we knew we had truly arrived. The hotel was just as stunning as it is in pictures. With the Rockies behind and around, red roof buildings standing out among the evergreens… stunning. We could not wait to hop out of the rental car and get settled in. The funny thing is, Estes Park is at about 7,500 feet above sea level, so the altitude will quickly stop you from hopping around too much, lol. Denver, being referred to as the ‘Mile High City’ comes in at 5,280 feet (of course) and Longs Peak, the highest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, comes in at 14,259. Coming from Virginia where our closest mountain peak isn’t even 1,500 feet above sea level, the altitude change rapidly becomes apparent.

Check in was smooth and we made our way over to a separate building next door to the main hotel called The Lodge at The Stanley. The top floor of this smaller building was our home for the next two nights. We chose the Lodge instead of the main building because the main building is the ‘haunted’ one, or so we thought. Turns out, the Lodge has its own haunted room and weird happenings so we weren’t free from the spooky after all! The room was lovely though and had windows that actually opened (a rarity these days) so I was able to enjoy the cool breeze in the evenings while the hubs rocked out at the Concert Hall. Surprisingly, we were on the side of the Lodge building that faces the Concert Hall, so I was able to hear the entire concert both nights and he was just a short walk (albeit uphill) back to the room.

So back to Stephen King. He stayed at The Stanley back in the 1970s when it was going through a tough financial period. The hotel has a long history going back to the turn of the century as a guest house for F.O. Stanley and his family. F.O. had moved to Estes Park, expecting to die from tuberculosis, but instead being healed by the pristine mountain air. He was very wealthy, having been an inventor with his brother, F.E. Stanley. They developed a photography process known as dry plate which they sold to Kodak and then later Stanley automobiles. Once he moved to Estes Park, he needed a place for his rich friends to stay when they visited (since Estes Park was very remote) so he built the hotel building as a guest house. Over the years, it became a regular hotel but was only open during the summer season due to the snow that happens in the area and not being able to travel out to Estes Park in the winter. As one can imagine, running a huge hotel for a couple of months a year and having to shutter it for the rest of the year isn’t financially practical, so it fell into disrepair about the time Stephen King was there. He actually stayed the night before the hotel was closing for the winter but he begged the staff to let his family stay there since there was no where else to go. His family were the only guests there that night and they stayed in famed room 217. Whatever he saw, felt, experienced that night is what inspired him to writing his next novel called ‘The Shining’. The book later became a movie directed by Stanley Kubrick and starred Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. This version was filmed largely on a movie lot in England but the exterior shots were of a hotel called the Timberline Lodge in Oregon. The original ax from the movie is in a safe at the Stanley.

Stephen King hated Kubrick’s version and decided to film his own version as a miniseries at the real Stanley hotel. This was released in 1997 and starred Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay. Through the miniseries, King was able to move the picture closer to his original story. The Stanley hotel offers ‘Shining Tours’ to talk about King, the movie and miniseries, and some basic hotel information which we found very informative. I also went on a night tour of the hotel which was focused on the ‘spirited’ aspects of the property. Luckily (unluckily?) I didn’t have any personal paranormal experiences during the tour or our visit. It did snow a bit that night when the tour started, which was neat to see (before we scrambled back indoors!)

Why do I keep saying this hotel is haunted? Well, there have been many, many sightings and experiences at the hotel by guests and employees over the years that support the theory that the hotel has some guests that remain. While no one has died tragically at the hotel, it is believed that these spirits have returned to the Stanley as somewhere they remember fondly from their past to remain in their afterlife. This story from Uncover Colorado gives you the scoop on some of the ‘visitors’. I will tell you, the creepy feeling definitely takes you over in certain places!

The hotel doesn’t have the hedge maze or animal topiaries from the movie and miniseries but it does have the miniature hotel from the miniseries and a new mini-maze (that the elk keep eating) plus a delicious brunch right at the Lodge building. You

can also tell that wildlife come right up to the hotel from the prints in the dirt leading up to the main building.

In the evening, the hubs had concert bliss and I explored the hotel and enjoyed some downtime. During the day, we ventured to the entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park, a very short drive from the hotel. We had the best time in the Park and enjoyed looking at wildlife (deer, elk, coyote, birds), seeing the snowy mountain tops, the huge rocks, and lakes. We had dinner at a small Italian place in the downtown area along a river, and meandered around the hotel grounds together. It was such a perfect getaway!

After we got back into Denver, we had a little more time to burn so we drove through the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. It was hard to believe such a cool place was right there beside a huge city and an airport! This is an 11-mile drive through a wildlife refuge home to bison, prairie dogs, birds, deer, coyote and more. Don’t pet the fluffy cows! This bison picture is not zoomed!

If you’re ever in the Denver area, you definitely should drive through and see these beautiful creatures for yourself!

After a super late flight home and never enough sleep, we made it back to Virginia the next day. Back to the lower altitude and familiar surroundings. I would love to visit Estes Park and The Stanley again!

xoxo,

Amber