Mini Mostly Off-Property Trip Report
Just pulled back into the office after a long weekend of helping good friends with their booth at the Scrapbook Expo at Gaylord Palms.
I drove down early Thursday morning and arrived at AK (annual pass) at about 1pm. I snacked on some fries with pork and cheese from Flame tree and hit up FP for Dinosaur, Everest, a quick spin on Triceratops Spin to kill time, and then a FP for the Safari and a walk through the Jungle Trek. It was VERY hot. Like melting hot. I was out of there by 4 and drove very quickly to the Melia in Celebration where we had our room booked for the long weekend.
I was very pleased with this place for a few reasons. We had gotten a very good rate booked pretty far in advance. We had a 2 bedroom suite (4 adults who hadn't ever roomed together and were not related.) It had a bedroom with a king bed, desk and full bathroom and a bedroom with 2 queens and it's own bathroom. A large den and a FULL kitchen. It also had two balconies, one being a corner one with a table and 4 chairs. It was very close to ESPN Sports complex (as in closer than an on property hotel) if you needed to be focused in that area. We faced the street but did not notice except for the occasional ambulance. It had a nice pool and an ok restaurant on site (that we used for some pretty good pizza and just fair drinks by the pool one day.) I was really pleased with this place considering I am an on-property snob for the most part. But my hotel was paid by the group I was working for and it was perfect for our group.
After arriving I helped my group unload and we had some drinks and spent about an hour trying to decide what was for dinner lol. One of the ladies' husband was our own personal "uber" for the weekend since the rest of them flew in and we didn't all fit in my truck. He ended up ordering some pizzas from Uno and bringing them back for us. We ate them on the balcony and they were great.
Friday and Saturday we spent all day at the Gaylord VERY busy with the convention (my feet still hurt from standing in the booth all day.) Just a note, yes this place is pretty neat inside but the prices for food and drink and parking rival Disney-sheesh. Oh and there were 20,000 scrapbookers and 20,000 cheerleaders ;)
Friday night we had a lovely dinner and drinks at Imperium Wine Bar in Celebration and Saturday night we had a very good Indian dinner at Ataj right across the street from the hotel. (I was a skeptic but it was very tasty.)
Sunday we lounged by the pool and had the above mentioned pizza for lunch before gathering our tired selves for showers and heading to Disney Springs. I hadn't been here in a long long time. Think maybe 3-4 years? I was pretty shocked. Lots to see and do (and eat and drink and shop) and for a Sunday night it was packed. We had a round of drinks a Jock Lindsays, dinner at Bongos and then gelato while listening to some live music. It was a little cooler after dinner (thankfully) but by 9pm we we were dead.
I headed out at 5:45am this morning and was back at my office by 2pm (so sad.)
