Well, what more can I say about this trip? I mean, you all helped me out after the last chapter with comments regarding cherishing the moments, and how much our time together meant to everyone, and treasuring the memories. At the very least, it was an amazing couple of weeks that will be remembered for a long, long time.
First, Lauren celebrated her high school graduation with a 3-night trip to New York City with her mom. Their itinerary has been nearly copied by
Adventures by Disney, with accommodations at the Manhattan Club and adventures which included touring Rockefeller Center, being a Today Show tourist, a boat trip past the Statue of Liberty, and the highlight of the trip: seeing "Wicked".
Then, we all enjoyed some concentrated family-time togetherness (which is another way of saying we
drove), heading to Disney's Vero Beach resort for a few days of fun at the beach. We experienced the highlight of our stay there when we got to see a mama turtle laying her ping-pong ball eggs in a sandy nest on the beach in the dark of night.
And finally, we met Poppy and Gram at Walt Disney World to help celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary, and for some memory-making across the generations. I got to show Poppy and Gram how the Animal Kingdom Lodge complex has grown since they were there last in 2001, and in the parks Gram reminded us that they were there "to do stuff"! The weather wasn't ideal, with Tropical Storm Debby dumping a deluge, but in the end it really was for the best, as it kept the temperatures down to some tolerable levels for Poppy and Gram. We had a relaxed touring pace that worked for all for all of the different speeds in our group -- the kids could go off on their own while the rest of us found attractions to suit the older folks. We weren't always together for a great big group picture at every Photopass photographer that we passed, but that was all right. We stuck with our first-night tradition of seeing YeeHaa Bob and he was a hit with my parents, as I expected. Later in the week, the ladies made memories over tea, getting all gussied up and visiting the Grand Floridian. But some of my favorite times at Disney have always been in the restaurants, and for this trip we hit some of our old favorites and a couple of new spots, which didn't disappoint: 50's Prime Time, Flying Fish, Boma, Biergarten, and the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show.
Looking back, that was a whole lot of ground to cover. No wonder it took me two years to tell the tale!
We really made full use of our Disney Vacation Club membership with this trip, with a trade-out to the Manhattan Club in New York City, trying a new resort for us in Vero Beach, and getting a 2-bedroom savanna-view suite at our home resort, Kidani Village. I am so glad that we decided to buy into Disney Vacation Club back in 2008 -- there's no way we could have swung a trip like this without it. In fact, I looked at rack rates the other day for those rooms for the same time of year, and in 2014 the lodging for this trip (if no discounts could be found) would cost...well, maybe it's not good form to list an amount, but suffice it to say, it's a very, very large sum. <cough> 5 figures <cough>
Judy and I are heading to Disney's Hilton Head Island resort this Saturday to enjoy a week of relaxation, lowcountry-style. I think that I'll probably write a little trip report on that when I get back, so be on the lookout. In the meantime though,
follow me on Instagram (username is glennbo123, same as the DIS) and get some updates in real-time!
One good piece of news for the trip is that I checked for potential tropical storm activity yesterday on NOAA.gov and saw this:
Another order of business is to wrap-up the Judy game
. Thanks to all who played along, I hope you had fun with it. It looks like Marv is our big winner
, so Marv, drop me a pm with your address so that I can send you a little prize.
Seeing how this report went on for so long and you may have forgotten all of the high's and higher high's, (what low's?), let's end with a parade of some of my favorite pictures:
Judy and Lauren had a great time in New York City
Vero Beach was an enjoyable side-trip before we got to DisneyWorld
Maryann put the "cast" in cast member and turned up just about everywhere
Turtle walks were a time for rocking out and getting back to nature
The beach was beautiful at sunrise
Butt we learned that copious dews water the earth by night
We had great accommodations at Vero
and Kidani
continued in next post
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