Florida 2020: Hilton Grand Vacations at Sea World Orlando

Dan has achieved diamond status at Hilton Hotels, so we usually prefer to stay with the brand. In recent years, we’ve discovered Hilton Grand Vacations. Grand Vacations is Hilton’s timeshare properties. We have zero interest in buying into a timeshare, but we have learned that you can still rent timeshare properties, without having to be an official timeshare owner.

The Hilton Grand Vacation resorts are fabulous. The rooms are suites and the amenities are plentiful. For three nights, we stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacation at Sea World Orlando. The hotel is just minutes from Sea World, practically walking distance, and a very short drive from Universal Orlando. It’s in a great location.

Here is a picture of the lobby.

The only minor inconveniance of staying at a Grand Vacation resort is there will be an obligatory sales pitch. They will offer you theme park tickets and other perks for attending a timeshare presentation. Luckily, they usually take no for an answer. At this resort they didn’t even try calling the room with a second pitch.

Our experience with Grand Vacations has been consistent. The rooms have all looked the same. This time we booked a one room suite ( we get a two room with the kids)- it has a large kitchen that is stocked with all of the utensils, a washer/dryer, soaking tub, large living room, and a balcony. It’s really an apartment with plenty of room to spread out. I love having the ability to do our laundry and Hilton includes enough detergent for two loads.

The resort is huge, but we were given a prime spot near the pool. With various Covid restrictions in place, the pool was a pleasant experience. It’s hard to believe, but it was our first time in a pool in 2020. We had no problem finding lounge chairs, which were sanitized between guests. Announcements were made to stay spaced out, so we had a sense of privacy while sunbathing and we pretty much had our own little corner of the pool. The only difficulty with social distancing was keeping kids from playing near us. It’s easy to forget about distancing when you’re outside and having fun. Luckily, most parents were vigilant.

We used the concierge to purchase one-day tickets to Sea World. They made it seem like they were giving us a special rate, but the deal was no better than anyone could purchase online. If you stay here, I’d recommend purchasing tickets in advance, rather than waiting to do it at the hotel.

The hotel is surrounded by every conceivable type of dining option. On our first night, we were in the mood for Italian food and discovered Mia’s Italian Cuisine. I had never heard of Mia’s before, but it is part of a chain of restaurants that includes one of my other favorites. Cafe Tu Tu Tango. We happened to visit Mia’s on the first day that they had opened for dining since Covid. They were low on staff and very apologetic. The restaurant is glamorous with Italian art on the ceiling and chandeliers made from wine bottles.

We pigged out on pasta, cannolis, and a chocolate soufflé. It was absolutely delicious and we look forward to dining here again in the future. The manager at Mia’s personally served us and she was awesome.

There was a seafood restaurant near Mia’s that had the best delivery vehicle. Orlando has it all!

This was my first time staying on the opposite side from Walt Disney World and it was a pleasure. I would definitely consider staying at the Hilton Grand Vacations at Sea World on our next Orlando vacation.

Florida 2020: Midway Airboat Rides

Visiting Florida in the summer of 2020 was a strange experience. Due to Covid, many attractions were either closed or significantly altered. It was simply not possible to be spontaneous, as places like Disney World, required advanced reservations and had capacity limitations. When we couldn’t manage to book a day at the theme parks, we shifted gear and went on an airboat excursion.

An airboat ride has long been on my Florida bucket list and I was thrilled to have the chance to experience it. We booked with a company called Midway Airboats, located in central Florida. It wasn't exactly the Everglades, but it was close enough.

The tour cost us just under eighty dollars (total, not each) and lasted over an hour. While waiting for our excursion to begin, we went out on the large screened porch to meet Coco the parrot and Park Chop the pig. Coco kept lifting her foot, desperate to climb on Dan. We realized that she often gets treats when people hold her, and since we didn’t have treats, she wanted back in her cage. We were dead to her. Pork Chop was so sleepy, he didn’t even open his eyes when we petted his tummy.

The airboats have four rows, and although the tour was completely outside, it was not exactly socially distanced. We were seated on the top row, next to our boat captain, there was a family of four adults and a toddler in front of us, and an older couple in the very front row. This said, being outdoors with the wind whipping around us as we flew through the water at high speeds, made me feel generally safe.

We all had headsets, so that we could hear our captain’s narration. She kept an eye out for gators and points of interest. One Covid change was we did not have microphones on our headsets to communicate with her and the tour guides did sanitize the headsets between tours- we saw them cleaning!

Selfie of Dan and I.

The tour was more amazing than I could have imagined. The speed was thrilling and the views were magnificent. We visited on a perfect blue-sky day with fluffy clouds. It was serene.

I couldn’t have anticipated that we would see more cows than gators. We learned that summer is not the best time to see gators. Since they have to regulate their own body temperature, they often stay under water and in the shade to keep cool in the heat of the day. It also doesn’t help that they are nocturnal hunters.

Cows were everywhere. Naturally, this caused us to wonder about the cow/gator situation. Apparently, they mostly live in harmony, with gators hanging out near the cows feet. The cows really being too big to be seen as prey for the gators.

Can you see the gator? This is one of three gator sightings of the trip.

My favorite part is when we slowed down and coasted through a heavy thicket of trees. It was exactly what I imagined the Everglades or a bayou in Louisiana ( where I’ve never been) would look like.

On the way back to the docks, we went under a very low bridge, saw some palm trees in the swamp, and enjoyed plenty more cows!

After our ride, we had the opportunity to hold a baby gator. The gator’s snout was strapped for safety reasons, but we saw our boat captain handle her without the strap and she was very gentle. She allowed the boat captain to hold her, much like we hold our cats. The skin on her belly was unbelievably soft, but she was heavy. I could only hold her for a few minutes.

Of course, as we were leaving, we noticed these warning signs.

An airboat ride is the quintessential Florida tourist activity and it didn’t disappoint. We look forward to taking the kids on our next trip to the sunshine state.

Social Distancing in Littleton/Florida = Weeks 24-27

It has been a month since I’ve written a general update about the state of the world. We spent two of the weeks in Florida, returning a week ago.

This was our second set of flights during 2020, and our second time visiting Florida. We had such great time on my birthday trip, that we wanted to explore the idea of buying a vacation home or perhaps even moving full time to Florida.

We flew United again, which was a much better covid experience this time around. We did the same route, Denver to Tampa. Nearly everyone was complying with the mask mandate. We didn’t sit in first-class this time, so we were worried that we would have to share our row with a stranger. On the flight out, the middle seat was empty, and on the flight home, we had a stranger sitting by the window. Dan sat in the middle. I realize that leaving our house is risky, but I do feel much better when people are following social distancing and wearing masks. The only hiccup is on the flight home, United ran out of the antiseptic wipes that they hand out as you board. I thought this was a pretty bad oversight during these times. Luckily, I had extra wipes. I also wish they didn’t fill the flights. I guess on the positive, it is good for the economy that people are traveling and spending money.

We stayed in an Airbnb rental house in Kissimmee. The house was clean and felt safe. We had a private pool overlooking a lake, which was nice. It certainly felt safer than a hotel, as we didn’t come in contact with anyone while at the house. We kept our normal work schedules, so we were home a lot.

As before, dining-out was similar to Denver rules = Keep a mask on while walking through the restaurant and the tables are distanced. We played mini-golf, which was the same as usual, we just used a lot of hand sanitizer as we were touching things.

The biggest surprise is Dan bought us day tickets for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so we could experience Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.

We arrived at park opening and immediately got in the queue for Smugger’s Run. I’m not sure that Disney was as strict as Sea World with safety protocol, but I generally felt okay, especially when we escaped the crowds bunching-up at the entrance. I hate to admit that the park felt less magical. The sense of atmosphere was diminished ( a few storm troopers, but that was it) and there were queues for every store. I kind of wish we had waited to visit.

After Smuggler’s Run, we got a call from my stepson, Felix. He wanted to play video games with Dan, a normal part of their weekend routine, so we decided to leave the park. Our original plan was to upgrade our day pass to annual passes, which we have done in the past. We figured that with an annual pass, coming to the parks for a few hours wouldn’t be a big deal. We wouldn't need to squeeze all of the fun into one day.

It was absolutely pouring rain and the guest relations staff were standing outside with umbrellas. I think this was to prevent unnecessary people from entering the small guest relations room. A regretful employee informed us that Disney had temporarily stop selling annual passes. Deflated, we went home and I called Disney to get to the bottom of it. They offered to refund our day ticket, so in the end, we could not upgrade, but we did get 90 minutes in the park for free. That was the extent of our time at Disney. I’m hoping we will go back with the kids for Christmas or next summer and get our annual passes!

We found a vacation house and put in an offer. It looked great on the surface and we were really excited to become owners of a short-term rental property near Disney. However, upon the inspection problems arose and we decided that it no longer looked like an attractive deal. We backed out, and since we were going home shortly after, we didn’t look at more properties. I’m not sure if we will revisit this idea or let it die.

We enjoyed other Orlando activities, such as The Chocolate Kingdom, mini golf, and the Orlando Cat Cafe. I will write about all of this in a more detailed trip report, but I did want to share a picture of a cat named Todd.

We absolutely fell in love with Todd, who just wants to cuddle and take a nap. He is the sleepiest cat ever! We were thinking of how we could adopt him and get him back to Denver, when he was snatched up by another human. We hope he is off to a loving home with great sleeping spots!

Speaking of cats, we’ve had quite the stressful time with Slinky this last week. On Sunday, he started acting odd. He was lethargic and stopped eating/drinking. Today, we took him to the vet and he was given medicine and fluids. We are waiting for the lab results. Luckily, he seems to have perked up a bit with the fluids, and he did eat/drink a little when he came home. He also seems more feisty. I’ve been crying buckets for the last few days, worried that we would have to put him down, but now I feel like he is rebounding. Happy thoughts that he continues to get better and that the labs don’t reveal anything serious.

I was devastated to hear of the passing of Justice Ginsburg. I was upset enough at our Colorado Governor Cory Gardner to write him a letter regarding his decision to vote to confirm Trump’s nominee. I don’t expect Gardner to change his mind, as he is very much in Trump’s pocket, but I did feel better writing the letter. I’m mostly upset that republicans are going back on their word and the precedent set when Obama had a similar situation in his final year of presidency. I’m also definitely worried about who might get confirmed and what that could mean for future rulings. The world feels fragile.

I have a political themed movie recommendation: Irresistible starring Steve Carell and Chris Cooper. Irresistible is from the mind of John Stewart and follows a small town election that catches national interest, causing heavy-hitters from both major political parties to interfere. It’s a surprising and intelligent movie with a good dose of humor. We watched it last weekend and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Cordella Magazine sent me their latest literary journal. It was wrapped so beautifully, that I wanted to share a picture. Hurray for packages in the mail!

Fall has arrived, but we still have summer weather. We missed a small snow storm when we were in Florida. Check out this stunning sunset!

Apparently migrating tarantulas have been spotted in our neighborhood, but we haven’t seen them. We did have a wasps nest removed. I’ll take wasps over tarantulas.

Finally, some cat pictures. I’m transforming…