8:57 AM
Summer vacation 2021
8:57 AMIt just keeps getting better and better! As the children get older every year we are able to do more and more during our vacatio...
It just keeps getting better and better! As the children get older every year we are able to do more and more during our vacations! I'm going to give you a little recap of our family vacation this year. After the world opened back up and all of the masks mandates were dropped we definitely needed this time to getaway and enjoy family time. Westgate resorts definitely made that possible this year! We hit the road on a Sunday night heading to Myrtle Beach South Carolina, which is a little over 600 miles away from my home just south of Columbus. It's about a 10 1/2 hour drive. Traveling with 5 children and a puppy it took us about an hour longer.
Even though Check in is at 4:00pm when we arrived earlier the front desk was really cool and let us know it was really busy so there might not be early check in's available and that we can have temporary keys to access the amenities. That was wonderful for us after being on the road, to be able to sit pool side and have refreshments from the bar and shops that are on site made it so convenient while waiting for check in.
Onece 4:00 hit we were texted by the front desk letting us know that our keys were ready. When we got to the room on the 17th floor we were so pleased! The view was absolutely amazing. As owners we are always accommodated with an ocean view. Even though we are owners at the Westgate vacation villas at the beautiful Orlando location our ownership benefits travel with us to all Westgate resort locations. The pool, arcade, and ice cream at the Starbucks/Joe's market window was everything! We visited local shops and restaurants and laid out on the beach every day. We saw all kinds of creatures wash up on the beach. The boardwalk was also cool we didn't go fish but it was fun seeing what some of the fishermen pulled up out of the water.
Our puppy was only allowed on the beach during certain hours but our morning beach walks with her was more than enough for her she's scared of the ocean. I guess it reminds her of baths and she hates baths lol. She has an all black coat so after noon it is just too hot for her so she enjoyed chilling in the cool 2 bedroom apt. while we had fun in the sun. Also a heads up for families traveling with fur babies there is a 100.00 pet fee that you will get back as long as your pet doesn't mess anything up during your stay.
Myrtle Beach was a whole vibe and the energy was off the hook. We will definitely be back. On our last day we saw the man who created it all Mr. Bob Signal. I was shocked but I spoke. I said good morning Sir. He said good morning! Sunday funday!! I looked at my 3 girls We laughed because it was Friday. But when you have that much money it can be what ever day you want it to be. Lol I just want to say thanks Mr. Seigal for creating such a wonderful place for my family and I to travel to and spend our weeks at every year.
Check out is at 10:00am after dropping off our key cards in a drop box in the front of the main entrance we hit the road headed to Orlando. We got there that night ready to relax and enjoy our week.
From Myrtle Beach South Carolina to Orlando Florida took us about 9 hours and pulling up to the gates seeing the beautiful palm trees and hearing the door man say welcome home is always it for me! I love coming home to our Westgate vacation villa! Even though there was a lot of renovations being done to the buildings I know that it's just going to be even more amazing next year.
Check in is at 4:00 if you make it in early it's always cool to relax and have dinner @ Drafts. Walk around/ get to know the resort. It's a huge property so if you can't walk it there's a little train that stops and picks people up that you can take around the resort. Chilling by the swan boats or relax and catch the 9:00pm movie at the theater located in the main building. You can't go wrong with whatever you decide to do.
If your an early riser like me you can hit the gym or go for an early morning stroll. I like to get up and walk the dog all around the resort before it starts to get busy and hot. All pools open at 8:00 am but the water park opens at 10:00am. The resort activities start around 9:00am. During check in you'll get a daily activities page that list everything. Some activities are free and others are around 5.00 and theirs something cool to do for everybody! We also like to hit the grocery store on site or go across the street to Walmart to get some things so we aren't eating out for every meal. That's much more convenient and economical. Drafts also has a breakfast buffet that is cool to check out and as owners you get a 20% discount on all meals!
If your children are like my children all they care about is pool time. With 14 pools on site there's so many to choose from. All pools have a bar with all kinds of goodies. All pool locations have kiddie pools as well as a hot spa tubs. Enjoy the pools till 10:00 pm so if your not an early riser you can definitely enjoy an evening swim. I personally love the lazy river at the water park. Shipwreck island isn't only an amazing water park but it has great food and drinks as well. Did I mention the food..lol there's a new Italian restaurant and a few new restaurants coming soon. So you can literally enjoy the whole day at the water park without leaving for food. Actually You literally don't have to leave the resort for anything. I like to think of it as an all inclusive stay!
If you do decide to venture out to explore the area there's a ton of local shops, outlet stores, ethnic food of all kinds from Asian cuisine, Caribbean food, and your favorite fast food chains. The food choices are endless. Being of west Indian decent I love to check out the West Indian spots. We also like pizza so Cici's pizza is always a go to spot for us.
My family is big and my children are from ages 18 to 8 years old. Another favorite for us is Old Town. Old Town has a lot of great shops, shows, fair rides and good food as well. If you like fair food like.. funnel cake, corn dogs, fries, deep fried Oreos ...ect you'll really enjoy yourself at old town. We even found a great sushi place called Mr. Sushi that we go to every year when we come down. We love the Boba tea selection. There's other cool things to do to, like renting a Polaris slingshot for the day, go cart rides, check out a magic show, or take old school pictures with full costume and props. The fun don't stop!
If your a big foodie like my son. Right across the street from Old Town there's a cool area that has a wonderful Latin American food truck court. With food from Brazil, Puerto Rico, & Dominican Republic. It's a great spot to grab some Spanish Caribbean street food and check out the flea market, arcade, and machine gun America! Lol yes you can go in and shoot real live rounds with packages starting at around 25.00 for 1 round up to 125.00 for bigger packages with a lot more rounds. And even the kids can shoot so no one is left out. Most of the stuff over here opens up at 12:00 around lunch time. It's definitely worth checking out.
If you like to Go Green like my husband you would definitely love checking out the parks and lakes in the area. We checked out Kissimmee lake park and it was so nice. We even got to see some gators swimming around. We happened upon a cute little park that was tucked away called Shingles park. Where you can go canoeing, kayaking, and there was also a bike trail.
We visited Black Hammock located at overlook park where we made online reservation for a guided Air boat tour of the park. It was cool we got to see lots of the native wild life, vegetation, and... Gators!! We mostly came for the gators. It was cool at the end we even got to meet Mr. Wiggles. He's a baby gator that works there. He was so sweet and posed for pictures with us. The children was sold and definitely wanted to bring home a pet gator but I just ignored them and they slowly went away lol. That's my super power as a mom of 5 I learned to adapt to my environment kinda like Mr. Wiggles lol. There was also a few birds that were rescued as well as some bigger gators that was kept at the front of the facility. Just for 1.00 you could feed them all.
It was hot and the water levels were low so we didn't get to see as much gators out but we did see some and we had a good time.
We spent most of our days on the resort enjoying all of the fun things to do there. We spent hours at the arcade/game room. We was walking around there like we was at Vegas! Lol we won some cool prizes as well with all of our points that we racked up. We enjoyed ice cream at the ice cream shop and found a good local ice cream shop off of the main strip on Erlow. Just look for the big yellow chair!
