Surviving NJ

Archive for the ‘Disney & Travel’ Category

Here are the Grand Beach pictures I had mentioned earlier. We loved this resort and will happily stay here again. Grand Beach is a couple blocks off the Downtown Disney entrance.

You’re looking through a screen out at our view. If you looked to the side, you also saw the lake.

Our screened in porch at Grand Beach had high ceilings, a table and four chairs, and a gorgeous view. I loved this balcony. The floor was tiled as well, so that was a nice feature.

Here are two views of the living room area at Grand Beach Resort in Orlando.

I loved that the unit had a full kitchen, a large table that comfortably sat 6, and a washer and dryer. Here’s a view of the kitchen.

I can’t say enough good things about Grand Beach in Orlando, Florida. Not only did this unit have 3 bedrooms, and three full bathrooms, two of the bedrooms were master suites. The beds were super comfortable, and something fun my son found, was under the bed…there was a little card that says, “Yes, we even clean under here!” IT was a super clean condo unit, super comfy, and one I’d recommend to future people looking for a great vacation resort in Orlando.

Here’s a look at one of the master bedrooms, and a bedroom with two twin beds. In the master bedroom, there is a jacuzzi tub, a shower stall (large), and a separate closed off water closet (toilet in separate room).

There you have it, pictures of Grand Beach Resort in Orlando, Florida. I hope they help you make your decisions on where you’re interested in staying. While I love staying on site in Disney, I also love staying in a 3 bedroom condo where we can all stretch out and have our own space at the end of the day. Having a kitchen and washer and dryer make it fabulous. We save money on eating out, and also don’t have to pack as many clothes with the washer and dryer.

You can read more about the Drifting Sands motel in Long Beach Island here.

We stayed at the Drifting Sands Motel this past week in Long Beach Island. This was my first time staying at this particular hotel/motel. I generally stay in one or two others, but they were fully booked. We liked that the room was large and clean, but were a bit disappointed with what they called a “partial ocean view”. I’ll be honest, I had to get on my toes, and lean to the left, and I saw about 1-2 inches of ocean. Maybe some of the closer rooms had a better view. I had a great view of the sand dune. It’s okay though, I enjoyed sitting on the balcony regardless and enjoying a light breeze. They supplied the deck area with two chairs.

What I liked a lot was the parking was assigned, which means you can actually find a spot, and it’s not in the most inconvenient possible. I liked their outdoor shower so you could clean off extra sand before going up to your room. I also liked the location of sort. While it’s on the busy circle, it is half way to both ends, which makes driving to either side of the island easy.

What we missed? We missed that there wasn’t a pool. We love a pool at the beach. While we swim in the ocean, we also like to swim in the pool. If you have small children, and the waves are rough, the pool is a nice option to have. Usually every time we go down, we swim in both the ocean and the pool each day.

Would I stay at this motel again? Yes, I liked it well enough, but we’re partial to another because we’ve been going to it for so long.

It’s time to pack away the women’s lingerie. I’ve got two small trips coming up that were sort of unexpected.  I’ll be heading to the shore both next week, and the week after that! I hadn’t anticipated either trip, but they fell in my lap. I’m never one to turn down beach time!

Next week I’ll be hitting up LBI for 2 nights with my son. The following week, I’ll be visiting Sea Isle with my sister, niece and mom. I’ve only ever been to Sea Isle once on a day trip to visit someone. It will be interesting to wander around a bit and see what it’s like. We’ll be there for 3 nights.

I normally take extra time to visit LBI in September as well, but this year, I have a conference in Orlando during September, and I’ll be back in school. I’m going to try to find a way to at least get a weekend down there during maybe late September or early October. September is a fabulous time to enjoy the shore. The crowds have thinned, and the weather is incredible! It’s one of my favorite months for the shore.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures taken at Long Beach Island. I went down in April of last year with my sister, and from the balcony of the hotel we were at, I was able to catch this shot. It’s splendid, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter where I roam (and roam I do), there’s no other place that can capture me like LBI does.

You see, the thing that’s special and hard to put into words is that it’s a family place. It’s a beautiful island with goregous beaches, and it isn’t covered with franchise fast food places. It isn’t an entire 20 mile strip of hotels. The hotels aren’t famous chains. This is mom and pop, this is small business owners and people who adore the island.

Sure, Wildwood and Ocean City get tons of publicity due to their high volume amusement areas, but let me be honest…they are busy places, and they have a rushed feel to me. It’s too much hype, and not enough beach feel.

Long Beach Island has gorgeous beaches, a nice mixture of homes, small business run hotels and motels, along with lots of great little restaurants and shopping places. They aren’t the big box stores, they are the adorable little charming places you love to wander through on vacation.

Now that you know what I love about Long Beach Island, let me tell you about the Long Beach Island Business Alliance. They are about getting the word out, letting the world know what a wonderful place this is. Long Beach Island still has a small town feel, and is a FAMILY friendly destination. I should know, I’ve been going for over 40 years now!

Long Beach Island Business Alliance wants you to know how great LBI is, and is actively promoting it so that more people will hear and spread the news. It’s a great place that is often overlooked for the other busier places. Who wants busier when you’re on vacation? I don’t know about you, but I want to feel like I’m at the beach and relax!

If you visit their website at NJLBI.com, you can check out all the great things you can see and do.

Their Mission Statement is as follows:

"The Mission of the Long Beach Island Business Alliance is to actively promote Long Beach Island, NJ.  Our goal is to advance the long term interests of tourism and business of Long Beach Island, NJ in a consumer friendly small town atmosphere."

As you know, I’m passionate about the place, and created my own website so that LBI would be represented through my eyes also. You can visit my Long Beach Island website at LongBeachIslandSummers.com. 

The picture above is of a jellyfish taken at the Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach.
We spent a week in Myrtle Beach during our trip, and it sort of felt like a really overdone Wildwood. I missed the charm of Wildwood’s boardwalk, and the quieter non-franchise feel of Long Beach Island.

Myrtle Beach had a massive tourist t-shirt shop on every other corner, and 20 miles of crowded franchises. I have to be honest and say I probably wouldn’t return there. While the actual resort I stayed at we enjoyed, the town itself felt too touristy to me, and I almost didn’t feel like we were on a beach vacation.

I’ve grown used to these Jersey beaches that I love. Maybe another section of Myrtle Beach would have felt more beachy to me, but honestly, any time we left the resort, we felt like we were on Business Route 1! Wall to wall traffic inching here and there, and it just took the wind out of your mellow vacation mode.

I’m glad I took the time to go there, and see something new. I’m glad I got the chance to visit and shop at some of their unique locations like Barefoot Landing and Broadway at the Beach, but it will probably be the last time for this girl.

Long Beach Island has my heart, and in all my years, it still wins me over after seeing other places…each and every time.

We went to Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach. This was taken in the tunnel. If you’ve been to Sea World, it’s like the tunnel in the shark house, where you walk under the tube that is over you. I enjoyed this section of the aquarium, as it wrapped around in a circle of sort, and was a great display of fish, sharks, and even a big sea turtle. The turtle was massive!

I’ve been to Baltimore Harbor’s aquarium before, and I loved that one.

At Ripley’s, while the tunnel was cool, the rest of the aquarium just didn’t fill the bill. The frog and lizard section were two small tanks. One tiny one with 2 small frogs in in, and another with 3 iguanas in it. That’s all! Two small tanks, and they list it on their map as a big section! You could say we were disappointed in that section as well as the living seas part. There were FOUR tanks, three about 3 feet wide, one maybe 5 feet. An octopus was in one, jelly fish in one, sea horses/sea dragons in one, and the last had a combination. The section was about the size of my living room.

I understand that the big tunnel is their main thing, but they put so much effort into that, the rest of the aquarium feels like it’s missing something. One section walking down the ramp was one tank. It ran about 10 feet long, but they called that an individual section.

On the guide book/map they show lots of sections. In reality, some sections are TINY! You need to LINGER in there, because if you don’t, you’ll be out quite quickly.

If you’ve never been to an aquarium before, it’s a nice start. If you’ve been to a well done aquarium, you’ll want to skip this, because you may feel like it’s lacking.

$40 for the two of us, and we were out in about 30 minutes. We kept looking at the map going, there HAS to be more…but there wasn’t. We did laugh all day about the two small tanks in the frog/lizard section that “rated” it’s own section. At least the laughter from that was entertaining, so it added to our dollar value. Oh, and by the way, the guide and map book, which you should get with your tickets will cost you an extra buck.

Over all, it’s a neat place, but you need to G-O S-L-O-W to make it last.

This is Grand Beach Resort in Orlando. The pic is a tad bit blurry because I was shooting it through the screen. We stayed on the 4th floor unit for 3 nights, and this is the lovely view we had from enclosed porch and balcony. It had high ceilings, and offered a nice space with a table and four chairs. It was really quite large, compared to what you usually get at a hotel or resort.
We stayed in a 3 bedroom, 3 bath unit, and both my son and I got our own master suites. He lucked out, because normally he’d be in a smaller room. He felt like a king having his own bathroom in the bedroom, a huge jacuzzi tub and giant walk-in shower.

Gorgeous place, and I’d happily stay here again. For reference, we’ve stayed at Cypress Pointe as well, but I’d choose this one over the other. Cypress Pointe feels a little roomier inside the way the kitchen and living area are set up, but Grand Beach feels like it’s more upgraded. We had oodles of space for the two of us anyway.

If you follow along, you see that I travel a lot. I used to write to a travel blog, but decided to just write about my traveling on this blog. I guess I’m trying to condense my blogs, because I have quite a few! What can I say, I get excited at starting projects. I did keep it active for over a year, the travel blog, but I think this is the best place for it now.

My last trip was down to Florida in April. I’ll also be traveling in June, July and September of this year. June will bring us to a local shoreline, where July will see us traveling farther including South Carolina and Florida. September is a shorter trip, but one I’m looking forward to just as much.

When it comes to traveling, I do have high standards. I don’t need to be constantly active, but I want to stay somewhere nice. I’m in my 40’s now, and I’m done with cheap motels on a budget. At this point in my life, if I’m going to travel, I’m going to do it right. Whether that means luxury vacations, or a nice hotel, or better accomodations while on the train.

There comes a point in life, where you go, now it’s time to do things right. I did the bargain bin trips for years, scrimping and saving, but now that I’m able to, I’m going to do things the way I have wanted to. If not now, when? 

I sat under palm trees, sipped on a drink, and had my feet up, as a gentle breeze caressed my skin. The air was perfect, not a drop of humidity in the evening, and laughter and talking kept us entertained.

The days were warmer, but comfortable. The pool was heated, the jacuzzi jets felt great. Casual dinners and lunch, and each evening, we would sit under the moon and palms, sharing stories, memories and bond.

The moon was full, the sky was clear and the laughter echoed across the patio. I looked up above me, and snapped these shots, to remind me how relaxing it was. My sister and I had an awesome trip.

Florida left us smiling.

I’m so thrilled to hear that the IzeaFest will be in Orlando this year. The coolest part of this, is I was all ready scheduled to be in that area of Florida when they’re having it. I don’t need to book reservations or anything. It falls perfectly into my plans I made a few months ago for a trip we’re taking! How cool is that? That’s awesome timing.

 I can’t wait to see my friends down there. It’s going to be so nice to visit with so amny people all at once. I got the chance to see some of my friends last year, but it’s been awhile, so I’m looking forward to this.

Gotta love good timing.