[gcbdad]

Karen;
I am glad that you enjoyed the Pier. It is a nice place and the water view is great. Sorry though that my Rays swept your Red Sox that weekend.........
(Oh and we won't mention the Sox paying us back last weekend)

What did you think of the Trop? It's no Fenway. I have been to Fenway 3 times. My Brother lives in Needham and has tickets almost directly behind home plate about 11 rows up. There is a proposal on deck for a new outdoor stadium right over by the Pier. The vote hasn't taken place yet.

I hope you had a great trip and can't wait to hear all about it.

[KarenWDWCP]

Originally Posted by gcbdad

Karen;
I am glad that you enjoyed the Pier. It is a nice place and the water view is great. Sorry though that my Rays swept your Red Sox that weekend.........
(Oh and we won't mention the Sox paying us back last weekend)

What did you think of the Trop? It's no Fenway. I have been to Fenway 3 times. My Brother lives in Needham and has tickets almost directly behind home plate about 11 rows up. There is a proposal on deck for a new outdoor stadium right over by the Pier. The vote hasn't taken place yet.

I hope you had a great trip and can't wait to hear all about it.

We really did enjoy the Pier. It was a nice and relaxing start to our trip! I also love that Looper trolley that made it so cheap and easy to get around downtown St. Pete!

It was very sad that we were swept, but the Rays players were so excited about it that I almost didn't care. Almost.

I have to admit that I was imagining that the Trop would be a terrible place to watch a baseball game. It is even painful to watch televised games from the Trop - it just seems so weird like it is not meant for baseball. I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually not as bad as I thought (my dad thought the same thing!) Though the atmosphere was a bit of a carnival with all the costumed people, races, coupon drops and activities in between innings that I could barely pay attention to the game!

Once I get my pictures uploaded, I will post my favorite picture from Tampa Bay of me and my mom with two costumed soda bottles. They cracked me up!

Ok, here's a pic of me and my mom with the soda bottles.

[KarenWDWCP]

Day 2 (AKA Finally some Disney fun!)

So, we got up Sunday morning, packed our suitcases, enjoyed our free breakfast at the hotel and headed to the ballpark. (Sidenote - The SpringHill Suites St Petersburg Clearwater was very nice. It was super clean, the employees were friendly and helpful, the room was big, it was easy to find and the free breakfast was great. And it was only $113/night! I would totally recommend it.)

We got to the ballpark early (around 11:30 for a 1:40 start) but we had heard nightmares about the parking situation there so we wanted to be sure we got a spot. It was so bizarre to go to a baseball game and see people tailgating! Once in the park, we decided to check out the Stingray tank which was cool (I will try to add a picture later). It is free and you go in and they let you feed and pet the stingrays. We sort of meandered around the other parts of the park that we hadn't visited yet and finally settled into our seats to watch the Red Sox lose AGAIN. Oh well.

Here's a shot of me at the stingray tank!

[KarenWDWCP]

Our original plan when we first started planning the trip was to spend 2 nights in Tampa Bay, get up early Monday morning and head to WDW. But after thinking more about it, we realized that the afternoon game would be over by 5:00 at the latest, the drive would probably take us about 2 hours and the traffic on a Sunday afternoon would theoretically be less than on a Monday morning. Plus we would get more time at WDW.

So, we changed our plans to be one night in Tampa Bay and then off to the World. Because the parking lots are so jammed at the Trop, we had decided that we would sit around for a bit after the game to let the crowds thin out and then take off. We had seen the massive traffic the night before and wanted to avoid it if possible.

Apparently, it is not possible as it took us AGES to even get to the highway (and had us thankful for our backroute driving cab driver the night before who somehow avoided all the traffic and got us back to the hotel super fast). To make a long story short, I thought we were never going to get off that 7 mile bridge over Tampa Bay. It took us just over three hours to get to WDW!

In cheesy Karen fashion, I popped in a CD and played "A Dream is Wish your Heart Makes" as we drove under the WDW sign. My dad just shook his head and laughed at my ridiculousness. We pulled into the Beach Club and breathed a sigh of relief and I soaked in that WDW smell ( I SWEAR it smells different there!) We were finally here!

[cinderbella]

Yaya!! More TR!

St. Pete sounds like fun!!!!! But..I can't wait to hear about your WDW vacay!

[mairinmaureen]

We're Cleveland Indians fans and you won't find coupon drops, activities, etc. between innings at our baseball games either. The fans are too serious. No tailgating either. However, you will see a lot of folks at the outdoor patio bars before and after the games. Our minor league team, the Lake County Captains, have a lot of stuff going on between innings at their games...prizes, contests, races, and the like. I think both atmospheres are fun.

[disneylovers5]

Great Tr Report Lets Hear Somemore

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by KarenWDWCP

In cheesy Karen fashion, I popped in a CD and played "A Dream is Wish your Heart Makes" as we drove under the WDW sign. My dad just shook his head and laughed at my ridiculousness. We pulled into the Beach Club and breathed a sigh of relief and I soaked in that WDW smell ( I SWEAR it smells different there!) We were finally here!

I know what you mean about the smell, there really is a smell I notice when we get to WDW.

You're on a roll, I can't wait for more.

[KarenWDWCP]

Originally Posted by mairinmaureen

We're Cleveland Indians fans and you won't find coupon drops, activities, etc. between innings at our baseball games either. The fans are too serious. No tailgating either. However, you will see a lot of folks at the outdoor patio bars before and after the games. Our minor league team, the Lake County Captains, have a lot of stuff going on between innings at their games...prizes, contests, races, and the like. I think both atmospheres are fun.

It was definitely fun. And I guess in the end I was glad for all the distraction since we lost both games! It would have been horribly boring and depressing just to sit there and watch them lose.

I had tickets at Fenway for the day after I got back from my trip and quickly remembered how to actually pay attention to the game so it was all good in the end!

[packerbeth]

Hey! We were there from 4/28 to 5/4; maybe our paths crossed and we didn't even know it!

[KarenWDWCP]

So, we parked at the Beach Club and headed into the resort. This was our first stay here and our first stay at a deluxe since my very first trip when I was five and we stayed at the Contemporary. The greeter (not Art) greeted us right away and whisked us over to check in. My mom and I got the check in stuff worked out while my dad chatted with all the CMs about how impressed he was with the play of the Tampa Bay Rays.

We checked in and excitedly headed off to our room. It was on the 3rd floor and literally the last room at the end of a crazy maze of hallways. I had heard in the past that rooms at the Yacht and Beach Club can often seem very far away from the elevators and the lobby and ours was definitely that room. We don't mind walking (we usually stay at POR after all) so it was no big deal, but it did make us laugh every night to take all these turns and hallways to get to our room! I tried unsuccessfully all week to find a different way out of the resort and out onto the walkway to EPCOT because looking at the map, it definitely seemed like one existed but I never found it!

[KarenWDWCP]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

Hey! We were there from 4/28 to 5/4; maybe our paths crossed and we didn't even know it!

We may have! Hopefully I'll post some pictures soon. Who knows, you may have chatted with my Dad since he managed to talk to virtually every person we encountered on our trip!

[KarenWDWCP]

Our room was great, everything was clean and in great shape. I had been on TripAdvisor and read some slightly negative comments on some Beach Club rooms seeming worn down but ours was great. There was some weirdness with the carpet down one of the long, long hallways to our room. At one point the carpet pattern changed to what looked like an older carpet pattern with darker blues and Sebastian and Flounder on it. It was just for a small patch and was a little weird looking because it definitely didn't match anything else.

We loved how big the room was in comparison to our usual stays at the moderates. I was super excited to see our view because we had a full balcony. I don't have my pictures uploaded yet ( I know, I know!) but when I get them done, I will add the picture of our "view" here. Let's just say that I laughed out loud when I opened the curtains and went outside. But we didn't pay for any kind of water view or anything so I had no complaints. I was hoping we might just luck out with a fantastical view, but no such luck. But like I said, it was no big deal, we still enjoyed the balcony and the room.

Here's the view!

[KarenWDWCP]

Our original plan had been to head to DTD for Earl of Sandwich which my parents had never had and then walk around there for a bit. But since we got in so much later, I thought they might prefer to stay at the resort and not hop onto a bus. Plus it was after 8:00 already. I suggested that we try to eat at Beaches and Cream where none of us have eaten. But my mom was so excited for Earl of Sandwich that she really wanted to try it and this would be our only opportunity. In the end, we left it up to my dad since he was the one who did all that driving in traffic all day and was the most tired. He was game for DTD since it meant he wouldn't have to drive anywhere so after we unloaded our bags into our room, we headed out to the Beach Club bus stop.

I must have been doing my typical WDW speed walk because before I knew it I was pretty far ahead of my parents with my dad yelling out to me "Looks like you have your spring back in your step, kid!" Just that WDW magic at work!

We waited a bit for a DTD bus and talked to some other guests who said they had been waiting a while. The DTD and Magic Kingdom bus service from the Beach Club was not great while we were there but that would be one of my only complaints from our whole stay, really. Plus, I try not to get too hung up on bus complaints since I figure I'm on vacation, why rush?

[smee57]

Good stuff, so far! Keep it coming!!