The Florida Project! 12 Days @ WDW for our 10th Anniversary! UPDATED 9/23

[AAshleySEG]

It does seem different from what I read haha. That's fun! I still have to watch the vlogs. My smart TV has decided that Youtube no longer is a supported app since it updated, but I love watching vlogs and podcasts on the TV so now I'm waiting for an Amazon Fire Stick.

Yeah originally we were going to the Florida Keys, and then the weather decided for us that wasn't going to happen...lol! I had a chance to start watching your first day vlog yesterday! Tell me about Smart TVs, lately ours hasn't been so smart. Even our PlayStation is crashing the YouTube app for some reason lately.

That's what I would've gotten too!

Those pancakes were so good, I just had some Nutrigrain waffles for breakfast and I was imagining I was eating those pancakes again...haha!

This is a really good picture of pancakes. Like your photo taking ability not the pancakes (but they look good too). That probably sounds weird, but I just had to say it.

Thank you! Sometimes I surprise myself with a really good photo that I am super proud of, and this was one of them! So I totally get what you mean I really appreciate the compliment!

I think I saw that one too!

We love watching his channel, lately we have been getting great ideas of new things to try from it! We have been to Disney so many times, and we love it, but it is also fun to explore and try out new things, so we can't wait to go to some of the others places they have visited too!

 

[mhowens]

Loving this report so far! Right off the Port City Java picture caught my attention. We are in Wilmington and make the drive to WDW all the time as well. Flying down next month for a very short trip...trying out Magical Express for the first time. Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!!

 

[Jamcgee410]

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 - That's The Biggest Tire I've Ever Seen!

Today is the day! We have been planning this trip since August, and with all of the bumps and hiccups along the way, a lot of changes, I mean...a LOT of changes, it was finally time to go! Just last night we had to rearrange the trip. We have been keeping tabs on the weather, originally we had a planned road trip to the Florida Keys, and with the thunderstorms in the forecast, we didn't want to chance wasting our days down there and not being able to do any of our planned activities, so we made the really difficult decision to cancel that part of the trip and stay at Disney World those extra four nights. So first, we had to check on DVC rooms, and we were really lucky to be able to find 4 Nights at Saratoga Springs during the middle of the trip! Our room situation was really strange at the moment. Our original plans had us staying at the Polynesian and Grand Floridian, each for 5 nights! When we booked the keys portion, the Poly got dropped, we added one night on the way down at Beach Club and then kept the GFL portion. Well then we decided to add an extra day at the beginning and that is where Wilderness Lodge came into the picture, then finally Saratoga got added last night at the last minute when everything changed again! So crazy!! Now that story is finished for now, let's get to it!

I rolled over at like 6:10 am and checked my phone. I couldn't sleep anymore with the anticipation and decided to go ahead, get out of bed and get showered and ready! By the time I was out, Jeremy was up and getting ready as well. He is a night-shower person and I am a morning-shower person so it works out really well for us. We had put almost everything in the car last night, and so by 7:02 am, we were headed to Port City Java to grab some muffins for breakfast and start the drive!

This morning we ended up getting 2 Fresh our of the oven Blueberry Muffins, and 10 minutes later we were on the way to Walt Disney World! We live on the NC coast in a little town called Southport, NC. If you have seen the movie Safe Haven, you have pretty much seen all of Southport...haha! We live really close to the NC/SC line so in less than an hour we were crossing it on this cloudy dreary day!

I think at around 8:30 am we were making our first gasoline stop, we always try to stop in South Carolina since it is less expensive there. We stopped at the Kroger in Conway, SC, right outside of the Myrtle Beach area, and even though it was rainy, Jeremy was still in a great mood!

Now that we had a full tank of gas, we were headed toward the long and tree-lined corridor of I-95! This time on the drive we decided to listen to Audible. We have really been into the new Star Wars books lately, and watching Star Wars Rebels, so we decided to listen to the book "Thrawn" Since Star Wars is a Disney property it is still totally relevant!! That makes me happy! Around 10:30 am we finally started hitting some heavier rain.

The forecast for the trip was looking very wet, every single day had the little thunderstorm clouds on it, so we were really anxious to see how the weather actually turned out.

While we were driving along, minding our own business, we saw probably the largest tire we have ever seen in our lives. We still are not really sure what it would even go on?? But literally, the tire was larger/taller than the truck that was carrying it!! It was GIGANTIC!

A little while later and we had made it through SC and into Georgia! We decided to stop at the new Georgia Visitor Center Rest Area and man are we glad we did! They have tons of cool photo ops inside, TONS of information, fantastic bathrooms, charging stations, and it is really fantastic if you happen to be on I-95 South. Highly recommended and especially if you are planning on visiting Georgia, stop by there!

Since we had gotten up earlier than we planned, and left about an hour earlier as well, we totally missed our favorite lunch stop in Mt Pleasant, SC, Pickled Palate. If you have read one of the previous TRs you will have seen it! We love that place but it doesn't open until 11:00 am, so this time it wasn't in the cards, we were way past SC and into Georgia around lunch, so we decided to stop at another old favorite of ours! The Panera Bread in Pooler, GA! We got our favorite Mediterranean Veggie Sandwiches with Chips and Tea and Water. Instead of eating inside, we just decided to go through the drive-thru to keep making good time on the way to Disney!

We each ended up eating half of our respective sandwiches and saved the other halves for later in case we got hungry before we arrived. In retrospect, we should have probably just gotten one sandwich and split it, but oh well, I had budgeted for it, so it wasn't too big of a deal. Tonight we were staying at a One-Bedroom Villas at the Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. The Copper Creek ones had not opened quite yet, but we were excited to see them when they did open! I had already done online check-in so I was wondering if we would get our room assignment before we got there! It was now about 1:30 pm and we were crossing the state line into Florida! It was cool too, because they had finally update the sign on the Interstate and it looked great!

By this point, we should be around 3 hours away, which is great! Our second fuel stop of the trip came just after we passed Jacksonville, FL. We have been using a really cool app called Gas Buddy to find the least expensive gas in the area where we are. It doesn't look like you save a lot initially, but it definitely adds up.

This should be the last fuel stop we have to make before we get there! At 2:30 pm my phone dinged and we had gotten the text for our room number! I absolutely love not having to go by the front desk anymore. Some people that have never been to Disney World might not like it and I can totally understand why it might not be for everyone, but for us, it is perfect! It is so nice to just grab our stuff and be able to head to the room once we arrive! Once we got right outside of Orlando, about 20 minutes away, traffic started backing up and it ended up being a wreck that kept us in traffic for a bit.

We were so close we can almost smell that Disney Magic!

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Fellow North Carolinian here but we live in Charlotte. I really want to visit Southport sometime have heard it is just beautiful and so quaint.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Loving this report so far! Right off the Port City Java picture caught my attention. We are in Wilmington and make the drive to WDW all the time as well. Flying down next month for a very short trip...trying out Magical Express for the first time. Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!!

Awesome! Thank you so much, glad you are enjoying the TR! Yeah, we stop at Port City Java at the beginning of almost all of our trips...haha! Magical Express is fantasic! We have used it a few times and never had a bad experience with it, plus there is a lot less to worry about, and from here, we definitely get there much faster! You guys are going to have a great time!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Fellow North Carolinian here but we live in Charlotte. I really want to visit Southport sometime have heard it is just beautiful and so quaint.

We grew up in the Charlotte area, we lived in Stanley, NC from when we were born until 2013, Jeremy had a job transfer that moved us down this way, but we used to make the Disney drive from there all the time! We really love Southport, if you want to see what it looks like check out the movie Safe Haven, you will pretty much get to see the entire place, it is pretty small, but we really like it a lot!! It is very quaint and charming, lots of great restaurants, and scenery, and really close to the beach!

 

[Raeven]

Yeah originally we were going to the Florida Keys, and then the weather decided for us that wasn't going to happen...lol! I had a chance to start watching your first day vlog yesterday! Tell me about Smart TVs, lately ours hasn't been so smart. Even our PlayStation is crashing the YouTube app for some reason lately.

As far as I know they updated the Youtube app recently, and some smart tvs and such don't support the new format anymore. But I got my Amazon Fire Stick today! I thought I had till 6/30 but I came home yesterday and it was already gone from my choices.

Thank you! Sometimes I surprise myself with a really good photo that I am super proud of, and this was one of them! So I totally get what you mean I really appreciate the compliment!

Haha glad you understood.

We love watching his channel, lately we have been getting great ideas of new things to try from it! We have been to Disney so many times, and we love it, but it is also fun to explore and try out new things, so we can't wait to go to some of the others places they have visited too!

I do too! There is a lot of good ideas there. We can't get to a lot of the stuff because we don't rent a car but maybe someday.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Thursday, June 8, 2017 (Part Two) - Flash, Flash, Hundred Yard Dash!

The weather was so great today so far! After the airboat ride we were both in a great mood! It was such a great time to do something we had never experience before, and we didn't realize how fun it would be! This is what Jeremy looked like when we were done, he had the biggest smile on his face! We would definitely recommend it to anyone to try! Now it was time to head out to the wildlife park side of Wild Florida!

So, if you happen to be going to Wild Florida! this year, the Wildlife Park is 100% Free to go to! There are so many amazing animals inside, if you are in the area and looking for something to do, and you or your family loves animals, then I would go! Like I said before, the tours and encounters are paid activities, but it is absolutely free to go into the park, just go to the counter and get your wristband!

First up we saw the macaws, I really love birds, we have a parrot at home and so every chance I get to see different types and varieties of those types, I enjoy it!

Another thing about this park, there are peacocks EVERYWHERE! They are all gorgeous and just, so pretty! As you saw, they are out in the parking lot area, they are walking around the entire place, and well, I love birds, so they are so cool to look at!

The park was much less crowded than the airboat tours were. There was plenty of space to explore at a very leisurely pace if you wanted, and it was really easy to get up close to see all of the animals! Next up was the giant tortoise!

We live near a very touristy town called Myrtle Beach. Some of you may have heard of it, some not, but I remember going there when I was younger and seeing all of the alligators at this one place, and especially the albino gator, i think they are so amazing! So, I was really excited to see them here, and Jeremy had never seen one at all before, so I think he really liked seeing them too!

About midway through the park, there was a giant deck viewing area where you could walk out over the gator pond, and they had a bunch of them in there, huge ones, middle size ones, and just really cool to get so up close to see them! I didn't mention that they also have shows at the park, we were planning on heading back after lunch and they second shows of the day didn't start until around 2:30. The first ones were during our airboat tour so we missed it, but there is a gator feeding I believe, and an animal encounter show where you get to see up close a lot of native Florida wildlife, so we are really interested to go back and check those out next time we are down in the area and we have some extra time!

We kept walking and more of those gorgeous peacocks started showing up and showing off for us! If we happened to walk by one and not notice it, it seemed to try and get our attention anyway!

Now finally, the animals I was most excited to see, I have never seen them in person, but after Zootopia, how can you not want to see sloths!! They are so freaking adorable, I literally just wanted to hold one, they might even be vicious, but they look so docile and sweet! Just hanging around in the tree!

One thing I forgot to mention was that they do photo type packages and stuff here too, you can get your photo taken at a few different locations with animals and things then look at them all toward the end, so if you want to hold a gator, you can! There were too many animals and photos to put into the TR, but we saw an amazing array of different birds, lots of gators of all sizes, alpaca, goats...OH YEAH, there was a petting zoo area too for anyone who enjoys that sort of thing! So there were zebra, watusi cattle, sloths, raccoons, foxes, deer, bobcats, wallaby, snakes, lemurs, and more and more! So many fantastic things to see! I will put the map in one more time so you can see the variety!

By around 1:00 pm we were ready to get some lunch! They have a really great outdoor restaurant and seating area there, and let me tell you the food was really good, and cooked to order, so it does take a few minutes to get it, but it was totally worth it! To drink we got a water and a swamp slush! It was this swampy green color, but it was like orange, lychee, passion fruit, and something, but man was it good! Definitely a nice way to cool off after walking around the park! It was fairly sweet, so be warned if you don't like fruity sweet drinks! For lunch, we split a catfish plate that was plenty for the two of us! It had catfish, fries, baked beans, and garlic bread! We didn't want to eat too much because later tonight we were having dinner over at Flying Fish on the Boardwalk!

We sat out in their little eating gazebo area that overlooked the water, it was nice and breezy and there was even a cat walking around over in there. The food was delicious!! The fish was so fresh and moist, the fries were seasoned perfectly, and the beans and bread too! It was all really good, so two thumbs up for that! As soon as we finished eating, my phone dinged and we had received our room ready notification! It was almost perfect timing because we were about ready to head back. We finished up, and started heading back out to the car, to make the drive back to Disney World. So to sum it up, Wild Florida is pretty great! We really enjoyed our time there and would go back, and even take someone along or recommend it to others, especially if you have never been to Florida and was to see the natural beauty of it! Definitely a little drive, so if you don't have a car or rental car not sure how you would get out there, but if you do, I would recommend it, because we had a great time!



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[frostymojo]

Joining in, great report so far.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

That looks like a really great place. I've seen the white Alligators before as I'm from the suburbs of New Orleans, and the New Orleans zoo has them but I have never seen a white peacock. So different and pretty at the same time.

 

[DHare]

Great trip report! I really like your budgeting info! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the different resorts that you stayed at.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Joining in, great report so far.

Thank you so much! Glad to have you along!

 

[AAshleySEG]

That looks like a really great place. I've seen the white Alligators before as I'm from the suburbs of New Orleans, and the New Orleans zoo has them but I have never seen a white peacock. So different and pretty at the same time.

It was a lot of fun for a free place to go! Yeah I had seen a white alligator too, so I guess I took for granted how rare they are! According to the "internet" so take it with a grain of salt...haha! It said that there were only around 12 of them in the world?? We really loved the white peacock, definitely unexpected and in person, it was so beautiful!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Great trip report! I really like your budgeting info! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the different resorts that you stayed at.

Thank you so much! I appreciate the feedback on the budgeting info! It was a lot of fun staying at resorts that were totally different than one another! Jeremy and I even spoke about trying to figure out which resorts were our favorite for different reasons!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Thursday, June 8, 2017 (Part Three) - That's a Lot of Lobster!

As we started driving back to Disney World, the clouds cover started getting darker, and by the time we reached the gates, it had been raining on us for about 30 minutes! It looked like we were going to have a wet afternoon ahead, at the moment, we were headed to our second resort of the trip Disney's Beach Club, and we had never stayed there before!

It was barely drizzling when we were trying to decide where to park at Beach Club. We had only been there one time before and that was a character breakfast at Cape May Cafe! So I was trying to use the map to figure out the closest parking to where our room might be, well we ended up parking over close to the villas which ended up being a mistake because a lot of the sidewalks were flooded and we were walking around a pool area trying to find out how to get in, when if we would have just parked over close to the entrance bridge, it would have been much easier, well you live and learn!

After walking around in the rain for a bit, we finally found how to get to our room, and actually made it inside. We didn't take all of our stuff from the car the first time, so Jeremy went back to the car, moved it to a more appropriate parking location, and brought the rest of the things we needed up. While he was doing that, I took the time to take some photos of the 1-Bedroom Villa, and catch up on some journal notes from earlier in the day!

I think that I read somewhere that the Beach Club Villas had recently been renovated and from what we could see they were really nice! We really liked the room a lot. All of the 1-bedroom villas are mostly the same layout until you start getting to the newer resorts, then they change slightly but the decor was great and really beachy. We live really close to the beach, so this resort feels familiar, more like home as far as that goes, but we both really love camping and the outdoors, so as far as which one we like the best of the two so far, it was probably Wilderness Lodge for the interior of the rooms, and that is only the Boulder Ridge, we have seen photos of Copper Creek and those look really amazing!

I didn't take a photo of it for some reason, but our balcony overlooked some trees toward Epcot, and you could actually see the Eiffel Tower between them which was pretty cool! I think our dinner reservations were at around 5:00 pm this evening, so once Jeremy got back up to the room I needed to shower and start getting ready for tonight. We weren't really sure if we were going to do anything before dinner, and we ended up just hanging out in the room since it was only an hour or two. While I was fixing my hair Jeremy watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on TV. At about 4:30 we started the short walk over to the other side of the Boardwalk toward Flying Fish. We walked out of the DVC building the way you were technically supposed to this time, and so it was much better than the way we kind of entered it!

It wasn't too hot at all, and the cloudy sky made it really nice and breezy as well! We took our time and leisurely walked around taking a few photos and when we made it around to the other side, I took some more of us and the outside of Flying Fish!

They opened right on time, and we made our way inside. We were ready to eat, we had been walking around outside in the sun for most of the morning and that always takes a lot out of us, not to mention, we were REALLY looking forward to eating here. We had heard that they recently got a new chef and we had been reading over the menu and man the food here looks SO good, not sure if you don't like seafood, but they still definitely have a lot of options if you don't like it. Luckily, we love it, and so the stuff here we were super hyped to try!

The inside of this restaurant is beautiful! We never got a chance to go to it before the remodel, but now, it is pretty amazing. Disney Springs has a lot of new restaurant options so this restaurant doesn't get nearly as much clientele as it should! But, I am getting ahead of myself, I need to go back to when we got there! We walked in and only waited a minute or two until we were seated, we had a fantastic table overlooking the bar and open kitchen! I really like open kitchens, it is a lot of fun for me to see the chefs at work!

That bar is awesome right! This restaurant is a feast for the eyes as much as it is a feast for your appetite! Our server came over and introduced himself and told us a little about the chef, menu, drinks and everything and we pondered over what we should order. We already had a pretty good idea from reading over the menu before we came here, but there was a lot to choose from, we finally decided to skip appetizers so we could have plenty of room for the main course and the desserts!

So to start off with our server Craig, brought us some water for the table, I ordered a Blood Orange Margarita and Jeremy had a Kona Big Wave on draft. The margarita was awesome, highly recommended, with the exception that the orange in it was actually a regular orange not blood orange, but the flavor was definitely blood orange.

Even the silverware in this place was on point, it had fish scales on it and the handles were almost shaped like fins, really great attention to detail, that is something that I really appreciate when coming to a signature dining location at Disney!

It was finally time to eat what we had both been waiting for! I ordered the Maine Lobster Nero Pasta...and let me tell you, it was amazing! It had a huge portion of lobster on the top and then the in house made pasta with squid ink, and the sauce...YUM! It was delicious, the flavor combinations were perfect and if you like lobster it was definitely worth it! I couldn't believe how large of a lobster portion came on top. This was a great dish and looking back at the photo of it, makes me want to go back and get it again right now!

Jeremy ordered the Wood-fired Spanish Octopus with Chilean Sea Bass and Key West Shrimp. We each thought that our dishes were better than the other persons, but they were both really good! The octopus had that amazing smoky fired flavor, and it was melt in your mouth tender. Definitely the best octopus dish I have ever tried and Jeremy was thrilled with it! He also got a Riesling Flight with dinner, while I chose to get a glass of the Selbach-Oster Kabinett Riesling.

If you have ready one of my TRs before, you may know that I am a big fan or fruity desserts as opposed to the chocolate desserts Jeremy is more fond of! Craig suggested the Florida Reef and the Under the Sea. We chose to get one of each so we could sample. We were glad at this point that we had not gotten appetizers because the desserts were great! Of course I like the Florida Reef more, and Jeremy like the Under the Sea more, but they were both worth it, and I would recommend them to anyone!

We finished up our dinner and started back toward the hotel talking about the experience. By the time we had reached the Beach Club we were in agreement that so far, this was our 3rd favorite restaurant on property! It is an ever-changing list but the top two always seem to stay the same and 3 through 5 move around a bit, by the end of the trip another shake up will have been made too, but you will have to stay tuned for that one!

We had plans to go to the pool a little bit later after our food settled so we walked around the resort a bit before we were going to head up to the room. Something else I always like about the Disney Resort is how there always seems to be wildflife around. You always see lots of squirrels of course, but bunnies, deer, armadillos, turtles and stuff everywhere on property and we really like that, the environments always feel alive and real, not necessarily "resorty"

We finally made our way inside and walked around the lobby area and other rooms and places to relax and saw this really nice sun room type of area which was empty and quiet and a great place to sit down, Jeremy was hiding behind a pillar, but I did stop to take a photo of it so I might remember it next time we were able to stay here. Then we headed back to the room!

Once we got back to the room we changed into more comfortable lounge clothes and ended up not going back out tonight, we were going to rest for a bit and ended up being so tired that we went to sleep really early. So it looks like we are going to have to save the pool area at Beach Club for another trip. Tomorrow we are checking in to Saratoga Springs for four nights. Originally we were supposed to be going to the Florida Keys tomorrow, but with the weather forecast that didn't happen, and we were lucky enough to be able to book a 4-night room there last minute. So since we were at Disney for 4 extra days, we were going to be able to go to the theme parks after all. Our first stop tomorrow is Disney's Animal Kingdom! But for now, here is a video recap of the day!

Stay Tuned For The Budget Post for This Day!

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[AAshleySEG]

Last Trip Report I did a budget post so we could see how we did in relation to how much I budgeted for our trip. We got a lot of positive feedback on it, so I am going to do the same thing this time, only a tad differently. Instead of doing a budget post at the end of each post, I am going to do one for an entire day once I am finished with it. That way, with it being in a separate post, if someone wants to read it they can, and if not they can just skip over it!

Our total budget we have saved for this vacation is $3500.00 in the savings account, the day we left we transferred that to checking and kept all of our receipts along the way, we also tallied everything up for each day at the end. Anytime we would have additional cash from other sources we would add that to a vacation envelope and we also always toss all change into a jar and so the change was converted into cash too, we were thinking we would use the cash for anything not budgeted for, souvenirs, snacks, things of that nature, in total we ended up with $578.00 in our cash envelope to take with us! So the totals at the bottom represent how we are doing as far as budgeted vs actual, and then below that, the cash is what we have left of the original $578.00. If you have any questions about how we budgeted for the trip or anything, just let me know!

Thursday, June 8, 2017 Budget!

Budgeted Amounts
Breakfast - $30 - Geyser Point Bar & Grill
Wild Florida! Air Boat Tour - $60
Lunch - $30.00
Gas Fill-Up #1 - $35.00
Dinner - $200 - Flying Fish
Total: $355.00

Actual Spent
Breakfast at Geyser Point - $26.16
Wild Florida Air Boat Tour - $56.98
Lunch at Chomp House - $22.00
Dinner at Flying Fish w/Tip - $225.00
Total: $330.14

CASH - Umbrella & Bug Spray at Target - $25.25

Budget Status
$24.86 Under for Today
$45.92 Under Budget Overall
($552.75) Remaining In Saved Up Cash for Extras​

 

[annie170]

The air boat tour at Wild Florida looks like it was a blast! I can't believe there was no admission to the park, either. Nothing is free anymore.

Your villa at Beach Club is really nice. So nice and roomy!

Flying Fish is quite the beautiful restaurant! I'm not a big seafood eater, but my husband would love it.

Still loving your budget reports! Did you add up your receipts at the end of every day or just wait until the end of the vacation. I think it would be tempting to splurge more later knowing you were under budget.

 

[KsGiGi]

Enjoying your trip report! And I like the budgeting info. It will help others, myself included, when planning a trip.

 

[Carrie Lynn]

Question for you about Wild Florida - Was the boat ride rough? I can't swim and you always see the airboats taking off and going side ways... Did this company do that or was it more of a normal boat ride?

 

[AAshleySEG]

The air boat tour at Wild Florida looks like it was a blast! I can't believe there was no admission to the park, either. Nothing is free anymore.

Your villa at Beach Club is really nice. So nice and roomy!

Flying Fish is quite the beautiful restaurant! I'm not a big seafood eater, but my husband would love it.

Still loving your budget reports! Did you add up your receipts at the end of every day or just wait until the end of the vacation. I think it would be tempting to splurge more later knowing you were under budget.

You are so right, nothing it ever free anymore, and if it is, there is a catch, but this place is, at least at the moment anyway...haha! We really liked the room a lot at Beach Club, definitely plenty of room for the two of us to spread out, I also really enjoy the double closed off bathrooms so with families you could easily you one or both sides at a time and still have privacy. The Flying Fish was better than I can even express through typing, they do have a few meat options other than fish like a Wagyu Filet Mignon, and a Bison Strip Loin that both sounded really good, sometimes so good I want to go back not being pescatarian...LOL! So it may even be worth trying if you like steak. Even like going to the bar for desserts would be so good! Then, you wouldn't even need reservations and you could have the full menu if you wanted it!

For the budget, I added up the receipts at the end of every day and tallied how under budget or over budget we were for the day and then the overall trip! We did a little splurging toward the end based on how well we were doing! You will definitely see that on our last night...haha!! It wasn't too tempting though, we still did great, and the splurge was only a dinner, it always excited me to see how much we actually saved still doing everything we wanted!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Enjoying your trip report! And I like the budgeting info. It will help others, myself included, when planning a trip.

Thank you so much!! I am glad that the budgeting info will help you out! It is so great to hear that, it always works really well for us to make sure we plan and budget for everything we want to get done, then we don't have to stress about spending too much when we get home and didn't do it! I am really glad you are enjoying the TR!