A Quick Florida Trip - On the "Cheap"

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In late July 2014, we were able to take a last minute trip to Florida and one of the goals was to see how inexpensively we could have 6 nights / 7 days in the "Sunshine State." Of course the question of whether to drive or fly was the first thing to be decided. We were able to find flights from Columbus, Ohio to Orlando for about $270 each R/T which turned out to be a really great move. Flying gave us more vacation time and less drive time. It was also the first time we had flown Southwest Airlines which proved to work-out just fine. That's the first part of "cheap". Next is where to stay and I had a credit on my account for $195.00 from the Marriott Vacation Club from an earlier trip so we chose to stay there. There being the Vacation Club property Grande Vista in Orlando. From our Orlando home base we took several side trips. We wanted to get to the ocean so we drove over to Daytona Beach for a day. It was the first time I had been to Daytona for probably 20 years. Daytona was nice, but fairly quiet in the way of activities and people. For me, that was nice. I'm guessing Daytona gets pretty busy in the winter months. After a day on the beach, we turned our sights on seeing what we could do in Orlando that wouldn't be an "arm and a leg". We had lunch in the atrium of the Contemporary Hotel in Disney World. Absolutely wonderful! There's just something awesome about that place with the Monorail coming through on the fourth floor! We were able to ride the monorail around to explore some of the other hotels on the route (free). Disney's Grand Floridian Hotel is a luxurious upscale hotel which I believe was modeled after the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. It's just beautiful! Don't get me started on the Hotel Del - that's for another blog post. We spent the rest of that day in the pool at the Grande Vista, which was nice while not anything really special. The Marriott Grande Vista was an "average" place to stay. Not all that outstanding but nice for the price. We found it to be pretty crowded and the service was lacking on several fronts but worked out in reference to our budget. Let's just say it's not the J.W. or even the Marriott World Center. We did get a $50.00 credit for agreeing to do the timeshare presentation (more on that later). We decided to use the $50 toward tickets to see the "Blue Man Group" at Universal's CityWalk. What great fun! We loved CityWalk and went back there twice more to walk around and have dinner. Now back to the Timeshare presentation, which was difficult. It was pretty high pressure and took almost two hours to hear all of the "deals". Not fun. We spent our last 2 nights in Jacksonville which was very nice before heading back to Orlando for the flight home. I actually liked Jacksonville Beach better than Daytona Beach. Clean and fresh feeling compared to Daytona. We stayed at the Sheraton near the beach on "points" so it didn't cost anything. A nice cost savings! The Sheraton Club Lounge has breakfast and snacks in the evening. Really nice. We had a great time in Florida and on the whole - did it "on the cheap". Can't wait for the next adventure!

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