Spring Break 2022!
Every spring break, I’m ready for an adventure with my kids. I’m also ready for a change in scenery. This spring break, I wanted to go somewhere warm. So, in February, like magic, I got an invitation in the mail from Marriott. It was for a deal for one of their hotels in Orlando that had fun pools and activities for the kids for a fraction of the regular price. I had to think about it because I’d never acted on an invitation like this, but have had good experiences with Marriots before and decided to try it. So, I paid for the package and booked our airline tickets. I had some points saved up with Southwest, and was able to buy four for the price of two, which was nice.
Two days before our trip, I called to check on our reservation and there was a snafu. When I paid, I thought I had booked the room, but apparently hadn’t. Luckily, I was able to find another Sheraton hotel similar to the other down the street from Disney World and we were set. It was called Sheraton Orlando Buena Vista Resort and it ended up being the perfect place for us to stay.
My kids and I were so excited to take this trip. This would be the second time the kids flew on an airplane–both flights to Florida. We talked about who would sit by the window, on the plane, and packed our bags. Everyone made sure to pack swimsuits and beach towels–nothing else really mattered.
The flight there was lovely. Isaac and Joey sat across the aisle next to a lady who chatted with them about local politics. My boys weren’t really sure who she was talking about, but she told me that the boys were well behaved and polite on the entire trip to Florida. I love it when other adults say things like that to me. It’s a sweet affirmation that I’ve got good kids.
Josie and I sat with a German man. Josie had packed Easter chocolate and offered one to him and he gladly accepted. We chatted a little and Josie and I read a kids book on Alexander Hamilton from the library because she’s been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack at home and wanted to learn about him.
We arrived pretty late in the evening to the beautiful, warm state of Florida. We loved the airport–so pretty, with lots of windows and skylights to see palm trees everywhere. There were lots of colorful mosaic tiled floors too. I love a beautiful airport. A bus took us to a rental car parking lot and office and we picked up our car. Trying to figure out how to put the car in reverse was our first little issue. The car was extra computerized and I wasn’t sure which button to push down to back up the car. The kids were all trying to help, giving suggestions, which was pretty hilarious and I finally figured it out.
I just have to say thank God for Waze, the app for directions. I typed in the address to our hotel and off we went. It was about a fifteen minute drive and we made it. The building itself was a large eighties looking building, but the decor inside was nice and modern. We were greeted by the hotel employees and they were very friendly and helpful. They gave us a map and let us know what wing we were in and gave us the keys to our room. Isaac went to look at the pools and he was impressed. I was a little unsure due to the eighties vibe, but he said, “Mom, the pools are great.”
Our room was nice enough and had a balcony to sit and drink my morning coffee. I could look down at the pools and out across at the other sides of the building. The balcony was a nice feature for us when we were hanging out in the room. We did have one issue with the shower and an engineer came right up to fix the faucet. He was really friendly and fast. I really appreciated how helpful he was. We also had another issue where Joey’s swim shorts fell off the balcony. Another engineer was a rock star and climbed up on the roof and retrieved them for us. That hotel gets an A+ for those two issues alone.
So let’s talk about the best part of this experience, which was being poolside. Their two pools were lovely. Both very clean and fun to swim in. One pool had a tube-style waterslide that Josie loved. There was a beautiful water feature on the side of it to look at while sitting in the sun. The lounge chairs were nice on both sides with plenty of umbrellas, if you needed shade. The same pool had a nice wide edge to sit on all the way around the pool. The other pool had two basketball hoops and a volleyball net. There was a shallow area for young kids and two tall flower-like statues that had water shooting out of them for little ones too.
As I was stretched out on my lounge chair, reading my highly entertaining beach read, The Matchmaker, by Elin Hildebrand, which I highly recommend, by the way, the hotel played all kinds of fun, happy music for us all afternoon. It was perfect, truly perfect. There was a bar right there and we could order food, which we did a couple of times for dinner, so the kids could keep swimming. One night, the boys played basketball in the water for a couple of hours. Josie made friends with a few girls and they dove for pebbles at the bottom of the pool. Could a vacation get any better? They also had an oversized Connect Four game, chess set, and corn hole. There was a lovely rectangular gas fire pit enclosed in glass for people to sit around at night and Josie and I did for a bit later in the evenings. .
We took the car and explored a little bit. We drove an hour to Coco Beach and listened to the relaxing sounds of the ocean. I do have to say, it was windy and we stayed about an hour and headed back to our pool. We also wanted to check out downtown Orlando, which is very pretty. The coolest landmark is the Lake Eola Park that you can walk around. We saw a few tropical birds and turtles. They also have a pretty water feature in the middle of the lake. We walked over and got a popsicle and ate them fast, due to the drips.
So, our hotel was right down the street from Disney World. We could have purchased tickets to Disney World right at the hotel. I did try and they were sold out. It was fine because we were having so much fun at the pool. The other cute thing that happened was on Easter, they had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Josie collected a bag full of eggs and had plenty of candy for the week. I thought that was a nice touch for Easter day.
It was so nice to go explore a warm place for spring break. I highly recommend staying at Sheraton Orlando Buena Vista Resort. It was a perfect getaway right down the street from Disney World.
