Mountains, Zombies & Disney Roadtrip - Day 7 - Roadtrip Savannah to Orlando & Arriving at The Grove

[miss_mouse]

Trip Report Index

US ROADTRIP – TENNESEE – ALABAMA – GEORGIA & FLORIDA
Day 7 – Thursday 12th July – Orlando Here We Come…



Just to start, I'm Lisa - the planner and reporter. Ade is my hubby and he's our driver and there's Hollie who turns 19 on this trip and Louis is 16.

Today is exciting….we are going to Disneyworld!
We woke just before 6am, showered and packed up.
We packed our roadtrip things separately so we didn’t touch the big cases for Florida until we arrived there, so there wasn’t much to pack up.
We all had toast and watermelon for breakie, then Ade, Hollie and I wandered to the Mirabelle café where we started our day yesterday.
Louis didn’t want to come and we were just getting lattes to go.



Taken from our front door.



We loaded up our car that we hadn’t needed the whole time in Savannah and we left around 9.30am.

We were still on a mission to find a Starbucks Georgia mug,
We’d located a few Starbucks in the area and none of them had any.
Thankfully Ade shares this obsession with me and totally gets it.
He spotted a Starbucks sign on the road that we hadn’t seen on google maps.



Mission accomplished.
I was a happy bunny. It’s such a beauty!
We’d gone in and I couldn’t see any. I queued to ask just in case and Ade spotted the last one on a shelf.

We were on our way again and 10 mins later Hollie needed a wee.
She’s 19 now and has always done this. Never goes when she has the opportunity and 10 mins later needs one. Drives me mad!
We pulled in to a really rough looking maccyd’s which had a petrol station attached and it was open planned. This place was rough and filthy.
Ade has an OCD issue with cleanliness.
Whilst I waited for Hollie inside the store/petrol station bit I tried to find Ade a mug with his name.



Obviously Ade wasn’t stepping foot in this place, so I sent him the photo to see if he wanted this mug for the collection too. It was the closest I could find to his name.
Look at the filth!
He declined!

The next stop was one that we’d planned. We’d spotted this place whilst researching the roadtrip on google maps.



It really intrigued us.
Let’s see how small this church really was.



It’s so dinky!
Ade’s 5ft9.



It was also spotless and really beautiful.
Just in the middle of nowhere.
As I was vlogging and using this footage in my youtube video, it was only right that I left a little tip in the moneybox. (my YouTube channel is lollipop box club by the way if you’d like to see more of this day).



This is what I love about roadtrips.



Lovely big carpark.
They’d be bummed if it got full up.
Don’t think they’d have enough seats for everyone!



We were almost in Florida now.
It was getting very exciting.



I just happened to have google maps open on my phone as we crossed the stateline and google maps welcomed us to Florida out loud. It was so cool and I happened to capture it on my video too. I was so chuffed and also a little confused to start with. Wondering where the voice was coming from ‘welcoming us to Florida’.

We were so excited to visit the Florida welcome centre. It looked a big one.
Louis decided to stay in the car.



So we were super quick.
There was free OJ being given away inside.



It was really interesting watching the landscape change throughout the roadtrip.
The mountains and so much greenery, big bushy trees in Tennessee. Then still very green but flat in Georgia. Also those big tress with the hanging Spanish moss.



And then flat. Not so green, but lots of palm trees and so much water in Florida.

We’d planned to travel through Jacksonville.
We are always very food driven and sadly there was a Cheesecake Factory right, bang in the middle of this roadtrip.
2.5hs to get there from Savannah and the same to Orlando.
Silly not to really.
It was on a big shopping complex.





I hate leaving the car with everything in.
We parked as close as we could and obviously took valuables like passports in with us.



We ordered cheeseburger spring rolls to share which were so good.





Hollie had spicy salmon spring rolls and sweet potato fries.



I had my favourite mac n cheese balls.



Ade had a really messy burger. There was so much cheese inside when he bit it.



And Louis had a chicken burger.



It was a really good meal.



We paid up and then ordered cheesecakes to go on the way out.
If you have them added on to your restaurant bill you end up paying the tips on those too, so it’s like adding an extra 20% on to the total of the cheesecakes, so we also order them on the way out.



Spotting our first Orlando and I4 sign was really exciting!



It was a very hot day!



We arrived at The Grove Resort at 5pm.

Now if you don’t watch my videos and you’ve perhaps read my previous reports, we always used to stay at Bahama Bay. But during our last trip in 2017 we were so disappointed. It just felt really run down and the usual condo that we stayed in was falling to bits and all the trees were so overgrown. We no longer had our lovely lake view with sunrises in the morning as we couldn’t see anything and we always had to have lights on as it was so dark.
We’d already got flights booked for 2018 during this trip, so whilst we were at Bahama Bay we started looking for somewhere else to stay.
We were recommended The Grove Resort. It had just opened in March 2017, so during our stay in August 2017, we had a look around. We got taken on a tour and we came home and booked it. We were really excited about staying here.
We’d booked the same kind of condo that we’d been shown around. So we knew exactly what to expect and where we would be.
A superior 3 bed, 3 bath over the lake Austin and The Springs pools with Disney firework views.



The driveway from the entrance is lovely.

We arrived and waited to check in.
It was 5pm, so busy but only 2 people on reception.

The guy wasn’t overly helpful to the customer in front of us who was trying to see if he could book a room for the night. Then it was our turn.
All was fine until he showed us on the map where we were.
It wasn’t over the lake and I knew from looking on google maps that where we were we wouldn’t see the fireworks that we’d paid extra to see.

The guy was really unhelpful and quite rude.
He told us that nowhere had a fireworks view.
We knew from our previous visit that this wasn’t true.
He kept trying to tell us that we were looking over the new water park and it was a good view. But we weren’t happy and asked to speak to someone.

The kids were now upset with us as we were complaining, although we weren’t being rude, but we know this wasn’t what we’d booked and I do think spending $4000 for 16 nights is a lot of money by the time they added their resort fees and parking fees on.
He spoke to someone on his ear piece and said we had a good view of Hollywood studios fireworks.

I said to Ade, let’s just go and give him the benefit of the doubt. They kids were annoyed now and it could even be that we’d been given the wrong information last time. Let’s just go and see.
So we went off to our condo.

The good thing about The Grove is that there’s no big outdoor carparks. It’s all inside and you park on the level of your condo. So you don’t have loads of walking to your car and you also don’t get a carpark view.
The condos are lovely and very modern.
I do have a full tour on my YT channel.



Well equipt kitchen as you go in. There is a laundry room off there, but they could do with somewhere to hang clothes to dry in this room.



The kitchen looked over the living area.



A door in to our room.



And the superior rooms have the added solarium. This was also a seller for us. The thought of having coffee there in the mornings.
As it happened it just became my office. I work for myself and have to work each day.



Lovely big bathroom. Just wish there were doors to the closet. Once full it just felt messy. I wanted to be able to close that area off.



Another seller, the other 2 rooms both had double beds which were great for our teens.



They each had their own bathrooms too.



Our view over the new water park.
(I’ll get to the plaster on the window in a sec).



And although one of the selling points at The Grove is that no one gets a view of carparks, this was our view from the front of our room.
Staff and maintenance parking for the water park.
So I’ll get on to the negatives now.

….Every few meters there are big grates in the road. You can see one by the van, the others are covered by the trees. Every time someone drove over them they made a loud clunking sound. I was shocked at how busy this place was. From around 10pm ish til midnight ish and from early in the morning laid in bed that’s all you can hear and you know when something ends up really grating on you? !
We also realised that this condo was brand new and hadn’t been used yet.
No snagging list had been done. There was drops plaster inside and out of the windows and on the mesh on the balcony. The paint hadn’t been tidied up. Above the base boards, it was on the tiles, loads in the bath, it was everywhere, even on the furniture in the living room.

We had to take the packaging off the toaster and the kettle. None of the TV’s had been plugged in and the cables where all wrapped up still behind the tV’s, so Ade sorted all of that.
Louis had no power on the wall where his bed was. So there were no lights as his room had one bedside and one tall lamp neither of which worked and he couldn’t charge his phone.

Thankfully Ade noticed that the tab in the smoke alarm hasn’t been pulled out, so he did that too.

Just lots and lots of bits and pieces. Just finishing touches.
We had nowhere to hang towels in our bathroom for example.

We decided to head to Publix on the 192 now.





We stocked up on essentials.
It was lovely to be back on the 192. Such a good feeling of familiarity.
The Grove is in such close proximity.

When we got back I checked online and it was now showing that the tower we were in was considered ‘superior’. This tower wasn’t open when we booked. We also realised that we were miles from anywhere.
I found out our paperwork and the confirmation on the booking clearly started ‘Lake Austin with the Springs pool and Fireworks View’.
We headed down to reception just the 2 of us and asked to speak to the manager.
He came out this time and was really nice.
Sure enough when we booked The Lake Austin with Fireworks view were the only superior rooms, but he could see that’s what we’d booked from my paperwork. Unfortunately though he couldn’t move us for 4 more days. We said that was fine and he removed the $25 a day parking fee.
We also asked for more hangers as we only had 5 per room. (they arrived a few days later).
We went back to our room, slightly happier and we all ate cheesecake.



I have to say, I really don’t think this building was ready for opening. I think they’d taken the bookings expecting it to be ready.
It was more when we were able to move in to the other tower and seeing the differences it made us realise. The corridors had no artwork in the new ones, no signs at all, it was so confusing finding anywhere. The carpets on the corridors were filthy and were never cleaned the whole time we were there. It’s how we knew that we were on the correct corridor because there was what looked like a purple poo at the start of the corridor.
We had towel rails when we moved condos, we had lovely artwork in the new condo too.
It was so much better finished and despite being older actually looked newer.
We waited for the fireworks to start and if we stretched our necks around from our window the only view we got was a slight red glow from behind the tower on the left of us from Hollywood studios.
The receptionist had completely tried to fob us off and as for saying that nowhere had a fireworks view.
Here is the resort.



I’ve crossed off the area that wasn’t finished and wasn’t open.
I’ve added a 1. To the exact room we were in right now and a 2. To where we moved to 4 days later looking out over The Springs pools and lake Austin.
When we moved not only could we see all the fireworks, but we could even see Everest, Tower Of Terror, Swan and Dolphin, Spaceship Earth and even the castle.

We didn’t fully unpack, only what we needed for the next few days.
We were still upbeat as we’d sorted it now and I have the say the manager, Stephen, could not have been more helpful.
If only we had been met with that kind of customer service when we arrived.
We never followed up with a complaint as we liked Stephen so much and became really chatty with him over our stay.
And it did get better : )
And let’s face it….we were in Orlando!
Thanks so much for reading.

[Zomax25]

Ooh exciting! The Cheesecake Factory is so amazing. When we went in 2015 our eldest was 7 and when we got back she sobbed for hours one night because we hadn’t been to the Cheesecake Factory 🤣 We have been a lot since then!

Sorry for the hassle on check in. It’s annoying when you don’t get what you are expecting and then have to have an argument. The condo looks amazing though.
Looking forward to the rest.

[miss_mouse]

Its a great place The Cheesecake Factory isn't it?!

Thanks, tiredness after a day of travel doesn't help either when you arrive with expectations.

Thanks for reading x

[Palm trees]

Another lovely set of photos, it must have been so exciting crossing into Florida. What a shame about your condo, but I'm glad you were able to move (eventually). Looking forward to reading more.

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

Another lovely set of photos, it must have been so exciting crossing into Florida. What a shame about your condo, but I'm glad you were able to move (eventually). Looking forward to reading more.

See more...

Thank you.
It was so exciting and so fun to arrive in such a different and more relaxed way...no immigration and car collection and no jetlag

[Melbatb]

What a shame your first condo was a disappointment! The trip down went well though!

Glad you finally got the Starbucks mug

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

What a shame your first condo was a disappointment! The trip down went well though!

Glad you finally got the Starbucks mug

See more...

Thanks.
I think it was mainly the attitude of how we were greeted and then dealt with. It's like being on such an excited high and coming down with a major bump.

Thanks...happy with my mug.

Just seen your countdown and trip. Wow! Have an amazing time

[Mad Hatters]

Glad to hear you get the condo sorted out.

We love Cheesecake Factory too 😀

[Fuellady]

Nice meal at the Cheesecake Factory. Terrible service on arrival at The Grove, so glad you managed to get it sorted. It's annoying to not get what you paid for. I do love how modern the condo's are.

It must be nice being back on familiar territory, we really like the 192 as well.