All tagged 2022 Vacations
During our fall break trip last year to Dollywood, we stayed at a resort instead of a cabin. We actually had seen this resort on our trip last summer when we would drive to the outlets or certain parts of Pigeon Forge. Melody was obsessed with the slides coming out of the building. Well after doing some research, I discovered the resort was called “The Resort at Governor’s Crossing”. The rates were exceptionally reasonable, and all of the amenities were tough to beat. So we decided to give it a try for our short trip.
Back in June of 2022, we took a trip to Dollywood with my family. Then we headed to Nashville to celebrate birthdays for both Melody and my niece Caroline. We did the American Girl Party, and we stayed at the TownePlace Suites and had the American Girl Hotel Experience too. However, we did have to find a hotel to stay in between those two trips. It didn’t make sense to drive back to Huntsville just to drive back to Nashville the next day. So we booked a room using our Hilton points in Franklin, TN. We decided to stay at the Hilton Cool Springs.
Well let’s just continue the app reviews with another one this week. My April cruise was the first cruise I had been on in over 6 years! So some things were bound to be a different. A big difference came with the Carnival App. Carnival no longer provided paper copies of “The Fun Times”. Instead, everything you needed to know about you could find in their app. You cannot really explore their app from home, so I was sure to take A LOT of screenshots to share!
When visiting Dollywood, we were sure to download the Dollywood App to help us navigate the park. While the park isn’t in need of navigation quite like at Disney World, there are some tricky areas. The app can also be useful in finding out wait times, height restrictions, and just general information. It is a great tool to help make your day a little bit easier. We also stored our season tickets in the app. By doing so, we did not have to go get a physical pass card made. Although this can be troublesome if you ever find yourself without internet. But you can also add it to your wallet in your phone to make it easier too. Another negative here is that with Bring-A-Friend tickets, they do not go away once used. So that can be a bit frustrating.
At my mom’s previous job, she would travel a lot for work. She would go to Pigeon Forge often, and one of her favorite places is The Chop House. So on our trip back last summer, we ate dinner there one evening.
Back in May and June of 2022, we went to Pigeon Forge to visit Dollywood. During our trip, we found a cute ice cream/coffee shop on our daily drive to Dollywood from our cabin in Sevierville. The ice cream portion is called Sweet Frogs. It is a traditional FroYo place. But connected to it was a coffee named Smoky Mountain Espresso. It is located on Veterans Boulevard connecting Sevierville to Pigeon Forge. They did have a drive thru, but we went in each time. We literally visited daily. I loved that they had a dole whip flavor!
When we went on our cruise back in April of 2022, we stayed the night before at Homewood Suites in Cape Canaveral. We arrived early enough that we decided to wait and eat nearby. Unfortunately a few places closed early that night, but we stumbled upon Gator’s Dockside.
When we went on our cruise in April 2022, we decided to stay near the cruise terminal to make the morning easier. My mom had went on a cruise the month before, and I they stayed at the Homewood Suites in Cape Canaveral. It was literally less than 5 minutes to the terminal. The room itself was great and spacious. And the free breakfast the next morning was also nice. I highly recommend it if you are taking a cruise out of Port Canaveral.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, my mom and I took a cruise back in April 2022. We decided to try the Carnival Liberty cruise ship. It offered the best price, and we really liked the idea of getting to go to a private island. It wasn’t Half Moon Cay, but it was still somewhere private and fun. So now I want to share all about the ship!
We went to Pigeon Forge this year for fall break. Brad was unfortunately traveling for work. So we made it a girls trip including my mom. We found a good deal on a fun hotel, and we used our season passes for Dollywood to give us some additional fun. Emily’s family also was there for a part of a trip giving Melody someone to play with at times. We had a lot of fun, and I have a lot to share! Here is day three!
We went to Pigeon Forge this year for fall break. Brad was unfortunately traveling for work. So we made it a girls trip including my mom. We found a good deal on a fun hotel, and we used our season passes for Dollywood to give us some additional fun. Emily’s family also was there for a part of a trip giving Melody someone to play with at times. We had a lot of fun, and I have a lot to share! Here is day two!
On our cruise back in April, we opted to stay in a nicer room since it had been so long since we had cruised together. We opted to do an ocean suite. It is in between a junior suite and a grand suite. It definitely did not have as much room as the grand suite we stayed in years ago, but it was still much nicer than most of the rooms we have stayed in. Having the balcony and extra room during our cruise was really ideal too.
We went to Pigeon Forge this year for fall break. Brad was unfortunately traveling for work. So we made it a girls trip including my mom. We found a good deal on a fun hotel, and we used our season passes for Dollywood to give us some additional fun. Emily’s family also was there for a part of a trip giving Melody someone to play with at times. We had a lot of fun, and I have a lot to share! Here is day one!
I am going to update this page as I blog about our trip to Dollywood in late May/early June of this year. I wanted to keep everything in one place to make it easier to find!
During our trip to Pigeon Forge in May/June, we tried to enjoy a new restaurant each evening. We researched most places we went to before the trip. But on our last night, we did a bit of googling and came up with The Old Mill. It is a neat place with multiple eateries and shops. There are two dinner locations. We picked the restaurant vs the cafe.
On our cruise in April, we decided to rent a cabana while visiting Carnival’s “private” island, Princess Cays. We went back and forth since the cost was roughly $220 total (which I think is a great price when splitting between 4 people). But she did it in March and really liked it, plus I wanted a bit of privacy, a cool A/C spot, and a place guaranteed for us.
Follow along as I update this page with all of my blog posts about my cruise back in April!
While at Dollywood in May, we had lunch at Till and Harvest. A friend of mine had warned us of potential long lines the later you wait in the lunch hour to eat, so we arrived a little before 11. We were all a little queasy from rides, so we needed the food and the break. Not to my surprise, there was no line.
On our cruise back in August, we had some delicious food options available to us. We cruised on the Carnival Liberty for 4 nights. This particular cruise ship was larger than ones I had previously taken, and there were definitely more options to take advantage of when we were hungry. Unlike past cruises, if I were ever hungry, it was easy to find something to eat. That was not always the case before. There was such variety, we did not even get to try all of the inclusive dining options. But I did snag some pictures of most of those to share.
On our Dollywood trip, one of the quick service places we had lunch at was Red’s Drive in. We arrived around 11 am after spending some time in that area riding some rides that morning. There was not a single wait or even really a crowd when we arrived.
