Disney vs. Holiday Inn

A few weeks ago we went to Disney World.  It wasn't our first time.  And our room (suite) was huge, as it always is, this time with 2 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Hersheypark.  Fun time.  As Hersheypark is a couple-hour drive from home, we decided to spend the night at a local hotel.  I booked us a nice room at a local Holiday Inn.  They gave us a non-smoking room with a king bed.  We had brought the kid's sleeping bags so they would sleep on the floor.

I got the key from the front desk and we all grabbed our luggage and went to the room.  I opened the door and we walked in.  Li'l D, my son of 6 years, walked in, took a quick look around, and said

"One room?"

I chuckled, realizing that my kids need to get out more ...

Disney World vs. Hersheypark

Living on the east coast, we have access to both the largest of the Disney properties, a place known as Disney World, and Hersheypark.  For those not in the know, Hersheypark is a relatively huge amusement park located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, that is owned by the Hershey company, the one that makes all of the chocolate.  We went to Hersheypark a couple of weekends ago for the day.  Unfortunately for us, it was a bit more anticlimactic than it might otherwise have been, as we had just a week before spent the week at Disney World.  Bottom line is that it just don't get better than Disney World.  Everything from the customer experience to the atmosphere to the ambiance (note to self: look up that word ...) to the customer service (remember my recent post).

Disney comes through again!

We are Disney freaks.  We'd had a few very successful and enjoyable trips to Disney World, both with and without kids.  We had bought some Disney stock (DIS).  I had bought some Marvel Entertainment (MVL) stock a long time ago and last year Disney decided to buy the whole company, giving me a nice ten-fold increase on my original investment.  We now own a bigger buttload (relative term ...) of Disney stock.  We have some friends who are even more avid Disney freaks than we are, and at their urging/hounding/incessant suggestions, we joined the Disney Vacation Club, just like them.  It ain't cheap, but we get top notch somewhat pre-paid vacations in incredible lodgings and second-to-none customer service for the next 50 years.

We just went to WDW last week for our second annual family trip.  We stayed at Kidani Village at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Our two bedroom suite had three full bathrooms.  When we opened the curtains and went out on our deck we saw (mostly) a very nice replica of African wilderness.  Between our room view and those of the surrounding hallways and such, we saw zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, warthogs, okapi (looks like a Dr. Seuss rendition of a combination of a donkey, horse and zebra), nyala (look sort of like striped deer), storks, cranes, vultures, and numerous other birds.  It was wonderful.