Friday, September 3, 2010

Who wants to golf when there are theme parks?

During one of my recent trips to Disney World, I booked the reservation for free dining.  The reservations of this time were booked with 5 nights of stay plus the free dining and included a free round of golf at one of the two golf courses, Fantasia or Winter Summerland Golf Course.  I had not done any research on which of these courses was considered better than the other and quickly chose the Winter Summerland Golf Course thinking that the name sounded interesting enough. 

We got there to the counter and got all of the paperwork done to get our free round of golf.  I saw that the prices for our free round of golf should have been $12 for adults and $10 for children ages 3-9.  Children under the age of 3 are free.  The hours for the Course are 10 AM to 11 PM. 

As we headed to our first golf hole, we began to take in the surroundings and decided to take the Winter course (with the other course being the Summer course).  We learned that the story of the Golf Course:  One evening following a hectic Christmas, Santa was flying over Florida back to his home in the North Pole.  When he looked down from his sled he spied snow on the ground in Florida!  He decided to fly down to further inspect the area, the later decided that this would be a great place for his elves to vacation when off-duty.  As a result, Santa created the Winter Summerland Golf Course.  Some of the elves enjoyed the Summer while others enjoyed the Winter, thus the need for two courses to accommodate all of Santa's elves!  And an area created by Santa is obviously going to be fun!

Here is one of the awesome holes and me trying to pose like Minnie Mouse!  I know, she looks cuter, but lest I try:)  We enjoyed every hole, as each one seemed to offer some surprise.  I would give you more details, but I do not want to spoil the fun:) 

I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and would like to return to this course, as well as visit the Fantasia one.  I believe that if you are visiting the nearby Blizzard Beach for the day, this would be a great way to spend part of that same day.  I was able to visit the course on our day of travel to the Walt Disney World area.  If one is traveling to this course by Disney bus, they would need to travel here from any of the parks or hotels.  The course took us approximately 90 minutes, but could have taken a bit less time if we were not having so much fun taking photos and making sure to see all of the details.  With a bus ride to the course, the entire experience could take around 2 1/2 hours.  Assuming that a guest has already paid for a theme park ticket, 2 1/2 hours is a load of time away from the attractions especially when you consider that you are paying to get in the parks PLUS to also play the round of golf.  My frugal wallet says to definitely experience a round of golf here, but on a day where you do not plan to hit the parks!

Have fun!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Pirates of the Caribbean

Today, I was going through all of my Disney World photos in preparation for a project I am working on.  While on a recent visit to the World, I was able to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean during a particularly empty time of day for the ride.  To my delight, the boat was empty in front of and behind me.  The only people in my boat were my mom, son and myself.  I delighted at the opportunity to take lots of photos!  Let me call these "Just Jack" (said with the flare of Jack off of Will and Grace):






























Hope you have a wonderful day, arrah.