Art of Animation Resort Family Suites

This is the second post in a series of posts about the Art of Animation Resort, there really is that much to say. The first post was an introduction to the resort and covered public areas.  The last post will cover the theming of the resort.

Here are some of the basics of this resort: it's a value resort on the opposite side of Hourglass Lake from the Pop Century Resort.  The resort has traditional value resort guest rooms and family suite guest rooms.  There are 4 themed areas of the resort: Cars, Lion King, Finding Nemo and the Little Mermaid (traditional value resort rooms).

On my trip I stayed in a Lion King suite, it was about 640 square feet and had 2 bathrooms, a bedroom, kitchen, living room and can sleep up to 6 people.  The buildings that house the suites all have interior hallways and you require a room card to the building to gain entry via RFID, a very nice security feature.

When you walk in to the room (my room at least) on the left is a full bathroom and the living room with the kitchenette.  On the right side is the kitchen table, and bedroom with full bathroom. 

The first bathroom has a pocket door leading to the sink area, then there is another door separating the toilet and tub with shower head.  I love this set up as it allows multiple people to use the bathroom at the same time. 

Sink Area

Shower Curtain

I LOVE the tile work

The living room has a kitchenette, it has a small refrigerator, small sink coffee maker, microwave, and some plastic and paper goods.  It's nothing fancy, but enough to warm up bottles or make a quick breakfast.  Next to that is the couch, which folds out into a bed and will sleep 2 people.  There is an additional chair, coffee table, TV on a TV stand/dresser and a rack for hanging clothes.  Under the rack is a box you could use the top of the box for storage, or sitting on.  The box opens from the front (not the top) and is storage for the pull out coach bedding. 

Coffee Table

Kitchenette

Living Room fixtures

The reason I picked Lion King

Opposite the bathroom is the kitchen table, it seats 4 and has night tables on either side.  The table folds down creating another bed, a full size bed for sleeping 2 people.  This bed has a regular mattress, the same as they use at Pop Century Resort.  I was going to sleep on it, but couldn't be bothered with moving all my stuff from the bedroom. 

It's a table

and a bed!

In the bedroom there is a queen sized bed with night stands on each side as well as a dresser/TV stand.  There is a full bathroom off of the bedroom, it has a sink, toilet and shower, but no bathtub.  It's large and spacious with ample hooks for your towels.  But the sink is not separated from the toilet and shower. 

Bedroom

Master Bath

Overall the rooms were well laid out and spacious.  I'm not sure I would put 6 adults in here, but 2 adults and 4 children would work, assuming you don't require too much counter space.  I will talk about theming in a future post and about the tour of the resort in yet a third post. 

Hallway Artwork

But who do I recommend the resort to other then everyone?  Obviously families, but I would also suggest it to young woman or woman traveling alone.  With the number of families at the resort the potential for a creepy person seems like it could be lower, but more importantly the card access to the buildings and the interior hallways adds a layer of security you'll only get at deluxe resorts and for the price, this is a better deal.

Contiki Northern Adventure Hotels

I'm not going to review each of the hotels we visited on the Northern Adventure as many of them were similar, instead I'll go with some broad generalizations.  I will exclude the hotels in Las Vegas and Chicago though as they were a bit different from the typical hotels on this tour.

The hotels were generally hotel/motel style.  The best one was a Comfort Inn in Salt Lake City and the worst was in Kanab, UT.

A few hotels did have pools - Keystone, SD; West Yellowstone, WY; and Kanab, UT.    

All hotels had free Wifi, but the wifi in Kanab was terrible - slow and constantly disconnecting you.  Some required passwords (usually provided with your keys at check in), others were open wifi. 

The quality of the hotels varied, some were modern and new, others were old but had character, like wood carved beds.  No promises that they were hand carved, but they looked like it.  But the beds and pillows were comfortable, rooms were clean and with one or two exceptions, the rooms were spacious for two people and their luggage.  Some had elevators, others did not.  We were usually on the first or second floor and I only had to carry luggage up and down the stairs once. On more then one occasion I did have the very last room in the hallway. 

In Chicago we stayed at the Best Western, Grant Park.  The location was EXCELLENT if you wanted to go to Museum Campus.  It was also only 2 or 3 blocks from the "L."  The immediate area did not have much, but there was a Walgreens and a restaurant within 2 blocks.  The hotel itself was old and a little sad looking.  But, the beds and bedding were new and comfortable, along with the bathroom.  The hotel did have wifi and I think it also had a pool, though I never saw it.

In Las Vegas we stayed at Harrah's, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Las Vegas, Harrahs is centrally located on the strip, but is an older hotel.  The Casino wasn't as nice as the newer hotels, but the rooms were very nice, especially after staying in all those motels along the way.  They did NOT have wifi, they only had wired internet and it was very expensive.  They did have a pool, but the one time I went there is was crowded and there was no shade and not many misters for 100+ temperatures.

Overall the hotels on this tour were pretty good.  None were fancy, but they were clean and provided all the amenities you needed.  Many hotels also had the shower/toilet separate from the sink which was nice when getting ready in the morning and at night.

Tingo!

This weeks recommendation is for Tingo.com, a hotel booking website.  Tingo comes to us from Expedia and what makes it different is that you book your hotel and if the price drop Tingo will rebook at the lower rate. 

I haven't had a chance to use this, but I think this is a great tool for consumers.

Barcelona Hotels

Trying to pick a hotel for my pre and post cruise stay in Barcelona was an exercise in torturing myself.  As much as I love to plan travel, I also obsess about every little detail.  I ended up staying at different hotels before and after my cruise, mostly because I couldn't made a decision.

How I chose the hotels was I started with a search on internet for where other cruise passengers were staying in Barcelona, this brought me mostly to Cruisecritic.com, I also got some leads from friends and on Twitter.  I made a list of all the hotels, checked their prices (I didn't want to spend more then $200 a night) and locations.  I eliminated anything too far from Las Ramblas (tourist center) and over $200 a night.  Then I went to Trip Advisor.  Most places had good ratings, but I was able to elimiate a few with Trip Advisor.  I do not go by one or two reviews, but try to get an overall view, I specifically looked at comments from people who were traveling by themselves as these travelers would have similar concerns as I did - safety.

Taxi to and from these hotels and the port was 10-12 euro.

I eventually decided on Hotel Continental (3 Stars) and Hotel Colon (4 Stars).  Both hotels were nice, and suited my needs just fine.  The Colon was the nicer of the two, but it was also the better rated and more expensive hotel.  I would happily stay at either hotel again if I was visiting Barcelona.

Hotel Colon

The Hotel Colon is located in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, a 5 minute walk from La Rambla.  It's across the square from the Cathedral, it's a very nice location, quieter then Las Ramblas, but still lively.  On Sundays there is a flea market in the square. 

The service at the hotel was wonderful.  When my taxi pulled up the doorman helped me out of the taxi and with getting my luggage up the steps to the front desk.  The doormen did not speak much English, but enough and were always friendly and polite.  At the front desk everyone spoke English and were very helpful.  They took my luggage to a storage room since my room was not ready, and it magically appeared in my room when I returned that afternoon. 

The room itself was decorated with flowery wallpaper and a matching chair.  The bathroom had a full supply of toiletries, and included a hairdryer.  The bed was comfortable and there was a flat screen TV, perfect for watching the end of the soccer match - Barcelona vs Manchester United - Barcelona won.  My only complaint about the hotel is that even though they had wireless internet I couldn't get it to work reliably on my Ipad, fortunately I wasn't there enough to bother figureing out what the problem was..  Breakfast at the hotel was expensive, but there was a bakery and a Starbucks across the street. 

Hotel Colon Bathroom

The Hotel Continenetal was located at the Plaza Catalunya end of La Ramblas (the nicer end of La Ramblas), about a block from Plaza Catalunya.  This hotel was convenient if you want to take the Aerobus from the airport.  I taxi will cost 30-40 euro.  The hotel shares a building with a hostel, though I never saw anyone go to the hostel, nor did it seem to bring down the hotel.  I would describe this as a Rick Steves special (it is a Rick Steves recommendation).  A 3 star tourist hotel - basic, clean hotel in a touristy location at a good price, but nothing fancy.

Hotel Continental

The staff was very friendly and helpful, they all spoke English.  The hotel offered complimentary internet which worked, and had a couple computers for guests to use.  There was a 24 hour buffet and a seating area with TV.  The only food I ate was bread and cereal, the rest of the food didn't look very appealling.  They also had free beer, wine and soda and I hear the beer was good.  The hotel overlooks Las Ramblas and has a balcony in the public area for those who do not have a balcony in their own room.

The room was small - by hotel standards, not by cruise ship standards, but it was a single room with a full size bed.  It had ugly wallpaper, a pink bedspread, and the furniture was Rubbermaid plastic drawer units with nice tops.  The bathroom was old and could use some sprucing up but it was clean.  All the towels were pink, matching the hotel's pink theme.  The bath tub was very high (typical in European hotels in my experience) and my friend with bad knees did struggle getting in and out of the tub.  I couldn't get the air conditioning to work, it was warm there, but not hot so I didn't even bother asking the front desk about it.

Rubbermaid Dresser

Bathroom at Hotel Continenetal

Overall both hotels were very good and I would happily stay at either one.  Hotel Colon was a nicer hotel, it had a great price for the services offered so I would say that was a better value (depending on what you value).  The Hotel Continental attracts a lot of cruisers, so if you're taking a cruise it might be a nice place to stay as you may run into other cruisers during your stay.  If you're looking for a more relaxing beach type stay in Barcelona then I would consider staying in the Barcelonetta area by the beach, it's a lovely area.

Tennessee Hotels

I stayed at 3 different hotels when I was in Tennessee, here are reviews of each.

First was the Knoxville Airport Hilton. It was conveniently located right next to the airport. It was a 2 minute walk from the terminal on a covered walkway. The hotel was nice, clean, the room was very large and had a flat screen TV. The bathroom was bit small compared to the rest of the room, but large enough. It's not the cheapest hotel in the area, but the extra cost is worth it for the convenience to the airport. If you're flying in late or flying out early I do recommend it. The free shampoo was really good too, I used that for my whole trip.

Comfort Inn, Pigeon Forge. Located at the south end of Pigeon Forge next to a Denny's the Comfort Inn was nice and a good value. The room was tastefully decorated, large, the bathroom was very large, the bed was comfortable, I had a balcony. Not as nice as the Hilton, but it certainly had all the amenities you would need. There was also an indoor pool with hot tub and access to an outdoor pool at the hotel next door. My only complaint was that there was not enough seating at the breakfast area, though the breakfast spread was very good for an included hotel breakfast.

Hotel St. Oliver located in the Market Square area of Knoxville, the location was great. The hotel had a lot of character; however, it was worn out. This is a budget hotel I found listed in the Moon Guide to Tennessee. For the price it was a good hotel, but it's not the type of place I would recommend to my Mom. The rugs and curtains were stained, and the wallpaper peeling, but the room seemed to have been cleaned. The mattress was comfortable, but it really needed to be replaced. Actually, the housekeeper took my towel, it was a cheap white one I had gotten zorbing and I didn't intend to take it home with me, but since I left it on a counter I thought it was odd that he would take it. I decided that was his tip. One nice touch is that I was actually shown the room before I had to commit to it, maybe I should have looked a little closer at the room. This hotel is good for a budget traveler who likes a more unique hotel instead of the standard chain hotel. But if you're a chain hotel kind of person, this is not the place for you.