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Staying at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando

Less than 24 hours ago my family and I left Indianapolis at midnight and headed south for family vacation. I'm sure it will come as a giant surprise to no one that we were heading to Orlando and Walt Disney World. Hoping to have some other travel posts related to this trip published soon, but want to pop this one out about our first night's hotel stay.

Our First Night of Vacation at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, FL.

Rosen Shingle Creek - Orlando, FL

First things first, we didn't have any awareness of this hotel prior to making it to Orlando. We ended up leaving sooner than I had expected to get to Florida since we don't check into Walt Disney World until Saturday. We left thinking we'd drive as long as the two of us could and then just Priceline a hotel wherever we were at and crash for the night and wrap up the drive the following day.

My wife and I (and the kids) have become troopers at this type of thing and we finished the drive in  about 15 hours, and that included a couple of hours of stops for meals, gas, bathroom breaks and driver switches. So during a late lunch while stopped at a Taco Bell with free wi-fi I fired up this laptop and waited to see what we could get.

I won't tell you what amount I used to "name-my-own-price" with the Priceline.com Negotiator app, but let's just say it was a fraction of the standard room rate for the property.

Note: I'm not sure why people who travel don't use Priceline for all of their hotel reservations. Anytime I'm in a location with 4-5 star hotels, I'll always use Priceline and see what I get. Sometimes you save a few bucks, other times you save a ton (like tonight).

First let me list the positives:

  • gorgeous property, high-end luxury resort feel and atmosphere
  • great customer service
  • beautifully appointed rooms
  • great pools (4 of them with hot tubs and kiddie pools too)
  • comfortable beds
  • inventory available via Priceline

A few negatives:

  • parking cost more for my car than it did per person to sleep for the night - I understand hotels in large cities that have to charge a parking fee for access to a garage, but hotels that charge parking while sitting on 230 acres seems a little much
  • $9.95/day or $24.95/stay for high-speed (wired/wireless) Internet - again, I know there's costs to providing Internet access, but to visibly charge for it seems counter productive. I would say this especially for a hotel that has a convention center attached that obviously attracts a lot of business customers.
  • shower didn't get very hot

As you can see, not much to comment about and two of the three come out just because I'm a cheapskate. Here I am complaining about a few additional charges when I got a fantastic deal on the room. But getting a great deal on the room and then paying a significant portion of that same amount for other amenities just rubs me the wrong way. I say add a few bucks to every room rate and offer free wi-fi and parking and promote that amenity.

Having spent a number of years in the travel industry and not recognizing the "Rosen" brand, I started doing a little research. It turns out that Harris Rosen, was recently named Central Floridian of the Year. He appears to be quite the philanthropist. I also found it interesting that he operates the majority of his hotel properties with almost zero debt. He's personally and privately funded a number of public initiatives for his community as well as a variety of great sounding programs for his employees and associates.

So, here's the final line. Definitely put this hotel in your sites for your next visit to Orlando. Use Priceline and I think I can safely say that regardless of the price you pay, you'll be getting your money's worth.

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The Family Visits the Georgia Aquarium

To some degree when my family visited the Georgia Aquarium at the beginning of our vacation, we were just going to one of the attractions in Atlanta that we thought would be a good educational stop for our kids. What we may have done is ruined our perception of any other aquarium or aquarium like attraction in our future. You see, everything we saw after that with any relevance or relation to fish, was compared to it, and just didn't compete.

The massive scale of the aquarium and its exhibits are really what makes this Atlanta tourist attraction shine. The aquarium also has the benefit of being new, they're just celebrating their 5th birthday, so they've had the advantage of taking great ideas from other aquariums, combining it with the latest technologies and making an absolutely first-class experience.

The facility features five main areas or sections to explore:

  • Georgia Explorer provides visitors with the experience of what wildlife can be found in Georgia's boundaries
  • River Scout brings to life the various creatures that are found in the rivers around the world, including piranha, otters and American alligators
  • Cold Water Quest spotlights animals that live in colder climates. The Georgia Aquarium has a fantastic beluga whale exhibit
  • Tropical Diver illustrates the symbiosis between the the wide variety of fish and invertebrates that live in and around coral reefs. There are even opportunities to get your hands wet and experience what sea anemones feel like on your own skin.
  • Ocean Voyager, is perhaps the most amazing exhibit I've ever seen. This 6.3 MILLION gallon tank represents an amazing section of the ocean world to us. This tank is so large that the Georgia Aquarium has room to hold FOUR whale sharks, the largest fish species on the planet! The enormous tank also holds four large manta rays and thousands of other species.

Here's what the official website says, about this individual exhibit:

This exhibit was specially designed to house whale sharks, the largest fish species in the world. Schools of predatory trevally jacks, squadrons of small and large stingrays, enormous goliath grouper and hammerhead sharks all ply the waters of this ocean habitat containing more than six million gallons of saltwater. With 4,574 square feet of viewing windows, a 100-foot-long underwater tunnel, 185 tons of acrylic windows and the second largest viewing window in the world at 23 feet tall by 61 feet wide and 2 feet thick, visitors will have multiple opportunities to view all of these magnificent animals. No other aquarium in the world has ever attempted to manage the variety and size of fish in this major exhibit.

Even with the description and images, you just don't understand the scale of the exhibit until you've seen it in person.

There are a variety of other shows and exhibits to see, but the core exhibits are what shine and that's where I'd plan on spending all of my time on my next visit.

Without a doubt, the most amazing aquarium I've ever seen, and I've been to quite a few major ones. If you're in the area and looking for things to do in Atlanta, the Georgia Aquarium needs to be on the very top of your list, even your Bucket List. Thanks for ruining my experience everywhere else I go now though.