Key Lime Cove Post #4

Ok I thought I was done with three posts but realized that there was one area I did not share with you and it was what I was saving for last, ya know save the best for last.  Island Temptations is the name of the place and oh my goodness everytime I walked past it (quite a few times a day since the way to the elevators was either left or right past it and it was on the main floor of the hotel) I would start drooling.

“Before you’re ready to start your day, head over to Island Temptations — your nose will lead the way — for a fresh cup of coffee. We roast our own coffee beans here and the tempting array of fresh baked goods and sweet treats guarantee this will soon become your favorite hangout.”

There was so many different varities of delicious here it was hard to pick out some yummy treats.  There was muffins, donuts, bagels, cereal, milk, juice, coffee.

On top of that they have fudge made right there as well as a LARGE variety of candy.  It was so mouth watering and tempting that I had to put it all in it’s own post.  Don’t forget your toothbrush when you visit because if you are anything like me your sweet tooth will get the better of you, although if you forget it you can always visit the gift shop and buy one.

Key Lime Cove Post #3

So we talked about the hotel room, we talked about the pool/waterpark area.  Now last but not least lets talk about well the rest.  I did not get as many pictures of the hotel as I would like but with an impatient 2 year old lots of pictures are really not her priority, hers is making me chase her everywhere lol.

Ok so lets start at the front doors and work our way in.  When you first come in the door directly in front of you is a huge gorgeous waterfall scene, perfect for picture opportunities if you ask me to show off your families visit.

To the left of the door is the Crazy Toucan restaurant.  This is actually the one and only place I got the chance to eat at while we were there, the visit was simply too short to experience everything.  I had the most delicious chicken fajitas that were totally to die for but I am a huge fajita fan.  Not sure what my sister and her friend got because I was too consumed by my delicious food in front of me.

Of course then you have the front desk and right across from the front desk is a great seating area where you can relax, watch into the waterpark and wait to check in or check out or just get some away time from the kids if need be.  What would a tropical paradise be without a bird or two and luckily Key Lime Cove has three actually, two large parrots and one small one.  The small parrot sits on top of her cage, the trainer goes across the hotel and calls her and she flies straight to him it is awesome.  The two big birds you can actually have your picture taken with, I wanted to with Maddisyn but I never got around to it and I am very sad because of that.

There is a swim shop where you can purchase all your forgotten swimming necessities such as towels, coverups, swimsuits etc.  The gift shop was awesome and they had some super adorable clothing choices, I was even able to get the boys an iron on patch for their fire blankets from teh gift shop which was great because that does not happen often.

In the waiting areas off the elevators is a small seating area with a couple chairs, tables and maybe even a small couch to relax on while waiting on your friends/family, really a great idea since I spend a ton of time waiting lmao.

On the ground floor of the hotel along with the pool is a shop, Duke’s Dock Shop, with a ton of different shoe/sandal/croc styles I was so sad I just did not have time to shop.  There is also a great arcade that we spent some time at letting Maddisyn run around and pretend to play games and burn off some energy.  D.W. Anderson’s Icecream shop is also on this floor, I did not get in because there was not an opportune time to visit with my cranky toddler but I did take some time to peek at it to see and it was so cute themed like an old school ice cream parlor.

Last but not least was Maddisyns favorite place outside of the pool, Leapin Lizards.  This is a kids area where they have certain special crafts at certain times like a pictures scavenger hunt, make your own snow cones, color a bird in a cage etc.  On top of that you can go in and purchase stuff for your child to paint/color like piggy banks, shirts, bags, pillowcases etc.  On top of this there is some coloring pictures that the kids can just sit and color as well as some games to play, movie playing on the tv the entire time we are there, Maddy even got to pick once and picked a Dora cartoon.  There are toys, games, puzzles, books you name it this is a great area for kids, I took a bunch of pictures but let me share just a couple with you.

Ok well I know that there is so much more to this resort and that honestly it is not something I can tell you about it is something that you really need to visit and experience for yourself.  I will say this is so far one of the most amazing trips that i have ever been able to go on and the only thing that I would change for next time is I would bring my entire family instead of just Maddisyn.

I am again going to say, please do not go with all the negative reviews you have heard of this resort, I was a bit nervous going because of the reviews and they were so wrong and I was silly to even listen to them in the first place, it was nothing but A1 service the entire time.

Key Lime Cove Post #2

Last time I told you about checking in, the money-less wristbands, and of course the actual hotel room.  Today I am going to tell you about the waterpark area of Key Lime Cove.

I did not get to spend much time in the actual waterpark so my picture selection is very limited on this one but I will share with you what I can.

We got to the hotel, got checked in and of course Maddisyn seen the pool and NEEDED to go swimming at that very moment so we headed to the room and got our swimsuits on to take her to the pool.  On our way to the pool I got to meet the great Sarah, the PR rep who arranged my trip to Key Lime Cove, she was awesome although I did not get to talk nearly as long as I would have liked to because Maddisyn was just dying to go swimming lol.

So we got to the pool and right away I am amazed, they have several areas to play in.  There is an area with small slides and not so deep, like 3 ft at most I think, pools.  This was Maddisyns favorite area because she could slide all by herself.  Then there was the big giant waterslide (I did not get to ride this but my sister and her friend did once and said it was a ton of fun).  The lazy river which you started and finished in a wave pool.  When we started going around the lazy river the waves were not on in the pool, but when we came out they were and wow Maddisyn had so much fun floating in her tube up and down over the big waves and yelling wheee.   There was a pool off in the corner with basketball nets in it, we did not go in there at all there was just so much to do and so little time in the pool.  There is also an adult only hot tub for people 18 and older to use.  I was happy to see this although my sister wishes there was one that she could have used.

Right in the center of all of this there is a big giant tree fort type structure with all kinds of water play all through it from squirters to buckets to water guns.  When you climb to the top of this there is a couple of body slides which looked super fun.  There was two small body slides and Maddy loved to play there too.  Also on this tree house is a giant bucket that dumped water what I think was every 5 minutes but I did not really time it so I cannot tell you for sure.

All around the water park area you will find large plastic tables and chairs so you can eat some lunch/dinner from Sharkys Big Bites, which I will tell you about in a minute.  If you are not eating then you can park yourself on one of the plastic lounge chairs and just relax while your little fish swim around.

One thing that I was rather disappointed with was when my sister was told that she could not swim because she was not wearing a “swimsuit”.  She was wearing swim shorts that I purchased for her myself from the swimming section at walmart and she was wearing a bathing suit top (think tankini) but she was told that because her swim shorts were not a normal bathing suit bottom she could not wear them.  Although begrudgingly we let it go and just did not really visit the water park much more during our visit which was a bummer.  I was not overly upset about this though until I went up to their swim shop and there was almost the exact same shorts for sale in their swim shop to wear into the pool, then I was very upset.

We spent Saturday out of the hotel anyhow though and on Sunday we went back to the pool and my sister just kinda hung out not really doing much and clearly being bored but smiling so that Maddisyn could swim some more before it was time to head out from there.  On Sunday we had lunch at Sharkys Big Bites, Maddisyn had the chicken nuggets and french fries, she is my picky eater and she ate them all up so they must have been good.  Carley had the hamburger and said it was really yummy, I had the nachos and they were to die for.  The prices were very inexpensive there as well which was great, so all in all you get a lot of great food for a very good price what more could you ask for.

The lifeguards at the water park where always moving, always looking out for emergency situations that they would be needed at.  They were playful too though, walking right in the water in the area around the treehouse (we spent most of our time here) and at once point I even saw a guest splash the lifeguard and he got playful and splashed her back, it was good to see that they could be serious but fun at the same time.  One thing I wish that I would have saw though was a rescue of Timmy but I guess I just needed to spend more time in the pool area to see this.

So I did not post any pictures throughout the post this time, I am going to share them all with you right now though.

My other camera is in my car I will add more pictures to this later.

Chevy Equinox Test Drive – For a Week

I’ve had a really hard time trying to write this one, there’s just so many wonderful things I want to tell you about the Chevy Equinox I tested out on my trip to Key Lime Cove. I could honestly write a novel but I’m sure you don’t want to read that much so I tried condensing it but felt like I was then missing things so here is some of the most important information I felt I needed to share with you.

First, Let me start by saying I wish I could have returned my own van and kept the Equinox. It was a dream to drive, very roomy and comfortable and loaded with features. I love that i could just plug in my iPhone and control it through the stereo when listening to music, it had satellite radio but I only used it once as I have a pretty extensive play list on my iPhone. I used the Turn by Turn navigation provided by on-star for a little bit, however we had a technical glitch that prevented that from working properly so I would have to call back every so often to find out what and where my next turn was, a bit of a pain but i still got there without having to read a map so that’s still a bonus in my books.

The Equinox seemed to float down the highway and it was pretty quiet inside (well limited road noise anyways, I was traveling with 2 teenagers and a 2 year old lol) the cargo are had more than enough room for everything we needed for for all 4 people plus a stroller on top of that and I could still see no problem out the back window and even with a large car seat there was still adequate room in the back seat for a 16 year old to be comfortable.

What I loved the most about the Equinox was the fuel consumption, I drove the entire trip, there and home, which was about 2000km or 1240 miles and only burned about $120 in gas. (Here’s a little more about the engine and such copied from GMCanadas site)

Powerful Or Fuel Efficient? Or Both?
With Direct Injection and Variable Valve Timing (VVT) on both the standard 182 horsepower 2.4L ECOTEC four-cylinder engine and the available 264 horsepower 3.0L V6 engine, power and fuel efficiency are both maximized. At 6.1 L/100 km highway fuel efficiency and a driving range of up to 1100 highway kilometers, the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox has better highway fuel efficiency than Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4 and even Ford Escape Hybrid.** And the standard six-speed automatic transmission further improves fuel efficiency, with an ECO button that allows you to switch to a fuel-saving mode on models with the 2.4L engine. Advanced technology – for the power you need and the fuel efficiency you demand.

The sound from the stereo is rather impressive too, nice and clear and more than loud enough for me, I`m not one for loud music but that was one of the first things Lee tested out and now he wants to change the speakers in the van yet again lol.

Probably the only thing I didn’t like about the equinox was the small storage compartment that was above the stereo on the dash, it was very convenient for ID and sunglasses and small items like and it blended seamlessly into the dash adding a little to the look of the interior, however that part I didn’t like was the button to open it was very shiny chrome and the angle of it seemed to pick up the sun all the time shooting the glaring reflection into my face. It was rather distracting while driving into the sun most of the way home. It would have been nice if it was black or dark gray.

That being said I still absolutely loved the Equinox and would for sure consider buying one for our second vehicle maybe, I would consider it for our primary however at this current time we need to fit at least 6 people in sometimes so a mini van or similar is our first option solely for that reason.

KeyLime Cove post #1

Oh wow, this one is going to be a couple of posts long as well.  I walked into KeyLime Cove and I was in awe, what an amazing sight to see, so much for kids to do right off the start.  After I picked my jaw up off the ground I got into line to check-in, the lineup was a little long but it was certainly not for lack of staff, there was someone at each of the computers behind the desk (at least 10 I did not really count).  I was lucky enough to get Diamond as my check in person, she was so great with me it had been the worlds longest car ride and I really just need a kind face at that point and Diamond was for sure it I am giving her two thumbs up and a huge shout out.

When we checked in we got our bracelets that showed we were guests at the hotel, but more then that they were also our room keys, what a great idea not having to carry a room key with you, afterall there is not really pockets in a swimsuit haha.  On top of the bracelet being a room key though you could put money onto it and then use that to pay for your food/souvenirs because it is good at any store/restaurant in the hotel.  You simply show them that your bracelet has a $ symbol on it and they scan it and your good to go.  Then when you check out they just return the balance on the bracelet back to you.

The front desk was a gorgeous site as you can see from the picture below, I will try not to overload too many pictures into this post so for now we will cover the front desk and the hotel room since those are a lot of pictures of those.

Once we got all checked in we got to go to our room, there is two seperate sections of rooms and you have to take a left or a right past the candy shop, thats right there is a candy shop in the hotel lol and I have pictures of it to show you later.  I got lost the first time but it was a brief wrong turn so I went back the other way and found the room with little problems, we were the second room off the elevator which was nice.

When we walked into the room there was a special little package of stuff waiting for us that included two small beach balls, a bookmark, a few Key Lime Cove temporary tattoos, a very nice hand written note welcoming us and some of the yummiest fudge.

Once I was able to get past the yummy looking fudge I took some time to explore the room.  I love the bright colors of the bedding and the clean look of the white furniture.  We had the Queen Deluxe room which gave us two queen sized beds and a pullout couch which was perfect since there was four of us travelling and Maddisyn just shared a bed with whoever she felt like since she is only 2.

I was very happy with how clean the room was upon arrival, I had read a lot of the previous reviews online and was a bit concerned with what it was exactly I had gotten myself into and I would just like to say that although I am sorry perhaps some other people had a bad experience on their stay I can honestly say that I did not.  I also had a friend staying at the hotel at the same time as me and her room was just as clean as mine.

Ok so lets get down to the complete description of the room, the pictures will all follow at the bottom of this post.  There was a side buffet style table with a mirror above it, this was perfect for holding my purse and other stuff that I would need to grab on my way out the door.  It also holds the ice bucket and the drinking glasses, which are real glasses and not plastic cups wrapped in a plastic wrapper.

Then there was a larger dresser with 6 drawers and a door in the side.  In the drawers were extra pillows, blankets and in the bottom drawer a safe that you set with your own code so you can store any valuables in it and not worry about when you are off in the hotel pool, arcade or even shopping down the road or gone to Six Flags (post to come).  On the top of the dresser there is a huge LCD TV and the coffee maker.  The coffee maker is a mini-keurig brewer with donut shop coffee to drink, so yummy we absolutely love us a Keurig.  The door on the end of the dresser had the fridge in it, so perfect it was not out in the room taking up valuable space which if you have ever traveled with your family you know it is important to have all the room you can get.

Of course I have already shown you above the pictures of the couch/pullout and one of the beds, the other one is identical to the one pictured above.  Then there was a round table with two chairs that we used for Maddy to eat and I used my computer on that desk.  The room also had the luggage stand, closet shelf/bar, iron and drop down ironing board hair dryer, double sink which was in a little alcove outside of the actual bathroom.  The bathroom was smaller but had enough space that there was a bathtub/shower, the toilet and room for us to change in there.  I also really liked that the bathroom door was a pocket door so there was no space lost with that either, the only downfall was Maddy really liked to push the door open and closed because it banged when it hit either way.

Ok I think I have told you all about the room there is so much more about the hotel to share but I will save that for a new post that will be up later because this one was so long.  I just have so much to say that I know these are going to be long but I am strongly encouraging you to take your family and visit Key Lime Cove, it is so worth it.  Now onto the pictures.

I was provided a room at KeyLime Cove under their media rate in exchange for this review, the opinions in this post are mine and were not at all swayed by that fact.

GM Canada and Jabbering Jessi

I am very excited to tell you that I get the very high honor of reviewing the Chevy Equinox during my trip to Chicago and cannot wait to share with you all the details and my personal opinion of the car.  I am not sure which features it will come with but I cannot wait to spend some time discovering it.  I have heard that it is a very comfortable ride which would be great since we will be in the car for over 8 hours to drive there.