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Discount Tickets Available for Gatlinburg, Tennessee Family Attractions

August 17, 2015 by Jennifer Leave a Comment

Are you looking to plan an end of summer or fall family trip to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge? This is such a fun area to take the family for a long weekend getaway. Great memories can be made with all the attractions in the area.

Ripley’s has attractions that will entertain all family members. There are 8 Gatlinburg Ripley Attractions including Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Odditorium, an 85,000 sq ft Aquarium of the Smokies, a 5D Moving Theater, a bone-chilling Haunted Adventure, the mind-bending Marvelous Mirror Maze, and two fully themed mini-golf courses!

I have a Ripley’s coupon code that will save you $3 off adult and $2 off child admission to all of Ripley’s Attractions in Tennessee. Simply use online promo code USFAMILYGUIDE when you purchase your tickets online. You must purchase tickets online in order to use discount code.

Have a wonderful family vacation in the Smokies!

Family Travel Recommendation: Holiday Inn Club Vacations Gatlinburg

April 4, 2013 by Jennifer 2 Comments

What word comes to mind when you look at this picture? Cozy is the word that comes to my mind. The picture is very inviting. This happens to be the entrance at the Holiday Inn Club Vacations Gatlinburg. We had the pleasure of visiting this beautiful and cozy property last month. Once we walked through the doors, we knew that we were going to love this place. Many people may think when they see the name that this property is only for vacation owners. Vacation owners do indeed own some of the villas on property but the other villas are rented out on a nightly basis. Grab you a cup of coffee or an iced tea and get cozy on your couch. I have a few things to say to you today.

The two-bedroom villa was really just like a home away from home. With just over 1100 square feet of space, you are not feeling claustrophobic at all.

As soon as you walk into the main bedroom which includes a king-sized bed with a hot tub, you will immediately want to just drop all your luggage and head straight into the hot tub. Can you guess what we did the first day? Time can just pause still and all your worries/stress be gone for a few. Priceless!

The other bedroom is very nice as well as it includes a spacious room with a queen-sized bed along with a full-sized bed. It has it’s own bathroom to the side and includes a flat screen television. You have the size of a regular hotel room in just one of the bedrooms. Sweet!

The villa comes complete with a full-sized kitchen that includes a dishwasher and a washer and dryer. How many times have you been on vacation and wish you had a washer/dryer in your room? Accidents happen. It is a fact with children. We put the washer/dryer to test the first time. It was so great to have no worries about carrying dirty clothes with you throughout the entire trip. The kitchen comes stocked with all the cooking pans and dinnerware that you could even think about needing.

As you can tell from my pictures and the video, this villa could very easily fit more than one family. If you went with another family, it would be better cost effective than a hotel easily. We went during March and the villa was only $189 a night. You can do your own cooking, your own was and not have to worry about finding somewhere to eat each meal. Also, you just feel so much more comfortable with all the space to relax after a busy day enjoying the Smoky Mountains.

We cannot wait to go back to visit and also visit the other Holiday Inn Club Vacations. Until next time….

Disclosure: My trip was sponsored by Holiday Inn Club Vacations, who provided a two-night stay, expense credit and attraction tickets. This post is solely my opinion and based on my experience without outside influence.

Our worst hotel experience this weekend!

March 20, 2012 by Jennifer 3 Comments

As a traveling family, we have stayed in several hotels. I could honestly say, we never had a bad hotel experience before this past weekend. This past weekend put that statement through the window unfortunately.

Our precious M had a clogging competition in Gatlinburg, TN. We are huge fans of Pigeon Forge, TN and would occasionally visit Gatlinburg on our trips. I only had minimal experience with hotels in the Gatlinburg area. I wanted to keep our trip as frugal as we could so I put a bid in at Priceline’s “Name your own price.” Let me just state, I will never use this feature again. We have had success in the past, but this trip put a heavy dark cloud over the past successful trips.

We get to our hotel and realize, it does not look like the pictures online. Sigh #1. We get our keys and drive to our room across the road. Once we open the door, we realize we have one queen size bed for 2 adults and 3 kids. Sigh #2. I run across the road and explain I put in the Priceline instructions, that we needed two double beds. The associate gives us another room. The room looks decent with a smell. We will deal with the smell since we will only be in the room to sleep. As we went to sleep that night, I just felt weird in the room. It’s just all in my head, I was thinking. I finally go to sleep only to wake up to a scratching noise. Sigh #3. I lay there a minute and start praying that I am just hearing noises. Sure enough, the scratching continues and it is right beside me in the nightstand. There are mice in our hotel room. Sigh #4. It is almost 6am in the morning so I hurry and start packing all our things. We are getting out of this room ASAP. As I am packing our things, the smoke alarm goes off in our room. I hurry and swoop up L to carry her, M and her friend start running outside down the halls. As I am running to follow them, I realize we are the only people running in the hotel. Sigh #5. Our alarm was the only one going off. At this point, I just start laughing.

After we get our things packed and in the vehicle, we head across the street to have a talk with the front desk.

Associate: “Do you have a pet with you?”

Me: “Well, actually no we do not.”

Associate: “Why are you in our pet hotel then?”

Me: “Your clerk is the one that put us over there.”

Associate: “Let me go show you a room we have over on this side of the property.”

I go check out the room. It is a little more decent and it is by the creek. I proceed to get hubby and the girls. We begin unpacking our things once again. The girls open the door to see the creek. We have a nice view of a run down hotel and pool. Sigh #6 Someone is outdoors smoking on their balcony and it immediately sets off L with an asthma attack. Sigh #7. We are all just bewildered by this point. Hubby and I vow to never ever stay in Gatlinburg, TN again. We will stay in Pigeon Forge, TN where the hotels are not run down and provide clean and classy rooms. What an experience!

By the way, this hotel was the Sydney James Mountain Lodge. This was our worst hotel experience as a traveling family.

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