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Staybridge Suites Orlando/International Drive
8480 International Drive
Orlando, Florida 32819

This hotel is for you if you’re: a cruiser, need “roomy” hotel rooms, in need of a vacation, have a family.

This hotel isn’t for you if: you prefer interior corridors ( all rooms do face the inside and the perimeter is gated which is a great security feature).

My Experience:

I arrived at the International Drive property of Staybridge Suites around noon time. Upon arrival there was plenty of free parking, a very clean property, and folks waiting outside to catch the complimentary shuttle.

The first thing you notice when you walk through the sliding doors and into the lobby is the kid friendly atmosphere. The lobby was very clean and had a gift shop, atm, and couches. I was greeted by a friendly front desk clerk who checked me in and went through the basic check in protocol. The front desk clerk was very nice to point out that because I was using my company debit card for incidentals, that a $50 dollar authorization would take place and be lifted if I didn’t use it. A lot of hotels I have reviewed don’t care to tell you those things.

This property is a “Good Neighbor Hotel,” to Walt Disney World and provides complimentary shuttle services to Disney, Universal, and Sea World. You will not find the shuttle times listed online because the park hours vary throughout the year. The property is 7 miles from Disney, 2 miles from Universal, and 3 miles from Sea World.

I checked into my room which was a which was a one bedroom suite, which included:

•Fully Equipped Kitchens
•550 square feet
•Separate Living and Bedroom Areas
•Luxurious Pillow Top Mattresses
•Daily Housekeeping Service
•Multiple Televisions and Telephones
•Satellite TV
•DVD/VCR Player
•CD-Clock Radio
•Iron and Ironing Boards
•Hair Dryers
•Complimentary High Speed Internet Access
•In-Room Safe
•Non-Smoking Suites Available
This hotel also offers:

2 Bedroom Trio Suite Sleeps 8
2 Bedroom Suites Sleeps 6

Night time was very quiet. Our hotel room faced north and sat right between International Drive and I-4. You could not hear cars or trucks passing by. It’s very comforting to know that the hotel rooms all face the court yard and the gate is key controlled to gain access.

The daily housekeeping staff was very attentive and paid attention to detail, again, something you don’t find a lot these days.

The hot complimentary breakfast area was great and the dining area was very spacious. The hot breakfast had your typical spread of waffles, eggs, corn beef hash, and your normal continental breakfast foods.

The weight room, arcade, business center, pools, and bar area were all in good shape. Note that the pools are heated. You have a swimming pool, a kiddie pool, and a jacuzzi.

Check out was a breeze and once again the front desk staff were very courteous.

Closing Comments:

This hotel is well worth the value and will save your family $$.

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We stayed at this property while taping Cruise Radio and they exceeded our expectations.

The property in centrally located, beach front, walking distance to restaurants and shops, along with nice interior corridors… not to mention Beach Front!

Check in was flawless. The whole team was in-sync and got us into our room efficiently and quickly. Parking was free. There was a covered parking deck that housed approx 50 cars and plenty of open air parking that wrapped around the building.

The rooms were quiet and really clean (we stayed in a typical two bed). Downstairs two sparkling pools were out side and a hot tub, along with an indoor pool. By the pool was a pool sidebar with excellent prompt bar service. Towel service was also available by the pool which was really convenient.

Just beyond the pool was the white sandy beaches of Pensacola. Along the beach was little sun bathing stations complete with a chair, umbrella and little table to separate. Very relaxing!

Inside the lobby was a three station business center, free wifi (surcharge for in-room internet), a Asian themed restaurant (moderately priced), bar, coffee shop, and plenty of areas to lounge.

Overall I would recommend the place to any vacationer, meetings, someone looking for a marriage venue or just for a quick weekend getaway.. it has it all!

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We arrived at the public beach access point that reminded me a lot of Vilano Beach in Florida. We packed up our camera and our video camera and started to the beach. A long catwalk divided us between the road and the beach. When we stepped off the catwalk and hopped down on the sand there was a station set up where folks were cleaning the beach and putting the bags full of garbage.

At the time of writing this Pensacola Beach isn't seeing the worst of it surely its not far off. Pensacola Beach was packed with people when we headed off to Pedido Key. Pedido Key was a ghost town. One couple was on the beach and the team of folks trying to do recovery.

The shoreline was unbelievable. Saying that there was tar balls on the beach would be an understatement. The whole coast line was pelted with tar balls. What made me sick was the seaweed which seemed to attract the tar and oil the most was covered. A big ball of seaweed was now a ball of oil. I only saw one dead fish on the coast and who am I to say that it came from the oil.. it could have died of natural causes.

We shot some video on the shore of Pedido Key to illustrate how bad it really is........
 

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I woke up this morning at six o'clock wide awake and this was the view outside of my hotel window. Pretty amazing huh?

Beautiful shorline of Pensacola Beach, Florida

Sucks seeing these signs

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Here we are on another Friday afternoon and about to depart on another trip. This time destination Pensacola, Florida.

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Days Inn Property

Days Hotel Airport

5860 Fortune Circle West

I-465 and Sam Jones Expressway

Indianapolis, IN 46241 US

A 10 minute drive to the airport

The property was nice from the outside and I felt safe there with the hotel being all interior corridors. The property has a a shuttle that goes to the airport 24 hours a day and the shuttle leaves at the top of every hour. I had to catch the 4 am shuttle just to be safe. There was a bar/lounge/restaurant on premises too that closed at 10 pm. 

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So I know in a previous post I wasnt too nice about AirTran Airways but now that I have a three hour layover in Baltimore Airport I think I have to retract some of those comments.

The flight crew on my flight was amazing and were very attentive.

We will start when I got to the airport. I wasn't about to lug my bag around with me the whole trip so I did pay the $15 to check my bag to Indianapolis. Not a problem and I was happy to pay it.

When I got to my terminal, apparently the flight wasn't full and I was upgraded to business class on my segment ($69 value) for free. Unlimited drinks in business class. Yay!

One thing AirTran does have over Southwest Airlines is the internet aboard every flight. Sure, its $4.95 per segment or $12.95 for a 24 hour pass but totally worth it. Also, there is a promotion code that will save you like 20% on in flight internet, just ask what it is (its been "airtran20" lately).

Speaking of internet, it's kind of funny. I put on my Twitter that I just got upgraded to business class and my friend Meghann replied back that she too was on an AirTran flight from Orlando to Washington, DC.  Small world. Meghann and I were talking back and forth on gmail chat for about thirty minutes until we came on final approach and I had to put my netbook up. If you have never checked out Meghann's blog, you can check it out here.

So AirTran, I was wrong what I said and what I talked about you in my earlier post, I had a preconceived notion of your flights and I was wrong. I should know better because I get aggravated about people who talk crap about cruising when they have never been. I have been on AirTran before but it has been years. Clearly people will pay the extra charges. Although I still think its jacked up charging for advanced seat assignments!

Right now I am sitting at a bar in Baltimore airport called Bateman's Bistro, it's nothing to write home. BWI doesn't even have free wireless here (boo!) but they do have seafood! I just ordered a cup of of crab soup and crab sliders... they are famous for crab right?  After dinner I am going to scout out the Baltimore Airport and let you know what in the hell there is to do here.

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Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana

So last night I landed in Indianapolis around 10 pm and by the time I deplaned, got my bags and caught up with Derrick it was about 10:40 or so. We went to a couple of bars down the street from his house and than called it an early night because of the big day.

The H20 tour is in Indy today and it has quite a few country artists on the bill. Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, Justin Moore, Josh Thompson, Easton Corbin and Steel Magnolia were on the docket. It's neat to see Brad Paisley taking the up and comers on his tour and playing with them too. Brad is known to join his opening acts on stage and play a couple songs on the guitar just for fun.

This was my first time at an outdoor venue up here and it was pretty cool. We did a little tailgating before the concert.  All the reviews I read online said that the venue was one road in, one road out and that traffic could be at a stand still for a couple hours during shows.   After reading that this morning, we road out to the venue and scouted the area well (for back roads and are plan of attack). Ten minutes later we arrived at the venue and found out what we were going to do and it was pouring rain. Not cool. Fingers were crossed that the rain would stop by show time.  Thank God it did.

Fast forward to that afternoon, we got to the venue. To my surprise the parking was free. We tailgated for a bit then went inside the area when the first act started play (4:45 PM). There was a side stage so not everyone played on the main stage. The main stage acts started playing at 7:30 PM and it included Justin Moore, Darius Rucker and Brad Paisley.
Since we got our tickets through the record label there was also a meet and greet to meet Justin Moore (sings "Small Town USA").

Justin Moore and I

We randomly bumped into Josh Thompson (sings "Beer on the Table") when we were heading to one on the bars on the side of the stage.

Josh Thompson and I

Darius Rucker was great. He did a lot of his cover songs from Hootie and the Blowfish and all his newer stuff as well. He played for about 45 minutes. It's funny cause of all the main stream artists in the 90's, Darius was the last person I would have ever expected to cross over to country.

Brad Paisley really brought it too. The effects Brad had on his backdrop and on the stage were amazing. He played for a good hour and a half. I have a little video off Brad playing his guitar in the crowd but Derrick was holding the camera upside down so I have to figure out how to make the video "right side up" with the editing program (my phone died).

If you get a chance to catch the Brad Paisley H20 Tour this year I would definitely catch it. It's worth every penny and being an outdoor event makes it even ten times better. Indoor concerts always seem so restricting.

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Fun in Indy via iPhone Photography

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