Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress - Florida - 2021/12/23-26

We've got just a couple more days in Florida before we leave for the next part of our Christmas break. 

For the first 6 days of the vacation, we rented a house together, but the plan after that was always to spend a few days at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress. It's a luxury resort with so many activities included. It's not quite as good as a rental house, but it'll work out just fine. 

On the morning of checkout for the rental house we had to be out by 10am. That'll give the cleaners a chance to clean up before the next guests arrive. Theresa is out in Colorado for a funeral, and Rich and Chi have flown to Missouri to prepare for another funeral. Normally we're scrambling to get out of the house by 10am since we're all trying to pack for the airport. But since the RV is just down the street, all we had to do was get everything into the cars and we could sort it out later. At 9:59am we were locking the door to the house and walking out. It was nice and smooth. 

We drove to our RV storage and got everything unpacked. There's still a few hours before we can check into our hotel room, and luckily we're allowed to enjoy the recreation activities of different RV resorts even if we're not staying there. I grabbed a few putters and golf balls and we spent our morning playing 18 holes of mini golf. 

It's awesome to be able to go out and play without paying $7 per person. 

After grabbing Chick-Fil-A for lunch, we drove to the Hyatt Regency to check in. We've all asked for rooms close to each other and we're all in rooms right across the hallway from each other. Perfect!

In the lobby there was a live parrot that the kids noticed when we were checking in. The kids told me his name was MER-LOTT. 

That's an odd name. Upon looking closer, his name is Merlot (MER-LOE). 

They're getting prepared for the holidays here. We voted on our favorites. Some of them were very well done. 

Our room even has a balcony that overlooks the lakes here. Pretty!

During our stay here we loved spending time on their sandy beach. 

Playing on the free paddle boats. 

Building sandcastles. 

The grounds are beautiful too. There's a few walking loops that take you among the gardens. 

There's even free bike rentals!

The kids though are all about the pools. Depending on what time you go, you might be the only person in them, and they have 3 large pools here. 

The kids loved the one with the waterslide. They must have gone down it 30 times before it closed at 5:30pm. They liked hanging out in the water with the other kids, then right at 6pm all the waterfalls turned off and the pool lights came on. This TV screen beside the pool lit up and the first few musical bars from Home Alone started playing! Cool! We get to watch Christmas movies while we're in the pool!

The hotel rooms aren't quite as good as the rental house. It's a lot harder to hang out with each other. Still we were able to do stuff together. Ethan taught Alli a magic trick with playing cards. After practicing a few times together, they tried it on me and she totally got my card right!

We can't quite make food for ourselves in these hotel rooms, so we went out to eat a couple times. Disney Springs is right next door, so all of us took an outing there for dinner. 

There were lots of different options, but the kids both love Blaze Pizza because you can get whatever toppings you want and it's a thin crust style pizza. 

I like Blaze Pizza because I can go crazy on toppings. They will put as many on it as you want. While I was waiting for my pizza to finish cooking, the worker there asked if I'd like a free cheesy bread? Sure! How about a cheese pizza too? Absolutely! Someone must be full of Christmas Spirit. Thank you!

Ian loved his Pepperoni pizza. I asked them to put an obscene amount of pepperonis on it, and he was satisfied. 

Alli shared with Ian because they got just a little sausage on it too. 

How about some dessert? Disney Springs has lots of great options for that. 

Like the Dole Whip place! Donald is lamenting that his was smaller than Austin's. 

Theresa saw they had Dole Whip Nachos, but opted instead for this Holiday version made of Waffle Cone Chips, Chocolate and Peppermint Soft-Serve, Whipped Cream, Chocolate, and Peppermint Sprinkles. The cast member was very precise when she made it, finishing it off with a whipped cream Mickey. 

Mmm. That's pretty delicious. 

The other half of the group opted for fresh crepes and said they were also super delicious. 

Disney Springs is pretty cool! We love the volcano that spews fire above the Rainforest Cafe. 

There's live entertainment too. We came across an Acapela group and stood around for 5 minutes while they talked about each other and the holidays. START SINGING! We started walking away and about 30 second later they started finally. We made our way back to listen to a few more holiday carols.  

Most of the time we were at the hotel, the kids could be found in the pool. 

Both of them were over the 48" height requirement so they spent all their time going down the 1 water slide. 

And getting whoever they could find to join them. 

Aubrey treated them to $8 virgin daiquiris, and they were even around when the activities desk gave out free popsicles. They're loving it here!

But all good things must eventually come to an end. It been enjoyable here, but we're about to hop on a place and head out to Missouri. We'll start again there.