Hello WallyWorld :(
We had an uneventful flight from Duluth to Minneapolis to Charlotte, NC. We left Duluth at 3PM and arrived in Minneapolis 40 minutes later - only to wait 3 hours for our next flight. We arrived in the land of Southern Hospitality at 10:10 EDT, got our black Toyota Yaris from Enterprise and checked in to the Holiday Inn Charlotte airport. "Up North" everyone talks about "Minnesota Nice" but down here, nearly EVERYONE practices it. Shawn says "they're almost too nice!" Well of course, not everything could go smoothly...
We left Charlotte this morning, ate breakfast at Waffle House (mmm...grits!), and drove about 4 hours to Myrtle Beach, SC. On our way, we stopped at an "official" Myrtle Beach welcome center and ended up with a free night at the Westgate Resort with a private balcony facing the ocean! We just have to eat a free breakfast tomorrow and listen to a timeshare spiel. I told Shawn we're getting old - we never would have done that before! We also saw the Kingdom Hall in Florence, SC. Two sisters from the Spanish congregation were there and when they found out we were from Wisconsin asked if we knew Jessica and Javier (I don't recall the last name)! Obviously, folks down here (no matter how friendly) think that Wisconsin/Minnesota are sparsely populated tundra and we all know each other. Anyway, now I feel obligated to look up Jessica and Javier. :)
Have you seen the movie "National Lampoon's Vacation? It's the one where Chevy Chase takes his family on a cross country trip to an amusement park (WallyWorld) only to find out it's closed when they get there. He ends up taking a security guard hostage and making him take them on the rides because they came all this way to "have fun". Anyway - back to why we were going to Myrtle Beach - to go to the newly opened "Hard Rock Park" a rock n' roll themed park. We wanted to ride the roller coasters. Anyway, we got there at 4:15PM (they opened at 4PM) and by 5:15 we were at guest services (along with about 10-12 other people) demanding our money back. Their 3 signature rides were not working, none of the concession stands were open (only sit down restaurants which of course equals $$$$) and they didn't tell us that when we bought our $43 (each) tickets! We were told it was a 'soft opening' and that not everything was ready yet and they wouldn't give a refund. Talk about an angry mob! We were ready to kidnap the security guard :) After about 30 minutes of arguing (and being offered tickets to come and try them again) we finally got our money back. Since Shawn worked at Disney in '96 he was really up on what kind of customer service should have been offered compared to what was! GRRR..... Advice - DO NOT GO TO HARD ROCK PARK!
After that, we enjoyed a nice dinner at Texas Grill and came back to the resort. After I'm done blogging, we're going to walk up to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. Tomorrow we'll head down to Charleston to see the sites and hopefully see some of the plantations and such.
Looking forward to more picture taking and sight seeing. Check out the DropShots site for a few more pictures we took. Catch y'all tomorrow!
~Lynetta and Shawn
We left Charlotte this morning, ate breakfast at Waffle House (mmm...grits!), and drove about 4 hours to Myrtle Beach, SC. On our way, we stopped at an "official" Myrtle Beach welcome center and ended up with a free night at the Westgate Resort with a private balcony facing the ocean! We just have to eat a free breakfast tomorrow and listen to a timeshare spiel. I told Shawn we're getting old - we never would have done that before! We also saw the Kingdom Hall in Florence, SC. Two sisters from the Spanish congregation were there and when they found out we were from Wisconsin asked if we knew Jessica and Javier (I don't recall the last name)! Obviously, folks down here (no matter how friendly) think that Wisconsin/Minnesota are sparsely populated tundra and we all know each other. Anyway, now I feel obligated to look up Jessica and Javier. :)
Have you seen the movie "National Lampoon's Vacation? It's the one where Chevy Chase takes his family on a cross country trip to an amusement park (WallyWorld) only to find out it's closed when they get there. He ends up taking a security guard hostage and making him take them on the rides because they came all this way to "have fun". Anyway - back to why we were going to Myrtle Beach - to go to the newly opened "Hard Rock Park" a rock n' roll themed park. We wanted to ride the roller coasters. Anyway, we got there at 4:15PM (they opened at 4PM) and by 5:15 we were at guest services (along with about 10-12 other people) demanding our money back. Their 3 signature rides were not working, none of the concession stands were open (only sit down restaurants which of course equals $$$$) and they didn't tell us that when we bought our $43 (each) tickets! We were told it was a 'soft opening' and that not everything was ready yet and they wouldn't give a refund. Talk about an angry mob! We were ready to kidnap the security guard :) After about 30 minutes of arguing (and being offered tickets to come and try them again) we finally got our money back. Since Shawn worked at Disney in '96 he was really up on what kind of customer service should have been offered compared to what was! GRRR..... Advice - DO NOT GO TO HARD ROCK PARK!
After that, we enjoyed a nice dinner at Texas Grill and came back to the resort. After I'm done blogging, we're going to walk up to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. Tomorrow we'll head down to Charleston to see the sites and hopefully see some of the plantations and such.
Looking forward to more picture taking and sight seeing. Check out the DropShots site for a few more pictures we took. Catch y'all tomorrow!
~Lynetta and Shawn
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