tim5055

I used to go to Cozumel a couple of times a year to dive and i never tried them.  My dive bag was light compared to the bag that I took water in.....

But, that never stopped me from getting a bucket of beer at Carlos & Charlies!

Generally you have an $800 import exemption per person, but can combine it among family members to cover a larger purchase.  This combining includes children (except for alcohol/tobacco items)

Unless dealing with a well know retailer, I would be a suspicious of a watch purchase in Mexico just as I would be suspicious of a street vendor taco purchase.

If someone has put pink stuff in the water heater my guess is the best way to flush it will be removing the drain plug to let it drain fill with fresh water then drain again. Repeat until water runs clear.

That is the way to clear it.

Pink stuff will not harm the water heater, it just takes a lot of $3.99 a gallon pink stuff to fill it.

Welcome!!

 

I'd be concerned the cart won't work in the Ranger, and if you put a cart in the bed of a Silverado you'll exceed the motorhome's 5k lb hitch rating.  My opinion is that you'll have a tough time pulling everything you want to pull with a gas motorhome....I've gone through these considerations in my own mind.  

 

The only thing I can think that MAY work would be to trailer the Cavalier and a cart.  Not sure how heavy a trailer would be that would fit both....but Cavaliers don't weigh too much so it might work.  But minivans and Silverados are too heavy IMO.  

Very good advice here. 

Welcome!!!! 

 

We have a member here who might still be selling a tow dolly that can tow a car and cart. Hopefully Grumpy will be by soon. 

This will probably be your best bet to tow both.  Not sure what grumpy is selling, but they look like THIS in general.

Depending on the year your Cavalier is probably 4 wheel down towable.  But, that doesn't get your golf cart there.  Even if you decide to skip the cart, setting up the Cavalier to tow 4 down is going to run several thousand dollars by the time you set up both the car and purchase a tow bar.

http://tandem-tow.com/index.html

Everyone says trailers are more hassle, but not having one I cant hazzard an opinion.

Welcome!!!

We hope to be your neighbor on the TN side of the mountains in about 6 months.

I have several good friends that have retired to the TN side of the mountain.  We found our land when we lived in Atlanta and it was just a little over two hours to get there.  We have become close friends with the folks that live along the creek and now couldn't think of retiring anywhere else.

Sometimes I don't even do it once a year.  Even when it's freezing outside, the enclosed home for our camper stays above 32 so no need to winterize.

Getting off track, but one of the best deals is the evening wagon rides!

I agree.  Ignore the Hoop De Do as it is a bit pricy, but most stuff is family oriented and $ friendly.

And the cost was negligible, I want to say ten bucks for two ppl? Not a bad deal for Disney.

Shhhh, don't tell folks that!

Most of the stuff at the Fort is reasonable.  Probably because we are those poor folks in trailers.

I would love to hear your review of that book.

 

It sounds a bit harsh.

 

TCD

Well, the book was a little harsh - but when you compare what the author talks about to the comments by Fiends over the years they seem to match in many ways.  The book is dated and really only covers the time period from Eisner taking over until just before he left.  I found it an enjoyable read, but like I said - dated.  They really showed how Disney changed after Eisner took over to a company that only cared about profits.  Things I never knew were that under Eisner Disney was heavily into adult entertainment under ownership of Companies like Miramax Films and as a heavy investor in cable TV pay per view (soft pictures of kitties) providers.  I know that under Iger divested Disney of Miramax, but don't know about the other holdings in the adult arena.

The book also talks about changes in the theme parks where employee head count was reduced to the point that in the authors view many rides/attractions are so understaffed as to be unsafe at times.  Through interviews with (then) current and former cast members they provided many examples of what they considered "unsafe".

They interviews law enforcement and gave many examples of Disney covering their "image" rather than report crimes to the Sheriff's Office.

All in all a good book for a Disney fan, but like I say - dated material. 

But, with that being said i can still see similar things being talked about so I'm willing to bet the Disney identified by the author still exists.

I guess you can't bring your own kayaks?

Nope, no private watercraft on any Disney waterways.  While they say it is for liability reasons I'm sure part of it is to be able to rent things.....

Somehow we still haven't made it to Emeril's yet.  Need to put that on the List of Fun.

It's nice in a couple of ways.  First it's in the Citywalk area of Universal so you don't need a ticket to get to it.  I like going over, walking through the shops and may be a drink at Margaritaville.  Then on to dinner.

I always make reservations for as soon as they open because you can request to sit at the "kitchen bar".  It is a bartop with a half wall of glass in front of you looking into the kitchen.  You can interact with the chefs and watch them work while you eat.  I have had them let me try tastings of what they are working on.  it makes for a fun dinner.

Who is going to go and give us a review? 

 

The menu looks yummy! And prime steaks! https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/four-seasons/capa/menus 

I don't think I will be rushing over.  For my Orlando "Fancy" meals I'll stick with Emeril's Orlando.    Here are some reviews to get the flavor.....

 

“A disappointment”

Reviewed February 20, 2015

Another couple joined us for a retirement and birthday dinner. It is a lovely location on the 16th floor of the Four Seasons. Parking was $15, reduced to $5 in you have your bill stamped. We were promptly seated in an area without a view. We were there early and not many tables were occupied. Our waiter was extremely proficient, well-organized and knew the menu, down to all the ingredients and preparations etc. He memorized our names! The atmosphere is very modern and all the surfaces are very hard - glass, chrome, tables without table cloths etc. Therefore, the acoustics were very loud. We had to ask them to turn down the music, twice. We still had to shout to be heard across the table, and it was difficult to hear the waiter. The $120 bottle of wine was way overpriced.

Since it was a Spanish restaurant, half the menu was of a tapas nature. We ordered Pork Belly, Beets, Cauliflower, carrots, salad. Each was about $12 for the small servings. The Pork Belly was the best, carrots the worst. Several of them did not have much flavor and tasted bland.

Each of us ordered the filet steak. Everyone said theirs was OK, but mine was overcooked and was on the chewy side. We had mashed potatoes (small amount) and they were rather rubbery tasting.

We ordered desserts. Some got the valor chocolate and I made the mistake of getting Churros, which were less than spectacular.The coffee was OK, even though it was not very hot. Since we could not see outside, we had to go out in the cold to view the fireworks.

On two of our desserts they did print out a greeting in chocolate syrup, but that was it. When we got our check we discovered the wine had been left off, and we called that to their attention and paid for it. All in all, we were expecting a great deal more for the amount of money we paid. We were disappointed, but tried to put a good spin on things. We will not be going back, and we are locals.

We had high hopes for this dinner and they did not deliver - except for the waiter.

 

“Can't belive this is at a Four Seasons!”

Reviewed January 19, 2015

Having stayed at 21 different Four Seasons Hotels around the world and absolutely loving every thing about this fabulous Canadian based chain where we have never had anything but rave reviews, we were shocked at our visit to Capa Restaurant! After all for at least the last two decades the Four Seasons has set the world standard for 5-star excellence! We couldn't believe we were at a Four Seasons! Our waiter, Christian, was great, very friendly and knowledgeable about the presentation of each offering but the ambiance was really unbelievably bad! It was so noisy we couldn't even have a conversation and had to shout our order to our waiter who had to shout back at us! He kept apologizing for the noise and said he's been asking to have something done about it since the day they opened to no avail. The food was delicious but portions are very small. View from the balcony is fantastic and we went out to watch the fireworks. You can see all the Disney Parks from this amazing 17th floor location. You also have a great view of the grounds and the pools which we consider to be the best we've seen at a Four Seasons. Can you imagine going to a supposed 5-star restaurant and there are no tablecloths on the tables? Or refilling your own glass or pouring your own tea? Imagine finding your utensils wrapped up in a napkin like a tavern for you to set out yourself and forget the waiter putting the napkin on your lap or asking if you prefer a black one to keep the white lint off your black outfit?This is what you have here! Nothing like any Four Seasons Restaurant we have ever seen. The restaurant is designed with a Spanish flare with interesting red sweeping folds of fabric on the ceiling which represent a Flamingo dancer's swirling skirt. Also about six elaborate Matador jackets encased in glass show cases were interesting, attractive and appropriate décor. It wouldn't take much for any good manager to bring this establishment up to the mark and we hope for the chain's reputation it is addressed soon! Can't imagine why we would ever go back!

 

“Disappointed Orlando Resident”

Reviewed January 11, 2015 via mobile

My husband and I have enjoyed many stays as guests at Four Seasons Resorts and Hotels so we were excited when one opened in Orlando, as we are local. We dined at Capa,October 10,and were very disappointed. Yes, it's a nice space with a view of Cinderella's castle and the Disney fireworks, but the food didn't begin to measure up to the ambiance. We started with a ham croquette that was mostly cream based with very little ham. We then shared a salad. It tasted OK but the lettuce was brown on all sides like it had been cut several hours before and then left out. I ordered the rack of lamb, medium, and it came almost too rare to eat. At $44.00 I was not happy. My husband ordered the fish of the day and we were told it came simply prepared. OK, fine. Well, the plate arrived with a piece of fish, all be it very good, with not one other thing on it. No slice of lemon, garnish, nothing. A very strange and unappealing presentation. Everything is a la carte so we ordered a side of mashed potatoes. I can't believe I am saying this but they were so overloaded with butter and salt we couldn't finish them. How could mashed potatoes have too much butter??We figured we had nothing more to lose at this point so we ordered a cappuccino which was delicious and dessert which was churros dipped in two sauces. Very nice. The service was fine but lacking in some areas. The server seemed put out that I wanted to taste the wine before he poured the whole glass. No one took our salad plates when we were finished before our entrees arrived. They were taken away but we were then left with no silverware. I feel like I can be picky in this review as this is a top resort, the restaurant was very expensive, ($210.00 with tip and we didn't even order a bottle of wine) and it did not live up to expectations. The resort itself is lovely and the lobby bar was fun before we headed upstairs, but I will certainly not make a return to the 17th floor restaurant.

 

“Bad bad bad”

Reviewed January 11, 2015

My daughter and I took my hubby on a Friday night to dinner to celebrate his bday. I called to inform them that this was a special occasion. Reservations were for 830pm. At 9:10pm I inquired why we hadn't been seated. Mind you, no one checked in during this time to apologize for the inconvenience.

The staff at the bar were very kind and made up got the lackluster greeters.

We finally were seated at 9:15 and ordered salads, grouper, and filet mignon plus sides. The restaurant is so loud that I could not hear when the waitress spoke.

We did receive 3 glasses of complimentary champagne which was a nice touch but by this point, hard to be happy at the long wait.

The grouper came out and tasted "fishy" so we sent it back. The filet and sides were delicious... Mushrooms and spinach. When I said we never got our salads, the waitress apologized and said there was a "miscommunication" . Don't know what that meant? Don't salads usually come out before dinner?

Needless to say, we asked to speak to manager. He was pleasant but did not know how to make an unpleasant situation better. He basically listened but offered nothing and let us pay our bill and leave disgusted. You would think a four seasons resort would be top notch and never let a customer leave unhappy.

Never will go back.

 

“Ben Shank, please read my review. I know you care...Capa was such a disappointment”

Reviewed January 8, 2015

Entered Capa and was greeted by 3 people who eagerly asked "can I help you, can I help you?" I imagine you must dine at the restaurant in order to view Disneys fireworks, though I could be wrong, but anyways it was kind of annoying! (I felt as if I were not dining I would be asked to buy drinks in order to stay at Capa or asked to leave though again, i could be wrong). Anyways, My wife and I were seated to (I believe the west side opposite of the kitchen and bar). My wife and I were seated in odd shaped oblong booths with the option to sit side by side (like we were at the movies) or 10 feet across from each other. We chose to sit side by side in order to converse without shouting across the table as well as to share our food. (Two people dining next to us were sitting across from each other, thus louder conversing, thus I REMEMBER THERE CONVERSATIONS MORE THAN I CARE TO! The seating felt awkward and with sofas directly across from our table we got to look at other strangers during our dining experience instead of each other. The waitress was not the typical awesome staff we have been accustomed to at Four Seasons Orlando. For example, Every pool staff member at the Four Seasons had more sincerity and charismatic charm than this blonde dyed haired lady (and the friendly and attentive pool staff isn't selling $100 steaks like Capa). About the steaks....my wife and I decided to order the $100 porterhouse steak. What a huge disappointment! The steak is supposedly aged to break down marbling...whoopee!!!! I'm sure it is aged but that doesn't make it taste any better than a steak the same cut I can purhase for under $40, grill it on my webber grill using Laurie's steak seasoning and outdo the non existant wood smoked supposed flavor that Capa claims to grill their steak. (I was expecting, "out of this world, best I ever had" not "i can do better than this at home on my webber grill"). I got ahead of myself...what about an appitizer? Well, the previous night we dined at Ravello's, which was great, and ordered a bread appitizer. We recieved four delicious freshly baked rolls which were excellent. So back to Capa. For an appetizer, we ordered what we thought was going to be the same as Ravello's. WRONG! We recieve a single small 5 inch piece of toast with grated or pureed tomato. One little piece of toast for $5 along with the waitress comment "enjoy". Enjoy what? This cracker with pureed tomato for $5 between the two of us? I mean, come on! When ordering, it would have been nice if the waitress mentioned something such as, you might want to order two bread appetizers because one piece comes on a plate and there are two of you...or something along those lines which would have showed me she cared. Anyways if it were the greatest piece of toast in the world maybe I would pay $5...but it was far from the greatest piece of toast I have ever had definitely not singularly worth $5. It would be worth $5 if you included three other pieces making four pieces of toast for $5 (Along the same lines as Ravello's bread appetizer). What about the sides? Potatoe puree which was good but too small portion size considering the price and how cheap potatoes are (they are only potatoes, not gold enriched potatoes...my suggestion is higher portioned size or more reasonably priced potato purée...come on, there only potatoes ). We also had the wild mushrooms which were excellent. So, there it is! My review of Capa. I was going to eat there two other nights but was so dissapointed with my first experience, i cancelled any future reservations. Ben i hope you read this and at least take it into consideration. Thanks

After this one I had to look up who Ben Shank was.  Looks a little young to run a Four Seasons...

Now, to be honest there are some positive ones, but they are very short - almost like the staff was told to post positive reviews.

Finally, this response started getting added to reviews:

 

We want to extend our sincere apologies for not responding to your concerns sooner. We were unaware that a listing had been created for our restaurant. At Four Seasons we take all feedback very seriously and would like to communicate directly with you about the experience you had. We apologize that dinner in Capa was not up to your expectations. I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you more about your experience, and invite you to reach out to me directly at [email protected].

If it were me, I'd drive each day and do quick hotel stops

I second this.  We had a pop up for years and they are a pain for an overnight stop.  On longer trips we always stopped at hotels, which was it's own adventure as we have always had one or two German Shepherd Dogs at a time.....

Thanks Brady; he wants to stay with the ProPride.

I guess this answers my question on your other thread.

Good choice

Okay... deposit paid (yes, I got everything in writing :) ); order goes to Jayco tomorrow... and now the long, long wait  :waiting2-smiley:

It will go by quicker than you think.

Did you buy close to home, or will you have to travel?

Did you make a hitch decision?

Wow! Very nice.

Did you do a blog during construction? I remember following one in NC years ago, but I can't remember what it looked like?

I did, and may have posted it here before.  Our NC land.

It's nice because i really don't have to winterize the trailer.  While the garage space is not insulated, just being enclosed holds in the heat.  In our recent cold snap the outside temperatures were going down below zero nightly and day time temperatures seldom got above freezing, but the interior of the garage held above freezing.

Well, when we lived in Atlanta we found the mountains of western North Carolina and decided that would be our retirement home.  So, we found 3 acres with 450' on a native trout stream and built a home for our trailer.  This photo was taken during construction.  Now, 8 years later the grass is nice and green and I have added concrete walkways around the building and driveway in front.

The door is 15 feet wide and 14 feet tall with full clearance for the trailer the entire length of the barn.  I went ahead and built it 50 feed deep in case we decided to move up to a coach.  The road out front is two lane paved, but there is a ditch across the street - so it took a little practice backing the big trailer in.  Now, after a few times doing it it's easy peazy.  Last time I did it at 1AM with no spotter.  i just had to get out a couple of times to convince myself it was going in OK.

To the left of the door is an efficiency apartment with kitchen, shower and laundry facilities.

I have even added two campsites down by the creek with water and electric (20/30/50 amp).  My own little campground

Still there, but I was told it's been disconnected. I've never tried it though and the lobby has Wi-Fi so that's what everybody is using.

Yea, but like bhall, my wife is not allowed to use WiFi for work.  As a matter of fact on all her work devices any RF (WiFFi, Bluetooth ect.) are disabled and are not accessible to the user.

I wonder if you could bring your own cable modem?  You can pick up a new one for less than $50 and a used one can be had for pennies.....  Heck, I probably have one in a drawer already from an old house.

Yes, as I understand it is now used by CM's.

So sad....

I seem to also remember one cat five jack for guests in the lobby also - I wonder if that is still there, just unused.....

It's WIFI in the lobby.The same applies to TE porch Meadows TP and at the pool. Some sites in 600 pickup the TP signal and in 100 and 1000 some of the sites are able to connect to the cabins.

They did away with the room with the cat 5 jacks?

I haven't heard anyone talk about it in a while, but do they still have the "internet cafe" at the reception outpost?  Once upon a tine you could go there and find multiple places to plug in a laptop and have internet access.

What dates are you looking for?  Type of site?

And, this is the Jason of which they speak: 

We've made our choice!  We're going with the Jayco White Hawk, model 28DSBH.  The really fun part, is we're having one built for us (CW didn't have the color scheme that I wanted), plus we were able to get it down in price so around $1k difference from the Coachmen.  How cool... not only new, but really REALLY new!   :)

 

If you've had a dealership order a trailer for you... I have a question.  CW wants a deposit (of course), but I'm thinking that there should be some sort of formal order form and not just emails before we do this.  What am I looking for?

Congratulations!!

 

I would expect a Dealer Sheet could be created by CW with Model and Type of TT with EVERYTHING you have agreed to (color scheme, cabinets, layout, etc) should be very specific and have it signed by both Buyer and Seller, along with a Deposit receipt stating whether or not deposit is refundable if above options are not met.

The order form listing all the options you ordered as well as interior color. The can send you that via a PDF attachment. Also final price -deposit.

Yes, an order form/dealer sheet listing EVERYTHING!  Year, Make, Model, Options, Colors and most importantly the final cost.  If it's not inwriting they can deny ever agreeing to it.  If the dealer is in GA they can handle tax, title & registration for you - but if out of state you may think about doing it yourself.  I can't stress this enough, get the total cost in writing, 

If you do go with the ProPride, how much are they going to charge you to install it.  It is not a five minute job and they have a right to be paid.  You can buy the hitch from ProPride and have it shipped direct to the dealer so when the trailer comes in they can install it.

If you are financing with them make sure those details are in writing.  You don't want to show up to pick it up and have them pull a fast one....

Oh, congratulations!!

Memory Maker is great and since it's your first trip I'd spend the money for it. All the big stuff, Cinderella Castle, all the entrances to the park and dozen of other area have Disney photographers that will take your families picture. And you'll get pix of y'all on some of the rides and all the pictures when you meet the characters.

When you say it like that my advice sounds bad.....

Figured you'd say this :)

Gotta keep my story straight.