Our Sister Resort is Far From the Ordinary and Close to the Magic
Spread out all across the state of Florida, Connie Dennis’ four brothers and two sisters want a place that’s convenient for all of them to hook up with their sizable brood and spend a few days enjoying some family fun together. Our sister resort, Tropical Palms, is always their choice.
Every six weeks or so, Ruth and Dan Healy like to get away for a few days and get their amusement park fix at Universal and DisneyWorld. Like the Dennises, their home away from home choice is always Tropical Palms.
Like Sun-N-Fun, but with a vibe all its own, Tropical is just minutes from all the great amusement parks, shopping, restaurants and outdoor splendors of central Florida. And over the last couple of years it’s undergone a lot of changes. So if you haven’t been there lately, you haven’t been there at all.
The Dennises Just Want To Have Fun
“Whether family is coming here from Jacksonville, Gainesville, or Palatka, Tropical is just about an hour and half drive for everybody,” according to Connie’s husband Dewayne. “It couldn’t be more convenient.”
“Music, entertainment, Tropical Palms is like a playground, a place where there’s always something going on and something for everyone. The oldsters can hang out together at the pool, eat and have a drink while the twenty some-things do their thing.
“Can you imagine 15 of us trying to get together in some motel room or lobby? Not much fun. And we’re a family that‘s all about fun. That’s something Dewayne is most emphatic about. Like when he talks about how much everyone in the family loves Harry Potter.
“We’ve all either read the books, listened to them on audio, seen the movies, or done all of the above,” Dennis says. So last year for Connie’s birthday, the family, which always picks a wild and crazy theme for their birthday celebrations, decided to do something magical to mark the occasion.
“We met at Tropical, got dressed up as Harry Potter characters and went to the Cracker Barrel down the street from the Resort for dinner. Our only problem was not knowing how big a table to get because people were disappearing and then appearing then disappearing again. Probably something to do with Muggles. Of course everybody was there the next day when we went to Universal’s Islands of Adventure to spend the day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
‘We wouldn’t even consider staying anywhere else for our family get togethers.”
Ruth and Dan Healy Come to Play at the Parks
For Ruth and Dan Healy, Tropical is a kind of home away from home.
“For us, it offers all the convenience and comforts of a house, a place we can bring Lucky, our apricot poodle, and have everything we need right at our fingertips.” Ruth explains. ”We drop Lucky off and head straight to Disney or Universal. Tropical just gives us the freedom to enjoy every minute we have at the parks.”
And enjoy it they do. Ruth and Dan love Soarin’, an IMAX glider ride along the Pacific Coast, at Epcot and Space Mountain is their favorite when they go to the Magic Kingdom. At Universal, Ruth, a huge Harry Potter fan, loves the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but the couple’s favorite rides are Spiderman at Islands of Adventure and Men in Black at Universal.
“The parks are a place to have fun,” Ruth tells us and she should know–she’s been coming to Disney since it opened and estimates she’s been to the park more than a hundred times. Husband Dan has become a fan too and they go to Disney and Universal as often as they can.
“They make us feel like kids again. It’s why we love to take the grandchildren when they visit. They’re just magical places. That’s why we can’t stay away.”
They can’t stay away from Tropical either and are big fans of all the improvements that have been happening here.
“It just seems to get lovelier every time we visit. More care is being given to everything.”
Getting Better All the Time
New General Manager Richard Medina promises improvements like the facelift done to the pool, resurfacing it, adding new furniture and making the Hippo Slide permanent (something every kid and every adult with a bit of kid in them just loves), will keep on coming.
Folks have been responding with more people coming in all the time and making new friends, which only adds to the good times. To accommodate them, we’ve added five new one- and two-bedroom rental cottages fully equipped with everything from pots and pans to towels and linens and upgraded 80 of our RV sites with concrete and gravel pads and full hookups that include cable TV, sewer, and electric.
When you’ve only got a week or day or two to visit all the great theme parks in and around Orlando, you don’t want to spend your precious time in the car getting to them when you could be at them in a matter of minutes, sampling beers from around the world at Epcot or experiencing life as wizard like Harry Potter.
That’s why we say Tropical Palms is far from the ordinary, and close to the magic.
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