Fort Myers 2020: Diary – Day 1

We had booked our mid-morning flight the previous day on JetBlue. I had booked the Basic Blue fare which is their basic economy fare which charges for seat assignment (among other restrictions) but since we were within 24 hours of the flight we could choose our seats immediately at booking time. The boys were with me and my wife was one row in front of us in an aisle.

It was a mid-morning flight and we took a Lyft to the airport. There wasn’t much traffic on a Sunday morning. The airport was less busy than was we would normally be used to but still much busier than it is these days.

We had two bags to check but since my wife has the JetBlue Plus card, we each got one checked back free. Getting through security was a breeze and our flight was on time. Other than being unexpectedly completely full, the flight was uneventful. We did notice that everyone was wiping down the seat surfaces with sanitizing wipes. While it’s normal these days it was a new thing at the time.

Arriving in Fort Myers

We arrived in Fort Myers on time and found our way to the baggage claim. It was just after noon and the boys were hungry so my wife took them to find a restaurant while I waited for the bags. Fortunately they came out quickly and I joined them for lunch.

Afterwards we caught a Lyft to our hotel. The driver was Venezuelan and had a blast talking to the boys in Spanish. The hotel was about 20 minutes away. It is a towering building at the end of a mile long road so you see the building for awhile but it seemingly takes forever to get there but the anticipation was well worth it!

Checking In

Checking in was uneventful. The lobby space was open and inviting. The checkin agent was friendly and told us about all the amenities. Some of them were closed (like the climbing wall) but almost all were open. Since I had Explorist status with Hyatt at the time (the mid-level status) the boys got special wristbands for going on the water slides. Most people had to get disposable wristbands each day but ours lasted the entire stay. The boys thought that was awesome.

They told us where the lounge was and the daily schedule for food serviec. We also got upgraded to an ocean view room which was the same size but with a better view on a slightly higher floor. The hotel wasn’t busy which is likely why we got the upgrade, but my Explorist status didn’t hurt!

When we got up to our room the boys were ecstatic. It had a great view overlooking the grounds and pool area with the ocean in the background. The hotel is not on the ocean as it’s a 1/4 mile trail to get to the edge of the ocean. There is access to a private beach via a water shuttle that leaves every hour, though we did not get a chance to visit it during our stay.

Water Park!

We didn’t know what to expect with the water park. The reviews were excellent but we hadn’t seen many good pictures of it. The boys quickly got changed and we headed down to see it up close, but they could tell it was going to be good from what they could see from the balcony.

To get there we walked past some beautiful fountains and a waterfall pool. That lead to the main pool that has two smaller slides. To the right we found the towel hut where we got towels and where we could see the main water park section.

It’s a legit water park! There are 3 slides. One of them is a tube slide with single or double tubes. There are also two body slides that are mirror images of each other so you can race someone else. All these pools exit into different parts of a lazy river. The water parks isn’t Disney-sized, but it’s definitely enough to keep a couple of energetic boys busy for a few days!

We spend about three hours in the pool area. There were very few people there for a Sunday afternoon during spring break and we were thankful for that. The weather was nice and warm as well. The sun was a welcome respite from the dreary environment we had at home.

Dinner

Back in the room we were getting hungry. There was a large outdoor shopping complex less than 2 miles from the hotel so we decided to get a Lyft there and find a place to eat. The driver dropped us off in a restaurant area and we found one that looked good.

It had outdoor seating and we took full advantage of being able to eat outside. The food was average but we still enjoyed the environment. We walked around to check out some of the other stores and got some ice cream before getting another Lyft back to the hotel.

At the hotel we checked out the desserts in the club lounge before exploring more of the hotel facilities. We walked down the wooden path to the edge of the water where the water shuttle is and watched the sunset from there.

Back in the room we organized things for the next day since they would be doing remote school and my wife and I would have to work. With things set for the morning we were off to bed.