This may surprise some of you out there knowing that Amy and I
are from the northeast, but we had never been skiing ever in
our lives until a couple short weeks ago.
But also, something that is new to me is did you guys know that
Disney actually planned to do a ski resort at one point?
I did not know I. Have no idea that was actually
planned. Yeah, so like Disney's America
Resort was supposed to have like a ski component to it.
It was in Haymarket, VA and it it had like winter themed rides
and things like that. But there was definitely
supposed to be like a ski component to it.
And I feel like still to this day, there's Disney Vacation
Club members that are like, yeah, I kind of wish that that
ski resort I do. We hear that a lot.
So today we're going to talk to you about a different ski resort
that's in that same general area and talk about the Massanutton
Resort. Hey everybody, and welcome to
this special episode of the DVC Show.
I am your host, Paul Krieger, joined as always by my lovely
wife, Amy Krieger. We also have special guests in
the house with us Chief Marketing Officer for Key Holder
Vacations, Marissa Valaton and the Vice President of Marketing
for Key Holder Vacations, Mandy Gibson.
Hi, everybody. We kicked Jeff and Derek out
this week, mainly because they have not been to the place that
we are going to spend most of today talking about, which is
the Massanutten Resort in Virginia.
And I wish I, well, I guess I did record kind of the
conversation we had right after that cold opening because we
were all like, what where's Haymarket, VA and why was Disney
looking at like some place near there?
But Mandy is actually from kind of the Shenandoah Valley area
right now. She's in the Richmond area and
it's pretty close to like where you're at, right?
Yeah, it's not far. Are we talking about Haymarket?
No, we're talking about Haymarket because that's what
we're that, yeah. Yeah, Haymarket, yeah, I was
just looking it up on my map here.
It's it's about two hours and 45 minutes.
Yeah. From where I'm at, so not, not
too bad. I think it's a little bit close.
It's like north of kind of north of Fredericksburg, West of
Washington, DC. So it was weird, I did some
research before we jumped into this into this show, but just
because I found it wild that Disney had been planning some
sort of concept in this general area.
And surprisingly enough, also about 2 1/2 hours from Mandy.
Where she's located currently is the Massanutton Resort, which is
what we are here to talk about this week.
We were invited out by by Massanutten earlier in February
to tour the resort, explore everything that there is to
offer, especially in the winter season.
There is so much to do as part of that amazing property.
Just kind of a brief overview of Massanutten before we go any
further. So this is located in the
Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. So kind of that, I guess
Easternish part of Virginia or more central part of Virginia.
We're from West Virginia and I feel like we should know more.
About But we're not from West Virginia.
That's borders that would. Derail this.
Pittsburgh, Ohio, West Virginia. Yeah, yeah.
But opened in the 1970s, opened in the 1970s in the Shenandoah
Valley as a ski destination and then evolved into kind of what
is they refer to as a four season resort.
So things to do all throughout the year.
We're going to primarily touch today on what we got to
experience as part of exploring it during the winter season, but
also, you know, there's a lot to do during summer, fall and
beyond. And Mandy, being from that area,
kind of has some experience and can chime into that.
But I know something that you wanted to like, touch on to like
kick us off was transportation, like how to get there.
Yeah. So what was interesting is we
actually met some some Co workers there as well and they
ended up flying into different airports that we flew into.
So there's actually a lot of options if you're not driving to
Massen and if you don't live close, but there are a lot of
different airports that are within a drivable range.
So for us, we flew into Richmond, right?
Yeah, we flew into Richmond, but we also had some people that
flew into DC and I think there's some other ones, do you remember
that are also within a close range that you can drive to
Massa Nuttin from. But from there, obviously, you
know, because you do have to travel from an airport, we do
recommend if you're flying in to rent a vehicle, it is a very,
very large resort. There's a lot of acreage and
things to do. So it's easiest if you can drive
around. Yep, totally.
So definitely getting a rental car.
Marissa, you actually flew into DC, correct?
I've flown into both. And so to Amy's point is a
really good point of like the rental car car options with DC.
It is such a huge airport and then you do have like some of
the traffic around it. And so you have to get a shuttle
to get the rental car. And so the nice thing about
this, like recent time that I went, I flew into Richmond and
Richmond is a much smaller airport.
And so because of that, you can walk right outside of baggage
claim and you're right at the rental car area.
So for that reason, I would say like if, if prices are the same
and if you're able to find like kind of equal flights, then
Richmond was the better option it.
Was definitely probably the smallest airport I've
experienced in a long, long time.
It was so nice. I love small airports, they're
just so easy to navigate. Yeah.
And that's right by you, Mandy, correct?
Yeah, it's a, it's like 45 minutes from from where we are.
I fly in and out of Richmond pretty much every time I fly.
I think that's what you have to look at too, right?
It's like some of the smaller airports that Amy have mentioned
are definitely closer to the resort.
But more than likely you're going to have a layover where if
you go through to Richmond or even DC, you're going to
probably likely be able to find a direct flight where you're not
going to have a layover. So I think that's probably the
benefit. I know I enjoy not having to
have a layover, but I do think that like Marissa's, right, in
my experience too, flying in and out of DC might be like a great
option for a price or might be the only place that you could
find maybe a direct flight into. But you do have to just consider
that there's going to be a probably a little bit of
traffic, especially depending on what time of day you fly in,
etcetera. So you're probably watching this
and wondering why is the Disney Vacation Club related show
talking about a ski resort in Virginia?
And if you didn't catch our announcement late last year, Key
Holder Vacations is actually now part of the resort's companies
as of I think it was December of last year.
And so as part of that, Massanutten Resort actually is
in our umbrella of brands. So we were super excited to
actually go out explore the resort for the first time and
get to see what this amazing property has to offer.
And also kind of, you know, scratch that itch that those
Disney people that have been asking for a ski resort or a ski
destination option. We now have that as part of our
brand of businesses and DVC rental store is actually where
we're kicking things off as part of our swap program.
So if you're familiar with our swaps, we do Disney Cruise Line,
Universal Adventures by Disney, all kinds of different swap
opportunities where you can take those vacation points and
instead of using them at a Disney Vacation Club resort this
year, you can use them for a different stay.
And we are now extending that into the Massanutten resort.
So if you had the DVC rentalstore.com, click on the
members section and then look for that swap option under the
tab there and learn even more about how you can swap your
points at the Massanutten Resort.
And we're going to be launching a bunch of other initiatives in
collaboration with Massanutten over the course of this next
year that we're super excited about as well.
To kick things off, I just wanted to kind of go around the
room and get first impressions of kind of your stay at
Massanutten. And I'll, I'll start with you,
Miss Amy, I'm. Going to blow my nose.
OK, go blow your nose and we'll get Amy's thoughts.
So one of the things that I noticed, you know, actually
being a a lover of Disney is it is it being there.
And I've said this on a lot of different shows, and it gives me
the desire to travel and experience more of sort of the
theming that Disney tries to bring into other, you know,
parts of their parks. So thinking about like Blizzard
Beach where it looks like, you know, an actual ski resort or
even the American Pavilion right where it looks a lot like the
Colonial Williamsburg type area. So the one thing that I love
first of all, before I even get into the resort itself about
that area is that you are just so close to so many amenities.
So one of the things that we did when we flew in before we headed
to Massanutten was we spent the evening in, you know, Richmond
and we went and explored Colonial Williamsburg, you know,
the next day, which is only, you know, a few hour drive from
Massanutten. But if you were flying into DC
and you wanted to make it like a, you know, a multi part trip
and you want to experience, you know, some, some of Washington,
DC first, you know, I've been getting ads about the cherry
blossoms this year. It's all in my Facebook and I
really want to go. She asked the other day, can we
put a cherry blossom tree in our backyard and I said I don't
think that's going to work in Florida.
I. Think they're more for cold, but
but you're just so close to all these different, different
things and you get to explore, you know, things that Disney
kind of has inspired me to see more of.
Also around Massanutten and we'll probably touch on this
more. You're you're right in pretty
much the Shenandoah National Park.
We were there obviously in the winter, so the trees were bare.
But I imagine, you know, in the summer and the spring,
especially in the fall, I'd love fall leaves that you would get
to experience, you know, a lot of that beautiful colors.
But at the actual resort, some of the things that I was really
surprised of because I didn't really have I didn't know what
to expect. I haven't, Gosh, I hadn't been
to Virginia since I was, you know, pretty much a younger kid.
And we, we stayed in, I guess it was the Woodstone area.
And we'll talk a little bit more about the accommodations and,
and all the different options because there are a lot of
different areas you can stay in. And I was just really surprised
at how large the accommodations were, how, how nice they were.
Even the rooms that are considered, you know, if you're
coming from like a DVC background, even the rooms that
are considered like a studio still had its own living room,
its own bedroom. It was a like a partial kitchen.
So you had basically everything you needed except for a stove.
But there was like a cooking. Oh gosh, I don't even remember.
It was like a electric skillet and things like that.
So a little bit larger than what we're actually even used to with
a lot of DVC accommodation. So that was really, really nice.
And then you have options that are in the valley.
You have options that are up on the actual hill, you know,
considered like the summit area. And then also on top of that,
there was just a lot of different things to do.
So we did. We had some ski lessons, which
was our very first experience. It was very interesting and.
That's her nice way of saying not for me.
We'll talk about it a little bit more, but we also got to
experience, you know, the, the water park, the indoor portion
because it was winter, but there also was an outdoor portion.
We got to experience the spa. We got to experience snow
tubing, which I had never known before.
That was a lot of fun. And so we had all these, all
these different, you know, things that we got to
experience. But I also would like to go back
and see, you know, in the fall what those are like.
But yeah, there's just, there was just a lot more to do than
than I had anticipated. And one of the things I'm really
excited about is that they they're almost done with it.
They built basically it's an Alpine coaster, which we had
ridden one of those in Labadie, Haiti.
And basically it's a it's like a coaster that uses the natural
landscaping and elevations and stuff and basically gravity to
to get you down. And you're kind of in charge of
the break as well. But it was just very cool
looking. They were testing it when we
were there it. So it should be opening soon.
But they're continuing to add, they're expanding the water
park. So they're continuing to add on
to the amenities of what's available.
But when one of the before Paul gets away from me, one of the
things I was really surprised at was was the price.
It was a very affordable way for families to go on a vacation.
You know, I thought that the rooms, you know, the lodging was
very affordable as well as a lot of the amenities and things that
you you would buy activities. We were there, invited there as
part of a group, and so Marissa and Mandy were both there with
us as part of that. But what really intrigues me is
that they both have gone previously also with their kids
and families. So they kind of have a unique
perspective to kind of bring to the discussion.
Marissa, you've been there a couple Times Now.
Give us kind of just your first impressions of Massanutten.
Yeah, I think when you get there there's there's just so much to
do. And so I was pretty impressed by
that. I think when I originally had
heard about it, I thought it was just kind of like a single ski
destination. But getting there, there's so
much from like Amy said, the ice skating or the snow tubing.
And then even further, there's a full arcade area, there's the
full water park. They have meet and greet
characters. They have we, this wasn't open
when we were there, but they have a whole like kid race track
and so just lots of fun things. But I will say from a mom
perspective, it is so manageable, but there's so much
to do. And that's kind of my perfect
vacation to where you don't feel overwhelmed, but you also feel
like you've done so much on your list.
And so especially when you talk about skiing with young kids a
lot of times, and I'm from the West Coast, it can be pretty
daunting and a little bit intimidating as you look at like
some of these ski resorts. And So what I loved about Mass
Nuttin. Because they have a.
Fantastic kids area. They have really great
instructors. They have a full area just kind
of roped off for the kids with the Bunny hill to learn how.
And so that to me was really, really something special to be
able to bring my son and let him learn how to ski for the first
time, but not feel like it was too intimidating to try that
out. And again, like Amy mentioned,
super affordable too. So it's something as a family
you can go add on all of these fun activities and not feel like
you broke the bank with your booking.
Mandy, you and your family have a camper and I know love
wilderness exploring. Well I don't know if I want to
speak for you on that family, your family and your husband
Josh and and your girls enjoy that.
So how have they enjoyed experiencing Mass and nothing?
Yeah, it's fun. And ironically for us, we
actually had the opportunity to kind of go to Massanutten a few
years ago when we first moved here through our daughter's Girl
Scout program. So that's one of the things that
Massanutten does as well, is that they work with local
organizations to be able to do different types of group
activities. So that's how we ended up there.
And so it was really cool. My kids really enjoy it.
From the aspect of being able to enjoy that ski experience.
I definitely like what Marissa said.
The instructors were fantastic. My kids had never ski before the
first time we went there, and just being able to have that
area roped off I think was really important to them.
But it's something different, right?
So I think for us as a family, it's really interesting because
it gives that feel of having a lot to do, but it isn't crazy.
Like when you go to Walt Disney World and you feel like you have
to have a schedule and doing all these things, you know, you can
go, you can relax in whatever accommodations you have.
Like Amy had mentioned, you know, you have that luxury of
like we have a Disney Vacation Club of being able to have, you
know, a one bedroom, 2 bedroom studio, but still having some
sort of, you know, kitchen area where you can either cook meals
or at least have breakfasts and a place to go and, and relax.
But there's so much to do there as well.
You know, we've talked about the skiing a lot.
We've talked about the snow tubing.
I think that those are obviously pretty big Collins, especially
when we're talking about the winter months.
But what's interesting too is that they have other
opportunities as well. So for children and for
families, they have something like very similar to a community
hall. I'd call it like a community
hall light where they have different crafts and different
games that you can go and you can check out.
And our kids did tie dye when they were very, they're very
similar to what they're used to at, you know, the DVC resorts.
But then to one of our last trips, it rained a little bit
that day. And so, you know, you're
expecting to be there and do all this outdoor activity, but they
also have a lot of indoor things too.
They have virtual reality. They have kind of like a top
golf type virtual golf thing, but they also have a few indoor
pools too. So while they have the indoor
water park, which is, you know, a ticketed activity that you
would go do, they also have a couple of just indoor basic
pools with a little Kitty area and then a diving board.
So if you have those moments where maybe the weather is not
that great, there's so many different things that you can do
as well, even if you're not wanting to be outside that day.
So it just really gives that almost like Disney Vacation Club
feel, but like slowing it down just a little bit.
Like, I think that's the best way to describe it for for us.
That's that's a great take away because so many people these
days when they go to Disney or on on any of these like larger
theme park vacations, we, we use the vacation term, but truly
you're more exhausted by the end of that week than you are from
like just a normal week at home. And so when it like when we
started like really going to Disney pretty hard, that's when
we did start peppering in some other vacations that were true,
like relaxation opportunities. And I think that's what's so
cool here is the Sky's the limit as to how much you want to go.
And do you here, you know, in my notes in just talking about the
resort, I wrote down kind of that mountain bubble concept
versus the Disney bubble. There is 6000 acres at your
disposal here. And there's so many activities
across that entire resort. And so if you have multiple
generations, if you have dad that wants to go play golf, if
you've got grandma and grandpa that want to go to a wine
tasting, there is something for everyone here.
But also there's just that opportunity to just kick back,
relax, go to the spa, get a massage, just have a nice
relaxing vacation. So that's what surprised me the
most as we were kind of exploring the resort.
We've touched on accommodations a couple different times, but on
our trip we got to experience three different types of
accommodations, which we wanted to kind of highlight as part of
this and compare them a little bit to Disney Vacation Club
stays. The first, which is what I would
call probably their premium accommodations, is what's called
the Regal Vistas. And I don't have a direct Disney
Vacation Club comparison to this other than like Copper Creek
cabins or, you know, Polynesian bungalows in terms of just the
size and space that you have at your disposal in these rooms.
Amy and I just had a short period of time to actually tour
them. Yeah.
So and, and we we did a whole vlog while we were there that is
either going to be posted before or after this.
So if you're interested in looking and seeing the actual
accommodations, the. Glorious 3 hour production that
I've put together across two different vlogs.
So yeah, you'll get to see every corner of Massa Dutton.
Thank you, Sam. Sam Eagle So the Regal vistas,
the thing that I thought was really cool.
So they are set up basically like I would say side by side
townhouses and they are two bedrooms on each side.
So each one is like a 2 unit thing, but you could, you could
book the 1-2 bedroom side or you could book the whole thing and
you could have 4 bedrooms. If you book the whole thing, you
know, they connect so they can be, you know, unlocked.
So on one side you are getting a living room, a full kitchen,
you're getting, you know, a fireplace, you're getting a, a
patio or a deck with a grill depending on, you know, the
elevation. Some have actual decks, some are
more like walk out patios. You are getting 2 bedrooms, a
main bedroom with a main bathroom and then you're getting
another bedroom with with another bathroom.
You are also getting A1 car garage and which?
Is huge in the winter. Right, right, to be able to park
inside then also a driveway, you know, with space to park as
well. And laundry is well, laundry
facilities. So you have all this on one
side. If you book the two and you get
the four bedroom, you're also getting 2 living rooms, 2
kitchens. Like it is huge for, you know, a
big family and just giving you tons and tons of space, you
know, to to spread out. So I loved how you had that kind
of option there where you just could do the, you know, the one
side which was big enough on its own or the whole thing.
Also the Regal Vistas are going through refurbishment, so we got
to see one that was not refurbished yet and one that was
and, and it is a beautiful refurbishment.
And so pretty soon those are all going to be fully updated as
well. Yeah, Amy and I only spent two
days at the resort before we were popsicles basically, and
jumped on a cruise ship. But Mandy and Marissa extended
their stay through that weekend, and both of you also stayed in
the Regal Vistas area. Marissa, how is that stay for
you and your family just to have nice a nice winter weekend
there? It was great.
One of the things I brought my at the time, 4 month old baby.
And so when when you talk about kind of the amenities, having
that like full washer dryer was huge.
Also having a full kitchen so you could do things like wash
the bottles and having a dishwasher.
All of that was really, really nice to have.
And it was a great like they were super accommodating for a
baby too. So they had a pack and play in
the room ready to go. And so all of that was nice, my
son, and loved it because Amy, as you mentioned, there was a
fireplace in the living room, but there's also a fireplace in
the bedroom. And so that was pretty, pretty
cool to him. And then in the mat or the
primary bathroom, there is a really huge like Jacuzzi bathtub
in there. And so he loved that part as
well. But what he will tell you is his
favorite part of probably the whole trip was just having that
whole area to kind of play in. You bring a Disney kid somewhere
and his his favorite thing is the yard, but it was just to be
able to go to go outside and like see snow.
And I think when you look at a lot of times when we're doing
vacations or even Disney stays, you're in like a hotel style
room, right? Or you don't have a ton of like
area to play around in, but they there's these whole like yard
areas. And so if you have kids that are
super active and want kind of space to play outside, those
accommodations gave a ton of that.
So that he will tell you was his favorite part it.
Was really funny because at during that trip we did our our
our Vista was kind of catty corner to Marissa's and there
was a few times where we would leave our family would leave to
go do something and we'd see her son out there.
So I think I have a picture that I'll have to send you that you
can show everybody of Hayden. He was just like sliding down
the hill and then walking back up just.
Living, yeah, didn't even need the ski slopes, just needed the
the backyard of the of the Regal Vista.
Mandy, your family had a good time staying there also.
Yeah, yeah. And we've actually, that's our
second time staying in the the Regal Vistas.
We really, we really enjoyed that.
It's nice. We drove.
So from the from, from the aspect of driving, it was nice
because you know, we've talked a lot about like just having those
full amenities. But what I really liked is in
that and there's like a hallway like where you have the garage
and then you have this nice hallway where it has like the
washer and dryer and there's a ton of storage there too.
So you have these two closets. Like 1 is more like a coat
closet. So especially like during the
winter time, that's fantastic to be able to have like a, have a
place right outside of the garage, kind of like a, what
would you call it, like a, like a, like a mudroom.
Like a coat, almost. Yeah, just kind.
Of like a hallway, it's where it would go to, to connect to the
other unit if you were to have both units with you.
But there was there was room for like extra coats or for like
your ski gear. If you, you know, are avid
skiers and you're, you know, not renting and you're bringing your
sneak ski gear and really just like all the extra things you
need, you know, hats and gloves and boots, it's just nice to be
able to have extra space for that.
But you know, just similarly, like everyone else was saying,
it's just nice to be able to have that full accommodations.
My kids really enjoy like the fireplace and just, there's a,
there's a full kitchen table and you know, there's, there's,
there's lounge furniture and, and it's just a nice place to
relax. And I think that's what was
really nice for us was we've kind of gone both of the times
where like only just for like a long weekend and then the one
time was a little bit longer. I think we were there for like 5
nights. But you can do either, right?
And it's still very relaxing because you don't have to have
that schedule and constantly go, go, go.
So you do. They're feeling a lot more
relaxed than than when, you know, you go to Disney and you
feel like you need a vacation from your vacation, so.
So I would say that Regal Vistas is probably the largest, you
know, accommodation option that they really offer there and, and
probably their newest and more luxurious stay option available
at Massanutten. But in counting through the
options, I think there's over 10 different types of accommodation
options and places that you can stay throughout the resort.
They even have a dog friendly hotel.
They're building a new hotel over by the water park and there
there's just so many different properties.
Now all of the, these are essentially timeshare
properties. So they're going to mimic a lot
of those amenities like Amy had mentioned earlier that you are
accustomed to in a Disney Vacation Club resort.
So for Amy and I, for our stay, we actually stayed at a place
called Woodstone Meadows, which from the outside looks very
similar to a condo building. And then in each building you
essentially have the option for what I'm calling kind of like a
one bedroom unit. So you walk in a main door, you
have what I'm calling like a one bedroom unit off on one side and
then what I'm calling like, I don't know, like a deluxe studio
plus on the other side, because there's, there's a couple other
benefits on that side then you're used to with a regular
deluxe studio. And then you also have the
ability to essentially open both of those doors and have the
outer door be your entry door into a larger villa villa if
you're looking for a 2 bedroom style accommodation.
So we stayed in the one bedroom side of of that villa and also
had a fireplace, had a pull out couch in the living room for
additional accommodations, had a full kitchen, nice little deck
that overlooked. We were overlooking part of the
golf course. So it's golf in the summer,
summer time. And then a full bathroom and
then the bedroom, which also had a Jacuzzi tub in the bedroom,
which was was new for Amy and I. But when you're cold, Amy
realized very quickly that that's enjoyable.
Yeah, I. Did like, I did like it, Yeah.
And, and and the bathroom without, like the juicy stuff
was in the bedroom. But the bathroom itself was
huge. Yeah, it was a really good size.
Yeah. Just a whole lot of space.
Shower, all of that and then on the other side, so if you were
to combine accommodations or just wanted a little bit of a
smaller accommodation, that area still had a small little kitchen
table area, had had a fireplace, a pull out couch, a full bedroom
bathroom, and then a little kitchenette area that also had
those things that Amy mentioned like a hot plate, an electric
skillet. Yeah, So it wasn't, it was
definitely a lot larger than what you think when you think of
a DVC studio kitchenette. It was more like a kitchen.
It just didn't have a stove. I think it's still had, I have
to look at a photo real quick, but I think it still had a
fridge and a mic or a fridge and a dishwasher and it had
cabinetry and stuff. It just didn't have like the
full stove. But yeah, it had like the
electric skillet and and some other things like that.
And then the other accommodation that we actually got the tour
while we were there was called the summit, which this is
actually further up, closer to where the skiing and the snow
sports area is. And what I thought was unique
about that is it almost mimics a little bit of what Regal Vistas
has to offer, which is that these are two-bedroom units, but
you can combine the units and they're top and bottom.
So they're combined by a central stairwell that has a nice little
chandelier that hangs down through the middle of it.
But there's a top and bottom unit that can be combined into,
again, 4 bedrooms if you need a larger style accommodation.
So, you know, we asked while we were there, what kind of
families do you see, you know, traveling here, you see like
multi generally generational trips, you see family reunions,
you know, larger family gatherings.
But again, if it's just, you know, you and your significant
other, you're still also going. To have options.
And the cool thing about the summit was you were at the
summit, so your views out the deck were you could see the the
ski slopes in the hills and you were like looking down in the
valley. Where is it?
Woodstone? We were kind of more in the
valley, but we were a little more centrally located to the
amenities. And then I feel like Regal
Vistas was kind of up on a little bit of a hill.
It has some really pretty valley valley views.
The water park area and. Yeah.
So there's kind of a lot of options there depending on, you
know, what kind of you do you want, how close do you want to
be to, you know, the, the different activities and things
like that. Mandy, Marissa, if either of you
were comparing these to DVC accommodations anymore kind of
any anything else you would maybe add to that conversation?
I would say again, just kind of looking at the Regal Vista side,
I I think to your point, it definitely has maybe even like
kind of an old Key West style feel of like the, the everything
is just a lot bigger in terms of space.
So your bedrooms are a lot bigger.
So kind of going old school in terms of like layout and space
options. Totally, Yeah.
I had written down with some of my notes, like, you know,
Saratoga Springs, Old Key West, those resorts that everyone's
like, when are they going to build accommodations that big
again at DVC? And it's like, no, we're, we're
stuck with towers now with DVC. And the answer is never.
It's, it's not going to happen. But but yeah, it, it's those
larger accommodations that you're kind of used to from
those properties. That's a great comparison moving
into what is my favorite discussion part of any vacation.
Food, all things food, all things dining.
And I think that there are so many different options to
explore here at Massanutten, also when it comes to eat.
But there's also options that are nearby that you can also
take your car, head off property for a day and explore those
options. We did a lot, a lot over the
course of two days. I can't even.
Remember it all just really quickly and I'll go right back
to that. I just looking for the photo
because I just wanted to see the the studio kitchenette, but it
it is it looks like almost a full kitchen.
It's got a big fridge, it's got a dishwasher, a full sink, a
microwave, a coffee maker, it's got lots of cabinetry for
storage and stuff like that. So yeah, a lot more.
To kick off food dining, if you don't want to go anywhere you
can cook in your kitchen. There you go in.
The studio, You could cook. Yeah.
Now ask me what the question was again.
I was too busy looking. At Yeah, there were just so many
different options that we explored relating to food and
dining. Do you have a favorite from the
time that you? Were so there's two this stick
out to me that I think of and and one that I wish we didn't
get the chance to go. We were just so busy.
There's a place called Campfire Grill and that looked really,
really good. So I really wanted to try that.
We didn't get to try that. We went to first of all, we went
to a place that is off property, but it's kind of like a local
favorite. It's called Hank's BBQ.
It was just like like a 3 minute drive or so and it was, it was
super good. We had great service.
The food was good. I had, I was looking for
something a little healthier and so I had this bowl that was this
was like grilled chicken and rice and avocado and pico de
Gallo. But you also had the, the
barbecue and I think ribs maybe. And they were very, very good.
And then I also had cheesy grits.
Amazing. But the other place that I
really enjoyed it was kind of unique.
It was called base camp and it was, it was kind of like you
were outdoors, but you were still inside like warm enough.
So it, it kind of they, they refer to it sometimes as the
umbrella bar. So it's like this clear.
I don't even know how to explain it.
It looks like a you're in this giant clear gazebo, umbrella,
whatever, and they can open it. Even like a.
Like a Dome. Yeah, like a Dome.
And so they can open panels and close the panels depending on
the weather conditions. So if it's cold, it'll keep you
warm, or if it's nice out, they can kind of open it up.
But after our ski lesson, we sat in there and had lunch.
I think we had like nachos or something, but just the
atmosphere. And nachos specific here.
It's like the. Signature.
Dish like. But just when we were there, we,
we were kind of hot from it was all snowy outside, but we were
kind of hot from our ski lesson and having we had all this gear
and stuff on and they had like a couple of the panels open.
And so we kind of sat right there and the breeze was really
nice, but the sun was coming in and felt really good.
So I just thought that that was a really cool atmosphere.
Yeah, I think that. You know, just.
Having that right at the base of the mountain before you would
head onto a ski lift, like people were literally just like
shooting off on a snowboard and taking the board off, coming in,
grabbing a beer. They had places where you could
put your gear and stuff, you know, kind of like parking a
bike and going yeah to. So that was neat.
Yeah, because you were right there where you could actually
just then, you know, grab your skis, grab your snowboard, and
head back out. Except.
Unless you're us, because. That's that was we were done.
Yeah, we were. We were toasted that the Bunny
hills killed us. So but but we, we, we did that.
Mandy, of the food options that you've explored at the resort,
what's kind of some of your favorites that you've
experienced? I love Campfire Grill.
I know you guys didn't get a chance to experience it, but
campfire grill is really good. They have a lot of their chef
does a lot of really nice dishes.
It it's very like it it I mean, it is what it sounds like,
right? Like it's campfire grill.
It's like very Hardy, kind of just like home cooked meal
almost you could think of. But they have a lot of different
options there. They have a lot of different
appetizers and a lot of different entrees.
They have really fun desserts, like they have like a skillet
s'mores dessert there as well. I had the salmon there and it
was really delicious, really nicely cooked.
My husband enjoys. They have like a burger that's
really good there as well. But they have all different
types of options, lots of different options for the kids
as well. Fun drinks too.
I think what really sets it apart too, and what like Disney
Vacation Club members, I think will really like is the theming.
It is themed very like almost wilderness lodge, like there's
bears and it's, it's very camping, just very encompassing
of like the Shenandoah Valley. And so the theming is so nice
and it really ties into the food.
They take a there's a lot of thought into the theming and how
it pairs with the food and the different drink options that
they have and desserts. And so I think that's something
that like our viewers would really appreciate too.
Somebody who's ADVC member, you're used to a lot of that
within the Disney bubble. And so that I think will really
stand out for for everyone as a as a Disney Vacation Club member
too. And.
Marissa had mentioned earlier there are there are characters
that are kind of mascots to the property.
One of them I believe is is Splash, who is the frog from.
The water park, yeah. From the water park.
So Splashes Bar and Grill is actually located at the water
park. We went there after exploring
that area one night. The fried chicken that I had.
There was a. Huge was a huge portion for like
$20.00 I think it was. So we're not talking Disney
outrageous prices here. We're talking about normal
restaurant prices if you're taking yourself out to eat.
A friend service restaurant it's on the like the top floor so you
can we could overlook and see the outdoor portion of the water
park, which obviously wasn't open in the winter but so we're
we're as you're used to mostly water parks having just quick
service but yeah this was this was a full service sit down
served at your table restaurant they.
Were playing bingo that night. They were playing bingo.
So when you you gave, when you came in, they gave you like the
bingo cards that you could, you could play along.
And then they also have leaked some quick service often options
down on the level with the the rest of the water park stuff.
Yeah. So that was one of the
highlights that I had noted from from us being there.
And then also, I love right where you again, kind of at that
same base camp area, there's a little coffee shop where you can
just grab coffee and a Danish or coffee and anything.
We also didn't get to try the Waffle Cabin.
Everybody was talking about that and I didn't even see it.
I walked by the waffle count. Have you guys been to?
The smell, yeah. So we went and my son had one
and like. This was.
After he done like half a day of skiing and so he had one and
he's like, can I get a second one?
He's like right away. So I was like, sure, we're we're
on vacation, but so good. Yeah, if you if you're, if
you're lost, I'm trying to find the waffle count cabin.
It is like down near where you kind of enter into where they're
doing ski lessons or like the very beginner hills right at the
the base of the mountain down there.
Marissa other food options that we've not highlighted that you
you and your family experience that you enjoyed.
We we also enjoyed campfire grill elevations is a really
cool spot. It's it's right near kind of
that base camp area and it just feels like very, very ski
resort. So you go in and it's got like
old fashioned skis on the wall and it's a two-story kind of
loft feel. And again, you've got windows at
Outlook right there. You can see people skiing by.
So that's a really fun spot. One of the things that stood out
to me that most there was the desserts.
And I'm not a huge dessert person, but living here in
Orlando. When you're so used to very kind
of like highly processed, more touristy destinations, I feel
like a lot of times the desserts lose flavor a little bit.
And so the desserts there were so good.
But what I found out is they do have an in house pastry chef And
so they, they really do like you have brownies or cookies there
and they taste like your mom had homemade them.
And that's why it's because they have somebody on site making all
of those fantastic desserts. So that's something that really
stood out to me as well. That's awesome that yeah, now
you're just making me hungry for like a big, like, gooey
chocolate chip cookie at the moment.
There was also the that Virginia Barbecue and Pizza company and
we didn't have a chance to eat there, but we walked in.
It's connected to the the main lobby where you go and check in
and. Mandy and Grayson had lunch.
Did you guys go there or? Grabbed something?
Yeah, yeah, we did. When we the first day we got
there, we grabbed something really quickly before we headed
off to the escape room. But yeah, we did.
And it's good. It's it's more of like a quick
service, right? Like what we would consider like
quick service. But yeah, they have the Virginia
BBQ side where they have a, you know, a few different BBQ dishes
that you can get and some sandwiches and options for kids.
And then they have the Virginia Pizza Company, I think is what
it's called. Yeah, that's what it's called.
There was a lot of. Seating, I felt like in there
too. And then it would just be a good
place, like if you want to grab something and take it back to
your accommodation, right? Yeah.
Yeah, Two other notes that I had written down just regarding
dining, but also more just general amenities.
That's nearby the resort. So you're less than 30 minutes
from Harrisonburg, which is where you're also going to have
a Walmart, all sorts of just standard restaurants,
Applebee's, Olive. Garden Where is the target?
There's a Target, so you know, if you're, if you're looking to
stock up before you head to the resort so that you can fill your
fridge with stuff for breakfast or just general, you know,
goodies to have available during your stay.
You can head over to Harrisonburg or if you're coming
through, you know, Richmond, there's plenty of options.
We stopped at a Walmart, I think almost like halfway from
Richmond to Massenaten and just grabbed a couple of things for
the few days that we were going to be there.
And then we did an activity one day, which was a wine tasting.
And what I also thought was interesting was that within
about an hours drive, there are like 10 wineries and all kinds
of very local good Virginia wines, plenty of options.
So if you're looking, if you have, if you have a family
member that is a wine connoisseur and wants to explore
some of these places, a lot of good wineries and a lot of good
brewery options. Also a couple which kind of pair
together throughout the region. Yeah.
And then they, you're probably going to talk about this, but
they do a wine tasting class that we got to take part of and
they share with you. And they're all local Virginia
wines and they, you know, tell you where they're at.
And yeah, most of them, like you said, are very, very close
within a driving distance of the resort.
So that was a lot of fun just to see.
Moving into the highlight of our stay at Massanutten and for Amy
and I as first timers, it was snow sports and it was putting
on a set of skis, which if you've never done so before, it
takes a lot longer than you thought.
We gave ourselves about 1/2 hour and that was about 1/2 hour too,
too short to get ourselves dressed for the first time,
realize how to put a snow boot on and all that kind of fun
stuff. But yeah, I think this is really
where the Massanutten Resort really shines is that there are
so many activities for anyone involved.
So for us, as I mentioned previously, and as Amy kind of
said, so we had the opportunity to do a private ski lesson since
it was our first time on skis. And I do very much recommend
going the private route if it is your first time skiing and doing
one of these lessons because they're going to teach you
everything like how to get in and out of the skis and how to
put the gear on. We had an instructor, I believe
his name was Jim, and he was in his 80s.
He has been doing this longer than I think either of us have
been alive. And he was.
I can only equate him to he was. In his 70s.
Really not pretty sure he was OK.
I apologize Jim if you hear this and we aged you too much, but.
He was very, very it was. Like if your grandfather was
teaching you to ski, it was that level of kindness.
Like he was holding your he. Was he was very patient with us,
you know, and I was very nervous and, and he was also just very
skilled, like, you know, Paul saying, you know, well, this guy
was in his seventies 80s, but when he came to ski, I mean, he
looked like he skied like he was in his 20s, so.
No, he was, yeah, he was awesome and he was a great instructor.
For us to have that first lesson, there were a lot of
people before we headed out there for the couple days
telling us to pizza and not French fry.
And in my mind, I didn't equate that to skiing.
I just thought that they had good pizza and not to get the
French fries. I don't know.
I really did not understand what those terms meant.
I do now, obviously, but we had a wonderful time skiing.
We also got to do their Northern Lights snow.
Tube experience, I like that the best because they didn't require
any skill. So if you, if you skiing or
snowboarding or any of those things are not your thing, but
you still want to be involved in some kind of like winter
activities, do the snow tubing. And so they have time slots
throughout the daytime and then they have what we did, which was
the Northern Lights, which was in the evening and they have
lights. But basically you get a tube and
you get on this lift, which is kind of like a a conveyor, which
all you have to do is stand on it.
So it doesn't take any skill with your tube and it takes you
up the hill. And then once you get up the
hill, you sit in your tube. There's, you know, guides up
there to kind of help you and it depending on the conditions of,
you know, whatever the conditions are that day, you can
they'll let you go tandem so you can kind of connect to, you
know, your friends or your family or whoever you're with.
So Paul and I, you know, we, we kept our tubes together a couple
times. We also went separate a couple
times. I went down with Mandy.
There was some, you know, going with three at a time.
And so it was kind of fun, you know, to go down with your
friends, but it is just this, this, I don't even know how to
explain. Like there's these lanes that
are built into the snow and the ice and you're going down
YouTube. And it was fast At first I, when
I saw it, I thought I said, you know, I'm going to do this once.
I'm going to be able to say I did it and that's the end of it.
But I think by the end we had gone down like 7 times or so.
Peer pressure got the best of her it.
Was also fun, so I just wanted to go back.
Your biggest challenge was getting out of the inner tube at
the end of it? Yeah, it was always like, we
were already halfway up the conveyor belt and I was like,
where's Amy? And she's still getting out of
her inner tube down. It's well, icy.
It had rained, it had rained that day.
So it was it was a little bit icier.
So that also made the track a little bit faster.
There's also an ice rink that you can take advantage of there
so. I feel like ice skating.
Do you like ice skating? I you know, again, we are from
the Northeast. We have never done any of these
things. We have stayed off slippery
surfaces for most of our life. Right.
And when I was a kid and we would go to Ogilvy and like snow
tube or sled ride the hill was and then you had to walk all the
way back up and trudge and like drag your stuff.
So it was cool having like get to go down and then you get on
the little conveyor belt and you ride it back up and so.
Now that being said, I realized when we were snow tubing that we
were dealing with a with like a winter sports expert when
Marissa showed up with. Oh my goodness.
Ski goggles on, Marissa. Like you.
You were like, I feel like you. You thrive on ice.
Is that correct? Yeah, I, I.
Grew up about 45 minutes from a ski slope growing up, and so I
spent a lot of time in the snow and in the mountains, yeah.
Where was. This my mom decided to
homeschool us for two years and they did Friday ski days so we
would go skiing every Friday which was interesting.
It it's in Northern California so it it's about like 2 hours
West of like Tahoe area. OK.
Cool. So from an expert skier and and
and and snow veteran, what was kind of the winter sports like
it at Massanutten? Well, I, I then moved to Florida
and took like 20 years off. So I don't know if I could, I
could claim the expert label anymore.
However, for anybody listening, if you are used to like West
Coast ski, it is going to be different.
So if you're wondering like how, how does that work East Coast
ski versus West Coast ski? They they do a lot of man made
ski at Massanutten. They had a big snowstorm.
So I think we got a nice kind of combo of both and quite
honestly, if you skied West Coast posted all the season, you
probably had a lot of man made snow too.
I've been seeing that all around, especially like Park
City and Deer Valley, but they have fantastic machines there.
And so one of the things that I learned my first trip there was
kind of the later you go in the day, the more icy that snow is
going to get versus if you do make the effort to get out first
thing, you're getting that fresh, even if it's man made,
you're getting that fresh snow, which makes a massive difference
on how you ski if you're kind of trudging that ice or if you're
hitting that nice powder skiing. And so definitely earlier in the
morning benefits a lot, but this time because they did have some
snow leading up to our time there.
There was a lot more powder. The snow is a lot softer this
year going in and so it was a lot of fun and I think again,
kind of going back to if you're not an expert skier and I
wouldn't call myself one of those, but if you if you just
like the joy of skiing and want to kind of be able to easily
access the lifts and then mountains.
I love that about mass. Nothing.
There's hardly any line. We stand over presidents
weekend. And so I think on actually like
when it got busy kind of all the kids were out of school.
I do know that like the ski lines got a little bit longer,
but for the most part, whenever I've been there, it's not been
more than like a 3 minute wait to get on a lift.
And that's huge because quite honestly, when you go skiing,
you don't want to be spending your day waiting in line for a
lift. You want to be able to get up
there and take advantage of it. And so having that and then
obviously having like the ski and ski out elements of a lot of
the restaurants, it allows you to really take advantage of that
full ski day, which I think if people are listening and they
are avid snow or ski people that these are some of the great
benefits there. I love how the YouTube algorithm
works because after I was there, I started getting served like
all of these informational ads on skiing and kind of the skiing
controversy out West with like, I think it's like Vail Resorts
and their Max pass where you can go anywhere.
And like the horror stories of like you said, Marissa, like
these crazy long lines at the lifts and all of that.
And that's, you know, having a like a little bit of a smaller,
more independent ski resort really alleviate some of those
factors for you. I mean, it was a beautiful day,
the day that we were on the slopes and I didn't see anyone
really waiting. Like you were just getting on
the lifts going up and coming back down.
And you know that that seems to be kind of the norm.
And just just a touch on, I don't really know what a lot of
these terms mean, but Massenon offers 23 trails across 82
skiable acres. It says 1175 foot vertical drop
with options for all levels, including night skiing, which we
did see people skiing in at night.
So it has terrain parks, There's two terrain parks that.
Would be like more. Freestyle, right, And like I
think like you can do jumps and stuff.
I believe there's also beginner. There's there's a handful of
beginner routes. There's a handful of
intermediate as well as expert in advance and they even have a
Is it? It's a double black diamond.
And that's what you did, Mandy, right?
Double Black Diamond. No, I did not.
Someone who is not an expert skier.
I did. Not do that.
How did your family and girls enjoy kind of the snow
activities? They enjoy it, they really like
it. They had never been skiing
before until this last well, until our first trip there and
we did the private ski lessons for them and and the instructors
were just fantastic. And the second time that we that
we went the first time, they kind of stayed more so on like
that kind of training area where like the kids are the Bunny
hills, just some of the smaller ones.
But this this last time that we went, my 11 year old Aubrey, she
got a little bit more guts and she went out on one of the
beginner slopes and we have some video of that.
And it's, it was fun just to see like how proud she was of
herself of being able to go down the hill by herself and and
really enjoy it and want to do it again.
I think that's really what's cool about Massanutten and
really all of the people that work there too, is that you
don't have to be an expert skier to go there and everybody is
just like really helpful. I'll I skied when I was growing
up but have not been on skis like Marissa in like 15 or 20
years until like these last couple of trips and I hesitated
getting. Off the ski.
Lift and did not get off the ski lift and they were just so nice
and helpful of, you know, helping me get down from the ski
lift and on my way. And so I think it just kind of
goes to show of like, even if you're just wanting to try this
out or you don't have a ton of experience, I think this is
really a great place free to go to be able to experience that.
Maybe do it for the first time or if you haven't done it in a
long time. All of their instructors, all of
their staff are just so great and make it a wonderful
experience regardless of your experience level.
Totally. And I definitely just want to
highlight what you mentioned about the staff and everyone
that works there. We had an just an incredible
experience from check in all the way through the entire time we
were there from, you know, wait staff in the restaurants, just
everyone was was just the the hospitality was an amazing, even
exceeding kind of what I think we see sometimes in the Disney
parks and resorts these days, because it is something that the
resort really prides themselves on additional things that Amy
and I got to explore while we were there.
You guys were there for some other work related stuff, but we
also, you know, got to explore the escape room.
Mandy, you joined us for the escape room.
If you want to hear Mandy scream for at least 10 seconds
straight, make sure that you watch day one vlog video because
there was AI don't know. I caught a jump scare in the in
the escape room that we did that Obviously I had to slow MO down
and and make it really dramatic for for, for a.
Fact, I'm just here for your entertainment.
Yeah, so we got to do an escape room while we were there.
Amy and I got to try some of the spa treatments at the spa.
Yeah. So that was.
One that was, Yeah. Now Paul.
Paul chose poorly. He's just like, I'm going to sit
in the sauna. Well, I thought that's not fun,
but. I thought like I'm going to be
cold. I should want like a hot sauna.
But I said you missed out because I had a facial and it
was the best spot experience of my life.
I think her name was Kira, I said.
I say her name in the in the video, but it was just such a
good. I didn't realize how involved
the facial was and like she just did.
I just felt so like like a new person after it.
So I would love to go and do that again.
And it was very, they have a lot of different, unique, different
ones. The one that I did was called
the Arctic Berry Facial. So the products were actually
made with like berries from, from, from the Arctic.
But yeah, absolutely love that. She did like dermaplaning and
she kind of like taught me some things.
I have bought my own dermaplane. If you saw my my, I don't think
so. I was like, oh, I do some of
this myself. But yes, it was it was I.
Don't even know what the word dermaplane means.
Yeah, I didn't think so. Well.
Your your skin is glowing, Amy, and I was noticing that today
so. That's all the stuff they taught
me. Just all the lights that are on
us right now. Oh, it was my no.
No, no, take. Take the dermaplane.
You mentioned it. You'd mentioned earlier we also
got to do a wine tasting to try a lot of the Virginia wines that
were in the surrounding area. That was great.
I want to see your name was. Emily, Yeah.
Emily, who led the wine tasting, She's actually featured in day
two of our vlog at Massadutton and she talks to us a little bit
about just the different wines in the area.
But that was super cool. I think it was only like $20 or
like. Very whatever it was, I remember
looking at the price going, oh wow, that's really reasonable.
And and Paul and I, we wanted, we wanted to be functionable, so
we just took little. We were there working.
So you could, you could, there was like a, a thing where you
could dump the leftovers and rinse your cup out and whatever.
Yeah. And ours was full.
And some of these tables were very much enjoying their wines.
They were, we were looking at us like, why are you guys not?
But and they had, they had like a cheese presentation that you
could have, you know, you could get up and grab.
And then you could actually buy a bottle of any of the wines
and. Those were really affordable
too. Yeah, 15, yeah. $50.20 bucks
apiece or so. Yeah, per bottle.
So that was a great experience and they talked about where all
the other where, where the vineyards and where the wineries
are in location to Massanut. And if you did want to go out
and explore those further, just highlighting a couple other
things because you know, again, we said it is a four season
resort. So there's stuff to do all year
round. We're very excited to go back in
the summer and in the fall. They do a fall foliage tour
where you can actually ride the ski lift up the mountain when
the leaves are changing, which I think would just be absolutely
beautiful. That's.
Yeah, that's I want. That's when I want to go back.
Outdoor recreation Amy mentioned the Mountain Coaster, which
should be open I believe later this summer or.
By this fall and when that opens, it is all year round.
It will operate in the winter as well.
Yep. The Alpine coaster, they're
expanding the water park right now.
So the indoor water park we did, Amy just kind of walked around
at the water park, but I dove right in and got on the slides
and did all of the slides. There are three currently three
giant raft slides that you can choose from.
The one was closed. No, the one was not closed.
The one you can only do with two people.
And so it was just me, but I think that was like the largest
one. Then there was like a green
slide, which I enjoyed the most, and then a red slide, which is
completely in the dark. And I did not enjoy not knowing
what direction I was going in the dark.
And you get to experience that in the vlog video that that we
made. But really had a good time.
There's a lazy river that you can enjoy.
And the, the thing that I just edited this video so it keeps
coming back to me, we were like worried coming in out of the
cold going into the water park. But it's a balmy 85° water park.
So it is warm. And, you know, they also have a
flow rider, which is kind of like a wave simulator for
surfing. So if you're familiar, like
Royal Caribbean has these on a lot of their cruise ships.
If you're familiar with Royal Caribbean cruise line, but also
just wanted to highlight golfing, hiking out more outdoor
recreation, any other activities.
Mandy, Marissa. That you or your families have
experienced there that you wanted to highlight real quick.
Yeah, I think that there is like one thing to go back to like
with the water park, there's definitely like that indoor
element. So of course like you can access
that obviously all all seasons, but there's also the outdoor
element to the water park. So if you are going during the
summertime, that really extends the activities that you can do.
Our kids absolutely love the water park and we are actually
excited to take them back there during the summertime.
So they can variance the outdoor version as well, which they're
also expanding and eventually going to be opening up a very
themed hotel right there that would connect to the water park.
So like Paul had mentioned earlier, they're always
expanding and looking for new opportunities.
I think some of the other things that they have that are really
cool right there on Massena and property are they do have a lot
of like parks and hiking trails, which are nice from like
beginner to more advanced levels.
So really it's something that, you know, all of the members of
the family could do. They have fishing there.
They also have mountain biking trails there as well.
And so my husband loves to mountain bike, so that's
something that he really enjoys doing there as well.
So there's a lot of things to do.
And then just going back to the activities, like I know that you
guys talked about wine tasting, but they do a lot of other
activities there too. I know that sometimes like
during like ski season, they have outdoor DJs.
So they have like different DJs that come out and we'll be
playing on the slopes on certain days.
They do like a silent disco elevations lounge, which Marissa
kind of talked about as well. Like I know they do some bourbon
tastings there. They also have a comedy show
that plays there during certain times of the week.
So they have a lot of different activities and just events and
festivals that they have like farmers market, things like that
during like the spring and summer as well.
So there's a lot of opportunities.
I know that during like the spring, the summer and the fall,
they also have a nice kind of activity area where they have go
karts, they have bumper cars, they have a putt putt, the mini
golf. Do people say putt putt anymore?
I don't know. Mini golf, say.
Putt, Putt, yeah. So.
Coming that too. OK, good.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I was like, oh, is that, is that
a thing? But but yeah, so there there's a
lot of activities I think just outside of.
The. Pickleball is a big one.
Right, right now, right, and a few others that I don't think
you mentioned, they offer a street curling.
They also have horseback riding, carriage rides, river
adventures. So they remember the guy that
that showed us different rooms talked about how they partner
with other what's the word I'm looking for like vendors group
or providers. And so like their river
adventures are offered through Massenet and river Adventures,
which is their partner. So they have things like
kayaking and canoeing and tubing on the river.
So there's there's a lot, a lot of activities.
And yeah, just like how your Disney resort will have crafts
and things like that, they offer stuff like that as well.
Coming to you in the summer. All four of us will be on a
whitewater raft together, rafting, careening.
But raft. Is going to need a bigger
insurance policy, but Marissa, any other activities that that
you or your family got to experience.
No, we, we, we stopped to the, the snow activities and then the
water park we did, my son did the flow rider and he quite
enjoyed that. They actually have flow rider
lessons too. So if you wanted to do like
private lessons and learn how to do tricks and stuff, they do
those in the morning. So that was something cool that
I noticed as well. Yeah, it just seems like there's
all kinds of things and we only like touch the tip of the
iceberg, literally when we were there.
Now we're kind of just four grown adults here talking about
this very family, family friendly, all inclusive resort.
So we thought that as part of kind of this special episode, we
would turn this over to a little bit of a younger generation and
get a kids perspective on what they enjoyed and what they loved
about Massa Nuttin. All right.
Well, let's welcome our Key Holder kids to the segment.
We have some of the kids of Key Holder Vacation joining us for
this part of the episode to talk about their time at Massanutten,
Virginia. So let's start with you, Aubrey.
Can you tell us how old you are and who you're related to in the
company? My name is Aubrey and I'm eleven
years old and my mom is AVP of Marketing.
What's her name? Mandy.
Awesome. Thanks, Aubrey.
All right, Alex. Can you tell us your age and who
you're? Related to in the company.
Yes, I'm 11 3/4 and I'm related to CEO, right?
And what is his name? Nick.
Awesome. And then we have Kaden sitting
here. So Kaden, tell us how old you
are and who you're related to. I'm 8 and I don't know who I'm
related to. Hilarious we have the class
clown of the group over here. Kaden is my son, so we have a
fun group. This was just a portion of our
kids crew that was up there from Key Holder vacations and they
had a great time while they were up there.
So what we wanted to do is ask you guys kind of a few questions
because we know that the Massanutt Resort brings in a lot
of families, right? And we also know that you guys
do a lot of time at Disney. So we wanted to get a feel from
kids who'd spend a lot of time at Disney.
What you liked about the Massanutt Resort.
So if it's OK with all of you, I'm going to ask you some
questions about your vacation at Massanutten.
Does that sound good? Yeah.
OK, let's go. All right, I'm going to start
with you on this question, Alex. So what was the very first thing
that you wanted to do when you arrived to Massanutten?
Play in the snow. Oh, that's a good one, Ivory.
What about you? The very first thing I wanted to
do when we got to Massenet in was GO and snow tube all day.
Snow tube all day. Yeah, that's like a good thing
to do All right, Kaden, you're up What was the first thing you
wanted to do when you got there? I.
Wanted to go sliding down or the hill down up on the side of the
house. Yep, and he sure did.
We'll have to put in some pictures there.
And the girls were nodding because they saw him.
You couldn't miss him. He was sliding, which is one of
the cool things about the the townhouses that we stayed in
there. They had some hills there and
there was a lot of icy snow. So the kids had lots of fun kind
of sliding around right there without even leaving where we
were staying. All right, so Aubrey, I'm going
to start with you. What was your favorite thing you
did all week? My favorite thing that I did all
week was probably snow tubing and skiing.
You did a great job skiing. That was your second time,
right? Yeah.
We did awesome because you got on the Big Lift and you made it
all down. Did you fall at all on your
first time on the Big Lift? I fell twice and I always fell
off the side of the hill. But you did pretty good this
one, we were yelling pizza pizza.
The. Whole way down.
So a bit of a different experience for this one over
here. Alex, what was your favorite
thing of the whole week? It was either building a snow
port or snow tubing. Oh yeah, that was pretty good.
Kaden, what about you? What was your favorite part?
Tackling Alex, Snow and snow. But you.
Can tell here, come closer to me a little bit.
You can tell that Kaden and Alex are from Florida and they don't
get to see snow often. So I think any snow experience
for them was like the best ever. Kaden, when you were there, was
there anything that made you say, whoa, that was awesome.
The sled. I'm down the side of the house.
That and then what about the snow tubing?
That's pretty awesome, right? Did you scream at all during the
snow tubing? We actually had a bet to see.
And. Either one of us would scream
going down, and he won. I lost all the money in the
world, all right. What about you?
Aubrey, was there anything that made you say whoa, that was
awesome. The probably the really only
thing that made me say whoa was that I when I went down snow the
hill for snow tuning I was just spinning in circles for like 2
of them. That's pretty cool, Alex.
What was your Whoa that was awesome moment.
Everything. Everything that's pretty
impressive, I will say. Kaden, what did you say once we
left there? What did you ask if we where we
could move? Here.
To where? Virginia.
To Virginia, Kaden wanted to move to Massanutten.
After we left, he asked if we could go and move there.
So everything is a is a good answer because it definitely has
so many fun things to do. Alex, if your best friends were
coming to Massanutten tomorrow, what would you tell them Is the
one thing they cannot miss. Skiing, even though I missed it
this time, but I did it a few years ago.
All right, so that's not to be mixed.
Miss for next time then, huh? Kaden, what is one thing you
would tell your best friend not to miss?
I'm going head first down the hill.
Head first down the hill, Aubrey, what about you?
I would definitely tell my friend to do first.
Probably do no tubing or skiing. 1st, I like those skiing.
It sounds like it's a pretty popular one.
What did you think about skiing? Is that a not to be missed?
It's pretty cool. OK, So what was better than what
you expected? Was there anything that like you
went and you're like, oh, that could be OK.
And then you were like, wow, that was really awesome.
Aubrey, was there anything better than you expected?
I thought the water park was going to be OK, but then when I
got there it was this like, wow, it's big and really cool.
And that's coming from a DVC member right there, right?
Aubrey, you've done a lot of Disney stays, so that's pretty
impressive that that was better than you expected.
Kaden, what about you? What was better than you
expected? The skiing.
The skiing, yeah, I think that's a good answer for sure.
And Alex, what was for you better than you expected?
Ice skating. Oh, ah, you got to ice skating,
I think. Did you ice skate at all,
Aubrey? No.
Alex, I think you're the only one that ice skated in the
group. How did you feel about ice
skating there? Was it pretty cool?
Yeah, it was. Had you ice skated before or was
this your first time? I've ice skated before early
like a couple years ago when I went.
Was it hard to do or did you pick it up pretty easily?
The first time I was hard, but then I went back this year and
it was a lot easier. That's awesome.
I like that answer for sure. What would make you come back
again? Kaden?
What would make you come back Sliding head?
I mean, all this kid needs is a place to slide head 1st and snow
and snow. OK.
All right, Alex, what would make you want to come back?
Build a bigger snow Fort. Build a big I like that one too.
Aubrey, what about you? If I could come back again I
would probably just do snow tubing a lot.
I agree, I think I could have done like 2 more days of snow
tubing. And you would have lost all.
And I would have lost all the money because I would have
screamed all the way down and lost all the bets.
Okay, so since we have the Disney, I would say you guys are
probably like Disney experts in this group.
Would you would you agree between the three of you, you're
pretty much got Disney down. OK, so This is why we wanted to
have you on the show, because between all three of you, we
have some important questions to ask you about the comparison of
Disney and Massanutten. All right, you ready for this?
Yeah. All right, I'm going to start
with you, Aubrey. If Massanutten was a Disney
park, what kind of land would it be?
If Massanutten was a Disney park, I would say it would be
probably more of like a snowy theme, so more like Frozen
Frozen. Oh, maybe like a frozen land?
That'd be cool. Alex, what do you think?
What could be a cool land that Massanutten could be?
The same as Audrey Snowland. Frozen.
Kaden's same is. The same same.
So we're. Saying it's gonna be our snow
land. Kind of frozen land.
I like it. I like it.
What? Sports.
With with sports. OK, it could be like a Blizzard
beach land, right? Like the water party, but in
real life. What Disney character?
Now, this might be an easy one. Kaden, I'm gonna ask you first
on this one. What Disney character would love
Massinutton and why? No.
Clue. No clue.
All right, help him out, Alex. What Disney character would love
Massinon? Wait, I think I know.
We're jumping back in. All right, one more, One more
chance for you, Kate, and one more chance, and then we're
moving on. OK.
I like it, Alex. Anyone who would love Massinon?
Snow White because there was a lot of deer and she likes
animals. Oh, that was a very clever
answer, Aubrey, What about you? I think it would have been Olaf.
That would have been my pick. Well, which one was it?
There's no right answer. They're all right.
Couldn't you imagine all of those characters there?
I could see all of those characters being there, that's
for sure. Did anything at Mass Nuton feel
as exciting as a Disney ride? Aubrey here, get to go first on
this one. I thought the skiing was
probably as fun as a Disney ride, including the snow tubing.
Alex, what about you? What was this fun as a Disney
ride to you? The snow tubing as a.
OK, Kaden. The water slide.
The water, that's a good one. Yeah.
Those are all really, really good ones.
And I would have to agree. The snow tubing to me, like, it
gave me butterflies similar to maybe like a Tower of Terror
was. And I screamed a lot.
I also think that the water slide was pretty cool, too.
OK, so Alex, this is for you. What would you tell a Disney
family about why they should try Massinutton?
Well it depends if they have kids, what age group their kids
are in and I would mainly say because it gives people who
don't see snow a lot an opportunity to see snow and also
it has a lot of fun stuff. What about you, Aubrey?
What would you tell a Disney family?
I would tell a Disney family to definitely do snow tubing
because it's a lot like slinky dog and how fast we're going and
also like the teacups. Yeah, that's a really good one.
OK, It's Mickey. Oh, did I skip you?
Oh goodness. Kaden.
The same as Alan. Skip you, huh?
OK. It's Mickey planned a vacation
here. What would be on his must do
list? What would Mickey love to do
with? We'll start with you, Kaden, I
think. Maybe ice skate?
OK. I think that's good.
Or the water slide. Yeah, Alex, what do you think?
Skiing. I could see Mickey skiing for
sure. Aubrey, what do you think?
Definitely skiing. I like it.
Is Masamaten more like a water park day at Disney or something
totally different? What do you think, Alex?
I would say something totally different.
Yeah, same, same, Aubrey. Totally different.
Makes this vacation. What do you guys think Makes
this vacation totally different? You can answer anybody can
answer this one. Like there's snow's way
different. Yeah.
And then there's only one character there.
There's a many characters. Yeah, that's true.
We did see one character there. What do you guys think?
What makes it totally different for this type of vacation?
The snow, the snaggy. Yeah, definitely the snow and
the how there's only one character.
Well, the yes and but what did you guys think about the food
when you were there? I saw all of you guys get some
pretty cool drinks. You want to talk about those?
I forgot what I call you. What did you have that you love
to eat while you're there, Aubrey?
I thought that what was really good there was definitely the
drink that was the Strawberry Shortcake.
That was looked so good. Alex, what was your favorite
thing to eat or drink while you were there?
The hot. Cocoa.
It was, yeah, incredible. Same hot cocoa.
Yes. What?
Now, I know snow was kind of a big different type of vacation,
but what else was different in terms of like what you're used
to with Disney? So what else stood out to you
that you really enjoyed? That you were like, that was a
little different than my normal vacations, Aubrey.
Honestly, maybe the water park. Yeah, what about you, Alan?
I agree with Aubrey, an indoor water park is really cool.
Kaden Skiing. Skiing.
Yeah, well, I sure enjoyed. Talking to all of you guys about
your trip and I. Think we should all plan because
you guys had so much fun, all three of you together.
I have some pictures to prove it.
I think we should plan another trip to all go there together.
What do you guys think? Yeah, we will.
We finish this off. Is there one thing you want to
add for families listening to have young kids?
Is there anything you want to tell them about Mass Nuttin as a
vacation, Alex? That like, there's always
something to do. I love it, Aubrey.
You want to add anything else? Not really, I can't really think
of any. No, I heard you got to do lots
of crafts and stuff too while you were there.
Like make the. Shirt you're wearing yeah,
that's. Pretty awesome and Kaden.
Anything. Nothing to add.
Wear warm clothes, right? No, it's not cold.
Some reason I feel like it's colder here when there's cold
days, but it's hotter there when it's cold.
All right, well then don't be intimidated by the cold, because
it's not, apparently. Not that cold.
And in the snow, please. Remember, I was with no gloves.
No gloves? Yeah.
Yep. Well I can't wait for our trip
to go back. Thank you guys for joining us
and thank you for all your great tips.
I can't wait to hear what people think about bringing their kids
to Massanaten and I have a feeling that you guys might be
the reason that they get to bring their kids and family
with. Thank you so much for hosting
that segment and I'll say wrangling the children for us.
Amy and I know how to talk to our dogs like children, but it
feels like anytime we actually talk with children, we're not
100% sure what to say. So, so that was great.
Although in hindsight, I feel like we should have maybe had
Derek involved in some capacity because he's like a child at
heart. So although I'm not quite sure
that we would have actually gotten any functional content
out of out of doing so, but we do have to, we do need to get
Derek and Jeff out to Massanutten in the relatively
near future so that they can experience what this has to
offer. Also, if you are a DVC member
and you are looking to we've we've sparked your interest,
you're looking to maybe use your points and take a trip to the
Massanutten Resort, head to DVC rental store.
As I mentioned previously in the video, you can now swap your
vacation points for a stay at the Massanutten resort.
And there's a lot of flexibility that Massanutten provides as
compared to some of our other swap options.
You know what Disney cruise when you're swapping your for a
Disney cruise, pricing needs to be locked in.
I think it's like 120 days or more before you're actually
checking in for that cruise vacation.
And so Massonutton has a lot more flexibility with their
cancellation policies with those timelines that we can offer,
which is awesome. And put together just a couple
different examples of kind of what a stay at Massonutton would
look like. So first, I I kind of build out
what I called a week long summer vacation at Massanutten for this
coming July in 2020. Sixth, this was in that Summit 2
bedroom premium townhouse accommodation.
That accommodation also had a Jacuzzi tub like the one that
Amy and I stayed in. But $1974.37 for an entire week
long stay, that equates to around 123 points using kind of
an average price per point of around $16.00 per point as the
value you'd be getting for your points.
So very reasonable that for that those accommodations only, I did
a four night fall weekend getaway at the Woodstone
Meadows, which is where Amy and I stayed in that same one
bedroom with a Jacuzzi tub four nights in October, $940.86,
approximately 59 vacation points just for the accommodations.
And then also for 2027, pricing isn't firm for 2027 just yet.
So I'm basing this a little bit off of 2026 numbers, but January
2027 in those Vista townhomes where Mandy and Marissa got to
spend a weekend with their families.
This is they call it the two-bedroom presidential home
with jacuzzi $2249.57 for a five night.
What I call a snow adventure or approximately 142 vacation
points. Keep in mind that is for the
accommodations only. And as part of working with us
at the DVC rental store to swap your points, you will also be
able to set aside some funds for those activities that you're
going to then be planning. And I think one of the premium
benefits that you're going to get by doing this with us is
that you actually get to work with their premier concierge
team. And that team is going to take
care of helping you plan all of those activities and special
opportunities that you're going to want to include in your
vacation. So again, dvcrentalstore.com, if
you are, you know, looking to use your points and head to
Massenutton. And as I mentioned earlier in
the show, we're going to have even more opportunities coming
later this year through key holder vacations as part of our
key Holder club loyalty program and a a bunch more in the future
with Massanutten. As far as I'm concerned.
Just wanted to kind of go around the room one more time and just
kind of kind of final wrap UPS, you know, who is this resort
perfect for? Any other comments that you
wanted to kind of chime in and add to the conversation before
we kind of wrap things up? I think, I think the older I
get, the more I'm appreciating being in nature and, and doing
things outdoors. And so I for me, like I'm, I'm
really excited to go back in the fall, ride the ski lift, see the
trees. They, they said they call them
leaf peepers. And I was like, yeah, I'm going
to be a leaf peeper because I haven't seen fall.
I've seen fall in like 5 years so.
Leaf peeper. That's what it is.
You're there to see the leaves and, or even in the spring, you
know, when you've got like flowers and colors and stuff
blooming. But I'm just, I love one of my
favorite things that we did was we drove up to like an
observation point. It was kind of like a lookout
point and it was looking down on the valley and I just, I just
loved it. I loved the scenery.
I love seeing, you know, the, the whole the Shenandoah Valley.
I would love to spend more time in the Shenandoah National Park.
I'd love to do some hiking. So, so I think it's just a it's
a great place if you love the outdoors, you love being
outdoors, you love, you know, hiking and even what it doesn't
have to be, you know, we're not really hikers.
We're more like go for a nice walk.
There were paths and trails all over that resort.
You know, I mean, not just like like tough hiking trails, like
normal gentle, easy paths and trails.
I noticed, you know, it was a little hard to see 'cause
everything was covered in snow when we were there.
But I could see where some were starting.
And even like right by our condo, you could start on a, on
a path, on a trail. There were playgrounds, there
were, you know, lots of swimming pools, you know, aside from the
the indoor pools that we saw that people were using at the
time. If you're there during warmer
temperatures, every single condo area had a swimming pool.
You know, I saw one in the Woodstone area, I saw one in the
Regal Vistas area. So I think it's a great place
for families, you know, for multi generations.
You were talking about the accommodations and you know what
the translates to, you know, as examples for any of your points,
those that like that one that was 59 points for like 4 nights
that slept for people, that one bedroom, you know, those two
bedrooms, I think slept 6. But so, so those are good sized,
you know, accommodations as well.
You're going to have plenty of room for the whole family in
those accommodations. Amy, you mentioned Shenandoah
National Park multiple times. Maybe you and your family kind
of being up in the Virginia area, not only massive nothing,
but you've got to explore more of that area.
So why should someone maybe be considering that part of of of
the US for this type of vacation?
Yeah, I think there's so much to do right, especially if you are
are are into like in like Amy said, getting into like enjoying
nature and being outside. I mean, Shenandoah National
Park, you could probably spend days there.
It's within like Shenandoah National Park is huge.
So depending on which areas you're going to there, anywhere
from like 30 minutes to an hour from Massanutten.
But there's also like Luray, where you have like the Luray
Caverns and all of the wineries that they talked about and
several hiking trails. And like Amy have mentioned, you
know, obviously Massanutten teams up to do river adventures.
There's a ton of other opportunities out there as well.
And so I think it's a really good opportunity to go out
there. So you know, of course, we've
kind of talked a little bit about these short trips that
we've done, but I think Massenutten offers a ton of
things just even on their property for you to be able to
do a week long trip. But if you wanted to go off
property and experience some other things outside of
Massenutten, there's so many beautiful areas to explore.
My family has spent time in that area.
We've done Shenandoah National Park, the Lorry Caverns and the
sit in the town of Lorry is is just absolutely beautiful so I
highly recommend it. Our family has gone multiple
times. We absolutely love it.
I enjoy going to Massanutten and then doing those things because
then I don't have to stay in the camper.
Have a have a nice bed and real, real bathroom.
So yes, Marissa, final thoughts on Massenaten?
One thing I'll touch on real quick, which you mentioned as
part of doing the swap with DVC rental store is that that
concierge service and that was something that you touched on as
well with their staff and their service.
And I think that was something that they just have just
tremendous service with. And honestly, I think when you
look at it from a guest perspective it, it is tremendous
value. And I look at that just from
being a parent and going and trying to book a lot of things.
I. Kind of concierge while I was
there and it was so simple. It would be something that, hey,
we wanted to do last minute dinner plans at Campfire Grill.
So I was able to text them really quick, let them know our
party size and they were able to set that dining up.
Or we decided to switch what days we were doing snow tubing
and having access to that concierge to be able to make
those changes and having somebody who can kind of get all
those questions for you asked while you're there or do those
last minute bookings was hugely beneficial.
So I will say it sounds. Something like, Oh yeah, get
this too. But it is a really, really great
value that I think our guests will love.
And when you look at that from a perspective of we don't get that
as much. I feel like this day and age
when it comes to our resort stay.
So having that is a really nice value add.
And just to like piggyback on what Marissa said too, like with
the with the service and just kind of like their level of
hospitality, like it almost reminds you of like old Disney
in a sense. If you talk to like those of us
who love Disney and love Disney Vacation Club, love a good
story. And if you take the time to just
talk to some of the staff members there, they have been
staff members there for several years.
And so they all have each stories and they have different
unique stories. And, and like, even we were at
Elevations Lounge and, you know, we were sitting at the bar and
we were talking about like, you know, Marissa had mentioned the
decor there and how it was like, you know, you have like, you
know, vintage skis and things like that.
But there was like a story behind everything.
Like there was like repurposed wood that they had used from
something local. And so there's a lot of
storytelling that goes on with, you know, there's kind of the
why behind Mass and as well. And just like that level of
service and hospitality I think goes back to the core of what
like we have grown to love about Disney.
And I think that DVC members will find a lot of those
correlations with the storytelling there as well.
Yeah, most of the most of the people there have kind of grown
up in that region. And so they really, they want to
tell you about what makes that place shine, what makes that
part of the country so special. I was also surprised how many of
the staff members lived on the mountain of Massanutten and love
being close and love being there.
Love being close, love being on the mountain.
They also do an international program very similar to Disney
parks where they do have some of their staff that come in from
foreign countries and they stay right on property there and
either work the winter ski season or work the summer
season. So yeah, just incredible
opportunity for us to explore the resort.
Big thank you to Massanutten for having us out for that amazing
trip and we can't wait to come back.
And what do you call it? Leaf peep I?
Want to be a leaf peeper? Amy wants to leaf peep.
Mandy Marissa, thank you so much for joining us for this special
episode because you have so much knowledge about the resort and
got to explore it with your families.
And thank you to the young kids that joined us also, who kind of
chimed in and gave us some of their thoughts about why you
should consider the Massanutten Resort for your family vacation.
That's going to do it for this episode, this special episode of
the DVC Show. We hope you enjoyed it.
We will be back next Monday with our regularly scheduled
programming. Until then, we'll see you next
time.