Split Rock Resort
We decided to take a last minute trip to Split Rock Resort and Golf Course over the July 4th weekend. We took Sarah’s parents with us and thought it would be a nice little weekend. The resort is large and spread out. We got there in time for the fireworks on Friday. They have quite a bit to offer but things didn’t really turn out as nice as I would have liked. The hotel/time share is a little run down, looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 80′s, with the big mirrors, patterned carpet, gold colored trim. The bathroom tiles were marred, sort of what you would normally expect from an old hotel. Connected to the facility is a recreation center, with indoor tennis courts, a bowling alley, arcade and even a movie theater. The opposite end has an indoor water park and pool. Outside the facility is a golf course, a private beach, more tennis courts …
I tried to play tennis with my father-in-law but ended up spraining my ankle early. We went swimming with Isabelle the first time and she really loved it. Only thing was I think she swallowed a bit too much pool water and vomited. We took that as a cue to exit the pool. As far as we can tell no one noticed. The suite was spacious with two bedrooms, a kitchen, two baths, and a living room. They had an odd layout of the doors since I think the suite was built as a one bedroom and they have a bedroom attached through one of those secure partition doors so that the single room could be rented out separately. The kitchen was fully functional so I made breakfast each morning.
This leads to the two frustrating things about Split Rock. They kindof treat the resort like a cruise ship. They charge you for everything, tennis court rentals, movie theater, bowling … They try to mask it by using a room charging system but it just felt awkward. When I sprained my ankle only 30 minutes into our two hours on the court they didn’t offer to refund the un-used time. I can understand if there was a huge queue of people who wanted to play and our reservation kept someone else from playing, but there was no one else there.
Finally the restaurants are pretty bad. They claim to have three really good restaurants at the resort. We went to their American style in the Galleria and the Italian themed one in the lodge. Both were pretty poor in quality and service time. I think our experience would have been a lot better if the food was up to par. We ended up going to Burger King, a 20 minute drive out of the resort, for lunch because we just weren’t up for another meal there. If we ever go again, I’m probably going to fill up the cooler with marinated meats and groceries and just cook all our meals in the kitchen.
It was a good trip though. Isabelle had fun and got to hang with her grandparents. Hopefully we’ll find things to do in Orlando so she can hang out with my parents a little more.