Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Ledyard, CT is about a 3 hour drive from my house.  Usually my husband, cousin and I make an overnight trip up there about once or twice a year.  We made a trip up there this past weekend.

Foxwoods has 3 different hotel towers that are part of the main building, the Grand Pequot Tower, the Great Cedar Tower and the Fox Tower.  The Fox Tower is the newest and furthest away from the main gaming / dining area but you can tell that it is the newest.  There is also Two Trees Inn which, while owned by Foxwoods, it is not connected to the main building.  There is a shuttle bus that will transport you back and forth.

For this stay, we were in the Great Cedar Tower.  We had a very nice room but you could tell it was one of the older towers.  The elevator was clean but had seen better days.  And we all commented how small the flat screen TV was in the room, though I’m sure it was impressive that it had a flat screen TV at all when it was installed.

We have developed somewhat of a routine to our visits.  We drive up to arrive midday, get checked into our room and then have a sit down lunch.  This time we decided go to the Hard Rock Café.  It was a little busy but we were seated right away.  While nothing fancy, I enjoyed a burger and fries there. 

After lunch, we part ways.  My husband will go off to the poker room and my cousin and I will hit the slots for a while before Bingo.  Yes, I like to play bingo. J  Since it was a Sunday night, the admission was $15 dollars and then I usually get about $15 worth of specials (games played in addition to the regular games).  The bingo session will usually last about 4 hours, with one intermission.  I figure it is worth $30 to play bingo for 4 hours.  I would be broke quickly if I spent 4 hours playing slots. Instead of dinner, we usually get a few snacks to munch while playing.

We have been going to play bingo at Foxwoods before it was even a full casino and it was just a bingo hall.  I would guess that it has been at least 20 years.  In all that time, we have NEVER won!  To say we are overdue for a win there is an overstatement.  But guess what?  We didn’t win again!  Oh well.

It was about 11 pm and we left the bingo session to play a little bit of slots before calling it a night.  I was in search of the “Ellen” machine (made with the theme of the Ellen DeGeneres show).  My husband had looked around for it and texted me the location so that is where we headed.  Thankfully, his luck had been better at poker so he called it a night while we went to play.  I was down some money but Ellen was lucky and I made some back (and the machine was fun!) before we called it a night about 1 am.

The next morning, my cousin and I were up and ready for breakfast by 9.  We like to go to Junior’s which is in the Fox Tower.  I had a pastrami omelet which was tasty and I was eyeing up cheesecake to pick up later to take home, though I never got back over there to do that.  My cousin and I played some slots over in the Fox section but I wasn’t having any luck so I wanted to head back to Ellen!  Meanwhile, my husband slept in a bit, checked out of the room and went back to poker.

I got my Ellen machine and once again Ellen was good to me!  I tried a few other machines too and decided to call it a day with about a $30 loss total.  I went and got a coffee while waiting for my cousin.  She was still playing and I saw a machine that I like with a kitten theme.  What the heck, I’ll play $20 more since I am waiting.  And then I hit the bonus game and won $100!  That was good enough for me so I cashed out just as my cousin was finished as well.

We texted my husband who was also wrapping up at the poker table.  We had planned to leave around 1 pm so we wouldn’t hit rush hour traffic on the way back.  So all in all, it was a successful and pleasant trip to Foxwoods.

I would really like to make a long weekend trip there soon.  There is more and more to do in the area, besides gambling.  Foxwoods is going to be adding a Tangers Outlet that appears will be connected right to the main building.  They already have a nice shopping and food court area that has been redone.  Mystic Seaport and Aquarium are about a 15-20 minute drive from there.  I also took note to a Hilton and another hotel (I can’t remember the name) within a few minute drive of Foxwoods that are new if you don’t want to stay right at Foxwoods.  Weekend prices can be a lot which is way we usually go on a Sunday – Monday or a Thursday – Friday which are more reasonable. 

Interested in checking it out for yourself?  Contact me for more information.

The last morning is basically get up and get off the ship.  The system for breakfast is that you have an assigned time at the restaurant you ate dinner at on the last night. I have found that I just don’t enjoy that breakfast.  I have done it in the past and I felt like it was rushed.  The buffet is open in the morning so I have done that on my most recent cruises. 

You need to be out of your stateroom at 8 am, so Sue and I got ready, gathered our belongings and headed up to the buffet.  After breakfast, we sadly made our way off the ship, through customs and on to the Disney bus to take us to the airport.  JetBlue is part of the on board check in program so Disney Cruise Line had already printed our boarding passes and checked our bags into the flight.  All we had was our carry on bags which makes the whole process very easy.

And so another Disney cruise had come to an end.  We loved it!  I love being able to relax all day if you want… or keep busy all day going from activity to activity if you want.. or a combination of both.  I can’t wait to go again!

Day 4 was a day at sea and our last full day on the ship.  We had reservations at Palo for brunch at 10:30 so we were in no rush to get up in the morning.  I slept until about 8 and then went for a walk on deck 4.  It was hot and sunny but I still love walking around deck 4.  On one of my laps around, I saw all the princesses heading inside for the Princess Gathering.  Where else can you see that when out for a walk?

We lounged around and then got ready for our brunch.  Palo is an adult only restaurant on board that serves dinner each night and brunch on select days.  A reservation is required and there is a $25 per person charge.  This was my third time doing the brunch.  The dinner is fantastic as well but the buffet is my absolute favorite.

The way the brunch works is you start out with a buffet selection for appetizers.  There is a table of breads and pastries, a table of seafood, and a table with cheeses and antipasto.  Then there are plated dishes that you can order for entrees.  Those your waiter brings to your table.  For dessert, again there is a buffet table with various desserts.  Everything is included and you can have as much as you like. 

This time, it was explained to us that a server would walk around the buffet with us individually.  You would tell him what you would like and he would place it on a plate for you.  Previously, it was a traditional serve yourself type of buffet.  I have to say I wasn’t crazy about the new system.  I am not sure the reasoning.. perhaps for hygiene or presentation?  I will say that the servers were very pleasant and actually made some recommendations of items to try that I would not have selected on my own.  But overall I prefer to serve myself.  However, it wouldn’t stop me from going to the brunch again on another cruise. 

The food at the brunch is outstanding!  I really can’t think of anything that I didn’t like.  I really enjoy different breads and cheeses and I love trying new ones there.  I had an open faced frittata for my entrée which was great.  All of the desserts were quite yummy as well. 

After we rolled ourselves out of the buffet, we did some shopping and then went back to the room to change.  Because it was a sea day, we found the adult pool and lounge area to be pretty full by the time we got there.  So we went down to deck 4 where there are some padded lounge chairs and found a nice quiet spot for some reading and napping.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Disney Tunes Trivia.  There were 10 songs played by a pianist that we needed to name and then 2 trivia questions about each song as well.  This was a family activity so the songs were pretty easy but a few of the trivia questions were a little tricky.  We ended up with 28 points out of 30 but two groups at 29 points so we didn’t win anything.

The show for that evening was “Believe.”  Again, we had both seen in on the last cruise but it is a nice  show and I enjoyed it.  We then had planned to go into the adult area for a cocktail and to listen to some Broadway tunes played by the same pianist from the trivia game.  When we arrived, there was just one couple there.  We got our drinks and were settling in for some nice music when a loud family group arrived.  They had no interest in the music and decided to set up camp at several tables to drink and bring food down from the buffet.  Apparently the adult area isn’t ‘adult only’ until after 9 pm.  We tried to ignore them but it wasn’t easy and put a damper on our time there.

We headed from there to our last dinner in the main dining room.  We again had some fun with Victor.  He had been telling us on previous nights that we should try escargot.  This was the night it was on the menu.  We decided to order one to share, in case we didn’t like it.  Victor gave a suggestion on how to eat it and I really enjoyed it.  Though maybe anything would be good smothered in butter and garlic.  When we got to dessert, he said he wanted to surprise us.  He came out with 4 desserts so we could try different ones.  We left there stuffed!

There was a premiere of the movie “Strange Magic” that night at midnight.  We had considered going but it was only 10 pm by the time we finished dinner.  We decided we just wanted to get in comfy clothes and relax so we went back to the room and did just that.  The in room televisions have Disney movies “on demand.”  We had started watching “Frozen” so we went back to finish watching the rest before calling it a night.

Here are the last set of Navigators from Day 4