Archive for January, 2019

Gatlinburg, Tennessee – trip report part 7 – Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium

Continuing with our trip report, after visiting Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, we headed down the main street in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and stopped at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium.

The heart of the Ripley’s empire is thanks to an explorer named Robert Ripley, and his fascination with sharing unusual stories and artifacts from around the world.  Many of those discoveries were presented in a series of books, and there have been at least two television shows as well.  Naturally, it was just a matter of time before many of these exhibits found their way into some sort of fun house / museum.

Located right in the middle of Gatliburg, the Odditorium is a three-story museum that helps showcase stories and artifacts covering what many people consider to be weird and unusual.  Natural human curiosity wants us to go inside and take a look around, wondering what we’ll find in Ripley’s famous museum.

Let’s take a peek, shall we?

RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! ODDITORIUM

Gatlinburg, Tennessee – Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium – 2018

The lobby and entrance area for the Odditorium have a handful of free exhibits for people to enjoy.  Anybody can simply walk up and see them.  It’s all designed to catch your interest so that you’ll pay for an admission ticket and go inside, not too different from the old carnival barkers advertising a “freak” show. Read more…

Gatlinburg, Tennessee – trip report part 6 – Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies

After having a blast in Pigeon Forge and enjoying the Titanic and Alcatraz East museums, we had our sights set on Gatlinburg, Tennessee, the following day.

When we were planning this trip, the Gatlinburg attractions were the only ones that we officially planned on visiting.  We went to the Ripley’s website and bought a combo ticket for the aquarium as well as three additional attractions.  It was the best deal that we could find at the time, so we decided to splurge and see a few of new experiences.

Just like the previous morning, we got an early start at our hotel, enjoyed the continental breakfast, and then easily made the short drive from the middle of Pigeon Forge down to Gatlinburg.  Traffic was next to nothing at 8:30 in the morning.  🙂  We parked at a parking deck on the north side of town, and after a quick walk, we were at our first stop of the day.

RIPLEY’S AQUARIUM OF THE SMOKIES

Gatlinburg, Tennessee – Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies – 2018

One of the biggest attractions in Gatlinburg is Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies.  As soon as you approach the building it’s easy to see that this is going to be a fun and high-quality experience.  It’s also very popular as well, so get there EARLY if you’d like to avoid most of the crowds. Read more…

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee – trip report part 5 – Alcatraz East crime museum

Once we were finished with the Titanic museum, we merged back with the seemingly never ending bumper-to-bumper traffic and made our way back to the Quality Inn hotel.  We dropped some stuff off in the room and then walked across 441 to our next stop — Alcatraz East crime museum.

Pigeon Forge – Alcatraz East crime museum – 2018

Pigeon Forge – Alcatraz East crime museum – 2018

Pigeon Forge – Alcatraz East crime museum – 2018

Like many of the newer attractions in Pigeon Forge, Alcatraz East looks really impressive on the outside of the museum.  It’s hard to miss the giant fortress / prison, like those jails that were common in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  There are bars across the windows, guards in the towers, and even a prisoner trying to make a jail break.  The building looks fun in the day, but for a real treat, check out how impressive it looks at night. Read more…

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee – trip report part 4 – Titanic museum

After successfully completing our timeshare sales pitch at Wyndham, we headed up to Sevierville to grab some lunch.  Then it was merging into the never-ending traffic jam and heading back towards Pigeon Forge.

While heading up to our lunch destination, we knew that there was going to be at least some traffic on our return.  That small estimation of traffic was off by a *bit* as we ended up being stuck in non-stop stop-and-go traffic all the way from Sevierville to the Titanic museum on the north side of Pigeon Forge.  Okay, no big deal.  We were ahead of schedule and not in a time crunch, so it was more of an annoyance than a problem.

TITANIC MUSEUM

Pigeon Forge – Titanic museum – 2018

When driving south on 441 and entering Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, it’s easy to spot the Titanic museum on the right side of the road.  After all, it looks like the famous ocean liner.  Technically, the version of the ship at the Titanic museum is only half-scale (meaning that the real ship is twice as big), but it still looks impressive from both the road and standing outside of it and gazing in awe at the structure. Read more…

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee – trip report part 3 – Wyndham timeshare sales pitch

As it was mentioned in the previous article, after we arrived in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and checked into our hotel, we went across the street to check out The Island.

The Island – Margaritaville – 2018

Before we left, we looked online and saw a few places that we wanted to visit.  We thought that one of the places was at The Island, but when we got there we couldn’t find it.  We then went over to an information stand and inquired about it to one of the workers.  The worker was unfamiliar for this particular place were were looking for (it turns out that it was a few miles away — our mistake!), but she did start asking us about our trip in general, and if we already had tickets to attractions.

Okay, no big deal.  Obviously she’s able to sell us tickets if we wanted to purchase any.  What she asked next took us by surprise.

The worker asked something similar to, “Would you like to go to a dinner show for free?”

What’s the catch? we wondered.  She informed us all we had to do was attend a timeshare presentation for Wyndham, and then we’ll be awarded with two tickets to basically any dinner show of our choosing.  We don’t particularly care for dinner shows, so we asked if we could instead get free tickets for local attractions instead.  She said sure, that wouldn’t be a problem.  As long as the total cost was less than $100, then she could make it happen. Read more…

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee – trip report part 2 – The Island

One of the newer experiences in Pigeon Forge is a place called The Island.

Pigeon Forge – The Island – 2018

Located near the middle of the town and literally surrounded on all sides by a river, The Island is a mega shopping and dining establishment full of the latest trendy and novelty stores, fine dining, two Margaritaville hotels, attractions (including the Great Smoky Mountain Wheel), and, perhaps the best feature, a large pond featuring tons of water fountains.  The water fountains are continuously doing patterns that make the water look like it’s “dancing” or “playing,” and every thirty minutes there’s a brief show where they blast music (we commonly heard Jimmy Buffett and some other hits from the 1960s) and have the water fountain synchronized to it.  For added fun, the water lights up and changes color at night. Read more…

Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge, Tennessee – October 2018 – part 1

Early last fall, my wife and I basically won a “free” trip for a few nights, and we chose a quick getaway to the Great Smoky Mountains.  Specifically (as you can guess by this article’s title), we chose to visit Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and several attractions in those towns.

Back in September we were visiting a local festival with a bunch of vendors.  One of the vendors had a large wheel that you could spin and win a prize.  My wife spun it and sure enough, she landed on the spot that said “pick a prize”.  She chose the top prize — a combination of a cruise as well as a three-night stay in one of several cities, and $100 as well.  This was all through Diamond Resorts.  All we had to do was pay $200 and go to a two-hour timeshare sales presentation during our “land” vacation.  That’s it.  Two vacations and some money.

Okay.  No big deal.  We already own a timeshare and know the routine, so it’ll be easy for us to give it an honest comparison.  When we attended the timeshare sales pitch at the end of the trip, it was an eye-opening experience, and not in a good way.

Diamond Resorts – 2018 destination options

After looking at the map and seeing which cities were available for this package deal, we selected Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  Technically both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge were choices, but we chose Pigeon Forge as that town gave us more options as far as food and attractions, plus from there it was easier to drive north into Sevierville as well as south into Gatlinburg and the Smokies.  The “prize” vacation did not include airfare, and we did not want to drive too far at this point in time, so Tennessee it was for us.

My wife had a short break in the school year in early October.  We acted quickly and were on the road up to the Smokies less than a couple of weeks after “winning” the prize.  Being quick to book our trip gave us an additional $50 (or an extra night free, but we couldn’t do that, so we took the money) from Diamond Resorts.  Even though we paid $200 for the trip, we ended up getting back $150, so the total expense for a four-night hotel bill was only $50.  Considering where we ended up staying and for the length of stay, that $50 cost was an amazing deal.  Plus we’re getting a cruise out of it, too.  We’re only responsible for paying the port fees, about $90 for each person.  That’s all.

THE DRIVE

We headed northeast out of the Atlanta metro area and basically headed towards Cherokee, North Carolina.  We didn’t make any stops in Cherokee this time, but it was still amusing driving past the Harrah’s Cherokee casino as well as seeing a bunch of Indian-themed shops and points of interest.  It would be easy to park the car and spend a few hours walking around the clusters of stores and other sights. Read more…

The Dump Furniture Outlet’s Annoying TV Commercials

Has anybody seen the latest commercials for The Dump Furniture Outlet?

“Wise Up, Bigshot: The Once a Year Clearance”

More specifically, has anybody been able to tolerate the rather annoying woman who does all the speaking in a rather insulting manner?

The Dump Furniture Outlet 2019 commercial

When I first noticed this irritating woman last month, I was hoping that it was a quick, one-time gimmick.  Normally commercials for The Dump are rather bland with some guy doing a cheesy and rather dopey voiceover, telling us all about whatever sale they’re running that weekend.  They were repetitive and mostly predictable, but they seemed to do the job. Read more…

Living a Frugal Lifestyle and Surviving the Government Shutdown

Right now thousands of government workers are quickly discovering just how difficult it is to be living without receiving a steady paycheck.  The essential workers will be paid when the government re-opens, but for now it’s basically a case of “the paycheck is in the mail.”  It’ll eventually arrive, but nobody knows *when* that will happen.

The timing is even worse for a lot of people because Christmas was just last month, and we all know just how easy it is to keep spending money on gifts, vacations, expensive meals, and other ways to celebrate it.  Now we’re in the middle of January and people are anxious to receive those paychecks to not only pay for their everyday lifestyle, but to also start paying off that holiday debt before being hit by high fees and other penalties.

Thankfully, there are several ways of cutting bills and making your money last as long as possible.  The more you can change your lifestyle, then the more money you can save each month.

— THE BASICS OF SURVIVAL —

When you have to save every penny, you’re essentially fighting for the survival of yourself and your family.  Watch any survival TV show and you’ll quickly learn that you need three basic elements to survive: food, water and shelter.  The human body needs food and water to be properly fueled to give you energy and help fight off diseases and illnesses, and the body needs to be protected from the harsh elements of nature in the forms of a residence as well as clothing. Read more…