While there are many things that my dad and I have in common, two of our favorites are our love of traveling and country music. Now that Dad is in his early 80s, traveling takes a bit more effort and planning. Luckily, we decided to try out an Adventures by Disney long weekend in Nashville so we could Disney take care of much of the planning and work for us.
For our long weekend, we stayed at the Opryland Hotel. The rooms look in on one of the large atriums filled with lush plants, restaurants and even an indoor boat ride. We had our first breakfast here and even had an up and coming country artist stop by to entertain us.
The morning was spent touring Nashville with an emphasis on local sites that are used for exterior shots for the ABC television show “Nashville”. Our wonderful adventure guides told us the back story for “Nashville” so those of us who didn’t watch the show could follow along. We even did a sort of puppet theater version of the show. The morning ended with each family getting a copy of the “Nashville” soundtrack. Dad made sure he got to keep that!
Next stop was lunch at a local restaurant and afterwards we got to make our own custom barbecue sauce with help of the chef. You can tell from this picture that Dad takes his barbecue very seriously.
After a stop at the WSM radio station that is located in the Opryland Hotel, we took a break before we headed out to Hermitage – the home of Andrew Jackson. Because this was after hours, our motor coach was able to pull up so we could enter the way Jackson’s guests would have when he lived there. Actors portraying Andrew and Rachel Jackson were there to greet us and tell us more about the Hermitage. Several docents (including some local kids training to be junior docents) took us on a tour. Then we all went to a reception area to learn how to make southern biscuits which we enjoyed with our candlelight dinner that night.
And that was just our first day! During the next few days, we toured the Ryman Auditorium, made prints at Hatch Show Prints, toured RCA Studio B (and recorded our own song!), had a private concert with two amazing singer-songwriters, and finished up with a private tour and dinner at the Grand Ole Opry before seeing the Saturday night show.
I can’t say enough about how great our Adventure guides Kelley and Paola were. They kept us entertained and informed throughout the trip. Better yet, when Dad started having some problems with all of the walking, they arranged for us to have a golf cart waiting at the Hermitage and always found a chair at the various locations so Dad could sit.
If you are thinking about trying an Adventures by Disney trip, a long weekend is a great way to try one out. Besides Nashville, there are long weekend options in San Francisco, New York and even a special winter in Wyoming one. I highly encourage anyone interested in unique adventures that truly cannot book on your own to contact The Magic For Less about an Adventures by Disney trip.
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