40th B-day Trip Part 7~ Jackson Showboat Cruise!

On Saturday night we headed back down to the shuttles and hopped on the one that took us to the General Jackson Showboat Cruise. It's a 2 hour dinner/music cruise down the Cumberland river.







We took a Riverboat dinner cruise when we were in Branson a couple of years ago. The General Jackson is much larger than the Branson Showboat but ironically, when you get on board it doesn't feel any bigger due to how they have it layed out.

You board one hour prior to setting sail and they have a band playing on the main deck and drinks available. You actually don't enter into the ballroom until right before you sail.



The ballroom is called the Victorian ballroom. It's one giant room with a lot of round tables set up in the room that are all numbered. When you make your reservations you are assigned to a specific table. We were two tables away from the stage.







Each table had a waiter assigned to it and they bring out your food and drinks to you. Unlike the Branson Showboat which we of course couldn't help but compare too, the Jackson's show only lasts one hour. On the Branson you had two hours of comedy and song. So for the first hour on the Jackson you are not entertained at all. We talked to the people at our table but Bryan and I both thought that they really needed to have a band or something playing while your waiting on your food and eating.




The people are our table were really sweet. Their was one elderly couple from up north and a couple in their 50's with teen and grown children who were also from up north. The third couple was newly married with no children and lived in Nashville.


The menu is pre-set and the food was really good. The dressing with the chicken had cranberries in it and it was my favorite thing next to the rolls. Amazing yeast rolls! I could have made a meal off of just the rolls. They served us salad first and then the main course and after the main course is cleared dessert is brought out. The dessert was cheesecake and it was really good too!

For the last hour you have the music show. It was fun. They went through a history of country music during the show and we thought they did a good job of it.







We enjoyed the night! Here is the picture that we bought which they take when you board the boat.


I took a picture of the picture so the quality isn't that great.



To be continued............

UNSELL LAND LINKS:

40th Birthday Part 1
40th Birthday Part 2
40th Birthday Part 3
40th Birthday Part 4
40th Birthday Part 5
50th Birthday Part 6

40th B-day Trip Part 6 ~ Solario and Delta Riverboat Tour!

So that Saturday was my actual birthday and when we got up Bryan gave me another card and birthday gift. The gift was a poem that he wrote to me and framed.

We had slept in that morning and around 11am we got ready and headed out into the resort to walk around a bit. The resort is split into 3 sections. Our room was in the Cascades section and the two other sections are called Conservatory and Delta. We spent some time walking around the Conservatory section which was the hotel's first atrium when it was first built. The Garden Conservatory is designed to allow guests to experience a walk in a tropical garden without going outdoors. It's a jewel of a place for plant lovers. *Grin*


Inside the glass elevator









































At lunch we headed to a Mexican restaurant in the Conservatory.


Solario Mexican Restaurant

The Gaylord advertises that their chefs are top-chefs and I would have to agree with that. Every single place we ate at during our stay was an amazing experience with amazing food. As a gal that was raised on the west coast not far from Mexico's border, I grew up on authentic Mexican food. It's rare to find authentic Mexican food in the deep south. In fact that's one of the things that I don't like about the southern states. This restaurant was therefore a real treat!




Not only was their food good but their Strawberry Margarita's were delicious too!

After lunch we walked over to the Delta section. The 150-foot tall, 4.5 acres atrium was given a Cajun theme, borrowing many elements from New Orleans, Louisiana. Also under the large glass roof is the Delta River, a 0.25 miles artificial waterway which you can take riverboat ride/tours down. I mentioned in one of my first posts that when it was christened, water samples from more than 1,700 rivers throughout the world, including every registered river in the United States, were poured into the Delta River.

The following are pictures I took while on the riverboat tour.



Something really unique about the Gaylord Opryland are the many exotic plants and trees that grow within it. On the riverboat tour you a learn a bit more about those plants as well as the history of the Gaylord.










All of the buildings in the Delta section are modeled after New Orleans.


The trees throughout the Gaylord are species from around the world and two of them are trees that are not supposed to be grown indoors, yet, Gaylord has managed to do so for years now. *Wink* Some of the trees had exotic fruits growing on them.


This chandelier is in what they call the Magnolia section- it's not so much a section but was the original hotel lobby and retail area. It currently features a Grand Staircase which is modeled after the Tara from Gone With the Wind.








When New Orleans got word that the Gaylord was building a section that resembled their city they sent up several signs from around their city to Nashville to be apart of the resort.








That old southern mansion sitting up on the hill is actually the Hickory Steakhouse and Bryan informed me on Saturday that he had made dinner reservations at it for Sunday night.


You go past several waterfalls on the boat tour.






Banyan tree from Africa




2 wood ducks live on the Delta in the Gaylord. *Grin* They are so cute but they don't look real at first glance because their coats are so glossy and perfect. Both of the ducks survived the flood last year.

To be continued...........

Gaylord Orpyland Trivia: The Gaylord houses 238 pieces of art from 207 artists, all from Tennessee.