03/06/2022
I have submitted a photo that I took myself on our annual New Years Eve trip to Gatlinburg with my mother! Our timeshare, Westgate Smoky Moutain Resort & Wash Park; our second home away from home! We have so many memories here - and we hope to keep making more and more! ❤️ Here is the story I wrote! I thank you in advance if you decide to answer your first and last name, and your email addresses! It’s very quick! Also - we can vote daily until the first week of April! V❤️
Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort & Water Park
For as long as I can remember, my family has went to Gatlinburg after Christmas to celebrate the New Year! We’ve also started going in May for my mom and I birthday celebration! Safe to say, Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort is our home away from home, and it honestly does feel like coming back home everytime we pull up to the registration building to check in.
Some might say, “How did your parents get talked into a timeshare on the spur between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg?” And the answer to that is they agreed to come for a presentation and tour for tickets to a show and a gift card for a meal at a nice restaurant. To my mom, she immediately thought they would go and listen and get their free stuff and be on their way. But my daddy, he just couldn’t say no. Westgate talked it up like they would be joining into a family, in a resort and tourist location, with unlimited potential for growth in the future - but most importantly a beautiful place to bring our whole family to make memories together!
My dad was IN! I mean - Hook, line, and sinker! Where did he need to sign? Mom said they signed all the papers and became timeshare owners and she claims that she doesn’t know if she even slept 1 wink that night wondering if they had made a mistake. To my mom, it was alot of money to spend on vacationing 21 years ago.
You may be wondering where this story is going, but after all these years - all our trips - I just want everybody (especially my momma) to know IT WAS NOT A MISTAKE!!! It’s one of the best decisions my dad ever made and talked my mom into!
It’s one of the single most magical places I’ve ever been in my lifetime. Westgate is as close to clicking my heels three times to be in paradise as real life can get. It is as if you have transported to a different way of life as soon as you arrive on the property. The cabins are truly a cut above - they are just exactly what you’d want to see in a cabin in the Smoky Mountain’s. Real log decor, brown leather furniture, black bear lamps, acorn ceiling fans, stone gas fireplace, huge dining table with dining chairs that look like tree branches, the most unbelievably spacious showers and massive whirlpool bath tubs, and the views thru the sliding glass door and from the balcony are like your very own postcard.
I can remember as a kid wanting to hurry and put my bathing suit on to go to the indoor water park and ride the lazy river in our inner-tubes, all the while trying to dodge buckets of water from dumping on our heads as we floated around. I can remember going down those big water slides with my dad and I can still picture his face when he’d come up out of the water after sliding down and the big belly laughs we’d have about it! I fondly remember us shooting hoops with all the floating basketballs in the middle of the indoor water park! We made many friends from complete strangers challenging them to games of horse in that pool! And after playing our hearts out, I can remember going to chill like I’d had a real hard day in the hot tubs with the older folks.
I can remember coming back to the cabin and getting a bath and laying on my stomach, in the floor watching tv with the gas fireplace on. Just making those family memories - not a care in the world. We have so many photos with that beautiful fireplace in them - year after year, trip after trip!
As the years slipped on by, I got older, and Westgate kept growing bigger and getting fancier! Instead of riding in the backseat from North Alabama to Gatlinburg - I became the chauffeur. My dad - my copilot. My mom - asleep in the backseat.
I can remember one trip (maybe 2016ish) our cards to open our cabin door didn’t work upon check-in, and that time we were on the 3rd story of a cabin, with no elevators. My dad had just had total knee replacement surgery and he was still taking things really slow. We had bought a big case of water and I was trying to lug that up 3 flights of stairs, while we were waiting on a maintenance man to come fix our room keys and let us in. We were locked out regardless and mom and dad were watching me from the top….. and well - lucky me, the plastic around the case of the water ripped, so naturally half or more of the brand new bottles of water are running down the stairs and rolling out onto the asphalt in the parking lot. And my parents were both laughing so hard at me that I just had to stop and laugh hysterically with them. A couple minutes later, a maintenance man showed up and got it all fixed for us - but that moment is one of my favorites at Westgate. Sometimes in life, the smallest things can truly bring you the most joy!
We ALWAYS hope for snow when we go to Westgate. We don’t need a blizzard but just a tiny Winter Wonderland always make us so happy. Mother Nature has delivered a couple beautiful snow storms for us while we were at Westgate. I have memories of my dad clearing snow off of our car with Walmart shopping bags over his hands as his gloves, or tall white socks as his mittens. My sweet daddy - freezing his hiney off so we could go see the sights on a snowy day. He always could figure out something, somehow. That was the engineer inside of him.
Over the years, my family has seen everything Westgate Smoky Mountains has to offer; and if you’ve never been - I couldn’t recommend our place anymore if I tried. We’ve ate at several of the restaurants on site, we’ve played putt putt, we’ve watched others zip line, swam in the heated outdoor pools, shopped at the Smoky Mountain Marketplace grocery store there on site (so incredibly handy), ordered Starbucks, played arcade games and ate at the Wild Bear Falls snack bar, and we’ve sat at the very top fire pit location and just took in the breathtaking views. Words don’t even do it justice. Cade’s Cove is beautiful (no doubt) - but dare I say that the view at the top of Westgate’s property at sunset really truly takes the cake for the best view in the Smokies! Don’t forget your camera. It’s definitely a view you will want to share!
All these years, all of our countless trips, all those memories, all the laughs, and all the love we’ve shared…. Priceless.
When we pull up at Westgate - I sincerely do feel like we are at our home away from home. Westgate has grown leaps and bounds in the past two decades, and they’ve really made it a resort that has it all right on site. My dad has been gone now for 4 years and I miss him more than words can even express. Time doesn’t make that loss easier. I think going on trips makes it harder when you’ve lost a loved one because you can’t help but think of all the things you’d be doing differently if they were still here. Every one of my dads favorite restaurants and stores - mom and I feel obligated now to say, “dad would’ve wanted to go there!” And then that lump swells in the back of your throat and we can’t even hardly hold back the tears.
Dad and Westgate were basically like that Gilligan’s Island theme song - Dad fell in love with Westgate on a 3 hour tour. And because of that one decision he made, these trips are now, undoubtedly, some of the best memories of my life. I am so thankful and grateful for Westgate!!!!!
Life is so short, y’all. Make it sweet. Go on the trip. Plan that vacation. Take all the pictures. Soak up every moment. Be present with your family. And mostly, cherish all the memories.
Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort & Water Park
