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Home » Trip Reports » Graduation Trip to Knoxville
Knoxville Graduation Trip

Graduation Trip to Knoxville

Our little girl Kendall graduated from UT! We’ve lived in Knoxville and visited many, many times. This graduation trip to Knoxville let us experience a few things that we’ve never done before.

Table of Contents Click to Show
Home Sweet Home Knoxville
Where to Stay in Knoxville
The Graduate Knoxville
Embassy Suites Downtown Knoxville
Hyatt Place Downtown Knoxville
Graduation Dinner at Copper Cellar
UT Knoxville Graduation
UT Graduation Parking
Graduation Pictures
Sunday Mass in Knoxville
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
Graduation Party at SoKno Tacos
Graduation Trip Bottom Line

Home Sweet Home Knoxville

When Sandra (aka Zuzu) & I got married in 1993, we bought our first home in Knoxville and lived there for about 3 years before moving to Nashville. The University of Tennessee has collected tuition on all 3 of our kids and we’ve been to about 100 football games at Neyland Stadium.

Kendall & Taylor as young undergrads on Rocky Top in Neyland Stadium
Kendall & Taylor as young undergrads on Rocky Top

Knoxville really is home to us.

But we’ve never spent the night in a hotel in Knoxville, nor have we attended a graduation ceremony at UT.

Where to Stay in Knoxville

Since we’re elite level with Hyatt, we always first consider staying at a Hyatt for free on points when we travel.

We needed 2 adjoining rooms, for 2 nights. With crowds in Knoxville for graduation, the cash price at the only Hyatt in Knoxville had spiked to over $2000. That’s usually not a problem since we have a process that lets us stay at expensive hotels for free.

Unfortunately, the Knoxville Hyatt Place didn’t have any room available for me to book with points. So what were the other hotel options in Knoxville?

The Graduate Knoxville

If you’re a Vol fan, there’s no better place to stay than The Graduate, Peyton Manning’s hotel in Knoxville.

We had a great stay at the Graduate Hotel in Nashville so we’d love to stay at the Knoxville Graduate Hotel.

While it’s got a great location adjoining campus, prices were over $500 per night, per room, so we kept looking.

Embassy Suites Downtown Knoxville

With no free nights at the Hyatt, I checked rates and free nights at the Embassy Suites in Downtown Knoxville. Cash price for a suite with 2 queen beds was $626 per night or 60,000 Hilton points. $1252 or 120k points for the 2 nights that we needed.

screenshot of Embassy Suites Knoxville room for 60000 points per night
Embassy Suites was $626 or 60k points/night.

We moved 120k Amex Membership Rewards points over to Hilton and booked this room for free.

Hyatt Place Downtown Knoxville

After booking the Embassy Suites, I got an alert that 2 rooms at the Hyatt Place Downtown were available to book with points. Great!

So I cancelled the Embassy Suites booking and used 9500 points per night to book each of the 2 adjoining rooms.

We had a great stay at the Hyatt Place! But here’s what’s weird.

Ross & Zuzu at the front door of the Hyatt Place Knoxville Downtown.
Highly recommend the downtown Knoxville Hyatt Place

The rooms and breakfast were perfectly fine. Exactly what we’d expect from a Hyatt Place which is the is the most basic of the Hyatt brands.

But the lobby and the rooftop bar were amazing! Much more like what we’ve experienced at Hyatt’s luxury brands like Andaz in Maui, Park Hyatt in NYC or the Hyatt Centric in downtown Nashville.

Click here to read my full review of the Hyatt Place Downtown Knoxville.

Graduation Dinner at Copper Cellar

On the Strip, the Copper Cellar restaurant is a Knoxville institution. Dating back to 1975, it’s one of the few places on the Strip that hasn’t changed in the past 50 years. So it’s odd that I’ve never been to “The Cellar” as locals call it.

We had high expectations when we arrived.

Ross & Kendall in front of Copper Cellar sign on the strip in Knoxville
FINALLY! “We Get To Travel” to Copper Cellar!

It was a miserable failure.

Our appetizer took over 30 minutes to arrive. After ordering, our server had to come back and tell us they were out of several items that we ordered. About half of our party was disappointed with what was eventually served to us.

The manager came to our table to apologize 2 separate times and eventually gave us a $45 discount.

Not everything was bad. The server was friendly though not as attentive as we’d like. While they didn’t have the Prime Rib that I wanted, the filet was decent, about as good as I’d expect from a steakhouse chain, like an Outback or Logan’s. The drinks were good. And we had a good table to visit and celebrate the impending graduation.

Holding my thumb down to indicate bad rating in front of Copper Cellar restaurant sign
What a disappointment!

Even with the discount, I wish we had gone somewhere else for graduation dinner.

UT Knoxville Graduation

Saturday was the big day! Kendall actually had 2 graduations because she earned both a BS in Communications and a BA in Sociology.

UT Graduation Parking

Graduation was held at Thompson Boling Arena, the basketball stadium which is known as TBA. UT designated the 2 closest parking lots, G10 & G5 Parking Garages, for graduation parking.

parking map for graduation at University of Tennessee
UT Knoxville Graduation parking next to T.B.A.

Graduation Pictures

Kendall in graduation gown with Orange and White Checkerboard mortar board
She did it! Go Vols!
KJ & friends with Chancellor Donde Plowman!
KJ & friends with Chancellor Donde Plowman!
Barrett Jones & granddaughter Kendall Jones after UT graduation.
The nonagenarian & the graduate!
Jordan on his back to take a picture of the UT graduate from the perfect angle.
Getting the perfect shot!
Jones family in front of the TN River and Neyland stadium after UT graduation.
The Jones clan celebrating our Graduate!

Sunday Mass in Knoxville

My dad will be 90 years old soon. He made it through a long day of 2 graduations and was really looking forward to visiting a Catholic Church that he’s never been to before.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

Founded in 1855, Immaculate Conception is the oldest Roman Catholic Church in the city of Knoxville.

160 year old Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in downtown Knoxville
160 year old Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

The current church was dedicated September 19, 1886. The original stained glass windows were just beautiful.

stained glass windows in Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
Spectacular stained glass windows.

Graduation Party at SoKno Tacos

Sunday afternoon was the graduation party for Kendall and 2 friends. Had a great time at SoKno Taco Cantina celebrating these 3 ladies and their huge accomplishments!

3 graduates of UT Knoxville with their mothers hugging them
Graduates & happy mommas!

Graduation Trip Bottom Line

Although this wasn’t an exotic trip to Hawaii, or a luxury trip to NYC, it was wonderful to celebrate Kendall’s graduation from the University of Tennessee with family and friends.

While this wasn’t a cheap weekend, we used our guide to redeeming points and miles to save about $2000 on the hotel rooms that we needed to enjoy this milestone.

Written by:
wegettotravel
Published on:
June 7, 2022
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