We are back!!!!

[jwhiting]

Hi all,
Well we are finally back in the UK following our 16 nighter in the sunshine state. Whilst over there we took in Orlando, Key Largo, Key West and finished up at Fort Lauderdale. Below I list a number of highlights and just a few lowlights of our magical trip.

Highlights (in no particular order)

Flight - Virgin Atlantic faultless from twilight check in, to safe landing back in UK, Premium Economy excellent once again and well worth the upgrade.

Hot Air Balloon - Booked through Orange Blossom, had to cancel our Saturday morning flight due to Arlene, but managed to get up the following Tuesday for a fantastic 3.5 hour experience. WOW!!!!

Hotels - Managed to stay in 4 excellent hotels on the trip. The Crowne Plaza Universal is great and I would recommend this hotel to everybody for a future stay. It is such a shame that Virgin no longer includes this hotel in the brochure. Also stayed at the Sheraton Beach Resort in Key Largo, Ocean Key Resort in Key West and finally the Marriott Beach Harbour in Fort Lauderdale. All top notch hotels, special mention to the Ocean Key for the best and biggest room ever...jacuzzi was awesome.

Top Rides - (in order of our favourites)
Mission Space
Revenge of the Mummy
Soarin
Spiderman
Shrek 4D
Test Track
Kilimanjaro Safari
TOT
Popeye
Dudley Do Right Ripsaw Falls

Places we ate at in Orlando (in order we visited)

Bennigans (I Drive North) - As ever, top notch service and food.
Houlihans - a big let down on previous visits. Won't go back.
Ruby Tuesday (192) - some of the best food we ate all holiday.
Chillis (I Drive) - Very busy Saturday night, but seated quickly. Very good.
Chef Mickey Breakfast - YUM!!!! AND HOW MANY CHARACTERS...!!!!!!!
ESPN - despite a huge storm, great food and service.
Budweiser Brew House (St Petes Tampa Bay Rays) - good food but not so slick service.
Bennigans (I Drive South) - see first Bennigans!!!!
Tony Romas (I Drive) - first visit ever, won't be the last. Excellent.
Sweet Tomatoes - very busy but got a table straight away. Very fresh food.
Golden Corral - first time visit, much better than Ponderosa, Sizzler etc.

Baseball - the Devil Rays won 5-3!!!!! Worth the long drive and the roadworks on the way back on I4.

Keane - live at the Hard Rock. Despite the obvious MTV influenced fuss at the beginning ("you're all on TV, don't look at the cameras, pretend Keane are on stage whilst we play one of the songs over the PA") it was a good show, probably an excellent show if you are real Keane fans and you've had more than 4.5 hours sleep!!!!

Shopping - Florida Mall, spent hours as per the norm and many dollars. Old Navy still the best around for good quality t-shirts at ridiculous prices.

Key Largo - John Pennenkamp State Park. Went on the glass bottom boat tour to the reef, kayaked the mangrove trails and ate ice cream. One of the best days weatherwise. Also the magnificent bay view from our upgraded room at the Sheraton and our visit to the Everglades Alligator Farm with airboat ride and snakes a plenty.

Key West - Jet Ski tour around the island, the fantastic hotel location, Ernest Hemingways house (plus cats), the Conch train tour and DUVAL STREET.

Fort Lauderdale - magnificent atlantic view from our room at the Marriott, Cheesecake Factory at Las Olas and excellent day time weather.

Lowlights

Mission Space fatality - the day after we rode 3 times on this fantastic ride.

Coming home - obviously.

Weather - very unpredictable. Arlene took over for our first 4 days, we didn't even need the sunblock. It did improve and was at its best for our final day or so in Fort Lauderdale on the beach!!!

Bad Disney rides Day - Wednesday 15th June, not a good day for Disney. Lots of mechanical problems meaning at MK no Pirates, no Space Mountain, no Transit Authority, no Stitch & at MGM, no R&RC. This led to more crowded areas on an already sticky day, where visitors' tempers frayed to a high level and built up big queues elsewhere.

Bad Service - Houlihans on I Drive & IHOP on US1. Houlihans was 3/4 empty yet they put us in the bar area tucked into a corner. The server seemed as though he would rather not be there!!! Not good.
IHOP lady rude and unhelpful, messed our order up and was generally being far nicer to the US customers. The only place ever we haven't tipped in the USA. We love IHOP, and this experience won't put us off ever.

Flight home - in economy class. Just so difficult to deal with after a Premium seat on the outbound journey.

Phew...that is about it. The holiday was amazing and went at such a nice pace, but we are back and staring work in the face in 12 hours time.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to PM or post.

Julian

 

[mushumadness]

welsome home!! glad you had a great trip

old navy is my all time fave shop at the florida mall i buy loads from there (you can still hear my dbf moaning about all the things i bought now)

I cant wait to go in december

 

[natalielongstaff]

we love old navy.....dh works for gap so we get discount in there ,makes the clothes even cheaper
welcome back

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Home already - but it only seems like last week we were saying bon voyage . . .

Sounds like you had a brilliant time, even if the weather was a big dodgy.

Can you tell me more about the Devil Rays? We're off to see them in August - vs the Yankees (DD and I are HUGE Yankees fans). We will actually be staying in Ft Myers when we go, but am looking into booking a hotel down at St Pete's for the night since I think we'll all be a bit tired at the end of the evening. Ours will be an evening game (non-weekend) - was yours? How long before the match did you get there, was there food . . . and anything else you could tell us

It sounds to be like you had the perfect trip - visiting other places than Orlando like we do. There's so much of Florida people don't bother to see John Pannenkemp park is amazing, isn't it, we loved our trip down to the Keys. I've never mady it Key West, though, in my two visits to the Keys. Almost, but not quite.

Shame about the rides having problems, that's so frustrating. Our last October trip was a bit like that and some major attractions were down for rehab - during the MNSSHP period, not good at all. So this year we're really really hoping R&RC will be ok (each time we've tried to ride this it's been down ).

Know what you mean about PE - we've travelled that the last four trips, but this year, because I promised to prove to DH I could make this holiday as cheap as possible (big ski trip to the US two weeks next Easter $$$), I've opted for non-PE . . . I'm dreading it - and then when I caved in and went to book it, only going out was available so I thought I'd stick to my original plan (there's always next Easter). Exactly how much smaller did the seat feel!

Got any photos or trippies to share?

Welcome home

 

[squitty]

Welcome Home Julian

Sounds like you've had a great trip.

 

[Mumof2]

Welcome home. Sounds like you had a fantastic time.

 

[jwhiting]

Hi Mrs Dazzle,

The baseball trip was one of the highlights for sure.

We did indeed attend a midweek match, pitch off (I think that is what it is called) was 7.15pm. We got there about 6pm as we needed food etc. There is a Budweiser Brew House within the ball park which serves reasonable food at reasonable prices, they obviously also serve drinks before and after the game..very reasonable $2 drafts..although as I was driving we had to give this a miss

There is another major restaurant within the complex although I think this is more a set menu, and much more expensive. I can't remember the name unfortunately but it is on one of the higher levels.

There are plenty of counter kiosks, serving every type of American snack you can think of...and much more. We ended up having a main meal at the Brew House and skipped a dessert so we could enjoy some light bites during the match. We had a pretzel and nachos washed down with a souvenir cup of diet coke. Heaven.

The ballpark is amazing, I have certainly never seen baseball played indoors before. The experience is everything in my mind, the mascot even came over to say hello to my Wife which was a nice touch. Depending on where you sit there is also a blimp that floats over the crowd dropping vouchers for free food and drink...the little kid sitting across the way had burger and chips, a bloomin onion and nachos on the go at once. He obviously was a pretty good catcher of these vouchers.

Parking is a doddle at the park, we managed to find a car park away from the main parking lot beside the park. It was still $10 but allowed an easy get away after the game had finished. I would think this might be essential with the NYY in town, as it was there was only 8,000 people in attendance when we went.

In my 5 visits to baseball games, it was by far the best game. Very entertaining with plenty of hits and an amazing catch which was shown on major highlights all the next day!!!

Any further questions please let me know....

Julian

 

[KayleeUK]

Julian Welcome Home

Sounds like you have had a fab trip

Great that you got to see Keane at the HR So when is the next trip??

 

[Miffy2003]

Welcome home Julian!

Great report,- and it sounds like you had a brilliant time.

 

[wicket2005]

Very pleased to see you had another 'holiday of a lifetime'. Looking forward to reading your trip reports if you have time.

 

[jwhiting]

Thanks for all your welcome homes...now in 2nd day back at work..thinking back this time last week we were jet skiing around Key West, well actually we were still in bed but you get my drift.....

As for next trip...who knows???? We have a trip to Washington DC booked for Xmas and whisper it quietly but we might be going......

round the world next year.

A lot of saving to be done before that but the plan is europe by rail, South Africa, Asia, Australia, NZ, Fiji, North America and Canada.

It is looking like east coast USA is going to be a no go for a while...the RTW trip will include the USA but we've been to all the big cities on the east & the majority of the west, so looking to visit parts of the USA which aren't obvious and a few obvious ones...New Orleans, Chicago etc.....

Julian

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

I( would reccomend Texas, huge state, completly different in each area, with tremendous history.
Washington on the brazos, where the texas declaration of independance was signed
San jacinto, the final battle between santa anna and general sam houston
The Alamo of course and the delights of San antonio
Houston, fantastic city
Dallas/fort worth
Dallas for what is the most thought provoking part of Texas, the school book depository and looking out the window which lee havey oswald fired from (could he really have got the two shots off??) and standing on the grassy knoll
The southfork ranch, yes still there!
Texas rangers and the Dallas cowboys stadium
Fort worth, a true cowboy town
not forgetting the oil wells, the Big bend national park, crossing the huge rivers.......

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Thanks for all the baseball tips, Julian - most appreciated.

And W O W - what fabulous plans you have for a round the world trip. Enjoy the planning

 

[disney13]

Julian,

Thanks for the tips on the baseball. I've just booked to see the Devil Rays vs. The Yankees on Tuesday 16th August! (I'll see you there Mrs Dazzle!!).

What was the trip like from Orlando to the ballpark? How much time did it take?

Thanks again,
Andy

 

[jwhiting]

Julian,

Thanks for the tips on the baseball. I've just booked to see the Devil Rays vs. The Yankees on Tuesday 16th August! (I'll see you there Mrs Dazzle!!).

What was the trip like from Orlando to the ballpark? How much time did it take?

Thanks again,
Andy

It took about an hour and half on the way down, it was a fairly uneventful journey to be honest. On the way back it was roadwork hell unfortunately, long queues due to lane closures meant it took 2 and a quarter hours on the way back. Not good when we had to get up at 4.30am for the hot air balloon trip

Great experience, would recommend to anyone even if they are not fans of the game.

Amazingly we sat next to a whole row of English people!!!!!