schumigirl
It's a bit of a roodie doodie word for lady parts
- Joined
- May 15, 2007
A very warm welcome to our brand new May 2023 Pre Trip Report.......
This Pre-Trip report has come around quickly as most of you know I`ve not long finished the September/October TR from last year, well I have the excuse that it ended up being a rather longer than planned trip, thanks to a hurricane of course, but can`t complain at all as we loved the extra time we had in Florida.
But, for this trip we have 3 weeks of hopefully fun and sun to look forward to, this is our 25th trip to Orlando and well over 400 nights staying between both Sapphire Falls and RPR and we are not showing any signs of getting bored yet. We still love both hotels, we love the parks and we love most things about Orlando and further afield. I know some folks come and only stay within the confines of whichever park they visit, and that`s wonderful if that`s what you love, but as most of you know, we love to get around and see some of the real Florida out with the classic tourist areas and there are so many things to see and do.
And for this trip.....as the title kind of suggests.....we will be back up to 3 for this trip!! We are so excited that Kyle will join us again for this one, something we didn`t think would happen again for a few more years!
Hence the title of "Guess who`s back"
He is taking a month of vacation time for this trip which still leaves him plenty of time for other trips he has planned and individual weekends away and so on, it`s something he is so looking forward to as he was last with us for our Christmas trip in 2019, so it feels a long time for him. I don`t post much about Kyle generally, except the basics, but he has made us incredibly proud over the years and continues to do so in every aspect of his life. His work colleagues, friends, people he meets all tell us how wonderful a young man he is, polite, kind and very respectful to everyone.....his bosses sing his praises too which is always lovely to hear, it`s not just us being biased. He also has a wicked sense of humour which we love so much!!
Kyle at Christmas when we were up in Scotland last year.
Very different from our first trip way back in 2007.....I can still remember the excitement of our very first trip to Florida....well, Tom had been before to Miami, but as a family, our first trip was to celebrate my 40th Birthday.
He has certainly changed in that time, as they do of course......but he is still a chocaholic!!
So, you can imagine how excited we all are for this trip.
Our ovenight hotel is what used to just be a Marriott, it`s now a Delta hotel, still under the same Marriott umbrella, it`s been a few years since we`ve stayed there and for a time after the pandemic their reviews were dreadful, really awful so we wondered if we`d ever stay there again. But, they`ve gone back to be very good again and their Executive lounge has opened back up again which was a requirement for us to book it again. We did enjoy our stays here several times.
We have 2 Executive Rooms booked for our overnight stay, rooms are light, airy and very clean and the only downside to this hotel for us is it`s a little like a rabbit warren and quite a walk to the rooms from reception, not a dealbreaker of course but with heavy suitcases it`s quite a haul.
It`s not a downside either, but the Radisson is attached to the airport and a five minute walk down to the terminal, this hotel means we have to get the shuttle to the airport, but they run every 15 minutes and will be ideal for us really and only takes around 10 minutes to get to T2.
Although we book the Executive lounge, we only sample the food on offer, we prefer to eat in one of their two restaurants, Brasserie Blanc which is one of Raymond Blanc`s places. It is very nice and we`ve always enjoyed our meals there, they do a very nice steak or Chateaubriand which we have enjoyed before. The other restaurant is Italian and doesn`t appeal to us at all.
Flights again are with our favourite airline.....Virgin Atlantic.....
As of now we are departing that day at our latest time ever. When we booked these flights it was 11am departure time, now after 3 changes it`s leaving at 13.40 so we don`t arrive in Orlando till 6pm, we`re not used to arriving so late, but not much we can do about that!! The upside is we will have time to enjoy the Executive Lounge for breakfast which we don`t usually manage as we usually leave the hotel around 6am when they start serving breakfast. We won`t leave till maybe 10am for check in at the airport, so it`ll be a relaxing morning for us. I`m sure we`ll still be up as early as we usually are when that old excitement kicks in!
As we will have had a good breakfast, we decided against booking one of the lounges as we usually do, instead we`ll grab something if we feel like it. We always find our travel day we eat far too much as the time zones seem to not mix well for food!!! I feel we eat about 8 meals in one day, so the breakfast should do us till we get food on the plane, then eat again when we arrive......it is a lot of food!
More planning and ideas ahead in the coming weeks.......
As always, hope you enjoy this one too......it`s always lovely to have such nice company along the way......
along mac.......
How wonderful to have Kyle along for the whole 3 weeks! And a trip to KSC. Fantastic!!! I am looking forward to your trip report - as always. 
.....just means I might need to do laundry a few more times which really doesn`t bother me.There is a very good closet in the bedroom and the extra one is in the sitting area where the safe is. 
pictures!
