Hi guys I'm back!!!!!!!

[sandshal]

Arrived home Wednesday morning ...... and this is the first time I've been able to hit the boards!!!!

Had a fabulous time apart from a couple of little hiccups which were all sorted ..... a few highs and lows to keep you going till I'm fully operational

Highs
Vistana Villages (even better than we remembered and definately worth another visit)
Boys trip with Andrea's hubby (girlsontour) fishing on Bay Lake
Discovery Cove (which was worth every penny)
Hiring a 26ft V8 speedboat for the day in the gulf and doing £110 of fuel in 7 hours!
Mission Space at Epcot
Rock and Roller Coaster
Gwazi at Busch (first time and brilliant)
Dollar Express at MCO (less than 5 mins to collect car)
Miami Heat v Orlando Magic game
Seeing Dale Winton at Ellenton Mall ... twice, spotting Tiger Woods at the NBA game and Charlie Dimmock at Blizzard Beach
Dollar rate! Bass Pro and Ralph Lauren really took a battering!
Universal Express - would stay at a Universal Hotel again just for this priviledge.

Lows
Noise levels and basement room at Hard Rock Hotel
Loosing a tyre going over Port Charlotte Bridge then spending half a day in a garage getting it fixed .... Dollar were appalling

Just one other thought .... wouldn't bother with Premium Economy again unless we got it very cheap ...... didn't feel it was worth the money.

Any questions ..... fire away!

 

[wayneg]

Welcome home, the highs look a lot better than the lows.
We always base how good a rental company is on the service we get picking up the car (Dollar are great for us with Express), Never considered a breakdown/repair, I guess they do happen, thankfully never to us. I wonder if other rental companies are any better or are they are all as bad.
I keep considering a PE flight as everyone says how good it is, I have never seen the value in it, we had chance last month upgrading for £100 each to Chicago on AA flight but decided it was not worth £300 for 3 of us, as we sleep perfectly well in economy most of the flight.

 

[Girlsontour]

Hi Sharon - lovely to speak to you the other night. Andy agrees with you in that the fishing was one of the highlights of his holiday. Sorry you didn't enjoy the HRH as much as we do! It just shows that if you get a decent room location it makes a whole lot of difference to the experience.

 

[irenep]

Looks like you were pretty busy out there
We have been back a week now and I am busy trying to see if I can get 2 trips next year - not the one I originally thought we would do
You're right about the universal express -all the parks were so much busier this year than same time last year. Definitely worth a night at the HRH -we booked the cheapest room available - restricted view - but it was great so sorry to hear you got a poor room.
Agree with you and Wayne about PE - we did economy out to Orlando and PE back. I would say the PE was marginally better than economy but absolutely not worth the extra - I still couldn't sleep. Better save the money for fun things in Florida.

 

[mark&sue]

Had to laugh that you saw Charlie Dimmock at Blizzard Beach. Was she planning a water feature


Susan

 

[sandshal]

Andrea, so pleased you posted a picture of Steve and his mate Mark (alias Trotskey) fishing - I guess that makes them official dissers rather than non-believers - he's also started adding smilies to my posts!!!!

To be honest the Hard Rock came good - we booked a Deluxe and raised our expectations too high - a garden view would have been fine, as the sofabed was far too uncomfortable to sleep on. Noise levels were solely related to Haunted Halloween Nights, I would simply advise all to avoid level One (apparently this level is normally retained for smokers and pet owners!). Can't knock the management, we complained and they made good, so, wouldn't be put off in the future.

Forgot another high ............ MNSSHP ......... excellent stuff!!!!

Charlie Dimmock, water feature didn't think of that one ....... she was actually escorting a group on a once in a lifetime holiday "Flights of Wonder" I think it was called ...... hats off to all celebs who do good things on the QT