The Preamble…….
We are 4 –
me - love Florida, love planning, bit of a wimp on big rides
DH – likes to have things planned for him (YESSSSSSS!!!)
DD8 and DD9 love Disney and swimming!
We booked a 14 night break with Virgin Holidays staying in a villa at Emerald Island resort– through Thomas Cook with a night at Universal RPR booked ourselves. Tickets for Disney and Universal and MNSSHP booked in advance.
Total trip cost £8,000 give or take £100 including food and spends.
The getting there!!!
All packed up on Wednesday night, sent kids off to school Thursday and pottered round adding the bits and bobs you never use – but “might need”. Picked up the kids at lunchtime – teachers were really enthusiastic for them – which made them look REALLY weird – it was CRAZY hair day at school and our teachers tend to get fully into the spirit of things! They were good about the kids time off too – need to make a diary – but that is it….
Off we go in a taxi to the coach station – Boooooooring time on the coach, but hey ho - £60 for 4 of us return to Gatwick is not bad….. Straight to twighlight check in – mmmmmm seems to be really busy, looks like a huge line – but turns out there are 2 groups of about 12 in line – so we are third!! Only takes 15min – we have 3 bags (11.5,13.5,16.5 kg). Plane configuration different to when we prebooked seats – but got 3 in row 26 1 row 25 – exit row for hubby – really good seats near front of plane – well, front of cattle class anyhow.
Off to the Hilton paid for by Mr Tesco Token – checked in, no problems off to room on the same floor – HUGE room Very nice indeed. Went downstairs to eat – FANTASTIC food AND kids eat free!!! So only added £40 to the bill – well less really – they took our token off the whole bill (£200 to pay for room at £192) didn’t think they did that….. Our eldest has allergies – had requested a feather free room - no problem… some hotels end up having to send in housekeeping to change things – which is not really the point…
The Room
[image to follow]
The Flight
Virgin afternoon flight- no delays (woooo hooooo – last trip we lost a day due to snow!) Not too much turbulence either – and the main food was actually NICE!!!! DH had pasta, I had sweet and sour chicken, kids had sausage and mash – the best one! Yummy Gu! Pud too. Watched Toy story 3 on a tiny screen, got tired of being on a plane and didn’t eat the yukky tea – cheese and pickle or coronation chicken sandwich.
The Plane
[image to follow]
Landed and went quickly to immigration-the new system of 1 line works really well and went through really speedily. We got a friendly immigration guy too – kids were playing about with the fingerprint stuff and he jokes with them “Uh oh - <dramatic pause and wink to us> I got baaaaaaaad news for you guys <pause> you’re too young, I don’t need your prints” Whew……….
Baggage was already coming off the conveyor, so off to Alamo. Just inside the Alamo garage is the “Virgin Pit Stop” REALLY lovely lady give us Address and code for Villa and sends us to pick our car from the intermediate row (we had done on line check in for Alamo) . Decide on a Nissan – mmmmmmm – no central locking – so move on to a Kia Optima – lovely car with plenty of room for our 3 cases and 4 hand luggage.
Instructions are good and we get to villa around 1.30am UK time (8.30pm US time) We sign in at the gatehouse for a car permit (need 1 photo ID for that) straight to villa – no outside light, so keying in the code is fun!! Straight to bed.
Littlest feels ill in the night – so I get up for a bit, then off to bed again til 5.30 US time and up we get to explore……
Our villa and car
-----------------
[image to follow]
We have been given a 5 bed villa – one room is locked down so no cleaning will be needed – made us a bit nervous though – anything/anyone could have been in there!! There is a lovely pool with lighting, pool safety surround and plenty of pool toys for the kids. There’s a decent deck, barbeque and a games room in the garage too. Laundry is in the garage away from the main sleeping areas so can put it on at night. It really is a lovely villa and SOOOOO clean too – plenty of space for the 4 of us.
A good Start....
Tessa
We are 4 –
me - love Florida, love planning, bit of a wimp on big rides
DH – likes to have things planned for him (YESSSSSSS!!!)
DD8 and DD9 love Disney and swimming!
We booked a 14 night break with Virgin Holidays staying in a villa at Emerald Island resort– through Thomas Cook with a night at Universal RPR booked ourselves. Tickets for Disney and Universal and MNSSHP booked in advance.
Total trip cost £8,000 give or take £100 including food and spends.
The getting there!!!
All packed up on Wednesday night, sent kids off to school Thursday and pottered round adding the bits and bobs you never use – but “might need”. Picked up the kids at lunchtime – teachers were really enthusiastic for them – which made them look REALLY weird – it was CRAZY hair day at school and our teachers tend to get fully into the spirit of things! They were good about the kids time off too – need to make a diary – but that is it….
Off we go in a taxi to the coach station – Boooooooring time on the coach, but hey ho - £60 for 4 of us return to Gatwick is not bad….. Straight to twighlight check in – mmmmmm seems to be really busy, looks like a huge line – but turns out there are 2 groups of about 12 in line – so we are third!! Only takes 15min – we have 3 bags (11.5,13.5,16.5 kg). Plane configuration different to when we prebooked seats – but got 3 in row 26 1 row 25 – exit row for hubby – really good seats near front of plane – well, front of cattle class anyhow.
Off to the Hilton paid for by Mr Tesco Token – checked in, no problems off to room on the same floor – HUGE room Very nice indeed. Went downstairs to eat – FANTASTIC food AND kids eat free!!! So only added £40 to the bill – well less really – they took our token off the whole bill (£200 to pay for room at £192) didn’t think they did that….. Our eldest has allergies – had requested a feather free room - no problem… some hotels end up having to send in housekeeping to change things – which is not really the point…
The Room
[image to follow]
The Flight
Virgin afternoon flight- no delays (woooo hooooo – last trip we lost a day due to snow!) Not too much turbulence either – and the main food was actually NICE!!!! DH had pasta, I had sweet and sour chicken, kids had sausage and mash – the best one! Yummy Gu! Pud too. Watched Toy story 3 on a tiny screen, got tired of being on a plane and didn’t eat the yukky tea – cheese and pickle or coronation chicken sandwich.
The Plane
[image to follow]
Landed and went quickly to immigration-the new system of 1 line works really well and went through really speedily. We got a friendly immigration guy too – kids were playing about with the fingerprint stuff and he jokes with them “Uh oh - <dramatic pause and wink to us> I got baaaaaaaad news for you guys <pause> you’re too young, I don’t need your prints” Whew……….
Baggage was already coming off the conveyor, so off to Alamo. Just inside the Alamo garage is the “Virgin Pit Stop” REALLY lovely lady give us Address and code for Villa and sends us to pick our car from the intermediate row (we had done on line check in for Alamo) . Decide on a Nissan – mmmmmmm – no central locking – so move on to a Kia Optima – lovely car with plenty of room for our 3 cases and 4 hand luggage.
Instructions are good and we get to villa around 1.30am UK time (8.30pm US time) We sign in at the gatehouse for a car permit (need 1 photo ID for that) straight to villa – no outside light, so keying in the code is fun!! Straight to bed.
Littlest feels ill in the night – so I get up for a bit, then off to bed again til 5.30 US time and up we get to explore……
Our villa and car
-----------------
[image to follow]
We have been given a 5 bed villa – one room is locked down so no cleaning will be needed – made us a bit nervous though – anything/anyone could have been in there!! There is a lovely pool with lighting, pool safety surround and plenty of pool toys for the kids. There’s a decent deck, barbeque and a games room in the garage too. Laundry is in the garage away from the main sleeping areas so can put it on at night. It really is a lovely villa and SOOOOO clean too – plenty of space for the 4 of us.
A good Start....
Tessa
