spookysarah
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2005
- Messages
- 612
This Isn’t Turkey!?! June / July 2006
To see all my other days please see my Trip Report Index
Photos appear from Part 2 onwards. This is my first ever trip report and I have to admit that it has no style, little humour and lots of grammatical errors! Hope you enjoy!
Oh, you're still reading? Here's the cast...
Me, Sarah, 29 (turn 30 in Florida) – only adult planner
DH, Craig, 32 loves holidays, hates planning
DD, Holly, age 9 loves rides and hoping to try Kraken, loves planning
DD, Rowan, age 7 never been on any big rides, fearless (or so she says)
Back in 2005 we booked a holiday to Turkey for September 2006 after having a fab time the year before. We were to be going with my parents. About 3 weeks after booking my MIL’s partner offers to pay for a trip for 12 of us to go to Florida. Flights, hotel, tickets – the whole lot – we would just need spending money! After a fleeting notion of trying to be flash and having two holidays in one year we changed our booking and that was that. Cheers Wally!
The others going were my SIL and family and my MIL’s partner’s son (did you follow that?) and his family. From early on in the planning stages it was obvious that each family would be doing their own thing so this trip report is almost exclusively about us.
Enough waffle, on to the holiday!
Getting There
We were due to fly from Edinburgh to Gatwick on Monday 19th June 2006, stay the night at Southbourne Guest House and then catch our flight from Gatwick to Sanford on the Tuesday. A week before, my Dad started to worry that we may be delayed getting to Edinburgh due to work on the bridge starting that day / our car breaking down / aliens abducting us etc etc so we they treated us to a night in Edinburgh staying at the Quality Inn, Edinburgh airport. This means that we left at about 5pm, Sunday.
The drive to Edinburgh was uneventful and check-in straight forward. The family room we were allocated was huge. It had a double bed and 2 sofabeds. The girls were delighted as they usually have to share. Our room was at the end of the runway and we had great fun watching all the planes take off right before our eyes. We ventured out for a bite to eat and found a McDonalds (well we are on holiday after all!) Reasonably early to bed.
Breakfast next morning was included and was continental or cooked or both! The cost for 1 night B&B in a family room was £91.
After check-out we drove to Flying Scot parking. The service here was great and we were soon at the airport using their shuttle bus. Cost for 16 days parking was approx £55.
We met SIL and family in the terminal. They had traveled down that morning and had avoided all of the things my Dad had worried about. Check-in was uneventful as was the BA flight to Gatwick.
We stood outside the terminal at Gatwick until some nice person told us that you actually have to book the taxis inside. That done we were soon on our way – but where to? I told the driver Southbourne Guest House but he said which road? I said I didn’t know. I come from a small town where there is only one of everything. I told him it was in a lovely old house to which he replied that they are all lovely old houses!! He made a guess and found it quickly. Oh, the shame
Cost for quad room £75, triple £65 inc brekkie.
Once settled in we all went out for dinner to a restaurant the guest house owner recommended, Ye Olde Six Bells. Great pub and great food. Reasonably early to bed again (hope this doesn’t last) Next morning we helped ourselves to our continental breakfast as we were up early. Taxi arrived on time and 7 of us plus 7 cases plus 7 carry-on bags all piled in!
We met MIL’s partner’s family at the airport and said our ‘hellos’. Check-in was straight forward. Our flight was MYT027 and was due to depart 11.15. Not much to report apart from I bought an ace bag – a Pacsafe which was in between the two sizes of bags I had taken for use on holiday. It is ant-theft with lots of neat features and a snip at £27. Much better than the Kipling bag I had thought about buying.
Our flight took off pretty much on time. The next 9 hours were spent doing pretty much the same as everyone does - reading, swap seats, trip to the downstairs toilets. Films were good and so was the food. Unfortunately I spilled chocolate pudding on my top and spent about ½ hour with wipes trying to make it look like a cup of tea might have splashed instead of food dribbled all down my top. Success!
We all liked the pilot’s view camera.
We landed again pretty much on time. Immigration was not nearly as scary as I had thought it would be. We had a very friendly official. Customs no problems and then off to Airtours desk. I was the only one allowed in and after getting our documents went to Dollar where I had no hard sell and was out quickly. With car keys! I said to my DH – we have just arrived in America and are going to be driving - who would let us drive? – are they nuts?!! LOL – we were so excited to be in America we could have burst!
Our car was a Grand Caravan in a dodgy gold colour – better than white though (apologies to the few of you who may like gold or white ) We set off quickly and were petrified! We missed our turn-off for the 417 (I can still see the turn-off if I close my eyes LOL) and after loads of turns trying to get back to there we ended up seeing a sign saying I4 West and off we went. It was to be our best decision as it was a complete jump-in-at the-deep-end-initiation!! Our journey was during rush hour and slow, at one point but we got to our hotel - The Enclave Suites - just as the bus with the others pulled up! Oh, and we only got flipped the bird once!!
We were allocated room 3210 which was on the second floor. It was quite spacious even with the sofabed out but there was a lack of storage space. The girls were keen to go in the pool so we took them down for a while. After that we went to the hotel shop and bought some snacks to eat before crashing out for the night. It’s taken us 2 days to get here and we are knackered but excited.
Hope you readers are still awake and that my report was OK! Tomorrow – Magic Kingdom and some tears!
To see all my other days please see my Trip Report Index
Photos appear from Part 2 onwards. This is my first ever trip report and I have to admit that it has no style, little humour and lots of grammatical errors! Hope you enjoy!
Oh, you're still reading? Here's the cast...
Me, Sarah, 29 (turn 30 in Florida) – only adult planner
DH, Craig, 32 loves holidays, hates planning
DD, Holly, age 9 loves rides and hoping to try Kraken, loves planning
DD, Rowan, age 7 never been on any big rides, fearless (or so she says)
Back in 2005 we booked a holiday to Turkey for September 2006 after having a fab time the year before. We were to be going with my parents. About 3 weeks after booking my MIL’s partner offers to pay for a trip for 12 of us to go to Florida. Flights, hotel, tickets – the whole lot – we would just need spending money! After a fleeting notion of trying to be flash and having two holidays in one year we changed our booking and that was that. Cheers Wally!
The others going were my SIL and family and my MIL’s partner’s son (did you follow that?) and his family. From early on in the planning stages it was obvious that each family would be doing their own thing so this trip report is almost exclusively about us.
Enough waffle, on to the holiday!
Getting There
We were due to fly from Edinburgh to Gatwick on Monday 19th June 2006, stay the night at Southbourne Guest House and then catch our flight from Gatwick to Sanford on the Tuesday. A week before, my Dad started to worry that we may be delayed getting to Edinburgh due to work on the bridge starting that day / our car breaking down / aliens abducting us etc etc so we they treated us to a night in Edinburgh staying at the Quality Inn, Edinburgh airport. This means that we left at about 5pm, Sunday.
The drive to Edinburgh was uneventful and check-in straight forward. The family room we were allocated was huge. It had a double bed and 2 sofabeds. The girls were delighted as they usually have to share. Our room was at the end of the runway and we had great fun watching all the planes take off right before our eyes. We ventured out for a bite to eat and found a McDonalds (well we are on holiday after all!) Reasonably early to bed.
Breakfast next morning was included and was continental or cooked or both! The cost for 1 night B&B in a family room was £91.
After check-out we drove to Flying Scot parking. The service here was great and we were soon at the airport using their shuttle bus. Cost for 16 days parking was approx £55.
We met SIL and family in the terminal. They had traveled down that morning and had avoided all of the things my Dad had worried about. Check-in was uneventful as was the BA flight to Gatwick.
We stood outside the terminal at Gatwick until some nice person told us that you actually have to book the taxis inside. That done we were soon on our way – but where to? I told the driver Southbourne Guest House but he said which road? I said I didn’t know. I come from a small town where there is only one of everything. I told him it was in a lovely old house to which he replied that they are all lovely old houses!! He made a guess and found it quickly. Oh, the shame
Cost for quad room £75, triple £65 inc brekkie.Once settled in we all went out for dinner to a restaurant the guest house owner recommended, Ye Olde Six Bells. Great pub and great food. Reasonably early to bed again (hope this doesn’t last) Next morning we helped ourselves to our continental breakfast as we were up early. Taxi arrived on time and 7 of us plus 7 cases plus 7 carry-on bags all piled in!
We met MIL’s partner’s family at the airport and said our ‘hellos’. Check-in was straight forward. Our flight was MYT027 and was due to depart 11.15. Not much to report apart from I bought an ace bag – a Pacsafe which was in between the two sizes of bags I had taken for use on holiday. It is ant-theft with lots of neat features and a snip at £27. Much better than the Kipling bag I had thought about buying.
Our flight took off pretty much on time. The next 9 hours were spent doing pretty much the same as everyone does - reading, swap seats, trip to the downstairs toilets. Films were good and so was the food. Unfortunately I spilled chocolate pudding on my top and spent about ½ hour with wipes trying to make it look like a cup of tea might have splashed instead of food dribbled all down my top. Success!
We all liked the pilot’s view camera.We landed again pretty much on time. Immigration was not nearly as scary as I had thought it would be. We had a very friendly official. Customs no problems and then off to Airtours desk. I was the only one allowed in and after getting our documents went to Dollar where I had no hard sell and was out quickly. With car keys! I said to my DH – we have just arrived in America and are going to be driving - who would let us drive? – are they nuts?!! LOL – we were so excited to be in America we could have burst!
Our car was a Grand Caravan in a dodgy gold colour – better than white though (apologies to the few of you who may like gold or white
) We set off quickly and were petrified! We missed our turn-off for the 417 (I can still see the turn-off if I close my eyes LOL) and after loads of turns trying to get back to there we ended up seeing a sign saying I4 West and off we went. It was to be our best decision as it was a complete jump-in-at the-deep-end-initiation!! Our journey was during rush hour and slow, at one point but we got to our hotel - The Enclave Suites - just as the bus with the others pulled up! Oh, and we only got flipped the bird once!! We were allocated room 3210 which was on the second floor. It was quite spacious even with the sofabed out but there was a lack of storage space. The girls were keen to go in the pool so we took them down for a while. After that we went to the hotel shop and bought some snacks to eat before crashing out for the night. It’s taken us 2 days to get here and we are knackered but excited.
Hope you readers are still awake and that my report was OK! Tomorrow – Magic Kingdom and some tears!
Looking forward to the next installment...
