No Parks, All Recreation! Team Jamerica's August 2016 Brexit - Day 2 - The Retreat @ Westridge

[JoJo88]

Team Jamerica’s 2016 Brexit

No Parks, All Recreation

INDEX

Thursday 18th August 2016

Day 2 – The Retreat at Westridge / Applebees

Day 2 of a Florida holiday usually starts for us, like a lot of people, at silly o’clock. Our silly o’clock has been known to be as early as 4am in the past, but as we didn’t get into bed until around 3am by the time we’d had a quick shower and retrieved our pjs, I wasn’t expecting the day to start quite so early. Which didn’t matter as today was a lazy day anyway. As were the remaining 13 or so! Not all of us had pjs to retrieve of course, poor Grandma must’ve gone to sleep hoping & praying there’d be no emergency in the middle of the night where she’d have to dash out of her room

I actually woke up at around 7, and the reason for my waking was Simon. And the bed. Oh the bed! It was the softest, most comfiest bed, and I could easily have slept for a week in it after our mammoth travel day. If I was in it on my own... As it was, every time Simon turned over, and he turned over a lot, I swear I actually lost contact with the mattress and was catapulted a few inches into the air. Of course my mistake was telling Simon this who immediately rose to the challenge, and made it his aim to see how high he could get me. I know it’s not quite 50 shades of grey, but it’s not every day you get to hear of fellow Dibbers’ bedroom antics is it?!

Daniel appeared at the door shortly after I woke up and asked to go in the pool. I’d anticipated this, it’s always the first thing he asks when there is nearby pool, and so his swimming trunks were handy and he was out to that pool (come on, altogether now!) faster than a greyhound out of trap three at Hackney Wick. (Day Two! Is that a record?!)

Daniel wasn’t aware of the alarm on the pool door (you push a button before opening the door otherwise a piercing alarm sounds), so if the rest of the household weren’t awake, they soon were! Adam appeared within seconds, slightly bleary eyed, and soon joined us outside.

We haven’t hired a villa during the summer months before, so usually we have pool heat, but obviously being mid-August we didn’t bother. I think the boys were expecting the pool to be a lot warmer than it was as they didn’t get in quite as quickly as they usually would, and in the end Daniel decided to go for the ‘ripping off a plaster’ method, and just jumped!

Adam entered the pool in a less dramatic way and Simon soon joined them.

I absolutely adore moments like this. Travel day was behind us, and the sun was just coming up on our first morning in Orlando. Bliss!

Grandma & Grandad joined us out by the pool and we all sat quietly, deep in our own thoughts, slowly coming too while the boys splashed around in the pool. Not quite so quietly I might add!

I’m sure we all had our own individual feelings about what it meant to be there, but for me it was the chance for us to reconnect, no distractions, minimal screen time and us all spending time in the same room. (Let’s see if I still feel the same way about that last one by the end of this trip report! ) And, most importantly for me, cooking. And the lack of my need to do any!

As we started to make our way back inside to get ready for the day, we soon realised that there was a problem with the alarm on the door, or at least our ability to use it. For those who haven’t stayed in a villa, there’s a safety alarm attached to the patio door, so before you open the door you should press a little button (that’s out of reach of little fingers), and the alarm won’t sound. Obviously if a small person slides the door open without pressing the button (because they can’t reach it), the alarm goes off and any adults would be alerted. It’s a brilliant system, and means you don’t have to worry about small children wandering out to the pool on their own. Also if the door is left open the alarm will sound, so there’s no danger there too.

However, when we pushed the button on the outside wall to come back in, it didn’t stop the alarm sounding. We tried it a few times but it just didn’t seem to work. All it meant was having to suffer the screeching sound for as long as it took to open the door and push the button on the inside instead. Some of us were a lot quicker than others 

We all enjoyed a good breakfast from the welcome pack left for us. Toast, cereal, tea, coffee, juice etc. It really was a great idea, as it saves the bleary eyed aimless wander around Publix looking for the things you can’t quite remember you need because you can’t even work out what time it is. And then the next morning you realise you have beer and fizzy pop, crisps and Oreos and not much else, which is why the kids then expect to be able to have Pepsi and Lays crisps for breakfast every day for the rest of the holiday. No? Just us then!

The plan for the day was, erm, oh that’s right, we had no plans! We obviously needed to get the villa stocked up with the aforementioned essentials – beer, pop, crisps etc, but our priority had changed and the first thing we needed to do was reunite Grandma with her smalls!

Having downloaded the American Airlines app a few days before turned out to be not such a waste of time as I’d noticed on there you could track your baggage. So I tracked Grandma’s wandering case and could see that it had arrived at MCO!

We were just about the leave the villa, at around 9,30am when the phone rang. When I’d spoken to Jason, the villa owner a couple of days before he had said he would give us a quick call just to make sure everything was okay. It was good to speak to him, and another nice touch which reassured us that we had made a most excellent choice with this villa! In fact, let me show you around…..

Here is the outside, with our Dodge Caravan parked up.

The villa looks pretty much like every other single storey villa in Orlando, it’s what’s inside that makes it special…..

There’s a little lock box on the wall outside which is where we found the key, and also left the key whenever we went out. It stopped the possibility of losing it on our travels!

The main entrance was a huge space housing a lovely little sofa facing a TV that was hooked up to a Playstation 2. Adam played on it a few times when he was waiting for us to go out but otherwise we didn’t really use this area.

Behind the sofa was a dining table set up for 6 people, and became our Blob table each evening. It was ideal! And behind the table up on the wall was an alarm system that was very easy to set and it was nice to have the extra security whenever we went out.

The door you can see by the front door led to the garage, otherwise known as The Man Cave!

If we couldn’t find the boys in the pool, we could find them in The Man Cave. It’s also where the washing machine and dryer were kept. If we couldn’t find Grandma in the pool, this is where we found her

The table tennis table was something we asked for when we put our Villa request on the Dibb as we all love a bit of ping pong. There was also a pool table and a few toddler toys as well as noodles for the pool. Disney Ponchos were hung up behind the door, it’s quite nice that things accumulate over the years!

The entrance area gave way to the open plan kitchen which was fully stocked with plenty of glasses, crockery, cutlery etc.

I can’t tell you what the cooker was like, we didn’t use it, in fact, I think we only used the coffee machine, not even the kettle!

The kitchen overlooked the lounge area, with a high table seating four in between. And beyond there was the pool. Again, we didn’t really sit in here much either, apart from the boys who took up residency in these recliners…..

There are three bedrooms off to the left side of the villa, a double room with an en suite, and two twins which shared a bathroom.

To the right was the master bedroom which had a large en suite with a shower and separate bath, and beyond that a walk in wardrobe which also had a safe.

Here’s the boys’ room which also had a built in wardrobe, like the other two rooms.

And this is our room. Not only was the bed the softest, it was also the tallest! I felt a little like the princess and the pea climbing up to it!

I filmed a walk through of the villa but didn’t notice until afterwards that it’s really blurry in places, and also, on walking past the bathroom mirror you can see my unmentionables hanging up in the reflection. It’s best kept to ourselves

Anyway, back to the phone call….

I mentioned the alarm, which Jason was already aware of and he apologised for it not working. Once we knew it wasn’t anything we were doing wrong, although it was a bit annoying at times, it didn’t matter too much.

He also asked if the Sat Nav had been left out for us, something else we had discussed a couple of days prior, and we confirmed it had been. It was a great bonus and we used it all the time. Despite having Mapman’s Map (which I’d remembered to pack this time), Simon found the Sat Nav invaluable too.

After bidding us a happy holiday, Jason left us to our day and we piled into the car and headed back to MCO, leaving at around 9.45am To be honest, it was quite nice to be going there at the start of the holiday, I’ve only ever travelled there with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart!

The boys sat in the middle two seats whilst me & Grandma scrambled into the back, and Grandad was co-pilot to Simon.

The journey that had taken us about an hour the night before only took us 35 minutes – so that’s the difference between heading in the right direction and not! I didn’t feel it appropriate to mention it to Simon the night before, but ‘he had one job! ’. I’m jesting of course, I wouldn’t want to have to drive a strange car, on strange roads, in the middle of the night after a 24 hour travel day.

I don’t have any photos of the journey as Daniel had pinched my camera so that he could vlog it for the YouTube channel he has set up with his mates.

As I said, the journey took around 35 minutes and when we got there Simon pulled up outside arrivals and me, Grandma & Grandad went in to see if the bag was there. And it was! Hurrah! It was just outside the office, so we popped in to say we had come to collect it. We needn't have bothered as no one seemed interested so we just took the bag and got on our merry way. It would be so easy for anyone to come in and help themselves to a case every now and again! There were a few others there too, so I hoped one of them belonged to the lady from the night before and she was understandably very desperate for it.

We hopped back into the car and decided to head down towards our old stomping ground, Rolling Oaks, and to Super Target. The boys were very silly & giggly in the car, which is a lot better than the usual fighting and arguing, but oh my god, the volume! I can’t stand noise (I can’t imagine there are many people who can!), and had to keep asking them to keep it down. Give it time, I’ll soon be wishing for the silly & giggly!

I’d given Grandad another State Licence Plate sheet to fill in, and a pack of stickers, so I was confident that he wouldn’t be any trouble and would be occupied for any journeys

I’ve printed one off for the last few holidays, but last year it was Grandad & Daniel who had enjoyed doing it, spotting the different plates. It’s just a little something to make the journeys slightly more interesting. And car parks. It can help to make car parks more interesting too. The only rule is that the plate must be attached to a car – any seen on the wall of number plates at Manny’s Chophouse don’t count!

It was approaching 11am by the time we approached Rolling Oaks and we were all getting a little bit peckish. When we clapped eyes on Panera Bread, we suddenly became starving and just had to go in for an early lunch!

We first went to Panera the previous year on our way from Tampa to Orlando and had really enjoyed it so we were pleased to find one at Rolling Oaks.

It’s basically soups, sandwiches & salads, which sounds simple enough, but they go and give you choices, like half & half, and of course that’s it then, it becomes a real challenge to decide what to have! We got there in the end though, and we all had a mixture of everything.

Daniel had a couple of bread rolls which they didn’t charge us for, and our bill came to $42.54, Grandma & Grandad’s came to $23.26. I guess quite pricey for lunch but it’s lovely fresh food and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

The boys picked up a cookie on the way out, which is an extra 99c if you buy a drink. Adam claims they are the best cookies ever, so how could we refuse?!

Next up was one of our old haunts, Super Target. Even though it’s been three years since we were last there, it felt like we’d never been away from the area. I think that’s what we love so much about our Florida holidays, it’s all so familiar and feels comfortable!

Grandad grabbed a trolley, and Adam took charge of ours.

And wouldn’t you know, this began a new argument for the year. It used to be who’s turn it was to press the lift button, amongst other things, but this year it was who got to push the trolley. The boys argued all around the fresh food section until I threatened to take the trolley off both of them if they couldn't take it in turns. But it was too late by then, the ‘bickering’ seed had been planted. Until they remembered about the sports aisle and they both disappeared off leaving me to push the trolley, which worked for me, and saved me trying to find it with arms full of shopping!

Grandma & Grandad filled their trolley with things they specifically wanted, and my trolley was home to everything we wanted as well as the shared things for the villa. We would then sort out the money when we got 'home'.

I took a quick snap of some favourites, just for future reference.

The grand total for my trolley was $163, and I paid it using my Halifax Clarity Card. We’d decided not to take much cash with us, instead just using cards. Especially as we hadn’t been savvy enough to stock up on dollars before the referendum vote. However, using cards is our preference now anyway, we both have a Clarity, and both have other credit cards as back up. Couple that with my parents using cash, and reimbursing us in cash for any restaurant bills we might pay, it works well for all of us.

Once we’d finished in Target we popped into TJ Maxx nearby. Simon has a thing about stocking up with undies from TJ Maxx and he wasn’t disappointed on this trip. On this occasion he ended up with 9 pairs of Calvin’s, 3 pairs to a box at $14.99 each. I can see why he stocks up, they are so cheap compared to anywhere else. However, the fact that he has to keep stocking up tells me they aren’t lasting very long!

We also popped over the road to Publix to pick up some inflatables for the pool, snapping a photo of another favourite on the way.

Of course, we didn’t just get the inflatables in Publix, and ended up spending another $83 in there! However, this time, my card was declined. Oh joy! I tried swiping it, using the chip & pin, but nothing. So I used my back up card instead which was fine, but with it being our first day and the card being declined, I was a little concerned!

With the car loaded up with enough food to see us through the next few hours (! ) we eventually made our way back to Westridge. It’s a unmanned gated community so as well as remembering the code to the key lock box, and the villa alarm, there’s also the code for the gate. It took a few days to remember them all, but between us we managed to get them all right. Daniel was responsible for the gate code!

This is the road outside the villa

We were relieved that our villa pool didn’t back onto a road like some did. I’m not sure I would like that very much and made a note to make sure to look out for that in future villa searches should we need them!

We were back by 2.30, just as it started to rain. It had been warm up until this point, but not unbearably so. Although of course, by hopping from shop to shop, we weren’t really out in it for any length of time anyway.

Grandma celebrated being reunited with her belongings

We unpacked the shopping, filling the fridge and larder cupboard with all our goodies. I know there are lots of threads wondering what people buy, so here’s our haul…..

We had strawberries, a mixed fruit bowl, a veg crudité platter, grapes, yogurts, cheese, ranch dressing, humous, beef bologna, Philadelphia, hard lemonade, beers, bottles of water. We put some of the water in the freezer.

Salsa, pepsi, lemonade, tomato juice (for the pasta sauce ), junior mints – my favourite Florida treat!

Peanut butter pots, Cocoa Pebbles cereal, Frosties, Honey Buns, Pop Tarts, Milk Duds, Ritz crackers, Doritos, Oreos, bagels bread sticks, cookies, filter coffee, tin foil, cleaning spray, kitchen roll, as well as pool toys and other things the boys had chosen, including some disgusting sour sweets that are probably banned in every other country…..

Continued in the next post...

[JoJo88]

...continued from above

Joey & Chandler got themselves comfortable in their recliners, checking out their purchases and preparing the pool toys for when the rain passed.

It was funny drizzly rain, not the usual heavy Florida downpour, but we were all happy to just potter around the villa for the time being. Grandma put some washing on – the sheets and pillowcases from our beds, just to make sure they were nice and fresh. Simon is very fussy about pillowcases when he’s away anyway, and always takes a Spiderman one from home!

I got on the phone to Halifax about my card. It took absolutely ages to find the right number and get through to the right department. I was on the phone for about half an hour in the end, but they were able to unblock the card and said it happens quite a lot in Publix. This was despite me informing them before we left that about our travel plans. It’s a good job I did ring as they said it would have happened every time after!

The rain cleared after an hour and at around 3.30 the boys were in the pool trying out their new toys, including these

For any jokes regarding the branding, please see Wizzo’s trippies circa 2012 – I wouldn’t want to plagiarise!

Adam had chosen the big dolphin (whale, it's a whale) inflatable, whereas Dan chose the more conservative lilo. Of course the dolphin (nope, still a whale) turned out to be almost impossible to stay on and therefore spent most of the fortnight by the side of the pool watching over proceedings, and the boys then argued over the one lilo. I refused to buy a second one though as I had pointed out that the dolphin (IT'S A BLOODY WHALE! ) was a waste of time and yet was assured that it wouldn’t be...

Of course talk soon turned to where we would go for tea, and as we were all flagging a little, we decided to make use of Applebee’s at the very close Berry Town Centre, rather than travelling further afield.

Applebee’s is a good starter restaurant too as there’s plenty on the menu, smaller portions if you prefer, and it’s cheap and cheerful. If I was going to fall asleep with my face in my plate, I wouldn’t want it to be a Longhorn’s steak!

We left the villa at around 5.30pm. We didn’t bother making the boys have a shower as it was likely they would be back in the pool later on.

We were pulling up outside Applebee’s 5 minutes later, it really is that close.

I’ve said it a few times already, but we really do enjoy revisiting old favourites on holiday, and Applebee’s has always been a favourite for all of us.

We were seated straight away and set about checking out the menu. No big surprises, and we had all decided fairly quickly. I really love the chicken tenders, and the honey mustard dip they come with. They do a smaller portion so it’s ideal for me as a warm up until I’ve properly broken in my Orlando appetite! Simon enjoys the burgers, Adam likes to be able to choose three appetisers so he can mix and match, and Daniel, going back to his old habits, went for the tenders like me. Grandma & Grandad both went for the chicken & shrimp.

While we were waiting, the boys played with the quiz thing on the table, a Mr & Mrs type game where you have to answer what you think the other person will say about themselves.

I’m not sure what was going on here, but judging by the faces on me & Simon, it looks like Daniel has answered a question somewhat unexpectedly!

We then started the other Mr & Mrs game whereby we asked the boys a question and they had to answer which one it was out of the two of them, for example ‘who has the best hair’ etc. They were surprisingly honest! It was then suggested we do the same thing with Grandma & Grandad but decided not to in the end, home truths could potentially have made for a very long fortnight

The food came out in a timely fashion and we all tucked in.

My tenders were as lovely as always, as were Dan’s and Simon enjoyed his burger. It had come out with fries despite him asking for a baked potato, so he ended up with both! Adam wasn’t too keen on his choices in the end, his food was very beige and bland. One of his absolute favourites is mozzarella sticks though and they didn’t disappoint but I think he wished he’d gone for a proper meal instead.

Grandma really didn’t enjoy her chicken. When she cut into it, it wasn’t like a proper chicken breast, the texture was more like processed chicken, however Grandad’s was absolutely fine which was a bit strange. She didn’t bother saying anything though and tucked into the shrimp & potatoes instead. Grandad’s potatoes were so hot he almost dropped an ‘f’ bomb as he popped the first one into his mouth Grandma mustn’t have heard as 5 minutes later when she tried one she announced ‘bloody hell, these potatoes are hot’!

Apart from Grandma’s dodgy chicken, we all enjoyed our meals. Mine would’ve been even better if I’d remembered about the honey mustard dip! They hadn’t given me any but Daniel had been given some that he didn’t touch!

We were asked if we wanted any desserts – only Adam and I did, one of our absolute favourites, the chocolate mousse shooter. However, I can never remember which one it is to order as there are two chocolate ones. When I told our server we wanted two shooters, she didn’t ask which ones which was a little strange, she just said ‘two shooters?’ and disappeared off.

When they arrived I was really disappointed. They were ice cream with fudge sauce on top, not the lovely mousse we used to have. And on checking the menu I could see that there was no choice anymore, that was the only one they did. Gutted! And to make matters worse, the last one we’d had on our last holiday wasn’t as good as before either, so we didn’t ever really get to say a proper goodbye...

We got one bill for all of us and I paid on my card with Grandma giving me the cash for theirs.

We were back at the villa for 7 and although we quite fancied cracking out the cards for our traditional game of Blob, we knew we were too tired to last the whole game and the kids were eager to get back in the pool anyway. Don’t worry, the Blob will start soon

We all sat outside as the boys played, surprisingly very nicely!

Simon and Grandad enjoyed a beer, whilst Grandma & I had one of these…..

It was really nice, and we made a note to have a look for other flavours next time we were in a shop. Which wasn’t likely to be too far in the distance!

Simon also took this opportunity to air his new, Japanese inspired look. Those of you of a weak disposition, look away now…..

I have no words……..

None of us joined the boys in the pool but it was nice to sit out with them, chatting, and watching them play. They got out the new game they’d bought earlier – Wet Head. Adam decided that playing Wet Head when you’re in your swimming gear and wet anyway was pointless, so to spice it up a little bit he added ice cubes to the mix.

Basically, you fill the little bucket on top of the hat with water, put the hat on your head and then take it in turns to pull the red sticks out of the hat. One of the red sticks releases the water whereby the puller outerer then gets a soaking, a much safer, kid friendly version of Russion Roulette . Funnily enough, with the addition of ice, no one but the boys fancied playing it!

They'd soon had enough of Wet Head and instead turned their attentions to the tiny little water pistols they’d also picked up earlier. For some reason they chose me as a target, probably because they couldn’t bear to look at Simon for fear of seeing his interesting footwear. However, as they weren’t getting much of a reaction from me, they decided to aim for Grandad instead.

They thought they were safe, hiding out in the pool, especially as Grandad was fully dressed. Until he leapt up from his seat, waded into the water and chased them up and down the pool!

I have it on video and it’s so funny watching it back, them squealing like little girls, petrified looks on their faces and yet giggling away too. I think they were in shock, they’ve never seen their Grandad move so fast! I love moments like that, I mean, let’s face it, it just doesn’t happen in everyday life does it?!

At around 8.30 we admitted defeat and so all made our way back inside for baths and showers. Daniel loved the huge bath in our en suite, and I must admit, I did too and would quite often hop in before him. Our shower wasn’t very powerful so if I didn’t need to wash my hair, I’d choose the bath instead.

By 9pm we were all in bed, with Disney plans that would have us SPRINGing out of bed the following morning

I'm not sure how long this will last, but here's a little breakdown of our spends for the day, all approximate (and don't include the Grandparent's bills)...

Meals: $78 / £59
Food Shopping: $118 / £90
Misc: $94 / £72
Clothes: $68 / £52

[Floridaagogo]

Your villa looks fab !

[Loopylooloo]

I really like this report - so many photos of 'normal' stuff like your shopping, and villa, but I really want to see all that stuff! Villa looks great, especially the man cave! How funny about your bed!
Looks like a lovely start, looking forward to more!

[helenlovesdestr]

I love ur trip reports Jo. Sounds like a lovely special day full of memories. I thought the dolphin was a whale thou! 😀

[JoJo88]

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Your villa looks fab !

See more...

It really was. It's a Dibb villa, and I highly recommend it

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

I really like this report - so many photos of 'normal' stuff like your shopping, and villa, but I really want to see all that stuff! Villa looks great, especially the man cave! How funny about your bed!
Looks like a lovely start, looking forward to more!

See more...

Aww, thank you! I'm sure lots of people will find it boring with the lack of parks etc, but then to others, it's a bit different

Originally Posted by helenlovesdestr

I love ur trip reports Jo. Sounds like a lovely special day full of memories. I thought the dolphin was a whale thou! 😀

See more...

Thanks Helen, and yes, of course it's a whale! It even got called Shamu at one point! x

[mouselover22]

Yay day 2 so soon

'Joey & Chandler' Huge fan

I dare say you needed that lazy day after the day before! Imagine having to do a rope drop at MK instead

Pleased to see your mum reunited with her case It makes the mind boggle though, that all your cases ended up on the plane and they were all checked in at the same time

Perfect first evening with the family around the pool Wishing the next 200 and odd days of my life away!

x x

[jojo82]

Eek! Jo I love your trip reports. Your travel day sounded so chaotic yet you all seem very chilled. I don't think I'd have managed it with such good grace 1st day was exactly what you all needed with no place that you needed to be. Look forward to reading the rest
Jojo

[mossyflossy]

fabulous start, Jo, good to see all those shopping essentials and yes we have trolleygate too even though my two are now 16 and soon to be 15...it doesn't get any better!
And I completely understand the need for a villa that doesn't have a pool that can be seen from the road given Simon's Japanese feet attire. BTW I've just realised we were right nearby on Highlands Reserve for your first few days...small world lalala

[Gev]

Love the day, Jo. Your boys are growing up too fast! I know what you mean about "bed bounce". It's like that for me when DH turns over, like a seal manoeuvring round to head for the sea.
Looking forward to the next instalment! X