Returning to Jamerica - Nov '13

[JoJo88]

Part 2 - Park Tickets The Musical
Part 3 - An Actual Booking!
Part 4 - The cast, some football, some Madonna, some other stuff and a celebrity sighting
Part 5 - Flights, a London Weekend mini-trippy, a Chiropractor and Christmas TV, Deep Freeze & David Bowie LPs...
Part 6 - Christmas, Tickets and a Huge Sacrifice
Part 7 - NoMoJoJoJo, Narnia, and not all that much else

*Peeks through the door tentatively.

Hello everyone Remember me? I was the one that brought you Living In Jamerica – The Bud Light Years. If you don’t remember me, then HERE'S the link so that you can familiarise yourself with me and my lot, and see what we got up to last year

Plans for our next ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Holiday to Florida are now in full swing, so I thought it only right that I came on here to let you know

Anyone who read my previous report will know that I tend to rabbit on a bit, going off on a tangent somewhat at times, so if you are wanting a concise, to the point guide to Orlando you’ve come to the wrong place. If it’s photographic genius that you’re looking for, you’ve also come to the wrong place. However, if you are happy to stick the kettle on, put your feet up and immerse yourself in the trials and tribulations of a family trip to Orlando, warts ‘n’ all, then this might be for you. Or at least it will be when we’ve been. Which we haven’t yet, hence this being a pre-trippy

Of course, anyone who did read my previous report will know that I didn’t actually write THAT pre-trippy until we had returned, as I’d had no intention of writing anything at all. However, a friend asked if I would be putting pen to paper (metaphorically) and I decided to give it a go, discovering that although writing a report is soooooo time consuming, it is SUCH FUN!

Soooooo, what have we been up to since we last saw you? Well, last time we spoke I had just started a new job and I’ve now been there just over 9 months. I absolutely LOVE it, although one pitfall is, with it being a clothes shop, some days I spend more money than I earn Thankfully I am up in the office and so if I’m feeling particularly weak I just frog-march myself through all the lovely clothes with my eyes shut and stay tucked away until home time

The job means that a healthy little holiday fund is building up and it is this fund that allowed us a trip to Turkey at the end of last month.

We stayed at The Royal Wings hotel in Lara Beach which was stunning.

We had a great time although the weather was not on our side. I’d heard (read on the Dibb) that it can be rainy in October, but figured that it can’t rain for the entire month. As it turns out I was right, it didn’t rain for the whole month, but it did rain for pretty much all of the week we were there!

We did have the odd burst of sunshine and our last full day was glorious, although the pool was freezing cold - my logic tells me it was from lack of sun from the previous week! It was so cold in fact that after dipping my toe in it I went and stood in the fridge to warm up. It didn’t stop the boys though who seem immune to such things.

We managed to find our own entertainment on the days that it was wet. There was an indoor pool thankfully and a games room, and of an evening we would set ourselves up in the lounge between one of the bars and a little cake shop (inside the hotel) and break out the cards.

Schindler’s Lift!

We made the best of it and the boys were really good considering they were only able to look at this for a lot of the time.

My Mum came with us but not my Dad – he can’t get time off work during the winter months, and because we were an odd five, when we checked in they asked if we’d like a suite all together rather than 2 separate rooms. After a quick consult with Simon who said it was fine, we were delighted to find in our room one of these:

We also discovered that the boys are pretty good at this:

Turkey was great and I would definitely go back again at some point. It was completely different to an Orlando type holiday, obviously, but for complete R&R we couldn’t ask for more.

My heart did twinge a little as we arrived at the Thomas Cook desk for Sun Down check-in (or whatever it is they call it), and I could see Virgin’s Twilight check-in just across the way.

Continued in the next post...

[JoJo88]

Once we got home we decided to put the wheels in motion for Florida. I mean properly put the wheels in motion, it’s a rare day that at least some of my time isn’t spent thinking/dreaming/planning our next trip, even if for just a couple of minutes!

I got the calendar out and started to work out when would be the best time for us all. We’d loved seeing Disney all decorated for Christmas, and having been in November for our first visit, that’s where I started. There are certain times for me at work that I can’t miss - we also have a wholesale business with deadlines etc, and it looked like there were a couple of weeks mid-November that would work, and would actually be perfect as they were the exact same weeks we went before, 7th – 21st November, missing Thanksgiving and skimming the tail end of Jersey Week. I checked with my boss and not only did she say yes, she was also delighted that my long term plans included still working there! If only she knew – I’d turn up even if they didn’t pay me

Simon was happy with the dates, so the next step was school. It’s always been okay in the past as the Head Teacher has authorised up to 10 days leave, however we have a new Head Teacher who had sent a letter out at the start of term saying that they won’t authorise any term time holidays. That, I can live with, but I did want to make sure that the boys wouldn’t be missing anything important, so I sent an email off explaining the situation and waited with fingers crossed for a response.

(not actually my fingers, you understand )

The response I got was not what I expected. The dates I’d chosen would clash with a soon to be introduced week of assessments. Oh poop. That certainly took the wind out of my sails. She did offer a different fortnight, which was great as I was really expecting a proper telling off for even considering taking the boys out of school, but unfortunately the weeks she suggested would not work.

I arranged to go in and see her to find out what the assessments were and what the long term implications would be if we missed them. I barely got any sleep the night before, I kept dreaming that I had missed my appointment, and therefore my chance of any holiday at all. However, as it turned out, Miss Morris was extremely sympathetic to our needs, I explained we wanted to see Disney at Christmas, and she said that the boys could catch up on the assessments the following week and her parting words were ‘can I come too’! I literally skipped out of the school gates that morning, I was so relieved!

Thankfully the assessments are not mandatory, they are an in-house way of measuring the pupils’ progress and for reporting back to us at parents’ evening. I know that some would say we are being irresponsible, and had the Head not been so understanding and flexible I would have reconsidered, but I figure if it’s okay with her then that’s good enough for me.

Next hurdle was my Dad. As I mentioned before, his work means that he can’t easily get time off work during the cold months. It was touch and go whether or not he would be able to come on our holiday last year but at the last minute he was given the okay. Unfortunately this time he won’t be able to get time off at all and so we will have to leave him at home My Mum will still be coming along though – in fact, if we hadn’t asked her to join us, I would have expected to bump into her over there at some point anyway

So, what have I done so far? Not a lot if I’m honest. Lots of dancing around the kitchen with a stupid grin on my face, but nothing very productive. Tell a lie, I have PMd a Dibber about renting her villa, and I have spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to work out which tickets to get.

We’ve always had Disney Ultimates in the past, but looking at previous holidays it’s easy to see that they are surplus to requirements and we could actually get away with Magic Your Way tickets and save a few bob. A few bob to put towards other holiday fun yes, but a few bob all the same. We will definitely be spending a night on site at Universal again:

and Adam has asked if we can go to Busch Gardens, so that is on the list for him.

Accommodation will be a villa as always, which I'm currently looking for, so the other obvious booking to be made is flights. I’ve always booked through Virgin Holidays before and to be honest, have always been booked by now, but this time, as I don’t have long to wait for VA to announce their prices, I may as well wait now. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the price with VH is about £300 less than we paid last year, so I’m not going to rule them out, and the V Room is always fun I will also have a look at indirect flights – especially now the boys are a bit older. In the past I’ve thought it too much hassle to chop & change, but they would cope much better with that now so if there is a substantial saving to be made, I’m there!

And that’s me for now I think. I’ll do an introduction to the cast in another update, let you know what we have been up to individually over the past 12 months, I bet you can hardly wait

But for now I appear to have rambled on once again, I make no apologies, I did warn you at the start! I’m not sure how often I will be back to update this pre-trippy, but just having one makes the holiday seem all the more real, so thank you for allowing me that indulgence and I hope to be back soon, perhaps with an actual booking having been made!

Actually, I will be back very soon with an update of a different kind………..

(NO, I’M NOT PREGNANT! )

Part 2

[Holidaylover19]

Sounds good so far! Looking forward to more

I loved staying at Royal Pacific last time. Well worth the £190!

[JoJo88]

Originally Posted by Holidaylover19

Sounds good so far! Looking forward to more

I loved staying at Royal Pacific last time. Well worth the £190!

See more...

Thanks Emma . We have stayed at RPR, beautiful hotel, but the underwater music and water slide at HRH just pips it for the boys

[pudge]

Fab Fab Fab...

what's the news... a new kipling

[JoJo88]

Originally Posted by pudge

Fab Fab Fab...

what's the news... a new kipling

See more...

Ha ha! I'm not allowed any more

[Lardzilla]

We go 6 months today so whilst the kids are shooting zombies on the Wii and Justine's out browsing the shops (I hope) I thought I'd get in the mood a bit and read some trippies.

To see you'd started your next one was a bit of bonus (I'm not stalking honest! ). Really looking forward to your new trippie... Any bets you finish it before my next one.

PS Schindlers Lift...

[tink3]

Looking forward to reading all your plans.

[JoJo88]

Originally Posted by Lardzilla

We go 6 months today so whilst the kids are shooting zombies on the Wii and Justine's out browsing the shops (I hope) I thought I'd get in the mood a bit and read some trippies.

To see you'd started your next one was a bit of bonus (I'm not stalking honest! ). Really looking forward to your new trippie... Any bets you finish it before my next one.

PS Schindlers Lift...

See more...

Hi there

It's good to see you back on here! And even better to see that you go in 6 months time. By my reckoning, that means your next report will see me through the last few months leading up to our next adventure . Not only that, but it could well give me an insight into how our next holiday will pan out, as our holiday 'styles' do seem extremely similar. Perhaps Jamie can let me know how the chicken tenders are, I'll pass it on to Daniel

I used to snigger at Schindler's Lift every time we stepped in it. No one else seemed to find it tha funny so I'm glad you appreciated it

Thanks for dropping by, can't wait to read about your plans. There will be a pre-trippy, right?

[JoJo88]

Originally Posted by tink3

Looking forward to reading all your plans.

See more...

Thanks Katie, hopefully something will start to take shape soon