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Old 3 Jul 19, 01:12 PM  
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wizzo
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Arrow Miami Twice August 2019

Miami Twice August 2019

Follow this trip as it happens on Twitter & Instagram @tweetwizzo

Well here we are again, the dawning of a new Pre-Trip Report which can only mean one thing, we are on the brink of our latest trip to Florida. It’s been two years since I did a trip report. This effort will be my 11th Trip Report. For those of you that have read them all….you’ve got staying power! For those of you who are new to my reports……if you don’t like moaning, mickey taking and toilet humour, hit your back button now.

Now I’m not one to post a pre-trip report a year before I go, update it every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday with pointless posts about how this week you’ve shaved your legs ready to travel or got a new toothbrush for the villa. There’s a reasons there are 4x more Pre-Trip Reports than Trip Report Indexes. These things are a lot of work and first timers in particular don’t realise the commitment and self-motivation needed to complete a Trip Report. I’m not the type to bail out on you all though. Oh no! I go the distance. Sometimes it takes me ages but I always finish (You don’t need to comment on that Lynn!).

For those of you that don’t know, Lynn is my long suffering wife. She puts up with me on holiday by utilising selective deafness along with shopping and cocktails. We have two kids, Lauren 15 and Maddy 12 who have been going to Florida since they were tiny. They don’t know how lucky they are and can’t even remember holidaying in the Med. To them, America is their Nirvana. They absolutely love it, as I suspect does everyone reading this.



I didn’t do a Pre-Trip Report or a Trip Report in 2019 (I did take notes) because our holiday was more or less a beach holiday. As most of you know, I like to write my reports with an element of humour to them and when you predominantly go from bed to beach to restaurant, it all gets a bit ‘samey’. So I didn’t bother. The same will apply this year if nothing meaningful happen (Fear not, we have a hell of a lot packed into this one!).

Right! Enough of the Pre-amble, let’s talk about this year. As in the last couple of years, I’ve tracked flights closely for months but booked late. We are tied to the school summer holidays and also to the last couple of weeks of August because that is the break in Lauren’s swimming season. Yes, she’s still swimming! Maddy retired from swimming last autumn (preferring her bed) which means I only make trips to the pool 8 times a week now.

I have a hard and fast £500 per person limit for economy flights in the summer holidays and this year I couldn’t beat last year’s £325 pp from Glasgow to Sanford with TUI. We’ve paid just under the £500 and are trying a new route for us. The main advantage this year is that we leave form a relatively local airport in Leeds Bradford. We are going via Dublin with Aer Lingus which some of you know means you clear US immigration in Dublin so you don’t have to queue at your US arrival airport. In our case, your arrival airport is Miami. Flights were certainly more expensive this year and in shorter supply. Last year there were two flights a week out of Glasgow for TUI and this year there is only one hence why that bargain didn’t re-appear.

We have passed through Miami a couple of times before but this time we are starting our holiday there (and ending it). The plan is to spend that first night in the airport hotel before picking the car up in the morning. We are doing this more and more often now, you save a days’ car hire and don’t have to drive to your accommodation, tired the night you arrive. Once we have wheels, we have a couple of nights booked in South Beach where we will chill out, eat and drink whilst getting acclimatised. When we first booked the flights we were hell bent of a few nights in the Keys after South Beach but as time wore on and more research was done we decided that there were better places to be for us than Key West. So we are going to do a day trip to the Keys. We will leave South Beach on the morning and head as far down as we fancy, stopping along the way before heading back to a Best Western we have booked in Florida City (just back on the mainland).



One of the reasons we went off the Keys was the fact that we all fancied some villa life again this trip with our own pool and we couldn’t fit it all in. For that reason, the next four nights will be spent in a villa in Cape Coral. On the way to Cape Coral we have an airboat ride booked and we intend on dropping in to either Naples or Fort Myers Beach on the way after crossing ‘Alligator Alley’.



Are you keeping up? There’s a lot more to come.

Now this year marks a significant birthday for me (you can guess it) and that means I’ve shoe horned in some things I’ve always wanted to do. For starters, me and the kids have two morning fishing trips booked while we’re in Cape Coral. We will head out with our captain leaving Lynn to sunbathe at the villa.



From Cape Coral we head back up to our favourite haunt of all, St Pete Beach. You’ve guessed it, we’re staying at the Grand Plaza again for 6 nights. I’ve seen a few threads on the Dibb about Grand Plaza lately so we’ll probably see some of you in Bongos!



While we’re in St Pete, we are going to take in an NFL game and I have secured us tickets for The Buccaneers vs Browns.



I’m hoping to take the kids to a Rays game while we’re there too but that will be a last minute decision depending on how much time we have. Being in the Tampa area we’re obviously going to go to Busch Gardens who have added another cool looking rollercoaster (Tigris) this year to their already impressive line-up.



After almost a week in St Pete we head up to Orlando to close out our holiday where we have 3 nights booked at the Renaissance SeaWorld. We stayed here last year, loved the hotel and loved the location even more (The other side of SeaWorld’s car park). So we will be visiting, SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and Aquatica while we are there. We had a magical afternoon drinking free beer in the sun last year in Discovery Cove while the kids amused themselves and we are hoping to replicate that this year!

The eagle eyed of you will have noticed there’s no Disney World again, which in many ways is a shame because we still love the place. But like so many other die hard WDW fans, we also now like to see a lot more of what Florida has to offer and are totally priced out of a 3 or 4 day trip to WDW. We got a 4 park 4 day special a couple of years ago at a fairly reasonable price but that ticket hasn’t been available since at a similar price. A 2 day WDW ticket is over £200! Don’t’ get me wrong, I still think that a 14 day ultimate ticket is great value if you base yourself in Orlando for a fortnight and hammer Disney World but we’re getting better value from Seaworld/Busch/Aquatica tickets for virtually a quarter of the price (£395 vs £111 FloridaTix today) and meaning we can do Rollercoasters in Orlando and Tampa whenever we want for 14 days.

Once we complete our stay in Orlando we have a lot of time on our last day. Sure, we’ve got a 3 hour drive back to Miami but our plane doesn’t fly till 23:00 so we will do something on that last day too.

So that’s the plan. Those of you who know us, know that our plans can be quite ‘fluid’ and change on a whim when we get there but we will see how it all goes.

We’ve done plenty of food research and have a few spots picked out that we want to eat at. We will eat what America does best, pancakes, burgers, BBQ etc etc a trip of fine nouvelle cuisine this won’t be.

Countdown is active below. The working title of Miami Twice (Trip Report itself is normally different to my Pre-Trippy) is in homage to Only fools and Horses and because we start and end in Miami. We fly on 11th August and spend 17 nights in the Sunshine State. I hope you drop in and follow what goes/went on.

Till then, I leave you with our traditional rules of engagement on this holiday know as our Do’s and Don’ts (I know it’s naff but humour me on this one)


We will pose nicely for photos



We won't look gormless in photos



We will leave Dad to enjoy some peace and a drink



We won't end up ill



We will eat our own body weight in junk food



We won't choose the 'lite option'



We will appreciate the wildlife



We won't prod the wildlife with a paddle!



We will leave Dad to enjoy some peace and a drink



We won't play army



We will be gentle with the wildlife



We won't bang on the glass!



We will respect other peoples naff publicity stunts



We won't shamelessly publicise ourselves!




We will keep up our fitness



We won't mock other people's lack of fitness (Me)



We will leave Dad to enjoy some peace and a drink



We won't break the hire car this year (Technically not my fault)



We will represent wherever we go (Ray Jay). Go Steelers!



We won't cheat at draughts (Checkers my ass)



We will enjoy the sun



We won't enjoy the rain (I miss May and September holidays!)



We will leave the mother in law at home



We will take her daughter with us



We will leave Dad to enjoy some peace and a drink



We won't spend all day on our phones!



We will laugh at Maddy catching flies



We won't laugh as much at the word 'Cornhole'



Most of all, like the wildlife, we will have fun




Thanks for Reading. I hope you enjoy the report.
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2023 Trip Report - COMPLETE HERE

My old trip reports are all HERE




Edited at 01:21 PM.
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Old 3 Jul 19, 01:32 PM  
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Stardust5
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Fabulous, I love reading your trip reports, particularly your humour. Look forward to reading along your adventures.
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Old 3 Jul 19, 02:22 PM  
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tigger48
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Wow looking forward to this sounds like a great plan!
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Old 3 Jul 19, 02:40 PM  
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WendyWilson
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Looking forward to another great trip report.
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Old 3 Jul 19, 02:44 PM  
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Rob & Jan
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Great a new trip report - you were missed last year!
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Old 3 Jul 19, 04:21 PM  
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slow.jo
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Sounds great!

Happy 60th birthday

Jo xxx
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Old 3 Jul 19, 04:29 PM  
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JoJo88
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Yay! You’re back! Like Nips said, Happy 60th bud x
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Old 3 Jul 19, 04:48 PM  
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Ryles
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Can’t wait! Love your trip reports! 🤗We are there the exact same time. Miami, Orlando then last 4 nights St Petes which will almost certainly include a trip to Bongo’s will look out for you 👋
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Old 3 Jul 19, 05:17 PM  
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So glad you are doing a trip report this year!
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Old 3 Jul 19, 05:38 PM  
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Campinggirl
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Brilliant , looking forward to it! Question though, where do you find out the sports fixtures/ book tickets etc? I have tried to look but find it a bit confusing to work out what the seasons and the fixtures are?
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