Just back - 10 days in Florida (ish!)

[Leyfy]

So we landed in Heathrow yesterday after 10 days in Florida/on a cruise. We were 'not supposed to be going to Florida' this year as we are saving up for three weeks in Orlando next year, but I found some bargain flights with Virgin for £525 leaving the day after I broke up from school. We deliberately kept away from Orlando to keep the cost down (comparatively speaking - no ticket cost and we like to stay on site at both WDW and Universal).

We did:

1 night in Miami
4 nights on a Carnival Cruise
4 nights in Key West

I'm not going to do highs/lows etc as not many lows so just some observations/thoughts!

Premier Inn & Parking

We stayed there the night before, booked with Holidayextras with drivefly meet and greet. I don't know what was going on with me this trip as I made a couple of booking errors (which I never do usually), but I'd managed to book THE DAY AFTER WE NEEDED! I realised halfway round the M25! A few phone calls later and it was sorted and the lady I spoke to at Holidayextras was brilliant and so helpful.

The Premier Inn on Bath road was lovely, I'd definitely stay there again.

Drivefly meet and greet were great. Drove in to the short stay parking at terminal 3, dropped the car off, collected my tag from the guy at the desk. When we came home I phoned them when we got through security and the car was sitting there waiting for us. All good!

Heathrow & No 1 Lounge

Much prefer Heathrow as an airport to Gatwick. We both commented on how smooth the airport process was - I'd checked us in online so we used the automated system and security was also really quick. We literally walked from the bit where they checked your tickets at the gate and onto the plane - no waiting!

The No 1 Lounge was lovely and a lot less crowded than the one at Gatwick. I don't know if they have updated the breakfast menu in them all, but I had a poached egg with avocado, which I've never seen on the menu at the No 1 Lounge in Gatwick!

Virgin Flights

Having only flown with Norwegian for a couple of years, I was really impressed with Virgin. Their Dreamliner was really lovely - we sat in the extra leg room seats in Economy near the exit row, which I decided to pay for on the way out due to Phil being 6 foot 4.

The food was okay and the IFE was loads better than on Norwegian. I normally don't bother with watching anything on it, but this had such a good selection so I ended up watching Fantastic Beasts 2, which I hadn't seen. Phil watched loads of films!

On the way home we had a really, really bumpy ride and probably the worst turbulence I've experienced in over 20 flights to and from the US. They stopped the drinks service and then re-started it, saying the Captain has said no hot drinks. It'd literally re-started and the plane really bumped around - people started screaming, Phil ended up with his beer all over him and it's the first time I've actually seen cabin crew grab onto things! The lady in charge of the crew actually came round and checked they were okay when it was safer for the crew to walk about. The whole flight was a bit bumpier than normal, but luckily neither of us are bothered by turbulence. If you are a nervous flyer I can understand how that would've been awful though!

Miami South Beach

We stayed at The Beacon Hotel on South Beach for one night. The hotel was recommended to us by a friend and was very art-deco and lovely!

The area though... Sorry, neither of us really liked Miami or feel a need to return there. It was fine for one night and the beach was lovely, but it wasn't somewhere we were sad to be moving on from. It was also really, really REALLY expensive! I think we paid $25 for a beer and a diet coke at one point!

Carnival Cruise

We were on the Carnival Sensation, which is one of their smaller and older ships. The year before we'd been on our first cruise on the Carnival Conquest and I was really nervous about this after reading things online about the Sensation.

How wrong was I?! We both loved the ship! Being that bit smaller it was much easier to navigate, the cruise director Dion was brilliant ("Hi De Ho I gotta go! Love you Carnival Sensation!") and it felt so much less crowded than the Conquest. Also being our second cruise we felt a lot more relaxed and just went with doing our own thing, rather than following the crowd, which we'd done last year as we weren't quite sure what we were expecting! Apart from a couple of the crew, we seemed to be the only Brits on board! I love Carnival and think it's a bargain for the price. One day we might try another cruise line, but it suits us for now. I think we are both now converted to the whole idea of cruising and it will probably feature as part of our holidays from now on.

Our two ports of call were Key West (for the morning only) and Cozumel.

In Key West we just headed to the beach at Fort Zach (which is part of a National Park) for the morning as we know the area well and love it there. We'd not made it to the beach yet, so it was something to tick off the list.

In Cozumel we were originally doing the Mayan Ruins tour, but it was cancelled due to lack of people. So they put us for the same price on the 'ultimate Mayan Ruins' tour (?!) which also included snorkelling. Phil doesn't swim so he stayed on the beach but I went out and ... WOW! Amazing experience!

We also had a tequila tasting and some Mexican food (which is my favourite thing to have at home!) after we went to the ruins. We both really enjoyed our day in Mexico and it was probably my favourite day of the holiday!

Key West

When we came back on the Monday we drove down to Key West. Our satnav (which we bought a couple of trips ago) seems to have a little melt down when we first get back to the US and refuses to find signal for ages, so we had 'words' getting out of the airport!

We stayed at Margaritaville and they upgraded us on arrival to a marina view room:

WOW!

The room was lovely and so was the whole resort.

We had our wedding anniversary dinner at Prime Steakhouse, which was absolutely fantastic but quite pricey.

We spent a lot of time in the resort pool:

We also did a few things like snorkelling on the reef which is seven miles out to sea with Fury water adventures:

(well I snorkelled, Phil sat on the boat as it was quite deep! )

We visited the shipwreck museum and the aquarium and also ate a lot of Key Lime pie from Kermits!

So it was a lovely, relaxing and completely different sort of holiday to what we usually have but still in our favourite holiday destination.

Oh, and yes, I am forgetting to post something ...

Next year I want three weeks of solid theme park touring!

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Kim. Wow that trip went quick! Sounds like everything was great as well, apart from the turbulence.

A very good friend of ours who lives just outside Orlando does at least 5 Carnival Cruises a year! He reckons with his loyalty discounts and late deals it's cheaper than staying home.

Excellent photos taken whilst snorkeling, so clear

[ERICSMUM]

Fab review, captures the essence and atmosphere of a good trip.

I’m thinking of cruising in the Caribbean but only looked at P&O so far but I’ll definitely have a peek at Carnival now.

Welcome home (to more A&N controversy !)

[Loopylooloo]

Pleased to see some pint pointing was eventually included! 😂

What a fab trip, love that you are enjoying cruising, (I work for a cruise line) I always warn people its addictive! Key west looks beautiful shame about Miami, we have four nights in Fort Lauderdale next year hope its going to be ok.

Thanks for sharing great to see you!

[JanetteP]

What a lovely trip - the snorkelling looks fantastic, although I'm not quite that brave yet.

[akhurstf1]

Sounds like you had an amazing time. We've not yet ventured much outside Orlando but would love to on future trips. We're also trying out our first cruise next year - I'm so excited!

[emmabanana]

Sounds like an amazing trip, love the look of that Kermits a Key lime pie 😍

[minnie1981]

Sounds and looks amazing😁 i saw your post on instagram with the drink and turbulence, unfortunately i’m one of those nervous flyers although I don’t think i’d scream😂

[Bootrip2]

Lovely report and great photos!

[Pumpkin Pie]

Wow - that steak could feed a family of four!