Just Back - Highs & Lows/Observations

[2littleboys]

We returned yesterday from our 3-week trip, I had planned on doing a full trip report but my note taking totally fell away so I will do a short summary/highs and lows and observations.

Our trip looked like this:

Fying GLA-LHR-MIA with British Airways
2 nights in Miami staying in Hyatt Regency Downtown
3 night Perfect Day and Bahamas Cruise on Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas
Collect Hire Car
15 nights in 4 bedroom villa in Windsor Palms Kissimmee
1 night Club Level Room in Royal Pacific Resort

British Airways
Before the flights my nerves were absolutely shattered, BA changed our flight time 3 times before we went and reading stories of delays, cancellations and missing luggage I was so nervous. However, I shouldn’t have been, flights were perfect. We were checked in and through security within 30 minutes at Glasgow Airport.

Flight 1 was on time, flight 2 delayed by 2 hours, 1 hour of which was us stuck on the tarmac and the pilot said it was something to do with resetting codes.

When we eventually took off my youngest son’s headphone port wasn’t working for his IFE, I spoke to the stewardess and she said she could move 1 of us, I had preloaded my laptop with films and tv series so I offered to swap seats with him and I just watched my laptop. The stewardess was very grateful and said she would look after me throughout the flight – and look after me she did.

When we arrived in Miami the immigration hall was mobbed, people as far as the eye could see and there were only 2 desks open, I reckon it took us at least 1.5 hours to get through.

Miami
We arrived at our hotel around 9:30 and we had been travelling for so long we were completely exhausted and we weren’t even hungry so collapsed into bed to get a good night’s sleep for exploring Miami the next day.

I woke at 3:30am the next day with a bell chiming outside and that was me up, turns out the bell was a drawbridge outside our hotel that went up and down all night to let boats through! The hotel was fine, it was in a good location for exploring downtown Miami but as a whole I wasn’t too keen on Miami, I found it expensive and a bit of a millionaire’s paradise. The hotel manager spent some time chatting with us and told us you can only make it in Miami if you are rich or hot, well I am neither so that’s me bombed out!

We walked to Bayside Marketplace on our first day and booked the Thriller Speedboat Tour, this was great fun, kids loved it and the commentary was very interesting pointing out homes of the rich and famous.

We then got an Uber to South Beach, had dinner at the Big Pink which had some awesome burgers, we then spent some time on the beach and walked along Ocean Drive. My boys loved watching all the super cars driving past, my thoughts were “we aren’t in Kansas anymore Toto”

We then went back to the hotel and chilled at the pool for an hour before another early night ready for our cruise the next day.

Royal Caribbean Cruise
This was our first ever cruise and all I can say is.. WOW… we loved it and it certainly won’t be the last. Absolutely loved everything about it, the staff, the ship and facilities, the food and the Deluxe Beverage Package. There is a party vibe on the boat but in a family friendly way, I loved watching all the Latino dancing and everyone just having fun. Most people are drinking but you never see anyone falling down drunk.

There was so much to do for adults and kids alike, my boys played soccer, basketball, laser tagging and we also saw different shows every night. Our 1st stop was Coco Cay which is RC’s private island and I thought this was fab, I lazed on the beach while the boys snorkelled with the fish, we also joined in the pool party at the swim up bar for a bit which had an amazing atmosphere. Next stop was Nassau, where we left the ship for a walk however I wasn’t impressed with Nassau, to me it felt quite run down and it was also their Independence Day that day and not a lot was open. We decided to go back to the ship and use the facilities (and the drink package) that we had paid for.

Overall a wonderful experience for us and we will definitely be looking at cruising again in the near future. I would love to chat with other cruise addicts for some advice before booking another one.

Car Hire
We had booked 15 nights car hire with Andy at DFCH and collected the car from Hertz at Miami Airport once we disembarked the Cruise. We collected a Nissan Rogue, husband is the driver and he was happy with it. We drove from Miami to Orlando easily enough, roads weren’t too busy and we managed it in just over 4 hours with a stop at West Palm Beach Plaza.

Villa
I had booked a private 4-bedroom villa in Windsor Palms, the owner has been excellent with us with all the changes due to Covid. The villa was perfect for us, a perfect size, private at the rear and we also loved using the Communal Pool and Clubhouse. Some of the furniture like the sofa was pretty worn but for all the time spent in it we didn’t really mind. Highlight of the trip was our villa neighbour Maggie the golden retriever, we had left our own Golden Retriever at home with my mother-in-law so Maggie was a welcome sight at the pool door every morning.

Royal Pacific Resort
4th time staying here, and it never gets old, however one night was not long enough. I loved being back in the onsite bubble without the worry of driving or traffic – I will touch more on the traffic further down.

When I checked into RPR I gave them my Revolut card to use as a hold for $398 (which was an upgrade charge and a $200 hold to allow me to charge to my room) and they have charged me twice, this was 10 days ago and it still hasn’t been sorted, I resorted to tweeting Universal, Loews and Revolut last night so I am hoping the money will be back with me asap!

Traffic
I know this has been touched on regularly, but the traffic was a nightmare, I wasn’t even driving and I found it soul destroying, what could have been a 20 minute drive was taking closer to an hour. Not sure if this a temporary thing or if it will get better but it really put us off and it is making us consider alternatives for our next trip. We enjoyed our 1 night onsite stay as this kept us off the I4 and 192 and are considering going back to onsite for any future trips and forgetting a car!

Parks
We had tickets for Universal, Busch Gardens and SeaWorld, Volcano Bay and Aquatica and done them all. As always, we loved Universal but it was so busy, haven’t not been in July for 12 years I forgot how busy it was, queues were massive at Universal and even with express passes some queues were 50-90 minutes for the busier rides. We managed to do what we wanted though and were glad we got on Velocicoaster and Hagrids which both got a major thumbs up from us all.

We really enjoyed SeaWorld, I know it can be a controversial subject, but we thought it was a great park, most rides were a walk on and we enjoyed the animal shows and exhibits. My boys loved the rides here, me not so much, I liked Manta but wasn’t as keen on Mako or Kraken, too big/steep a drop for me!

We also enjoyed Busch Gardens, I was coaxed to go on Sheikra, that drop and hanging there was the worst ever for me. Queue times were good here and we also liked the animal exhibits. Like all parks food was really expensive though, most parks we were averaging $80-90 dollars for burgers, chips and a drink!

Volcano Bay
I have been here twice before and never had any issue but for us we didn’t enjoy it this time, the Tapu-Tapu didn’t work for us, we started with the Aqua Coaster when we arrived at 10:30 which had a 3 hour wait and we thought we would be able to do other rides, but nothing was a walk on. There were some rides that are a 10 minute wait but you cant wait in line, you need to Tapu-Tapu which then cancels out your other wait! We spent most of our day bobbing around the wave pool and lazy rivers.

Orlando City Soccer
We booked tickets to see Orlando City v Philadelphia on Saturday night, just before we went away, we realised Chelsea v Arsenal was on the same night in the Camping World Stadium. Husband wanted a beer that night, so we decided to Uber, $34 was the cost for the way there and we went about 5pm and had a bite to eat and Hamburger Marys before. There was a great atmosphere here with so many football fans supporting so many different teams, Arsenal Chelsea, Orlando of course and Bayern Munch and both Manchester Teams, my boys had their Glasgow Rangers tops on and we had a couple of comments. There doesn’t seem to “rivalry” like there is at home and the atmosphere within the stadium was great, the announcer reminded me of a WWE announcer. When we left the stadium we tried to order and Uber back and it was $95 – I couldn’t believe it, I tried Lyft and it was $126! We were stuck though and not knowing the area had to pay it! Lesson learned no beer for Husband next time 😊

Heat
Yeah I know, its Florida its July and what was I expecting but normally going in September/October I found myself literally melting with the heat. It was hotter than the surface of the sun and I have resigned myself to the fact that I won’t be back at that time of year.

American Airlines
We flew home with AA on a BA codeshare and the flight was slightly delayed by 30 minutes, but they made up the time. I have to say the staff on the AA flight were nothing compared to BA, I found them very sullen. Connections at Heathrow were fine and we arrived home at 2pm yesterday afternoon, I tried to stay awake as long as I could but ended up in bed at 6:30 last night.

So lots of highs and some lows for us, but we had a great time and as a family it was just what we needed as our previous holidays have been with other family members so it was good to spend 3 weeks just the four of us. We had a few “teenager” incidents and his attitude left a lot to be desired a lot of the time when he couldn’t get Wi-Fi, even adding it on without my permission on the cruise at a cost of $80, however he was promptly marched to Guest Services to rectify after a stern telling off from me!

[Cutiepie]

Sounds like a super holiday. We love a cruise too and I think that’s what we will be doing next summer. After being in California this summer, I definitely don’t think I would do Florida in July again.

Thanks for sharing

[joanna23]

Sounds fantastic! I’m prepping myself for our return visit with two teenagers. I’m fast lowering my expectations of a magical time!

[2littleboys]

Originally Posted by joanna23

Sounds fantastic! I’m prepping myself for our return visit with two teenagers. I’m fast lowering my expectations of a magical time!

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Yep I told him this was his last trip, I’m not spending thousands to look at his miserable face. I miss my kids when they were still small and it was all so magical 😞

[Inky]

I had a hold on my credit card for 500 dollars, for anything we wanted to charge to Royal Pacific, we didn’t charge anything in the end. We checked out 22nd July and we had been debited about 424 ish sterling equivalent, on the 27th I was credited with about 420 so a charge applied of about 4 pounds , which I didn’t realise would happen.

[mick]

Sounds like more good than anything glad you all enjoyed it

Joan

[ClaireNJ]

WOW what a lovely holiday you’ve had
We did the Thriller speed boat too, was great fun
Shame about the traffic definitely something to worry about 😳😫
The cruise looked brilliant too, I’m so nervous of doing one, don’t want to waste money & not like it 🤷🤦
Thanks for posting 😍x

[2littleboys]

Originally Posted by ClaireNJ

WOW what a lovely holiday you’ve had
We did the Thriller speed boat too, was great fun
Shame about the traffic definitely something to worry about 😳😫
The cruise looked brilliant too, I’m so nervous of doing one, don’t want to waste money & not like it 🤷🤦
Thanks for posting 😍x

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We were quite apprehensive too but honestly loved it. Perhaps try a short one as a taster? Xx

[Sandraoh40]

Looks like you had a great time.
I remember you being anxious about the flights before you went.

[jas72]

Revolut isn’t a credit card the same thing happened to me for 1700 on a 14 night cruise.

Revolut debit your account as soon as a payment is pending. I.e. a hold it can take 30 days for them to drop off my revolut card went into negative and they took the money from my back account before the money dropped. It eventually did then I had a lot of money on my card again.

I’ll never use revolut again for hotels or cruises like that again.

Thanks for the Tr by the way was enjoyable read.