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Old 7 May 22, 12:41 PM  
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archibald
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Join Date: Mar 12
Final Florida Fling - the preamble - Easter 2022

The pre-amble

The Orlando Bit

The middle bit

The final bit


Just to be contrary I’ll start with the travel to the airport the night before – fairly straightforward to the M4/J4 Premier Inn, only a handful of parking spaces left at 9.30pm, and the kids have grown quite a lot (both 6’+) since we last shared a family room and so it seemed quite full!

We were actually quite surprised to even be there given that before we travelled we’d had the Easter 2020 trip cancelled and the added stress of the pre-flight covid tests the day before we flew. Earlier in the week there was reports of horrendous queues at check in and security at Heathrow, the baggage handlers threatened to strike and snow had been forecast in London on the day we flew.

We’d had a long drive to Heathrow and needed fuel to get home so popped next door the garage to fill up with diesel. While we were there a couple of vans, trucks and a bus turned up after having driven miles to get diesel which was running out in the South East. When we returned we found the problem was short-lived and had been caused by a few idiots blockading the local distribution centre …. which ironically seems to have only made people drive further and therefore use more fuel.

Anyway, we braced ourselves for the hell of the airport arriving at the Meet & Greet parking at T3 at 5.55am, checking in with verifly (AA flight booked with BA), doing security and finding ourselves in the first queue of the day for a table at the café by 6.25am. Airport food is just that, in fact we don’t really eat at many places worthy of a photograph, and don’t worry, no photos of the plane food either – in fact thinking about it, probably not that many photographs of anything as I won’t include photos with us on them!

I wasn’t too impressed with the AA seats, although leg room was sufficient for my 35” leg teen, the seats are now angled so far back that you can’t even see your feet and taking shoes off was a wrangle. We did flight stuff – food, films and snoozing and got to Phili in good time. I like an indirect flight in, shorter initial flight, get immigration done with, get a snack THERE’S A DUNKIN AT PHILI which is a very, very good thing.

Probably more space on the flight to Orlando (never used ORL in 6 previous trips) straight off the plane and to the car-hire desk (hand baggage only). Collected the Visitor Toll Pass and the car from Budget. No queue at the Budget desk, a few at Avis and people everywhere at Alamo, we grabbed a couple of slabs of water and a snack tea from a 7 eleven near the hotel and so to bed at ‘Bryan’.

The hotel on the corner across from the 7 eleven was the signpost to our accommodation




Now I’m not a fan of big hotels – too much hassle, too far from the car and too many people so we’d booked ‘Bryan’s Spanish Cove’ just off the SR535 to the left of Lake Bryan. We loved it – a small condo resort with about 44 units with 2 bed, 2 bath, kitchen, living room and balcony/patio with parking right outside. Just beyond the pool was the lake. Fishing rod and kayak hire is free – the kids tried fishing, caught nothing in 30 mins so mostly went out on the kayaks & pedal boats instead. While exploring the lake by kayak DS2 (who is 15 and should know better) saw a dog up a tree – correctly identified as a raccoon by DH! I had my first ever go in kayak which was great, although the mount and dismount needed some work.

We stayed in the corner, with views to the lake from the balcony, and parked right at the bottom of the stairs to the condo.



Although I say that I don’t like too many people, I will always choose a condo/motel over a villa as it’s more sociable. We’re lucky enough to live in a remote rural location so having ‘neighbours’ is always a bit of a holiday novelty, and we enjoy meeting people and chatting around the pool, learning a little about their lives while we’re there, and which actually resulted in one of our favourite evenings of the holiday – more of that next week.

If I’m being honest, I’m not really a massive fan of Orlando and/or theme parks. Bryan was chosen due to it’s proximity (10 minutes) from Seaworld & Aquatica to the North, and the 192 for the Old Town cars & Museum of Military history 10 minutes to the South. It was also the base for shooting at Oak Ridge and the Lake County Fair at Eustis, and our original plans included kayaking at Rainbow River from here although plans changed.

I've decided that I'm going to include some of the random 'only in America' shots, usually taken from the car, and this dude was the first. I'm sending it to my accountant as we don't get service like this!


Edited at 07:51 AM.
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Old 7 May 22, 12:46 PM  
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babbymint
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Location: Sunny South Coast
A great start - looking forward to reading the rest.
And thanks for giving me a hankering for a donut!
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Old 7 May 22, 08:01 PM  
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archibald
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Thank you. It might take a while to add the rest. It's mostly written in a word file, but I've only ever done one before and it was a while ago - it'll take me an age to work out how to do the links and the index etc!
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Old 31 Jul 22, 03:14 PM  
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Wappum
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Join Date: May 09
We’re booked to stay at Bryan’s in a couple of weeks - so pleased to see a positive review of it
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Old 1 Aug 22, 11:29 AM  
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archibald
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It was great - we had a room overlooking the lake (just) and really close to the pool which I requested when booking. It is on quite a busy road - more so than I has realised when booking it, and I don't know if traffic noise would be heard at the other end. The reception staff are lovely and we had a really great time. The location is perfect for Old Town and Seaworld/Aquatica, and not many minutes to Disney either (although we didn't visit).

Handy hints for you!

Go really slowly on your approach the first time - there's a massive hotel at the junction - Buena Vista Suites, then IIRC on your approach there's a bigger resort, then another small entrance, then a sharp turn into Bryan. We went passed it on more than one occasion.

If you're turning left out of the resort, don't be afraid of crossing all of the lanes straight away and making a crazy U turn at the first chance.

If you're using the kayaks, you might need to remove the plug and tip it over to empty it - they were listing like crazy until we realised what the problem was.

Also on the kayaks, it's more dignified to pull up to the step and haul your backside straight onto it, rather than shrieking, failing and dragging your DH along when dismounting. But that might just be me.

Don't get locked in the ladies loo poolside, but if you do, they can hear you scream and I was rescued promptly.

There's a 7 Eleven in one direction, and a Dollar Tree in the other if you need snacks and/or all of the other things that the Dollar store makes you buy. Probably walking distance, but we just called in when passing.

They don't get many visitors from the UK there (according to people around the pool that visit often) so be ready to answer the questions, and always say that you know the place that their relatives are from, even if you've only visited once as a child. To be honest, you probably will know where they are from, and even though we live in a quiet rural part of the country, we've always found people descending from tiny villages within not many minutes of home, which shows what a small world we live in.

I hope you love it as much as we did, it's a little tranquil haven in the middle of the tourist madness, and bobbing around on the lake is magical.

Edited at 11:31 AM.
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