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Old 29 Jul 22, 01:47 AM  
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Rac20
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Finally! A Four Week Adventure: Week 2

Day 6: Final day of express passes, car pick up and Windsor Hills

Today, we had to say goodbye to the Portofino. 😭 I love it here. It’s so peaceful.

We were up really early to repack so we could check out, leave our luggage with luggage services and head to Islands of Adventure so we could get to Hagrid’s and avoid the three hour queue.

I experienced two totally different levels of service at Portofino this morning. The luggage clerk was the most grumpiest person ever and the receptionist was the absolute opposite. They were literally stood 6ft apart! 😂

Luggage deposited and all checked out we headed to the boat dock. It was about 7:15 am at this point. We stood admiring the turtles (not teenage mutant ninja ones) which resulted in DS16 declaring he wants a tortoise. And consequently me wondering how long it would be before it became my tortoise when the novelty wore off!


We were soon on our way with me taking a last lingering look at the hotel.


We arrived to a very large queue outside IoA and it was about 7:50 at this point. Now, I need to take a minute to bask in how proud I am of DS13 and also myself for training him well - as soon as those gates were open- he was off. Not running as that is not allowed but it was definitely a very purposeful walk - weaving in and around slow coaches and we arrived at Hagrid’s at 8am on the dot. Well done DS13 - job well done! I loved Hagrid’s and was surprised at a few things that happened on the ride which I won’t mention in case it spoils it for anyone else.
Now the queue for Hagrid’s is crazy. It goes across the entrance back to the lockers and god forbid, you actually want to go back to the locker to get your bag that you have to deposit prior to riding. It took me five minutes trying to explain to a cast member that I needed to get my bag and she wouldn’t let me pass.

Gandalf would have been proud of her efforts.
After finally convincing her that I’d already ridden it, she let me through.
With that trauma over, we then had to negotiate passage through the queue to get to Hogwart’s Express. That was also a massive shambles. They wouldn’t let people cross through to get to the station which meant that there was a massive queue (both ways from and to the station) when they finally let people through. Utter shambles!





We boarded the train to London and the American family in our cabin asked us lots of questions about London - we weren’t much use. I’ve been to London once in about twenty years. 😬

Soon, we were heading to Diagonal Alley. DS13 bought himself an apple.

It was delicious - if not a little expensive at $12.



We then queued up for Gringotts which was a really quick queue.



Now when we came out we lost DS16 and DH. In other words, they ditched us! So DS13 and I headed to Transformers. That was quite a wait actually and when we came out I’d forgiven DH for ditching us and we re-joined them by the Simpsons ride. We queued up for Men In Black but it went tech so we left the queue and walked round to Bourne Stuntacular. DH and DS16 loved it. I took the opportunity to have a cat nap and DS13 thought it was just okay.

We went to queue up for the Minions but it was an hour wait even with express passes so we gave it a miss. We headed to Rip Ride Rocket and I faced my fear a second time. It really does hurt your head!

After, we had pretzels for lunch. $40 for 2 pepperoni pretzels, a sausage pretzel, a plain pretzel and some cheese dipping sauce.

We took our chilli bottles and we’ve been using the soda machines in the park and filling them up with water and ice. This has saved us a fortune on drinks. I’m presuming that this is allowed as it’s just water?

We rode fast and the furious before heading back to IoA to ride the Hulk and Spider-Man.

Now I need to mention this which I was going to mention yesterday but forgot. So many rides are going tech. Yesterday, Forbidden Journey broke whilst on it two times. Spider-Man broke for DS13 last night and again today. And Transformers did also.
I’ve never known that happen before. DS13 and DH got a free fastpass due to Spider-man breaking which we are yet to use as we had our express passes.

Just a note on express passes - they don’t currently seem that express. The parks must be super busy because we have been waiting up to 45 minutes for rides using the passes.

I am going to miss them when I have to queue up though! 😂

We left the park at about 3:00 as it was so hot and we needed to pick up our hire car.

We booked car hire through BA and Avis and booked Ford Mustang Convertible or similar. We were all a bit anxious about what we would end up with but were pleasantly surprised.


It’s not convertible but we’re happy about that as we can get more luggage in the boot.

The Avis person did push for me to hire a toll pass at $11.99 a day. I didn’t take it as I thought that was excessive. I might not even go through a toll on most days.

We arrived at the villa just after 4pm. This was a last minute booking and we booked it through Debbie’s Villas. We have another villa that we are going to next week which we booked for 2021 but it obviously got cancelled and the full dates that we needed were not available which is why we’ve got this.

It’s massive, a little dated but perfect for our needs and the location is fab.


We got a free welcome pack.


And this is what I was most excited to see - tea bags!


I mean, they’re not Yorkshire Tea but a week without tea and I’m prepared to settle for second best. 😂

DS16 and DH went out to the supermarket for supplies. I really needed to do some washing. Is it a bit sad that all day, I’ve been looking forward to doing the washing? 😅

Whilst they were out, I unpacked and DS13 played in the pool.

I then finally blew up my 2021 birthday present.


It takes up the entire pool! 😂

We’ve spent a couple of hours in the pool.

We are now having a tea of pasta and garlic bread.

And then I think it will be time for bed.

Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to a lazy lie in!

Edited at 12:25 PM.
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Old 29 Jul 22, 08:47 AM  
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ClaireNJ
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At least you rode RRR again & weren’t scared off after your first time 😱
Shame about the queuing systems you’d think they’d sort it out
Car looks amazing 🤩
Enjoy the villa & the washing 🙊🤪
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Old 29 Jul 22, 11:59 AM  
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guinness_79
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Great summary ... is that villa in Windsor Hills ?! Almost booked that one but thought it was dated - how was it ? We have another one reserved but really keen on WH!
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Old 29 Jul 22, 12:07 PM  
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Rac20
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Originally Posted by guinness_79 View Post
Great summary ... is that villa in Windsor Hills ?! Almost booked that one but thought it was dated - how was it ? We have another one reserved but really keen on WH!
Yes it is in Windsor Hills. This was a stop gap as we had originally booked a one bedroom suite to fill the gap between our first week and third week but this came up and it was only a couple of hundred pounds more so went for it.

It is a little tired but not overly so.
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Old 30 Jul 22, 12:47 PM  
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Day 7: Pool time, Old Town and Pirate Golf

Managed to have a little bit of a lie in this morning - waking up at a more respectable 7:30.

We had breakfast at the villa before deciding to check out the resort faculties.

I think getting out of Alcatraz would have been easier than getting into the pool area (and other rooms including toilets, gym, games room).

We had to pop into the welcome centre first to pick up our wrist bands and were given a code. This magic code enabled us to access the pool, slides, games room etc.

Once we had got settled, DS13 headed straight for the pool - which is a great size.

DS16 decided he was too warm and so we headed to play pool. You need to leave a refundable $5 deposit for equipment and then each game costs a $1 (you need quarters). We had a couple of games before heading down to join the other two.


Even Minnie made an appearance!

Slides were pretty good. This is a great resort if you have kids. There’s a splash pad, slides and the pool that they’d enjoy.

After having an early tea, we headed to Old Town to see the cars there. This was really for DS16 and DH. I’m not really into cars and care more about colour than anything else!


The boys wanted to play golf. We agreed as long as they didn’t cheat or argue. Is it only my family where they spend the whole course arguing? They agreed they wouldn’t and we paid $60 for four people. The truce lasted about four holes and ended with me declaring, “Never again!” I’ve declared this many a time before!


Swimming around the waterways of the golf course, I saw my first ever Floridian snake!

I was pretty tire by this point after our “relaxing” day and so headed off to bed. The boys finished the night by playing a competitive round of jenga.

Tomorrow, I’d had on the itinerary that we were going to the beach but no one seems up for that so we shall see what happens - it’s a mystery!
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Old 30 Jul 22, 02:47 PM  
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ClaireNJ
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Originally Posted by Rac20 View Post
Day 7: Pool time, Old Town and Pirate Golf

Managed to have a little bit of a lie in this morning - waking up at a more respectable 7:30.

We had breakfast at the villa before deciding to check out the resort faculties.

I think getting out of Alcatraz would have been easier than getting into the pool area (and other rooms including toilets, gym, games room).

We had to pop into the welcome centre first to pick up our wrist bands and were given a code. This magic code enabled us to access the pool, slides, games room etc.

Once we had got settled, DS13 headed straight for the pool - which is a great size.

DS16 decided he was too warm and so we headed to play pool. You need to leave a refundable $5 deposit for equipment and then each game costs a $1 (you need quarters). We had a couple of games before heading down to join the other two.


Even Minnie made an appearance!

Slides were pretty good. This is a great resort if you have kids. There’s a splash pad, slides and the pool that they’d enjoy.

After having an early tea, we headed to Old Town to see the cars there. This was really for DS16 and DH. I’m not really into cars and care more about colour than anything else!


The boys wanted to play golf. We agreed as long as they didn’t cheat or argue. Is it only my family where they spend the whole course arguing? They agreed they wouldn’t and we paid $60 for four people. The truce lasted about four holes and ended with me declaring, “Never again!” I’ve declared this many a time before!


Swimming around the waterways of the golf course, I saw my first ever Floridian snake!

I was pretty tire by this point after our “relaxing” day and so headed off to bed. The boys finished the night by playing a competitive round of jenga.

Tomorrow, I’d had on the itinerary that we were going to the beach but no one seems up for that so we shall see what happens - it’s a mystery!
Lovely pics nice scenery 😍😎
I have 2 boys too, well they are 32 & 30 now, but they always used to argue 🤷🤦
Bit pricey for a round of golf 😳
Enjoy your “ mystery “ day x
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Old 30 Jul 22, 02:50 PM  
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Rac20
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Originally Posted by ClaireNJ View Post
Lovely pics nice scenery 😍😎
I have 2 boys too, well they are 32 & 30 now, but they always used to argue 🤷🤦
Bit pricey for a round of golf 😳
Enjoy your “ mystery “ day x
There was a family from Bradford sat next to us at the resort pool yesterday with three teenagers. I was extremely happy to see the kids arguing and falling amount amongst themselves. Made me feel pretty normal. 😂
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Old 30 Jul 22, 03:05 PM  
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The villa looks great and Windsor Hills sounds fab. We fly out on Monday and will be easy to spot with the two teenagers arguing with either each other or us!
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Old 30 Jul 22, 04:45 PM  
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Lovely!
I know what you mean about the washing! I hate travelling around with a case of dirty clothes- always do it before going home if I can!
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Old 31 Jul 22, 01:24 PM  
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Rac20
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Day 8: More pool time, Go Karting, Mall At Millenia and a very short trip to Universal

Today’s plan was to go to the beach but no one seemed up for that at all. Just me.

I’m finding with teenagers, it’s a lot harder to stick to any itinerary as they pretty much don’t want to do anything. At this point, I’m wondering whether it would have made much more sense just to have gone on a villa holiday to Spain for a couple of weeks. Imagine how many villa holidays to Spain I could have had. 🤔😂

Anyway… moving on…
I could tell the night before that DS13 was tired because he was uncharacteristically moody and that’s not like him. He’s the cheery one. He slept until 11 this morning and only woke when I went to double check he was okay. So he definitely needed it. Whilst DS13 was sleeping DS16 decided he’d go to the gym which gave DH and I about two hours of blissful peace and quiet.

DH spent the time trying to fix his DJI camera. I bought it as a Christmas present for him last Christmas (2020) and it’s never been used as he was saving it for his holiday. It’s the equivalent to a go pro and wasn’t cheap. He took it to Volcano Bay the day we went and it stopped working on the lazy river and hasn’t turned on since. I’m hoping it’s still covered by some kind of warranty.

After both boys were up/back, we all played in the pool together which was really nice actually. The boys played well together and we had some races, played piggy in the middle etc.

DH made us some lunch with left overs from last night’s tea and then in the afternoon we headed to take the boy’s karting. We went to the outside Orlando Kart Centre.

The boys love karting including DH but I just cry at the cost. $119 for the three of them for ten minutes! 😳 I knew it wouldn’t be cheap as they seem to have to go karting on any holiday we go to and it’s never cheap. I should really start incorporating it into the holiday budget! 😅

So, I do tip on holiday but I thought it was a bit much when I was asked if I wanted to tip when paying for karting. I’m literally paying for a product. So I didn’t tip on this occasion. $119 was steep enough.


We’d decided we’d pop into Universal in the evening but free parking didn’t start until 6 and so went to Mall at Millenia for a mooch around. DS16 saw clothes that he liked in the Armani shop but he’d forgotten his wallet so we might be having to make a return and DS13 saw some Nike Jordan’s he liked but very sensibly he decided that $450 was a little bit too much for a pair of trainers. $450! Were they lined with gold?!?!

We were soon on our way to Universal and DH was over the moon that parking was indeed free after 6pm which was just as well because we got all the way to the entrance of Universal to show our tickets when I realised that I’d removed them from our lanyards the day we had express passes and put them in our travel wallet and so they were still in the villa. 🙈 I was very apologetic - DS13 was not very understanding! He got a McDonalds out of it.

We were going to just pick up Dominoes for tea as karting really ate into our daily budget but there was a 45 minute wait and so with DS16 not being particularly hungry and DS13 just having had McDonalds, we headed back to the villa and had homemade nachos instead.

I did have this for dessert though.


And I was kind enough to share it.

We finished the evening playing Jenga and Uno flip.


It really is nice to sit by the pool on an evening.

Tomorrow, we are going to Seaworld - I best remember the tickets. 😬
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