Will we make this time?

[jengibbo]

Hi,

Like many people this is a rescheduled trip from 2020 albeit modified.
We were meant to go Easter 2020 with my parents staying a week in Orlando at Gryff’s villa and then a week at the beach. That was then rescheduled for last summer but no go.
So third time lucky.
My trip reports are quite short and sweet but hopefully of some interest to readers.

Cast:
Me- Jennifer (46) History teacher in secondary school
DH- Chris (48) surveyor
DS - Thomas (14)
DS - Ben who will have his 11th birthday in Orlando.

Plans and Accommodation:

We leave Preston on 30th July train to Heathrow. Flights from Manchester were ridiculous prices so Heathrow it is.
We are staying the night at Premier Inn Bath Road and will eat in the hotel.

Flight is with BA on the Sunday at 14:15 and we are flying to Miami with expected arrival 18.35.

We then have a night in the Hyatt House airport hotel which looks ok. Not sure what the food situation is but we will order a pizza if necessary.

Monday 1st August we have an early morning flight to Tallahassee where we will then pick up our hire car and drive about 4 hours through the Panhandle to Gulf Shores Alabama. This beach resort is just on the Alabama/Florida border but staying in Alabama was cheaper. We have an Airbnb booked for 5 nights. The condo is on a small complex with a pool and near to the beach. We intend to spend time on the beach and visit Mobile to see the USS Alabama and just generally chill out. We will also be visiting the famous Florabama restaurant.

On Saturday 6th August we leave the beach and drive towards Orlando. We have Saturday night in Ocala to break the journey up.
Sunday sees us driving to Tampa to Busch Gardens and a night in the Hampton Inn following a recommendation from @CornishFrogboy. Monday 8th August is our youngest 11th birthday so we are going to Busch gardens again in the morning. We intend to leave about 1pm and then drive into Orlando. We are staying in a condo in Windsor Hills resort. Ben has requested Cheesecake Factory for his birthday dinner.
We don’t have a lot of concrete plans for Orlando but will visit Aquatica and Seaworld. We are also hoping to go to KSC.

We have visited Disney on previous trips at Easter time. I think it’s just too expensive for us now and the long days in the heat would kill us. We last visited Florida in 2018 and didn’t go any parks and our trip was fabulous. Hopefully the tickets for Busch etc will provide the coaster and water park fix. These tickets are from 2020 and have been extended.
We have restaurant reservations at The Boathouse and Toothsome and we are hoping to meet up with Chris’ boss and his family for dinner and my friend from work is also visiting at the same time.

We leave Orlando on Sunday 14th flying from Miami early evening.

Here are a few photos of us recently.