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Old 27 May 11, 11:11 AM  
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**Tracey**
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Road Trip Report

I have been home one week from the most wonderful holiday and I have the blues even though we are going to Cyprus at the end of September for a friend’s wedding.

We did so much on holiday it would take too long to do a complete trip report so I am going to keep this fairly brief.

Mark and I were in Florida for 24 days over April and May. The weather was absolutely fantastic, warm without the real humidity that we experienced the first time we went which was September. We had our first experience of lovebugs, we didn’t love them. Our car was absolutely plastered with them at the end of the holiday, gotta feel sorry for the person who had to clean that car. We had one day when it rained for about 4 hours, unfortunately it was the day that we went to the Players golf tournament but it soon dried up.

We started off in Orlando staying in the Buena Vista Palace, a lovely hotel only 5 minutes walk to DTD. We had one full day in the Magic Kingdom and I mean a full day, think we were there for 12 hours which included lunch in the Liberty Tree Tavern (yum) and the Wishes Dessert Party (another yum). We managed to squeeze some shopping in and there were plenty of clothes bargains to be had.

Naples – We stayed in the Naples Bay resort which was another lovely hotel with a fab pool area. Naples is a really relaxed area with a lovely beach and lots of bars and restaurants one of my favourites was the Yabba bar and grill, lovely food and great cocktails especially the lava slide. We could easily have stayed here for longer.

Key West – We stayed in Eden House, which is a lovely friendly hotel with a lovely pool area, the only down side was that the room and bed were very small plus the ac was loud. The hotel doesn’t have a bar but they wheel out a drinks trolley at 4.00pm for a free happy hour. Everyone seems to make it back in time for this and it is a really great way to get to meet all the other guests. Key West was a really chilled out relaxed place. We loved Sloppy Joe’s both for the food and music another great bar was Willie T’s. A highlight was going deep sea fishing where we caught some mahi-mahi.

Miami – We stayed in the Colony Hotel at South Beach, a nice hotel in a great location but unfortunately the bed was rock hard. We went to see a baseball match between Marlins and Phillies which I really enjoyed. Miami was good to see but it wasn’t as nice as we were expecting and I don’t think we would go back. The News Cafe and Eleventh Street Diners were both lovely and well worth a visit. Miami was the most expensive place that we visited and about the only place where they add a tip to your bill automatically.

Daytona – We stayed in the Plaza Resort on Daytona Beach, a nice hotel with a basic pool area. We were using Daytona as a base to visit the Players Tournament in Sawgrass as it was fairly close. Daytona was ok but I don’t think we would go back. While there we went to the speedway for a tour which was really interesting, it must be amazing on a race day. We had a full day at the golf and even though it rained it was still great. I have never watched golf before but it was really interesting, Mark kept telling me how the course was exactly the same as on the x box and he managed to wish Graeme McDowell good luck so he was a very happy bunny. I would recommend the Oyster Pub in Daytona, a great sports bar with decent food and cheap pitchers of beer.

Orlando – we spent our last days staying in the Doubletree at the entrance to Universal. This hotel was fab and we would definitely stay here again. It was only a 15 minute walk to Universal which was good as the last hotel shuttle left at 10.00am. We had a 4 day pass for Universal and we made the most of it going on all our favourite rides and a few that we missed out on last time. We loved the WWOHP although it was incredibly busy. The Dragon Challenge was always quiet and the longest we queued for this was about 15 minutes. We were disappointed with the Flight of the Hippogriff which always had a huge queue usually about 60 minutes, definitely not worth it. The Forbidden Journey was great, we had a bum bag with us and would recommend this as there was always a huge queue for the lockers.

We also went to see Bon Jovi in concert which was amazing and definitely a highlight of the trip.

All in all we had a wonderful holiday, and I would love to go back again although I would need to start saving.

If you would like to take a look at our photos and videos these are the links

s1082.photobucket/albums/...aceyflorida11/

youtube/user/markspencemark
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Old 27 May 11, 01:27 PM  
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shirley
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Good mini trippie, off to check out your hotel in Miami as we have 2 nights there at the end of our holiday.
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Old 27 May 11, 01:42 PM  
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tiggersmum
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Sounds like a fabulous time was had, the photos are great. I used to love Fly Drive tours around back in the days before kids!
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Old 28 May 11, 09:02 AM  
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voddygirl
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What a great road trip ..so jealous you got to see Bon Jovi
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Old 28 May 11, 12:07 PM  
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bella9
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Enjoyed your trippy/piccies, looks like you had a great time. Agree with you about Miami, we went for the first time last year, however DD16 loved it so we're staying 5 days this time.
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Old 28 May 11, 12:10 PM  
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madhatter3
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Sounds like you had a wonderful road trip, all those lovely memories will keep you going.
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Old 28 May 11, 03:14 PM  
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MOUSEMARSH
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We do a similliar trip every year and always end up in Key West. The sunsets are superb and the bars even better Looks like you had a great trip
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