Orlando and further afield to Miami & the Keys-Day1

[Guest]

Vacationers are Dollar Bill – AKA Bill and Jools AKA Julie.

Written by Jools photos taken by Bill.

Background.

This trip had been booked more than 12 months in advance. Although we prefer to fly from our local airport Newcastle we booked to fly from Manchester as we wanted to go for 3 weeks and that was not possible from Newcastle. As time went on and particularly after a brilliant holiday in Las Vegas and LA last Autumn/September we thought it would be good to see a bit more of Florida outside of Orlando so we decided upon a few nights in Miami and the Florida Keys as well.

Day 1 – Getting to Manchester.

The day had arrived for us to travel to Manchester for our overnight stay. I was amazed to wake up on the day at 9.30. this is unheard of for me as I sleep badly and always wake up early. What was more astonishing was that Bill had been up since 6.30. I refused to believe this until he showed me a post he’d made on the Dibb at around that time in the morning.

We left home for Manchester at 11am. I had some doubts about whether the cases would go in the back of my Mini with the seats folded down. Bill assured me they would. I secretly hoped they wouldn’t so we could travel in my ancient but very comfortable Escort instead. However the cases did fit so it was to be a bumpy ride sitting on the hard mini seat for me. The A1 was very busy this bank holiday weekend, but we were still at the Marriott Manchester airport by 1.30. This was the first time we’d stayed there and it was a very pleasant place. The room appeared quite small but it had a huge and very comfy bed in it and was well stocked with tea coffee and biscuits so we were happy.


The bathroom also had some lovely aromatherapy products in there so I was doubly pleased. There were also some very pleasant gardens to walk in but as it was a bit nippy we didn’t bother.


We only stayed at the hotel for about 10 minutes before getting back into the car and going to the Trafford Centre as Bill wanted to buy a camera bag for the camera he bought a couple of weeks earlier. It only took about 10 minutes to get to the Trafford Centre where we spent about 3 hours. Bill got his camera bag and I got a few holiday things. I also bought some Boots Insomnia tablets to try to knock myself out for the night.

We went to Pizza Hut for tea and had the usual Pizza Hut stuff which was satisfying and cheap. We then returned to the Marriott watched some TV, had a drink in the bar and went to bed at around 11. The tablets did the trick for me I went straight to sleep and stayed asleep until 3.30 which was a great result.

Tomorrow – Our flight to Sanford and arrival at Horizons by Marriott.

[Bozza]

Been looking forward to these - great stuff!

[Treacle44]

Gorgeous pics, that bed looks so inviting!

[Guest]

The hotel looks lovely, nice grounds too.

[Guest]

Great start, cant wait for the rest!

[tura2]

great start looking forward to the rest of your reports

[Michelle]

I bet you had a numb bum those seats are pretty uncomfy.

Great start, looking forward to the rest.

[TinkTatoo]

Great start looking forward to reading more

[gail33]

Hotel room looked really nice!

[jandlsmum]

great start
jayne