"Cyprus my backside!" 2016 Pre Trip Report

[wizzo]

"Cyprus my backside!" 2016 Pre Trip Report

Follow this trip as it happens on Twitter @tweetwizzo

Welcome to 2016’s trip report. I have no idea how this will pan out but with two consecutive years of expensive, long duration Florida holidays behind us, the intention this year was to do some work around the house and have ‘cheapie’ in Europe.

So, welcome to our Magaluf 2016 Pre Trippy!

Just before you click your back button…………I’m joking! We’re going to Florida

I decided a long time ago that we would be booking late and looking for a bargain. Gone were the days of looking for flights as soon as we got home from last years’ holiday. I didn’t setup kayak/skyscanner alerts (or look on package holiday sites) until around about May this year.

I found this very liberating. I didn’t know where in the world we would end up but knew we would have 2 weeks in the sun somewhere. There was no stress involved at all.

We had a real impulse to return to Cyprus, a place we’ve been before and really loved. A lot of my searches in May/June focused on flights and villas in Cyprus and also the canaries and the rest of Greece.

I always thought that cheap indirect flights to Florida would turn up late but we were very much leaning towards Cyprus regardless. Our dates were more or less fixed to the last two weeks of the summer holidays.

This is the summer shutdown for Lauren and Maddy’s swimming scheme. It’s the only break they get from swimming all year (they swim over Christmas). Yes, you read that right. Maddy is only 9 and she swims five times a week, every week of the year (apart from this summer holiday). Lauren currently swims six times a week and twice in the gym. It’s relentless but they love it and Lauren in particular is making great strides forward with her swimming.

So in early July, I had a lovely villa in my sights in Coral Bay (Cyprus) and a good handle on flights. It was going to cost us about £850 each for a fortnight. I then spotted tuned my focus on making sure there wasn’t anything tempting to Florida. There was. I saw indirect flights via Charles de Gaulle for £300. The drawback was that it was a one off and as we would have had to spend the first night in a Charles de Gaulle hotel it would have been a 13 night holiday. With last year’s jaunt being 23 nights this was a step too far for Lynn.

The other prices for indirect flights were nothing special. Then I re-checked my old mate Richard Branson’s route to Orlando via Glasgow. Not an airport we have ever flown from but I was fully aware of the Scottish kids being back at school for those last two weeks of the English holidays.

‘Rich’ was asking over £1000 each (miles plus money) for flights from Manchester but he was far more accommodating from Glasgow and offered me them for £500!

Lynn and I had a VERY brief conversation about it and they were booked! Cyprus my backside!

Right, there’s the back story, should we remind ourselves of the cast before moving on to our plans for the trip?



Paul (wizzo) – Professional moaner, tight as a ducks ≈≈≈≈, likes a laugh now and then, writes up stories of his life in Florida more or less full-time now as I’m so slow!
Lynn (Lomaddy) – Nags for England, puts up with me, does both things quieter with a cocktail in her hand.
Lauren 12 (Ripriderocket) – Still a swimmer, still no time for anything else! County finalist, Regional qualifier, winner of most improved swimmer 2016 (Can you tell I’m proud of her?)
Maddy 9 (Maddymouse) – Still a ‘little kid’ (which pleases me greatly), Development squad swimmer, has a real gift for sarcasm these days (Very proud of her too)


We won’t have the Mother in Law with us this year!

Okay, so onto the plan for this year……

Those of you that have read about our previous adventures will know that we have never been able to decide whether we liked an on-site stay or an off-site stay. We’ve concluded that we like both and so have had mixed holidays for a while now. Following last year’s holiday though we decided we needed a break from Disney hotels and the dining plan. If you haven’t done it, it’s brilliant and an Epcot or Magic Kingdom resort in particular is an amazing thing but we wanted to get back to our own pool and a bit more variety in food. Those of you that read last year’s report may remember that salad sandwiches in the villa with cookies and Cool Whip for dessert was just about our favourite meal of the holiday.

So we knew we wanted a villa. We also knew that we wanted to go back to St. Pete Beach but for longer than we have done in the past. The decision was made to split the holiday into 9 nights in Orlando and 5 nights in St. Pete.

Our usual haunt of the Grand Plaza St. Pete was soon booked for five nights at the bargain price of £80 per night.



Now if you think about what I’d booked so far, I’ve booked direct flights to Orlando for £2000 and found a lovely hotel on the beach for £80 a night. I said to Lynn at the time that if we had stayed for 14 nights at the Grand Plaza that would have worked out at £780 each self-catering.

Cast your mind back…….that’s cheaper than Cyprus!

Anyone who says Florida is too expensive for a beach holiday just needs to look harder. Alright, you need a car thrown into that but we would have needed one in Cyprus. We would have also had to feed ourselves but you can still do that cheaper in America. It does prove that you can go long haul self-catering for less than a lot of package holidays in Europe.

A week long search for a villa then ensued, we wanted the same sort of area where we usually stay (Formosa Gardens) and looked at our usual resort of Sunset lakes but fancied a change at Emerald Islands or Windsor Hills. There were plenty available but a lot were silly money considering they didn’t’ have a booking in August already. A lot of villas I enquired about showed availability on their calendars but when the owners were emailed to get a quote they said their villa was already booked! This was annoying.

We almost booked a villa on Lindfields (we’ve stayed on this estate before). The pool was perfect for us. It was larger than usual and was rectangular. In the end though, we booked a villa on Sunset Lakes yet again mainly for the view from the deck and pool. The Lindfields villa just had a white fence to look at.

Ironically, the villa we have booked is the villa we had booked last year before the owner sold it from under our noses and had to find another one at the last minute.

The new owner seems really nice and has been nothing but helpful so far. Let’s hope that lasts and she doesn’t sell it in the next bloody fortnight!

It won’t look dissimilar to last years!



A car was soon secured for 14 days and I’ve gone for a RAV4 or similar from Alamo via Rentalcars. Me and the kids tried once again to get Lynn to travel light so we could get a convertible Mustang but like every year, she wasn’t having it.

So, park tickets. Now this was a real issue. We’ve only got 9 nights in Orlando. Our usual batch of 14 day tickets for WDW, Universal, Seaworld etc etc was out of the question. We simply wouldn’t get value for money or we would end up rushing the parks we did.

One set of parks had to be missed this year <HORROR>

It was horrible to comprehend in a way but initially we decided to skip WDW this year. All the parks had a new ride this year. SeaWorld had Mako, Universal had Kong, Busch had Cobra’s Curse, Epcot had Frozen.

Our family like thrill rides and Lynn and Lauren in particular quickly ditched Disney World. Maddy wasn’t in when we had this ‘family’ discussion and when she got back we broached the subject of dropping Disney this year in favour of other things.

She cried. It was the cutest thing ever.

In that instant, I knew I couldn’t go to Florida without a taste of WDW either. It would be hollow to me. I had to find a compromise.

I looked at combo tickets and how we could shoe horn in a couple of Disney days. We found what we thought was the perfect combo package; it included all the SeaWorld Parks, Universal and 2 days in WDW (No park hopping).

Everyone seemed happy with this solution. We’d get to ride all the big rides and still get a little taste of Disney…..happy days.

Well, all was well until I said “So which two parks will we do?”

The rest “Not bothered about Animal Kingdom, Epcot it a must and you can’t go to WDW without walking up Main St! ”

Me “So you’re skipping Hollywood Studios?”

The rest “Yep”

Me “So you aren’t bothered about Tower of Terror?”

The rest “aaaaahhhhhh”

We were back to square one! This was a tough decision but I wasn’t spending £2500 on park tickets for 8 full days in Orlando.

I have a level head in these situations and knew I needed to steer the girls into a sensible solution. We started with the must do rides which were, Mako, Manta, Sheikra, Cheetah Hunt, Cobra’s Curse, Tower of Terror, Haunted Mansion, Soarin’, Mission Space (there were plenty of other WDW rides) and finally Kong.

I knew myself that I was only going to Universal for Reign of Kong this time. I love Dragon’s Challenge and Hulk but prefer Sheikra and Manta. I put it to the girls that we were going to Universal just for Reign of Kong and last year we didn’t spend much time in Universal anyway. We’ve seen everything Harry Potter has to offer and wouldn’t queue longer than 20 minutes for Gringotts now anyway.

I said “Kong isn’t going anywhere, why don’t we get a WDW – SeaWorld combo for 14 nights?”

I listed the unlimited visits to MK, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, both Disney waterparks, SeaWorld, Aquatica & Busch.

Finally, we had a resolution. So we are giving Universal a miss this year. We have plenty to fit in and a visit or two to Busch while we are on the Gulf Coast.

Skipping or limiting access to WDW just wasn’t an option for us when it came to the crunch. Things may change in years to come though as the girls get older.

I booked a Premier Inn room for the night before we fly at Glasgow Airport and 14 days of car parking and we are just about sorted. I’m dreading the drive home but it’s only an hour longer than the drive we’ve had many times from Manchester. I will stock the car up with cans of red bull before we leave for the airport.

As I write this we only have 17 days to go! Shortest countdown we’ve ever had. We booked flights 5 weeks before departure.

Countdown template needed some serious tweaking to accommodate such a short number of days!



Have I missed anything? It all seems to have gone far too well. Then again this will be our 11th trip as a family; we really should have it sussed by now.

Lynn and I are very much looking forward to 5 nights in St. Pete. Work has been relentless and stressful this year and we really need a break to recharge the batteries. It can’t come soon enough.

I hope we have plenty of funny things happen to us this year. I always worry that one of these years we won’t have any comical disasters or run ins. I’ve said it before but I don’t make this stuff up, if some days aren’t so funny, it’s a reflection on the day rather than me not putting any effort in! Fingers crossed we have the usual tales to tell.

I’ve come to the end of this waffle now. You regulars know the tradition that follows…….

We will ride the 'Big ones'



We wil go 'Hands up'



We won't talk to buoys Lauren!



We will bomb.



We won't ponder



We will smile



You've heard about Brexit girls so we won't be shopping!



You still won't be able to blow bubble rings!



I will!



We will brave the August rain



We will soak up the sun



We will make the most of every day



We won't bite!



We will feed the birds



We will feed 'The Birds'



We won't touch the wildlife



We will take time to soak up the magic



We will keep Lynn lubricated with drinks around the world



We won't take elbows off the table



We will laugh at the misfortune of others



We will remember guinea pigs passed



We won't make small weiner jokes



We will wait our turn on the A/C



We won't grow up too fast



We won't photobomb!



We will smile



We won't grow up too fast



We won't laugh at the goat's wattles!



We will play with the inappropriately named 'ToyPedo'



We won't moan about having to wait for the rain to ease.



We will wait until the photo is taken!



We will smile



We won't photobomb!



We will go 'Hands up'



but above all else... we will... love every minute!




It's doubtful that there will be any updates prior to departure so I’ll see you on Day 1 !

[Melbatb]

Have a fabulous trip!

[Leia77]

Hurrah! Can't wait. Good price you gor in your flights

[mick]

Looking forward to following your holiday I'm urge it will be wonderful as usual

Joan

[Tartan Tigger]

I wish I had been able to get my flights with Virgin from Glasgow at that price. Hope you all have a great time. Look forward to your trip report. 😀

[slow.jo]

Who hoo! You know I would have read it even if you were going to Cyprus

It's exciting to read the final plan having had the flight will they won't they over whatsapp!

Bless Maddy and her Disney tears

That sure is a kinky bitey photo Lynn, it made me feel funny lololol

Jo xx

[curry1402]

Looking forward to reading this Wizzo ! Have a wonderful holiday (love how you used logic to convince yourself Florida was the cheaper option )

[Jedi Princess]

Have a fabulous time👍

[Dissie]

Yay, have a great time

[Bazinga 39]

Yay a new trip report, can't wait to read it