Archie's first Florida trip :-)

[jagfan85]

Hi all,

So I've been reading loads of trip reports lately, enjoyed them all and thought it would be good to do one myself.

So, about us...

Myself - I'm Gary, 32 and a southerner exiled in the midlands. I've been to Florida three times so far, once when I was 15 with the family, once in 2013 with Kate for our honeymoon and again in 2014 with Kate's family.

I don't really like having my photo taken and this is the only recent one I could find quickly

I like sports (football and American football mostly), gadgets and moaning. I don't think I've gone a day for the last year without moaning about something or other and I feel sorry for Kate as she takes the brunt of my moans!

The wife - Kate. She's 34 and is a hero for putting up with my moans We met 10 years ago, but it took me a year or so to pluck up the courage to ask her out. We met at work and she apparently liked me from day 1 but thought I was a player

She also doesn't like having her photo taken but is much more photogenic than me.

Her main likes are shopping and spending time with friends and family.

We both work in local government.

Last but not least...

Archie - our son

He is 2 and a half and along with our german shepherd puppy is the cause for most of my moans. I swear they team up with each other and cause as much chaos as possible. I feel sorry for our neighbour who must think that someone is being murdered in my house every 20 minutes from approximately 6am to 8pm every day

He enjoys jumping in muddy puddles and climbing anything (usually me or Kate).

The Holiday

So, we had no real plans to holiday this year. We went to Majorca last year to see how Archie was on a flight and he basically slept all the way there and back. We didn't really enjoy it though, Kate and I aren't really ones for sitting around so we were bored at the resort and all Archie wanted to do was climb one set of steps over and over.

We were thinking that we would look at booking for 2018 to give us time to save but I had a bit of a pants start to the year and decided to look at holidays to cheer myself up.

I have been matched betting (a semi-complicated way of placing bets to extract profit from bookmaker promotions whether they win or lose) for a year at this point and thought I would use some of my profits to treat us. I found what looked like a great deal on Thomas Cook's website so decided that we would book it.

So, we are flying from Stansted on 26/08/17 to MCO, the hotel is Clarion Inn & Suites near Universal (when I booked it, I thought it was actually the one next to the 528 so was shocked when I realised it was at Universal but actually really like the look of the Universal one) and a compact/intermediate car from Alamo. This came to £2200, we got £100 off so I decided to reserve seats as well.

We got row 14 so hopefully it will be quick to exit and it looks like no one has booked the remaining seat in the centre yet so fingers crossed we have a little bit more room!

At first (as we thought we were staying by the 528) we decided to just do Disney. So purchased 14 day tickets to Disney with Attraction Tickets Direct and they threw in Cirque Du Soleil tickets, Legoland tickets and a Ninjago figure

When I found out we were at Universal I started looking for 14 day tickets for there too. I can't remember what site I purchased them from but they were recommended on here.

At the time we booked the holiday, it was only us three. At Easter we got a German Shepherd puppy and called her Betsy.

She looks cute but is more like a shark at the moment. She will be looked after by Kate's parents who also have a puppy so they will have their hands full for a couple of weeks

We are travelling down to Stansted the day before and have booked the Days Inn.

I have created a plan but everything is subject to change. Two things will definitely happen:

1. We will spend quite a few evenings at Millers Ale House.
2. We will visit our friends Pat and John in Jacksonville. My grandparents me them years ago in Germany and every time I've visited Florida we've seen them. Last time we stopped in a hotel but this time they seem to want us to stop with them... we're not to sure at the moment, Archie is difficult around bed time and during the night so would prefer not to disturb them especially as John isn't in the best of health.

I've just brought a GoPro and trying to get my head around it all. We are rubbish when it comes to taking photo's but figured we would be able to film a lot and can get some good photos too. I don't think we've got any photo's from our previous visits

I think that's it for the time being. Thank you if you've got this far

[Laura_<3]

Sounds great, looking forward to following along

[jagfan85]

So we're one week away and both Kate and I are mega excited.

Archie loves the Disney characters but doesn't really respond to "we're going to see Mickey next week". He gets a bit excited about "we're going on an aeroplane next week" though, responding "we're going on a helicopter"!

So we've booked fast passes in all four parks so those days we are kind of determined to be rigid in our plans. The other days apart from one are flexible and we will see what happens. On 1st September, we travel to Jacksonville for one night and have booked the Doubletree on the Riverfront. It has views of Everbank field which I'm quite happy as I'm a fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars (in case my user name didn't give it away).

I've ordered a Fairfx card and waiting for that to arrive. A little nervous at the moment as I thought it would be a good idea to order it with £500 worth of $ on, rather than the minimum to get the free card. I only ordered it Tuesday so praying it arrives before we go. When it does turn up (which I'm sure it will) I will top it up with the rest of our funds.

All that's left to do really (other than haircut and shave for me and Kate having various beauty treatments) is to sort holiday insurance. I know this shouldn't be a last minute thing but we've always been last minute sort of people

Oh and finally, we decided to start potty training Archie last weekend. He's doing great, but I'm really looking forward to the copious trips to the loo whilst on the plane next week!

[jagfan85]

Fairfx card arrived this morning thankfully just waiting for the pin now, but not sure if it's necessarily needed unless withdrawing from ATM's? Last time we used a card, we just had to sign, occasionally.