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Old 17 Apr 17, 05:50 PM  
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kaytronika
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Location: Liverpool
Summer 2016 - The Big Birthday Trip - Day 1 : Travel Day

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I awoke with a bit of a thick head after having a beverage or two the night before... The packing was all done and so it was just a matter of waiting for the taxi to the airport. We made sure everything was turned off and triple checked the back door after I'd spent a good hour panicking that I'd left it unlocked on the last trip.

No pressure, no worries, good to g... Wait a moment, what's that in the fish tank? Hmmm, almost could have sworn I'd seen a baby fish... There it is again! and another!

Oh well, not too much we can do now, all being well they'll be fine in there!

The taxi turned up in time and our luggage and the BB8 carry-on case were loaded up... Off to the airport! Woohoo!

Security was a breeze fortunately as none of our bags were subject to extra screening. Had this been the case there was quite a backlog of cases to be looked at.

Our first stop was to Frankie & Bennys for a spot of breakfast, usual breakfast items, bacon and beans on toast for me. Washed down with an orange juice.

We now settled for our usual first beer of the holiday at the now under renovation bar in the terminal. We watched as our plane was wheeled in to place, once again we were flying on Barbarella!

As Gemma and Gerry enjoyed their second beers we were serenaded by the sounds of pneumatic drills lifting the old floor of the bar area.

The flight was ok, not great, just ok... I watched Deadpool which was reasonably funny and chose the chilli and potatoes meal which was terrible. It seemed to take forever and at one point I hit my limit and had a toddleresque mini-meltdown in my seat.

Upon landing we learned that we had arrived after the London flight which lead to reasonably long queues at immigration. Honestly, though, the staff were well on top of it and the queues went down in good time. Perhaps 45 minutes later we got the cases and made our way to the tram.

First stop in the airport was a for a drink and to regroup after the flight. Just three of us on the flight this time, with plans to meet my sister at our villa.

We headed to the rental car garage with Skip the Counter form in hand. We had again chosen midsize SUV as this just seems to meet our needs perfectly and makes for something different for me to drive.

The choice wasn't great. Jeep Patriot, Chevrolet Trax, Jeep Compass... We chose the latter. A reasonably basic model with a rather thirsty engine. The drive wasn't too bad in honesty. I quite liked it, but I'm really not fussy with cars. I did find it rather humerous that flooring it caused the engine to roar in to life, but provide precisely no acceleration. I quietly double checked that I wasn't towing a boat.

The next part of our journey was aided with Google Maps and a Three Feel at Home sim.. It's nice to have the data as Google will attempt to avoid traffic, but don't rely on it because it does have a habit of breaking at inopportune moments. For this journey it did the trick and guided us south on to the new exit road towards the I4.

Our villa was at Florida Pines just off the 27 near Davenport. Our first ever experience of a villa. The drive took maybe 35 or 40 minutes and was pretty easy going. It was certainly nice to be back in Florida again, it really does feel like home now.

We were greeted at the villa by my sister. She's also new to villas and was happy with our choice.

The villa was a four bedroom, two bathroom house with a south facing garden and two nice big living spaces inside. Some of the furnishing was perhaps a little dated, but we had no real complaints about the place. We really enjoyed it actually and would be more than happy to rent it again. The pool was fantastic.

After a tour of the villa and unpacking we decided to head to Publix to stock up on supplies which mainly consisted of beer, M&Ms and cinnamon buns for breakfast.

Gemma and I weren't ready to call it quits for the night, we wanted to get Magic Bands so I offered to drive over to Disney Springs. My sister opted to join us.

At Disney Springs our first port of call was to get some food! We'd heard lots about Earl of Sandwich but never actually tried it. Time to rectify that! We all ordered something different and also ordered something to take back for Gerry because we're nice like that. I had the Hawaiian and it was really good. After complaining about our food choices on the last trip we were off to a flying start on this one!

With food taken care of it was time to get Magic Bands. We'd decided to buy a new one for each trip and keep them as souvineers. I bought the limited edition Kylo Ren band on the last trip and was amused to see it still in stock on this one. This time round I was going big on the Limited Edition bands... I picked the Finding Dory limited to 3500 band costing me a whopping $33! Gemma chose a fantastic Disney Villains band which perfectly accompanied the new phone case she'd bought for the trip before she left the UK.

With the bands set up and a new 2016 lanyard and pin badges bought we wearily headed back to the car and made the trip back to the villa. The drive was probably around 20-25 minutes door to door, so not too bad at all.

Back at the villa we relaxed with a couple of cold beers before heading to bed for the night.

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Edited at 10:37 AM.
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Old 18 Apr 17, 10:00 PM  
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alansmed
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Earl of sandwich is soooo good. Will be one of our first choices when we arrive. A nice steady first day. Looking forward to reading on.
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Old 22 Apr 17, 07:47 PM  
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lis34
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Join Date: Aug 09
Location: East Lothian
Looking forward to more of your vlogs.
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Old 5 Oct 17, 07:46 AM  
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mitch-fishguard
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Join Date: Dec 15
Location: Fishguard
Mate, watched all your videos on Youtube. You will never grasp how informative they actually are. Great viewing.!
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Old 25 Nov 17, 08:46 AM  
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Taffy1959
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Taffy1959's Reviews
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Great travel day and you had my favourite Hawaiian at Earl of Sandwich
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