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Old 12 Feb 16, 09:05 AM  
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closeder
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Keeping the Grandparents Up To Date Easter 2016 New


So attempting my first ever trip report for our up and coming trip to Florida with really one main reason in mind, the Grandparents! As an avid trip report follower I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing about everyone else's holidays and thought there would be no better way to keep my lovely Mum and Dad up to date on our daily holiday progress than having a go at this trip report writing myself! I am hoping it's the next best thing to them coming with us as they have been on every Florida holiday with us for the last five years, you can see them in my photo collage, but this holiday is going to be different for quite a few reasons.

Firstly it was booked relatively last minute, (mid January this year) and we nearly always book as soon as we return from one trip to Florida for the following year, secondly we always visit during the summer school holidays and this one will be during Easter (obviously from the title you know that) thirdly we are not visiting Disney😱, and we always do Disney, lastly the kids don't know and unfortunately I suppose they kind of expect that we will always go to Florida during the summer since we have been every year for the last six years, so we are thinking of leaving it right up til the last minute to tell them, they think they are going to our caravan for week which bless them they are really happy and excited for so I hope Florida as an alternative will be a good surprise! Oh and also different as I've said, no Gran and Grandpa.

So who are we? Well there is me, Hazel, aged 39, on the cusp of a big birthday next year (January) however I seem to have managed to convince hubby that we should really have two trips to Florida this year as it's no fun having a birthday in January as you can't go anywhere then as no school holidays so let's build up to it by celebrating this year😉, I love to plan, love Disney, love shopping, love eating, love Florida, love The Dibb


Hubby Derek aged 43, loves our Florida holidays and usually happy to go along with my plans. DS Murray aged 10, football daft Man City fan, loves playing minecraft and Fifa on his xbox, watching minecraft videos on you tube, huge Star Wars and Lego fan, diary of a wimpy kid and Harry Potter books Re his favourite. DD Katie aged 8, same minecraft obsession as her brother and loves playing with her lego friends collection, barbies and has a fairly new obsession with build a bear, likes to read and is currently reading my collection of famous five books from when I was her age!



Here is a pic of the kids thoroughly soaked from the water play area at Magic Kingdom, love this photo as it just sums up how much Florida is our happy place (most of the time, we all have our moments)

So really just trying this out as a way of keeping my Mum and Dad updated and if anyone else want to follow along, then welcome. I'll try to update with our plans over the next few days😄



So why no Disney? Well because we are going to this place in June, Disney's Yacht Club! Sooo excited for this and we are going to totally emerge ourselves in the Disney bubble then. Also I sold this trip to my Hubby as a budget Florida trip, we had been looking to get away to somewhere sunny but with Easter being so early many European destinations weren't hot enough for my liking and the likes of Tenerife was working out very pricey for an all inclusive hotel on the beach. I am a sun worshipper and would love nothing better than lying in the sun for two weeks however the rest of my family have other ideas and is really why Florida is the perfect destination for us, it satisfies all our needs. Before long I was looking at sky scanner and with the kids being that bit older now a two stop flight wasn't out of the question, bringing the flight prices down to a more reasonable level.



So we are flying with British airways on Sunday 27th March Edinburgh to Heathrow to Philadelphia to Orlanda International, leaving on Saturday 9th April Orlando to JFK to Edinburgh so less stops on the way home which is better. For the first six nights we are staying at the Hilton Orlando on International drive.









We have returned to the same villa the last couple of years in Orlando which we love and feel completely at home in, however they didn't have our dates for the first week so we decided a hotel on International Drive might be a great option, again a first for us but hotel rooms are more manageable now again as the kids are older we are not having to put them to sleep and creep about the room, we will all be crashed out at the same time. The pools at the hotel appealed and we are determined to take this holiday at a slower pace than usual and spend some time enjoying the facilities. For our second week we are moving to our beloved home from home villa.









So we have bought tickets for Seaworld, Aquatica, Busch Gardens and Legoland. These were much better for the budget £432 for the four of us, it's those Disney tickets which push the price sky high and I just could'nt justify the spend. We used these tickets last summer and it was our first visit to Busch Gardens, absolutely loved it and such a change of pace. Fair to say we are not the most adventurous on roller coasters and some of their big rides were not for us, however the animals, shows and tamer rides were loved by us all. We had a two day ticket for Disney on top of these tickets last year as everyone told me we had done Disney to death the year before and didn't need to go for any longer than that, I disagreed but went along with that, needless to say we are staying on site in June because I was right, we missed doing more days. We are staying in a hotel I have always craved to stay in though so worked out well for me😀 Back to this holiday we will visit Boardwalk and we plan on having a good nosey around the resort, not that I haven't before but now we are staying there I will look at it with a different perspective I think. We will also go to Disney Springs so I will get my Disney fix that way.






Here is a couple of Busch Gardens photos too. We loved these tigers, we spent ages watching them, although I remember the queue to get into that viewing platform took ages, then I was ushering the kids straight back out so we didn't keep people waiting lol.



I am really looking forward to telling the kids we are going to Legoland too as after our visit last year we told them that would probably be our last time as we had already planned a Disney only holiday the following year and for any subsequent trips to Florida we had felt they would probably be too old for this. When we has discussed this at the time the kids took this very well and agreed, saying their goodbyes to everything as we left, however since we have been back they talk often about how much they enjoyed certain things here like the Chima ride where we all got soaked and Katie, even although she had her eyes shut tight the whole time and needed a good deal of persuading to get on it, said she wished she had gone on the new Lego friends ride again. So I can't wait for them to find out as they are really big Lego fans and will be really excited.



So I'll probably update later after we have surprised the kids and maybe firmed up some more plans, of course as this is a different holiday for us we are not as planned as usual either, I normally have every day laid out months in advance and the Summer holiday is staring to look like that already with our ADRs, but as I said before we are trying to take a more leisurely pace! Just laughing at this photo as although we will no doubt visit this ride and attraction again I couldn't help thinking that we have penguins in Edinburgh Zoo and although it is almost permanently cold in Scotland, they survive quite fine thank you without it having to be that cold! I think we spent about two minutes in there.


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Old 12 Feb 16, 11:04 AM  
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What a great job! I'm not the grandparents but I enjoyed it!
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Old 12 Feb 16, 11:07 AM  
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Sounds really lovely Hazel, looking forward to following along!

The pools at the Hilton look fun, I know my two would enjoy the slide and the lazy river
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Old 12 Feb 16, 11:39 AM  
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Originally Posted by BerkshireBugsy View Post
What a great job! I'm not the grandparents but I enjoyed it!
Oh thank you, I think if I can manage to work the app okay it will be a great way to keep them informed ,a bonus if anyone else enjoys so thanks for reading.
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Old 12 Feb 16, 11:42 AM  
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Originally Posted by JoJo88 View Post
Sounds really lovely Hazel, looking forward to following along!

The pools at the Hilton look fun, I know my two would enjoy the slide and the lazy river
Thank you I love reading your reports, I'm looking forward to the kids seeing the pools although I might have a hard time convincing them to go anywhere else!
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Old 12 Feb 16, 11:44 AM  
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We had a slightly different situation as we went out for 3 weeks and the grandparents were joining us for the last two. This was their second visit and they were getting very excited so I created them a "DVD Trailer" which contained loads of memories from their first trip set to my (sadly late) father in laws favourite piece of music which was "Reflections" from the EPCOT fireworks. They loved it. When I need a Disney fix I still watch it from time to time. And it made them even more excited to come out and join us for the last two weeks!
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Old 12 Feb 16, 11:52 AM  
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That sounds brilliant, if this report goes well I definitely plan to try one for our Summer trip which they will be coming on with us, as I usually put all our photos on facebook for my Mum and Dad so they have them too, but a trip report means you can remember exactly what you were doing at the time.
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Old 12 Feb 16, 12:20 PM  
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New Photo Added by closeder - 12 Feb 16 11:20 AM.
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Old 12 Feb 16, 12:36 PM  
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Originally Posted by closeder View Post
That sounds brilliant, if this report goes well I definitely plan to try one for our Summer trip which they will be coming on with us, as I usually put all our photos on facebook for my Mum and Dad so they have them too, but a trip report means you can remember exactly what you were doing at the time.
If I can remember I will dig out the video and post it on youtube and put the link here. You may (or may not!) get some inspiration from the days when editing and posting videos was still fairly unusual!
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Old 12 Feb 16, 02:23 PM  
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I'm on board and I think it's a great way to keep the grandparents involved. Can't wait for more.
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