Archive for July, 2009
Even on Vacation the same rules apply!!
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
Just listening to the local news here in Florida and a couple have been arrested for leaving two children in a Disney hotel room on their own. The kids were aged 2 & 4!! The parents (one of whom was a school counsellor, of all things!) had gone to the pool at the Carribean Beach Hotel and left the kids behind. When arrested they couldn’t understand what the fuss was about – they were on vacation in the happiest place on earth, so it was OK, right?
No!! The same rules apply as at home. Whether it be at the Theme Parks, Hotels, Villas or especially Water Parks. I can never understand why people think it’s ok to leave kids alone while on Holiday. You would never leave them alone at your local shopping centre while you went off shopping, would you?
The same applies to security. I took Emily to Hollywood Studios yesterday and was amazed to see the amount of strollers left unattended with bags hanging off them. I would assume this would be like a pickpockets buffet, but people are lulled into a false sense of security while in Disney. Not a wise thing to do IMHO.
Anyway, Hollywood Studios was as good as ever, although the cutbacks are showing in that there was no Fantasmic yesterday so my plans for that were thwarted (perhaps for the best as I am pretty sure the darker side of the show would have scared the bejesus out of Emily) Instead, we caught the friendship boat over to the Boardwalk and had a lovely stroll followed by dinner and ice cream at Beaches N’ Cream. Lovely.
Never take your kids out in Florida without a bathing suit!
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
We got caught short today. After a pretty good (and cheap!) lunch at Sweet Tomatoes we decided on the spur of the moment to visit Downtown Disney. Now it was hotter than the surface of the sun today – about 94 degrees , so on spotting the fountains next to Earl of Sandwich Emily decided that running through the water was just what she needed. (Actually, so did I, but it seemed to be a kids only passtime so I decided not to join in.}
All the kids enjoying the fountains has one thing in common – they were all wearing bathing suits to frolic in the spouty water. Unfortunately we did not come prepared and Emily had no such attire. She had to make do with just her t-shirt and knickers (oh the shame!) Needless to say she got a good soaking and we then had to make our way home with her topless and clad in just a pair of shorts! – good job shes only 3!
Lesson learned – always keep an emergency costume in the car while in Florida. You learn something new every day, don’t you?
Also, got an unexpected visit this evening from the neighbours. Very friendly they were too so hello to Dawn and Paul, you are now immortalized on my blog. 
A Beautiful Florida Day
Saturday, July 18th, 2009
Today has been a beautiful sunny summer day in Florida, with temperatures in the 90’s, sunshine with a few fluffy clouds in the sky. Perfect.
Dragging the kids out of the pool to do anything productive was impossible so they stayed there, wrinkling up like prunes until hunger eventually forced them out.
We dined at T-Rex cafe at Downtown Disney, a beautifully themed (if noisy) eaterie which I was amazed to get a walk up reservation at 4pm for dinner. Not a cheap place this, none of the Downtown Disney restaurants are, but we managed to escape lightly by only ordering an appetiser and a kids meal. The portions are huge here and it proved to be more than enough.
The plan was to also have dessert ( the chocolate volcano thing looked scrummy) but the onset of the restaurants ‘meteor shower’ accompanied by roaring dinosaurs and indoor lightning sent Emily into spasms of fear so we beat a hasty retreat! All in all, an OK experience and one we were glad to have done but probably wouldn’t repeat.
On a completely different note, we met with our handyman George today to finalise plans for the new games room in the Villa. We’ve been to’ing and fro’ing for ages about how get a great games room which can still be used in the Florida heat. Without air conditioning any games room in a garage will quickly boil anyone alive before they’ve managed to win the first round of pool.
Thankfully George has come up with an air conditioning unit which will keep the room cool (fingers crossed!) Plus he’s going to do all the pesky decorating, saving me much work and sweating so I am a truly happy bunny tonight
He starts work next week and I can’t wait to see the final results and get the new photos published on the site.
What a Great Day!
Friday, July 17th, 2009
Yesterday was travelling day and therefore not officially part of the holiday. We had some great flights with Continental which gave us impressive views of New York and the Statue of Liberty while landing at Newark; plus a stunning view of the Space Shuttle launch during our descent into Orlando, the whole thing then descended into chaos when a massive storm engulfed Orlando International shortly after touchdown. This, of course, meant that Baggage Handlers cowered under a bridge somewhere while our bags remained on the plane for two and a half hours! We finally arrived, knackered, at the villa at 10pm
Putting all that behind us we were up with the lark and off to Disney for our breakfast date with Mickey and friends at the Contemporary Hotel – Chef Mickeys.
Any fears I had of Emily being scared of the characters quickly proved unfounded as she laughed, danced, kissed and twirled dresses with the characters. The latter only being with Minnie as they were wearing matching attire. A great time was had by all and we followed the meal up with a round trip of Bay lake on the monorail, catching a glimpse of the 5* hotels on the way. A true Disney fix without having to spend the necessary $$$’s on a Disney Ticket for the parks.
We followed our Disney morning up with a trip to Premium Outlets where we were surprisingly restrained and only came away with sunglasses. Becky, the oldest daughter, was desperate for new Crocs sandals but they didn’t have her size – meaning a trip to Florida Mall at some point!
A quickie visit to Target for foodstuffs was followed by an afternoon in the pool and barbie for tea.
What a great day…. roll on tomorrow!
The First One
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
Or, now I’ve got me a blog, what am I supposed to do with it?
I’ve been thinking of starting a blog for some time. Everyone seems to be doing it, don’t they? Expressing their innermost thinking to the world and describing what they are doing every minute of every day? To be honest, I can’t do that, I would feel embarrassed and anyone unlucky enough to stumble upon it would be bored senseless.
Instead, I thought I would link a blog to my website and publish posts about stuff that interests me. Americanvilla.com is predominantly a villa site, shamelessly flogging our rental home in Florida. It’s probably what brought you here, while you were browsing the infinite number of villas available to the Florida tourist, and a love of Disney is probably what started you looking for villas in the first place.
A love of Disney is also what got me to this point. Without going into the full life history bit, the reason I bought a villa in Florida was, of course, because I love Disney. I love visiting Disney, talking about Disney, reading about Disney and sharing information about Disney. Sad, I know but that’s just me.
I also love websites. Now add this to a love of Disney and you have a fatal combination.
There are literally thousands of websites dedicated to Disney. Firstly, of course you have the official Disney ones. No doubt if you are thinking of visiting Disney you will have visited Disney.com at some point. There are also the unofficial, and therefore far more interesting, Disney fan sites and forums. These are rife with information, speculation, rumour and interesting facts relating to all things Florida: Disney, Universal, Seaworld, shopping, eating and just plain having fun.
For my part I spend far more time than is healthy on these sites. Far more than my job, children and husband know about, that’s for sure. And far more than you should ever do, dear reader, (especially if you value your job, husband and children)
So if by posting stuff that interests me I can pass on some information that you don’t know then that’s great! If it helps you have a better vacation than that’s good too.
Oh, and if you want to rent the villa while you’re doing it then that’s fantastic!
Only a Week to Go!!
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
Just think, this time next week we will be going to Florida!!
After what’s been a basically crap year for our family this trip can’t come too soon, believe me. I’ll spare the details, suffice to say a break in the sunshine state is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Unfortunately we are travelling in the School summer holidays which means megabucks for flights. Our usual preferred airline is Virgin. They are the only scheduled direct from Manchester airport (our local one) and they have neat little seatback tvs and playstation games. They also do little ‘Gu’ chocolate puddings which are to die for! Unfortunately Virgin wanted us to sell one of our kidneys in order to afford a seat so they were out, and the search was on for an alternative.
Thanks to the wonder of the internet our options soon narrowed down to US Airways, Delta and Continental. Delta don’t have the neat little seatback tvs so they were ruled out. US was more expensive so Continental won the day. Indirect through Newark, but at just over half the price of Virgin it’s a small sacrifice.
Florida…. here we come. Trust me, it never gets old!!