We were a party of 8 adults staying in Orlando for 2 weeks
Stayed at Hoilday Express Inn at Glasgow Airport on the friday night, done this before & no problems, It saves with parking issues as they take the car away once you leave & have it there for you on your return.
Check in due to start at 05.30 flight due to take off at 08.30 Sat. Walk across at 05.20, queue is already 50-100 people. Only 2 check in desks open (Monarch Airways). Waited in the queue for 1.5 hours approx and still hadnt reached the desk. from obsevation it looked like one of the passport scanners was not working - but even when the attendant was asked!! Result, the plane was delayed for 20 minutes as everyone was not even checked in by take off time. Not a Good Start.
Arrived at Sanford, Customs excellent, no problems at all. Our Cars were hired from Alamo so wa walk along to the renatal shop & we were sorted with a mid size & a seven seater, loaded up & on our way.
We had rented a 6 bed 4 bath Villa in Oak Island Cove, I decided to take the 417 to avoid any I4 roadworks. It worked and we arrived no problems after collecting the keys from the management company on the 192.
Villa was superb, huge & heated pool was extremley toasty.
Next day was MGM, Alarm in Villa wouldnt work using the given code & instructions but somehow one of our party managed to get it set.
The new Lights Motors Action at MGM is Superb (I am a seroius petrolhead though)
Got back to villa at about 6pm, tried to unset the alarm to no avail,
Called Management company on emergency number - no reply
Called Alarm Company - need master password to reset.
tried Management company more times - no joy
Eventually called the owner of the Villa in the UK (late at night here by now)
Got a relative of his as he was on holiday himself and he said he would try to help.
He obvoiusly managed to get through to Management company as the called 15mins later, but were useless and said they would call back.
During all this the alarm company had obviously called the police, as 2 cars pulled up outside and we got a phone call from the police dispatcher telling us to go outside.
Bit Scary to say the least to see the police hiding behind their cars
but on hearing our accents, realised we were not burglers etc, and had a quick chat the left.
It took the Management company over 2.0 hours to get back to us and after many failed attempts it was discovered that they had changed the alarm code and not told the Owner so the sheet with the code on it we were trying was incorrect. We had another couple of dealings with them over the 2 weeks and would not reccommend them to anyone. PM if you want more info.
Rest of the Holiday :- Over 90 degrees for 11 of the 14 days and high 80s the rest there was some very cool lightening storms to watch in it evenings also while you had your meal, The celebration fireworks at Magic Kingdom are excellent, and you must do Sky venture( done it 3 times now ), Best water ride to cool down - Popeye at IOA you will be soaked by the end of it
I found the parks to be very quiet this time round, the longest queue the entire fortnight was for (apart from the airport lol) was 30mins for the new Soarin ride at Epcot, but it was worth the wait.
Driving was not a problem, I4 has a fair bit of roadworks south of Disney nearer Kissimee.
Did Dixie Stampede one evening & although not my thing was still a bit of fun if you dont expect too much from it. Not too sure about the animal welfare side of it though.
Petrol still amazingly cheap compared to accross here. $30 to fill up a 3.4litre V6 Pontiac.
Good food, although in my eyes grilled shrimp at Pondrosa on International Drive cannot be beaten.
Return journey was no probem, check in quick & efficent and the hurricane tailwinds helped us across the water at a good speed.
Roll on Next time
Daz
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