Hello everyone,
I'm Dave, I'm 37 years old, am married to Angela, have two fantastic sons Ben (11yrs) and Jack (6yrs) and we live in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Having read some of the great trip reports on this website and having just returned from Florida last week I thought I would share experiences with anyone interested in reading them. Now before I get into the juicy details here's a little history on why Florida is 'the place for me'...
PART 1 - WHEN I WERE 'LAD
My first experience of Florida was way back in 1989 when I was a young, hip and trendy 17 year old. I had always been fascinated with america and it's culture. I had actually played American Football for a couple of years for a local team and my music taste was heavily influenced by American hip-hop. My dad came in from work one day and told us he had booked us a family holiday in Florida. "In America?" I asked... DUH! [msnembarrased]
I had just started dating a girl that year called Angela (little did I know she would end up being a very big part of my future) and had to leave her for a fortnight to go on holiday with my parents! [msnsad]
We stayed in the Travelodge on International Drive and I often remember getting the feeling that I was in a dreamworld.
I seemed to just wander around gawping at people like an idiot! The people there actually carried their shopping from the Seven Eleven in brown bags like they do on the telly! They have actual Donut shops and they do actually say "Have a nice day!" everywhere. I felt myselft actually talking with an american 'twang' after only a few days.
As I'm now 'getting on a bit' a lot of the holiday is now a blur but those things really stick out in my mind like it was yesterday. I returned with a load of american football clothing, the latest hip hop tracks and a massive smile on my face. I vowed to go back one day!
Fast forward 11 years and during this period I had left home, gotten a stable job as a technician in Newcastle University, was onto my second house, third car and was now living with Angela and our two year old son Ben.
Then, out of the blue, on the back of a rough year my dad decided to pay a good chunk toward a family holiday in Orlando!
So, my mum, dad, brother, my mums best friend, Angela, Ben and me all trooped out to the States for two weeks in October 2000. This time we stayed in a little more luxury in the shape of a 4 bedroom villa in Kissimee - luxury!
I offered to drive and ferried everyone about in what can only be described as a 'stretched minibus'. We got around thanks to some fantastic navigating by my brother. Quite a scary first experience of driving abroad I can tell you!
The holiday was what dreams were made of though. The parks were great, the accomodation was fantactic and I had my whole family with me - we had a blast!. It's a holiday experience that will live with me forever.
We even managed to blag an extra night as our flight was delayed 24 hours due to someone putting a nappy (diaper) down the plane toilet at Newcastle so it couldn't fly out to collect us. The holiday company put us up in a hotel in Forida Mall and we got to do some last minute shopping... which was nice.
The whole experience just reaffirmed my love with the States and in particular Florida. There was just no holiday that could come close to it!
Over the next few years Angela and I got married, we had our second child, Jack, and did a few Balaeric Island holidays which we did enjoy, but I always had hopes to get out to the Sunshine State again at some point in the future.
In 2007 we were looking through the usual holiday brochures and I said to the missus - why not miss out a holiday next year and save like crazy to go back to Florida as the kids will be the perfect age to experience it? So we did!
Having already experienced the luxury of a villa we decided this would be the only way to do it so booked a fornight in a 3 bedroom villa in Hampton Lakes through a popular Travel Agents (as I had not yet come across this web
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