Hi Gary,
hope Clearwater has lifted your spirits and you can find it within yourselves to get back into the holiday spirit. Don't let that scum spoil your holiday.
Diane.[msnwink]
Hi Gary,
hope Clearwater has lifted your spirits and you can find it within yourselves to get back into the holiday spirit. Don't let that scum spoil your holiday.
Diane.[msnwink]
Garry have you reported all of your cards etc stolen and informed ticket services? If anyone tries to use them they may be able to trace back to the thieving scumbags.
Hope you and your family enjoy the rest of your holiday - our thoughts are with all of you at this distressing time.
At the airport now, outback steakhouse to finish the holiday.
Looking forward to getting home.
Garry Pullan
Sad what has happen, as we've been in a similar situation. Hope it has not spoiled your appetite for orlando, as we sure haven't let is deter us. Another family we were with, had it done and they have never returned but they also had the same thing done to them in europe.
There are just low lifes everywhere around the world, not wanting to work for what they want.
Hi All,
Back in the country now and back at work.
No finishing off the non trip reports due to what happened but i can say that the robbery did not spoil the holiday or indeed put any of us off Florida or Highlands Reserve. We wouldn't stay in the same villa but that is purely because of the memories it holds for the kids but we would have no hesitation in going back to HR.
We had a great few days at Clearwater, stayed in a nice hotel and on arrival we went to meet some friends staying in the Hyatt Regency hotel next door and got smashed on the 8th floor terrace! A great afternoon / night was had by all. [beer]
We didn't go to any more parks apart from Aquatica the day after it happened as i had an emailed e-ticket for there so no problem getting in. Rest of tickets went and at that point had been told we didn't have any come back with Disney tickets! [msnsad]
Flight home was ok, kids slept well and we were happy ish to be back home. Just trying to get my head around the insurance claim for 9 people when the robbers had been in the house for ages so the list is long to say the least!
One thing i will be doing next time and would suggest to all people is don't just get travel insurance, tailor it for yourself so add up your valuables (which includes more than you would think) and insure for the full value, not the standard. I'll give you an example:
Stolen from 1 persons allowance:
Laptop
Camera
Video camera
sunglasses
backup drive
camera SD cards
phone dock
plus quite a bit more.
How much do you think that little lot is worth? Around £1000 minimum, maybe more like £1500?? Well standard insurance will pay out a limit of around £400 and can be as low as £200 for all the above items which doesn't even cover the camera! Be warned, if it happens and you have standard travel insurance then you will lose out.
Check what the insurance companies class as valuables, it's more than you would think (or at least i thought).
Anyway, scaremongering over, the villa had an alarm but the owner had stopped the monitoring as they had so many false alarms. Our valuables were locked away in a safe in the owners room. They got in the room and took the safe.
They entered through a side window and left through both the rear pool door and the front door. The pool screen door had been wedged open too.
Don't let me put anyone off, this could have happened anywhere. I think they targeted us as we were clearly a vacation rental home (pool toys, swimming shorts etc drying out back). We had closed the blinds, locked the doors, removed all valuables from sight. They watched us go and had a field day.
Here's to a successful (ish) insurance claim and Florida 2013!!
Thanks for all your comments.
Garry Pullan
Glad you and your family are still Florida lovers and have managed to remain positive - heres to the next trip and a successful insurance claim [msnsmile]
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Our valuables were locked away in a safe in the owners room. They got in the room and took the safe.[/quote]
As said earlier, a safe in a domestic property ain't Fort Knox.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:The big problem with safes in domestic properties is anchoring them to the floor, so a jemmy can't remove them(and damage your property)[/quote]
The safe we provide for guests is anchored to the floor in the Master bedroom closet - it does mean having to lie on the floor to use it - but think that is preferable to nothing! We also have one for our own use in the owner's closet - again anchored - but this time to the outside wall! Unfortunately there isn't an outside wall in the bedroom closet for the guest one.
Jean
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