Hello!
I’m Dave; aged 40, married to Angela, have 2 boys (Ben & Jack) aged 14 & 9 and I have been to Florida 3 times previously. We last visited in June 2009, had a fantastic time and it just re-enforced what I already knew in that it was my favourite place outside of my home town of Newcastle upon Tyne.
On returning home I kept the holiday fresh in my mind by writing a bunch of trip reports on this forum that were generally well received and prompted some very kind comments from you all.
When asked when my next Orlando trip reports would be coming I unfortunately had to be pragmatic and realistic. I stated on 29th July 2009:
“We've just been talking tonight and it seems that saving up for replacement windows is our next target which I suspect will take us a couple of years or so. So, in reality, hard as it is to accept, I suspect we may be looking in the region of five years before we can think about our next visit. Unless of course we come into some unexpected money!”
2010 came and went and we got those replacement windows, had a kitchen extension built but the furthest we got was a caravan at Haggerston Castle in Northumberland for a long, wet weekend in August.
In 2011 another typical British summer loomed and we felt the need for a holiday but Florida was a little beyond our budget. We went to Cyprus and enjoyed it but, on reflection, wished that we had bided our time and went back to Florida.
Realistically I couldn’t see us getting back before 2014 as money was tight, cost of living was ever increasing and, as any parent will tell you, rapidly growing kids become more expensive as each year passes.
A bolt from the blue in early 2012 saw me diagnosed with a serious illness. It was a very surreal experience as I’m generally quite healthy, have never really been ‘proper’ ill before having only ever had about 5 days off work sick in the last 10 years. I was admitted into hospital 2 days after diagnosis, had surgery and then spent about 3 months of work recovering and recuperating. We all stayed as positive and upbeat as possible throughout but it was a very scary, stressful and worrying time for me and my family…
Now, in a bizarre turn of events and subsequent change in fortune I was given the all clear from my consultant on March 1st which ironically is St David’s Day! During my convalescing I took some time to root through my life insurance policies and try to sort my finances out when I stumbled over a poorly performing endowment policy. On reading the small print it claimed it would pay out its full value based on my illness which, coupled with a pretty successful PPI claim, seemingly became the ‘unexpected money’ I said I never thought I would see way back in July 2009. Clouds and silver linings eh?!...
When discussing what we would do with the money my wife and I both had very different ideas but one thing we agreed on was that we would treat ourselves to a trip to Orlando. It had been a rough year for us all and we really felt we deserved it. So, we booked a flight for August, booked a villa from here and reset the countdown timer on this website – a great feeling! We also decided we would keep it a secret from the kids for a little while.
May 19th 2012 was my 40th birthday! I had a great day and got some lovely presents. However, the best gift of all was for me to be able to spring the surprise of a holiday to Florida on the kids by way of a treasure hunt and movie quiz. It was truly magical to see their faces when it dawned on them.
Since May it’s been a busy and long few months. I continue to recover from my illness, am back to work full time, have been getting more work done in the house, but more importantly have been preparing and planning for our holiday. I think it’s been mentioned by one of us almost every day since we told the kids. It’s now about a fortnight until we travel and it suddenly seems very real and very close and we’re all VERY excited.
So, since thinking in July 2009 that I wouldn’t be back in Florida anytime in the near future, here I am, almost ready to embark on my 4th journey – albeit a very unexpected one…
I will do trip reports and photos on my return and hopefully they will live up to those I did 3 years ago! However they won’t likely be until mid-September as my brother (who currently lives in New Zealand) is coming back to the UK and getting married in Scotland 3 days after we get back so I’ll be heading straight up there.
So, until then…. “Kia pai te haere!”
For the record I look nothing like Bilbo Baggins... However it has been said that my youngest did resemble Gollum in his first couple of years of his life!
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It's good to see that you are going to be getting a well deserved break and even better that you are now all clear and can begin the next 40 years with renewed vigour.
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