Orlando Villas · Florida Dream Villa
Orlando Park Tickets · Florida Car Hire · US Domestic Car Rental · Florida Car Rental · Enhanced Roadside Assistance
Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Dad’s Taxi’s Forgotten 2016 Report Finale - Part 8

  1. #1
    Florida Chatterbox Dads_Taxi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Manchester, UK
    Posts
    603

    Dad’s Taxi’s Forgotten 2016 Report Finale - Part 8

    Oh my goodness, I forgot all about finishing this report. I’ll try to keep it brief, that will give me some chance of finishing it.

    Thursday April 14th 2016 sees us glumly accepting that tomorrow we need to head home. We have planned a chill day today, with lots of pool time, and a last trip to Sweet Tomatoes. The plan gets off to an unexpected start by us finding a frog in the ceement pond when we go outside! This causes much frivolity, and as is normal in these circumstances Georgia is tasked with catching the little critter. She does have quite a way with animals, and is victorious once again.


    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Frog-Pool.jpg 
Views:	92 
Size:	20.5 KB 
ID:	1248

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Frog-Hand.jpg 
Views:	93 
Size:	21.7 KB 
ID:	1249





    Of course once the big bad frog is captured, Kayleigh becomes slightly braver

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Frog_n_Bucket.JPG 
Views:	93 
Size:	392.8 KB 
ID:	1250



    So with the pool deemed animal-free the kids enjoy the water, Mrs Dad’s-Taxi reads, Lydia makes the most of her last chance to get a tan, and I spend a lot of time writing Part 5 of this trip report, and wondering why I brought so many books to read.

    The tranquility is soon shattered when this guy rolls up:

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Mower-Man.jpg 
Views:	93 
Size:	50.5 KB 
ID:	1251



    And Kayleigh starts to panic about him shredding our recently ejected frog. No sooner has the gardener left when pool guy turns up to treat the pool, and at this point we give up.

    A message from home has requested “if it’s not too late could you…..”, and as we are now far from relaxed by the pool we head to the Premium Outlets to find the pair of trainers requested. I really thought I’d seen the last of the shops!. It’s a relatively successful trip (ie we didn’t spend hundreds of $$$s on this occasion) and then we head back to the villa via Sweet Tomatoes to enjoy one last meal there.

    Full, and ready for a nap, we settle back by the pool, hoping that it’s now safe to be in the water after the recent chemical treatments (the kids risked it, turned out it was). After a while I realise we have yet another visitor, but this one wasn’t going to disturb us, he was just passing through

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Miles_Turtle.jpg 
Views:	93 
Size:	58.1 KB 
ID:	1252



    Now back in Part 5 I described our trip to Titusville to watch a launch from the Space Centre (Center). What I omitted from that report was that as we were driving back to Orlando along Highway 528 we passed a turtle, plodding alongside the road heading towards the bright lights of Disney World. Well, that’s what the kids wanted to believe. So when this guy turned up in the garden Kayleigh was convinced it was the same one. As he had travelled so far to get here, we called him Miles.

    Poor Miles spent ages trying to work out how to get into the next-door garden. He really was on a mission and I was beginning to feel sorry for him. Eventually though he worked out a route and we waved bye as he continued his journey.

    No more visitors appeared for the remainder of the day, but eventually we had to concede that our time by the pool was over, and we went in to start packing the bags ready for the morning. I will continue in another post to get more photos in, as I’ve hit the limit.

    Dave.


  2. #2
    Florida Chatterbox Dads_Taxi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Manchester, UK
    Posts
    603

    Dad's Taxi's 2016 Trip Report - Part 8 Continued

    Friday morning is not only our going home time, but Lydia’s birthday too. There’s no time to celebrate though, we’ve got a plane to catch. We set off 20 minutes later than I intended, mainly due to my obsessive checking and re-checking of everything. When we are finally ready I grab a couple of photos, as this is the most tidy the house has looked since we got here.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Florida_2016-629b_Tidy.jpg 
Views:	92 
Size:	31.6 KB 
ID:	1253



    The journey time to the airport is the quickest we have ever done it, which surprised me as I was expecting the I4 to be heavy on a Friday morning, but we sail along and are soon unloading the car at Alamo’s return garage. This year I decided to return the car with a bit of gas in it, as last year my determination to leave as little as possible in it almost resulted in my blood pressure going off the scale as I watched the fuel needle drop as we crawled along. I am much more relaxed this time, the extra few $$ was worth it! I was more than a little sad to part with the car, this Yukon has been an absolute pleasure to drive, and I really didn’t want to give it back.

    We join the American Airlines line, and it’s moving steadily, it’s all going remarkably well. As we get close to the front of the check-in line, there is a flurry of activity going on behind us and lots of people are pointing. Then a check-in becomes free, we go to the counter, and the check-in lady looks at us very apologetically and asks “would you mind just waiting for two minutes? I really want a photo”. We smile and say of course, and she rushes off, grabbing a colleague on the way, then she accosts the group of people causing all the commotion and they agree to gather around her for a couple of photos taken by her colleague on her phone. When she gets back to her counter we have to ask who the celebrities are, and she tells us that it’s the Women’s Soccer team Orlando Pride, who she absolutely loves.

    Check-in is easy, then it’s into the long long lines for security. It is chaos. After a lengthy wait we are next in line for a security desk, standing behind the yellow line like good boys and girls. Alongside us, in the adjacent line, a young boy of about 10 suddenly vomits profusely into the no-man’s land between the yellow line and the security desks. Terrific. Then we are called to the desk and the TSA agent looks at our boarding cards and asks why we’ve stood in the endless lines - “you can go straight to the Pre-Check entrance” he tells me. I have no idea what he’s talking about, but he is insisting that we follow the no-man’s land between the queues and the security desks until we find the last desk which is for Pre-Check passengers. I look at the puddle of vomit to my right, which the young boy’s mother still doesn’t seem to have noticed, and tell the guy that since we’ve made it to the front of the queue we’ll just stick with it. He explains that there are two more long lines to endure once we are past him, and assures me that going to the Pre-Check desk is the better option, so we pick up our pull-along cabin bags and tentatively step over the puddle, at which point the mother works out that her son is responsible and starts to clean him and the puddle up. As described, when we reach the end of the many security desks there is a very short line leading to the TSA Pre-Check entrance, with about 5 people waiting. We are really quite bemused by the whole thing, having never heard of this before. The signs proclaiming “Do NOT remove jackets or shoes” and “Do NOT remove laptops from hand baggage” seem quite incongruous with an airport security check, but we all sail through and the cheery TSA agents all smile and joke with us and we STILL have no idea how we acquired boarding cards with the magic TSA PRECHK stamped on them


    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Boarding Card.jpg 
Views:	92 
Size:	34.5 KB 
ID:	1254



    Our route home is via JFK New York, an airport we haven’t been to before. The trip up from Orlando to JFK was easy, and we now have a few hours to kill at JFK so we explore with the objective of finding a McDonalds. Over the next few hours we walk almost every inch of the terminal, mainly because we know we’re sat down for the following 8 hours. McDonalds was a real disappointment, they were very disorganised and our order had several things missing and they weren't particularly friendly when we went back to claim the missing items. At one point during our wandering I spot Gate 41 through a window and realise that our plane has just arrived, this is a good sign.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Plane_Home1.jpg 
Views:	91 
Size:	29.9 KB 
ID:	1255



    Eventually it’s time to be at our gate, and now the holiday really feels over. Whilst we sat waiting to board I was impressed with how many USB charge points were available for last minute top-ups of phones and tablets. I was also surprised by how trusting so many people are, as there were numerous unattended phones sat on charge whilst their owners appeared to have wandered away. The McDonalds was now several hours ago, and with 20 minutes left until boarding starts, I notice an Italian takeaway opposite our gate. The pizzas look wonderful so we literally pool our last remaining dollars and sit on the floor at Gate 41 sharing a huge cheese pizza. I really wish I’d taken a photo, it was the best airport food ever!

    And so, with greasy fingers and full tummies, we board American Airlines flight 210 and another holiday is over. It’s been a bit shorter than usual, and Disney-free, and we’ve loved it, as always.
    Thanks for reading my reports, I really enjoy chronicling our days and writing these ‘Blogs’, and I’m sorry this particular trip report took so long to finish. Now we need to start saving towards another Florida holiday, maybe 2018? Who knows.


    Dave.


  3. #3
    Florida Chatterbox Rob Dawson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Leek, Staffordshire
    Posts
    203
    Great trip report, really enjoy reading about your holiday, .
    Jan & Rob



  4. #4
    Florida Expert Madabouttigger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    1,864
    I wondered what happened to the last part, thanks for posting, really enjoyed it.

    Diane.
    Diane.


  5. #5
    Super Moderator
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Posts
    4,090
    Have really enjoyed your reports and pleased to see the final instalment. Glad to see you made good use of your last few dollars!

    Enjoy planing your next trip - often think the planning part is quite a lot of fun.


  6. #6
    Florida Expert brownm's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Liverpool / Kissimmee
    Posts
    1,627
    Great trip report and better late than never as they say.


  7. #7
    Florida Newbie
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Posts
    1
    Read it at last!


Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •