Day 8 - Airboat

Early start today, and we were up, packed and out the door at Vero just after 7am.

It was well worth it, because we had an 8.30am booking to do something we have never done before in our 18 years of visiting Florida.

Despite a little apprehension (from me) the first time the captain really opened the throttle, the ride was just amazing, and the sights just incredible. I can't find the right words, and the pictures don't really do it justice, but I'll let them try.


Our ride (or flight, or whatever the right description is) lasted for just over an hour, and we were away, and onto I-95 for the journey back to Orlando by about 10am. We stopped off in Palm Bay for refuelling in Denny's, and then zoomed on back along 95 and 528 to the familiar surroundings of OKW. We are in 2423 - 2nd floor overlooking what I think is probably the 5th fairway, and as we discovered this evening, facing in the right direction to see the Illuminations fireworks.

Our room was ready when we arrived, and so we unpacked before getting the boat to Downtown. It was interesting having a wander around amongst the hoardings where a huge amount of building work is taking place as Downtown transforms itself into Disney Springs over the next couple of years - all a bit chaotic at the moment. (We'll be back there again tomorrow - exciting plans that to be reported on then.)

This evening back at OKW Jake challenged me to a game of tennis, and we managed to play a set, which took us about an hour and a half! I had several set points when I was 5-4 up but failed to secure any of them, and in the end he beat me 7-4 in a tie break. I definitely need to go for a lie down now!

Day 7 - Vero storms

Short post today - packing to be done - early start tomorrow - much excitement about our plans for the morning.

Today was morning of lazing around here (Nicky was the only one up to see the sunrise) and then watching the storm go over at lunchtime, before heading to find Vero's malls for a bit of retail therapy.

Day 6 - more Vero

Just back from a stroll, and a quick look at the beach in the evening sun. There is a storm out to sea, and as a precaution, the pool area had been closed, but it turned out that the storm wasn't going to bother us, and so the pool had reopened as we were on our way back to the villa.

The waves were crashing loudly this evening, and whilst the beach was much quieter than earlier in the day, there was still a fair bit going on. A few children were still busy doing what kids do the world over - one was digging a hole whilst the other was building a big mound of sand - enjoying their work with not a care in the world, never minding the fact that the sea would have filled in the hole and taken the mound away come the morning. A couple of families had obviously planned an evening photo shoot out on the sand, with the sun coming in low from the land side making for some great opportunities for family portraits. Best cameras and best outfits were on show, and in a particularly sweet scene, Granddad was holding a young baby at the water's edge whilst Dad took the photos and Nanny clapped and made faces just behind the camera to encourage baby to smile and look in the right direction.

And, all along the beach there are tiny little roped off triangles, marking where the turtles have come up onto the beach and laid their eggs, and where us humans need to give them a little bit of respect and a little bit of space.

All in all, a really rather beautiful scene.

As for our day, we've enjoyed some pool time, been for a paddle (older members of the party) or swim (younger members) in the sea, been out for a late lunch at Captain Hiram's in Sebastian, taken a stroll along the nice shopping area around the Ocean-side part of Vero (me and Nicky only), albeit sadly after most of the shops had closed for the day, and now we are all back at the resort, contemplating another dip in the pool and a bit of light tea later on.

Day 5 - Vero

Transfer day today, but before I get to that, I should pick up where I left off yesterday.

We decided to head out to Denny's for dinner - we went to the one near Crossroads, and yes, for the record, of course I had Moons over my Hammy, and yes, of course, Jake made his own Slam - we are both a bit predictable that way!

Having carefully gone to a Denny's near to Downtown, we then decided that we didn't want to go there after all, and so to avoid the traffic, we came back to BLT the back way (along 535 and all the way along Vista Blvd). Nicky and I decided to head up to the Top of the World (where we could look down on creation - well, Walt's anyway) and enjoy a drink or two, and after enjoying a beautiful sunset behind the castle, we ended up staying there for the fireworks as well. The boys joined us for a drink and the fireworks after they'd had another trip to the arcade.


Once we'd come back down to our room, the boys in the party decided that it was time to take advantage of EMH at MK, and so headed along the walkway to the park. When we got there, the show  projected onto the castle walls was on, but the boys weren't to be distracted and it was straight over to Space Mountain to be hurtled around in the dark.

We checked with a cast member before joining the (advertised as 40 mins) line that both Splash and Big Thunder would be open in EMH, as it was about 10.40 by now and closing time for everyone else was 11pm. The cast member reassured us that they both would be and so we joined the line. As expected, it wasn't as long as expected, and we were on in about 25 mins.

The boys both whooped it up all the way around, obviously having a great time.

I was a little bit quieter in the back seat.

Once we had returned to earth, we hot-footed it over to Frontierland, only to discover that we had been spun a line by a poorly informed cast member, and actually Splash wasn't part of extra magic. So determined to at least achieve a mountain hat-trick of sorts, we proceeded to ride Big Thunder twice in a row!

Still with more energy to burn, despite it being getting on for midnight, to boys decided to have a couple more spins with Buzz, whilst I took just a few more pictures of the castle, just in case I hadn't got enough already (!), and the next time I saw them, they were enjoying a few late night snacks from the Main Street (Starbucks) bakery.


We decided to head for home, and by the time we got there, the packing fairy (Nicky) had done a pretty good job.

As a result, it was a pretty easy job to get up and out this morning, and at this point, the new map that we'd bought in our favourite travel bookshop near Covent Garden would have come in really useful - if only it wasn't still sat on the bookshelves in my study! Still, a quick consult of Google maps and we decided that the easy route was to take 192 all the way along to A1A and then head south until we got to the resort.

Route worked out fine - was just over 100 miles, and took about 2.5 hours, and we arrived here at Vero at about 1.30. Unfortunately our room wasn't ready until about 4.30, but we had some lunch, had a look around, the boys played some basketball, we sat on the porch and read for a while, the boys went to the arcade, and then we moved our stuff in to villa 1527. We are on the first floor (or second if you are American), and in my humble opinion have the best-placed villa in building 15, with a great ocean view.


We went out for a drive into Vero Beach this evening, but failed to find anything particularly interesting, so did our usual and popped in to Publix, and stocked up on provisions, and have just had a very nice tea in our villa. Nicky and I have just been along to reception and picked up a load of information about the area which Nicky is studying (maybe we should have done that before we went out earlier!).

Day 4 - safari and soaking

Time for a slightly better effort at a post, with pictures included!

We had fast passes reserved this morning at AK, with the first one at Everest in a 9.15 - 10.15 time slot.

We left the hotel room at 9.30.

Impressively, we made it to the fast pass ride entrance still with ten minutes to spare. Not bad - front door to ride entrance in 35 minutes. The ride was great fun. As always, I expect that it was coaster-fiend Owen who enjoyed it the most, and truth be told, now that she's been on it, I'm not entirely sure that Nicky will be rushing to repeat the experience - don't think heading backwards at speed on a roller coaster in the dark was thought to be a particularly good idea.


Due to being rather towards the end of our time slot for Everest, our next fast pass was available straight away, and so other than stopping for a cold drink to calm the nerves, it was straight over to Harambe and onto the safari. The animals were out in numbers despite the heat, and I was particularly pleased with a few of the photos that I got, although having said, that, now that I look at them on a big screen, you can tell on some of them that they were taken from a moving vehicle travelling across some rough terrain! Here's a giraffe picture I am particularly pleased with.


After the safari, we took a stroll through the Pangani Forest trail. Jake took charge of the camera for this, and also got some great photos.


By now it really was getting warm, so we decided we deserved an ice cream, so it was Mickey ice cream cookie sandwiches all round. This did a good, if temporary job of cooling us down, but we had a cunning plan for cooling down for a bit longer. Stowing anything that might get upset if it got wet (phones, cameras, keys etc) in a locker, we used our third fast pass of the day and got ourselves properly soaked on the Kali River Rapids.


After that, we headed out of the park and back to the hotel, where the boys have been in the pool, and Nicky and I have been lounging around it reading our books. The plan had been for the boys to go out on the water racers, but today's storm started coming in, so we will have to add that to the (long) list entitled 'things to do when we are back from our trip to Vero'.

Not entirely sure what the plans are for the rest of today. I think the boys are contemplating a trip to Downtown, but we'll have to see what everyone fancies. Right now we're all enjoying relaxing 'at home'.

Here are a few photos from the last couple of days to catch up.

Day 3 - mania and Morgan

Had planned a longer blog today, but half a bottle of Morgan Monterey has rather put paid to that plan!

Good day had by all even if I did come last on the Toy Story ride.

Expect a better post tomorrow, especially if I drink less...!

(By the way, this is my 1,000th blog post. A fairly typically rubbish effort!)

Day 2 - illuminating

Day 2 - good day today but short blog as tired and off to studios in the morning.

Today was:

Shuffleboard
Arcade
Whispering Canyon
Fantasia Gardens fairways course
Epcot (faster by car - we beat the boys who travelled by monorail)
Spaceship Earth
Test Track
New Club Cool flavours
Secret DVC coffee
Illuminations

And finally, cocoa and bed.

Night night all.

Day 1 - MK

OK, time for  the first holiday blog, sat here on the sofa at Bay Lake Towers. The boys are off playing tennis (Jake has just popped back to collect their cups so that they can have a cold drink between sets!) and Nicky and are are chilling out in front of the TV with a cup of coffee.

Starting at the beginning, yesterday was the usual early start, and Jon very kindly gave us a lift to the airport, and we were there at about seven. The line wasn't very long for check in and we were rid of our bags pretty quickly, and then straight through security without any queue at all (and without any requests to turn out any electrical equipment).

Gatwick South terminal is very different now, and much better than it used to be. Cafe Rouge was selected for breakfast, and whilst our waitress failed dismally to remember our orders (hint - try pad and paper next time), the food was nice when it came, and we had a good table by the window and were able to watch the planes taxiing, taking off and landing.

We killed a bit of time browsing around the shops - Nicky got some perfume (holiday tradition) - Jo Malone this time, and Jake was marginally disappointed that we didn't agree that £225 for a leather jacket from Superdry was a bargain! Before too long our flight was called and we headed off to Gate 21. Sadly we didn't remember to look for the name of the plane, so we don't know whether any of us won the 'guess the name' competition we played over our sausage and bacon!

Our plane was certainly a fairly new one, and seemed comfortable, with good legroom. The latest entertainment system is an improvement as well - and can be used during take off and landing. I watched a few films (The Lego Movie and Robocop, both of which passed the time but were pretty poor, and got part way through Need for Speed - will have to finish it off on the way home.)

We landed at MCO at 4pm local time, and there was a pretty long queue for immigration, which we must have been in for about 45 mins. They have installed some terminals which do the photo taking an hand scanning bit of the process, which in theory should speed things up, but they don't seem to do so. Certainly they didn't for us given that our immigration officer got us to do it all again at the desk.

However, by the time we were through immigration our bags were waiting for us by the carousel, and we carried them on the shuttle train to the main terminal to avoid having to wait for them again. There was no wait at the Alamo desk, and once we'd chosen our car (the boys decided we should have the red Chevrolet - and very nice it is too) we were out and on the road by about 5.30pm.

At this point, the rain had started, and it was a pretty soggy drive from the airport towards WDW. We decided that we would stop in at Publix, and so we went into the one up the road from the Premium Outlets. We picked up the essentials there, and unfortunately, by the time we left, the rain was properly Florida torrential, and even though our car was about 30 yards from the entrance, we got well and truly soaked getting to it.

Thankfully, we could pull right up to the undercover area in front of BLT when we were checking in. They were expecting us, and check in was very easy. They presented us with a box containing our four Magic Bands, each in a labelled slot showing whose was whose, (we've all got a different colour - mine is orange), and then we came and unpacked in our room.

All that was left for arrival day was to wander over the sky-bridge to the Contemporary for a burger and to get our re-fillable cups, before heading back here and crashing out.

Most of us slept pretty well - I think we were all awake for a little while at some time or other during the night. Nicky had the worst night's sleep, and ended up chatting with people on Facebook at about 3am! Still, we were all up and out at a reasonable time, having breakfasted in room (the boys making a start on the various boxes of Poptarts they chose at Publix) and it was already pretty warm when we stepped outside!

We walked to the Magic Kingdom (and isn't it cool being able to say that!) and thanks to Magic Bands enabling us to travel light, we could march straight through the no bags line and straight through the new style turnstiles (that don't actually have turnstiles) with our Magic Bands magically turning Mickey green and letting us in.

And then, for me, the magic really happens. Jake was asking me the other day about when a Florida holiday really starts. He told me that for him, the holiday starts properly when he's on that shuttle train to the main terminal at MCO, which is a pretty good holiday milestone. For me, the special moment actually comes quite a lot later. The holiday really starts when I walk underneath the railroad station and emerge into Town Square, and I'm on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom - then the holiday has really started!

Funnily enough, as we walked down Main Street, I took a few photos of the castle along the way! We walked through the castle and into Fanstasyland, and stopped there for a quick drink break near to the Mine Train. Whilst having our drinks, we noticed that the ride was actually closed, and so Nicky had a quick chat with a cast member, and they explained that our Fastpass would be honoured later in the day if the ride reopened.

So, we decided to split up and do our own thing. We'd made sure that we'd all got WhatsApp installed on our phones and that we were all on the Park Wifi, so we'd be able to keep in touch. Nicky and I wandered over to the carousel, and rode that (walk on) before heading across the walkway to Philharmagic (walk in) and then down the way to Small World (walk on) and Haunted Mansion (walk in). We'd been keeping in touch with the boys - Jake had even been sending us pictures of his score from Buzz Lightyear (999,999 !!!) as well as Dole Whips.

We met up with the boys after watching a bit of the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it parade, in time for our Buzz fast passes (again - loving these Magic Bands) and again Jake seems to have worked out the way to a great score - he didn't manage the max this time but was over half way there.

As the exit of the ride is so close to it, and as it was a walk in, we took the boys into the Carousel of Progress after Buzz. Not entirely sure that they would rate it as their favourite attraction of the day, but hey 'There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow'!

Nicky noticed on the app that the Mine Train was back up and running and so we were able to go and use our fast passes there (even though the time period had expired) and walk on within 5-10 mins rather than wait the 90 mins in standby. And I have to say that the new ride is a lot of fun. Overall, it is very like the Runaway Mine Train, but still a great addition to the park.

Across to Liberty Square and time for lunch at the Liberty Tree tavern - a new experience for all of us. The food was excellent, and we all enjoyed the 'Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake' for dessert.

We did have 2.15 fast passes for the Runaway Mine Train, but we decided to skip that and come back to BLT which is where we have been this afternoon, chilling out, enjoying a dip in the pool, playing table tennis, playing tennis (the younger members of the party) and generally relaxing.

And now we are contemplating what to do for tea.

Finally - in case you weren't convinced that we were having a great time - here are some photos to prove it!

21 hrs

A successful and smooth running but long day today hence a very short post tonight. Expect more tomorrow!

Sent from my iPhone

Packing

Just a quick post for today - really should be packing right now.

Last day at work for a while today, and it feels good typing that. Had to head off early this morning for a meeting in Hove, and then the rest of the day in the office mopping up loose ends. Certainly feel like I am ready for a holiday, and I think that Nicky feels the same way too!

Final countdown

Really on the final countdown to holiday now. In case more proof were needed, Nicky has been to the shops to buy a couple of new luggage holdalls as some of the other ones were showing signs of age (aren't we all?), there is a blanket ban on wearing anything that is coming with us (although I think Jake might have a special exemption for the BBQ he is going to tomorrow) and I've even started faffing about with batteries and memory cards for my camera.

A sure sign that we'll be there before we know it ...

Poppyfields

The storms continued in the night and the weather has continued to be muggy today - wouldn't be surprised if we get some more tonight. Still, didn't stop us from having a nice day. We went over to Hempstead this morning - the most important reason for the trip being to stock up on dollars. Then Chris and Trevor have been down to see us today and we all went to Poppyfields and for lunch. This evening I've pinched Jake's Spotify premium access and have created a playlist which is the same as the Now 8 album, and am now listening to some of the tracks using one of the Sonos speakers. Don't tell Jake, but its pretty cool, and maybe I'll have to subscribe at some point soon!

Stormy

Well that was an impressive storm, and I think the forecast is telling us that there is more to come tomorrow.

Probably just as well that the roof is on the lodge already!

Sad day

Don't often dwell on global news stories on this blog, tend to enjoy focusing on matters much closer to home, but difficult not to mention the main news of the day. The truly awful news about the Malaysian Airlines flight on its way to KL coming down in Ukraine is hard to understand at this stage, and if it does end up being confirmed that it was shot down, well I'm not quite sure what the consequences will be. And on top of that, Israel have obviously got bored with sending rockets into Gaza and are sending the tanks in now.

Sad day all round.

Construction update

Office

Time for an early blog today, as I will be heading off from the office this afternoon to go to the evening T20 game at Hove, and will end up getting back home pretty late.

When I say I am blogging from the office, it would be more accurate to say that I am blogging from my office as I have decided to claim the office vacated by the partner who retired a few months ago. So far I have got our facilities manager to move the small desk (which is attached to the wall) up so that I can stand and work - inspired by our Brighton-based client who have desks that go up and down at the touch of a button. This one is fixed, but I do still have the option of sitting at the other desk if I want a rest! And besides which, hopefully it will be good for my back.

As Nicky commented when she saw a picture, the office is rather bare - I think I might have to bring some artwork in from home to liven the place up a bit.

As for news from home, check out Nicky's Facebook for latest pictures - walls are going up ...

Building

And so the building work starts properly. Most of floor done. Expect that walls will start going up tomorrow.

Germany

For me a bit of a day of progress on the IT front. Concerned with my laptop's constant complaints about being full up, given that I will be taking it on holiday soon (single digit countdown as of today) and will be piling on a load more photos then, I have been transferring photos over to the external hard drive. Having just checked as I type this, the latest report says that I have over 17 GB of spare space, which is the most I've had for quite some time.

(By the way, in the "big data" session on Friday, I learnt some new words. The one that sticks in my mind is a "brontobyte" which I think is 10^27 bytes.)

Whilst waiting for photos to copy across between drives, I've been pottering about on the computer doing a few other things, and the eagle-eyed amongst you may notice a slight change in the appearance of the blog.

As for this evening's entertainment, Germany were worthy winners of the World Cup. Now we have to manage over a month without any football - MOTD back in August!

Hengist

Following on from yesterday's post, if you watched the Jeopardy Youtube video, you will have noticed that the presenter explained that it was necessary to provide the questions to Watson as text files, rather than have the computer just listen to them as they were read out like the other contestants.

You may also have noticed that the video is a few years old now. Reflecting on this, one thing that struck me yesterday was that in the Watson demonstration that we watched, the IBM'er did actually appear to be having a conversation with Watson. Now, I'm not sure whether this was staged or not, but it would be a pretty impressive step forward if Watson is now able to hold direct conversations (especially given all of the voice recognition challenges that come with that - I certainly struggled a little bit with the American IBM'er at times - a lot of things were 'cool' apparently!).

It makes me think of the famous "Turing Test" which is designed as a way to assess whether machines can be considered as 'intelligent' as we might define it as humans. Up to now, I presume that the Turing Test has always been conducted by typed questions and answers. Well, if Watson is at the stage (or if not, might soon get to the stage) where it can respond to spoken instruction/question, then presumably the test could be conducted by a telephone conversation, which would feel like a more natural 'discussion'. (Although I suppose the issue of a computer-generated voice might be a bit of a giveaway in determining whether the other participant was man or machine?! I'm sure there would be a way around that - if the computer's 'voice' doesn't sound natural enough, then the human voice could be made to sound a little more computer-like, to level the playing field.) If Watson was able to pass that test, then presumably a rather large segment of employment - namely call centres - could disappear overnight?

Anyway, as for today, this morning we went into Maidstone, had brunch at the Living Cafe, and Jake got some new clothes at Superdry. This afternoon we have been sorting out the wardrobe in the front spare bedroom, and it is now completely cleared out to make way for our temporary house guests who will be moving in next week. This evening we have been out with Carolyn and Chris to the Hengist in Aylesford. The company was great, but none of us was too sure about the food - it'll be interesting to see what Nicky's Trip Advisor review has to say on the subject.

Moonshot

Today's meeting has given me plenty of potential blogging material. I went to three talks this afternoon, and each of them are worthy of a mention.

I'll save up the second two for another day, but the first talk that I went to was all about "Big Data" and one of the main parts was presented by some people from IBM, showing us some of the capabilities of "IBM Watson", which is a cognitive computer, and which is able to respond effectively to questions posed in natural language.

The thing that first brought Watson to prominence was its appearance on Jeopardy (the US game show, with which we are familiar thanks to Ellen and her Energy Adventure - Stupid Judy!), where it was able to demonstrate that it could compete successfully against the best human players.

The following Youtube video is worth a look.

Pundit?

Please see previous post for confirmation of why I should not be a football pundit!

(Mind you, at least I'd gone on record before the semi-final to say I wasn't too impressed by the Brazil team!)

Holland

Can't stay awake - 0-0 doesn't seem all that exciting after 7-1 last night.

Still, sticking with my prediction that it will be an all European final ...

Brazil

Tonight we have been witness to a pretty historic football match. Never mind the fact that they were without two of their star players, the World Cup home nation were well and truly humbled this evening by an impressive display from the Germans.

Strangely, despite it feeling like the right result, on reflection I do feel a great deal of pity for some of the Brazilian players - the weight of expectation from a nation brought up on beautiful football and a well-stocked trophy cabinet, and you fall apart badly, shipping four goals in eight dreadful minutes in the first half, and end up on the wrong end of all sorts of records, losing 7-1. Already the questions are being asked of how long will it take these players to recover from this, and, like the 1950 team, will they ever recover?

Well, whilst the Brazilian national football set-up might have some soul-searching to do, I hope that they do all recover, and soon.

Meanwhile, unless Holland can stick a hat-full of goals past Argentina tomorrow (and there's my prediction for an all European final), Germany have to be hot favourites for Sunday now.

Piano

Grand!