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.