Well, we usually visit the house in September, but this trip had a pretty full-on schedule, with more tiling, park-visiting and even a cruise!! Apologies for all the pictures of bears in this one - we're just not very photogenic and Ted takes them for his travel website. Read on to find out more...
As part of our research work for you (yeah, really!) we decided to head over to Universal and check out the new Harry Potter Diagon Alley. We'd recommend you get your tickets in advance, either online from Universal (print at home) or from a ticket seller - one of our group didn't have their ticket and they had to wait in line for forty-five minutes! The wait to get in at 10.30am was half an hour too!
On our way over to Diagon Alley, we got to see the new Simpsons area at Universal Studios, Springfield USA. This is a fast food area where you can get a Krusty Burger or go to Moe's Tavern and try a real Duff Beer, brewed locally. Have to say we were impressed with the improvements at Universal Studios - there were a lot more rides than last time we visited when we stayed for less than an hour before getting bored!
We really didn't have enough time in a day to do the two parks this visit, but our goal was mainly the new Diagon Alley area. If it's your first time at Universal you really need to visit for at least two, maybe three, days depending how busy the parks are.
The line for Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringott's was only thirty minutes, in fact, only Minions was longer than thirty minutes all day. We headed inside, there's a line through the bank, with animatronic goblins. Inside there is a little scene about taking us on a tour of the bank, before we head into a lift/elevator. Weirdly, the other side of the lift (after picking up 3D glasses) we had to climb a spiral staircase (not great for those having trouble walking) but at the top we got to our cart for the ride. The ride is part roller coaster (with lap belt) and part 3D-interactive movie, as Bellatrix interrupts your tour and Harry, Ron and Hermione come to the rescue.
There is so much to see now at Universal Studios - Minions, Men In Black, Twister and a lot more - and there's a lot we had to miss in our one-day trip! However, if you want to ride the Hogwart's Express train, you have to have a park-to-park ticket. To get to the train, you have to enter King's Cross Station and show your two-park ticket at the entrance. To get to platform 9¾, you do, of course have to pass through the magical wall - and you do!! Okay, so it's done with mirrors, and to get pics of your family, they have to go on ahead while you stay behind, but you can catch them disappearing - record on movie function though as a photograph does not do it justice.
You continue to stand in line on the platform until your train arrives. The return journey takes maybe ten minutes and about two hundred people at a time so hopefully your wait in line won't be too long. Guards show you to the carriage on your corridor train and off you go!
Through the journey there is footage on the window of you leaving London and going through the countryside, before arriving at Hogsmeade. To transition between locations, there is activity in the corridor to distract you - including a Dementor! To see a point-of-view video of the journey check out our previous newsletter. It takes about four minutes but it's great fun for all ages. We didn't have time to go back the other way, but if you have two days at Universal, you might want to start in a different park each day so you can ride both ways (the experience is different, we're told!)
Ted's pals Frank and Theo hadn't been before, so they were excited to take a look around Hogsmeade too!
We had time to take a walking tour through Hogwarts, though we didn't do the ride, so here's a few pictures to tempt you!
Cinderella's Castle, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World
Each year we have tried out a new Walt DisneyWorld experience to share with you - okay, we get some joy out of it ourselves - and this year was no exception. We decided, despite only having boy bears, to take the teds to see Cinderella, with lunch in the Castle! The weather wasn't great that day - a bit of rain, then overcast, but that helps keep some folks away! Oh, and you HAVE to book this 180 days before to have any chance of getting a table. Odd ones become available, and sometimes if you call you can get something but this is a popular experience and if you want it, they make you work - and pay - for it! Even 180 days out we could only get a reservation for lunch, not dinner, though that worked fine for us.
We arrived at 1.20pm and checked in. The lady there was very kind to the bears and very welcoming. We were shown through to a waiting point where we lined up to meet Cinderella herself. We got a single included large photogragh of the group*, and four smaller photographs but as well as that, they were happy to let us take a combination of our own photographs too - the bears on their own and with the humans - they were very accommodating.
We headed upstairs (there's an elevator too) into the dining room. It's very pretty. We were shown to our table and made very welcome, even the chef came out to discuss allergies with one of our party.
Lunch comprised of an appetizer of the Chef's tasting plate (below left) with salad, cheese and dips, though we did keep getting distracted from eating (so much so they cleared our plates and then had to bring a replacement!) The entrée was a choice of boneless rib (below centre), chicken or a veggie option, which was pretty stodgy gnocchi (below right).
We were distracted throughout lunch as we kept getting interrupted by these pesky girls, er, princesses, who kept wanting their photos taken with the famous bears! Well, that's Ted's story. The various princesses (Snow White, Ariel and Jasmine, as well as Aurora) would circulate throughout lunch and were very accommodating, taking many a photograph (with your own camera, so they weren't building up an expensive portfolio of pictures for you to buy!)
Dessert was a choice of The Clock Strikes Twelve - a lovely white and dark chocolate dessert, designed as a tribute to when Cinderella lost her slipper - a fruit cheesecake, which wasn't great, or a sorbet. As they misheard one of the orders, we got both the cheesecake and Clock dessert and I have to say the Clock won paws down! As it was Di's birthday she also got a cupcake with a candle in it, which was a nice touch, so don't forget to mention if you are celebrating an event!
The meal was in a great setting. Both the chef and our server, not to mention the princesses) were all very attentive and friendly, considering it was pretty busy in there. Each diner (child or adult) got a magic wand and a magic star (I think the boys got swords!)
It's not a cheap lunch at all, at about $60 per person, but that includes a three course meal, bottomless soda, a 10"x8" group photograph, four 6"x4" photos and a number of photographs and interactions with four additional princesses. If you have children that love the princesses, or just fancy a time out during a busy park day, this event is thoroughly recommended. It certainly beats standing in line for an hour!
Please note: Cinderella's Royal Table will be closed for planned maintenance with effect from 5 January 2015 and will reopen in spring 2015. Also, all sales after 4 January 2015 will NOT include photoprint packages. Not sure if there will be an alternative as this is all it states on the website at the moment.
We have a guest review now, as one of our guests and their families had a great time at Disney Quest (we've never been!) so I thought we should share their thoughts. Thanks to Emma, for telling us all about it!
Disney Quest is situated within Downtown Disney, so free parking! Admission was included with our fourteen-day Disney Park tickets so we decided to visit even though we didn’t really know what it was! We were certainly not disappointed. We are a family of eight: two grandparents, me, my husband and four children, ranging from 4-14 years old.
Disney Quest is five floors of fun! As soon as you enter the building you are put in a lift/elevator which takes you to the third floor. You definitely need to find a map at this point as the place is huge. The boys headed straight for the driving games, followed by the shooting games and motorbike racing games! All four of them could play against each other. Meanwhile, my 4 year old daughter and I headed off to the next floor to play air hockey, have interactive dance competitions, shoot some basketball hoops and have unlimited goes on the little ride on vehicles, plus many many fun arcade games for the younger child. Two hours passed in a flash for myself and my daughter and we had only done one floor! As it was time to close, we headed off to find the boys who had stories of retro arcade games such as Donkey Kong, PacMan, Star Wars, Mario Bros, Frogger etc. Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blaster had also been a huge hit for them, as was the Jetpac Joyride.
There are also places to sit and have a very decently priced coffee on huge seats. I did not personally have time to do this but the grandparents were more than happy to sit there and wait for us, after all we had spent the day walking their feet off! We did not find the place overly busy, even though it was the Easter break. There were a couple of games we wanted to try that were being used, but we just busied ourselves with something else until they became free. I think we only queued for the Astro Blasters and that was probably for ten minutes, max.
There was so much more to do there that we felt we had to go back and, even though we visited twice - each time for a couple of hours - there was so much that we didn’t have time to do. We didn’t visit the two bottom floors - we will have to return!
Disney Quest was fantastic for our family, with the huge age range and there really was something for everyone. The children ran around trying to fit everything in as they could not believe it was all free - no having to keep asking mum and dad for money for this and that! Yes, you have to pay for your park pass initially but this definitely was a bonus to a family of computer game addicts! This place was great and I'd definitely recommend a visit if you can fit it into your schedule. However, I would also suggest you pick up a map (or go online) and plan what you want to do before you get there.
If you have an experience to share from your visit to Florida please let us know - we'll be happy to include it in a future newsletter.
We'd never seen the Electric Parade (the late night parade with over half a million lights) so we stayed to see it. We were disappointed there weren't more Disney characters in the parade, but it was very bright and cheerful.
Another new experience this year was a Disney Cruise on the Disney Dream. We didn't have much time, and weren't sure how well Di's sea-legs would hold up, so we only did a three-night trip, to Nassau in the Bahamas and Disney's own island, Castaway Cay in the Bahamas.
The Disney Cruise website allows you to pre-complete the check-in information, and book port adventures during your cruise, in an attempt to speed up the boarding process. We had arranged to arrive around noon, which we did. We were advised to drop our checked bags, and our passengers with carry-on and a single driver went to park the car - we had chosen the $20/night car parking which was very conveniently across the street from the ship. Other parking is available but we couldn't be bothered! We went through some photo-ID checks and airport-style security before heading to the check-in line, which even this early was pretty busy. We had some minor issues with one of the passports as there was no entry stamp - Paul has Global Entry which means you don't have to see an Immigration Officer on entry, just a machine - but this was soon sorted.
A quick official photograph that would be available to purchase later (no obligation) and we boarded the ship. We were directed to the Enchanted Garden restaurant on the second deck and were presented with an extensive buffet lunch, of hot and cold food and desserts. Paul has shellfish allergies and they were happy to make him up a plate of food, directly from the kitchen, avoiding any contamination from the buffet. They made a note and he was consulted each day for the following evening meal. The food was great and the service very welcoming.
We were able to access our cabin at 1.30pm and dropped off our wine-filled carry-on before heading for a tour of the ship. It didn't cover everything but was a useful introduction to some of the areas (theatre, movie theater, lounges) that would be used throughout the cruise. We then had a lifeboat drill before heading to the pool deck for the Sail Away party. It was pretty noisy up here as there are two swimming pools, catering outlets offering pizza, burgers, salads and wraps, ice cream and soft drinks - all included in your cruise price, and available for long hours during the day. We declined the introductory cocktail of the day for $9, with each subsequent cocktail from a daily menu being offered for $4.50, but this is a good discount if you choose to buy alcoholic drinks on board. You even get to keep the glass. Soft drinks and bottles of water are also available at the bars for purchase, or free from the dispensers, but these are only on deck 11 or in the restaurants.
There are three restaurants on the Dream (below, left to right) Enchanted Garden, Royal Palace and Animator's Palace. You are rotated through the three restaurants, unless you choose to pay a premium for adult-only restaurants Palo ($25) or Remy ($75). You are on the same table number each day and your servers move with you so they get to know you (and it makes tipping easier). The meals are three courses, with choices available and alternatives at your request if you really don't like anything (or have an allergy). The service was great and by the third night a high chair was ready for the Teds before we arrived! There is also the Cabanas Restaurant, if you prefer a buffet dinner or more casual dining places on Deck 11.
There are two sittings for dinner - 5.45pm and 8.15pm - which are taken in conjunction with an early or late theatre show. Each night the theater puts on a show with many familiar Disney characters. The first show The Golden Mickeys wasn't bad, the second, Villains Tonight! was terrible, we thought, and the third, Disney's Believe, was much better. It's a bit "amateur dramatics" in style, rather than the exceptional shows you'll find in the parks or the Broadway shows they claimed, but they are fun. Again, while you can buy popcorn, they have a popcorn bucket available for $7 which means you only pay $3.50 instead of $6 for future nights. You can also buy drinks at the theatre or pick them up from deck 11 before the show.
On our second night, there is a pirate theme all evening, which on our cruise was combined with Halloween. Many of the children, and a lot of the adults, were dressed in the pirate spirit, helped by the provision of pirate headscarves for all passengers, delivered to your room. The bears really got into this and enjoyed the earlier, family friendly Mickey pirate show and the later Jack Sparrow adventure. The pirate evening ended with a fireworks show - Disney are the only cruise line allowed to do this - and a late night buffet in the Cabanas restaurant on Deck 11.
Each of the daytime stops ashore offer Port Adventures which can be pre-selected or booked on board, subject to availability. At Nassau, we had pre-booked a visit to the Graycliff Chocolatier. Here we had an introduction to how chocolate is made before actually making chocolates of our own. This was a fun experience, though we didn't see that much of Nassau. What we did see was pretty rundown, however. We spent our afternoon shopping in the souvenir shops but there were many water-based activities, animal interactions and tours available. Unfortunately, the timing of these - all starting mid-morning - means you are pretty much restricted to just one activity. These activities are all at an extra charge, though you can book tours yourself online before you go or onshore there are many taxis and horse-drawn carriages ready to take you exploring.
Castaway Cay is Disney's private island and a beautiful beach resort. Again there are many different water sports available, as well as bike rental or animal activities. There's even a 5k run or walk first thing, if you can be bothered! We chose not to book anything for this day and took the shuttle bus to see the adult-only beach and buffet, before returning to the family beach and two more buffet locations. Note, we only found steak at the adults-only buffet, however, there were beef or spicy chicken burgers (including veggie burgers on request!), hot dogs, cajun mahi mahi, vegetarian chilli, BBQ pork ribs, cajun chicken, several sides, potato chips/crisps, fresh fruit and the usual soft drinks and ice cream. You could have as much as you liked and again this was all included. There are a couple of shops on the island and mostly have similar stuff to what is onboard, but there were a few Castaway Cay-specific items available. There is also a Post Office where you can buy and send post cards and stamps (though they do take a long time to arrive!) On both shore days you can come and go from the ship as you please - or not at all! - so can drop off purchases, head onboard for the food you've already paid for or just to chill out and relax. There was no pressure, that we found, on board ship to purchase extra activities which we appreciated.
The other main benefit of this being a Disney ship is that there are character meet and greets throughout the cruise, both while at sea and at port. The times of these are posted, but these are stand in line events so if you get there early you shouldn't have to wait too long. They didn't seem to get too busy and Mickey was more than happy to meet and greet the bears. They also have more formal photograph experiences around the ship - where you can, but don't have to, buy the photographs. The photographs were fairly expensive at $21 for an 8"x10" but there were offers on larger numbers - like $150 for 10. We just bought a couple of pictures.
We had a great time and while three days was short, it was nice for us to have a real holiday without having to fix or paint something! For a while anyway. There are many cruise lines that sail out of Port Canaveral and some have amazing last minute deals. Thought we'd share our experience in case you were considering one. If you want to know more, Ted will be making a full report over on his own website tourguideted.com one of these days.
Airboats
We have done several airboat rides since we bought the house in Florida. This trip we took a ride with probably the most well known and arguably most popular company in the area, Boggy Creek Airboats. It's understandable - they have a strong presence in advertising both online and in brochures. Our friends really enjoyed their trip with them earlier this year so we thought we should check them out.
It was a warm morning and during the trip we did see some cute baby alligators and then a really large one! The ride was fun, though they only did one fast spin around and we'd have liked more of that.
We had a little tree frog (a tiny Kermit-like chap) join us on the boat too, and a grasshopper (below right), but I won't dwell on that, we thought he was cute but we don't want to put you off!
They are reasonably priced ($47 for an hour-long nature ride) and (we thought) they were fairly easy to find (our friends got briefly lost!) - Boggy Creek Road is the the Orlando International Airport exit off the SR-417. The only real negative for us was that the ear defenders they provided (these boats are loud!) not wired, so there was very little interaction from our guide during our hour-long nature ride. He gave us a few facts when we stopped to look at something but mostly he was pretty quiet. Their boats are bigger too, so you'll probably have to share!
On previous rides, with Aquatic Adventures (yellow, below right - they are no longer operating) and Spirit of the Swamp we have been in a private boat, or a small boat, with no more than eight passengers and in both cases we had two-way radios for all passengers - we got commentary throughout and could ask questions. That said, in both cases with them we only saw very little alligators, along with the other wildlife. To be fair one ride was on a very cold morning in December and the gators were unlikely to be found on any trip.
With Boggy Creek, they actually have a small gator to hand at the end of your ride that they tell you a little about and then let you hold it and take your picture.
Overall, Boggy Creek wasn't bad at all and our friends had thought it was excellent, so if it's your only experience of an airboat ride, we're sure you'll enjoy yourselves and have a great time. However, if you want a more informal, narrated experience, we'd recommend one of the smaller companies with smaller boats and radio headsets. That said, Boggy Creek does have a small shop, with a few gator-related items as well as hats and t-shirts!
Worrying about driving after a long flight, on the wrong side of the road in an automatic. Well, clearly not if you are from the US or some parts of Europe, but certainly it can be daunting to some of our British guests, particularly the first-timers. This visit we met Florida Transport, who took some friends to the aiport for us.
When a friend visited us and took a regular taxi from the airport the driver got lost trying to find us (it's really not that hard!) It got a little fraught and, while the driver claimed the fare should have been $150, he settled for $110. On recommendation of other owners, we decided to call Florida Transport to return them to the Airport. According to their website, Florida Transport is the only transportation company in Central Florida offering a unique service dedicated primarily to the needs of villa guests from the United Kingdom. They arrived at Southern Dunes when they said they would (it helped they knew where it was!) and our friends said they were friendly and chatted through the journey, costing $90. We'd use them again, and thought the information might be helpful to our guests.
A service they offer is next day car hire. Rather than arrive at the airport and spend a while (and it can be a long while at peak times) at the car rental counters, then you have to find your way, maybe at night. We don't find it so hard, but we've done it a lot. Some are more than happy to drive straight away, but if you're not one of those, then Florida Transport will pick your party up at the airport and drive you to the Villa, even stopping at a supermarket, for fifteen to twenty minutes, on the way for you to get supplies for that first evening, if you'd like.
The next day they will pick you up and take you to a nearby car rental location to pick up the rental car you will have previously booked through them. You'll be refreshed and it'll be daylight, so maybe this in an option you'd like to consider. At the end of the stay they do this in reverse - take you to drop off your rental car and return you to the airport. They also offer all other kinds of transportation to theme parks, shopping or anywhere you like, by arrangement. For more information check their website.
We don't get anything for recommending these guys, we are only doing so because we used them successfully, as a regular airport taxi only. We have no affiliation with them, but hope, if this is a service you'd care to know more, you can!
So, did we do ANY work this trip?
YES!!
Well, okay, not as much as we planned, but we were able to get the Mickey Master bathroom and closet tiled to match the others! It is soooo much nicer than the rather tired lino. We hope you like it!
Thinking of what to ask for for your birthday? Or even Christmas? Why not try a Villa Southern Dunes Gift Voucher!
We continue to offer Villa Southern Dunes Gift Vouchers. Perhaps you can get your friends and family to pay for your vacation? Ask them for Villa Southern Dunes vouchers! We can send a PDF file for any occasion, by email to the person who contacts us or we can email it directly to the recipient. We offer any amount in US Dollars or GB Pounds, which must be paid for using PayPal (including credit cards) or by bank transfer. Credit card/PayPal payments will incur a 2% administration charge and vouchers will not be sent until payment has cleared but we will endeavour to issue the voucher within 24 hours of receiving cleared payment. If you need a voucher for a particular occasion, or to include a photo of your choice, just ask us at villasoutherndunes@gmail.com
The voucher can be used towards an existing booking (the name on the voucher must be a Named Guest), or towards a deposit, if not yet booked. The name on the voucher may be changed, but this instruction must come from the person whose name is on the voucher. If this is impossible, please contact us at villasoutherndunes@gmail.com
For more information, email villasoutherndunes@gmail.com or call 07952 408964 from the UK (011 44 7952 408964 from the US).
If you'd like to submit a short review of an attraction or restaurant you visited while staying at Villa Southern Dunes, or send some photos of your stay, please email it to villasoutherndunes@gmail.com Please supply your name, email address, dates of stay and age (if under 18). We'll try and include it if we can.
Thinking of what to ask for for your birthday? Or even Christmas? Why not try a 
