Visited Leu Gardens recently which is a botanical gardens situated near downtown Orlando. You get to explore 50 acres of gardens and historic home. Some of the collections on display are a tropical rainforest, rose garden and butterfly garden, but there were many more. It reminded us of being at a National Trust place back home, so lots of gardens, flowers, woodlands, trails lakes etc. Basically there was a lot to cover! They were actually setting up for an event…
We drove over to Cocoa Beach this week which is on the East coast, about an hour away from where we are staying. The weather has definitely turned cooler now at the end of Nov, although it was still 20 degrees and lovely in the sun. But the very humid conditions have disappeared for now, and it’s much cooler at night time. I’m in my trousers instead of shorts today for the first time in months! It was still nice…
We went to see the new Gladiator film at City Walk the other day (City Walk is the entertainment area that sits next to Universal Studios) – you get free parking if you buy tickets to the cinema so thought we’d combine that with having a walk around some of the lakes and hotels that were nearby. Check out how blue and clear the water is. Portofino Bay Hotel This hotel is inspired by the seaside town of Portofino, Italy…
Here are some photos from our day at Universal. There are two parks – Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure – which are linked by a train ride on the Hogwarts Express! You can obviously walk between the two parks too (they are right next to each other) but the train is the more fun way to travel as it is designed like the one in the movie and there are things going outside the window and the carriage doors,…
Took a day trip to Daytona Beach the other day. It’s about a 1.5hr drive from where we are but as our planned week in Tampa is now off the cards (Airbnb property we were due to stay in had too much storm damage so we had to cancel) we wanted to still get a few beach days in. After walking down the beach for a few miles we came across a Landshark beach bar. For those who don’t know…
Hi everyone, Simon here, I’ve got a major update on the Mini Golf situations – I’ve pulled it back to 4-4 after a couple of solid games at our local ‘Congo Falls’ course. There were two 18 hole courses there, both very well themed with some good holes. Some pics below. We also went to Volcano Bay yesterday which is Universal’s water park. Had a full day there, managing to do loads of the slides and generally floating around in…
We are having a quiet few days after Jacky and Emily left on Friday so thought I would update the blog with what their last few days entailed before they departed. Gideon’s Bakehouse Gideon’s is a bakery like no other…firstly, you have to queue to get inside (and you thought it was only the rides you had to queue for) and secondly, you can’t see what’s inside. So there is an air of mystery that grabs you as you walk…
Sorry we’ve not posted many updates recently, we’ve had my mum and sister as guests for the last week so it’s been a very busy week cramming things in while they’re here. It’s been nice having them here and we’ve been back to Epcot and Magic Kingdom at the Disney parks with them, and to do lots of things Lucy and I hadn’t had a chance to do during our initial visits before they arrived. Shopping, sitting by the pool,…
Firstly (and most importantly) for those of you who are interested (which I realise will probably just be my family!) a quick update in relation to the crazy golf score. It was 2-2 at the last update and I have now taken a commanding 4-2 lead. Game 5 was a Disney summer themed course. It was a very competitive game in that we were tied as we got to hole 16, so it looked highly likely that it was going…
A quick written update, but lots of pics to share from our busy day at Hollywood Studios this week. We managed to get on all the rides in the day, including visiting the Star Wars and Toy Story lands as you can see below.