Oldies On Tour

Well we were up early, 6.30am to qualify for cheap tickets we had to go to Holiday Inn resort, to hear a presentation! Think this should be fun!

We had breakfast, then we were off in a smart taxi, well we arrived ok, showed the passports, then we were registered, and a guy was allocated to us, he took us off in a buggy, to see these lovely apartments, here we go folks, timeshare. Actually No they said, this is a different system, this is a point system, well we listened to the guy, and it sounded just up our street, we could buy it over ten years, then pass it on to the kids, by which time they would be getting free holidays, all sounded good. We wanted Hotels, not resorts, but yes we could do that as well. Hey this is good. We can go anywhere in the world, for very little money, and after about four years we would get our money back, so far so good. Travel out of season, is better value for money, so we thought we could do this, in fact we signed up for it, even paid the deposit, we asked lots of questions, everything was great. Our normal holidays would be four days here, then move on, another four days somewhere, move again yes we can do that, for very little money. We enquires about a holiday in south of Spain, that worked out cheap, but then we asked how much would it cost to go to holiday inn Gunwharf, well that would cost us 25,000 points, well we were only getting 159,000, so do the maths, we could only stay in six plus nights in hotels, and all our points would be gone. The reason it works, you go to resorts, and they haven’t many of them, certainly not outside of USA. Having wasted a lot of time and effort on this, they realised we were not going to do this, so they gave us two more offers, which we declined, they then gave us our money back, and sent us home in a dilapidated bus! Oh well never mind, we got our cheap tickets for Epcot, and it was an experience.

We made a cuppa, relaxed in the room, and then we walked to Hooters

especially for Geoff, to cheer him up, he has my cold, sorry ‘man flue’
We had a lovely dinner and pudding, then we went back to the hotel.

We picked the car up, and left Jan and Mike, and took our time to drive to Orlando, we were on the interstate highway, until Geoff decided it was coffee time, we left the highway, and went on smaller roads, which were bigger than our motorways! Anyway I spotted a
dunking donut and silly me I mentioned it, we immediately did a U turn, and headed back. Into the shop, and guess what, it’s cheaper to buy 6 than it is to buy 1, so we had to have six! Anyway a cup of coffee/tea later and two donuts, we carried on, we tried to stay on the smaller roads, because they were nicer, we constantly argued with tom tom, to stay on the 17/92 road, but we persevered and won.
We went alongside some lovely lakes the trees were weird, but the houses by the lakes were lovely.
We were not in any hurry, we took all the side roads and eventually arrived in our Hotel, we were pleasantly surprised, as it was very comfortable, and the bathroom is a dream, after the house one, (which is not very good). The staff are very friendly, we even have a guy from Zaragoza Spain, who is trying to sell us something, we haven’t worked out what yet!
After some tea, we decided to go to the local Brazilian restaurant, more beef than you would imagine, a lovely bottle of wine, welcome to Orlando.

We messed around in morning, Geoff and I did our swimming and exercises, then went to look for a hire car, we have booked to go to Orlando, so we need another car, should have done it from the beginning, it would have been a lot cheaper, hey ho!
Found Payless, and decided not to use them, they were ripping the Brits off! We ended up at Avis, booked it for tomorrow, then we went for another drive.
We wanted to buy some flip flops, so we went to Armand Circus, this was a lovely little place, very busy, with lots of little restaurants, cafes and expensive shops

We found a stunning picture, it was a print on aluminium, it was fantastic, but it cost $6500 after discount, and including shipping, it really wasn’t worth that much. We left Geoff in the shop negotiating but that’s the best he could do, it started of just under $10,000, so I guess it was overpriced in the beginning.

Found a nice place to have a drink, and watch the world go by, a lovely day.

Back home Geoff cooked the steaks, very difficult, Jan likes hers well done, Mike likes his medium, and ours rare, I made the salad, mike made the wedges, everything came together, and steaks were great.
We then played sequence, which Jan and I won again, and I then beat Geoff at crib, we had a laugh, even UNO was bad for the boys.

I didn’t wake very early, much to Geoff’s disgust, he was awake, at 6.30am, I didn’t wake until 7.30am, Geoff made me tea, and we then went for a swim, the pool is lovely, although not as warm as ours. We did our exercises in the vain hope that our weight would just drop off.

we had breakfast, and then the boys went shopping, whilst Jan and I sorted the washing and ironing out.
We had lunch, then decided to go and look around, after a long drive, we stopped for coffee, at Bridge Street, at Bradenton Beach.

it was windy and cold, but the people were lovely

We then walked along the beach after, but the sea is very cold, but it was lovely to be paddling.

Back home again, we went for another swim, the water is getting warmer, as the landlord has put the pool heater on.
I cooked dinner, then we discussed how much a trip to Disney world is going to cost, oh dear not sure if we want to go now.

We were awoken by the sound of the ship docking, it was 6am, Geoff got straight up made the teas, and then had a shower, there was no stopping him, I just sat back, and enjoyed my cuppa! Geoff was dressed, and then went to the library, and reception, whilst I was still drinking my tea. I finally decided time to get up, I had a shower, and we then went down for breakfast, having gathered all our stuff up, and said goodbye to Amile our lad who kept our room lovely and tidy!
Having met up with Mike and Jan, they said we could dis-embark, well we did, two hours later we cleared customs, what a lot of nonsense, everyone was moaning, we had to eat oranges, apples, and nuts etc., as not allowed to take them in, everyone was quite jovial, considering the time it took.
When we eventually got through, we found our car hire man, who took us to collect our hire car, everything was going to plan. We loaded the car, and quickly travelled on to our villa for ten days, and very nice it is too.
Later we went shopping, then Mike cooked our meal, and I had an early night, I was shattered with this cold.