Orlando - Villa

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When we arrived, there wasn’t much to do apart from unpack our stuff, get settled in and do a bit of sunbathing before some eating. Because the Villa is in a quite area and we are without a car, it’s a good 30 min walk to any restaurants, supermarkets or bars. With this in mind we decided to get Chinese to eat in, Jill’s Lemon chicken was very nice, but again there was far too much, enough for me to have for lunch the next day as well.

Sunday the 13th revolved around two things, first getting enough food and drink to last us the week in the villa (cooking in on most nights will save us a fair amount of money we thought) and making sure we leave Florida as black as possible, without using boot polish. Managed to spend $40 on food and drink from the supermarket, got some nice Brahmas in, which i must say I’m hooked on since the t-t-teessiders introduced it to me on that eventful weekend in Manchester. The meat is really expensive here, but I know I’m in a bit of tourist trap supermarket, however things like chocolate and crisps are really cheap, but a single pepper was nearly $2, anything to help fatties. On the evening I made a nice Spag Bol.

In the words of Alan Partridge: "I could eat one of those every day, but then id be dead!"

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Monday & Tuesday were largely the same sunbathing all day eating something nice at dinner and watching either a film or the god awful crap American TV with adverts every 10 mins (no joke). One highlight was the steak at the outback steakhouse we had on Monday night, which was the best steak i have ever had, see the photos to feel hungry!

Wednesday the 16th we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, our last theme park left. It was a bit of a mission, including a 30 min walk to the bus stop, 2 buses to get to the Disney ticket center, then a Disney bus to Animal Kingdom, took about 2 hours in total, but was worth it when we got there, if only for the Expedition Everest ride!

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River Rapids ride was pretty good and the lion king show was quite entertaining, and bugs life 3-D was really good. An all round eventful day, just a shame the park closed at 6 and the it was absolutely packed, just too many people, I think its due to the fact that compared to the other parks, its much smaller, but still gets the same volume of visitors. Plenty of photos from the Safari for you to look at, that’s right more animals. Didn’t do much on the evening apart from get in a famous stuffed pizza. Look at the photo; it gives a new meaning to deep pan.

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Thursday, was a day of sunbathing cut short due to torrential thunderstorms, had the rest of the time to start writing all this rubbish. On the evening headed back to the outback, but this time for a bloomin’ onion. Have tried to describe this to people at uni before, but you need a photo to due it justice. It is an onion in no less than 4 inches in diameter, that is hollowed out, then cut with something to make it look like a flower. It’s then deep fried in spicy batter. In the words of Alan Partridge: "I could eat one of those every day, but then id be dead!"

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Friday was rubbish, because it was cloudy and rainy all day, just spent the day sending emails and playing pool, and Jill did some washing. Made up some sort of pasta soup for tea with the few ingredients we had left.

Saturday was another cloudy day, listened to the superboro go 2-0, only to collapse and get beat 3-2. Typical boro, always ace. Packed up our stuff for the next day and stuffed ourselves rotten at the Chinese buffet.

Sunday was our last day, finished our packing and the lucky charms, which are absolutely nectar, I can’t believe we don’t get them in England anymore. Taxi came at 10. Had to make sure no liquids of gels in the hand luggage, with the recent terror plots and hope that security moves swiftly so we can make our connection in Washington. So next time, we'll be in NYC, I promise there'll be some better photos than animals and people in fluffy costumes!