Hello, and welcome to W is for Duck.
Herein lies part two of my blog about my family’s recent holiday to Florida in the USA. If you haven’t read part one, please feel free to do so – a link to it should be just to the right of this blog post.
So, where did we get to? Ahh, yes – we had arrived at our hotel. Allow me to continue…….
Our hotel was the WorldQuest Orlando Resort – built in a Mediterranean style, with several blocks of accommodation around a central swimming pool. When we checked in we were asked if we wanted to be near the pool (erm…. YES!) and if we had a preference for which floor we were on. I asked for a top floor apartment – which was a good thing because we got good views of the sunrise in the morning. Our apartment was room 503 in the 2nd building. We were given key cards for the door, each card having a character from Toy Story on it by way of advertising the fact that the Hotel sold tickets to the various Disney Parks. Our apartment was spacious, and nicely furnished. My fiancée and I had the master bedroom, with a huge bed and a bathroom big enough to play baseball in. The bathroom had a shower and a jacuzzi bath in it, and two sinks – very swish! The kids were sharing a twin room and had a bathroom right next door. Of course, there was air-conditioning which was most welcome anytime after going outside into the Florida heat.
We were self-catering, and our apartment had a little kitchen area with a big fridge and some confusing appliances; There was a big microwave above the cooker – big enough to put a child in, according to my daughter – that was made by Whirlpool (they make Washing Machines here in the UK), and a coffee percolator that was made by Black & Decker (power tool manufacturer here). I was surprised to see these brand names on appliances you wouldn’t naturally think of being made by them. A few days later we bought a Pizza that was made by Nestle, so I had no idea what was going on. We did discover a few other oddities: No kettle (the Americans don’t make Tea like the English do, and obviously drink more coffee), so I had to boil a pan of water to make a cup of tea. There was no baking tray provided, so we had to buy our own to cook some of the meals we had bought. And there were only four knives in the cutlery drawer, and four big spoons – but about twelve forks. However, these ‘quirks’ were nothing we couldn’t overcome, after all we are British and built an empire based on a cunning use of flags (Eddie Izzard: Do You Have a Flag?), so a lack of knives was nothing to worry about.
The first thing we did when we got into our apartment was to dig out the swimming costumes and swim shorts and rush down to the pool. We were hot and tired after our long journey, and a dip in the pool was just perfect. The stress just slipped off me as I lay in the water – although it could have been sun cream. We luxuriated in the pool for a while and then decided that we should buy some provisions for a meal that evening, and breakfast in the morning. It was about 5pm US time when we arrived at the hotel, so a meal time was imminent. The hotel had a little shop in it – a shop that sold stuff at ridiculous prices!! We bought some snacks for an evening meal, plus milk, juice and cereal for the morning – and it came to around $75!! But I guess they know that people in our situation will have no choice – but man…….
Sunday was our first full day in Florida – and we decided to go and get some food shopping and visit the Mall. We hit the mall first, which included a visit to the American Girl Doll store where my Daughter spent all her holiday spending money on a new Doll – ‘Julie’, who would go everywhere with her for the duration of the holiday. The Mall was just too noisy and crowded, and busy for my liking. It was bigger than any shopping centre I had been to in England, and even though it was a Sunday, it was rammed with people. It was too loud to try and have a conversation as we walked along, so we decided to get a bite to eat and sit in the relatively hush of the eating area.
As you might expect, there was plenty of choices of things to eat. In the end, my Fiancée had some Chinese food, while the kids and I went for good old burgers and fries from an outlet called “5 guys”. My daughter had a hotdog, while my son and I had burgers. While I was waiting for my order, I noticed the lady in front of me was wearing a dress that still had the label hanging out the back. Being a helpful chap, I tapped her on the shoulder and let her know. It should be noted at this point that throughout my holiday I developed a pseudo American accent when speaking to the natives, and called ladies ‘Ma’am’ and gentlemen, ‘sir’. I don’t know if it helped at all – I doubt it did. Anyway, I informed the lady that her label was still attached so she asked her daughter to tear it off. The daughter duly obliged – and then threw the label on the floor! There were bins in the area, but they were obviously too far away. I didn’t say anything to the girl or her mother, but with hindsight I must admit that it has made me wonder if the dress wasn’t stolen – the way the label (a shop label – I should have mentioned earlier) was ripped off and discarded in the way it was appeared odd to me. Perhaps I judge too quickly; I apologise to the ladies if I do. Anyway, that was the mall: lots of shops, loads of people and too much noise.
On the Monday, we had our first family trip out. Our destination: Gatorland, where you can see a shed load of alligators and other animals, watch “Gator wrestling”, animal shows including the Gator Jump show – where alligators jump several feet out of the water to grab food from a keeper’s hands – and go on a train ride around the park. I got to hold an 8-foot python and saw albino alligator – but a real highlight for me was the small aviary they had where the brightly coloured budgies would come and eat seeds off special lollipop sticks that you could buy for a couple of dollars. The birds were so tame they would be all over the floor, so you had to shuffle your feet to not step on them!
After a brilliant but hot day out, we returned to our hotel got in the pool. I decided to do some bare-knuckle swimming when I swam down to the bottom of the pool and scraped the backs of my hands on the bottom of the pool (which although not rough had a kind of anaglypta effect to it – bumpy enough to scrape your skin on). My knuckles have only just properly healed, because I spent most days in the pool at some point so the scabs that formed got wet which slowed down the healing process. I could F well end up horribly disfigured for life.
And don’t anybody suggest it’s too late for that already.
Tuesday was another day in the pool avoiding disfigurement, as we looked forward to Wednesday and a chance for my Fiancée to meet up with her pen-friend of 40 years!
W Is For Duck 