The Holiday on a Budget! (ish!)

we're really looking forward to the dine in

I dont know where i got mine from, have had some horrid parents of boyfriends in the past! Think my hubby is as lovely as he is because of his parents, they are such gentle, kind and just genuinely lovely caring people, i feel very lucky

Well that's a turn up for the books, I just won 100 pounds on the lottery! Now we have 1000 to take with us :D

The Trip On a Budget (ish) Day 1

We got up about 6am, I would say what time we woke up but I don't think I slept for more than 2 hours during the night I was so excited! Got dressed and ready to go, kissed and cuddled my cat before we left, we stayed at my parents house the night before so we could get my baby settled in at home cried all the way to the airport cause I was worried about leaving her! LOL

Got the the airport and said a tearful goodbye to my parents, and then headed inside to meet Simon's parents. I had checked us all in the night before online so all we had to do was drop our bags and head to the gate

We headed through quite quickly but I was taken for extra screening :confused2 they wanted to scan the handles on my handbag. I was fine though just Anne and I went into the Jo Malone shop and were offered a hand massage each. Anne wanted to buy some perfume in there anyway so she got that and then it was time to head to the gate. We boarded the plane and sat down, we had 1 window seat beside us " I like the aisle seat as I have to get up a lot. The lady who sat next to Sy was from Clearwater, she was very talkative! She even invited us to stay at her house when we go to Clearwater lol. She couldn't sit still though as she had a bad back so she kept getting up and down, in fact the only time I managed to get to sleep she wanted to get up so woke me up which was a bit of a pain but it wasn't the end of the world, we just made a mental note not to get edge seats on the way home.

I was excited when we arrived at Tampa as I'd read about the small airport and how quickly we could get through passport control, how wrong was I??!! We weren't at the back of the queue and still it took an hour and a half to get through! I was looking at our cases sitting on the floor for anyone to take and I was getting really stressed out in case someone took them or something happened to them. We did eventually get through okay and pick up our bags.

Sy with all the bags at Tampa

We headed over to pick up the car, I was in a bit of a panic as I realized on the plane that I hadn't printed out the car hire voucher, but luckily they could find our details on the system. The men on the desk did try to fast talk us into buying extra insurance, he tried speaking really quickly saying something along the lines of 'you're having the insurance with us' and nodding, I asked him to repeat himself slowly 3 times and explain, turns out he was trying to get us to say yes to buying more insurance, just a word of warning to others! This was with Budget. We got our car " a Red Rio, it was basic to say the least, no central locking, had to lean over to unlock all the doors, and wind down windows, it did have air-con though which was the main thing!

It took us about an hour to get to the condo, we did have to stop outside a McDonalds to get the number of the lock to get the key out! Oops! We did eventually get there though We were very pleasantly surprised, we got a cheap last minute deal so we didn't have the highest of hopes (well I didn't!) but it was lovely.

Here are the pictures...

Nice eh?

We then unpacked, showered and headed out for dinner and to Publix. We bought the essentials from Publix and decided to go to Applebee's for dinner, as we'd had good meals there last year. Unfortunately we didn't have a great meal, my food was so greasy I couldn't eat it, the chicken was overcooked and like rubber, Anne's food was really greasy and she couldn't eat it. They took our meals off the check without asking, it was the manager who came over to clear our plates and he asked how it was and why we hadn't eaten. Our server wasn't good either, we had to keep asking for our drinks etc, not what we're used to in Florida that's for sure. We were tired though so we paid (with 18% tip) and left.

We fell straight into bed when we got home, feeling very, very tired!

As this trip we are on a budget, I wanted to try and let others know our spending so it might help them in the future when planning trips.

Today we spent $108 in Publix but this was split between 2 families and included 2 cases of Bud So we spent $54. In Applebee's we spent $30 each couple.

Total spend $84

Tomorrow, Seaworld!

Aww thank you! I'm glad they are interesting to read I am sick with flu so have plenty of time to get through it all

The Trip on a Budget (ish) Day 2, SeaWorld

We decide to try and get up early, I think we got up about 8am which isn't too bad considering what little sleep we'd had over the past few days. We had some breakfast in the condo before heading out to SeaWorld.

We paid the $14 ($7 each) to park and passed through bag check and turnstiles into the park. We picked up a park map and planned our day around the shows that we wanted to see. First was the new Shamu show, One Ocean. It was due to start in about an hour so we walked over that way. We stopped to grab a refill cup ($7.45) on our journey over the lake. We still had plenty of time so we went into see the Polar Bear, Beluga Whales and Walrus'

Sy and Cliff took the helicopter Anne and I took the walking route (I am not very good with motion simulators). It was then time to watch the new show One Ocean. Having read online that the trainers were going back into the water I had high hopes, unfortunately they weren't in the water so I was quite disappointed. It was a good show though, just would have been better in my opinion with the trainers in the water with them.

Some piccies...

We then planned our next show which we decided would be Clyde and Seamore, Anne and Cliff had never seen this show before so we wanted to make sure we saw it this time. We stopped on the way round to ride Journey to Atlantis, Anne didn't like the look of the big drop so wouldn't ride with us. We did get quite wet but we dried out a little sitting down watching the show.

Afterwards we sat down and had an ice cream ($8.50) near the penguins, and then went to feed the Sealions ($20, 5 trays for the price of 4).

We looked around all of the animals and fed the Rays ($5, 1 tray) before we left, we were still feeling really jet lagged. We stopped on the way home to get some Popeye's chicken ($12.50) as we love it, plus Anne wanted to try some.

Once back at the Condo I decided to have a bit of a lay down, but asked Sy not to let me sleep too long or I would be up all night, well he woke me after about 2 &1/2 hours! I wasn't best pleased so I decided to stay in bed for the night rather than get up and wake myself up and then not be able to get back to sleep a few hours later.

Simon and his parents were really tired too so they decided to get some food in from Publix plus get the bits we forgot the night before when we were so tired ($40). They got cooked chicken pieces, bread rolls and salad, I had some the next day and it was really lovely!

As I don't remember anything from that night (cause I was asleep!), I will leave it there and say tomorrow, Spirit of the Swamp!

Spends today total $100.45

The Trip on a Budget (ish) Day 3, Spirit of the Swamp & Celebration

I was awake at 6am due to going to bed at about 5:30pm the night before so I dug out my laptop and planned our journey to Spirit of the Swamp air boat tours. It was about 45 mins drive away. I wrote it all down in my trusty notebook (the one that recorded all of our spends and things I wanted to remember) and then skype'd home to speak to my parents. By the time I had done that and had a shower everyone else was up and getting ready for breakfast. Anne wasn't feeling very well and said she wasn't going to come on the airboat, I think Sy and Cliff were annoyed with her cause it was her that was really keen on doing it but she agreed to come. I think she was more worried about ruining it for us cause she wasn't very well. We followed the directions but it looked a bit strange where we turned up, it was a public park but just as we were about to turn out again a man stopped us and told us he was Captain Harold and showed up where to park. We got on his airboat and he talked us through all of the safety rules etc and we let him know Anne wasn't feeling too good. As we had headphones with mouth pieces on we could talk to each other so he said just to let him know if she wasn't feeling too good and we could stop and go back. We had an amazing time! It was by far the best airboat we have ever been on, it was just us on a little boat, not the huge things you usually see. The one to one service was amazing, he took us where we wanted to go, showed us thing we were interested in, he even took us a bit further out to try and find an endangered bird as Anne is a bird watcher and wanted to see it. We had an hour's tour which was $40 each but next time we would go for an hour and a half as it was so good. We didn't want it to end! I had booked and paid for the boat in advance so it didn't come out of our spends.

A few pics from the boat.

Going really fast, see the lack of hair at the front lol

We then headed back and stopped in Celebration for a wander around the shops, especially Woofgang Bakery then we sat down with an ice cream. (Anne and Cliff paid for ice cream)

We then drove back to the Condo and had a swim in the pool.

After our swim we had a shower and got ready to go out for dinner, we decided to go to Chili's on International Drive, as it was Memorial Day Weekend it was PACKED. We waited about 45 min for a table, unfortunately our buzzer wasn't working and they had buzzed us a few times before they came to look for us. The food was good though, we did the appetizer to share and a main each for $20. We spent $40 in total including drinks and tips.

Once we left Chili's it was after 11pm so we decided to go back to the condo and get some sleep.

Tomorrow, Shopping & Illuminations cruise

Yeah sorry its $14 parking per day, and split between 2 couples was $7 sorry got you all excited then lol

The Trip on a Budget (ish) Day 4, Illuminations cruise

We got up and decided we would go out for breakfast. We've never been to Denny's before but Anne and Cliff have when they did their west coast tour and really enjoyed it, so we thought we would give it a go.

We drove along the 192 and every one that we came to had a huge queue out of the door! We did eventually find on near SeaWorld that was off the beaten track a little that we got seated straight at.

It seemed like most of the other chains of the same price, wipe clean menu's etc. The food was good and the waitress was lovely. We would definitely go back (and we do later in the trip). Cliff and Simon didn't seem to notice the food and surroundings much though, they found their eyesight kept landing on the head waitress... she had a rather large bottom that they were admiring hehehe... As in the style of the whole Trip Report, we spent $25 on breakfast including tip (for the 2 of us, it was $50 in total for 4 adults).

We went for a wander round Walmart after what was then brunch and bought a few bits to bring home. We then went to the Premium outlets by Wet and Wild. We were so upset to see that Beard Papa's had gone we ate many a cream puff from there over the last 2 years Will have to go to London more often for our fix hehehe I did get some candles from Yankee Candles though ($25)

On our way back we stopped at Bed, Bath and Beyond as we'd never been there before and thought it looked like a good shop. I think we spent about an hour and a half in there! I bought a Bagel slicer and Sy got a fancy zester. ($21)

We started to get really thirsty on our way home and were on the lookout for a bar to stop at. We ended up at Houlihans on the 192. It was pretty empty, there were a couple of other people at the bar inside and a few people at the bar outside. There was only 1 barman as there were so few customers, he split his time inside and out. We sat inside as it was nicely aircon'ed one of the customers from outside came in a shouted at the barman because he wanted a drink :confused2 it was pretty uncomfortable, I applaud the barman though, he kept his cool and apologized and went straight to serve him with a smile, I would have given the man a few choice words personally!

We had a cocktail each and the guy's had a beer each. The cocktail was very strong, Anne and I started to feel woozy after just 1! We spent $15 on drinks ($30 in total for for 4 of us).

We then headed back to the condo to get changed and ready for our illuminations cruise. We were going with another forum family, I had noticed that we both had adverts in the 'wanted' sections of the cruise thread so I PM'ed the family and asked if they would like to join forces. They did and they even booked the cruise for us (how lovely is that?!). We got to the Yacht Club nice and early and had a drink in the bar before heading out to the dock to board our boat. ($18 per couple for drinks). We got there first and kept an eye out for them. When they got there we said our hellos and introductions and then went onboard. We really enjoyed their company for the evening and couldn't have asked for a nicer family to share a cruise with. I haven't mentioned names as I forgot to ask if that was okay! I did ask if it was okay to post pictures though (cruise was $35 each person, the other family paid the tip as they had the boat decorated for a birthday).

Our Skipper tried many times to get us all in the picture but she couldn't quite do it, this is the best one hehehe

The Globe from our boat.

Having now done a Wishes cruise and an Illuminations cruise I definitely prefer the Wishes cruise. We got glasses for our eyes once we got moored up at the bridge between France and the UK however I still got a few ashes in my eyes which put a bit of a dampener on it for me. Plus there were still a lot of people around us when we watched Illuminations, at Wishes it feels like it's just you and the fireworks. Still really enjoyed them both though!

After the cruise we went for a wander around the Boardwalk. We had a look in some of the shops and watched some of the street performers. We decided (why? I don't know) that it would be fun to hire a Surrey Bike. Having done this before I have NO idea why we did it again hahahaha. We made it once round and a half, the boys dropped us off at the car and we were getting the car and picking them up at the boardwalk as their shoes were rubbing and Anne needed the toilet (and we were right by it at the Yacht Club). (Surrey bike was $22 so $11 each couple)

We had a bit of trouble getting into the car park of the boardwalk, I don't think the man at the barrier believed that we were just picking them up and didn't trust my I.D, he did eventually let us in though and we picked the guys up and went back out again and made our way back to the villa.

Total spends for the day $197.50 which inluded petrol.

Tomorrow, Discover Cove!!!

The Trip on a Budget (ish) Day 5, DISCOVERY COVE!!!!!

We were up nice and early today as we wanted to make the most of our day at DC

When we got there we joined what looked like one of the biggest queue's I have ever seen! It did go down quickly though and we were soon checked in and got our lanyards. Simon and Cliff looked great, Anne and I however... well lets just say mine got lost on the way home We have been to DC before but this was a first for Anne and Cliff. We made our way to the lockers to get changed and get a wetsuit. Cliff and Sy got waistcoat sized ones while Anne and I got the fuller ones, I was aware of how awful I looked last year in them plus I could hide more of my body in it Anne was given the same as the boys and for some reason the lady didn't want to give her a fuller wetsuit, said she would be too hot? I went back and got her one though and we were soon dressed and ready for breakfast. Last year when we came it was a nice gentle breakfast, no queue, just a light continental serving, this time however it was very different. We deliberately hadn't eaten breakfast and we had to wait half an hour to get something. It was a cooked breakfast but they actually had less choice than before " and a bigger queue! When going again I would have breakfast at home, it was a real waste of time when we wanted to go off and explore. What we did have wasn't great which was a shame as their lunches are lovely.

After eating we went to find some loungers to leave our things. We found some in the shade and began rubbing cream on each other. For those who haven't been, you are given special cream that's fish/dolphin friendly. I was however upset to see the family next to us putting on their own cream, as far as I was aware they ask you NOT to use your own as it can harm the animals. Maybe they couldn't read the signs though, they were Spanish. We went straight into the Ray pool.

And Simon's water 'Robot' impression

After we'd had a play in there we went into the winding/lazy river. We got out at the Aviary to feed the birds, while I was walking around holding the bowl of food a bird landed on me and scared the hell out of me! I jumped out of my skin as I was looking the other way. It was lovely though We also heard the Peacocks mating call, they were in season and very noisy! Simon is frightened of them as when he was 4 years old one stole a sandwich out of his hand! Unfortunately as we were just about to walk past one he fluffed up his tail (or whatever the right term for that is ) and Simon wasn't too pleased hehehehe oops!

We went round the river again and then went to sit down and get a drink. We would have to have lunch soon as our Dolphin swim was at 2:15 and we needed to let our lunch go down a bit before going into the water with them.

We queued for ages again for lunch (I really would like to see them rethink this a little bit as I don't understand why it needs to take that long) but it was lovely. Anne had Salmon with mango salsa, I had chicken tenders, Simon had a sandwich, I can't quite remember what Cliff had though

After lunch we sat down for a bit before our dolphin swim. Before long it was time to head to the cabana to talk about our swim " and sign the waiver! We met our trainer and the other family who were in our group as well and headed into the water. We had a young Dolphin at first but she kept getting distracted so they sent her back and got another one out to us, well she didn't want to play with us either! So we swapped her with one of the other group's dolphins but she didn't want to play either!! We weren't having much luck hehehe, in the end out came a really big male dolphin who was more than happy to play, he was one of the oldest dolphins they have and he was lovely. We had our picture taken with him and we did buy a picture of us all with him after we left the dolphin pool.

We went for another go in the winding river and a wander round the aviary before sitting down with an ice cream. Now I don't know if they do this on purpose but that ice cream has got to be one of the WORST things I have ever put in my mouth! It was awful!! Not 1 of us could eat it lol. I think they do it to keep down people having them, you wouldn't go back for a second believe me We then went to pick up our photo, a little tip " DON'T leave picking up your pictures until you're leaving the park as the queues are massive " we did this last year and waited ages. This time though, no queue

It was getting nearly time to leave so we went into the Ray pool again for a little while, we were the only ones in there as it was quite late in the day and I think lots of people had gone home already. We then got out and headed to the showers to get ready to leave

We were leaving past the other premium outlets so we ran in quickly to go to Ralph Lauren as Sy had seen a Polo shirt he liked in the other mall but they didn't have his size, we were in luck though as they had it here! He got 2 (as they were cheaper when you bought 2 and we spent $85.

We needed to get a few bit from Publix on the way home so we stopped at one that happened to be right by an Outback We were all feeling very tired so we decided to get dinner then, and not go home and get changed first (which is what we had been doing the other nights we had gone out in the evening).

Dinner was lovely as always in Outback. I love their sweet potato jackets :D

Dinner cost $55 per couple but Anne and Cliff treated us (aren't they lovely?!)

After we popped into Publix we headed back to the condo. We were all feeling very tired by now so we watched a bit of TV and went to bed fairly early (for us!) ready for tomorrow.

Total spends $140, Anne and Cliff paid for Publix and Outback

Awww shucks thank you