Devall Travels

Something that might affect future holidays/vacations is a change to the procedures at work. They have now decided that we can only have a maximum of three days consecutively outside school holidays. This is a huge restraint on a lot of us as we don't have kids.  Prices rocket in school holidays and of course, another downside is that everywhere you go will be full of other peoples kids. They have agreed that 2017 dates will be honoured as long as we have already booked them before they made the change to our contracts.  What of the trades unions?  They are powerless.

If only there was a way of moving posts easily from one blog to another, easily. Today I have found in another of my blogs some travel posts from back in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. After some messing about I managed to copy them into Devall Travels and they can be seen in the archive list. There are so many more that were on my old Geocities website that have been lost forever. Anyway, they are there should anyone want to view them.

It's way back in October when we signed away our lives for a week in the Dordogne. At that time we hadn't even thought about going to the US again!  Luckily, the Dordogne trip is in May. In the last entry for this trip I mentioned that we were having second thoughts about taking Reggie. He went through a period of not wanting to go out and becoming a refusenik on walks.  Whatever was causing that seems to have ended.   He was also seemingly uncomfortable in the car.  Fidgeting all the time and not settling down.  I have since changed the seat cover in the back and bought one that is more padded under him and that is also like a hammock, so under braking he can't fall off the seat into the foot well.  We have also bought him a new bed that fits on the seat.  He was okay on the FR16 trip, although that was far less travelling for him.  I am confident that he will be okay. I have begun route planning as well. The standard Google Maps...

So after a pretty exhaustive search for hotels in Florida for the second week of our stay, five nights in total, I decided to use up another timeshare week. It seems a waste but when you consider the exchange fee for that week is £169 and hotels are looking  more like £400 for the period, then it is worth it.  Plus we get to stay somewhere a little different. I looked at Lauderdale by the Sea, and then slightly further north at Pompano Beach.   In the end choosing the  Wyndham Sea Gardens resort. It is right on the beach off A1A between the Atlantic  and the Intracoastal Waterway . Looking  at the Weatherspark site to see what the average temperatures are, they look pretty good for us British . So another plus point for Florida.  And another thing sorted.

The second week is a little problem as it really is 5 nights only. I have been looking at hotels on the Gulf but the current prices are running at about $90 a night. When you total that we are looking at about $450. It's not a lot better on the Atlantic side either. I had thought about a trip up to Daytona and across to Cape Canaveral and that might still be on the cards. This year in Arizona we did the relax then tour system and it worked pretty well. Another week in the timeshare will be less than half of that. So. What to do? I have one overnight booked before the Orlando stay.  By the time we get there it will be time to eat and then go to bed as we will have had a long day.

Of all the comparison sites I have found that the best, for me at any rate, is Skyscanner. Today I had a quick look, always remembering to change my internet cache before searching and was amazed to see that Virgin had a direct flight from London Gatwick (LGW) on my dates, and cheaper (not much!) that my earlier searches. The times were good and so I thought "I'll have some of that". I clicked on the "offers" page and was taken to TravelUp. An agents we have used before. I filled in all my details, Claire's details and got to "pay now", and a box popped up, "flight details changed". Clicking on it took me back to Skyscanner and it began another search.  This time Virgin was cheapest still BUT the outward aitport was LGW but we'd arrive back at London Heathrow (LHR), some 50 miles away. Not much use with my car in the parking at LGW and an expensive transfer to negotiate.   Instead for £4 more I can fly direct from LGW and...

Checking on RCI ( rci.com ) shows that there are quite a few options for the Orlando area. I have finally booked one that gets good ratings from visitors and also is allegedly "quiet". At all the other places we have stayed over the years, US and Europe, we have never had to pay for the amenities;  pool etc.   There is always a swipe of the credit card to cover "security" and deposits for keys, usually apartment and parking garages, but never to use the pool or a lounger. However, this seems the "norm" for Orlando. I'm sure most of the people going there are headed for Disney and the other parks and spend less time at the resort than they might at other places in other parts of the country and even the state.  So I don't think that $10 a day per apartment is appropriate to use the pool at all. So that ruled a few out.  I found one that was charging $1 a day?  It must cost more to collect it in receptionists time than they bring in. In the ...