Worcester airport is about 20 minutes from home. Jet Blue is the only airline and they have one flight per day to/from Orlando and one flight per day to/from Fort Lauderdale (there are talks about flights to JFK but that hasn't happened yet). We wanted to try Worcester so Briar could drop us off and pick us up. THANK YOU BRIAR!
Our original plan was to fly to Orlando or Fort Lauderdale and then catch another Jet Blue flight to somewhere in the Caribbean (we've had bad luck with having our luggage make the transition between airlines so it was Jet Blue or nothing). Unfortunately, every single Jet Blue flight to the Caribbean leaves before the flights from Worcester arrive. On the return, the flights to Worcester leave before the flights from the Caribbean arrive. Bad Scheduling Jet Blue!
So, we decided to do a Florida trip. Kristen had visited Florida for work but our only previous trip together was in 2013 in the trailer. We crossed the pan handle (Panama City Beach and Tallahassee) and stopped in Jacksonville (with a side trip to St. Augustine) before heading North.
Our first stop was Disney World. This was one of the rare occasions where we used a travel agent. We booked a Disney hotel (the Pop Century) for 3 nights and bought wrist bands that let us into 2 parks on the 2 different full days. We had been to Disneyland a number of times as kids. We got kind of jaded with Disneyland when Kristen worked there (summer of '71) and we were able to get in free (sans ride tickets) whenever we wanted. We did take the kids back a number of times but still, the thrill was gone. In spite of that, Disney World was on our bucket list..
Our arrival at the hotel was confused (to say the least). Our package offered online advanced check-in which was supposed to allow you to bypass the long check-in lines. As a part of this, they were supposed to text or email the room information to us. They didn't so I called from Orlando Airport and got the room number. It would have been nice if they'd told me how to find the building. The Pop Century has groups of buildings for each decade ('50s through '90s) and the decade number is the only information on the street signage. Our room was in the '50s but, without that information, our only choice was to go through the long check-in line. Poor execution.
The transportation at Disney World was amazing. We never had to touch the car once we'd parked it.
We spent the first day at Disney World: Magic Kingdom. Knowing our way around Disneyland made Magic Kingdom easy to navigate. The rides were very similar and, with the heat and humidity, we'd reached our limit by 4pm. It was just as well. We took a bus over to Disney Springs and got there just as the sky decided to open up. Fortunately, we were next to a lakeside margarita bar when that happened.
An hour or so later, there as a brief lull and I made a mad dash to a Disney Store and bought a couple of Micky Mouse raincoats. Wearing those, we made our way to Dinner at Rick Bayless' Frontera Cocina in Disney Springs where we had a wonderful dinner.
The next day, we went to Disney World: EPCOT. It was all new to us and we enjoyed it very much. Again, we had our fill by 4pm and caught the bus to Disney Springs. Again, we got there just in time for the downpour and holed up in another lakeside bar until it was time to don our raincoats go to Dinner at House of Blues in Disney Springs.
We left Disney World the next morning and stopped at the Kennedy Space Center on our way to
Cocoa Beach. Both were highlights of our trip. The owners of our hotel at Cocoa beach obviously cared about every detail. The beach was great and we'd definitely go back.
And then there was Key Biscayne. Our original thought was to stay in Miami South Beach but we didn't find the accommodations that we wanted. Once we saw the confusion of Miami South Beach, we were kind of glad.
We were a bit disappointed when we saw our room. We'd reserved a room with a king sized bed and, apparently, the only room with a king was a concrete bunker that was as far from the beach as you could get and was surrounded by parking lot on 3 sides. We did some quick reconnaissance and got ourselves moved to a room with 2 doubles that opened onto the gardens. Not the nicest place we've stayed, but it was OK. We won't be returning.
Our next stop was Key West. Our hotel was right on Duval street. Duval is the main street in Key West's old town and is home to many restaurants and bars. One outdoor bar featured live music from 11am to 1:30am. Naturally, that bar was right under our window. Still, we really enjoyed Key West and will probably go back. While we were there, we visited the Key West: Hemingway House where we met the many, many descendents of Ernest Hemingway's cat, Snowball.
Key West is apparently known for its Key West: Chickens. They are everywhere.
And then there was Key Biscayne. Our original thought was to stay in Miami South Beach but we didn't find the accommodations that we wanted. Once we saw the confusion of Miami South Beach, we were kind of glad.
We were a bit disappointed when we saw our room. We'd reserved a room with a king sized bed and, apparently, the only room with a king was a concrete bunker that was as far from the beach as you could get and was surrounded by parking lot on 3 sides. We did some quick reconnaissance and got ourselves moved to a room with 2 doubles that opened onto the gardens. Not the nicest place we've stayed, but it was OK. We won't be returning.
Our next stop was Key West. Our hotel was right on Duval street. Duval is the main street in Key West's old town and is home to many restaurants and bars. One outdoor bar featured live music from 11am to 1:30am. Naturally, that bar was right under our window. Still, we really enjoyed Key West and will probably go back. While we were there, we visited the Key West: Hemingway House where we met the many, many descendents of Ernest Hemingway's cat, Snowball.
Key West is apparently known for its Key West: Chickens. They are everywhere.
Our next stop was Key Largo. We were only there one night and it looked like there might be a lot more to do there than what we saw. Key Largo did have the largest iguanas of anyplace that we visited.
We had reservations for 2 nights at Everglades City but found that our hotel was without power because of some fallen utility poles. We gave them several hours and then, since dinner time was fast approaching, cancelled the reservation and found something else. In the interim, we'd pretty much done everything that the area had to offer.
Our new room was up on stilts. It was a bit dated but it featured a wonderful, large, fully screened, deck that looked out over the mangrove swamp. The bugs are pretty bad all over Florida so you can imagine what they're like in the Everglades. We enjoyed that porch for hours.
We booked the room for one night and, after our Airboat Ride the next morning, took off for Fort Lauderdale. Our original plan had been to drive to the Fort Lauderdale airport from Everglades City. Instead of doing that, we decided to spend our last night in Fort Lauderdale and have a short drive to the airport.
Unfortunately, when I was using my phone to book the reservation, the date fields reset somewhere along the way. We showed up and learned that our reservation had been for the previous night and that they had charged us as no shows. Fortunately, they were very understanding about the mix up and used the previous night's payment to cover the current night.
We didn't see a whole lot of Fort Lauderdale but the beach is beautiful and it definitely looks like it might be worth returning to.
-JC-
We had reservations for 2 nights at Everglades City but found that our hotel was without power because of some fallen utility poles. We gave them several hours and then, since dinner time was fast approaching, cancelled the reservation and found something else. In the interim, we'd pretty much done everything that the area had to offer.
Our new room was up on stilts. It was a bit dated but it featured a wonderful, large, fully screened, deck that looked out over the mangrove swamp. The bugs are pretty bad all over Florida so you can imagine what they're like in the Everglades. We enjoyed that porch for hours.
We booked the room for one night and, after our Airboat Ride the next morning, took off for Fort Lauderdale. Our original plan had been to drive to the Fort Lauderdale airport from Everglades City. Instead of doing that, we decided to spend our last night in Fort Lauderdale and have a short drive to the airport.
Unfortunately, when I was using my phone to book the reservation, the date fields reset somewhere along the way. We showed up and learned that our reservation had been for the previous night and that they had charged us as no shows. Fortunately, they were very understanding about the mix up and used the previous night's payment to cover the current night.
We didn't see a whole lot of Fort Lauderdale but the beach is beautiful and it definitely looks like it might be worth returning to.
-JC-
