Reminising on Florida

AS many of you know, I travelled in May this year to Florida, Orlando.
This was the first time I had ever flown, anywhere, not even a small local flight, nothing!

As a mummy of two, in a shop job, I can not afford holidays abroad, we normally go camping. So when my son won this holiday I went mental, crying and hardly slept for a week!!! All he had to do in return for winning was write a review for First News about the holiday.

Having never been in these situtations before, the idea of American passport control was scary - people say such negative things about them! And then there was other things to worry about, like actually buying our passports first!

It was a family trip, all four of us, to the Portofino Loews hotel, inside the Universal studios resort. A far cry from camping I can tell you, this was a Platinum graded hotel. The hotel was based on an Italian town, and was awesome, except one thing - we clearly did not belong! All the restuarants and shops were way more than we could spend.

 Flying out from Heathrow I was terrified, rocking back and forwards in my chair repeating "I don't like it, I don't like it, it don't like it". I really didn't like it, fear of the unknown I guess. The whole time my toddler was holding my hand, stroking my arm saying "You'll be fine Mummy, its ok, its just a big bus, your ok mummy" this approach was sweet!! I still cried a good 20 mins. :-O

When we got higher up, and started flying level I was fine. The prize was from First News kids newspaper, and included flights, hotel, and 7 day 2 theme park passes for all four of us.

Now to bore you with photos....

Jenny and me in the hotel

Demon on a Vespa, very Italian

Scooby, Me, Jenny and Shaggy!

There are two reason I decided to write about this today, firstly I WON a holday to Austrialia today, more on that when I calm down! Secondly, the nice folk at Travelizer, a new comparison site opening soon, are running a competition to win £800 towards a European holiday



Entering is easy, blog about a holiday! If you do blog as a result of reading this post, please add yourself to the "Blog Hop" below. Thats just for fun!! PS, Travelizer, if I win I fly on the 4th of November to Aussie, so I probably will not reply for a week. x

 The follwing text is borrowed from the Travelizer webpage.

1. Get inspired (we find a cup of tea always helps). 2. Re-live those magical holiday memories. 3. Publish the post on your blog (min.150 words). 4. Add a fabulous photo. 5. E-mail us at oliver@travelizer.co.uk when it's up to confirm you want to take part. 6. The competition is open from 3/10/2011 – 4/11/2011. 7. Fabulous prize draw (the winner will be selected at random & notified by e-mail).

Ok, so I'm not much of a blogger but...

Now that I'm getting the hang of blogging, mainly by stalking twitter friends blogs I am getting more confident at this.

I thought I'd have a little waffle, if this is OK with you guys? As you might know, as I hobby I comp. For those of you that don't know "comp" or "comping" is entering competitions as a hobby, for profit, for the thrill or just because you've nowt better to do... which is how my addiction to comping started incidentally.

In Feb 2011 we had a phone call from first news (children's newspaper) about a competition my eldest had entered. It was quite a shock, and cried, was shaking, the LOT. He had won us a weeks holiday to Universal theme parks in Florida!! Gobsmacked and shell shocked didn't begin to cover it.

I was assured I would hear from Universal within a week, and that's where the stress started!!! None of us have ever flown, or had anything like this. I didn't know what to expect, but after about 2 weeks of not being contacted I was getting worried I'd been given a prank phone call to be honest. At around 4/5 weeks I started making a bit of a nuisance of myself!! As you do.

I told first news that my eldest was upset, and had in fact given up believing they had lied to him, cue the rushed booking! We now travel on the last few days in May, back early June. (not giving exact dates!)

I am excited and terrified all at once. What if I am scared of planes? lol.... my first ever flight and it will be 9 hours ish!

Plus the fact I am now skint, and its all going on credit cards, but its too late to back out now. We had no passports.... and after the initial delay and silence we got my hubby said we would not spend a penny until he believed it was real not scamming. Sadly this (understandable) caution cost us dearly, as it meant train tickets to Wales for a fast-track passport x3! Nearly twice as expensive as normal passports. :( I still had one, and amazingly was still in date... we got it when my eldest was a baby just as I had no "official" I.D. and was struggling to get a provisional driving license. (How nuts is it was easier for me to get a passport than it was for me to get a provisional driving license? Just saying!)

Anyway, now begins the panic that is countdown to Heathrow.