Hopefully we'll see Lindsay return in that time...

I doubt I'll be able to get online at any point, so I hope you all enjoy yourselves over the next couple of weeks :hug:

Have a great time LDF :D See you soon :)

See you LDF :hug:

Have a great time hun, go on all the scariest rides for me!

See you LDF. Behave :blink:

have a good time LDF

See ya Jim, hope you have fun like I had 6 years ago :)

I'll miss you, have fun :D

:o

I'm back :D

Thanks for messages; I'm pleased to say that it was a fantastic holiday. It was certainly the best I've had in recent years, if not my best one ever. I'll give a summary of what happened, splitting things up into various sections:

Location: Haines City, around 1.5 hours away from Sanford Airport. To be honest, the city was unimpressive. However, Southern Dunes, the resort we were staying in, was great. A bunch of facilities were there; a Wal-Mart, golf course, tennis courts, a restaurant, etc.

The Villa: Definitely better than the one we had in Menorca. We did encounter a couple of problems though. Firstly, the pool cleaner wasn't functioning correctly, so we had to manually specify the timings. Secondly, the cable TV failed for around four days, coming back for our final two days. But generally, the villa was nice - the beds were comfortable, and we could play table tennis or pool any time we wanted.

The Theme Parks: We were only a half-hour drive away from all of the Disney Theme Parks, so we spent a large proportion of our time there. We visited the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and MGM Studios twice, but Animal Kingdom just the one time. As with all theme parks, queueing was on the agenda - not fun. Thankfully, we used the Fast Track system to our advantage to get on all of the major rides...

The Rides: We managed to ride on all of them bar Expedition Everest. My personal favourite from the Disney parks was the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at MGM: 0-60mph in less than 3 seconds, plenty of sharp turns and drops and even a few loops. Other great ones were Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, The Tower of Terror, Mission: SPACE and the Big Mountain Thunder Railroad. But overall, my favourite ride was actually at SeaWorld - Kraken. A top speed of 65mph, 7 inversions, sharp turns and drops..my kind of ride!

The wonderful thing about the Disney parks is that anyone of any age can find something to enjoy. Some parts really take you back to your childhood, like meeting the characters and watching some of the shows (e.g. the Tiki Room, the Little Mermaid, etc.). I certainly enjoyed all aspects of each park. :)

Other Visits: SeaWorld, the Florida Mall, the Titanic Exhibition.

The Weather: Gosh, it was hot, especially in the second week. The maximum temperature was never below 90 degrees, rising up to around 95/96 on a couple of days. But blended in with the scorching sunshine were some thunderstorms. Being in central Florida, the storms are likely to occur, because the sea breezes meet the eastern winds, blah blah...

Anyway, we had four days where the rain was torrential. Two inches each day. Though they did provide some memories - the first storm happened while we were at the Animal Kingdom. We had been queueing for a water ride called Rumba Rapids for 1.5 hours, and what happens? It begins to pour. We immediately left, completely drenched (not without riding it though!). The same thing happened at the Magic Kingdom a week later. But this time, we were just leaving. We couldn't remember where our car was, so we were running about in the lightning and rain frantically looking for it :lol:

Airports: :angry: Luck was not on our side this time. My dad's suitcase didn't turn up on our way in; fortunately we did get it three days into the holiday. But the worst was today. We had to wait for around 2.5 hours at baggage claim! :wacko:

So overall, it was a brilliant holiday, and one that I will remember for a very long time. :)

Sounds like you had a great time :D :D :ok:

Hey SG :D

I sure did, but I've completely lost track of what's happened in the world of tennis :wacko:

I saw that Lindsay, Serena and Venus withdrew from San Diego on ESPN, which wasn't exactly great news. I actually managed to see a couple of matches over the past fortnight - the Stanford final and Maria v Mary this week (Maria looked impressive there, though Mary was hindered by her even poorer movement, especially to the forehand).

I also see that it's a Kim-Maria final today :)

Yepp, and Kim beat Hingis again :D

Murray and Clement have had good runs with Arnaud beating Hrbaty, Hewitt and Safin whilst Murray beat Lopez, Fish and Tursunov.....


Kim is already leading the USO series-surprise, surprise :rolleyes:

What a great review LDF! You should write travel brochures or something :lol:

Glad you had a good time :)

Er, no roflmao

Thanks :)

Wow, sounds like a blast LDF! :D At least you didnt have to watch a Westlife Tribute act roflmao The memories still haunt me.............

Its maria and Kim in the final, i've been complaining to Dav about both of them this week :rolleyes: roflmao

And to top it of Murray's in the final :rolleyes:

dl, everytime you update your sig you make Venus bigger and bigger roflmao

She's looming large Dav ;) roflmao

I have to console myself seeing as she's pulled out of lA :(

:hug:

I saw that dl, battle of the forehands tonight! :lol:

Yeah if you can call it that roflmao

Hey, LDF! Glad you had a good time. We went in February. I would certainly recommend that, if you ever get the chance. Nice weather and minimal queuing! Shame that you missed Expedition Everet. That was one of my favs, along with Mission Space and Soarin' at EPCOT and the Rock 'n Roller Coaster at MGM.

Hey Nick :)

We only managed to go to the Animal Kingdom once (when we got drenched), so I never had the chance to ride Expedition Everest. And I completely agree with you on the other rides you've listed :ok:

Yepp, It's been such a brilliant week for tennis :D :D :D Don't you agree Dl roflmao

good review LDF :D Sounds like you had a fab time and I am most jealous!