We rose earlier today. I am not looking for applause, just stating a fact!
I enjoyed some cereal in the room before heading down to a very windy and wild, yet still incredibly hot, beach. A description that has often been applied to me too.
That wind meant that once again, umbrellas were not permitted and we would be subjected the skin scorching rays.
The beach was busy again today, with the weekend folks cramping our style.
Without the comfort and protection of the shade I felt a little unsettled and unable to fully relax. Towels once again were draped over the bits of me most likely to be torched.
We did some people-watching, whilst enduring the 70’s classic rock playlist being enforced on anyone in the vicinity of the southern belles on the beds next to us. I had to disagree with Free that it was Alright Now.
As lunch time rolled around we decided to head over the road to get some food and respite from the sun, eating this time at Boston’s.
I had Chicken Tacos.
Chicken Sandwich for Louise.
A diet coke each and the bill was $45. The food was decent but nothing to write home, or indeed here, about.
As we returned to the beach, a large group of young teens was having a beach party/picnic in front of our beds. It turned out to be the joint 17th birthday party of twins.
It was fascinating watching the group dynamics of a species I know very little about. I did spot and feel incredibly sorry for one young girl who seemed to be on the edge of everything and hardly spoke to anyone. There were of course the Queen Bee popular girls with their entourages, who followed the Queen’s every step and word and the jocks who played “ball” and jumped around all six packs and hairlines. Ah to be young? No thanks.
They were all very well behaved though and when they packed up they all did their bit, cleared all their rubbish/trash and were complimented by the Daisy Dukes next to us on their behaviour.
With the windy weather, the sea was very rough today but I did venture in for a while. I was immediately battered, knocked down and generally abused by the waves so I did not stay in for long.
Late afternoon, after the teen party had left, they were replaced by three mid to late twenty males with one female in a bikini that would barely be sufficient to floss your teeth with. She was “with” one of the males, which was made clear by him refusing to let go of her for more than three seconds. The two third wheels (is that mathematically possible?) had a jock off (I said jock) playing football and running into the sea before they all settled down on their towels. Almost immediately a freak wave came all the way up the beach, completely submerging them, their towels and their phones in freezing-cold water. I have never seen four people jump so high so quickly.
Today seemed to be all about people watching and avoiding third-degree burns.
We left the beach around 5.30 and back at the hotel I did a washer load in the laundry which was just a couple of doors down from our room.
After showers and readying we were in a Lyft heading for town around 8pm. We were dining at Tramonti this evening. We had spotted it across the road when we ate at the Mexican and saw that it was very popular and looked lovely. It would turn out to be an expensive, but delicious decision.
We were seated in a booth at the rear of the restaurant and were immediately given iced water, bread and a torch to read the menu. You know it’s going to be a dear do when different servers look after the water and bread.
Louise ordered the first of what would be two half bottles of wine and I had an Espresso Martini.
To start I had a “baked cheese thing”.
Louise had “a Garlic mushroom thing”
My entree was a “Mushroom pasta thing”
Louise had a “Cannelloni Cheese thing”
All the food was so delicious and the standard of service was outstanding. All in, with the wine, martinis and food it came to a ludicrous $270 including tip. Far too much for one meal for two people of course. Well, it is if you aren’t rich like us. Still, we enjoyed it and we were on holiday so the odd silly indulgence is OK I suppose.
We walked up to the Yacht Club to witness what turned out to be a truly terrible band.
We didn’t stay long due to that and we were in a Lyft home by 11 after one drink.
Another lie in!? Disgraceful scenes for someone holidaying in Florida I know, but with only more lying about to do as and when we got up, why the hell not I say.
It was approaching 11am when we were up, showered and dressed. We headed down to the beach this time taking with us the beach chairs which were kindly and handily provided by the hotel. With it being only half a day on the beach by this stage we didn’t want to use up one of our pre-purchased bed days.
It was a windy one , so windy in fact that the umbrellas were not allowed to be up, making our decision to bring our own chairs even more wise.
We took up a spot quite close to the water’s edge and got battered by the breeze.
We had to retreat several times back up the beach as the water came further and further in but the breeze and cloud cover made the lack of a brolly and shade almost bearable. Nothing says “Brit abroad” more than sitting on the beach with a towel over your burnt bits to avoid further damage!
Lunch was a Publix Picnic and the beach was pretty busy today, despite the wind, with it being a weekend. Most folks were behind us, so the following photo is a little misleading!
The sea, as you can see, was pretty rough today and we saw quite a few folks underestimate it and get taken out. We decided not to test our luck. We stayed until about 3pm, at which time the need for some shade became undeniable so we headed back to the pool at the hotel for a bit.
I secured the only remaining beds by the pool today, but to be fair there were only about eight in total. Louise had returned to the room to shower the sand off her before taking up position by the pool. For someone who loves a beach holiday, her aversion to sand and the sea are confusing.
Upon her return, she decided, against my better judgement that we should sacrifice the last beds I had secured and move to the other pool, so we did. It was just a few minutes later that we returned, tails between our legs, hoping to still find our beds available as the other pool was “full”. Luckily they were and even more luckily I decided not to say out loud that I was once again correct.
We left the pool around 5.30 for showers and stuff. I watched some TV whilst Louise finished getting ready before getting into our Lyft around 8pm and heading for the bright lights of Delray. Tonight’s driver was great. Whilst we waited for the drawbridge to go up and down to let some super yacht through, he was telling us about how Delray has changed over the years. Apparently, back in the 70s, it was a very rough and dangerous place with high crime rates and lots of violence. Then in 80’s, a number of “mafia types” from Miami moved in, hoping to avoid all the killing and stuff in Miami. Their money transformed the place and then in the last 15 years or so tourism arrived in earnest and that brought more money and now it is a highly sought-after place to live. He did say that the mafia types have “mostly” gone now!
Tonight we were eating at Amar, which is a Lebanese place. Atlantic Avenue was weekend busy again and as we approached the podium, what looked to be the manager was on the phone bollocking a customer who was calling to cancel their reservation for that evening. He ended the call, took our details (we had booked) and just turned and walked away. We assumed we should follow him. Not a great start.
Once seated, our server appeared who seemed very stressed and the place was indeed rammed and incredibly loud. We were brought some bread….
We invested in a bottle of wine and ordered starters of Lebanese Moussaka and Hummus.
Both were delicious although we were surprised that the Moussaka was served cold. True to form, we quickly accepted when we were asked if we wanted more pitta for the Hummus. They never bring enough! It was clearly freshly made and it was incredible.
We ordered Shish Chicken and a Kebab for mains which were both awesome too.
The place had emptied a little by now so the noise was more tolerable and our server more relaxed. We celebrated by enjoying a rare dessert. Any place that serves Baklava is going to get me eating it.
It was coming up to 10pm now and we got the distinct impression they wanted to close up and we had very quickly become one of the last tables still eating. We paid the $168 bill and left, having enjoyed the food but probably suffered due to the busy nature of a Saturday night.
Right across the road from Amar was the oldest hotel in Delray. Of a weekend, on their porch they had musical entertainment so we wandered across the road and loitered for a few minutes hoping somebody would bugger off and free up a table. Amazingly they did and we swooped.
I went to the bar for some drinks, which was slightly delayed as the barman was having to deal with a customer wanting to close their tab, but the barman had seemingly lost his credit card, which was retained as their “tab”. The customer was delighted as I’m sure you can imagine. Slightly nervous to leave my card with him, I took our first round of two back to the table and enjoyed an excellent classical guitarist.
As the night drew to an end, a British couple a few tables away left in the most blingy golf cart I had ever seen. It even had a custom seat for their poodle which had been asleep under a chair for the evening. Clearly, these were locals and not tourist oiks like us.
We left around 11.15 and got a Lyft back to the hotel for some more sleep.
Hello all. It’s been some time since I was not writing up a trip, the latest taking from our return in late November till mid-March. It feels like a long time, but I suppose 14 days means 14 weeks unless I start doing multiple posts a week and I haven’t got the time for that, in the same way you haven’t got the tolerance.
As ever, after finishing up a trip report I feel like I have forgotten how to do a bog standard blog like what I used to, with life updates and goings on so I’m not sure where to start.
I’ll just say that everyone is OK and like everyone else we’ve been through our fair share of stress, worry and trauma since we last “spoke” alongside some good fortune and positive stuff.
Louise returned to work, in January, following a break of a couple of years which included looking after her Mum full-time and then getting over Mary’s and my Dad’s passing. Neither of us has fully “dealt with” those events and I’m not sure you ever do. She’s back nursing in the community and seems to have got back into the swing of things really well. I’m not saying she’d carry on post-lottery win, but she enjoys that area of nursing the most.
Emily (now 28!) has a WDW trip booked with her boyfriend in September. It will be his first experience with anything Disney park-related, but she is undertaking rigorous training via endless vlogs. They are staying in the All-Stars and doing Disney and hopefully Universal. He has the best guide ever to take him for the first time.
Rebecca (now 26!) and Tom are all good or as good as you can be when parenting two kids of almost 2 and 6. Over the past few months, Freddie has had some worrying health issues, but he seems to be coming out of them now, with a diagnosis at least and hopefully a plan that will see all that behind him shortly. It’s been a very worrying time. Dougie is adorable and a terror all at once. He needs 24/7 supervision to ensure he does not kill himself and those around him. Imagine Baby Jack Jack from The Incredibles, but cuter.
We looked after him yesterday whilst Freddie went karting, a hobby he is really getting into. It was Freddie’s first time on an outside track and he did brilliantly.
Dougie and I undertook a more sedate outdoor activity.
How am I? Well, I am my usual debonair, svelte, hirsute self, thanks for asking. These days, I spend most of my time working, attending to things that have gone wrong with the house, looking after animals and recycling (it seems). Our current animal count is 2 dogs, 3 cats and 2 rats.
One new thing I have done since we last “spoke”…
You may have noticed over the years that I enjoy a pithy/witty T-shirt and have bought them from all sorts of places to wear on my holidays. I had been looking for some shirts that carried certain themes etc recently and failed, so despite having no clue what I am doing, I have opened an Etsy Store, with a few shirts and things I designed myself, perfect for the discerning Disney fan/visitor.
This is my favourite so far –
I bought one myself, to make sure the quality wasn’t awful and it seems OK to be fair. Whatever you do, don’t buy so many that I have to give up work and do that full-time as that would be awful. If anyone is silly enough to buy anything I would love to see a photo of it out in the parks etc in due course.
Normally, certainly in recent times, as I finish writing up one trip, many of you might suspect that I will announce our next one. We have been very fortunate in recent years to have had many holidays, almost back-to-back and it is safe to say that our trips overseas are very important to us. We both work long and hard and choose to spend much of our earnings on such. It seems inevitable though that this run would need to come to an end at some point.
That point is not now.
We do have travel plans in May, but I assure you they do not involve Orlando. We wanted a beach holiday for resting and relaxing for Louise and me, and have decided to go somewhere completely different this time.
Having gone through the usual routine of scouring the planet (literally) for a suitable beachfront destination, with ample eateries and bars and good weather, as ever we struggled. I know that sounds ridiculous, but all the usual issues came up.
Anyway, after much research I have found us a lovely little boutique hotel in the resort of Delray. Where is Delray I hear you ask?
OK, yes it’s in Florida, but it isn’t Orlando!
It’s been a while since we booked it so I forget the detailed “journey” to choosing that destination, but having exhausted and discarded every other place on the planet, I think it was kicked off by looking at flights with Tui, going into Melbourne and realising that puts us in the middle of the East coast of Florida, opening up all the coastal resorts in that neck of the woods. Vero (the original reason to look into a Florida trip) was not available of course. I’m not sure we’ll ever get to stay there again unless we plan a whole trip around it and get it booked as soon as it is possible with the DVC rules etc.
More by luck than skill I think (and hope) I have stumbled across a perfect little gem for us in Delray Beach. It appears to have a lovely beach and then, in Atlantic Avenue, a long street filled with bars, nightlife and restaurants, to allow us to indulge in another trip like the one you just read about.
So yes we are flying with Tui for the first time into Melbourne on May 28th.
It’s about a 2-minute walk from the beach and it is situated close to all the nighttime action. I write that as if we will be partaking in any action of a night time. Typically, we will eat, have a drink or two and then go to bed.
This video is a walk along Atlantic Avenue if anyone is as sad as I am and wants to watch that.
We’ve hired a car via Discount Florida for the duration, which I think is about 10 nights, flying home on the 7th of June. It’ll be interesting to see how that airport is for things like immigration and picking up the car etc. Who says we don’t do anything different on our holidays?
So this will be another of our, med-style holidays but in the familiarity and comfort of Florida. But I have to get originality points for Delray Beach right?
I can already hear the murmurs of excitement amongst you at the prospect of reading about another beach holiday!
I hear you and with that in mind, if you can get through that one, in October we are returning to our roots with a full-blown, bring as many family members as we can, theme park bonanza!
Yep, myself, Louise, Rebecca, Tom and the boys will be in WDW from mid-October (Emily will have just got back from her own trip and so won’t have enough holidays or money to join us).
This is an old-school WDW trip with none of this beach and bars nonsense. It’s for the purists and those who love the parks, which is us.
As I said above, it will be interesting to see how Melbourne is in May as that is where we are flying into again in October. Aer Lingus were sold out on crucial dates that we needed (getting so many folks on one trip is like threading a needle blindfolded) and Virgin were, as they often tend to be, just ridiculously expensive, being some 30-50% higher than Aer Lingus at best.
So I looked at Tui, despite that 90-minute drive from the airport to Orlando not being ideal. They had availability and prices that were just about tolerable.
Again, we’ve booked our mini-van from Discount Florida and I am so happy to say that our favourite ever villa was available. It is absolutely stunning and we can’t wait to return.
For now, we are just planning on doing Disney, but we may, nearer the time, add a night at Universal if we can justify the expense. With Dougie being just two at that point, the Universal parks may not offer him too much to do so we’ll see. I have booked our 14-day passes from Floridatix with a deposit. It is so nice not to have to stump up all the ticket money this far out to make park reservations.
I must admit to some trepidation about tackling the parks. All I seem to see online is how busy they are these days regardless of the time of year and I know we’re going to have to shell out for the increasingly more expensive Genie+ more often than not. The plan, as it stands in its early phases, allows for a good many rest days, which will be needed and we’ll just take it as it comes I suppose.
So there we have the content for the next few weeks laid out as I share with you our plans, hopes and dreams for these two trips. I know it is indulgent, I know we are lucky, but we just choose to spend our disposable cash on these trips. As the saying goes, we are not rich, (we might be if we didn’t do as many holidays!) just really irresponsible.
Hopefully, there is something in there for both of my readers and we can look forward to a holiday-packed 2024 together.
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