Florida Villa

Las Vegas Report

admin — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:44:10 +0000

Many people like to spend some time in a different location, either at the beach or somewhere completely different. This is what we did on our latest trip, we had a week in Florida and a week in Las Vegas. Internal return flights for two people were $500 with South Western which is a low cost US based airline.

We have just got back from a trip to Las Vegas (March 2009), below is some info on some of the casino table limits. We don’t bet much as we know the house has the advantage, so I like to bet low. So the limits are the lowest that I found to bet with,

Mirage Table Limits – We stayed here.

The Mirage is a great hotel in the middle of the strip, its a great location to be based from as all the attractions are close by.

Mirage like most of the hotels do not have a fixed bottom limit for the tables it varies based upon the time of day and how busy the hotel is! At the weekend when the hotel is busy they raise the limits, during the week and the early hours 0400-1100 they lower the limits!

Roulette – At low times the limit was $5 per spin, with $1 chips. So you could bet $ on the outside or 5 single chips on the inside.

Black Jack – The lowest I saw this was $10

Let it Ride – This was lowered to $5 at low times. At peek it was $10 and during the “March Madness” it was $15

Best Value Low stakes betting

Hooters Casino down the end of the strip just across the road from the MGM Grand, has $2.50 Roulette and $3 Blackjack 24/7. Which is great value if you just want to play and give your money to the casino!

They only have 1 table of each so it does get quite busy, I found it good in the morning and could get a seat OK at Roulette. I had a couple of 2 hour sessions and only spent $100 much better value than the main strip where you would only see 10 spins during the day! The drink service was also very fast being a smaller casino, it felt much more friendly than the large casinos.

Roulette you could play with 50cent chips, min $2.50 per spin, so for $100 you would get 40 chances to hit your numbers.

$3 Blackjack was very popular, hard to get a seat in when we was there, all other tables were $10.

Aquatica Pictures

admin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:35:31 +0000

Dolphin Plunge (The most popular attraction)

Kata’s Kookaburra Cove (Kids Area)

The two Beach’s (Big Surf Shores & Cutback Cove)

The Cabanas(We didnt rent seemed a bit them and us)

Life Vestsp

Loggerhead Lane

Lazy River

Roa’s Rapids

Taumata Racer

Walhalla Wave

Walkabout Waters

Whanauway

Aquatica Review – Part 2

admin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:15:06 +0000

Aquatica has some great areas for the smaller children, better than Blizzard beach and typhoon Logoon.

Walkabout Waters – (Similar and better then Universal Studios kids water area)

This is a two story structure with lots of water things for kids to do, slides, sprays, drop water on people, all situated in a large pool. This was packed full of kids aged 12-14 and under (And lots of parents!) Have to be over 3 feet high. Every 10 minutes or so a large bucket of water tips over and soaks everywhere (similar to Universal Studios water area for kids)

There is also lots of seating around this area with shaded areas under large umbrella’s.

Top Tip – If you have small kids this would be a great place to camp out for the day, you can sit on a chair of bed while keeping an eye on the kids.

Kata’s Kookaburra Cove

Another kids area, smaller than Walkabout Waters, which has a pool with several slides for the smaller kids.

Overall if you have small children we think this is the best park out of all the water parks in the area.
Life vests are free and readily available, and lots of places for the kids to play.

Tassie’s Twisters

A dual tube which opens up into a large bowl which you spin around until falling out of the bottom into a pool. Quite fast and good fun. Not as good as the one at Wet ‘n’ Wild, but still good fun.

Once you exit this ride in your tube, you can continue to float around a slow lazy river which is quite small but takes you through two separate viewing areas.

Fish Grotto – Very Sea World, like the shark exhibition but with fish. The tube floats past a large glass window with fish behind it.

The other lane takes you past the dolphin plunge pool, where you can see the tubes and dolphin’s. This is one of the areas that I mentioned in part 1 on the dolphin plunge attraction.

Buzz….Buzz

Ha ha, the whole park is Australian themed with names and commentary, the voice artist they used is Jason Donavon well known for appearing in neighbours and being the voice artist used in the PS2 game Buzz…

Conclusion

We liked the park, it’s a must visit for any trip to central Florida. It has some great unique attractions. The park is quite small, much smaller then the Disney parks so gets busy very early on. We felt that the park is suited more to the younger kids rather then thrill seeking teenagers and adults.

All in all a good day out.

Aquatica Review – Part 1

admin — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:21:01 +0000

We visited Aquatica on the 17th of April 2008, below is some basic information which may help you get a little more from the park, or at least save you some time navigating. The information is our opinion based on our day at the park.

Getting to the park.

We wasn’t too sure where the park was, so we just followed the signs to Sea World, the park is very well sign posted once you get near Sea World. The park is across the road from the main Sea World Park.

On the day we arrived the park opened at 10:00, we decided to arrive at 09:30 which we did. Parking was normal $10 for car, we parked easily with a very short walk to the park entrance. At 09:30 the queue to enter the park was already 150 foot long, queuing to the left of the main entrance along the foot path, we joined the back of the line It wasn’t long before an Aquatica employee walked down the line making sure that everybody had tickets, as this was the entry line only and not for buying tickets. Luckily we had pre-booked our tickets and had them with us. If you do not have tickets you have to go and buy them (at front of queue) then rejoin the entry line.

Not sure what time they started letting people into the park but the line started moving as soon as we joined it at 09:30. It took around 20 minutes to get to the bag check area, we was through the entrance gates by around 09:50. The park does not open until 10:00, once through, another queue keeps you out of the main attractions until opening time. At 10:00 the park opened and the queue quickly dispersed into the park.

Top Tip No. 1

Buy your entry ticket before you get to the park, this will save time.

Attractions

The park is made up of two large wave pools, and several areas where slides and attractions are located. Sitting areas are spread across all of these locations.

Dolphin Plunge

This is a very unique ride, a first of its kind, but for our party a disappointment.

The idea is great, slide through a dolphin pool and see the dolphin’s, the reality is unfortunately quite different. Queue for an hour, take a trip down the slide, which is dark until you see the clear bit of tube you then have 2-3 seconds to turn your head and try to see a dolphin. I would guess you have a 5% chance of viewing a dolphin on this ride, if you are in the blue tube. If you are in the green tube them even less of a chance as 90% of the pool is obscured by the blue tube.

The designers obviously took all of this into account as there are 2 great areas to see the dolphins, either the tube lazy river and a viewing area.

There are 4 dolphins in the pool, which are free to roam around the entire pool, including an area out of view where they can go and hide from the public.

It’s best to do this ride as soon as you can as it gets very popular and is very slow. People try to slow themselves down to get a better view of the pool; it has two tubes one rider at a time. Not sure of how many people an hour throughput but it’s not a fast queue.

This attraction is right by the entrance to the park on the right hand side over a small bridge.

Top Tip No. 2

Do this attraction as soon as you can.

Team boat rides (Walhalla Wave & HooRoo Run)

Not as good as Blizzard beach, but still OK.

Blue slide is longer (Walhalla Wave) of the two rides with some dark areas of the slide, the green (HooRoo Run) being shorter, faster and straight. Both these rides will only seat 2 or 3 in one raft

Roa’s Rapids

Again this is a unique idea, different to the other water parks it’s a lazy river set to turbo! I really liked this ride; in place of tires they have life vests which keep you afloat while you drift around the river. Vests are optional and not a reflection of if you can swim or not. The current pushes you around the river very fast.

Taumata Racer, 8 lane matt race.

Better than Blizzard beach.

This is a race ride where you can race down against 7 other people.

Overall, I feel this park is designed more for the younger children, and not 14 or 16 year olds, as our children are. Don’t get me wrong, we all had a great time, but the rides were a bit tame compared to Blizzard Beach.

Nearest Starbucks Coffee shop

admin — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:44:16 +0000

The nearest Starbucks to Tivoli manor is located in the new Target store which is half mile north on the US 27 before the I4 junction, it will take less than 5 minutes to get here from the Tivoli Circle villa.

Also….

This target also has a Pizza Hut to go service!

Time Difference between UK and Florida

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:41:11 +0000

Florida is on the east coast of America the nearest side to the UK and Europe. The time difference is -5 hours, Florida is 5 hours behind London. So when it is 13:00 in London its 08:00 in Florida.

Arriving in Florida

When you arrive the time difference works in your favour, most flights from the UK leave around lunch time 11:00-13:00 and arrive local time Florida 15:00-19:00. So it’s a long day, but you get there in a day and it can still be day light.

On your day of arrival you will be tired and want to go to sleep, but try and stay awake to at least 21:00 – 22:00 the later the better as this will get you on local time faster.
The first few days you will wake up early in the morning as your body clock will still be on UK time. Its quite normal to wake up at 06:00 as your body clock thinks it 11:00 UK time. This can be used to your advantage; top tip is to get to some of the parks early to beat the queues (lines).
Animal Kingdom in the summer opens early around 07:00 which is a great time to see most of the animals as the weather is cool. So top tip would be to go to the parks that open early on the 1st few days when you are getting up nice and early!

Best view of Kennedy Space Centre

admin — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:08:09 +0000

If you want the best view of Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) and maybe the shuttle sitting on the launch pad ask for a window seat on the left hand side of the plane on the way to Florida, providing the place approaches from the east you can miss it.

Best seats on the plane

admin — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:06:26 +0000

OK so we all want to sit in first class and have loads of leg room but the cost is prohibitive. On the Virgin flights from Gatwick you can’t pre book seating adjacent to the exits as these are reserved for disabled people but do have loads of leg room. However if there are no disabled people on board ask at the check in desk if these seats are still free, you may just get a nice surprise.

Worst Seats on the plane

These are adjacent to the toilets!! When booking make sure you are allocated seats anywhere but near to the toilets.

Clear US Customs quick

admin — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:03:39 +0000

If you land at Orlando International Airport (MCO), (its only 35 mins from the villa). Once in the customs hall head over to the far right hand queue, this is where they deal with US citizens. However once all the US citizens have been cleared they will ask the Brits to move over into the US queue making the check in much quicker. We cleared the US customs in 15 mins when they had just unloaded a plane with 450 on board and we were sitting towards the back!

This also applies if you land at any US Airport, they always have a Domestic queue for Americans, once this is empty they move people from the other queues.

Mobile phone in Florida – Calling cards

admin — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 09:32:26 +0000

Mobile phones in Florida – Florida phone calls – Call cards

For a European / UK phone to work in Florida is has to be a Tri band or Quad band phone. Also you need to enable international roaming before you leave home. Best to check with your operator that your phone will work and is enabled.

Once connected to a US network, you will get a text message from them detailing the service, most take into account what country you are travelling from and take care of all the international codes for you. So if you were dialling the UK from Florida on your mobile phone you would use the same number as you would in the UK.

Top Tip – Mobile Phone = Cell Phone in Florida

Remember although slowly getting cheaper it’s still expensive to dial internationally on mobile phones, it’s a good idea to check the rates before you leave home.

If you are travelling abroad for the 1st time with your mobile phone, don’t forget how the charging model works! You pay for the incoming portion of the call, in other words it costs you to make and receive calls.

If you have a big party of say two families, (we quite often have 2 families stay in our villa as it sleeps 11 people) and you want to keep in contact through the day in the parks, then buy an American prepay phone.

We bought 2 prepay phones in Wal-Mart for $19.99 each with $10 credit on each phone, the plan was great you can make unlimited calls between mobiles on same tariff and to local numbers. So for $40 (£20, €28) you have 2 phones with 10 days worth of free mobile and local calls. Check out the supermarkets for the best deals.
I know it’s a waste but quite often the phones deactivate after 3 months of not connecting to the network, so you may have to throw them away at the end of your stay, check the agreement.
If you compare the costs between American Pay as you go phones to calling each other on UK phones at £1 per minute you will make massive savings, and stay in contact all day for $1 per phone per day.

Phoning home
The best and cheapest way to do this is to buy an international prepay card in a supermarket such as Wal-Mart, these work on any phone (they work on our villa phone) prices to the UK can be 5-10 cents per minute which is very good value. Normally buy $10, or $20 cards.