Flo

	LJCS Villa's
	Eagle Pointe, Kissimmee, Florida
	A family owned villa for family holidays

July 2006

Cocoa Beach and Space Camp

This trip was about our 8th or 9th trip with the boys!  The main purpose of the trip was for the boys to attend NASA space camp (seriously!) We took a three week trip and spent a week over at Cocoa Beach so that the boys could go to the camp every day (doing the school run in Cocoa is soooooo much cooler than in the UK) and rented an apartment on the beach. You can see the block we rented in this composite photograph (which we took from the pier.)

It was great!  We dropped the boys at Cape Canaveral, then headed back to the beach.  At 4pm we picked them up again, the boys hit the waves while we retreated to the pier for well earned drinks.  We watched the sun go down while the boys played and we slid under the table.  Nicely toasted we only had to stagger a short distance back the apartment.

Here is Connor with his space cadet friends (how often have you said that about your teenagers friends - but we actually mean it!)  and another photo of him graduating the weeks course. Both the boys made Commander during their weeks and got to land (well crash actually!) a shuttle simulator.

If you are interested in your children doing space camp, we would highly recommend it.  They have to be between 8 and 14 years old and it really does not cost that much.  Look on http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/educatorsParents/camp.asp for details.

Of course, we got to play in the waves as well that trip.  Jan decided to run me down in the waves but she obviously was enjoying herself.  I did it with more style managing to pose for the camera and everything but I think Connor won "most likely to be mistaken for a local."  You can see photos of Connor posing on our "how to body board" section.

Susan Voase, an friend from ICL days, popped over to the beach while we were staying there.  Always interesting to see how other families react to something we think it absolutely great.  Reports after the event were that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and, but for a packed schedule of Mouse spotting, would have been back two or three times.

The family took to the pier in the same way we liked it and took to the water on mass to learn to body board!

GRAFTON HOLIDAY RATING:

Discovery Cove

At the end of a fabulous week we headed over to our house for the last 10 days. We had decided to check out Discovery Cove and had booked in about 6 months earlier to be sure that we got our chance with the dolphins. Discovery Cove is not cheap so we were really looking forward to a big day when we went.  Overall I would say that I was glad we did it but I would be unlikely to pay that sort of money again to do it again. They have a wonderful lagoon with lots of fish and manta rays swimming around in it.  You get to snorkel amongst them and (short of going to an actual reef) I would suspect it as close as you are ever going to get to these animals.  Certainly the boys enjoyed being able to swim with the wildlife in a very controlled environment and we might get them out amongst the real thing as a result.

There is a really nice lazy river which we went round several times and we spent a lot of time snorkelling. Be sure to wear a T-shirt and lots of sun tan cream on the back of your neck and legs if you are going here because you spend a lot of time face down!

Of course the thing that Discovery Cove is famous for is the chance to swim closely with Dolphins.  It is a bit regimented (for the Dolphins sake) and so they allocate your group a time to meet a dolphin.  You are then taken through a talk on what you can and cannot do with the dolphin then you find yourself in the water with a BIG dolphin.  The whole experience lasted about 20 minutes with various opportunities to touch, swim with and get towed along by a dolphin.  Until you have been close to a dolphin it is hard to believe how powerful they are - pure muscle!

Connor and Sam both quickly overcame any nervousness and absolutely loved the experience.

We would only make one observation about this whole thing if you plan to do it.  You cannot take a camera in the water so you are reliant on Discovery Cove staff taking pictures.  This will add well over another $100 to the experience.  we was disappointed with a number of the shots for this amount of money, specifically because the photographers (who claim to be professional photographers) make no allowance for what is behind you when they take the pictures.  So - we got some lovely photos:

and then they ruined other lovely shots by simply not taking two steps to the left and changing the angle.  We have had to crop people out of every one of our shots but the example below leaves us no chance.  We know the place is busy but it would not have been hard to not have this woman's back ruining a beautiful moment!

So our advice is - do this trip, but when they are taking the photos - gently remind them to look what is in the background if they want you to pay over $100 for the pictures!!

GRAFTON HOLIDAY RATING :

Parks, Water Skiing and Kelly Park

Back at the house, we did some of the usual stuff.  We did Animal Kingdom, MGM, Epcot and Magic Kingdom all in one day!  We used the hopper pass to its max and just did individual rides that we really wanted to see.  The new Everest ride was open (just about) but it kept breaking down so this was as close as we got to it.  Will have to try and get to it next time.

We also did the updated Pirates of The Caribbean ride (it had been closed for a couple of months to add the Johnny Depp characters.  We still love this ride and the kids will enjoy seeing the characters they recognise - but it was not changed all that much really.

We LOVE Mission Space at Epcot so rushed round to do that and also had fast passes to Soaring.  Maybe we were just tired by this point but Soaring did not really do it for us.  My Dad raves about it but it just another 360^o simulator to us.  Certainly would not want to queue up in the 2 hour wait for it!!

This was the first year that we went to  The Orlando Watersports Complex. We paid for the boys to have some tuition and off they went for several hours.  The water was luke warm.  It is very odd falling into a lake and finding it hot - but we guess it was August. Although Connor could have got away without the tuition he was hugely impressed that they guy he got was an X-Games medallist.  He lapped up every word.  Now we just need a X-Games maths and English teacher.  Sam was required to have the lesson because it was his first time but has not needed to do it again.  Even Lee got out on a wakeboard and managed to stand up (well - at least along the first straight!)

Connor got up and fell over lots before resorting to knee skiing.  On the next trip he was able to wakeboard right round the lake but on this occasion I think we had worn him out!

Sam didn't mind any of this and just went round and round and round on his knee board for about 2 hours.  The last corner seemed to catch him out a few times but apart from that he had a ball.

Jan meanwhile took advantage of the small beach at this place, read a book and sunned herself.  There was a nice little Cafe bit for drinks and snacks and Jan was able to wave occasionally as we went by trying to show off.

GRAFTON HOLIDAY RATING :

Kelly Park Rock Springs is a national park about 45 minutes away from our villa.  We thought we might like to go for a bbq and had heard of this place so headed off. We had heard that there was a natural lazy river here and some fresh water pools so we thought we would give it a go.

The river itself is about a 20-30 minute float down stream. There are no tubes for hire inside the park so either you need to buy some at Sports Authority before you leave or rent some from the numerous tube rental places along the road near the park.  They rent at about $3 each so reasonable value if you can get them in your car!

The park itself has a number of picnic areas and trails so plenty for you to do if you like a walk.  We had decided to do the whole BBQ bit and had taken coals, burgers, buns, etc, etc.  In hindsight we wish we had just packed a picnic because the BBQ stands are quite a way from the river and the pools and we would have rather just sat on the blanket near the water.  Still, if you have a keen grandparent in the group I am sure they will love to be on BBQ duty.

Kelly Park Rock Springs number is 1-407-889-4179 is located just off of Rock Springs Road, just north of Apopka, on Kelly Park Road.

Admission to the park is just $1 for adults and children, while children under five are admitted free.

What did we think of our day?  It was quite a long way to go and we think we should have gone earlier to have a whole day out.  If you have older relatives with you who are fed up with the parks, they would enjoy the day out if they took a book. Older children will get pretty bored here but we noticed that all the other children had small sieves with them and were panning through the sand.  When asked what they were doing, they were collecting shark teeth (!) from ancient times.  Take a sieve - who knows how long this will amuse your children!!

We enjoyed it but think it will get very busy at this park if the Americans are on holiday and the weather is hot

GRAFTON HOLIDAY RATING :

The rest of the trip was taken up with shopping, Vans skate park (obviously) and some BBQ's at other villas.  Lee played golf at Champions gate but thought it was far too hot for that nonsense so won't be playing golf in Florida in August again!

We had a very nice BBQ at Susan Voase's house with her family. They seemed to really get into the whole western bit by buying boots and hats.  Too much skin on show to put the photographs here but they, Susan and her sister in law, certainly shocked the local supermarket trolley boy when they popped out for more beer!

Susan and Family 2006

We also had a very nice BBQ with Simon and Sally at their house. It seemed to involve a lot of getting wet and throwing young children in the pool but good fun was had by all