Our
trip from home to Florida was looooonng. We took the Airbus to Los
Angeles at 6 PM for a 11:15 PM flight to Detroit. We had time for a
leisurely dinner at LAX before our flight. The flight was fine and we
arrived about 6:30 AM. Why Detroit you ask? Our friends Cindy and
Gary were flying to Detroit from San Francisco so it made sense to
meet them there and fly together to Orlando.
We
had only minutes before our flight left for Orlando as they were
calling our name when we arrived at the gate. We actually got an
upgrade to seats closer to the front to the plane. I had asked for a
wheel chair for Clyda and glad that we did as it was a half mile
between gates. Oh, we also had a TSA pre-check on our tickets so we
didn't need to unload everything from our bags to go through
security.
Arriving
in Orlando, we got the rental car and drove to Mystic Dunes, a
Diamond Resorts property South of Disney World. It is a big property
with 23 buildings and over 900 rooms. Beautiful grounds but outdated
furnishings in the units but Diamond will eventually upgrade them
all.
We
drove to what we thought was Downtown Disney where there is shopping
and restaurants that you can visit without paying a Park entrance
fee. Everything is under construction and all the close in parking
lots were full so we left.
We
came back the next day when there were less people and took a ride on
the free boats that travel between parks. We went to “Key West”
and had a leisurely lunch before going back to Downtown Disney, now
called Disney Springs (The name changed last week). We saw the movie
“The Martian” which was very good.
Disney Springs.
Boat ride around Disney Springs.
After
the movie we drove towards Orlando and the “Orlando Eye” a giant
wheel like the London Eye or The LINQ in Las Vegas. We all rode the
“Eye” which takes about 25 minutes to make a complete loop. It
was dark by the time our trip started but as flat as Florida is you
can see a long way. As a matter of fact, we can see the fireworks
from Disney if we go to the 6th floor balcony at our
timeshare.
The Orlando Eye.
Aboard the Orlando Eye.
Yesterday
we drove to Cocoa Beach and did a 2 hour boat tour of the Banana
River where we saw lots of birds but no Manatees. We picnicked at a
local park, walked to the beach which was interesting as it was full
of people, unlike our February visit when very few people we on the
beach.
Ed and Clyda prior to the boat tour.
Cindy and Gary .
Pelicans roosting in the Mangrove trees
We
drove North of Titusville to a Manatee viewing area the boat captain
had told us about and saw numerous Manatees feeding in the shallow
water of a boat launch area. There were large and some quit small
Manatees along with one who appeared to be very large. It was
snorting and showing its flipper. Quit interesting.
We
then took a 7 mile drive through the St Johns National Wildlife
Refuge and then drove to Christmas, FL where we had camped in
February while on our Florida trip. We went to the Orlando Wetlands
Park nearby which we had also visited last February.
Today,
Thursday was a pool day.
