Orlando Villas

Orlando Florida Vacation Homes

2008-06-25T08:06:00.001+01:00

A really great place to look for that perfect home from home whilst visiting Florida. All properties are for rent by the owner.

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Caladesi Island Florida Voted best USA Beach.

2008-05-23T11:05:00.002+01:00

Caladesi Island is just north of Clearwater Beach and you can only get to it by private boat or by the Caladesi ferry service. Cost for the ferry is $9 for adults and $5.50 for children.

Trips depart hourly beginning at 10 a.m. Ferry passengers
are allotted a four-hour stay on the island. Contact the ferry office at
727-734-1501 for more information. For further information about the
walks or about Caladesi Island State Park, call the park office at
727-469-5918.

Celebration, More than a Disney Town

2008-05-14T10:19:00.004+01:00

The town of Celebration in Orlando, Florida, is more than a town created my Disney. In fact you could be forgiven for thinking that it has nothing to do with Disney. It is pretty much like any other town, it has a bank, city hall, school, sheriff and shops & restaurants. It is laid out different from other communities and a lot of though has gone into the planning of the streets and buildings. Most of the people you see on Celebration are just driving around admiring the many diverse styles and designs of the homes.

There a few restrictions at Celebration, for instance, you wont find any short term rentals here, all the properties have to be "lived in". They can be bought to rent out to long term tenants though.

Market Street is where most of the shops and restaurants are there are many themed shops such as Sherlocks of Celebration, tea rooms, they advertise "Fine wine, tea and coffee, light lunches and gourmet pastries." There is a Starbucks with it usual offerings, a great place to sit outside and watch the world go by. The Market Street area is also where most events take place, in the holiday season, around Christmas time there is nightly "Snow Falls" on Market street. You can take a ride in a horse and carriage or visit Santa in his grotto.

Most Sunday Mornings there is a Farmer's Market, where you can buy fresh produce. One time well worth a visit is again at the Holiday season when all the homes have the Christmas lights, there are some wonderful displays.

As for Hotels, there is one at present with a condo hotel in the pipeline. There is also a large lake in the square and a concrete deck with rocking chairs and sun shades. It is another great place to sit and relax. The lake does have alligators and there are warnings about feeding them. You can see turtles and fish in the waters edge.

Celebration is a great place to visit.

Chilis Bar & Grill

2008-04-11T16:16:00.003+01:00

One of my favorite "cheapie" restaurants in Florida is Chilis, love the food, love the atmosphere with all sorts of memorabilia decorating the place and a happy hour that runs most of the evening. The food is "Tex-Mex" style and very reasonably priced. I have a few favourite dishes on the menu but I have to say most times I order a starter to share for me and the wife. We normally go for the Triple Dipper which consists of 4 Chicken Crispers (really light batter)4 Southwestern Egg Rolls, these are filled with spicy beans, sweetcorn etc. and a portion of "Boneless Chicken Wings" now these are spicy! Just don't inhale when you have one near your mouth!! these all come with Celery Sticks and 3 dipping sauces, Bleu Cheese, Honey Mustard and Ranch. The cost $9.99

Main Course (Entree} I Love the Honey BBQ sirloin, served with choice of 2 sides and Garlic Toast ($12.49) The Steak and Portabello Fajitas ($13.69) and Cajun Chicken Pasta, Sliced, Cajun-seasoned chicken breast on penne pasta with creamy Alfredo sauce, seasoned tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and garlic toast($10.49).

But the main reason for going there is the dessert. We both love the Molton Chocolate Cake, warm chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling. Topped with vanilla ice cream under a crunchy chocolate shell ($5.49) and there is enough to share.

Well worth a visit next time you are there. There is one on I-Drive, One on the 192, One on Champions Gate and many more dotted around.

Enjoy.

New Coaster for Universal Studios Orlando

2008-04-08T10:19:00.001+01:00

(Courtesy Universal Orlando.)

Universal Studios has announced a new roller coaster for its Orlando theme park. Here's the press release.

ORLANDO, FL (March 19, 2008) - Adrenaline pumping and music thumping, you find yourself heading straight toward the sky. Suddenly, you are doing 65 mph, 17 stories over Universal Studios. Gasping with excitement, you rock out to a song you picked before strapping in. And, it's all on video. Once the adventure is over, you edit the video to send to your friends.

This is true high-tech, customizable, multi-sensory entertainment. Scheduled to open in spring 2009, Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit will stake its claim as the most technologically advanced roller coaster in the world. The Universal Creative team is combining audio and special effects engineering, sophisticated on- and off-board video and one-of-a-kind guest personalization to create a roller coaster experience unlike any other.

"This is the perfect intersection of the digital age and theme park entertainment," said Mark Woodbury, President of Creative for Universal Parks & Resorts. "Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit blends roller coaster intensity and guest interaction in a way where no two experiences will be the same."

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit touts six near-miss moments and first-ever thrills including a record-breaking loop. Ride vehicles feature the brightest and most innovative color changing LEDs in the world. High-energy visual displays fill the queue line. With up to four ride vehicles on the tracks at any given time, and with concert lighting and special effects mixed in, Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit will be a true high-intensity, multi-sensory experience that is unmatched.

Guests can customize their ride experience by choosing what song will play while they're on the roller coaster. LED boards in the queue lines will display song options from five genres (classic rock, rap, country, pop and disco). Once on-board, guests can choose their song or let the coaster's digital sound system choose for them. When the ride is over, guests will be able to customize footage from their experience and compile it into a take-home music video.

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit will be located near the Jimmy Neutron attraction traveling the southern perimeter of the Universal Studios theme park, over to the CityWalk lagoon and back.

Rumour has it that it will feature the first "non-inverting loop." Most coaster loops involve turning you upside down, on this one, the track will twist on the way up, then twist again on the way down so that riders are always right side up relative to the ground. Sounds Good!

Estero Island - Fort Myers Beach Florida

2008-04-08T10:11:00.004+01:00

Whenever we get the chance whilst visiting Florida we always head South to Fort Myers. I find the peace and tranquillity there so refreshing after the hustle and bustle of Orlando.

The beaches are less busy and less comercialised than the Central Florida beaches of St. Pete’s or Clearwater. Not that I don’t like those beaches because I do, it just makes a nice change.

Down South it always seems more like the Caribbean, more tropical too with the Coconut and Banana trees. Generally it’s a few degrees warmer than Central Florida too.

Normally we stay at Pointe Estero or the Gullwing (Sister Hotel) next door. We head down to the local Publix supermarket and buy some nice steaks and some shrimp along with some salad and potatoes for baking. Then after a glorious day in the sun we strike up one of the grills available for guests use and barbecue the steak and shrimp. Dawn, meanwhile, prepares the salad and potatoes and once the meat is cooked I take the meat up to the condo via the elevator (It seems strange stood in the elevator with a plate of hot meat in one hand and the cooking utensils in the other lol). We consume the food on the balcony watching the beautiful sunsetting over the Gulf.

My idea of Heaven!!

Our Day at Blizzard Beach

2008-04-03T09:29:00.001+01:00

Me with Jay, Dawn, Paige & Ollie. This was the next day after we arrived last year. we decided to go to BB first as it was closing for rehab fo a couple of month. We prefer Typhoon Lagoon so that was the good thing that it would be open throughout our 6 week stay.

Clearwater Beach

2008-04-03T09:06:00.000+01:00

We have been visiting this beautiful place for many years and love it just as much as the first time we discovered it. It is a little more comercialised than the beaches further South but has it’s own unique charm.

The first time we visited was through a booking made with a UK travel company called Virgin Holidays that consisted of “2 weeks in Orlando and 1 week at the beach” We initially booked the Holiday Inn on Gulfview blvd, which at that time was just before you got to the old bridge that crossed the inlet where the inland water way met the Gulf. However just a couple of weeks before we were due to fly we got informed that they were moving us to the Sheraton on Sand Key as the Holiday Inn was being refurbished. It turned out we got a good deal. The Sheraton was made famous by the Rev Jim Bakker who resigned as head of the 500,000-member PTL television ministry in March 1987 after saying “he had been blackmailed over his 1980 encounter with Miss Jessica Hahn in a Florida hotel room.”

The hotel is situated over the inlet on a stretch of land called Sand Key. Continuing along this road would lead you to Indian Rocks, Treasure Island, and eventually St. Petersburg. The hotel itself was very nice with it’s own stretch of beach, nice pool and a well stocked Tiki Bar where I had my first aquaintance with a “Mud Slide” and a “Rum Runner”.

Following years on our visits to Florida we never used a tour operator again and started tailor making our holidays. We did stay at Clearwater regularly though, at, The Quality Beach Resort, and Travelodge once as we left it late to book and turned up on spec when the Tampa Bay Buccs was playing at home against the Dallas Cowboys and Clearwater was packed with Cowboy fans!

There are some very nice places to eat here. We like Reno’s, Gondoliers and Leverocks. We also enjoyed the exquisite sunsets that occur here never the same two nights running. Well worth a visit.