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Serendipity and the Spyder

Orlando vacation ~ Day four

We had planned to spend a couple of days at the Universal Studios Theme Park during this trip to Orlando but the disappointment of yesterday’s visit to Disney Hollywood Studios has made us re-evaluate our itinerary.

It’s possible that we have seen and done so much that we are more difficult to impress than the average Disney visitor. The kids certainly seem to enjoy themselves and I’m sure we would have enjoy it more had we had the grandkids in tow.

However, we have decided not to spend more money on theme parks until they have caught up with current technology. Movies like Avatar have now set the bar so high that theme parks will have to be completely redesigned if they hope to wow their visitors.

So, for today, it’s off to the Apple Store at Florida Mall on South Orange Blossom Trail to see if we can get Geoff’s Time Capsule fixed. A thunderstorm sent a lightning charge into our local phone system, through our DSL modem and into the Time Capsule. I’m guessing it got fried and we should be thankful we didn’t lose the iMac as well.

As expected the Apple tech told us our only option is replacement as the warranty has expired. We are now the proud owners of a sleek, hi-tech, very expensive doorstop. Good job we picked up the new 1.5 terabyte drive at Costco on Wednesday.

More Timeshare Bribes

The weather report for tomorrow is cold and thundershowers so we took the opportunity to sign up for a tour of the Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort at the Magic Kingdom. We had to pay the clerk in the little booth a $20 deposit to make sure we show up but that is usual and we will get it back at the resort. Since we didn’t want anymore discounted attraction tickets, we opted for a $100 American Express Card as the bribe. Not much of a bribe for our time but we will get more information for our book.

Another of the little booths at the Florida Mall was demonstrating a tiny, hi-tech, TENS unit called the Mini Massager. If you have ever paid a visit to a chiropractor you may have been hooked up to a TENS machine. It uses a tiny electrical current to stimulate individual muscles. It can also be used to relieve headaches. Since Vicky gets migraines and Geoff has various aches and pains of arthritis, we stopped to get more info.

OK, the justification went something like this. If it works as advertised it’s well worth the money. We may never see it again as it is not a regular store item. We just made $100 by signing up for the timeshare pitch. This tiny unit that looks like an iPod Nano is $160 but felt like it did some good. We’ll keep you posted.

The Serendipity Part

can-am Spyder RT at Daytona Bike Week

When we went to Costco on Wednesday, we drove past a motorcycle dealership that had some trikes out on display. We didn’t have an opportunity to stop then but the Florida Mall is just North of the Costco, so we had to go the same way to get there. We have decided that a trike will be our best option for our travels around Europe because of the stability it offers. Most of the trikes we have seen so far are third party conversions of Honda Goldwings and what we really want is something factory built.

The bikes on display at Central Florida PowerSports in Kissimmee are called the Spyder from BRP. Never heard of them, right? Actually, we discovered that BRP is part of can-am which is a division of Bombardier. These are the folks that invented the Ski-Doo and also build the Sea-Doo, Johnson, Evinrude, etc. They even build subway trains so they certainly have the engineering chops to build a motorcycle.

The Spyder comes in two models the RS sports model and the RT touring model.

Pablo Hofle and Brian Fitzpatrick of Central Florida PowerSports spent a lot of time with us demonstrating all the advanced features of this amazing machine. It looks like we have found exactly what we are looking for for our European adventure.

We also met one of the factory reps who is in Florida for Daytona Bike Week. Spyder has a booth at the Daytona Show and it will only be a few miles out of our way on the drive home so we may just check it out.

February 27th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Geezers In Gear, Travel | Leave a comment

Disappointing Disney Hollywood Studios

Disney Hollywood Studios

Orlando vacation ~ Day three

After yesterday’s incredible experience with Avatar at the Imax 3D theater what a disappointment Disney Hollywood Studios was. We chose Disney Hollywood Studios as the first of our major parks because we had not been there before.

Geoff had been to the Magic Kingdom with his daughter, Julie, shortly after the park opened and it was a wonderful experience they will both always remember. We had visited the Magic Kingdom and Epcot in 1988, just after we got married and it was equally memorable. Unfortunately the Disney Hollywood Studio will be memorable in a whole different way.

This park is tired and at least 20 years out of date. The Great Movie Ride is a prime example. You start by snaking a line through a movie theater showing clips from old “classic” movies, then the doors open and you climb into one of several open wheeled vehicles. Your conductor begins his patter and the vehicles start to move through the course. You’re in a warehouse and moving slowly past bad sets representing old movies. A few sound effect, smoke and some department store mannikins pop up and down, then it’s over. Sorry Disney, but this is lame beyond belief.

The two highlights of the Disney Hollywood Studios are the live stunt shows, “Lights, Motors, Action” and “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular”.

Lights, Motors, Action - Stunt Show

“Lights, Motors, Action” is a demonstration of how movie vehicle stunts are produced. The timing and precision of the stunt drivers is just incredible, as is the fact that they do this 3-4 times each day.

The Indiana Jones show is less thrilling but still worth seeing. It is basically a live recreation of the scene from The Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indie fights the big Nazi in front of the circling plane that is about to blow up due to the fuel leaking onto the ground.

Many of the Disney rides are the hydraulic type where you sit in front of a small movie screen and get shaken in sync with the images. Our first encounter with this type was at the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas over 15 years ago and it was much better than anything we saw today. You’ll find similar rides in any local amusement park or tourist attraction such as the CN Tower in Toronto. The Star Tours Ride is one of these hydraulic types that is based on Star Wars and is supposed to represent a droid pilots first trip to Tatooine. It is over in less than a minute and is totally uninspired.

It’s much more fun watching young audience members outside the ride building fighting Darth Vader with plastic light sabers as they are indoctrinated in the ways of The Force.

The closes thing to a thrill ride is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror which is an elevator that free falls for supposedly thirteen stories. The only roller coaster is the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster which is an indoor ride in total darkness. I guess we have just done too many thrill rides to be impressed. Frankly nothing beats the old fashioned wooden coasters that are outdoors and last for more than a minute.

The Muppet Vision 3D Movie has a couple of chuckles but 3D movies are now available as full length features at your local movie theaters so they do not have the same wow effect they used to. Also the Muppet Show ended in 1981 which is currently almost 30 years ago – like we said the Disney Hollywood Studios theme park is a little dated.

There is a certain amount of pleasure just wandering around in the different Disney theme parks but even the world create in this theme is not that interesting.

To sum up, we were massively disappointed by our visit to Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando. If you are a couple with one or two kids and don’t get discounted tickets you could easily drop $300-$400 for the day. Don’t do it. You and your kids will not be impressed.

Let’s hope our choice of other parks will be better.

February 26th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Geezers In Gear, Travel | Leave a comment

Avatar - WOW!

Orlando vacation ~ Day 2

Our home timeshare unit at Carriage Hills in Barrie, Ontario is a two bedroom that can be divided into a one bedroom and a studio. Our studio is very complete with a decent fridge and cooking surface but unfortunately this is not usually the case.

We exchanged once into The Hammocks Resort at Marathon in the Florida Keys and their “studio” was just a regular hotel room with a microwave. The dishes and cutlery were in a milk crate on the bed and we had to do the dishes in the bathroom sink. We were not happy!

The studio at Celebrity Resort – Orlando, where we are staying for the week, is much better than that but sill not up to the standards of our home unit. The one bedroom we have been upgraded to, however is very nice. This is an older resort but well kept. When it was first built I imagine it was quite spectacular.

The Timeshare Bribe

You are under no obligation to attend a sales presentation when you stay at a timeshare resort but they will always offer you a bribe to do so. This being Orlando, the bribe was for discounted attraction tickets and also included breakfast. Since we had not yet had an opportunity to get any groceries the free breakfast was an irresistible incentive.

I guess the decision to attend a presentation or not depends on how you value your time. The offer was for a $200 discount on tickets we were going to buy anyway and the old style high pressure sales presentations are very rare these days. Generally you spend a pleasant 90 minutes chatting with a resort representative and, in our case, since we are writing a book about vacation ownership it was a chance to gather more information.

We chose the 2 Day Touch of Magic pass for 2 which gave us admission to two major and one minor Disney theme areas. The regular price of the ticket is $404 but we paid $196. This does not include parking which costs another $14 a day.

How can a young family with a couple of kids afford a vacation here? The 5 day Park Hopper pass for four costs $1,132, plus parking, plus food. And the exit of every ride is a gift shop selling overpriced junk. Sure glad all our kids are grown – although it is great to see their faces when they see the Magic Kingdom for the first time.

Off To Costco

We were in no particular rush to see the Mouse and needed to get some groceries for the week. So, it was off to Costco. Other than the new North Eleuthera Shopping Center, there is nothing much larger than a US convenience store on our island so, for us, shopping at Costco is an event in itself. We tried to stick closely to our shopping list so we will not have to throw stuff away at the end of the week.

We tried, but this was Costco. The new 1.5 terabyte hard drive was such a good deal and Vicky always needs wants new shoes. That shirt would look good and only $15 for three LED flashlights – you can’t turn that down.

So we went a little overboard but not nearly as bad as we used to. Probably the thought that we will be leaving for our new adventure soon and have to pare our possessions down to what will fit in a couple of suitcases.

Avatar in Imax 3D

We are both huge science fiction fans and have been looking forward to the opportunity to see the new James Cameron film, Avatar. Fortunately it was still playing for a few more days at the Regal Pointe Imax 3D theater on International Drive in Orlando.

Wow!

The trailer can’t come close to the experience of seeing this movie in Imax 3D

We were totally blown away by Avatar. There is so much hyperbole and hype about most everything these days so it is difficult to express just how good this movie experience is. The story is simple and easy to follow but beautifully told. James Cameron has taken the time (2 hr 40 min) to let you get to know and care about the characters. Just about every scene includes a special effects of some sort but they are so seamless you accept them as part of the world the film creates.

This is another triumph by the Weta Digital group that did the effects for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Update March 8  – Weta Digital won the 2010 Oscar for best visual effects

As a regular widescreen movie this would be one of the greats, but in 3D you become part of the actions. Thankfully there aren’t any cheap 3D tricks with objects thrust out at the audience, the 3D effect is simply used to make you feel a part of the action.

When you add Imax to this mix with its five story screen the immersive effect is further enhanced and for 2-1/2 hours you are transported to another world.

Do we recommend this move? You bethca! Don’t miss it and if you have opportunity to see it in an Imax theater, it is truly a life-changing experience.

February 25th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Category: Geezers In Gear, Travel | Leave a comment

Orlando Practice Run

North Eleuthera Airport (ELH)

Orlando vacation ~ Day one

Now that we have decided to spend the next few years traveling around Europe and blogging about our adventures, we thought it might be a good idea to get in a few practice runs.

One of the rules of living in the Bahamas is that you can only stay for six months at a time. You can get a homeowners card that allows you to stay longer but we have never bothered. Anyway, since we had to leave because our six months was up, we decided to have a mini-vacation in Orlando.

Part of what we plan to do on our adventures is travel as cheaply as possible and document everything we spend. We want to show that it is possible to travel a lot in your retirement years without spending a fortune.

We’ll talk more about timeshare later but for now know that we exchanged into a resort in Orlando where we plan to spend a week. Timeshare (now they call it vacation ownership) can be a great way to save money but one of the downsides is actually getting to the resort.

American Airlines Special

American Airlines currently runs a $69 one way special (plus taxes – total $396.40 return for two) from Eleuthera to Miami on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. This is way better than the $704 we normally pay to fly into Fort Lauderdale with the other carriers that service the island. The only problem is we keep a car in storage close to the Fort Lauderdale Airport so now we have to get from Miami to Fort Lauderdale.

We figured a taxi was out of the question as it would have eaten up any savings on the airfare. We checked for limo and shuttle services between airports but it was still more than we wanted to pay. The best price we found was at shuttlediscount.com but it was still going to cost almost $80 for both of us.

Then we remembered the Tri-Rail system that runs parallel to I95 from Miami to West Palm and beyond. A quick check online at http://www.tri-rail.com and we discovered the trip from Miami Airport to Fort Lauderdale Airport was just $1.90 each for seniors and that included a free shuttle bus from arrivals at the airport to the train station. Add a $15 (including tip) taxi ride from the station to our storage unit and we had a pretty sweet deal.

Air travel is increasingly becoming a royal pain in the ass even from a one room terminal like North Eleuthera. We still had to arrive two hours before the flight and sit and wait for the plane to arrive.

We arrived at the North Eleuthera Airport at 11:30am for a 1:30pm flight to Miami. The flight was more or less on time, which is rare for here, but we got into the wrong line up at customs. The guy ahead of us was interviewed for a long time and finally got hauled away. Of course this meant we missed the train we had planned to catch and had to wait another hour at the station. We finally got to our car in Fort Lauderdale at about 5:30pm ready for the 3-4 hour drive to Orlando. After reconnecting the battery it started immediately (I love my Jeep) and we were off.

Hard To Beat Denny’s

Before getting on the highway we stopped at Denny’s for the first food we had had since breakfast. It’s tough to beat their senior specials – huge salad, grilled Talapia, two sides and coffee for just $20 including tip.

We had printed out our Google maps to the resort before we left home but somehow they didn’t seem to match the reality of the street we were on when we eventually made it to Orlando. Anyway after a couple of stops to ask directions we got to the Celebrity Resort – Orlando around 11:30pm just 12 hours after leaving home. We were looking forward to crawling into bed for a well deserved rest but the days adventures were not over yet.

Because we booked on short notice the only unit available for exchange was a studio which can often mean very limited cooking facilities. When we got to our assigned unit we quickly discovered, as we had feared, that it was small and only had a microwave and bar fridge. Worst of all it had not been cleaned since the previous guests. Needless to say, after traveling all day, we were not happy.

The resort staff were very apologetic and immediately offered us an upgrade to a one-bedroom unit which we gratefully accepted.

So it worked out well and we got a beautiful unit with a full kitchen just across from the pool. It was a long day but we are here and looking forward to our first vacation in several years.

February 24th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Category: Geezers In Gear, Travel | Leave a comment

The Adventure Begins

MoonscapeOur slogan is “Because you’re never too old”, but the reality is we know that, at some point, we are going to prefer sitting and rocking on the front porch to skiing down a black diamond hill. Actually prefer is not the right word but now that just getting up off the couch is accompanied by numerous grunts and groans it seems inevitable that we will have to find enjoyment in less physical activities.

We have lived and worked most of the past ten years on the small island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Our house is not grand but it is on top of a hill in the middle of the island which gives us spectacular views of both the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans. We had a lot of plans for this house but they will take time to realize and time is the thing we are most short of.

We had to make a very difficult decision and choose between staying in paradise or exploring the rest of the world. It’s a big world and we just can’t do both so we decided to sell our house and set out on a new adventure.

We have already been to every state and province in the US and Canada plus most islands in the Caribbean. We’ve done Mexico, and a little bit of South America but hardly anything in Europe. So that will be the focus for the next few years.

We plan to get a motorcycle (trike), a trailer camper and travel from place to place, blogging as we go.

We write this having just listed our house for sale. With the world’s economy in the dumper this is not a good time to sell but we have priced it so aggressively we hope it will sell quickly.

If you or someone you know has a dream of owning a home in a tropical paradise check out our home in Eleuthera.

February 9th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Eleuthera, Geezers In Gear, Travel | 2 comments

Images of Eleuthera DVD Ready to Ship

Images of Eleuthera DVD

Images of Eleuthera DVD

This brand new DVD featuring the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas is packaged and ready to ship.

Images of Eleuthera, which is over an hour long, is a photo journey through the island of Eleuthera separated into North (including Harbour Island and Spanish Wells), Central (including the Glass Window Bridge) and South (including Princess Cay and Lighthouse Beach).

There is even a bonus section of underwater photos as well as a folder of photos to use on your computer as a screen saver.

All of this is set to an original score by long time winter resident and well known composer, Sam Spence.

We are very proud of this latest production as it complements our very popular beach guide, The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera.

Where the book highlights all the beaches of Eleuthera, the DVD showcases the entire island.

April 22nd, 2009 | Tags: , , | Category: Eleuthera, Travel | Leave a comment