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By Vicky Wells, on November 24th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Nov 23 ~ Day #197
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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Total
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$19700
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$15.00
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$17041.71
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$86.51
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Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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16084.6
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12056.7
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7662
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196
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35999.3
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We Did It!
When we began this adventure we set ourselves a challenge. To complete this trip on an average of $100/day or less.
As you can see from the recap of our final totals, we not only met that challenge, we exceeded it.
We traveled for a total of 197 days on an average of $86.51/day. Not bad!
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
First we’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to all the friends and family we stayed with along the way. We could not have achieved our goal without your generous hospitality.
We have mentioned all of you in each appropriate blog post but we would like to thank you all once again. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Putting Things in Perspective
When we mention the mileage, the number of days, places visited, etc. sometimes things just become a blur and the true magnitude is not particularly clear. So, here we’re going to recap things and try to bring some perspective.
Mileage
The total miles traveled, including road, train, sea and air, was 35,999.3. Too bad we couldn’t have added just 0.7 of a mile more. That would have pushed us to an even 36,000 miles.
But, to put this mileage in perspective, the circumference of the earth, at the equator, is 24,901.55 miles.
That means we could have traveled around the globe almost one and a half times. Wow!
Days Traveled
I don’t think we actually calculated the number of days we were going to be traveling when we started this adventure.
Oh sure, we knew the day we were going to start. We also knew the day we were going to fly back home. Both were booked before we set out. But we didn’t actually take the time to calculate just how long the time in between those dates was.
Total number of days traveled = 197.
If you apply an average of 30 days to a month, then we traveled for a total of 6.6 months, more than half a year. Again – wow!
Cruises and More Included in the Trip
It seems amazing even to us what we were able to pack into this trip. Here’s a quick recap.
Cruises
Our trip included three cruises:
- a two week Alaska cruise
- a six day Greek Islands cruise
- a two week TransAtlantic cruise
That’s a total of 34 days – more than a month – spent on cruise ships.
Narrowboats in the UK
We were able to spend an entire week on a narrowboat on the Trent/Mersey canal system in the UK.
Orlando and Disney
We spent two weeks in Orlando at two different timeshare resorts and spent time at more than one Disney theme park.
Landmarks Visited
Along the way we were fortunate to visit many landmarks both in North America and Europe.
Here’s a few:
United States
- Carlsbad Caverns
- Monument Valley
- Grand Canyon
Canada
- Victoria, British Columbia (a must-see)
- Hell’s Gate, British Columbia
- Columbia Ice Fields, Alberta
- Banff and Jasper, Alberta
- Lake Louise, Alberta
- Terry Fox Monument, Thunder Bay, Ontario
- Reversing Falls, New Brunswick
- St. Andrews-By-The-Sea, New Brunswick
- Confederation Bridge, between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
- Birthplace of Canadian Confederation, Charlottetown, PEI
- Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia
England
- Buckingham Palace
- Tower Bridge
- Tower of London
- British Parliament Buildings
- Big Ben
- British Museum
- Stratford-Upon-Avon, birthplace of Shakespeare
Spain
- La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
- Dénia Castle, Dénia
Portugal
- Madeira, the home of Madeira wine
Greece
Croatia
- the old walled city of Dubrovnik
Italy
- St. Mark’s Square, Venice
- the ruins of Pompeii
- the ruins of Paestum
- the Amalfi Coast
And, I’m sure there are things we are forgetting. It’s time for us to go back and re-read all the posts we have made along the way and to review all the photos and videos we have as well.
This was the trip of a lifetime for us. We will continue to travel, of course, but it is unlikely that we will ever again take such an extensive trip. It was a great adventure but a very long time to be away from home.
We will continue to have, we hope, many, many more adventures. But, perhaps shorter ones this time. 
Thank you to everyone who has followed along with us and to those who have made comments as well. It was a pleasure to share this adventure with you.
By Vicky Wells, on August 18th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 18 ~ Day #100
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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Total
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$10000
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$30.00
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$8886.28
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$88.86
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Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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13437+22=13459
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4451
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000
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69
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17979
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Current Location: Kissimmee, Florida
Today’s Total Expenses: $30.00
Accommodation: $30.00
Day 100 of Our Trip
It hard to believe, but we’re already at 100 days into our trip. Wow! Triple digits already.
Most days it doesn’t seem like we’ve been traveling for that long. But there are days …
We found that the most tiring part of the trip so far is the driving. We’ve put an awful lot of miles on our car and there have been way too many days when all we see is highways – and after a while they just all start to look the same. We have to remind ourselves what State or Province we’re in.
Good portions of the long drives are just plain BORING. But, we need to get from A to B, so we push on.
Now that we’re at the timeshare we had booked in Florida, the majority of the driving is over and, truthfully, we’re really glad about that.
Cheap Tickets & Timeshare
We had thought about spending some time at Universal. After all, the new Harry Potter experience is open.
So, we stopped in at a place offering discount tickets – they seem to be on just about every corner.
Part of their spiel, of course, were timeshare bribes. We were offered $100 to take a timeshare tour of Westgate and we though – why not? Trading some of our time for adding $100 to our trip finances seemed reasonable. And, we know exactly what to expect from timeshare presentations. After all, we already own timeshare at two different places and are using quite a bit of our time during this extended trip. We knew full well that we were going to be talked into buying more. We don’t need it.
The Westgate Resort is actually associated with Interval International and is actually Weeks, not Points. One of our timeshare resorts is Weeks and the other one is Points and we much prefer Weeks. We feel we get much more when we exchange.
Even though we really like the Westgate Resort, and our salesperson was great, as planned, we did not invest in more timeshare and simply collected our $100 cash bribe.
Another Option
As we were leaving the gift center of Westgate, we were presented with another opportunity for a presentation about lowering travel expenses that, apparently, was not timeshare.
The bribes to attend this presentation weren’t as good – a couple of weeks in a condo and another visit to Florida including some theme park tickets – but we decided to attend anyway.
But that’s schedule for tomorrow so we’ll tell you all about it then …
Downtown Disney
Since we didn’t go to Universal City Walk yesterday, we decided to swing by Downtown Disney today – where we KNOW we won’t have to pay for parking.
Although it is mostly shops and restaurants, it’s still a pleasant place just to walk around and some of the shops are interesting.
We even got pictures of each other on the Easy Rider motorcycle in the Harley Davidson shop.
Disney, like just about everyone else, also sells timeshare.
We spoke with one of their reps and they, of course, tried to talk us into taking their tour. Like most of them say, it’s only about 90 minutes (rarely is it ever that short) and they try to sign you up for a tour right then.
Well, as we all know, timeshares offer various types of bribes to get you to take their tours. Anything from cheap or free attractions tickets to cash or gift cards.
So, what does Disney offer? Ice cream! No kidding, that’s what we were told. If we took their timeshare tour they’d let us pick whatever ice cream we’d like.
Is Disney really so arrogant that they believe they can use a bit of ice cream to bribe people to sit through 90 minutes (or more) of someone trying to sell them timeshare?
Perhaps they are. Disney, of course, is a business like anything else. They’re there to make money. Sure Mickey and all the characters are cute, but don’t ever forget that first and foremost Disney is a corporation.
Rain Dates
We also discovered that a lot of the theme parks are now offering rain date passes – so if you’re day is ruined by a lot of rain, you can use your pass again on another day.
Not Disney – if your day gets ruined by rain, well, that’s just too bad. Once you’ve gone through the gate, you’ve used that day of your pass.
And, since we’ve been here this time we’ve had a LOT of rain. We’ve often said that we feel sorry for the people that lose a good portion of their day in the park to rain. And some days the rain has been torrential and has lasted a good portion of the day.
Actually, we’ve been to Florida many times and we’ve experienced a lot of rain almost any time we’ve been here. So, how come they call Florida “The Sunshine State”?
By Vicky Wells, on August 17th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 17 ~ Day #99
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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Total
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$9900
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$81.52
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$8856.28
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$89.45
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Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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13394+43=13437
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4451
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000
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69
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17957
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Current Location: Kissimmee, Florida
Today’s Total Expenses: $81.52
Accommodation: $30.00
Food: $43.90
Heat Wave Continues
It looks like we’re not getting much of a break from the heatwave. Today we actually hit 103 Deg. F and it’s humid as well. Pretty brutal!
Search for Electrical Adapter
With the European portion of our trip coming up fast, we figured it was time to start looking for the appropriate electrical adapters.
Of Major concern, of course, is our MacBook Pro laptop. We’ll need to be able to charge it in both the UK and in Europe. Fortunately, because it’s a Mac, we only need the adapter and not a bulky transformer. Mac’s can handle both 120V and 240V.
Our search took us to the Florida Mall which has an Apple Store. We checked adapters at both the Apple Store and at Radio Shack but Geoff hasn’t made a decision on which place he’ll buy the adapter yet.
While we were in the mall we also wanted to get the battery in Geoff’s watch checked. It had only been replaced this past April and at a kiosk in this very mall – we just weren’t sure which one.
As it turns out, the battery is fine, it’s the watch that’s dead!
I guess it was to be expected. His Seiko watch is now well over 20 years old, so it’s probably time to replace it, or not. Geoff actually doesn’t wear a watch much.
Universal City Walk
The plan was to go from the mall to Universal City Walk.
From what we’d read about Universal City Walk it sounded a lot like Downtown Disney – a neat place to walk around with shops, restaurants and a few attractions.
We assumed that, just like Downtown Disney, the parking would be free for such a venue.
Apparently not. They wanted to charge us $15.00 for parking, so we just gave it a miss.
Sorry Universal, but charging for parking for City Walk is about the same as charging for parking at a shopping mall. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
By Geoff Wells, on March 1st, 2010
Beautiful sunny day. Light jacket cool, but a cloudless sky – so we don’t expect any rain.
We have been to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot on previous Disney visits, so for our last day we chose Animal Kingdom and kept our fingers crossed that it would not be as disappointing as Hollywood Studios.
If you plan to visit, don’t forget to budget an additional $14 a day for parking on top of whatever you pay for admission.
The animals in Animal Kingdom are all in the Safari area of the “Africa” section. This is the furthest point from the entrances and is where we headed first. We had been told by staff at the resort that the animals were most active in the morning and it was best to get there early.
I guess a lot of people had been given the same advice because there was quite a few ahead of us. They moved everyone through fairly quickly and the wait was not too bad. We are not fans of zoos or circuses where animals are in cages but here they roam free and seem to have lots of room. We understand that elephants in the wild will roam hundreds of miles which they obviously cannot do here but they also don’t have to worry about being shot by poachers. The animals here have absolute right-of-way and if one decides to stop in the middle of the road, the whole ride stops until it decides to move. This is what happened to us and we were able to enjoy a giraffe family at breakfast. A little later we were charged by a rhinoceros but, unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that.
The Africa section also includes a train ride to the conservation station where the animal receive veterinary care. The kids will enjoy the petting zoo here. We were also lucky to get up close to some gorillas on the walking trail.
Asia is the next section and it also includes a walking trail past tiger, bats and Komodo dragons.
We passed on the Kali River Rafting ride as they guaranteed you would get wet and it still wasn’t very warm.
We did, however, waste about 90 minutes in a line for the Expedition Everest Coaster. Waiting more than 10 minutes would have been a waste of time.
Worth mentioning is the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” 3D movie underneath the Tree of Life on Discovery Island. 3D movies are commonplace now but this is cute and has some co-ordinated animatronic characters and other effects.
Animal Kingdom closes before the other parks so they can take care of the animals. So be sure to plan your day accordingly.
So, yes, Animal Kingdom is much better value than Hollywood Studios but the prices are still too high for what you get. With the world economy in the dumper postponing a trip to Disney World should be a pretty easy decision.
That’s it for Orlando. Tomorrow we make a quick side trip to Bike Week at Daytona Beach, then home to Eleuthera.
By Geoff Wells, on February 26th, 2010
 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.
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