Florida 2026, Days 08-20

By travelerdon on March 22, 2026

Touring Florida and visiting people!

After disembarking the ship, we pick up a rental car and visit a shipmate friend from our 2 Round The World Cruises! Hey ‘E-Less Ann’!

Then it’s off towards Naples to visit Elee’s college roommate and her husband! Hey Ellen & Bob! They gave us a tour of the area!

After a couple days we head north to visit with Elee’s cousin on Anna Maria Island near Sarasota. Unfortunately, Karen was marooned up north due to the heavy snowstorms up north so John was a fantastic host who showed us around for a couple days! We also visited Brother in Law John and his partner Andrea who were both gracious enough to let us use their house! Thanks!

Then we were off to Orlando where we stayed at a Hilton (That we would never stay at again!) in the Disney World area. We did get a great deal on the room in exchange for attending a 2 hour Vacation Presentation (thinkTimeshare). Of course we were told there would be no pressure, LOL. But the presenters, sales persons, closers & check-out people were all clearly angry when we turned them down!

Our room in the hotel was next to a vertical shaft that went all the way to the very noisy Lobby where the sound carried to every room! We did have a view overlooking parts of Disney World and the Lazy River that belonged to the hotel. We did spend a couple hours prior to the presentation relaxing in the Lazy River!

Next, we were off to “The Villages” to visit another shipmate friend from our Round The World Cruises, Ron and his girlfriend Linda! It was fun catching up Guys! They took us to an outdoor Country Concert. It seems that The Villages has entertainment happening somewhere almost every night so it doesn’t matter which night you want to go out! There is always something happening!

On our way back to Orlando that evening, we even were able to pull over to watch a launch from Cape Canaveral! This was probably the most disappointing shot with the new iPhone 17 as the phone wouldn’t focus well on the rocket flames!

The next morning we check out of our hotel at 11 AM. Our flight doesn’t take off until 9 PM so we take a leisurely drive back to Fort Lauderdale. We find the Riverwalk and spend a couple hours there.