Travel same old problems. Part 2.

The Villa


Floridian Dream Villa, 16710 Hidden Spring Drive, Glenbrook Resort, Clermont, 34714. We arrived quite late but it was easy to find. Struggled to get the key out of the little key safe box, walked in and first job is to turn off the alarm.Then back to decamp poor old Hubby that has had enough of travelling and then some. 


Put him straight to bed  as soon as I figure out which room we can manoeuvre in with his wheelchair. I check him over and discover to my dismay he has a large swollen bruise on his back right over his spine. The next day we get up, I spend the whole morning puking my guts up. Hubby then gets a terrible case of diarrhoea for the whole of the first week, gets over that, then because he is so run down has an attack of Infantigo. So we have to make use of the special travel insurance that we have bought, call out a doctor and get a prescription for an antibiotic cream. The call out was about $400 + cream $95 for a small tube and no I haven't put the decimal point in the wrong place, yes it was $95.00. 


The Villa on the face was very nice. Had we been a mobile family we would have had a ball, plenty of rooms, bathrooms etc. The kitchen was open plan with dinning area and living room. I notice nearly straight away that the place is only surface clean, nearly every plate I reach for has to be re cleaned and has chips on it. The Microwave door has a rather serious break in it and I wonder how safe it is use as there isn't a PAT (portable appliance test) or radio-wave safety tested sticker on it.   

The cracks go right to the under side as well. The vacuum hadn't been emptied for years either so no wonder the carpet did not look very clean it worked a 100 x better when I emptied it. Well that is a surprise. ha. The first shop I got chance to do, mop, bleach, and other cleaning products, high on the list. I am on holiday am I not ? We settled in to our new environment, the days alternated from quite cold at 60 up to some of nearly 90 degrees. On the warmer days I got to sit out at our pool and swim. I did enquire about pool heating but I could not justify the expense. The plastic furniture was a bit naff and the table worse for wear, but hey its a rental. The screen had a hole in it above the table so beware if you stay the bugs will get in. The back was nearly totally inaccessible to Hubby in his wheelchair, the step out via the French doors was at least 5" high. There was limited room around the pool to move in a wheelchair and steps around the whirlpool. By the way don't be too alarmed if the pool men just turn up at the back of the property without any warning, make sure if you are naked inside house you have blinds closed. Their day while we were there was Tuesday am.

Showering Hubby at this villa was interesting, we needed to use some inventiveness. Firstly the fixed shower head was changed to a hand held with the purchase of a $30 Walmart shower head. A kids padding pool was also bought. Each shower day was a careful manoeuvre of Hubby in the shower chair over the pool facing the shower stall with some extra towels so that we did not flood the floor. Problem being all the shower stalls had deep insets making the placing of the chair in the stall impossible. As the photo shows the cleaning crew have not done a thorough job in keeping mould at bay. A constant challenge in the Florida climate.

This shower chair was hired from Care Medical Equipment personally I thought it a piece of junk, the foot-plates were awful we had to put an extra piece of foam on top or Hubby would have wobbled about too much in the huge hole. If you are a fairly strong paraplegic or can walk a bit it will be fine for you. so still give these guys a chance.








If you hire this villa, you need to be not too particular regarding cleanliness, I had to clean as I can afford for Hubby to catch anything. Did recommend to the company and the owner that place could do with a heavy clean. Dust everywhere on ledges, blinds and those artificial plants that are everywhere, do not even take me there, yuk. Stains on surfaces through out, don't look at the toilet seats too closely either. I also hope that they listen regarding changing light bulbs as many are not working. If you are a healthy family this should not put you off, still go for it as the property although not up to the cleanliness of a hotel will suit most of you. Please have eyes open when you pay over your hard earned cash as executive 5* luxury it ain't. 


Location of the villa is good there are two large pharmacies, a supermarket right on the doorstep , plus Walmart and Publix 5 mins drive away in opposite directions. Take outs round about, Chinese take out near the Sweetbay supermarket , Wendy's , Starbucks, Subway, KFC, Burger King, and Taco Bell. All of these were tried, they are small versions so have limited menu's. They were passable at best, not the best examples of these franchises. If you get chance try, Chilli's and the Santa Fe restaurants.  There is a US post office very close by. It should be noted that you can not have mail sent to this holiday address as there is no post box.


Trips to Disney will take about 15 minutes drive each way. Universal Studios, International drive, Wet n wild longer about 30-40 mins. 


Links :


Kenwood Travel
http://thetraveldirectory.com
http://accessibletravel.co.uk

more later....