Spain 2012 Part 3

Aquapolis

As part of our package in Spain we had unlimited entry into the water park next door called Aquapolis. With numerous pools, tons of slides, waterfalls, fountains and kids toys, not to mention the dolphins and seal enclosure it’s a fun place to be!

The pools were initially freezing, but once you got used to them you were fine, most of the slides have a lot of stairs to get to top so I avoided those to play with my nieces in the kids pool but what did I do? Fell over in 20 inches of water, bruising, my arm, hips and breaking a toe (crushing my dignity at the same time with a major wedgie implanting itself firmly where the sun doesn’t shine!).

So after de-wedgie-ing myself I sat by pool side munching on pain medication whilst watching the others swam, slipped, slid and most importantly not killing themselves!

R-L: Mike, Dan, Steve & Kate

(Saving ourselves a fortune having the Aquapolis in our package was slightly marred when each of our sun loungers were 5 euro’s each and lockers were 9 Euros each so be warned!)

House of Illusions

Mike, Steven, Nicola, Kate, Dan and I had booked ourselves tickets to the House of Illusions, a spectacular magic show that had me completely speechless and dumbfounded.

When we arrived the hostess’ told us that if we each paid an extra 5 Euro’s we had a front row table with unlimited champagne, beer and wine; well, it would have been rude not to! Plus if you ask your taxi driver for a receipt from Estival Park everyone gets a free drink on arrival – boozy bonus!

Going into the venue we were greeted by Matt Wright – I think possibly one of the best magicians I have ever seen (including those on TV). Whilst waiting to go into the main room he treated us to a session of close up magic. I can’t even begin explain the tricks to you, I suppose that’s the point!!

Along with Matt Wright we saw David Taylor, Matthew Fraser, Dan Allam, Luke Cook and Glenn Bonnar doing some of the most amazing tricks we had all seen including;

My brother being called up and come on to by a gay Wizard Puppet who proceed to read his and Kate’s minds.

A woman being cut in half but there was no box or saws only lasers across middle then suddenly her legs were on one side of the stage and her unfazed head and body were on the other!

Matt Fraser hammered a nail into his nose!

And at one point there was a lady floating mid air!

I don’t want to give too much away in case any of you are lucky enough to go see this truly spectacular show (so no pictures – sorry!) it’s well worth every penny and I would go back a million times to try work out how it’s all done!

Back at the Hotel....

After the show we got a taxi back to the hotel where the hotel night club was still open; I can’t work out if the staff loved or hated us when we have the entire club do a conga line and a huge (Mike lead) gathering of the Cha Cha slide!

Very much worse for wear (sometimes I’m thankful for my wheelchair!) we got into bed around 4am!

L x

Spain 2012 Part 1

Regular readers will remember that last year was a particularly difficult year for my family, namely my parents. So we decided to book a well deserved family holiday.

10 of us; Mike, myself, my Mum, my Brother Steve, his girlfriend Kate, my Sister Nicola, her boyfriend Dan, my two nieces Charley and Koran and my nephew Martin (my Dad and other brother Mike opted to stay at home in peace!) decided on a week in Spain at the Estival Park Resort in La Pineda.

We booked 4 rooms with an all inclusive package via Thompson’s. Making the booking was an hour long trauma for our sales rep Jenny; 7 adults, 3 kids, 1 wheelchair and special assistance, 1 cot and 1 pushchair – she earned her commission!

Our flight was booked at Luton for 5:55am so we had to get a bus at 1:30am, most of us had a brief nap before being picked up, but the lack of sleep would kick in later leaving us, grumpy and short with each other – even me – can you imagine such a thing!!

Luton Special Assistance were quite helpful, although some of their staff could do with a short lesson in manners and a rocket up their bottom!

Of the ten of us flying only four had ever been on a plane; I was intrigued to see how they’d all cope, annoyingly we were all split into different sections of the plane; as much as I wanted to see them squirm (how cruel am I?) they were all fine, even two year old Martin who thought he was on Buzz Lightyear‘s rocket; “To infinity and beyond”.

Estival Park is a three park resort; three hotels, six pools, three restaurants, three different show’s and bars to chose from every might. There’s an onsite kids club running 10am - 8pm, kids disco’s every night and fully equipped gym, tennis court and spa too.

On arrival we were put into three rooms and then realised that I, the one with the wheelchair had been booked into a 2^nd floor apartment where there was no lift.

In the resort foyer there are two receptions one for the hotel and the other for the apartments, we spent a good 15 minutes having to walk between the two relaying messages regarding the apartment and moving into the hotel, instead of them having a phone conversation or God forbid walking to meet each other in the middle!! I was something out of Faulty Towers; the end result Nicola and Dan took the apartment in mine and Mike’s place – we could have told them that without the 5 miles back and forth!

Our rooms were clean, spacious and light; they were cleaned every day – the cleaning ladies were lovely and we used my nephew's charm to get extra tissues and shower gel!

At lunch we decided to head for the huge restaurant were the maître d' took one look at the wheelchair, pushchair and 10 people huddled together and said that he would have our own table booked every meal with a wheelchair sign on the table; and that they did, we didn’t have to queue at all and were able to eat together every meal time.

After lunch we braved the very cold outdoor pools but once in we enjoyed it, the trail blazers that we are once we got in so did a load of other guests; none of us died of hypothermia – bonus!

The resort was opposite the sea so after dinner we took a walk along the promenade and made our way to the beach; more excited than the three children my sister and I got in fully clothed before realising we had to get through the hotel reception sopping wet without being told off – the rebels that 

we are!

Rebels!

By 9pm, everyone was dying on their feet so after a couple of drinks in the snack bar (there were only 7hrs between 11pm and 6am where there was no food available!) we hit the sack!

L x