Cruise America Rental
RV Rental Orlando from Cruise America
The start of our Cruise America rental meant we first flew out from Malaga Spain on the 19th October to Dublin where we had to stay in a hotel overnight for the flight the next day. On arrival at Dublin airport we found that the airport to hotel bus only ran from about 18.00 and with our 2 big suitcases we did not want to use the local bus than needed a change 🙁
We started our holiday with good old fish and chips which we cannot get at home in Spain where we live. Then at 07.00 in the morning we got the airport bus to the airport for the flight to Orlando.
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We had planned this trip with a booked appointment at Wells Fargo the first morning so we old set up a American bank account. (more details of this and many other things in our book American Motorhome Lifestyle for Europeans. So we ended up spending 2 nights in the hotel before going to pick up our rental RV. Not to worry shopping was started that day for our American adventure!
On arrival at Cruise America rental Orlando we were provided with a brand new 28A RV. It only had delivery mileage and errr damage on the rear left! The people who delivered it for a discount trip one way to Orlando had misjudged reversing. Fortunately it was only the bumper. We noticed that the bumper was made up of 2 sections – left and right for ease of renewing part only!
We still had shopping to do now that we had our rental. AS we were getting our own RV at the end we wanted to buy bedding, crockery etc etc otherwise we would have to rent it from Cruise America and then buy our own when we collected our RV in Phoenix later. Hmm did i say Phoenix an dhow were we going to get all those lovely things there from Orlando.
Thank goodness for Walmart which was on our way and we had already checked what was available on line.
So by the time we got to our first booked campsite Manatee Hammock it was nearly dark. Hey we only had to go a few miles in the morning for our first adventure Cape Kennedy Space Centre.
Yes we have arrived and for those of you think that this adventure was chosen by a man just see later!
The enormity of the Saturn rocket shown in the photo is amazing, but then everything here is. We have so many photos of this place but you need to go there and see yourself.
o see the space shuttle having watched them all these years on the TV was incredible as well.
Now you can see by her smile who was desperate to come here (I had been many years before). Space pilot Colleen 🙂
Due to all the kids wanting to pilot the shuttle Flat Eric and me had to share.
Please, please can I be a spaceman.
This RV trip was all about seeing the alternative Florida away from Disney, and all the film studio parks.
This is our campsite at Blue Springs and all the sites we stayed at were run by Florida State Parks. As you can see in the photo the main door has a picture of a dog in it. The cruise America RV’s either have a dog or children in the picture. Whilst this may be good for advertising you loose a window view including being able to see through it when pulling out 🙂
We love snorkelling so we brought from Spain our Decathlon snorkel set that they had designed and at the time was only available in the US on Amazon at a high price. Everywhere we went people wanted to know where we got it from. It has a separate space inside between bottom and top with valves and it does not mist up.
We were there a week before the Manatees started to come up for the warmth of the water and stay for the winter. Great temperature for swimming and incredibly clear.
This board walk through the Florida swamp at Blue Springs is typical of what we started to come across
This is typical of the spring area.
Having spent 2 night at Blue Springs we then went on to our next campsite for 2 nights at Alexander Springs. Again the site had a picnic bench and fire pit which we found was the norm.
Look how clear that water was. We were swimming amongst fish and took some great videos with our Kodak underwater camera. It had cost only £50
Beautiful clear water above where the spring is coming out all lovely and warm.
When swimming think of this
“There are alligators in most fresh water bodies in FL. However, as to date, there has never been a human-alligator incident on the Rainbow River.”
H’mm, there was a picture on a board near by that had a alligator hiding in the long grass on the river bottom. Your mind ends to work overtime then when snorkelling over any long grass patches!
There were free canoes to use when we were there which was great 🙂 There was however a lack of people snorkelling.
Rainbow River launch area for canoes. The RV campsite is down river from the Rainbow River State park and you can either go upriver or drive and park there. We did both!
Rainbow Springs campsite
This is the typical camp fire ring that you find all over the US states. Buying wood is about $7 which will add up quickly and you also need kindling. Not a problem for both of them as we found out during our travels to get for free 🙂
OK so it had to happen sooner or later but at least it was Flat Eric who met the deadly spider. This was a typical ranger driving, friendly and humorous. Why was he on patrol … looking to see where any deadly snakes were basking in the sun and he kindly told us where there was one. By taking sensible precautions we never had any snake problems in all the years we travelled in the US an din fact only ever saw 2. – less than on our land in Spain!
Ranger lead walk and talk all for free.
Now whilst this water fall may look good just remember this is Florida and it is just about on sea level. We were in what was the first a mining operation and hence the earth mounds that later enabled a owned privately amusement park to create gardens.
The amusement park was not of the modern Orlando style but it had a zoo, gardens and a semisubmersible submarine to give people they impression they were going under water.
Alligator hunting. Now i seem to have written about alligators already. But i certain person that i was with had heard there was normally a big alligator lazing in the sun on the bank just down from Griffin State Park RV site. So with much reluctance I set off in a canoe with her and eventually persuaded Colleen that it must have gone. I mean i have seen those movies where the alligator turns the canoe over.
lake Griffin campsite yet again in a great setting with privacy
We had both been reading a series of books by …. Hobb and “live oaks” were a ig part of it. We had both thought strange, either an oak is alive or dead. Ok so now we have discovered in the US that there are many types of oak tree including this one which was impressive.
00 years old, 10 feet diameter, 83 feet high and 131 feet spread.
TLake Louise our last campsite before returning the RV in the morning. Colleen has not forgotten that it was her birthday today and she ended up cleaning the RV as a birthday treat.
This was our least favourite campsite and we felt not very impressive. The sunset photo above was the only thing we thought had going for. It was only an hour away from the Cruise America rental office we had to go to in the morning.
Hey we had had a fantastic 2 week holiday in the rental and about to spend some time locally in Orlando before flying to Phoenix and collecting our own RV:)))
Last warning!
