Last Minute Villas

Last minute vacation home owner, Terry Gale, sent in some fascinating facts about the origins of Orlando and Disney.

Orlando, Florida, the world’s biggest playground, was named in honour of Orlando Reeves, an army sentry killed during the first Seminole War.

In early 60s, Walt Disney’s secretly and anonymously bought thousands of acres of farmland, orange groves, and swamp marshes to build a theme park where he envisioned an oasis where travellers could take their families and live out the kind of fantasies he had as a child.

Today his dreams draw more than forty million visitors a year.

Read the complete article on the origins of Orlando and Disney.

Vacation home owner, Christine Creasey, sent in this article about Cypress Gardens Adventure Park, which is well worth a visit and not only for the beautifully manicured gardens.

There are currently 38 rides to enjoy, as well as Splash Island Water Park (June 2005), Nature’s Way, Jubilee Junction, shows and concerts. There are also plans to introduce some interesting animals!

More than fifty all-star concerts will take place annually at Star Haven Amphitheater. General seating is included in the admission price.

Mango Bay features spectacular daily water ski shows as well as “Pirates of Cypress Cove” – a comedy show depicting life on the high seas.

Admission price provides access to all activities in the park including rides, shows, attractions and concerts. Also included is a second day free, up to six days following the park visit.

Read her Florida vacation tips and check out some beautiful photos here.

Last Minute Villa owner, Geoff Leach, a self-proclaimed Disney fanatic, sent in this article about extra attractions you may not know at Walt Disney World.

They include -

The Electrical Water Pageant - a nightly display that makes its circuit around Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake.

‘Wishes’ fireworks at Magic Kingdom - a display that can be seen nightly from the beach at Disney’s Polynesian Resort.

Disney’s Boardwalk - home to a wide range of entertainment.

Disney’s Miniature Golf - including has four courses in two separate locations each having 18 holes.

Read more about them here.

Last Minute vacation home owner, Christine Creasey, sent in this article about a unique tourist attraction in Florida called Fantasy of Flight.

If you are interested in aircraft and aviation, this is a fascinating place to visit. The world’s largest privately held vintage aircraft collection.

Fantasy of Flight is an attraction that takes visitors back to Early Flight, World War I, World War II and beyond. Many of the aircraft on display are rare pieces of aviation history. There are fascinating themed exhibits and displays, moments from aviation’s storied past.

The founder of Fantasy of Flight, Kermit Weeks, opened his aviation-themed attraction as a natural extension of a lifelong, unbounded enthusiasm for aviation and aircraft. Weeks has been involved in aviation since his childhood and is a skilled aerobatics competitor and aircraft designer.

Read more about Fantasy of Flight here.

As for the things to do in Orlando, the list is endless. For older children and adults, Universal Studios is usually the most popular. There are lots of thrill rides there and the rides are based on films they will have seen such as ET, Terminator, Spiderman, The Hulk, The Mummy, Back to the Future, Jaws etc.

Universal is split into 2 parks and you can get special tickets to cover it plus other parks. This is called a Flexi ticket. It allows 14 days access from day of first use to: Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Sea World and Wet and Wild Water Park).

You should also visit Universal in the evening as the City Walk, is full of restaurants, bars with live music and shops, and is great fun to walk around in the warm evenings. If you are visiting in October, Universal does the best Halloween Fright Night I have ever seen. It is worth travelling in October just to go to this.

Disney has 4 main parks, which are Magic Kingdom, Epcot Centre, MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom. The best option for Disney is definitely the ticket that allows you to hop from park to park on the same day and gives you entrance to one of the water parks which are excellent.

The Water Parks are called Blizzard Beach and Typhoon lagoon. My kids tended to like Typhoon Lagoon the best because of the wave machine but this may be a bit powerful for smaller children and non- swimmers.

Disney tickets are cheaper for kids, but they have to be under 10 yrs, and most younger children like The Magic Kingdom the best as they get to see the great day and evening parades with all their favourite disney characters. The evening Light Parade is also very popular, but make sure that it is on on the day you go.

Read the rest of the article, Tips for First Timers to Orlando, by vacation home owner Suzanne Evans.

One of the most difficult tasks for a vacation home owner in Florida is finding a company with the right skilled and licensed people to perform specific work or do repairs to their home when it needs to be done.

Owners ask themselves “can I trust them” then its “are they over charging?”or “will the work be finished on time before the guests arrive?”

We have directly employed skilled and versatile workers that can take care of most of the work that homeowners require. These workers are tried and trusted individuals with a wide variety and range of skills that we are pleased to offer to home owners.

The team is led by Carey, our Licensed and skilled manager, who heads the maintenance, repair and home improvement team. He quotes the price, monitors the work and makes a final inspection once the work is complete.

We will not quote for any work our staff are not licensed to carry out, neither will we do work that contravenes Vacation Home licensing regulations. If you require references please ask, you are welcome to view work completed by our team on our own homes and on customers homes.

The list of work we are licensed and insured to do is quite extensive. However if there is something you would like to have done and you do not see it on the list, please do not hesitate to contact us.

SCOPE OF WORK

Basically if you need it done we will do it! If we cannot do it we will tell you.

This is not an exhaustive list, please telephone or e.mail if you cannot see the work you need doing listed.

Interior and exterior painting.
Dry walling repairs and new walls.
Floor and Wall tiling
Fence installation or repair.
Pool decks repaired,and painted.
Screen material replaced.
Pressure washing.
Bathrooms re modelled
Kitchens re modelled
Garage interiors and floors painted
Closets re modelled
Irrigation systems repaired
Gutters cleaned or installed
Minor plumbing changes
Dispose of unwanted furniture
Change windows
Change doors and locks
Install combination front door locks
Installation of Ceiling fans
Carpets cleaned

Our Florida Vacation Home Owners love the Last Minute Handyman Services

Read some of their testimonials below.

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I have just returned to the UK from Florida today. We were staying at our home in Bailey Circle. I noticed Last Minute Handymen were working on a home diagonally across from our home.

I would like to say that I would have no hesitation on using there services, they worked exceptionally hard and were there from early morning until after five in the evening you could not ask for better than that.

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Dear Stewart,

We couldn’t be more happy with the work Carey and his team have carried out at our home, and the fact that the Last Minute name and reputation were behind this service took away any fears that we may have had.

We would like to congratulate you, as in our opinion you have achieved exactly what you set out to provide honest, hard working, and skilled staff, who provide an excellent professional service at a time to suit owners - thank you for a job extremely well done!

Carey

I have to say that is brilliant service, how do you want me to pay ?

Thank You

Andy

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Hello Stewart….. We would just like to say we have had your Handyman/Electrician at our home today to do some work for us.

We have been impressed by the efficient manner by both the quotation manager and the Handyman did their work.

Thank you for your help.

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Hi Carey,

Just got your pictures of the garage – thank you very much – it looks great, and we’re really pleased with the colour. Now all we have to do is get the pool table and football sorted, and some wall décor – and we thought we were having a holiday in the summer!!

I will be in touch with regards to the exterior painting – we will probably leave it until after the summer, we have so many other jobs to do as we only got the house in October and are still trying to ‘get it right’. If we need any other work done we would have no hesitation in contacting you – great service, very efficient.

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Dear Stewart

This is to say a big THANK YOU to you and to Carrey for the excellent service we received when we wanted an outside proximity lamp installed by the front door.

As you were aware we often had clients turning up late at night and they had difficulty seeing the numbers on the lock box by the front door.

The light Carrey installed is brilliant in light (It could guide the shuttle in) brilliant for what we required. We called Wednesday morning at 9.30……

Carrey called us back at 10.10 and light was installed by 15.30 same day. Now that’s what I call service……… the best I have received from a Tradesman since we have had the house.

WELL DONE TO YOU ALL AND GOOD LUCK

Thanks again and please pass these thanks on to Carrey and his team

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Hello Stewart

We just wanted to let you know how impressed we are with your Handymen services and would like you to use this as a testimonial (if you still need any).

Despite our visit a couple of weeks ago, we ran out of time to replace some shingles on our roof, so we had asked our management company to do it, but following an extortionate quote, the obvious next place to turn was your Last Minute Handyman Services.

Carey had given us an estimate within a couple of hours of requesting a quote and within 24 hours the job had been completed. What an excellent response time. We would fully recommend your services and if there is anything else that we need doing, that we are not able to do ourselves, you will be the first point of contact.

Keep up the good work.

Kind Regards

Justin and Laura

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The new “strict” enquiries have had to be changed to a pink(ish) colour this is because the colour we originally chose has an effect on M-S sufferers so my sincere apologies to those who were affected.

Over 100 owners are now using the calendar but I notice that there are still some owners with rentors.org links please remove these as soon as possible.

I have decided yet again to close the site to any new Orlando/Kissimmee owners with immediate effect we will once again start a waiting list for homes. This is to ensure you have the same ratio of enquiries to owners as before, (in fact because of the recent changes I think it is even greater).

Existing owners will be able to list extra homes that they purchase. This will of course be continually reviewed. The Last Minute Villas site continues to gain exposure, and climb even higher in the searches.

Last Minute Handyman services also continues to grow,we now have 6 staff. Our range of work is also growing so I have now dedicated pages for each job we complete so that you can see the range,this last month we have been responsible for building screens,extending pool decks and screens,planting trees,painting homes,caring for gardens,repairing doors,installing fans,installing Florida glass etc.

We are also getting so many requests for games rooms that we have put a package together that does the whole job including supplying the games all the information is on the site.

Click here to view Handyman Services