Hello .
Long time no see. Amazed to see this thread still has some life. Great memories here it was truly Epic, so Epic they named a park after it .
I haven't done the parks for a long time and dont get out to Florida as much as I used to, things change, time moves on and interests are different these days.
As
@Mad Dog states I will be back in the great USofA this summer for what will hopefully be another Epic journey, albeit following a different hobby.
As an ardent football (soccer) fan It was always a dream of mine to follow England to a world cup, every since a young boy watching mexico 86.
In 2021 i signed up to the England supporters travel club and i haven't looked back since. I attended my first world cup in 2022, following the team all the way to the semi finals.
I was hooked. Since then I've followed them all over Europe in qualifying games and made it to the European championships in Germany 2024 where we made it all the way to the final before losing out to Spain.
After The heartbreak of the final in Berlin i signed up for another season and once again followed them all over Europe watching qualification matches for USA 26. We qualified easily without conceding a goal during this period.
This brings me up to the present.
When the ticket prices were announced i very nearly, and probably should, have sacked it off, the cost of tickets is ridiculous , 4 x what Qatar cost and for Euro 24 I did the whole tournament for less than two group games have cost at USA 26, but that's FIFAs greed and a story for another day,
Having said that the FOMO was real and i ended up booking and ive just about finalised my plans through the group stages, anything after that will be booked as or if we progress. Please don't ask what my final ticket cost .
We also have two warm up games right before the tournament 6th and 10th June, these are being billed as the "South Florida series" stadium haven't been announced yet but i think we will be in the new Miami freedom park and possibly ft Lauderdale. The hard rock will be under license to Fifa at that point so it won't be there and much as i would like it to be in Orlando i dont class that as South Florida.
The planning for this has been insane as I've been sorting for 6 guys all coming and going at different times during the tournament.
But I'm sorted, tickets secured, flights and accommodation booked and the spreadsheet is complete.
My itinerary is as follows........
Fly into MCO
Miami (maybe) 5 nights (warm ups)
Orlando 6 nights (pre world cup)
Dallas 5 nights (England's opening match v Croatia)
Boston 4 nights (v Ghana)
New York 6 nights (v Panama)
Then it's into the knockout phase which could see me going to....
Route 1 - first place
Atlanta, Mexico, Miami, Atlanta, NYC .
Or
Route 2 - second place
Canada (Toronto), Dallas, LA, Dallas, NYC
Dependent on how the group games go and where we finish in the table . There is also a third route for the 8 best 3rd placed teams, I've not even studied they option .
Thank you for all who followed my original epic adventure and who knows, this one could be even more epic.
I've no plans to document this trip but if it's something people would like to see i may consider it. Would it even fit here?
All the best
Mark