Florida Guide > Accommodation
Fancy a relaxing night in?
If you are vacationing in a villa or townhouse, most homes offer guests the use of a DVD player. Some home owners also leave a supply of DVDs for guests use. This is a great way to have a break from the theme parks, to maybe order a take out and enjoy a relaxing evening watching a movie.
If perhaps the DVDs in the home are not to your taste, or the owner has not supplied DVDs, we have found an ideal alternative. On our last trip to Florida we discovered a fabulous new facility to rent newly released DVD titles for just $1 (plus tax) per day. This is called Redbox (you can check it out by going to www. redbox. com) and is available at over 15, 000 locations, so there is bound to be one not far from where you are staying.
We had been recommended Redbox, so thought we would test it out to see how simple it would be to rent a movie. After a particularly hectic day at Universal, and with two ‘starving’ kids in the car, we decided to stop off at Walgreens (about half a mile from the villa) to rent a movie and also collect a take out pizza from Dominos Pizza (just a few shops down from Walgreens).
Redbox is exactly what it sounds like – a red box full of DVDs located outside the Walgreens store with a display screen with easy-to-follow instructions on how to rent a movie. Firstly you choose a movie – either by selecting from a display screen of recently released movie front-covers, or choosing from an alphabetical list of movies. You check that the specific DVD is available from that machine (there are two machines at Walgreens), then proceed to the payment screen. You need to swipe your credit card (we were concerned that UK credit cards would not work, but we successfully swiped our Nationwide card) and you are asked for your zip code – owners/Management Companies should provide you with this when you are given the villa address. Just enter the 5 digit code, then indicate whether you would like e-mail confirmation of the purchase (at which point you would enter your e-mail address). When you confirm you have completed your purchase, the machine dispenses your chosen DVD, and you take it home with you.
Our boys decided they really wanted to watch Mall Cop so we took this home with us, after also picking up a huge pizza from Dominos. The film was very funny and the take out and movie was a perfect way to wind down.
Returning the DVD was just as easy. On the way out in the morning we stopped at the Redbox machine at Walgreens (but you can return the DVD to ANY Redbox location, not just the one you collected it from), touched the display screen to indicate that we were returning a DVD (and the machine asks whether you would like another e-mail confirming return of the DVD) and pop the DVD back into the slot. That’s all there was to it. The previous night we had checked our e-mail account on the villa PC and had received an e-mail from Redbox confirming our rental, and later on another confirming the return of the DVD and the charge for the one day rental.
There is also a facility to go on-line at Redbox and choose your movie that way – you enter your zip code and Redbox automatically shows the 5 closest Redbox machine locations to you and whether the selected movie is available or not. You can pay on-line and then collect from the chosen Redbox location whenever you want.
Our vacation home was located on highway 27 and there was another Redbox location only 5 miles away from us at the Walmart at Cagans Crossing, so most communities have easy access to the machines - and take-out food if you don’t want to cook.
It’s a really simple and very cost effective way for a family to watch newly released DVDs (or classics – there is a good choice) in the comfort of their vacation home.
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