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Tired
Off to bed now
Back to work tomorrow
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Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Day 14 - MCO
It's that post from the airport time. We're at Gate 85 waiting for boarding to start, having had the usual straightforward transit through MCO. Security lines were nice and short today.
Packed up in room this morning, then deposited bags at the Downtown check in. The boys went in to Quest for a while and Nicky and I hid out at Starbucks (new Downtown Starbucks actually quite nice).
Quick lunch from the HoB counter service and then a movie at AMC. It was actually a recording of a stand up show by a comedian I'd never heard of, but he was pretty good.
And finally to the airport - by the southern route for a change.
Right, I expect they'll start calling rows for boarding soon ...
Sent from my iPhone
Packed up in room this morning, then deposited bags at the Downtown check in. The boys went in to Quest for a while and Nicky and I hid out at Starbucks (new Downtown Starbucks actually quite nice).
Quick lunch from the HoB counter service and then a movie at AMC. It was actually a recording of a stand up show by a comedian I'd never heard of, but he was pretty good.
And finally to the airport - by the southern route for a change.
Right, I expect they'll start calling rows for boarding soon ...
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, 5 August 2014
Day 13 - 4 parks
Brief highlights
(note - not all members of the party participated in all attractions)
Park 1 - Studios
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania
Animation Academy
Backlot Tour
Park 2 - Epcot
Reflections of China
Voices of Liberty
Gran Fiesta Mexico Boat Tour
Club Cool
Mission Space
Park 3 - Animal Kingdom
Festival of the Lion King
Dinosaur
Dinoland Carnival Games
Expedition Everest
Park 4 - Magic Kingdom
Space Mountain
Steam Train
Big Thunder Mountain
Splash Mountain
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Tired now. Very tired.
(note - not all members of the party participated in all attractions)
Park 1 - Studios
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania
Animation Academy
Backlot Tour
Park 2 - Epcot
Reflections of China
Voices of Liberty
Gran Fiesta Mexico Boat Tour
Club Cool
Mission Space
Park 3 - Animal Kingdom
Festival of the Lion King
Dinosaur
Dinoland Carnival Games
Expedition Everest
Park 4 - Magic Kingdom
Space Mountain
Steam Train
Big Thunder Mountain
Splash Mountain
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Tired now. Very tired.
Monday, 4 August 2014
Day 12 - Typhoon / storm
Today was the day of the Lobster - as Granddad will have seen from the picture sent to Twitter!
After lunch, and a quick trip to Goodings in search of Ghiradelli hot chocolate, as we'd seen that there wasn't any in the shop at Downtown (and no luck in Goodings either) we decided to head to a water park, and went for our first ever trip to Typhoon Lagoon.
Unfortunately, we'd all just got into our tubes and started floating down the lazy river when the staff announced that all of the water attractions were being closed because there was a storm in the area! We hung around for a little while, but the sky did get pretty dark, and there was definitely thunder and lightning in the area, and so we decided that is was sensible to beat a hasty retreat, so we came back home for a while before heading Downtown for the evening for some souvenir and gift shopping, as well as to visit the Earl for some of his particularly fine sandwiches.
Off to bed now, for tomorrow we carpe our final diem in full - it's going to be a 'Four Parks in a Day' day!!
After lunch, and a quick trip to Goodings in search of Ghiradelli hot chocolate, as we'd seen that there wasn't any in the shop at Downtown (and no luck in Goodings either) we decided to head to a water park, and went for our first ever trip to Typhoon Lagoon.
Unfortunately, we'd all just got into our tubes and started floating down the lazy river when the staff announced that all of the water attractions were being closed because there was a storm in the area! We hung around for a little while, but the sky did get pretty dark, and there was definitely thunder and lightning in the area, and so we decided that is was sensible to beat a hasty retreat, so we came back home for a while before heading Downtown for the evening for some souvenir and gift shopping, as well as to visit the Earl for some of his particularly fine sandwiches.
Off to bed now, for tomorrow we carpe our final diem in full - it's going to be a 'Four Parks in a Day' day!!
Sunday, 3 August 2014
Day 11 - more late night Magic
Another slow start to the day - we're getting into the swing of this holiday thing! Plan had been to go to Olivia's at our resort for a late breakfast, but it turned out that we were too late, so we headed out in search of an IHOP. The one near Crossroads was packed out, and there was no sign of any space in the car park at all, and so we headed up I4 to the Sand Lake exit and to the IHOP on I-Drive just up from the Sand Lake junction. That one was also packed, but we could at least find a spot to park, so we decided to go for it. We only had to wait 5 mins or so for a table, and we were seated in our usual area - which we are used to having pretty much to ourselves, but which was full up and very noisy.
Breakfast was to IHOP's normal standards, and then we took a long time to drive the short distance up to the top of I-Drive and the Premium up there. In fact we didn't quite make it, and ended up parking at the Outdoor World (obviously tempted to go in and buy a chair so that I could sit half way up a tree!) and walk the rest of the way, which was definitely quicker.
We did a good tour of Premium, which was also very busy - probably due to this being a tax free clothes shopping weekend in Orlando (back to school deal from the state) but the boys failed to find the trainers that they were looking for. One was pretty laid back and relaxed about this, and one slightly less so - I'll leave you to guess which was which. So, we popped over to a sports shop in the Florida Mall, and both of them scored the new Nikes they were after.
By this time we decided we'd been away from the parks for just too long, and so this evening we've been by bus to MK, and have between us managed to do Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Pecos Bill for pulled pork, Big Thunder, watched Wishes from Main Street, Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain, the Main St Electrical Parade, brownies from the Main Street bakery, some Dole Whip, and a little bit of light souvenir shopping.
Not a bad evening at all.
And obviously I have taken many, many photos (and not all of them have the castle in, but probably most!). However, as it is tomorrow already, I will close for now, and will try to do some uploading and photo-posting tomorrow.
Breakfast was to IHOP's normal standards, and then we took a long time to drive the short distance up to the top of I-Drive and the Premium up there. In fact we didn't quite make it, and ended up parking at the Outdoor World (obviously tempted to go in and buy a chair so that I could sit half way up a tree!) and walk the rest of the way, which was definitely quicker.
We did a good tour of Premium, which was also very busy - probably due to this being a tax free clothes shopping weekend in Orlando (back to school deal from the state) but the boys failed to find the trainers that they were looking for. One was pretty laid back and relaxed about this, and one slightly less so - I'll leave you to guess which was which. So, we popped over to a sports shop in the Florida Mall, and both of them scored the new Nikes they were after.
By this time we decided we'd been away from the parks for just too long, and so this evening we've been by bus to MK, and have between us managed to do Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Pecos Bill for pulled pork, Big Thunder, watched Wishes from Main Street, Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain, the Main St Electrical Parade, brownies from the Main Street bakery, some Dole Whip, and a little bit of light souvenir shopping.
Not a bad evening at all.
And obviously I have taken many, many photos (and not all of them have the castle in, but probably most!). However, as it is tomorrow already, I will close for now, and will try to do some uploading and photo-posting tomorrow.
Saturday, 2 August 2014
Day 10 - lazy day
Today has been a lazy day - a truly holiday-ish kind of day where we really haven't done very much at all, and isn't that a nice thing to say!
This evening Jake and Owen have been to Downtown to see the new Marvel film (Guardians of the Galaxy) that came out today, and Nicky and I have been to LBVFS for the obligatory Old Navy trip (where they took 10% off the bill due to their current promotion, and I made a point of showing them a 15% off coupon that I had found on my phone saying that I'd rather have that, which threw them into confusion and we ended up getting 25% off - I love these small victories !!) and then we went to "Sweet Tomatoes" at Crossroads for tea, and can thoroughly recommend it for future visits - good value and tasty buffet.
Otherwise, really not very much to report from today - maybe we'll get up to a bit more tomorrow!
This evening Jake and Owen have been to Downtown to see the new Marvel film (Guardians of the Galaxy) that came out today, and Nicky and I have been to LBVFS for the obligatory Old Navy trip (where they took 10% off the bill due to their current promotion, and I made a point of showing them a 15% off coupon that I had found on my phone saying that I'd rather have that, which threw them into confusion and we ended up getting 25% off - I love these small victories !!) and then we went to "Sweet Tomatoes" at Crossroads for tea, and can thoroughly recommend it for future visits - good value and tasty buffet.
Otherwise, really not very much to report from today - maybe we'll get up to a bit more tomorrow!
Friday, 1 August 2014
Day 9 - Nouba
Up at a reasonable time today (thankfully with no long term ill effects of tennis with Jake!) and out the door to Epcot and fast passing for Soarin'. Good as ever, although we were saying that we are looking forward to the new film coming - not sure when it is due.
Due to lack of supermarket trip yet on this leg of our adventure, provisions in our villa are a bit thin, and so we'd not had much by way of breakfast so next stop was the (Fountain View) Starbucks, which by comparison to a normal Starbucks was actually pretty rubbish, but managed to serve us some drinks and snacks.
Next fast pass was for Nemo and so we climbed aboard our clam shells, but the best bit was the underwater viewing area inside the pavilion, where between us I expect we must have taken a couple of hundred photos, and due to the challenges of low light conditions and constantly moving marine life, I expect upwards of 90% of them are blurred.
Our final fast pass for the day was for a character meet and greet, and so we had some photos taken with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy, before heading out of the park and to Beaches and Cream, where we gave a pretty good account of ourselves with the Kitchen Sink.
Back to base for a short pit stop before getting the boat to Downtown where we have spent the rest of the day - first at Splitsville where we played a couple of games, stopping in at a couple of shops (Owen got himself some new headphones), booking a cinema trip for tomorrow for the boys, La Nouba, and then dinner at House of Blues.
La Nouba is extremely difficult to describe, so I'm not going to try too hard! It's part traditional circus acts (clowns, juggling, trapeze, tumbling ...) and part completely bonkers and and Cirque-ish, but still very funny and entertaining.
Due to lack of supermarket trip yet on this leg of our adventure, provisions in our villa are a bit thin, and so we'd not had much by way of breakfast so next stop was the (Fountain View) Starbucks, which by comparison to a normal Starbucks was actually pretty rubbish, but managed to serve us some drinks and snacks.
Next fast pass was for Nemo and so we climbed aboard our clam shells, but the best bit was the underwater viewing area inside the pavilion, where between us I expect we must have taken a couple of hundred photos, and due to the challenges of low light conditions and constantly moving marine life, I expect upwards of 90% of them are blurred.
Our final fast pass for the day was for a character meet and greet, and so we had some photos taken with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy, before heading out of the park and to Beaches and Cream, where we gave a pretty good account of ourselves with the Kitchen Sink.
Back to base for a short pit stop before getting the boat to Downtown where we have spent the rest of the day - first at Splitsville where we played a couple of games, stopping in at a couple of shops (Owen got himself some new headphones), booking a cinema trip for tomorrow for the boys, La Nouba, and then dinner at House of Blues.
La Nouba is extremely difficult to describe, so I'm not going to try too hard! It's part traditional circus acts (clowns, juggling, trapeze, tumbling ...) and part completely bonkers and and Cirque-ish, but still very funny and entertaining.
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