Wednesday 23rd August 2023 - Travel Day!

Off to Sunny California! Travel Day 

We left home just after 9am and headed to Heathrow for our 12.45 Virgin Atlantic flight to Los Angeles.  We left the car with Purple Parking (Meet & Greet) and headed into Terminal 3.  Bag drop wasn’t too busy, and we were soon through security and into departures.  After a leisurely breakfast and coffees at The Curator, it wasn’t long before our gate was announced, and we were boarding.

I had looked online and seen that there were a lot of unallocated seats so it wasn’t really a surprise that the back of Economy was only half full.  After take off, as soon as the seatbelt signs went off, we took advantage of some of the empty seats and spaced ourselves along 2 rows of 3.  So lovely just to have that extra space.  Flight was good, uneventful but long (10.5hrs).  I managed to read a whole book whilst the rest of the family immersed themselves in the films and tv shows on the inflight entertainment.

We arrived in a very warm LA and were soon through immigration with no issues, our suitcases were also some of the first on the carousel.  Then it was off to find the shuttle bus to the car rental.  Signs were not obvious, and someone eventually took pity on us looking lost and pointed us further along the concourse to find the bus.  

Eventually got to the Alamo rental garage.  Keith had arranged for “straight to garage” but we were expecting this not to work as he had changed our credit card after booking and you need the card you booked with to exit the garage.  We decided to give it a go anyway and was directed to the correct row of SUV’s where we picked a Mazda CX9 with captain seats in the rear.  As expected, it all went wrong at the gate! The operator there was unable to change the credit card and we had to back up and return to the car rental desk to get it sorted.  A bit of a pain, but we were soon sorted an on our way.  Sat Nav on, we headed north to Stevenson Ranch. The boys were instantly taken with the Heads Up display and kept pointing out things that I couldn't see from my side of the car!   Unfortunately, traffic in LA was awful but then it usually is!  It took us just over an 1hr and half to do 35 miles. 

The hotel (Comfort Suites) was the same hotel Keith and I had stayed in in 2018.  We were allocated 2 neighbouring rooms on the second floor – girls in one, boys in the other (2 double beds in each).

 

After a quick freshen up we headed out for some dinner.  We were shattered so decided to grab a quick take away at the Jack in the Box that was just across the road from the hotel.  

Full we headed back to the hotel.  A long but OK travel day.

Day 10 - Discovery Cove

Keith has been feeling a little under the weather for a day or two and woke up this morning horrible cough and cold symptoms.  He decided to stay at the villa today and miss our booked day at Discovery Cove.

The weather this morning was very foggy which we weren't expecting,  but luckily it soon lifted and the sun came out.

Sarah, Stephen and I set of around half past 8 and arrived at the park just before 9.30.  After checking in we headed for the restaurant to have breakfast.  A good selection of food was on offer including scrambled eggs, sausages, potatoes, waffles, fried chicken, fruit and yoghurt with fruit along with orange juice, chocolate milk and coffee.

After breakfast we went to the changing rooms to put on our swimwear then found the hut supplying wet suits and also grabbed some masks and snorkels.

Once ready for action, we headed to the Grand Reef, the water initially felt cool but we soon got used to it and were quickly into the deeper areas looking down at the rays and other fishes.  We spent probably an hour here, Stephen and I aren't keen on the swimming, I just can't do it, and Stephen is a little freaked by the larger fish swimming to close, so we found ourselves some spots along the reef where we could stand together and look down into the depths.  Sarah swam a few times round the pool area and really enjoyed her snorkling over the schools of fish and larger rays that where down there.

Dropping our snorkels on some sunbeds we headed of to the other side of the park where the kids did some laps of the lazy rivers, pausing to watch the marmosets on an island in the inner lazy river and some otters on the side of the main lazy river.   I took a wander to view the otters from the pathway and into the aviary.  I wasn't keen on the deep waters round the lazy River, I am not a confident swimmer.

We also did the aviary together after we met up.  Such fun getting up close and feeding the birds.

We also picked up some hot chocolate chip cookies.

After feeding the birds, I swam out to marmosets island for a quick look then the kids had another swim around the lazy rivers.

Back to the restaurant for lunch, we had a variety of food between us including burger, salmon, beef and pulled pork, plus more fried chicken strips!!

We made our way back to the reef area, stopping at the dolphin area to watch some of the dolphin swim sessions taking place.

Stephen decided he'd had enough so took his wetsuit back and joined me on the sunbeds while I had a pot of pineapple dole whip which was available on a help yourself tap!! Yum!

Sarah was going to do the reef again but changed her mind so went to get changed while I grabbed my snorkel and went for another fish watch! 

After 20 mins or so, I headed back to the kids and we decided to get sorted and head home.  We stopped at the flamingoes and chatted to one of the keepers about the birds she was looking after. We asked about eye colour, apparently they start dark and get paler with age, as well as discussing their various personalities! 

We dropped of the towels, wetsuits and snorkels aandstoppedvat the shops to buy some souvenirs.  We then picked up a printed park ticket for Keith from reception before making our way back to the car. We got back to the villa about 5.30.

Keith was feeling a bit better this afternoon but we decided against going out for a big dinner mainly as three of us had eaten quite a bit today! 

We ended up popping just up the road to Wendy's for some burgers which we bought back to the villa to eat.  We watched some rubbish TV, played table tennis in the garage games room and finished off the evening with some cheesecake from last night!

A busy day, very enjoyable, hot weather despite that early fog, and way too much food!

Day 9 - Rest day

After 2 late nights the kids needed some rest. We relaxed in and out of the pool during the morning and had some of the left over Chinese for lunch!

We popped out to some more shops looking for a particular pair of skechers trainers for Sarah unsuccessfully!  

We chose cheesecake factory for dinner tonight.  Stephen had salmon, Keith Korean chicken, Sarah had beef tacos and I had fish tacos.  We choose three slices of Cheesecake to bring home along with leftovers from Keith's Korean chicken.

Day 8 - Universal part 2 - just the kids!

After last night's late return we took it easy this morning, a lie in, followed by breakfast by the pool and a swim!

Sarah, Keith and I went trainer shopping in the afternoon.

The kids set of for Universal about 4pm for a second night of the Orlando Informer event.  They dropped Keith and I at the local Publix supermarket where we stocked up with milk, orange juice and snacks before walking back to the villa after navigating the crossings over the US27!

After a swim and relax by the pool we managed to over order on a chinese takeaway! 🤣

The kids had a good evening, although the park was much busier than it was on Friday.  But they did get plenty of rides done again over the 2 parks including Men in Black, The Mummy, Gringotts, The Hulk, and Hagrids. Stephen also did Dr Doom Fearfall.

They went deliberately hungry tonight and tried more snacks including ice creams near Gringotts, more chicken and beef skewers, mac n cheese and hot wings at finnigans, more hot butterbeer, then Buffalo loaded tots and a popcorn cupcake.  They also grabbed some more cinna sweets to bring home!

They arrived back at the villa about 1.15am absolutely shattered.

Day 7 Universal and Islands of Adventure, Orlando Informer meet up

Another chilled villa morning, our entertainment today is evening based at Universal, so we had a lovely relaxed morning at the villa.  

We headed out around 2, and stopped at Sickies Garage, a car themed restaurant where were shared some appetisers. We had a burger loaded tater tots, chopped up burgers, pickles, onions and cheese on a large pile of crispy tater tots, with a pile of onion rings and some boneless chicken wings. Probably too much food bearing in mind there would be plenty of free food around Universal. 

We arrived at the Universal parking garages about 4 and walked the citywalk where we found staff directing people into a separate entrance for the Orlando informer event. This is an after hours event, you can access the park from 5pm, but can stay after the park closes, which is 7pm this evening. From then all the rides, (and from 8pm) restaurants and snack carts are open and more importantly the food and soft drinks are free u til event close, which is 12.30am!!

They were using a couple of the stage buildings behind the scenes for registration and food offerings until 8pm, this included hot dogs, nachos, cookies, chicken skewers, cans of coke and sprite and bottles of water.

We grabbed cookies and water and hovered around here til we were able to enter the parks. We briefly chatted with a couple from Idaho. 

We decided to start in the Studios, the couple we'd spoken to had recommended the Bourne show that usually only had one show at 5.30, unfortunately when we got there it was cancelled. Nevermind, we headed off round the park, some rides were still showing longish queues as it was still open to the general public but between then and about 9.30pm we managed to do Men in Black, the Simpsons, E.T., the Mummy a couple of times, Transformers, Minions, the Harry Potter Gringotts ride and Fast and Furious.

We picked up some skewer snacks and a duck dumpling from a cart along the way and also stopped for some drinks in Harry Potter world - Peachtree fizzing tea, Tongue tying lemon squash, Fishy green ale (mint and cinnamon with blueberry boba) and a Butterbeer.

We then took the Hogwarts Express to Islands of Adventure where we rode Velocicoaster, Spiderman, Hagrids Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, and Sarah rode The Hulk.  

Food wise we picked up some of our favourite brookie cakes in Jurassic Park, we had fish and chips in Hogsmeade, Sarah had a hot butter beer, which was really delicious, a milky mild chocolate flavoured drink with cinnamon and spice. We also tried some flavoured coke from one of the machines and we finished off with a couple of hot teas and some cinnamon buns and cinnamon sweet bites which we ended up bringing home for breakfast tomorrow. 

All in all a very good night, the only slight down side was the 45 min wait for Hagrids ride, but otherwise everything was walk on, and we could have made better use of the free food if we hadn't eaten earlier! There was plenty of chicken and burger meals, even shepherd's pie in one of the Harry Potter areas as well as popcorn, churros, doughnuts and crisps, plus all the restaurants we didn't actually explore!

The food offerings was extremely well organised, with sample trays laid out for you to help yourself from most of the carts, or plenty of staff to serve other options.

We were pretty exhausted, and left just before event closing, and took a slow walk back through citywalk to the carparks. We had walked approx 21,000 steps this evening and got back home just after 1am.

Stephen and Sarah are back for a repeat evening tomorrow. Keith and I will stay home in the villa and leave the youngsters to it!