Thursday - Blizzard Beach and Arabian Nights Dinner Show

New restaurant for breakfast, hoolihans.  Quite nice for a change altho not sure we'd go back.  Then it was time to hit Blizzard Beach.  Stewart wasn't feeling too good (bit too much sun maybe!) so he decided to go with Grandma and Grandad to Animal Kingdom.  We drove round to Animal Kingdom Lodge to drop them off so they could get the bus to the park then we drove to Blizzard Beach.

We got our locker keys and towel rentals and headed off to get changed.

A float around Cross Country Creek was first, it was quite busy, there was a quite a few large groups of children from DreamFlight.  The group in the creek were being cared for by Charlie Dimmock from Ground Force (had been watching them for a while and thought I recognised the woman!!).

We left the creek and took the chair lift up the snowy mountain to the family raft ride, Teamboat Springs.  Had a couple of rides on this and then went on the Toboggan Racers.  Chloe was unsure to start with, was on her mat at the top saying "I can't do this" over and over again.  When the lifeguard said go we set off, its like a bumpy slide (Karen - think The Shires but on a mat on your belly head first!!). 

We got to the bottom and Sarah and Stephen were desparate to do it again, Chloe agreed and this time giggled all the way down.  The heavier you are the faster you go, so Chloe got a jump start on me but I overtook her and she moaned that my spray covered her! ha ha.  It didn't stop her as we had a total of four go's.

We wandered into the main wave pool area where the 3 children managed to grab some rubber rings for a while.  As we were leaving a man approached (bearing in mind I didn't have my glasses on!) calling my name - it was Sarah friend Izzy's Dad.  We went to talk to them for a while before going back on Cross Country Creek.  After a nice float round (it was much quieter now) we headed back to Teamboat Springs for another couple of rides before grabbing the cameras for a quick photo session. 

(pic from internet as didn't get one from family raft ride (no disney photographers at the water parks this year :(

Then it was off to get changed as we had arranged to pick up the others at Animal Kingdom Lodge at 4pm.

We were booked to go to Arabian Nights Dinner Show with Izzy and her family and had arranged to meet them there at about 5.15.  We stopped off at the local Nike store and got keith some more trainers (4 pairs now - thats it!) and a quick walk round the market on 192 (Sarah and I bought some necklaces).

We met Lynne, Peter, Izzy and Lydia and got seated in the arena.  Had a great view 6 rows up (the bench seats/tables are tiered like in a horse show arena) and we were all 12 seated in one row. Food was distinctly average, not sure how they murder carrot and broccolli sooo badly - the menu could definitely do with an overhaul.  The horse show itself was brilliant, the horses were lovely and the girls (Sarah,Izzy, Lydia and Chloe) all enjoyed it.  After the show we all came back to our villa for a cup of tea and a chat before they headed off to their own villa. 

sorry awful pic - think lynne managed to get some better ones

Mum and I had a quick swim with the kids before bed.  Chloe is getting a bit more confidence but I don't think we'll manage to get her swimming properly.

Another really nice day, weather was hot again, high 80's felt hotter.  Forecast for next few days is for similar (high 80'sF/30C+ - just slightly different from your weather!)

None of us want to come home - we are hoping for an air strike or some volcanic ash!!!!