Day 11 Shopping and swimming

Oh no, our days are running out - not happy.

Leisurely start this morning. Left the villa about 9.30 for buffet breakfast at Shoney's.  Food was lovely, good choice and nice and fresh.

No parks or activities planned today so off for some shopping.  Sarah wanted to look for clothes at target or walmart so we headed to a target the other end of 192 kissimmee. Thought we woild play some more golf too.  Shopping not successful,  didn't have anything she was looking for.  Golf was off too as the kids decided it was too hot now.  Headed instead to Downtown Disney as I wanted to do some disney shopping.  Stopped off first at an outlet centre when we saw nike and reebok advertised.  Nike were running a zumba class in store and the boys weren't keen on going in! We did have a quick look at trainers but left empty handed.  I got a couple of pairs of trainers from another shop, and we managed to get Stephen and Keith a pair each from **.  Also while here we founf a Lindt shop. Omg sooo many different flavours. Wanted them all but they would have melted in the car :(

soo many different flavoured lindt chocolates!

With the sky darkening it was on to Disney.   Managed to get into the shops just as the heavens opened.  Got a couple of baby things for my friend's new baby girl, but the boys got bored so went back to the car while Sarah and I carried on shopping and spending!

Boys had got drenched goinb back to the car and were grumpy!  We wanted one more stop at the new flea market on 192.  Sarah tried on loads of dresses but didn't find one she wanted and ended up with a tshirt.  With grumpy boys we headed back to the villa to swim.

Stephen had bought some balls to play in the pool with so we had some fun swimming in the rain!  Got out tho when the thunder got closer.

Keith and I had a trip to publix and then later got a takeaway pizza from the local pizza restaurant for dinner.

Another swim for me and the kids while keith watched Nascar.

Nice relaxed day.

Day 10 food - Clearwater Beach

Breakfast was in Jimmy's Fish Bar in the Holiday Inn and Suites on Clearwater Beach. 

Keith had "Jimmy's Skillet" with Fried Potato, onion, pepper and bacon with Eggs overeasy and toast



I had an Eggery Burrito with fried potato

Sarah had bacon and sausage omelette with toast

Stephen had a breakfast quesedila with fried potatoes.

 Mid morning snack to beat the heat

Sarah had a mint choc ice cream and Keith had Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream

Dinner on our return to the Kissimmee area was at our "local" Applebees.

Stephen had a quesadilla burger, Sarah had the Cowboy Burger, Keith had Turkey and Bacon Sandwich and I had the Black and Blue burger. (sorry no pics again!)

approx £38.75

Day 10 Clearwater Beach

What a difference from yesterday afternoon and evening. The sun is shining, the sea is sparkling and the sand is white! 

Breakfast was back down to the restaurant at the hotel - Jimmy's Fish Bar.  We sat out on the deck area overlooking the bay.  A lovely setting. 

After breakfast we went back up to the rooms and packed ready for checkout.  Our main reason for coming to the beach was to take a boat ride to see some dolphins.  I did consider Little Toot but was fairly certain we wouldn't get Keith onto such a small boat, so we chose the Seascreamer.  We drove up the beach road and parked near Pier 60 then went across to booked for the 12 o'clock boat trip.

With an hour and a half before then, we walked along the pier, then went for a paddle along the beach.  The water was lovely and warm and full of little fish.  Sarah and Stephen were bored in no time but I really enjoyed it.

Was quite surprised that it was feeling so hot next to the coast, had expected a slightly fresher feel, but not to be.  We grabbed some ice creams and drinks before going to back to the boarding area for the Seascreamer.

There were about 10 other families on board (quite a lot were british!) but there was lots of empty seats and plenty of room to move around.  They took us out into the harbour area first where we were able to look at some of the houses whilst also looking for dolphins.  We did see one briefly quite close to the boat but they didn't seem to want to play!   We gave up with that area and went out into the Gulf.  The boat had 2 900+ horsepower engines = a fast ride!  Great fun.  After a while we spotted some more dolphins so the captain took the boat closer.  There were about 4 or 5 dolphins just swimming around close to the boat.  The captain then told us to stand near the back of the boat and he would create a wake and hope the dolphins would play in it.  Thought at first they weren't going to do anything but then we had dolphins jumping on both sides of the boat.  Fantastic.  What a fab show.  So worth doing.  When the dolphins stopped jumping we went back to the dock.  We had been out about 1hr 20 mins.  We all came off with a smile, and Keith thoroughly enjoyed it despite not liking boats.

Weather was very hot - again! thought we had probably had enough sun this morning so we grabbed some more drinks and drove south along the coast road towards St Pete's so that we could drive across the Sunshine Skyway.  From there we headed for the interstate back to Orlando.

Back at the villa and we had a swim while Sarah phoned Izzy.  After 1hr 20 mins I got Sarah to put the phone down and we went to the local Applebees (Berry Town Centre) for some food.  Came here last week and were very impressed.  Dinner, and service, was again excellent.

Another great day with some lovely memories.  A good couple of days.

(photos also added to day 8 now!)
xx

Day 9 Exam Results and Busch Gardens Full Report!

Sarah was up and about early this morning - too nervous to sleep I think.  Today is GCSE results day.  Grandma and Grandad stayed out our house last night to be able to collect them from school on Sarah's behalf.  We were waiting til it was 7am here (12 noon at home) to give them time to get back from school.  Grandad did a fab job of taking pictures of the sheets that were then uploaded to Dropbox so Sarah was able to see them just before we phoned.  Great results 6 A* and the rest A's.  Well done Sarah! Excellent results!

After we had phoned Grandma we got ready to go to Busch Gardens.  We ate breakfast before we left the villa, last nights cheesecake!!!!

On entering the park our first stop was at the tour centre as I wanted to book us onto the Serengeti Safari tour.  We were booked onto the 11am tour and given directions for where to meet the tour guide.  This left us about half and hour before we needed to be ready.  We wandered in the general direction of tour start and stopped to look at the alligators, otters, tortoises and hippo enclosures. 

There were only 8 of us on our tour, us and 2 couples.  Norman, our guide, took us over to the truck.  We also had a photographer on board with us.  The tour took us up close to some of the animals, impala, black rhino, zebra and off course the giraffes.   One of the giraffes, Cupid, started to follow the truck as soon as we got close to them. We parked up and Norman took a large lettuce and started handing out leaves for us all to feed her.  She was very gentle.  It was a lovely experience.  Even Keith enjoyed it and he's quite nervous of giraffes.

We wanted to do some of the things we hadn't done last week, so our next stop was Walkabout Way.  2 staff members were just coming out with a parrot and an owl which we stopped to look at.

Then it was on to the Kangaroos.  We all loved this last time and we weren't disappointed this time.  Such fun.  Food for them was $5 per small cup which I did think was a bit steep.

From there we headed for Lori's Landing.  Again another old favourite, when we had walked past last week we had noticed that the birds didn't seem hungry so were a bit worried, but we needn't have been, they were keen!  We had great fun in here and lots of laughs, especially at one bird who didn't appear to want to leave Keith!

As we walked past the tiger enclosure, we noticed that there was a female out with 3 cubs.  Sooo cute.

Needed to get out of the heat and sun for a while so went to the dining/theatre in the Timbuktu area and had some lunch.  Also watched the show again here while we ate.

We all rode Sheikra (approx half hour, hot, wait) but only Keith and Sarah did Kumba.

On the way to Montu we stopped to order a photo cd of our Giraffe tour.  Weather was suddenly very hot and humid and there was thunder rumbling.  As we approached Montu we realised we hadn't seen it running recently.  It hadn't, all rides had been suspended because of lightning in the area!  It was 3.15pm and we had hoped to spend an hour or so doing some rides before watching the 4.30 castaway critter show but with the weather looking ominous we decided to call it a day and head towards Clearwater and our hotel.

By the time we got to Clearwater the sky was black and there was loads of lightning.  We didn't actually see any rain until we got almost onto the beach area.  Luckily we got into the hotel just in time - within 10 mins it was hammering down.  Don't think the kids had seen quite soo much rain before. 

We checked in to the hotel (Holiday Inn) and were in for a surprise.  We had booked with Keith's priority club which he gets for staying there for work, so the rooms were free really - we had booked 2 standard 2xqueen rooms.  Sarah and I took room 607a and the boys took 609a.  On opening the door Sarah and I were a bit confused as we had a large room with 2 sofas, and dining table,a kitchenette and bathroom but no beds!  There was a door - not knowing whether I should try it or not I gently opened it to find another room the same size with 2 queen beds and another bathroom.  The boys had the same.  Wow - hit the jackpot.  We had 4 bathrooms, 4 queen beds, 4 tv's and 2 balconies with sea views between us.  We chilled for a bit while the storm passed and Sarah caught up with her friends (free wi-fi!) to chat about exam results.  Keith and I dodged the rain to run to the garage nearby to get some milk - can't have a kitchenette and not use it, even if only for a cup of tea!!

Not sure where to go for dinner, we got back in the car and drove around to see what we could find.  The Kids both fancied pizza but we couldn't find anywhere we liked the look of.  Keith and I had looked at the menu for the restaurant hotel and I knew they served pizza so we ended up back there.  Lovely food, really pleased we went back.  Keith and I also had a free drink courtesy of his priority club membership so we were able to have an alcoholic drink with dinner without having to drive back.

Back up to the rooms and we all sat in the "girls" room for a while before bed time!  Both the kids were well taken with the suites - they couldn't get over it!

Another fab, hot, day.  Shame we had to cut Busch gardens short but we had done nearly everything we wanted to really.


 

Day 9 Exam results and Busch Gardens

Woo hoo, Sarah got her Gcse results this morning. Thank you grandma for collecting them for her.

Just a quick update on today. Will do full report and photos later.

Spent the day at Busch Gardens. Did a fantastic tour this morning, feeding the giraffes. Absolutely brilliant.

We r spending the night at clearwater beach so we can visit the beach area tomorrow.  not done this before with the kids. Was also hoping to watch a lovely sunset but the weather is awful.  Thunder, lightning and torrential rain! Oh well, hopefully by morning the sun will be shining again.

On the up side, omg, we have 2 suites! Booked 2 standard rooms free with keith's points that he has accumulated from work nights away. But we now have 4 bathrooms between us!

Day 8 - Rest day and Cheesecake Factory

Lovely lie in this morning.  Stephen and I surface about 8.30, so I made a cup of tea and took it out to the pool area along with my laptop to sort out two days of blogging!

Sun was out and already feeling hot.  Thank goodness the pool is in shade in the early mornings.

Stephen had a swim - again.  Just after 10 Keith and I went to Publix to get some breakfast - croissants and muffins.  We sat indoors, so much more comfortable temperature wise, and had an easy morning.  I caught up on some clothes washing before we all got in the pool.

We finally left the villa about 4.30 and headed for the Premium Outlet mall.  Hurray, the carparks were a bit quieter.  Parked in the multistory and headed for Nike, Addidas and Reebok.  Bit disappointed Nike don't seem to have the shoes Keith wanted this time.  He and Sarah bought a pair each in Reebok, and Keith also got a t-shirt.  Into Addidas and he got more shirts!  On the way back to the car we passed a drinks machine that sold Fanta Pineapple - not seen that one before but there is now one in our fridge to try tomorrow.  I do love that the Americans seem to have soo many different flavours of  "soda" than we do.

Off to the Cheesecake Factory.  Had an our to wait til we could get a table, so armed with our pager we wandered around the mall for a while, then waited outside to be called.  Food was excellent - and huge!  We only had main course and none of us finished.  Cheesecake to go - four slices now sat in fridge!

Despite the heat again today we have had quite a bit of rain - 3 storms, one straight after breakfast this morning, one before we went shopping and one on the way home this evening.  The weather is definately wetter in August than it is in October but there is still plenty of sunshine and it hasn't interferred with us doing anything - yet!!

Off to Busch Gardens tomorrow then onto the coast overnight.
xx

Day 7 Islands of Adventure

All ready for another day in the parks - Islands of Adventure this time.  As resort guest the Harry Potter Ride - Forbidden Journey and the HP area opens at 8am (1hr early than general admission).  We walk to the park and get there about 8.20 and head straight through to join a queue already 30 mins long.  It actually takes nearer to 50 mins.  Already very warm this morning.  Very clever ride but once will have to do as the queue when we get out is approx 75 mins.

We head instead for Dragon Challenge (used to be Dualling Dragons) and ride both sides of the track (Chinese Fireball and Hungarian Horntail, altho they will always be fire and ice to me!).  This is still a very smooth ride.

Next stop was breakfast - not easy in a theme park so we ended up in Jurassic Park with Sarah and I sharing Chicken strips and fries, and Keith and Stephen shared a Burger and fries.  Off for more rides - Spiderman, Dr Doom (Sarah doesn;t like drop rides so sat this one out!), The Hulk. 

We grabbed some cold drinks and some crisps before sitting to watch the Sinbad show.  Nice to get out of the sun for a while!  From here we went straight to Poseiden's Fury.  We waited about 20 mins for this but at least we were inside in the cool.  The ending of this show always amazes me - very clever, but won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't done it!

The park was very hot now and Sarah, Stephen and I decided to go on Jurassic Park to get a bit of water!! Oh dear, we were offered front row - perhaps not the best choice but we certainly found some water! Loads of it! we were soaked!  Kids decided to carry on with the wet theme and joined the queue for Dudle Do Right's Ripsaw falls (log flume type ride), but after joining there was a delay because of a fault so they decided not to wait. 

We felt we had done most of what we wanted to here so with a quick reride of Spiderman we left the park and headed back to the Studios.  We were hoping to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner so wanted to waste another hour or so before we left for that.

Back in the Studios we did Despicable Me again, this has become one of our favourites, Men in Black - we had let Stephen in on our secret for scoring big, unfortunately he didn't get the big bonus!  We also did The Mummy again.  By now it was 5pm and the sun was still blazing and we were all pretty shattered.  Keith also had been suffering all day with sinus and cold symptons, so after checking all our photos had been added to the card correctly we caught the boat back to the hotel to get the car.

A decision was made to miss the Cheesecake Factory today, we were all so hot, sweaty and tired we felt we wouldn't enjoy it.  We headed back to the villa for a shower and change and went instead to Perkins.

We have had a great couple of days and wouldn't have got so much done without the fast passes.