I woke up at 4am to the sound of rain and forced myself to go back to sleep, hoping that it would be gone by the morning. Today was to be Oliver's Unbirthday, and a day I had been planning since last year; a day of swimming at Blizzard Beach and dinner at Chef Mickey's in the evening. If there was one day I didn't want rain, It was today.
I woke again at 7am and could still hear the superfluous sound of pattering on palm leaves and the dins as it hit the guttering outside of our room. I went out onto the balcony with my fingers crossed, hoping it was lawnmowers or something else, but my heart sank when I saw the heavy rain through the still-darkness.
We got up, showered and dressed and Daniel, Sam and Sarah came into our room for breakfast of tea, coffee, cereals and toast. We looked at our itinerary and decided that we would just swap day 5 with day 9 which was to be a shopping day. The rain did die down a bit and the kids were playing out on the balcony. I went out with them to take some photos and spotted a turtle in the lake. They all had fun throwing bits of toast for him until I told them to stop in case it attracted alligators! Paul also said that he saw a huge rat behind the bushes out the front the previous night when he went out for a cigarette. No more toast for the turtle girls! This really made me uneasy and I said he should have reported it, but I'm not sure if he ever did.
We all left the villa at about 9:30am. I'm not sure if I mentioned on Day 1 (it's so long since I wrote it and I haven't got time to go back and look so apologies if I'm repeating myself again!), but when I had my package delivery from Carrie, there was a mix up and I received someone else parcel by mistake. It was quickly rectified with a few emails and Carrie told me to leave it at Hospitality House for her to pick up that afternoon, so that was our first port of call this morning.
We managed to find our way Premium outlets on International Drive with the help of the map on Daniel's phone. We'd given up with the Sat Nav at this point. I don't think there were too many wrong turns. If there was, I didn't make a note of them so it can't have been that bad
We visited Disney Character Warehouse where I bought:
A car window decal for Paul (my other car is a monorail) $2.99
A 4x6 wooden photo frame $9.99
A photo album (the same as I bought in 2012) $12.99
and I donated a dollar to the wildlife trust for $1 - how can you say no to those sweet old ladies who work in there?
Total $28.66 incl. tax.
Paul bought a nice coffee mug $5.99 and Oliver got some sour cherry balls for $4.95.
Total with tax: $11.66
Next up was Skechers where we took advantage of the Buy one get one half price offer. We bought
Go walk 2 trainers for me
Twinkletoes Shuffles for Amelia
Lite Dreamz for Amelia
And some Citywalk's for Paul
TOTAL including tax: $155.98
Unfortunately Oliver was at a difficult size (6.5 UK) and they didn't stock it in the boys or mens section! How pants is that? I went in Journeys to see if they had anything for him but there was nothing he liked and I also wanted some Uggs, but they weren't that much cheaper than over here so I ended up leaving them. We looked in a few other places but didn't buy anything. Sam bought a nice handbag, but I think that was about it.
We were getting hungry now go we went back to the car and drove to Mall at Millenia. There was about an hours wait for a table and the kids were getting grouchy, so we decided to get take out cheesecake and have something more substantial to eat at the food court. I was a bit overwhelmed with so many choices and really couldn't decide which one to have, so I said I'd just have a bit of Oliver and Paul's. Oliver had a slice of Oreo Dream Extreme ($7.95) and Paul had a slice of Vanilla Bean ($7.50). We paid and then had to wait on the other side for them to be packaged up to take away. In which time I did what most women do and changed my mind! I ordered a slice of Fresh Strawberry ($7.95).
We waked through the mall towards the food court. The decorations were all up and it looked very festive and twinkly.
We settled on Gourmet Grill to eat.
Paul and I both had bacon cheese burgers, Oliver had a hot dog combo and Amelia had a kids hotdog with extra cheese (sorry, no pics!). Total: $34.06 including tax. It was quite nice. Nothing to write home about, just a typical burger place. My back was in agony though and I was glad of the sit down.
We didn't particularly want to buy anything but Dan and Sam wanted to look for the new Surface in the Microsoft store, so we arranged to meet them outside at 2:30pm. We had a look around Macy's but didn't buy anything. My Mum asked me to get her the big box of Estee Lauder make-up that you get cheap when you buy a fragrance if it was cheaper in Florida than it is in the UK. I couldn't get a signal on my phone to call her so I took some snaps for her to see if she wanted it and we would come back another day if she did. For those of you ladies interested
….
We sat outside on the wall and waited for the others for ages. Paul didn't want to walk down one end of the mall only to come back again, and I was in so much pain now with my back that I was quite happy to do this! I was feeling pretty fed up. The kids had fun running about and actually played nicely together with no arguing which made a pleasant change
With the arrival of Sam and Daniel, we made our way back to OKW and chilled out for a bit. I took some painkillers and unpacked all of our shopping haul…
…and Oliver proceeded to tell us all about the "anaconda" he'd just left in the toilet! Such a disgusting boy! I'm sure you all wanted to know about that
We had tea and a bit of our cheesecakes. It was sooooo nice, but very filling. Oliver and I put the rest of ours in the fridge while Paul polished his off. This was Oliver's…
We got changed and ready to go out. We still had our ADR at Chef Mickey's despite the rest of Oliver's Unbirthday being put on hold. Finally it was time to get out the matching Mickey shirts! Paul had been waiting for this day for months! Lol. Amelia couldn't stop laughing when she realised she was wearing the same as daddy and Oliver and I think Oliver was slightly mortified when he saw Paul come out the bedroom wearing the same shirt. Lol. I don’t think Daniel and Sam saw the funny side though.
We all got in the car and drove to the Transportation and Ticket Centre (TTC) and then caught a smelly resort monorail to the Contemporary. The whole time we were in Disney, the monorails stank of pee. Not sure what it was. I hope they sort it out though!
We checked in at Chef mickeys and was given a pager so we sat down for a bit by the window. I know people rave about the Contemporary, but I just wasn't feeling it. The monorail coming and going every few minutes was really noisy and kind of vibrated in my head if that makes sense. It would put me off of staying there. I'm hoping they have sound-proof rooms otherwise I'd never get any sleep!
We were called after a few minutes and went up and had a memory maker photo taken.
We were then shown to our table and ordered drinks. We were told the characters would be here very soon, so we quickly grabbed some food for the kids and got back to the table just in time for Mickey.
The rest of us each went up and got food from the buffet. There was carved beef and turkey, mashed potatoes, delicious bread rolls, a salad bar where I filled up on shrimp ( I looooove shrimp!), loads of stuff really. I would say it was 'just OK'. Not memorable enough for me to actually remember what else I ate. It was nice enough but I'm not in a hurry to go back. The characters were good though and they all had their chef outfits on. After Mickey came Goofy..
…and then Minnie…
Excellent photography there Paul! Well done!
Next was Donald…
And lastly Pluto…
When we'd finished dinner we all had desserts. I'm pretty sure the kids all had ice cream with lots of toppings. Paul and I just had a few of these...
The two at the back were delicious!
Paul scanned his magic band to pay the bill which would have been $205.00! Thank heavens for the dining plan!
Just as we got up to leave, all the characters came out and started dancing about and twirling their napkins around. The kids loved it (Oliver sat it out
)We made our way out and caught the monorail to Magic Kingdom.
It looked very festive and the castle looked beautiful all lit up. My photos don’t do it justice. I couldn't capture it properly.
The electrical parade was due to start soon, so we got in position outside the gates by the Harmony Barber shop where the floats would come out. Paul asked Daniel if he would mind if the kids watched it with them while we quickly went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as our freebie fast passes from when Splash Mountain broke down were going to expire tonight. Amelia had fallen asleep in her pushchair and slept through whole thing!
Paul and I speed-walked up main street via the Emporium where I bought a hooded top I had my eye on. It was freezing tonight and I had forgotten my cardigan. It didn't really go with the dress I was wearing but at least I was warm!
We went in BTMRR. Just as it did the first little drop I felt something go in my back. I was terrified I was going to end up paralysed or something. I've never had it happen to me before. Despite that though, BTMRR was amazing! A totally different ride experience in the dark. We practically ran back as the parade had started and we wanted to catch some of it, but by the time we got back to the entrance it was over
We retraced our steps back up Main street again, having a few memory maker photos taken on the way.
Me and my boys
Paul got a coffee and two hot chocolates for Oliver and I from main St bakery (aka Starbucks). We were unsure where the Wishes preferred seating was now that they'd changed it to a FP+ attraction. For some reason I thought it had moved. We asked a CM on the bridge to Tomorrowland who didn't have a clue, so we walked back towards the rose garden and asked there and they ushered us in quickly after scanning our bands. They were very official looking I thought, like security guards in dark uniforms and there were loads of them!
The rose garden had a fantastic view, despite the tree being a little obstructive.
Amelia was still fast asleep in her pushchair and didn't even stir when Paul took her out. We all sat on the grass together and it was just so lovely being out of the crowds in our own little secluded area. There were only a handful of other people in there.
Amelia woke up just before Celebrate the Magic started. She really enjoyed it, although she kept saying it was really loud.
And then one of highlights of the holiday happened. As the Wishes music started and the little girl started singing "Starlight, Starbright…", Amelia said to Paul "That's what Mummy sings to me at bedtime". He nearly cried and I did as soon as he told me! It was such a magical moment being there with my family in the rose garden watching my favourite show. I'm not ashamed to admit always cry watching wishes and tonight was no exception (I'm such a loser! Lol)!
Pretty poor on the photo department I'm afraid.
As we were sitting there watching the fireworks, half way through, several people tried to climb the fence into the garden! Now I realised why the official looking CM's were there. One of them went over and moved them along straight away.
Sarah was asleep afterwards and had slept through the whole thing. She and Amelia must have been on a nap rota! We took the shuttle back to the TTC. We arrived at the car park and as I stepped off and put my foot down on the tarmac, my back felt like it was breaking. Like a disc in my spine had slipped again. If I was on my own I would have cried It was the most excruciating pain. I practically tip toed back to the car holding back the tears as it hurt so much to walk.
We got back to the resort, I took some painkillers, got the kids to bed and went straight to bed ourselves.
TOMORROW: A Perfectly Princess Day
