It was Memorial Day today and we had originally planned to go to Clearwater beach for the day. However none of us were in the mood for a long drive (and if truth be known, I don’t think any of us could cope with much more of Paul’s driving!). Also given the extent of our sunburn, I don’t think I could have coped on the beach today. My shoulders were now starting to peel and they resembled two turtle’s shells. They looked awful. I’ve never been sun burnt so bad in my life.
We all got showered and dressed and went to Sizzlers for breakfast. Generous portions of eggs, crispy bacon, pancakes and rope sausage were consumed (and 2 bowls of yoghurt on top of that for Amelia!) and from there we went to Florida Mall.
We started off in JC Penney but hardly made it through the entrance before Tracy was off like a shot to the shoes. Mum also went off to look at bits and the rest of us were standing around waiting for them getting bored. We decided we’d all split up and meet back at the food court at 12pm. Paul, Amelia and I went off to the Carters children’s department. Oliver decided to stay with his Grandad while Tracy and Mum looked at shoes and handbags.
I Looooove Carters and could have spent a fortune in there. I loved every single outfit in there for Amelia. She had some holiday money left so I bought her five outfits which came to $52.18. At the time I was over the moon with my purchases, but I was gutted when I saw the exact same outfits at Premium outlets for a fraction of the price a few days later.
We had a look around and went in the Disney Store which was AMAZING! They had so many things we can’t get over here and lots of Rapunzel things. I bought a Rapunzel cutlery set, cup and a T-shirt for our Niece whose 2nd birthday it was just before we came away.
Before we came to Florida I found a wicked pair of Sketchers Twinkle Toes online that I wanted to buy Amelia. They had little monkeys on them. We went in the Sketchers store and found the Twinkle toes, but they didn’t have the monkey ones; only cats and cheetahs. A lady came over and kept saying how pretty Amelia was. She was talking to us about England and how long we’d been in Florida for. I asked about the Monkey Twinkle Toes and she said they didn’t do those ones. She was nice but pretty pushy and before we knew it, she was measuring Amelia’s feet. I had no intention of buying any shoes in there as I wanted to look in the outlet stores first. She told us she was a US size 6 and hustled off out the back to find some cat twinkle toes in that size before I could say anything. She came back with a pair and tried them on her and they were cute, but were fur-lined and far too hot in this heat. I didn’t like them. I really wanted the monkey ones since she loves Curious George so much. I told her that we would look around for the monkey ones but would come back for the cat ones if we couldn’t find them. I also tried on a pair of Go Walks which I fell in love with. Again though, I decided to look in the outlet stores first. I didn’t want to spend $54 on myself if I could get them cheaper.
We looked in the Crocs shop and M&M’s World but didn’t buy anything. I noticed as we left there that there was going to be a guest appearance of an M&M at 1pm, so I was hoping to bring Oliver back.
Next we went into Abercrombie and we bought Oliver a T-shirt and then we decided we would head over to the food court to meet the others.
We weren’t there long before the others turned up. Mum and Dad looked like they were enjoying themselves. Dad had bought 2 pairs of Lee jeans and Mum had bought a back massager! I gave Oliver his T-shirt which he loved. None of us were hungry after the Sizzlers breakfast so we just got a drink each from Costa. I had a strawberry cream cooler which was delicious. I’m not sure if they do them in the UK.
We went back to M&M’s World just as a big blue M&M was waiting outside. I thought there would be queues of people, but no one seemed bothered. Oliver went up and had his photo taken with him.
We walked around for second time and waited while Tracy looked at bits and Dad bought the kids a tube of M&M’s each. I’m not really a fan of M&M’s and don’t see the fascination to be honest.
I did think all the tubes of them around the shop were pretty cool though...
We looked around a couple of other shops. Oliver had been going on about a shop called As Seen on TV which he remembered from last time (2009). It amazes me with that boy; he can’t remember to brush his teeth at night but remembers the name of a shop from 3 years ago! So we went to find it. There were some pretty neat things in there. He especially liked this megaphone. If I thought it would have fit in the suitcase on the way home I would have bought it. Paul works as a manager in a little Tesco Express store at home and they don’t have a tannoy system so he has a laugh with all of his staff by making his own announcements, cupping his hands and talking through it! He’s really good at it and has had me in stitches/embarrassment in shops sometimes when he does it randomly. He also does it to Oliver if he’s in his room at home; “Staff announcement, could Oliver please make his way downstairs for dinner, that’s OLIVER, downstairs for dinner. Thank you”. I guess it’s one of those things where you have to be there! But a megaphone in our house would be brilliant and would provide hours of amusement! As Seen on TV is definitely worth a visit if you’re in Florida Mall. It’s basically all the stuff you see on those JML type adverts. Such as Grout Bully, E Z Moves and Butt Lift! LMAO.
We left Florida Mall and thought we would have a quick trip to Premium Outlets on Vineland Avenue to see if we could find Amelia’s Twinkle Toes. I was over the moon when Paul found the last pair. I looked for my Go Walks, but they didn’t have my size in the navy blue ones I wanted.
She loves the flashing lights!
From there we went to Walmart where we spent the next few hours! Paul, Oliver and I had been here before, but none of the others could believe how big it was! Mum was in her element. Can you imagine doing your Friday big shop there every week if you lived there?? It would take forever! I couldn’t get over how cheap some of their produce was too. Corn on the cob was something silly like $25 per cob!
I bought Oliver some Nerf sandals (the same make as Nerf guns), an infant-sized Minnie mouse poncho for Amelia, some Smores goldfish and 2 key rings. I couldn’t get over some of the things in Walmart. Take this “dirty” rice for example!
We all spoke about what we would do for dinner and I suggested going to MK to watch Wishes, but both Mum and Dad both said “ we watched them the other night after Ohana’s... what do we wanna see them again for?” Honestly they just don’t get it. Dad said if we wanted to, Paul and I could go out somewhere and they would look after the kids tonight. So we took them up on the offer.
They all got a pizza, salad and popcorn chicken from the deli for their dinner.
We went back to the villa and Paul and I got changed and we drove to Disney’s Boardwalk; somewhere I had wanted to visit but so far hadn’t got around to it. We parked in the parking lot and walked around the boardwalk heading round to the right, taking photos of the view as we walked. I didn’t take my Canon out with us at all today so my photos aren’t great.
We didn’t go in any of the shops or restaurants as everything looked as though it was closed. We decided we’d walk through to World Showcase and spend time together there, hoping that we might have a better time than the last time we were in Epcot!
As we passed through International Gateway we came across these plant trials which I found really interesting. Paul said I was sad for taking a photo of it. But it might interest some of you Disney bloggers!
I fancied something Italian so we headed over to Italy. However we changed our minds when we saw the prices. It was $16 for a small individual pizza and I pictured it to be the same size as the one I had at Pizza Planet yesterday!
As it was now 8pm, we decided we would walk through to Future World, grab something quick and then catch the monorail to MK and watch Wishes. I can’t believe how far we walked! My legs were killing me. Paul was getting agitated as he was hungry, so we decided to go to the next place we came to for something to eat, which happened to be The Electric Umbrella. It was really quiet in there with only one other family behind us. We went to the counter were served by a guy called Jesus! It must be a popular name in the states because I saw no end of personalised license plates, key rings, etc with Jesus on them. He drew a mouse head around his name on the receipt.
Paul and I both ordered Angus bacon cheeseburgers with fries. He had a coke and I had apple juice. It came to $24.67. It was delicious and I would have paid a lot more for it.
After we finished we ran for the monorail and just made it to MK just in time for the Electrical Parade. We stood in front of the Plaza restaurant at the end of the little tables and chairs right in front of the railings. Perfect view for Wishes; but we couldn’t see the electrical parade very well. What we did see was amazing though! We would definitely have to bring the others down here another night to watch it again.
I was absolutely amazed by the Magic, The Memories and You. It was fantastic! Especially the Buzz Lightyear bit! I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t seen it. But this really is a MUST DO!
And then Wishes started and I was completely captivated by the magic. I could have stayed there and watched it all night. It was perfect.
After Wishes we made our way back to the car... Oh my god, the car! We walked so far I had forgotten all about it still parked at the Boardwalk! I hoped that we wouldn’t get a ticket or be banned from the Boardwalk forever! The exit was pandemonium and we didn’t really know what the quickest way back would be. I certainly couldn’t walk all that way again. I could hardly stand up now. Paul asked a CM and he told us to take a bus. All this time I assumed the Disney bus transportation was just for Disney resort guests, but I learnt something new. It’s the little things like this that really make Disney special.
So we waited a little while for a bus which took us back to the Boardwalk. What a drive! We seemed to be driving for about 40 minutes! I watched a little boy sitting opposite me on his Dad’s lap facing towards us as he kept nodding off and hitting his head on the hand rail.
We made it back to the Boardwalk car park and I showed Paul my acrobatics... I somehow managed to trip over one of those concrete parking space bumpers and fell over! I went completely head over heels, onto my shoulder and scraped my right knee. It was so bizarre and I seemed to go down in slow motion, falling for ages before I hit the ground! I had to laugh to stop myself from crying as it actually really hurt!
We drove back to the villa, showed Mum and Dad my injuries and had a cup of tea before going to bed. Amelia kept crying for me in the night and ended up getting in bed with us. Not that we realised she was there. The bed is so big!
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