We were all feeling rather depressed as we got up this morning knowing that it was to be our last full day in the sunshine state. We all loved Aquatica on day 5, so the plan was to go back there again today to get our last fix of Roa’s rapids, but unfortunately the weather man informed us that the tropical storm was due to hit at 11am, so that was Aquatica out of the window.
I had in my itinerary that I wanted to go shopping at Joann’s and Michaels (craft shops, much like Hobbycraft, only I’d heard they were a 1000 times better!). We still hadn’t managed to get there, so I suggested it to the others. Only Mum was keen, but we all agreed we would go to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and see what the weather was doing afterwards.
We all got showered and dressed and Mum, Tracy and I started packing a few bits. It’s amazing how much stuff had been strewn all over the villa. Paul went and deflated the pool toys that we bought with us and packed them in an airtight bag and sucked the air out with the hoover. I made sure I zipped up all the suitcases before we went out as I didn’t fancy a cockroach climbing in while we were out and giving us a surprise when we got back to the UK!
We were all ready by 11am and as we went outside to get in the car, we were amazed to find that Dennis was still outside! He had moved onto the pillar now. Amelia was mesmerised.
As we pulled out of Lindfields at 11:11am the sky was black and full of rain.
We went to Cracker Barrel and our server, Smitty, brought us our breakfast. This time I had Momma’s Pancake Breakfast; eggs over easy with sausage patties and buttermilk pancakes and maple syrup on the side. They were delicious, but so filling. I couldn’t finish them all. I really wanted to take some of the maple syrup home but was afraid the glass bottle would smash in my suitcase.
My pancakes
We all had a good fill of breakfast and it came to $63.40 including tax for the seven of us.
We looked around the shop for a while and I cooed over the butterfly dolls again. I wished I could take them all home. And their little tables and chairs. They were so sweet. Mum and Tracy bought a few bits; some sticks of rock and some bits for my Nan I think. There is a lovely English lady who works there. She married an American man and moved over there about 6 years ago I think she said. She gave us directions to Joann’s as the sat nav wouldn’t let us put in an address or zip code. Not very helpful!
The rain was now absolutely lashing it down. We just about saw Joann’s through the rain drenched windscreen and we legged it from the car getting soaked on the way. It had only been raining for 5 or 10 minutes but the car park was like a lake already. We had a good look around. I think Dad, Paul and Oliver were losing the will to live a bit and Amelia was getting grouchy as she didn’t want to sit in the trolley. There were tonnes of lovely fabrics, although I didn’t buy anything as I didn’t have much room at all in our suitcases now. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t much in the way of card making stuff. I have a sizzix eclips machine and was hoping to find some cartridges for it but there were no Sizzix products in there at all.
My mum got a few bits and Tracy got some cupcake cases and decorations and a really cute birdie ‘bag for life’ which I wish I had seen as it was really lovely (yes I like carrier bags. Don’t judge me!).
As we came out I clocked the sketchers store a few doors down and went in to see if they have any go walks. Sadly there were none in my size. Maybe they don’t do midget size shoes in America? Paul’s always teasing me about my tiny size 4 feet. Even Oliver has bigger feet than me!
From there we went to Mall at Millenia. We went in 2009 and really liked it there. However we were sadly disappointed when we got there. The mall now consists of a nail bar, a book store, a cinema, a churro stand, a Ron Jon Surf shop and a shed load of hoarding covering the rest of the closed down shop fronts. That’s it. The recession must have hit it pretty hard. It’s such a shame.
We decided to go back to Florida Mall again to get out of the rain but Mum had a grump on because she wanted to go back to the villa and pack
and Oliver was sulking because he wanted to go back to Japan at Epcot and buy the second in the series of Japanese-style Pokemon books from the shop underneath Teppan Edo with his imaginary money (he didn’t have anything left as he spent all of his money on a wand at the WWOHP and when I gave him $50 at the beginning of the second week he spent it all on Vinylmations, a busch gardens pin and something else I can’t recall). The rain was still torrential so we donned our ponchos and took the walk of shame through Macy’s looking like drowned rats. How embarrassing. I’ve never felt so pitiable in my life! – NOTE: We did take the ponchos off BEFORE walking through the department store. But it still didn’t do much for our street-cred!
Oliver continued whining about Epcot throughout the mall and I couldn’t get it through to him that he’d spent all of his money and that was it. We would not be returning to Epcot as we didn’t have time. He started crying and making a scene in a game shop and I had to walk away. I left him with Mum and in the end she bought him a Lego Harry Potter DSi case which annoyed me as now he’ll think he can turn on the waterworks and get whatever he wants.
Why do grandparents do that?! I got some more money out the cash point as we were running low on spends and we grabbed something to eat from the food courts which induced more moaning as Mum and Oliver didn’t get what they had asked for (they didn’t have any cakes or pastries!). We all got fed up of them moaning so we went back to the villa at 4pm to pack! Dennis was still on the pillar sheltering from the rain.
Non eventful packing took place. I took the last of the clean clothes out of the dryer (no washing for us when we get home!) and squashed the Curious George and several Duffy bears into our cases along with all the Carters clothes, souvenir popcorn buckets and R2D2 snack caddies and enough Vinylmations to open our own store when we got home. Dad and Paul hovered and cleaned everywhere. Oliver played on his DSi and Lego and Amelia watched Doc McStuffin and played with the toy’s from the villa cupboard.
After we’d finished packing, we all showered and washed our hair and got dressed up to go out for dinner for the last time. We arrived at Red Lobster on the 192 at 8pm. I went up to the counter and asked how long it would be for a table and she said it would be between 35-45 minutes. We all felt a bit deflated as we had been looking forward to eating here. Then another server came over and said we could use her table and we were seated straight away.
I’m so sorry I didn’t take any photos tonight as I left my camera at the villa but I can tell you it was one of the best meals of the holiday; Utterly delicious. I had the seaside shrimp trio; Paul had ‘shrimp your way’ with popcorn shrimp and scampi; Oliver had grilled chicken; Amelia had child’s chicken fingers; Mum had Seaport lobster and shrimp; Dad had the Ultimate feast and Tracy had the Island BBQ salmon. We also had onion rings to share as well as rounds of Mojitos and Mango Mai Tai cocktails, soft drinks and tea and coffee afterwards. The bill came to $180. I would definitely come back here again next time without a doubt.
We paid the bill and headed back to the villa at 9:45pm. Dennis was still there!
Now do you remember me saying about the T-shirt I wanted in Downtown Disney with the girl holding the Mickey and Minnie balloons on? Well I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it all holiday and I was determined to get it before we went home. Paul said he would take me to DTD to get it so we rushed down there thinking it closed at 10pm. We got there with only 5 minutes to spare and we still had to walk to the end to find Tren-D. However when we got there, everything was still in full swing and we found out everywhere shut at 11pm, so we took a more leisurely walk there reminiscing about the holiday and how much we wished we could stay for another week or two. There were so many things we wanted to do but had run out of time. We arrived at Tren-D, I grabbed the top I wanted and went to the desk to pay for it. Paul nearly had a heart attack when I handed over the $30 for it. I had the usual ‘happy with my purchase/guilty for spending money on myself’ feeling as we headed over to D-Street to pick up the last two cupcake Vinylmations from the Bakery collection for Tracy. She had given me the money and asked us to pick them up for her.
My top
We then went to World of Disney where I picked up a picture frame and a photo album that I had had on my wish list of things to bring back. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the wooden picture frame I wanted (I had had several cast members searching the shops for me in the Disney parks but we couldn’t find it
) but I got a similar one.
The frame I wanted
The one I got
For anyone interested, the album was $26.95 and the picture frame was $17.95. I have since tracked down the frame I wanted online, but it’s an American site and the shipping costs more than the photo frame!
So with heavy hearts, we took a slow walk back to the car. I was actually close to tears. I so didn’t want to go home tomorrow.
I packed the album and the picture frame in the cases when we got back to the villa and hung my T-shirt up to wear tomorrow. We had a cup of tea and went to bed for what would be our last sleep in Florida in the comfiest bed in the world.
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