Day 14 ~ Last Minute Shopping ~

Well today will most likely be a boring read for most people as there are only one or two photos and not really that much to report.

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

The photo album I bought

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.

Day 13 ~ Busch Gardens

We woke up at 7am this morning and all got showered and dressed ready for a day at Busch Gardens. We decided to do the all day dining plan as we had done in 2009 and worked out quite well. So we skipped breakfast hoping to have our fill when we got there.

With the sat nav plugged in and my fingers tugging the wire over to the left to get it to turn on, it directed us there with more or less no problem. When we went in 2009 we must have taken a different route as it was all little back roads and we saw a bit more of Florida “behind the scenes” if you like. But today it was just one straight road along the I4 and I75. The traffic getting on to the I4 this morning was a nightmare. It was obviously rush hour as we were sitting on the slip road (or ‘ramp’) for ages.

The drive was pretty boring, but didn’t take too long. Just over an hour I think. The sat nav took us right into the service entrance when we arrived which took us on a slight detour into the slums of Tampa, but we turned around and found the entrance soon enough. We arrived just after 10am.

We got on a little tram to the entrance. It was REALLY hot today. Stifling actually. As we went through bag check the lady made me take the straw off of a carton of juice that I had brought with us for Amelia, as apparently they’re a danger to the animals. She threw it in a bin and let us through.

We bought All Day Dining tickets from a row of machines which came to $211.80 with tax for the 6 of us (Amelia was free). Then I went to the main ticketing booth to purchase tickets for the Serengeti Safari. Mum, Dad and Tracy weren’t bothered about doing it and Amelia was too young. So I just got tickets for Paul, Oliver and I. I had my pick of what time we wanted to have our tour and I chose 11:45am. Oliver was classed as an adult so I paid the $33.95 each, plus tax and it came to $108.99.

I met up with the others and we went to find somewhere to have breakfast. I found it a little annoying that you couldn’t just get a drink from one of the counter service places. We had to go to one of the restaurants listed on the tickets. We decided upon Zagore Cafe.

There was an American woman in the queue, probably in her mid 20’s and I could see her looking at me out the corner of my eye. She was really pretty. She started talking to me, saying how she thought Amelia was gorgeous and kept hinting to her boyfriend that she wanted a little girl even more now! Her accent was lovely. She then told me that she loved my accent and could listen to me talk all day! I said the same to her and we laughed and spoke for a while until it was our turn to order.

There were no breakfast items on the menu as it had finished at 10am. I didn’t really fancy a slab of cake at 10:45 in the morning, so we all decided on grilled chicken sandwiches and fruit. Still not my preferred breakfast choice but we made the best of it. It was pandemonium in there and somehow we ended up with a spare plate of food where they had given us one extra. I paid a small amount for a child sized refillable cup for Amelia which strangely had a plastic straw in it. Funny that their straws aren’t harmful to animals but mine was! We were given wrist bands which allowed us to get food all day.

We found a table outside and tucked in. We watched as a white ibis bird flew over the top of the table next to ours and stole a guy’s burger right off his plate! There were birds everywhere which was a bit off putting. Someone came out and got the bloke another burger. I’m guessing this is a problem they have to deal with a lot.
We finished up and realised we had better get moving as it was 11:25am now and we had to be at the Serengeti Safari tent for 11:45am. Mum, Dad and Tracy said they would meet us back here afterwards and we ran to find where we had to go. We all went one way, following Paul and then I asked him to go back and get the map off the table (typical man thinking he would get us there without a map when he had no idea where we were going. Oliver chased after him, leaving me standing there waiting for what seemed like an eternity. I was down some steps and couldn’t see where they were. I decided to go back to the table to see what the hold -up was to find they were marching off in the other direction. They hadn’t even bothered to tell me it was that way! I was so annoyed.
It was really hot and I was getting more and more annoyed as we followed Paul on a wild goose chase. Seriously... what is wrong with that man’s sense of direction?? I decided to take charge and used my woman’s intuition to guide us in the right direction. Plus the signs helped which Paul had failed to notice! We arrived in the nick of time and were taken behind the building to a little covered area with comfy armchairs. We were asked to wait while more people arrived. I was still annoyed with Paul, plus hot and bothered and sat in silence while we waited, being stubborn!

We were called over and some people put their things in lockers before we were taken to our truck. It was quite bumpy as we started off and our guide ran through the safety instructions. She was brilliant and told us so many things about animals. We stopped and looked at the zebras, wildebeest, rhinos and gazelles and I quickly took some photos before we started off again It was so bumpy that it was impossible to take photos on the move.

As our truck drove around the safari we saw the train go past and I thought to myself ‘wouldn’t it be funny if Mum, Dad, Tracy and Amelia were on there?’ Just as I thought it we saw a load of people waving and there they were!!

Soon enough we arrived at the giraffes and a couple wondered over to us. I know it’s stating the obvious, but I couldn’t get over how tall they were!

We were taught some interesting facts about them and were allowed to stroke them, just not on their face which was understandable. I know I wouldn’t like a stranger patting my face!

They felt a bit like a short haired dog, like a staffy, only much more solid! And their fur moulted tiny little hairs as we stroked it.

Then we were allowed to feed them and were given some lettuce leaves to give to them. We had to hold it over our heads so they could take it out of our hands.

Excuse the next couple of photos; the sun was in my eyes and I look like a Chinese pumpkin in the first one and my hair’s a state in the second one. It was so hot I couldn’t be bothered to do anything with it, so just scraped it back in a pony tail.

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There was a photographer on the truck with us who had been taking pictures of everyone on the way round. We all had individual photos taken whilst feeding the giraffes too. When all the lettuce was gone, the giraffes wandered off and our truck continued round, taking in the sights of the gazelles and ostriches before heading back to the mainland. The tour lasted about 30 minutes.

We were given some hand sanitizer to use afterwards, but this just made the little moulted giraffe hairs stick to your hands, so not that effective!

The Serengeti Safari was brilliant and I highly recommend it.

 

When we were back in the park we went to have a look at the photos. There were a couple of nice ones, but I looked a mess in most of them and the price was extortionate. We decided that I had got enough photos on my camera, so we didn’t buy their ones.

The next hour or so was spent searching for the others. They were nowhere to be found and I was getting more and more annoyed. We went back to Zagore Cafe twice and they weren’t there. We went back to the safari thinking they might be waiting for us to come off, but no such luck. After wondering aimlessly in the 90° heat and Paul ranting on about having to wait around for people and missing park time, we went back to Zagore Cafe for a third time to find Mum, Tracy and Amelia sitting at a table. Dad was getting drinks so we went off to get some too.

After we had calmed down and hydrated we went off to see the animals.

Gorillas, hippos, alligators, and this big beastie!

Tracy found a new boyfriend...

And had some cousins for Oliver and Amelia...

Tracy also found a new best friend; a squirrel. It kept walking behind her head as she sat on a bench and took some banana out of her hand. Mum and Dad have a pet hate of squirrels since they have gnawed through the rafters in their loft and have been nesting in their roof for the past 8 years, causing no end of problems. Dad tries to shoot them with Oliver’s Nerf gun in their garden back home (don’t worry, no squirrels have ever been harmed!), in an attempt to make them stay away from the house, but it never works. They dig up my mum’s bulbs and nick bits from the garden to make their nests. This one was pretty cute though and I got a great photo...

Amelia loved looking at the animals. We took her to Woburn Safari park when she was a baby, but other than that, this if the first time she’s been up close to big animals. We didn’t really see any animals at Animal Kingdom.

We headed over to the Cheetah area and saw these beauties. I love their markings...

And then it was time for this!

Mum, Dad and Oliver we too chicken, so just Paul, Tracy and I went on it. We queued for about 20 minutes and decided that Tracy and I would ride in a car together and Paul would go in the one in front. When there was one car of people in front of us, some guy threw up in the one that we would be riding on so we had to wait a further 20 minutes or so for it so be cleaned and sanitised. It was then sent off empty and several more ‘trains’ came through and went off again before we could ride. The group of American lads in front of us offered to swap with us, saying we could go first. I said “Why are you chickening out?” to which they replied “no, we just don’t wanna ride in the barf cart!” We declined their lovely offer and when it was our turn to finally ride, we were lucky enough to get a clean dry one!

Cheetah Hunt was absolutely amazing. When it finished Paul said he was surprised I hadn’t lost my voice from screaming so much. I was actually surprised the sound was coming out of me at the time! It’s just those weightlessness parts that I hate. I was absolutely petrified!

We met the others in the shop afterwards and watched our ride video which was hilarious! It was a bit out of our budget, otherwise we would have bought it.

We were a bit peckish now so Paul, Oliver and I went and got a slice of pizza from Crown Colony Cafe. Everyone else just wanted drinks. It was really nice in there and so quiet! Unfortunately we couldn’t go on the third floor with our wrist bands, but the pizza was delicious. When we got to the bottom of the stairs and Dad saw our pizza, he decided he wanted some too, so went back and got himself a slice. We all sat on the rocks and waited for him.

 When we had finished eating/drinking, Mum, Dad ,Tracy and Oliver went to find the congo river rapids via the skyride while Paul and I took Amelia by foot through Timbuktu to see the elephants and some more animals.

Look at the size of this bad boy’s teeth!

She loved the meerkats

But the elephants were definitely her favourite

We eventually found the others in the tiger bit in Jungala. There were some beautiful white tigers; one of which came right up to the glass. I really wish it had of been clean so the photos would have come out better!

Dad and Tracy took Oliver on the Stanley Falls Flume and Mum said she would wait outside Zambia Smokehouse as her blisters were killing her. We all agreed to meet back there at 5:30pm. Paul and I took Amelia to see the birds at Lory Landing. I had remembered this from 2009 and have some brilliant pictures of Oliver with some birds on his shoulder shortly before he freaked out! Unfortunately the nectar hut wasn’t open and it was only us and another 2 couples in there. The birds were still quite tame though and Amelia had one on her arm for a few seconds before it flew off. That was it then. She was determined to get another one on her and kept going up to them all and patting her arms.

There were some really big birds walking around and a little boy kept chasing it and roaring at it. The poor thing didn’t know what to do and looked absolutely petrified. His parents did nothing though.
I loved this bird but Paul thought it was ugly!

We came out of there and had a bit more time, so we walked over to the Sesame Street Safari of fun area. We just managed to catch the end of A is for Africa so Amelia got to see Elmo and Zoe

We made our way back and got to Mum at exactly the same time as Dad, Tracy and Oliver at 5:20pm. The park closed at 6pm tonight so we thought we’d grab a quick bite to eat at Zambia Smokehouse before they closed. We were just in time. I had a really bad headache so didn’t really fancy anything (probably heat exhaustion. It was so hot today), but I picked up some chicken salad wraps to share with Amelia. Everyone else had BBQ chicken and ribs which looked delicious, but I just couldn’t face it.

The second we went outside and sat down at a table, they shut the shutters so we couldn’t even go back in for napkins or condiments which was annoying. I had a bite out of one wrap but it made me feel worse. I took some paracetamol and had some more apple juice to drink.

There was this huge woman emptying the bins with a face that looked like she was sucking dog wee off of stinging nettles (putting it politely) and shorts so tight she had a permanent ‘hungry bum’ (A.K.A a wedgy!) and she kept looking over at us, huffing and tutting. The park didn’t close until 6pm. We still had half an hour, we had paid for our food and our ticket and there was no way we were going to rush our meals just so she could wipe our table down before her shift finished. So we took our time eating until she gave up and went to clean another area.
When Paul was finished eating, he said he really wanted to go and ride SheiKra so he went and got in line and we said we’d meet him at the ride exit afterwards. I had no intention of going on, headache or no headache!

He said it was a walk on and really enjoyed it!

When we headed to the exit it was chaos with everyone waiting to get on a tram back to the car cark. I couldn’t believe it when they said there would only be one more tram after the next one!
I know there’s no comparison between Disney and the other parks, but really, Busch Gardens had been such a let-down today. We all agreed it had gone downhill since our last visit. It was dirty in places, the service was extremely poor, the staff were rude and just couldn’t be bothered and now the trams... I don’t think we will be in a hurry to go back again.

Luckily we did manage to get on a tram, so no walking back to the car park in the heat for us. I felt sorry for the people who had to though.

We took the long drive ‘home’ and popped into Walgreens on the way for some nappies. Whilst browsing all the things we can’t get back at home (as you do), I ran across this which I found hilarious!

We picked up some donut holes and Maria biscuits too. These were supposed to be as close to Rich Tea as you could get, but were sadly much worse. When we got back to the villa, we tried them out with a brew and discovered they weren’t even ‘one dips’. These were barely even a half dip!

I got Amelia ready for bed and to sleep, then Dad ,Tracy Paul and I nipped into Premium Outlets to see if they had gotten my Sketchers Go Walks in on their delivery. Unfortunately they were not to be as they still didn’t have my size. I nipped into Carters and bought another little T-shirt for Amelia, and the Disney Character Warehouse for some sweets for Oliver’s friends back home. I picked up 3 bags of Goofy’s gummy candy thinking they would be cheaper in here than in the Disney parks. There was no price on them. I was shocked when they came to $14.95! I should have got them a bag of goldfish smores instead!

Oh, and I also bought myself a Disney dress! I had been looking at it in all the Disney Clothing shops in the parks since we arrived but it was quite expensive so I never bought it. But now the exact same dress was in here for $9.99 (or 2 for $15!). Unfortunately they only had size XL which was too big for me, but I bought it anyway with the view of altering it when I got home (It’s now stuck in my wardrobe and I haven’t touched it!). We also saw some HUGE Duffy bears reduced from about $70 down to $20. I wished I had a suitcase big enough to take him home. He was so lovely. The Character Warehouse is well worth a look. There were so many new things in here that were not in there 2 days previously. Lots of bargains t be had!

When we arrived back home we got the stuff in from the car and I was sitting in the living room when something on the front door caught my eye. It was outside on the glass at the top and looked like a humongous spider. I told Dad who opened the door slowly to see what it was and I was astonished to see such a massive grasshopper! It had the most beautiful markings. I’ve never seen anything like it!

Just to give you an idea of its size against Paul’s hand...

Tracy named him Dennis (Dennis Hopper!).

We watched a bit of TV and the weather. The forecast for tomorrow didn’t look too good as a tropical storm was due to hit. There had been a lot of damage caused in Oklahoma by hail stones the size of baseballs and it was moving over the country in Florida’s direction. Just what we needed; especially as we planned on going to Aquatica again tomorrow. We decided to hit the hay and would decide what to do in the morning.