The 3 amigos christmas caper. day 9

[purple myra]

Day 9
Monday December 31st

We had a bit of a long lie this morning as we knew it would be a late night. We had breakfast at Friendly’s (again) served by the lovely Crystal (again)…..someone was very very happy this morning! We got the I-ride up to Prime outlets at the top of International Drive, little did we know that it is a bit of a hike from the trolley stop to the actual outlets. We went into Saks and promptly left again….OMG! You then have to walk round the building site or wait on the free trolley…we never saw it going in either direction…we walked. Our main reason for being here was to get a Timberlands cleaning kit for one of Jakes friends? While Jake and Billy were trying on every boot in the shop…Jake can take 3 different sizes depending on the weather!….a local man gave me a postcard with a 20% discount code on it. He said he wouldn’t be buying anything and we could use it! Ended up with Jake getting 2 pairs of boots for himself and a cleaning kit for himself and one for his friend, Billy also got a pair of boots and a cleaning kit, I got nothing! when I handed the postcard to the server and explained where I got it he was more than happy to apply the discount to our purchases! We looked in the Fossil outlet and I saw 2 or 3 watches a really liked…but didn’t love enough to buy! We then came across the Columbia outlet, Jake and Billy were ecstatic…more ugly big boots and stuff! This time they got a pair each….I got nothing!


The Christmas decorations


It had been sort of drizzling on and off all morning but we had been very lucky as it was always off when we were out and about. We got fed at the food court which was fantastic. Billy just had a smoothie, Jake had a steak fajitas sandwich and I had chicken tenders with grandma’s special sauce…don’t know who grandma is but her sauce was delish! Suitably stuffed we decide there is nothing else for us here so we will head for Festival Bay…
Please note Jake 3 pairs of boots, Billy 2 pairs of boots, Myra 0, nil, zilch, nothing!


We wait at the I-ride stop for a few minutes before realising we can actually see Festival Bay from where we are standing, so we cut through a car park…where Billy finds an abandoned bed, bath and beyond trolley and decides to utilise it…


and Jake nips into a perfume outlet to get his mum some perfume, really surprised to find they sell Clinique Aromatics, so he buys it and then has a browse in a motorbike shop and we admire the ‘farting’ inflatable bike outside



then we take our lives in our hands and cross the road!
We head for Outdoor World for the obligatory picture under the sign at the door


But they don’t want to go in…they are saving it for another day as they need a good ‘few’ hours to have a proper look round, we just browse around Festival Bay instead and I buy a pair of long black jeans for wearing later that night as its starting to get a bit cooler and we reckon it will be pretty cold out on Bay Lake at midnight. We decide to have a quick drink in the Cricketers Arms before heading back to the hotel….nothing quick about it though, the service is awful and I watched with some amusement a waiter bringing out a huge tray of food and not being able to find his customers….they had obviously got fed up waiting and left. We leave too without waiting to finish our drinks.
As it was a bit miserable (weather wise) and I was feeling a wee bit under the weather, it is decided to reschedule SeaWorld and the Makahiki Luau for Thursday night and go back to the hotel for a lie down instead.
We are all up, showered and dressed again for 6pm and we go to the olive garden ( still our favourite) for dinner. We are seated after 30minutes and its superb as usual, we share salad and bread and have a 3 portion combo started, then Jake has the mixed grill, Billy has Tuscan chicken and I have chicken rollatini. I still feel a bit crap, its been a horrible year and I think Hogmanay does that to you…so no food pics I‘m afraid. We catch the I-ride at 8.30pm and can’t believe its totally empty….when we get to our stop at SeaWorld we see the lynx bus just pulling away so we have a bit of a wait for the next one…and again we are the only people on it apart from 2 other women. It turns out to be the longest , slowest journey to TTC ever and I’m panicking as we are supposed to meet Alison (alijolly) at 11.20pm for the fireworks cruise ( silly me for thinking nearly 3 hours would be plenty of time to make a 45minute journey in! ). we run off the bus and are just getting onto the resort monorail when Alison phones, she is understandably concerned about our whereabouts as it is now 11pm, we get to the Contemporary after what seems like an eternity on the monorail and as we are dashing about like the keystone cops trying to find out where the marina is Alison phones again saying the boat driver/skipper wants to go now! Eek! We continue our breathless conversation till at last she can see us running down the stairs towards her….a very pretty sight I’m sure!

[purple myra]

Not a great start to our mini Dibb meet and I was totally mortified for holding everyone up. After a quick round of introductions we set sail. I felt quite disappointed, I don’t know if it would have been different if I’d been feeling better, if we hadn’t had to rush about so much, if we hadn’t already seen the sights from the lake when we had our wee cruise round about on the Saturday when we did our fishing trip…or what it was. I couldn’t get into it at all. The boat was decorated and there were snacks and drinks and we had party hats, I had a lovely tiara and the boys had top hats, we also had the music piped in. the scene was certainly set for a fab trip and we are grateful to Alison for organising it and allowing us to join her and her family. My pictures of the fireworks are terrible, but I did manage to capture quite a bit on video and that worked out much better




After being returned to the marina at the Contemporary, we decided that the TTC would be heaving so we would go into Magic Kingdom as I still didn’t have any pictures of the castle lit up……thousands and thousands of people surging out of Magic Kingdom…..the 3 Amigos making a valiant effort to get INTO the Magic Kingdom! We managed to get up Main Street against the tide and got a few photo pass pictures taken as well as a few of our own




We watched the show that was taking place in front of the Castle, all the popular party songs. The Time Warp etc and watched the lights on the castle change with the music, it was magical. By 1.30 we decided to try and head home. Main Street was just as crowded as when we came in and it was a slow process getting out. We decided to head for the ferry, and stood in very cramped conditions watching 3 or 4 ferries leave without us. Finally we got to the TTC and headed straight for the taxi’s, they all had their taxi meters covered up and we were quoted a fixed price of $50 to take us home due to the traffic congestion ( it is now 3am ) we accept this offer and jump in…after all I have previously paid $44 for a taxi when my driver took me a ‘shortcut’ on Boxing day! We are back at the hotel, I have some of my cough medicine and I’m tucked in for 4am…

[Guest]

Sounds like it wasn't your day Myra. Well done for keepting going to the early hours. Hope your feeling better after some sleep.

[Guest]

Have been wondering when we would get the next report really enjoying reading them thanks for sharing

[ameliaUK]

Not your best day Myra,Better to come i'm sure ,looking forward to hearing more

[highlander447]

Started off well,but sounds like you where under the weather hope it clears up after a good nights sleep

[Jaydee]

Wow a long day Myra, hope you felt better the next morning x

[alijolly]

It was weird to read your trip report Myra, because I felt very similarly to you. I had also been feeling a bit under the weather and we had cancelled our dinner reservations whilst I went back to bed for a couple of hours and I thought that is maybe why I felt a little underwhelmed by it all . I think it was coming away from where everything was very partyfied into such a quiet position on the lake, that felt a bit odd. Your pictures are much better than mine though!

We thought about going over to MK but, whilst we were deciding, Milly fell asleep sitting on the kerb so we headed back to the Boardwalk.

I hope you didn't feel I was hassling you, I checked my paperwork when I got back which definitely said 11.20 so I don't know why the driver was so insistant we should leave earlier

[purple myra]

Originally Posted by alijolly

It was weird to read your trip report Myra, because I felt very similarly to you. I had also been feeling a bit under the weather and we had cancelled our dinner reservations whilst I went back to bed for a couple of hours and I thought that is maybe why I felt a little underwhelmed by it all . I think it was coming away from where everything was very partyfied into such a quiet position on the lake, that felt a bit odd. Your pictures are much better than mine though!

We thought about going over to MK but, whilst we were deciding, Milly fell asleep sitting on the kerb so we headed back to the Boardwalk.

I hope you didn't feel I was hassling you, I checked my paperwork when I got back which definitely said 11.20 so I don't know why the driver was so insistant we should leave earlier

See more...

OMG...no!
i definitely didn't feel hassled by you at all...i was just so miffed at the traffic hold ups etc.

it was really nice to meet you all. hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay

[Carol_G]

Hi Hun

Sorry you had a bad day - i hate when that hapens at 'The World' as you feel as your supposed to be having fun 24/7 and never have a bad day or anything but it happens.

Im sorry it happened to you on your Cruise Night. I hope you felt better soon hun.

Glad your posting these again

xx