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Old 19 Nov 12, 11:01 AM  
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First Trip With Our Princesses April 2012- Day 9 - Busch Gardens

Day 9 - Sunday 15th April - Busch Gardens

So today we were driving to Tampa Bay to visit Busch Gardens. If you've read the entire trippie so far, you may be wondering why we were going all that way when there was absolutely no chance of us setting foot on any of their famous roller coasters

Well, there were two reasons for setting off down the I4 that day. The first was to go back to the place we visited on 9/11 under happier circumstances. That day in September, we had been driving to Busch Gardens in my Dad's hire car when we heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Mat and I hadn't been able to fathom what was going on, but my mum, dad and sister had been to New York a few years before, and had been up the WTC. We carried on to Busch Gardens, heard about the second plane, and on the tram, Americans were discussing the events in New York. They were shocked, and were saying how the president needed to step up and prove himself

Still people didn't really understand what was going on and the park was opening as usual. In the entrance queue, a couple in front of us were listening to a portable radio and one of them announced 'our country's under attack' and they fled the line. We went inside, feeling very unsettled, and made it onto a couple of rides (I can only remember going on Sandstorm.) We found a TV screen near the log flume and caught up with the horrifying developments, that the towers had fallen down. We were just kind of wandering around, not knowing what to do with ourselves and the park was very quiet. An announcement was made before lunch that they had decided to close the park under the circumstances. That day in Florida really did feel like Armageddon, and the powers that be shut down all the theme parks which I believe was for security reasons as President Bush was in Florida that day

Not wishing to make light of that awful day (New York being my favourite city in the world, and having visited the memorial this year, a week later in fact which was unbelievably sad), we wanted to disassociate Busch Gardens with 9/11

Our second reason for trekking to Busch Gardens was much more light hearted... Sesame Street. For those who don't know Busch Gardens or don't have children under 5, they now have a whole children's area of the park with Sesame Street theming. I had also booked us a character meal, 'Lunch with Elmo and Friends,' before we left the UK which I was a little apprehensive about. After all, it was a non-Disney character meal. I was sceptical about Busch's ability to pull it off to anywhere near the kind of standard we are used to from Disney. But we'll get to that in a bit

We must have had breakfast at Beach Club Marketplace, but my notes fail me on that, as well as what time we left. The drive down was fine, Mat had been nervous about driving all that way having only driven in the US for the first time a week ago. Jane (our sat nav) didn't let us down, and I think the only mistake we made was right before we turned into the Busch Gardens car park. The drive down took about an hour and ten minutes I think, and we filled it by listening to the CDs we had made for the car before we left. We had been listening to them ever since we had climbed into the hire car the previous Saturday but I have failed to mention this so far. Our family are big music lovers, and making the CDs was a necessity. We made three, a compilation of the songs we all like to listen to as a family including some Disney classics, songs from Glee (Mat is not so thrilled with these), some 'proper music with guitars' and a couple of decent tracks from the popular music charts. I'm talking Rihanna's 'We Found Love' and the aforementioned 'Dynamite' by Tao Cruz. These two were the anthems of the holiday, along with 'We Are Young' (the Glee version, also on the CDs - much easier on the ear than the original by Fun) and Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used To Know' which Virgin played on repeat before take off and after landing on our flights to and from the UK. I still can't hear any of those four songs without getting misty eyed and feeling a massive sense of longing to be back in Florida. Our holiday CDs were labelled 'Florididdypop 1, 2 and 3.' Nobody is quite sure why

I also decided that the journey down was a good opportunity to touch up my nail polish. I had a beautiful set of fluorescent pink gel nails done for the holiday, and now they were starting to need infilling, I wanted to put the same colour polish over the top to tidy them up. I am rubbish at painting my nails at the best of times, so I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to do it in a moving vehicle. They looked rubbish, I had painted all around the nails as well as actually on the nails, and I didn't lay my hands on any nail polish remover until a few days later when I finally found some in the shop at the Grand Floridian (my trip to Goodings the night before was the only time we set foot in a Florida supermarket)

The area around Busch Gardens is pretty grotty, isn't it? Which was a bit of a shock to the system after spending most of the past seven days on Disney property, with its beautifully manicured lawns and gardens, and well maintained buildings and roads. We entered the park and it was so familiar, down to the staff member wanting you to pose for a family photo before you've even got your bearings. It was hot, so we slathered on the sunscreen and headed in the direction of the Sesame Street Safari of Fun (the kids' area)

We stopped on the way at Gwazi Gilders so the girls could go on. This was a kids only ride and it was the first time Seren and Freya had been on a ride together without mummy and daddy. Seren looked after her little sister during the ride and wanted to hold her hand when they got off







We entered the Sesame Street Safari of Fun and first up was Air Grover, a more tame Goofini-style roller coaster which we all went on. Then the girls went on three rides in quick succession that were just for children and none of them had much of a wait. They went on some dumbo-style Snuffy elephants, then a very cute, little Zoe Monster log flume and then a tiny Big Bird ferris wheel. We were quite enjoying chilling out, watching the girls have fun and taking lots of photos of them







It was time for a break from the rides to watch the Sesame Street show which was really cute. The characters entered the little outdoor theatre from the back, and high-fived and waved at the children which Seren and Freya were really excited about





After the show, Mat took the girls on the big climbing play area thing while I had a mooch in the Sesame Street shop. I finished up quicker than them which was not much of a surprise as they were having loads of fun running and climbing, and the retail therapy was limited in the Sesame Street shop. So I was left hanging around underneath the big rope bridge waiting for my family while trying unsuccessfully to find an inch of shade





When they did finally appear all smiles, the girls wanted to try out the last couple of rides in the area: Elmo's Safari-Go -Round tribal animal carousel and some tiny Count rally cars which both went down very well. Freya also went on the little swing chairs ride that even Seren was too big for









Continued below

Edited at 12:06 PM. Reason: Adding photos
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Old 19 Nov 12, 12:07 PM  
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continued

There was just time to revisit the tiny Zoe Monster log flume (look at the size of that drop... my girls are such daredevils



Then we had to drag the girls away from the water playground as we had no cossies and it was pretty much lunch time

Lunch with Elmo and friends was located in a big marquee area, and everyone had the same check-in time of 12.30 as far as I could make out. The hostess explained that we would meet Bert, Ernie and Cookie Monster at the table, and we would be called as a family to meet Elmo and Big Bird for a photo (which was included in the price.) Seating was canteen style, so we perched on the end of one of the long tables and waited

The organisation of the lunch was not the best. After about ten minutes, a woman with a Madonna headset came out. She kind of talked us through the whole thing, first by opening the buffet. The food selection and presentation was a bit disappointing. We had a tomato pasta, vegetables, salad and bread. The food actually tasted good I thought, but I was the only one of the four of us to eat very much of it. The (annoying) host woman brought out the characters and they did a little dance, and then they started doing the rounds and meeting everyone. We were sat in the far corner and somehow we were last in line to meet the three characters, even though each of them had begun their meet and greets in different places

The first character we met was Ernie, and then the host woman called the characters back up for another song and dance, which was irritating as we had been getting closer to meeting Cookie Monster. Bert, Ernie and Cookie Monster each had a song to perform, spaced out throughout the lunch which I guess the organisers thought was giving us extra entertainment. Personally I would have preferred them to have done away with the songs so guests could meet the characters quicker and be on our way sooner. Eventually we met Cookie Monster, then were called for our Elmo and Big Bird photo which turned out well and they also took pictures on our own camera for us. Going through all the photos of our Sesame Street lunch, Seren has a massive grin in every single one. I think she enjoyed meeting the Sesame Street characters even more than even the Disney Princesses, bless her









We had eaten our dessert by this time (ice cream for the girls, some kind of pie I think for the adults) and were itching to leave, but we were still waiting to meet Bert. We were among the last families to meet him, but it was worth the wait. He was cool, and wanted a photo with Mummy and one with Daddy as well as the girls. We were happy to oblige





Finally we were out of there and decided we were done with Sesame Street for the day. We planned to get on the train at Stanleyville to see some animals. We did get on the train but didn't see many animals, apart from zebras, hippos and some giraffes in the distance. We enjoyed our little ride around the park, especially watching Sheikra over and over again in horror as it holds riders on the precipice 200 feet in the air for that horrible pause of nearly 10 seconds before a massive plummet at a 90 degree angle. That is my idea of hell. Mat and I have just discussed how much it would take to get us on that ride. My price is £20,000 minimum because it would fund a no-expense-spared three week Florida holiday. I wouldn't go near Sheikra for a penny less



We went all the way around the park on the train. It gave us a chance to see the rest of the park and look at some of the rides, like Cheetah Hunt. To be honest, we are a bit 'meh' about Busch Gardens overall. Disney manages to make all the non-Disney parks look shabby and amateur to us in all honesty. Since the roller coasters don't have any appeal and we've put the ghost of 9/11 to bed, if we were to return to Florida in a couple of years the girls would have outgrown Sesame Street, which was the highlight for us, so I don't think we will be returning to Busch Gardens in the near future (unless we suddenly become thrill-seekers)

Having gone all the way around the park on the train, we carried on to Nairobi again so we would be close to the exit. We bought strawberry lollies (like frozen strawberry smoothies with chunks of strawberry in... yummy) and walked to the park exit. We got on the tram, and managed to miss our stop as the driver wasn't very clear in explaining that there were only two stops. So we had to get off at the second stop and walk all the way back to our car. Ggrrrr :angry:

We drove back to Orlando and headed straight for the Grand Floridian as we had a 5.55 pm ADR at Narcoossee's. We had to get changed in the toilets by 1900 Park Fayre. We were now were cutting it a bit fine so rushed to get ready, and then Seren realised her hairband was still in the car. To avoid a meltdown, Mat went back to get it while the girls and I headed out the back in search of Narcoossee's. I knew roughly where we were going, and it didn't take long before we were entering the restaurant

We were seated pretty much straight away, and Mat didn't catch us up until we were at our table, which was just across the aisle from the window overlooking the lake. Our server was Tom, who was one of the best servers we had during our holiday. It transpired during our meal while we were chatting with him that he is a distant relative of Mat's. No really. He had told us that he visited the UK last year, as his mother is Scottish. Mat said his mother is Scottish. Tom said his mother's ancestors were from the Isle of Skye. Mat said his mother's ancestors were from the Isle of Skye. They both simultaneously said 'the MacLeod clan.' Small world. Tom was too professional to initiate swapping email addresses or anything, so there will be no reunion, but Mat's mum was very pleased to hear about it

We had a lovely meal at Narcoossee's. Tom was brilliant with the girls, treating them like proper little people which encouraged them to behave really well and eat all of their meal. They spent much longer colouring here than they generally did at other restaurants during the holiday, which meant Mat and I got to chill a bit more. Tom didn't bring out the chef or even go and speak to him about Seren's allergy because he just knew what she could and couldn't have. He was so knowledgeable, professional and friendly

We did have a minor mishap with the menu when our appetisers arrived. I had ordered lump crab cakes with Florida citrus, Creole-style remoulade and blood orange oil. They were very good, the best crab cakes I had during the holiday. Mat had ordered Creamy Lobster Corn Bisque with poached lobster, sweetcorn and lobster coral. When it arrived, Tom presented it and announced the ingredients which included bacon. The menu hadn't mentioned bacon so Mat told Tom he's vegetarian and didn't realise there was meat in the dish. Tom proved how excellent he is at his job by apologising and politely blaming himself for not informing Mat that there was bacon in the soup when he ordered it. We hadn't told him we were vegetarian, so there had been no particular reason for him to have mentioned it. The problem was with the menu which definitely should have listed bacon in the description of the dish. Anyway, Tom quickly and very apologetically whisked away the offending soup with no fuss, and offered to bring something else. Mat settled for the crab cakes and they arrived very shortly after. The girls had lovely fresh fruit salads for their starters and were very pleased with them

For our entrees, I had Seared Wild Madeira Beach Black Grouper with stir fried vegetables, baby bok choi, water chestnuts, sticky rice and fragrant ginger-soy hijiki broth which was very nice. Mat had a sweet potato ricotta gnocchi. Seren had tomato pasta and Freya had a piece of fish, I think with rice and vegetables. For dessert, I had mango sorbet with pineapple, melon and berries and it was delicious. The fruit was perfectly ripe and so tasty. I had to keep batting Seren's hand away from my plate to defend my melon and berries. The girls hadn't wanted the sickening brownie sundae, s'mores or cupcake from the children's menu, and so if my memory serves me correctly, I think they just asked for vanilla ice cream, which of course was no problem. I also had a glass of wine at Narcoossee's as opposed to my usual cocktail with dinner. I think it was something Californian and red, and it went down very well. We would definitely recommend Narcoossee's (especially if on the deluxe dining plan) and after such a lovely night, we will return

When we got back to the main building at the Grand Floridian, there was a female singer and an accompanying piano player in the lounge bar so we wandered around for a bit soaking up the atmosphere. We wanted to take some photos of the girls on the carpeted grand staircase in the lobby area, as our wedding photographer had taken some shots of us on the stairs and around the lobby after our wedding. It was lovely to recreate the pictures with our children. I will upload the 2001 originals soon (we didn't have a shot with Mrs Potts though)





With full tummies and smiles on our faces, we headed back to the Yacht Club for bed. As usual, the girls were asleep by the time we arrived in the hotel car park

Day 10 is here

Edited at 10:11 PM.
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Old 20 Nov 12, 12:16 AM  
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another good day
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Old 20 Nov 12, 02:16 PM  
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I love how you have recreated your wedding memories with your little princesses, I think I will copy that idea when we have our own, look forward to seeing your originals! I had some photos on the staircase with my bridesmaids and family ... happy memories! We also loved Narcoossees, coudl you see the fireworks through the window but minus the noise for the girls? xxx
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Old 20 Nov 12, 03:35 PM  
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Originally Posted by lady emz View Post
I love how you have recreated your wedding memories with your little princesses, I think I will copy that idea when we have our own, look forward to seeing your originals! I had some photos on the staircase with my bridesmaids and family ... happy memories! We also loved Narcoossees, coudl you see the fireworks through the window but minus the noise for the girls? xxx
Thanks, will sort out those originals very soon. Happy memories indeed, how funny that you had photos taken on the stairs too. I bet on any given day, you can wander past and find a bride sprawled out on the staircase

We were done too early at Narcoossee's for the fireworks, but stay tuned as we do finally get to watch fireworks when we visit California Grill (sorry for the spoiler)
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Old 20 Nov 12, 03:37 PM  
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Also forgot to say, lady emz, that I must get stuck into your trippies. Hoping to see some wedding photos...

Michelle x
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Old 26 Nov 12, 11:48 PM  
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We also had Tom serving us at Narcoossees in August and have to agree he was excellent - in fact, we had a second visit (obviously we had free DDP! ) and we were askd if we would like to have Tom serve us again; a no brainer!
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Old 30 Mar 13, 03:47 AM  
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Another great day
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Old 30 Mar 13, 04:50 PM  
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Originally Posted by tonymc View Post
We also had Tom serving us at Narcoossees in August and have to agree he was excellent - in fact, we had a second visit (obviously we had free DDP! ) and we were askd if we would like to have Tom serve us again; a no brainer!
Oops sorry, tonymc, didn't see your reply. Glad you were served by Tom on both your visits to Narcoossee's, he really was great (although I'm probably biased because he's a relative ) Fingers crossed we'll see him again next year

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Another great day
Thanks Sarah
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