The Cheeky Monkey,”what about me?” Florida Trip June 2014 Day 4 Friday 13th June

[pretty71]

DAY 4 FRIDAY JUNE 13TH

So, Friday 13th! Well it was a great day I am glad to report and nothing Friday 13th about it luckily. It started off very very well because if you remember from the previous day, I was having a lie in and Daddy was getting up with Grace. Whoop Whoop

We had a good nights sleep and Grace got in with us at 3am but didn't want to get up until 5am, so off went Grace and Daddy and I snuggled back down...heaven. I heard Nanny get up at the same time so Daddy had back up lol
I had a lovely lie in and I dozed until 6.15, wow, I loved it. It is not often I can settle back down again, but those couple of early mornings had taken their toll and I really made the most of it. We went for another run when I got up and could only manage 1.5 miles as it was a little bit later and much more humid today. My legs felt like lead going round so didn't do the extra half a mile.

We got back and I made a massive fruit salad with melon, strawberries, banana and grapes and we had that in the garden with the coffee I made and some toast and bagels too. It was lovely to be able to sit there and not have to rush or be any where. The weather was lovely and we stopped by the pool catching some sun and pushing Daddy in the pool until 12.30 when the clouds started to push in and we felt the first few spots of rain.

We all got inside and started to hit the showers. Grace had her hair washed, now this is always rather a drama and those of you who where out there at the time in the Magic Kingdom or even further away would probably have heard her screaming, and this is not with delight! I hold her over the bath and Daddy washes, quick as a flash it was over. We got a Tangle Teezer in Target and my goodness what an amazing hairbrush! Straight through all her curls and her many knots with no fuss, I actually couldn't believe it. Daddy was even shocked and he made me get the comb to check it was all done properly and it was! The next thing I know she is sitting on the floor in her bedroom using the hairdryer from her bathroom. This is a revelation as she also does not like hairdryers but we have picture proof to show she did actually enjoy this and was smiling! Wonders will never cease!



Today we have an ADR booked at the House of Blues for 5pm, we went there last year with a coupon from restaurant.com and loved it so much we all wanted to go back. I managed to get another coupon so booked the ADR as soon as we had our flights booked. As it was still only 2pm we decided to pop in to the Vineland Outlets before hand to kill a little time. We headed down there and to be honest it took ages for us to park and you Dibbers were screaming in my ears “park in the multi storey” but had decided to do a sweep around first which I just should not have done and will never do again. We parked in the car park finally and walked across, this is when we realised we were just too hungry and that was why we were all stressed. Nanny and Grandad went to find a drink while we decided we would do a really quick walk round and go! We went in to Calvin Kleins, Levi's and Nike and met up with Nanny and Grandad just by the food court. We decided to go to Downtown Disney and try and push our reservation forward.

We made our way back to the car and I had to take a great guess at whether it was left or right on to the I4 from where we were as I really couldn't remember! I was lucky and took a left, I know I could have gone straight on and not got on the I4 but I am not familiar with that way. I had read all the reports about the nightmare parking at DD, so we immediately made out way round the back and it was absolutely fine, we parked up no problem

It was sooo hot and no more rain thankfully, all that concrete there just makes it so hot though, I am wondering if they will provide some cover to the walk ways as they re model everything as this is really what’s needed! We made it over to HOB's and I went to see if they could seat us early and thank goodness they did, so now we were in and feeling much happier.
We had had a conversation yesterday about our love of being seated in a booth, last year we had no problems as Grace was much smaller but yesterday in Longhorns we did feel cramped so had agreed that we only wanted a booth if they were big ie for 6 people rather than 4. We were asked what we preferred and my husband immediately pipes up with “table please”, well trained...only the booths were massive so the rest of us were like no no a booth please lol. We got a great view over the restaurant and started to dive in to the menu. It took a while until our server came out and sadly this was how the service continued. She did apologise and take our drinks order but at the end of the meal we did decide it had let the meal down slightly and we would probably try somewhere else in DD next time. We were also asked if we were on a disney dining plan, now being the wicked one that I am I didn't say anything at first and I can see everyone is looking completely blank and starting to panic about the questions as I am not saying anything lol, so the server starts to name a few and I then just interject and say we are not but we do have the coupon which I hand over. The others are like what on earth and I just chuckle and explain Anyway, Daddy was driving today so he had a coke, Grandad had whatever number was on his beer list today and got 2x Bud's as it was happy hour and I ended up with two long island iced teas during our visit and Nanny had one too. Grace just had water today.



It was the ladies turn to choose starters today so we got pulled pork sliders as we had had these last year and absolutely LOVED them and voodoo shrimp. To be honest I cannot even remember the voodoo shrimp I have even looked at the menu description and it doesn't jog my memory, so it certainly wasn't awful. The sliders were lovely but this year you only get 2 instead of 3.

For mains Daddy decided to have the salmon, blackened, Grandad had a heat seeker burger and Nanny ordered the fried chicken. When Nanny asked for this the server said “that is a really big meal ma'am” we all had a snigger but Nanny still went with it. Oh my goodness it was absolutely enormous and I am not joking the chicken would actually have fed all of us! I ordered a buffalo chicken salad and it was very scrummy! Everyone enjoyed theirs too, Grace had chicken tenders, luckily the meal was not as big as Nanny's

We had time to kill so some funny face photos were taken




Daddy and Grace went off and came back with a pressed penny from the machine in the corner at the entrance. This sparked the conversation from me about how I knew I could get the map of where the machines are as Grace loved this penny and we decided to try and get some on this trip. We now had the task of trying to save the quarters and pennies in our change for this and not spend it on the toll booths
This became an excellent thing for Grace to do and we collected a few on our trip and look forward to doing more on the next holiday.

It was now pudding time and the menu came back round and Nanny and Grace chose a chocolate mousse, Grace at this time of the meal always finds her way back round to Nanny so she can share...both of them loved it and it was a highlight pudding of the holiday.

The bill came to $91 after our $50 coupon and we added a tip that was not quite 20% this time as the service had not been great, food good though but as I said at the beginning we will try somewhere different next time. I fancy Fultons Crab House myself, unless you have any other offers

We made our way outside and for our evening constitution we walked very slowly just up to the balloon ride browsing the shops as we went. It was still boiling hot so we didn't go any further but made our way back to the car slowly. There was traffic on the I4 as it was 5.30pm but it didn't keep us long. We decided to drop in to the Publix at Champions Gate, we hadn't been in this new one before and we wanted ice cream. I wanted Ben and Jerry's chunky monkey, shelf empty! Not impressed, so after much deliberation we got a big pot of Edy's vanilla and Nanny and Daddy got some chocolate concoction and Grandad got some Haagen Daas rum and raisin. All bases suitably covered and we were back off home to the villa, front door opened no problems, phew, especially with that ice cream lol

Grace of course has a small bowl of ice cream before going to bed, but she was basically screaming for mercy tonight she was so tired so I had no complaints and she was out like a light at 7pm.

Daddy had made a jug of Pimms tonight as I had managed to finally get some mint in Publix this time, he even put fruit in it I had some pretzels with it and he had a cookie? We enjoyed our drink this evening and even managed to stay up until 8.30pm! The latest yet

Thanks for reading and we will see you tomorrow

[KittyBlackDog]

Love the funny face photos another great day again

Well done Grace for drying your hair! We are fans of tangle teezer too

I definitely recommend trying Wolfgang Pucks restaurant which is just a little further down from HOB and also on the left, you would have passed it on your walk . We go everytime (sometimes more than once ) and we've never had a bad meal. We've not done the express one in marketplace but will be trying it on our next visit.

I've also seen loads of really good reviews for Raglan Road if you don't mind having Irish in America lol.

Thanks for sharing your lovely holiday. Looking forward to tomorrow

[Guest]

Lovely pics