Disney & Beyond July 2011 Day 17 US, IoA & Rotonda

[Ariel's Mum]

11 July

CAST

Me - Lynn 46 - holiday organiser. Looking forward to everything especially time together;
DH - Philip 48 - leaves it all to me. Looking forward to spending time at the Gulf coast;
DS - Luke 12 - loves everything about Florida. Looking forward most to Sea World;
DD - Rachel 11 - takes forever to get moving. Looking forward most to getting there and being warm.



Today we were up at 6.40 as we wanted to take advantage of early entry to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Here are a few pictures of our hotel room:

 





Luke had decided not to ride Forbidden Journey as it made him feel queasy last year. I’m not riding either. We tell Philip and Rachel to power walk ahead of us whilst we take a more leisurely stroll along the river to Islands of Adventure:



We were in the park by 7.30am. Luke and I sat on a bench people watching. The Forbidden Journey queue initially showed a 30 minute wait time. That changed to 45 minutes but we seemed to wait an age for them coming off. When they eventually appeared they told us that the ride had broken down whilst they were on it. They were offered to ride again but Rachel said no as she felt a bit queasy.

She and Luke decided to ride the hippogriff again. I am seriously amazed by how much they still love this ride. It might be because it was the first coaster that they rode alone but even at 11 and 13 they never seem to tire of it. Next up Luke and Philip rode Dragon’s Challenge. This was Luke’s first time on Dragon’s Challenge and he came off complaining of a headache. He said it was a funny headache. I decided we needed a break.

We went to Croissant Moon bakery. The kids each had plain croissants, Philip and I had cheese egg and ham croissants. They were delicious. Rachel then went and bought her and Luke a muffin each.

After breakfast we headed to the Hulk. Now riding this would be a big deal for Luke. He has wanted to do this for years and last year he came close but changed his mind at the last minute. This year he was determined. Rachel and I sat at the side watching for them. Rachel was convinced she saw them, I wasn’t so sure but videod just in case. A few minutes later we saw Luke and Philip walking towards us. Luke was pretending to look sad and he told me he had chickened out of riding. But his smile shone through.

As Luke wanted to ride the Hulk again we agreed to split up. The boys were going to ride the Hulk again then check us out of the hotel. Rachel and I were heading off to Universal Studios. We agreed to meet them at 12.

Once in Universal we went to see Shrek. It was good as always, we then stopped for a quick Starbucks. We then went to see the Beetlejuice show. This was new to us and we really enjoyed it.





After Beetlejuice we met up with Philip and Luke at Men In Black. We rode again and this time Rachel won. This is a first for Rachel so she was over the moon. After Men In Black Luke and Rachel decided that they had had enough so we decided to head back to the Hard Rock Hotel. I took some last minute pictures including some in the ladies restroom while Luke and Rachel bought some drinks and sweets for the car journey:









Safely strapped in the car we head off on our way to Rotonda for the next part of our holiday.

Around 40 minutes into the journey we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch.





Philip had pecan pancakes, Luke had a country ham sandwich, Rachel had chicken and dumplings and I had a BLT sandwich. The food was really good although Rachel complained that there wasn’t enough chicken in her meal.

Suitably filled we then continued our journey to Rotonda. I had promised Philip I would stay awake but promptly dozed off as did the kids. I woke after about half an hour though so it wasn’t too bad Once in Rotonda we easily collected the key from the management agent’s office and then located our villa.

The villa was older than Denise C’s villa and not as well kept but it was still really nice. We all feel in love with the view across a small lake onto one of the tee’s at the neighbouring golf course.



Rachel and I left the boys to unpack and went to the nearby Winn Dixie for some groceries and drink.

On our return we played in the pool, relaxed in the hot tub and took lots of pictures.





Before bed we started our new series of the Closer. We only managed one episode before we headed to bed.

[Milner]

Another great read. We loved WWHOP when we went for the first time this year.