theDIBB - Here Now! first WDW family holiday - Day 17 Mall at Millenia and Cheesecake Factory

Short day today folks!

Woke up this morning at 7am to dark skies, thunder, lightning and torrential rain. The forecast said it would be like this for the majority of the day so that was Kierans waterpark out of the window.

The forecast for the coming few days looked more promising, so we decided to get our final shopping mall on our list done while it is raining, in the hope our remaining days can be park days. We whatsappd the Eastons to let them know we were planning Mall at Millenia and the cheesecake factory and they agreed that suited them too. We were leaving at different times and both families wanted to drop into Premium Vineland outlets on the way so we agreed to meet at the Cheesecake Factory around 3 hoping for a table at 4.

We had a lazy morning and I caught up with a pretty long TR for the previous day. Left the villa at 12 and arrived at Premium Outlets at 12:30. The outlets were mobbed due to the weather and although we parked in the same multi-storey we have the last twice, we drove round and round for a space. First stop was Nike as we had decided to buy the kids more trainers in a bigger size, and I fancied a pair of bright trainers. After a bit of hunting, and a lot of trying on, we settled on a pair each. The pink ones I got in the centre said $54.99 on most boxes, but on my gigantic size 11s (UK8.5) it had a ticket saying $54.99 down to £37.99. When I got to the counter they scanned at $54.99 and I pointed out the ticket. She said that was wrong but she would honour it. Result!

Our next stop was North Face, I was looking for a warm winter jacket if there were any bargains. Another result! I bagged a cracking goose down jacket with hood etc reduced from $189.99 to $99.99. With todays rate that's £70. Happy Helen!

We made the mistake of letting Hannah go into Forever 21. Half an hour later we were in the queue and starting to be late for leaving to meet the Eastons., Whatsappd them to let them know and Andrew replied it was fine. They had requested the table for 4pm anyway.

By the time we were leaving it was sunny and bright again. Had I known this I would have park a water park bag and ditched the Mall! Lesson learned. Water Park bag in the boot from now on.

Got to the Mall at Millenia at 3.30pm, right to the Cheesecake factory and waited for our table. We were called in at 4pm and seated at 4:05pm. Ive never seen so much choice on a menu, Its pages and pages long and took us ages to chose. The kids menu is simple and they thankfully came and took the kids order with the drinks order, then they took our order when they delivered the drinks. The food in here was delicious. There wasn't a dud dish to be had. Kevin and Andrew both had chicken and Shrimp jambalaya, Dianne had a chorizo omelette, I had a combination herbed salmon and chicken madeira, Kieran had chicken strips and fries, Matthew had Texas sliders and fries, Emma had pasta bolognese (missed her picture), Evan and Hannah both had kids chicken quesadillas, which were absolutely delicious and not spicy.

chicken quesedillas

chicken strips & fries

Chicken and shrimp jambalaya

salmon and chicken madeira combo

chorizo omelete

The service was really quite slow compared to other places we've been. Im glad we werent moving to a booking anywhere or I would have been a bit stressed. As it was, we had nothing else planned, the Merlot was respectable, and I was relaxed.

dulche de leche

cookie dough

red velvet

the Tuxedo

We all ordered cheesecake (of course). Some to eat, some to go. Kevin and I shared Dulche De Leche and ordered white chocolate and raspberry truffle to go (its currently calling me from the fridge). Dianne and Emma shared red velvet and boxed the rest to go, Hannah had Oreo, Evan had Cookie dough, Matthew and Andrew shared the Tuxedo. ALL lovely (there was a lot of cross table tasting going on)

We felt the bill was pretty respectable for the vast amount of food we had and there wasn't a complaint among us, other than Jimmy the waiter being a bit slow.

We moved from here to Abercrombie and Fitch where Kevin bought a cashmere jumper, a polo shirt and 3 t-shirts for $95 but 'you're no taking pictures of my clothes!' so no pics. He doesn't get that people do want to see this stuff and thinks Im a nutter!

On to Bath and Body works where I bought another 10 hand sanitisers as planned (am loving these now!) and a few mini body lotions. I did try the foaming hand washes Pooliejoolie, and loved them, but hubby is freaking out at luggage space so I may return for those when we know what the suitcases look like towards the end of this week!

We had toyed with dropping into Hollywood Studios but the kids just wanted to go home, enjoy some pool time with the Eastons and chill, so we agreed.

And as I sit here, all 5 kids are splashing about in the pool, and I am sitting here with my hubby and our best friends, around the side of the pool, sharing a couple of bottles of wine and chatting about the holiday so far. Is it wrong to be this happy?

We are so lucky.