theDIBB - A Mi11ion Dreams = 2018 - Day 12 - Disney Golfing treat and more Outlet parking woe!

Welcome back, and after the rant that did yesterdays trip to the Outlets , thanks for sticking in there!:erm: You may also see a recurring theme today too!

If you missed it - you can catch up with day 11 here

If you are reading for the first time - the whole index is here

As added a couple of days ago, and by request, the link to all of the previous trips is here too.

As predicted by Goldia in a previous trip report day ;) - our golf day is here - possibly better than any other we have experienced before:cool2:

Welcome to DAY 12 :wavey:

Monday 6th August

You know when the boys are awake and having breakfast before 8am there is something going on!

Today was our Disney golf day, hastened by the temporary closure of the 9 holes at Oak Trail, which is a walking course. We had found out that Disney were honouring the golf entitlement of The UK Ultimate ticket, except it was to be at LBV golf course.

Until today – we had never played the first nine of a course that meanders throughout Old Key West Resort, it was too good an opportunity to miss, especially as the Oak Trail Course reopens later this week;)

We booked just weeks before the holiday began and to be honest this was such a bargain and such a big upgrade on the Disney golf offered, we were going to have a blast!:spin:

Our day began with something that I can only explain as my favourite song of all time- and the greatest recording of it too all on E Street Radio. I have posted it before and will do so again – the youtube film in our 2013 trip report has been removed by the Springsteen Corp. They seem to be ok with the audio though!
Looks like I spoke too soon:( - Video has been removed 31/3/19 will post an update if it reappears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vJqDiitptk

Racing in the Street by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live in Hyde Park in 2009, sheer bliss, all the way to Saratoga Springs-nobody spoke.

An alternate version is here - if you are interested !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4pSt4kie8

We just soaked in the fact that we were on school run time and we had a Bruce song that needed no explanation – it was mesmerising!

We dropped Alison off and headed to the golf check in - taking a moment to remember Arnold Palmer too

Alison headed for some breakfast on her own and an opportunity to enjoy a resort we had many happy memories.

We however, headed to check in for some golf!

We were treated so well by the staff there, the fact that I had brought two juniors with me , who had golf handicaps and were experienced players too helped. :thumbs-up:thumbs-up

We got some free golf balls and were then given our buggy for the round, this is a huge step up from the Oak Trail, where walking for a couple of hours in the sun sounds great in planning in the UK and somewhat different in August and Floridian heat.

Our buggy had GPS and was able to carry the three of us, thankfully neither of the boys were able to put their Tomorrowland Speedway driving experience to the test, Phew!:pgig:

We were joined by another player in order to make a 4 ball, he had high hopes for his game and was full of all sorts of stories about how good he was. After claiming a mulligan on his first shot we all breathed a little easier and recognised he was full of manure.

It did become funny as the round wore on as he kept losing balls and then finding them in strange places that were most definitely not where his ball went. Cheating himself, when he was only playing against himself! Figure that one out!:erm::erm:

The golf course was long, it was in fantastic condition and despite a few errant shots I think we all played well.

I will have it noted for posterity that Josh did hit one of the apartments that surround one of the greens and rather than losing his ball it ended up closer to the hole rather than out of bounds! If you were staying at OKW at the time, I hope it was not your apartment but it really did help his score;)

He played really well, so much so, that when we returned from holiday his handicap was cut and he scooped some prizes at our local golf club, where he is Junior Captain and now has his name on the Majors board.

He also acknowledged(after we had finished :nonono:) that his own Taylor Made irons were very similar to the ones we had as a free rental for juniors (despite his being adult clubs) They really should have given him the wrong size of clubs to help me!

The whole experience was superb, and made even better by having the buggy -when we finished, we were not completely drained like we usually are after Oak Trail and we then went to meet Alison around the pool at Saratoga Springs – a place we have stayed previously.

The slide has always been a firm favourite of the boys and we swam for a while and made most of the familiar facilities.

Our refillable mugs were still in operation, so we hydrated ourselves, enjoyed the pool and just soaked away the golf experience enjoying the sunshine, the Saratoga vibe and the slide too!:cool2:

We had thought of grabbing lunch there as well, but decided that we would move on and see what else the day would bring us, also noting the weather drawing in and the possibility of an afternoon storm. Rather than get caught out , we were proactive and sought to extend the misery seen yesterday!

Now, having parked across the road at International Drive Outlets yesterday and I felt I did not fully indulge in the rant that will follow- I found myself in complete disbelief at what now seems to be a ‘normal ‘occurrence at Outlet shopping – even our local outlet in York has rejigged their parking to make a few extra quid out of shoppers.:mad:

At Vineland Road however they have gone that little bit extra, they have areas for App pre- paid parking and now the multi Storey car park which involves a walk to the shops (which previously meant you could always get a space as most shoppers could not be bothered with the walk) was now payable parking.:nonono:

I said yesterday, I will avoid swearing , indeed I will- but to be honest how can you justify paying to park to go shopping?

Quite simple in my book, I just don’t go shopping anymore, which would be the f in greatest thing ever invented!

Are they quite so arrogant to think that instead of paying to park in a theme park, we would all go shopping and pay for the experience ?– I don’t think so, given the prices at the Outlets in most shops the ‘bargains’ are more and more difficult to find and indeed there is better value to be had further away from the tourist trail in Orlando – they don’t charge in those places just yet!

I ended up parking across the road near the Ugg shop and had a stroll over the road and into the shops, having paid nothing to park -and I will note it now -I will never pay to park just to go shopping. :mad:

As noted by Joan in the replies of Yesterdays trip report , it may be the Yorkshire in me – more than anything it is the whole rip off of it all.

We headed to the food court for lunch and enjoyed Subway for Joe and Alison, A&W for Josh and I.

The Disney shop brought about a couple of bargains, but certainly not as many as we snagged yesterday.

Alison got a lovely top and Joe and couple of tee shirts – Splash mountain and a Fireworks one. The fireworks one is already a favourite and hope that he gets as much wear out of it on this trip as I doubt it will fit for too many years.

From there, with me still muttering about the parking we headed back to the villa for hot tub and swimming. It is a really good feeling having such a gripe about parking at Vineland Outlets, it will now avoid repeated visits (we have been know previously to go for a mooch and some time out of the sun)

It also means that I had no notes about the journey from there to the Villa via the I4 , memory serves me that it was not the best but we found a way in the end!

This is where a Villa really comes into its own – we had the night to ourselves and could simply enjoy everything that was around us all at our own pace and just soaking up the space and tranquillity.

The boys had a Pizza tea early and later on a delicious fillet steak and potato salad was enjoyed by Alison and I.
I always 'enjoy' when the boys get the underwater camera for a pool session:omg:
These are the best ones;)

Having been up early and enjoyed the golf so much, sleep was easily found.

Despite being on the go all day, with so few notes actually written, this day still stands out as one of the highlights of the holiday, it was so good to play on one of the Disney Courses and whilst in the future I doubt I could never afford to pay Disney prices for all three of us to play golf there, it served as a reminder as to what the future holds , we will certainly need to start looking at the opportunities to play some at the other fantastic golf courses in the area.

Thanks for reading :wavey::wavey:

DAY 13 is just a click here away