First time Floribobs (The Irma Remix) - September 2017 - Day 9

[Cazzius]

The Index is HERE

The Cast

Chris
32
Galactic Spectacular

Caz
Thirty-mumble
Movie Magic

We both woke up this morning feeling decidedly ‘off’. We’d had a few full on days, but also had late mornings to counteract that. I wonder if it was getting drenched than sitting in the cold, air conditioned restaurant that did it, as it did feel a little like I had caught a chill.

As we were both suffering and not feeling being shaken around, we did a quick change of plan.

In the pre-Irma holiday, we were due to spend a weekend in Tampa with some friends of ours who were going to fly down from Washington DC and join us. In preparation of seeing them, I had bought them some presents from the UK – London themed stationery from Paperchase and a few other little bits and bobs. I had brought these with me in an addressed jiffy bag with the intention of posting them while in the USA (and saving on postage from the UK). Originally I was going to write and send postcards at the same time, but I hadn’t been able to find nice postcards anywhere and resorted to sending them via MyPostcard app instead.

Anyway, with both of us feeling ropey I thought we’d have a chilled morning, pop out a bit later to the post office to send the parcel and maybe head to Hollywood Studios in the evening to see the Star Wars fireworks that we hadn’t seen yet.

We had some ginger ale in the fridge in the room so had that while we chilled out and generally felt a bit bleurgh. Chris watched sports on TV while I did some FastPass arrangement for later (just in case!) and wrote up trip notes.

We tidied up the room and attempted some packing (sad times!), organising the laundry, new purchases and the packing cubes. Chris was all for throwing the bags away, but hoarder that I am I insisted on keeping all of the paper bags, and all of the Disney bags. I know I’m a loser!

Feeling a little more organized and a little less stressed about the looming mountain of packing we had to do, we decided to pop out to Celebration as there was a post office there and I had read on The Dibb that there was a nice lake area and things to see.

Into our trusty Kia Soul we drove over to Celebration. It took barely any time at all from the Radisson and we were soon there. What a cute town! We parked up and popped into the post office where I was able to mail the parcel with no trouble at all. Much better than spending a fortune to send it from home.

Next we meandered down Market Street towards the lake, having a look in the shops and remarking on what a pretty town Celebration was. It was very warm, and while it was making me feel better, I was very conscious of not wanting Chris to get sunstroke and go down the other end of the illness spectrum. Once we reached the lake, rather than walking around it as we originally intended we had a look around the immediate vicinity and decided to head into the Celebration Town Tavern for a cold drink and perhaps some lunch instead.

We were greeted by a friendly host, who seated us in the bar area. There’s a lot on the walls in the pub and we were soaking it all in when our waitress appeared. She brought our menus and we ordered drinks (cokes for both of us – we much have been feeling unwell). Following a quick peruse of the menu and a chat about out plans for the rest of the trip we decided that we would eat there – the menu was just too tempting – and then head back to the hotel, change and hot Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the evening. This was kind of the plan I already envisaged, but let’s say we made it up on the spot ;-)

The waitress returned to take our orders, I chose the Meatball Hoagie and Chris went for the Bacon Cheese Burger. Not too bad for 2 people who were feeling a bit delicate not too long before!

The food arrived quickly, it was piping hot and so good. There were also free refills for our cokes, which were much appreciated. There was a lovely atmosphere in here where it felt like we could stay all afternoon just chilling out and sitting on the terrace watching the world go by. We agree that we would 100% visit Celebration again, perhaps to make the walk around the lake but mostly to revisit the Celebration Town Tavern.

The day was slipping away when we left the tavern and ambled back to the car. We headed back to the hotel, stopping first at Walgreens to replenish our stock of drinks for the fridge and to purchase some bags of candy to bring back to the UK.

We both love peanut butter and chocolate and the combination isn’t nearly as common here as it is there. I felt a little guilty as we still had a lot of sweets from MNSSHP, but we had already eaten the few peanut butter Snickers that we received, and we didn’t have any Reese’s or Butterfinger… so it was different candy we were buying (which makes it ok).

Back to the hotel to drop off our purchases, pop the drinks in the fridge, change clothes, don Mickey Ears and hail a Lyft to Hollywood Studios. Our driver was soon with us and delivered us safely to Hollywood Studios. Following our experience with the driver the day before I felt quite pleased each time the driver went to the right place, which was silly as we had 1 clueless driver out of all the Lyfts we used in Florida. Must remember that the bad one was the exception, not the rule.

Through the main entrance and a browse through the shops was the first order of the evening. Of course, we stopped for a PhotoPass shot too.

Chris really took a fancy to one of the phone covers in the D-Tech area (within the camera shop), which I sulked about as the selection for Samsung phones was worse than poor. We then headed into the boutique on the other side of the road, where there were some really nice clothes that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. I was tempted by a couple of things but decided to think about it as we’d be heading back that way at the end of the night.

A quick stop at Starbucks for a You Are Here mug and a cold drink, plus a quick lust after the cupcakes in the case. I regret not trying the Darth Vader OR Butterfinger topped cake. Another thing for the 'next time' list!

We turned right and heading towards the Hollywood Hotel for another ride on Tower of Terror. We tapped our bands to the Mickey head and before we knew it we were back in the library watching the pre show film. I had a very well informed young man stood behind me who was able to narrate along with the video, which was nice. Into the boiler room queue and I started getting nervous again, which was silly as I had already ridden the ride once. We got to the front of the queue and I asked the CM loading us if we could please not be seated in the front, which he was more than happy to arrange for us.

The CM got us all to practice putting our hands in the air and then sent us on our way.

Now I was sitting on the ride, I was a lot less nervous and was able to enjoy it more the second time. The drops were a lot more fun the second time too – though we got 5 and there were only 3 the first time so that was a surprise! I even put my hands up in the air rather than gripping the safety rail – daredevil!

Back on the ground, we exited through the gift shop, stopping to collect our ride photo on the way. We gave bellhop Stitch a pat on the head and had a look around the shop before heading towards our next ride of the evening – Rock n’ Rollercoaster!

Funnily, I wasn’t nervous for this at all, I think probably because I’ve ridden the version at Disneyland Paris, so I knew what to expect. The pre-show here is different though, and in my humble opinion makes a lot more sense. Not that it matters now RnR at Disneyland Paris is being reskinned to Marvel, but still.

We had a FastPass for this but when we got to the loading area there was barely anyone waiting anyway. Maybe because Fantasmic! Was about to start and other people were securing their spots for the fireworks? Anyway, no people waiting meant we were soon in our limo, strapped in and ready to go.

Even though I knew the camera was just after the launch, I still look terrible. I should have done some sort of rock & roll hand sign or something. Gah! This is a great ride though and it would be no hardship to ride it multiple times to get the perfect photo.

Off the ride and into the shop, where we bought a RnR plectrum for our friend Callum and a pair of very jazzy metallic Mickey Mouse drumsticks for my brother. I never know what to get him for Christmas so this seemed like an ideal present. Score.

Outside the ride we debated quickly going round to ride again as we both enjoyed it so much, but time was getting on and we really wanted to see the night time shows.

We stopped at Hollywood Scoops Ice Cream at the Sunshine Ranch Market on Sunset Boulevard for a couple of ice creams to enjoy with the night time show. We both chose a hand scooped ice cream cup – Cookies and Cream flavor for Chris and Butter Pecan for me. This ice cream was nice, it had a creamy texture and good flavor – not fake and sugary but like it was made properly, if you know what I mean.

We headed up to the Chinese theatre with our treats, admiring the buildings on Sunset Boulevard all lit up on the way.

It wasn’t too busy and we found a good spot right near Keystone Clothiers, which I think is near where the Star Wars Dessert Party watch the show. Feeling like we had done pretty well we enjoyed the ice cream and the feeling of actually being on time for something.

Soon, the Disney Movie magic show began. I had completely forgotten about this, but was pleased we were in place for it. It is fun seeing all the different movies, hearing the songs and seeing which you can spot. The projections work really well on the theatre and surrounding studio buildings, so the pictures are really clear. It’s no Happily Ever After, but it isn’t meant to be and I thought it was a good montage to movie magic – which is what Hollywood Studios was/is/could be all about.

It was getting a lot busier in the hub now, with a few people using buggies as battering rams to get to the front. This made me quite glad we had chosen our spot about halfway back, no one was that desperate to stand where we were.

It was at this point that I realized my hand had got incredibly sticky from eating ice cream (don’t worry, I wasn’t eating with my fingers!). I’d chosen a tub as I felt I was less likely to make a mess than with a cone… no such luck. A mouthful of ice cream had slipped from my spoon and down my front while watching the Movie magic show. The tissues were in the bag, which Chris had, so I just sort of used my hand to catch the rogue ice cream. Now I was sticky.

I knew the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular was about to start, so I told Chris to give me his tub and save our spot while I went to put them in the bin (I didn’t want to admit my ice cream fail). I thought there would be restrooms nearby, but after finding a bin and asking a CM I discovered that they were all the way down Sunset Boulevard by Tower of Terror. No way.

However, I spotted a fountain that some children were already splashing in near the FastPass machines. Perfect. Ever resourceful I rinsed my hands in the fountain and headed back to Chris, where I applied a few squirts of anti-bac and was ready and waiting for the Star Wars fireworks when they began shortly after.

Chris really likes Star Wars and I was glad we’d managed to arrange returning to Hollywood Studios to see the show. The way they used the clips from the films, music and fireworks all worked really well together and we enjoyed it.

I say we enjoyed it, I was VERY annoyed by this… doofus, who rather than watching the show was filming the whole thing. Urgh. Fine take a photo or two but don’t block everyone else holding your stupid phone in the air for the whole show.

Also, you are 100% better off watching a proper, professionally filmed video on YouTube than whatever rubbish you have filmed on your tablet.
Thankfully I think his arms got tired as he stopped and moved after a while.

Sorry, rant over.

After the show ended, I understood why they split visitors between Fantasmic! and the fireworks show. There is NOT enough room for everyone to watch the fireworks and squeeze down Hollywood Boulevard.

We dived into Mickey’s of Hollywood to look at the merchandise and wait for the crowd to die down a little. There were a few tops that I quite liked, but nothing that really jumped out at me, and Chris felt the same so we walked down Hollywood Boulevard inside the shop, coming out near to the entrance. I did spot a pair of earrings in the shape of Cinderella Castle though, which I HAD to have

There were still a lot of people around, but it wasn’t the crush it was earlier so our shopping diversion worked.

I hailed a Lyft just before we left the WiFi, but it showed as arriving in 1 minute! We then had to run from the front entrance to the taxi pick up point, weaving around prams and other people to try and find our driver before he left. It was very busy at the taxi rank, and luckily for us our driver arrived a little later than estimated – phew!

We bundled into the car and headed back to the Radisson, where we did a little more packing and decided on a plan for the next day – our last full day * sob *.
Satisfied we’d packed as much as we can, we set alarms and fell into bed.

Steps = 9,119 (3.57 miles)

[mick]

That was a bit more of a relaxing day


Joan

[Goldia]

I'm pretty sure I have said this before but I do love all the photos you put in at the start of you and Chris. A shame you woke up feeling a bit rough today. A slower start was in order I think.

You are right to keep all the bags! I still have some of the Disney blue theme park carrier bags that I use each week for my shopping! They have lasted since 2016 so they are going well .

That was really nice of you let Chris have the idea of eating in the pub and then heading back to HS later . Wow, the food looks so tasty.

I felt a bit nervous seeing you with you hands up on tower of terror...I've never been brave enough to ride hands free. We have some hilarious photos of us on RnR. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Oops, ice cream down your front good thinking with the water fountain though. A nice end to a more relaxed day.

I'm a bit sad that the next instalment is the last full day

[MrsSilverStar]

"which was nice" - ha!

Sounds like a lovely chilled day, and you still squeezed in a fun park evening. Love those earrings - anything castle-related is a winner in my eyes! The filming during fireworks/shows annoys me too...I had someone face-timing their nan during Illuminations at DLP, and she looked thoroughly unimpressed which actually made it quite funny

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by mick

That was a bit more of a relaxing day


Joan

See more...

It was, and we really appreciated the more laid back day for a change - it was almost like being on holiday, haha.

Thanks for joining us in Celebration and Hollywood Studios.

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by Goldia

I'm pretty sure I have said this before but I do love all the photos you put in at the start of you and Chris. A shame you woke up feeling a bit rough today. A slower start was in order I think.

You are right to keep all the bags! I still have some of the Disney blue theme park carrier bags that I use each week for my shopping! They have lasted since 2016 so they are going well .

That was really nice of you let Chris have the idea of eating in the pub and then heading back to HS later . Wow, the food looks so tasty.

I felt a bit nervous seeing you with you hands up on tower of terror...I've never been brave enough to ride hands free. We have some hilarious photos of us on RnR. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Oops, ice cream down your front good thinking with the water fountain though. A nice end to a more relaxed day.

I'm a bit sad that the next instalment is the last full day

See more...

Awww, thank you! It was mainly because I didn't have enough Disney pictures of both of us to put at the top and also include in the report. I'm glad you have liked them though. We do have some fun adventures

Good idea about the bags. Smart way to inject a little disney magic into the weekly shop. I may have to do the same. We also have communal recycling bins so the paper bags are useful for that.

Hehe, it was a very good 'idea' to eat at the pub - the food was delicious and it was a lovely relaxed atmosphere. I could see us returning to sit on the terrace and enjoy snacks and drinks of an afternoon.

I was too scared the first time on ToT, but I'm glad that I did the second time as almost everyone did. I don't think I would be brave enough if we were sat at the front though.

Generally I think I should wear a bib everywhere, if I can spill something on myself - I will!

I'm sad it's the last full day too - i've really enjoyed reliving our trip! Thanks for reading and commenting along with the report

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

"which was nice" - ha!

Sounds like a lovely chilled day, and you still squeezed in a fun park evening. Love those earrings - anything castle-related is a winner in my eyes! The filming during fireworks/shows annoys me too...I had someone face-timing their nan during Illuminations at DLP, and she looked thoroughly unimpressed which actually made it quite funny

See more...

It was such a nice day, until typing this up I didn't realise quite how much we crammed in - as even going shopping means you are 'on the go'. I think we'd try for a couple of similar days in a future trip as we are both night owls and this worked well for us.

Thank you for the compliment on the earrings, they are now some of my favourites.

Fireworks just don't look as good on video/in photos. I took a few snaps, but filming the whole thing is so distracting. At least it wasn't on an iPad! The unimpressed nan would have made me laugh too, they should have saved their battery/roaming charges!

[DisneyDreamer81]

I constantly spill things down myself so you are not alone. My husband mocks me all the time for my inability to get food and drink into my mouth properly.

The food in Celebration look so good! Added it to my list for next time! I visited Celebration when it was first being built in the 1990s and would love to go back and see how much it's changed.

I will never understand why people watch thing through their phones. Just make some memories instead of trying to take a video that you'll never watch again!

Fab day - so sad your report is nearly over!

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer81

I constantly spill things down myself so you are not alone. My husband mocks me all the time for my inability to get food and drink into my mouth properly.

The food in Celebration look so good! Added it to my list for next time! I visited Celebration when it was first being built in the 1990s and would love to go back and see how much it's changed.

I will never understand why people watch thing through their phones. Just make some memories instead of trying to take a video that you'll never watch again!

Fab day - so sad your report is nearly over!

See more...

I am SO glad it's not just me. It's why I tucked my napkin in my neck at San Angel Inn to protect my white dress! Didn't look very elegant but I stayed clean

We really liked Celebration for a chilled out day and a spot of lunch, we're hoping to go back as a wander around the lake, a look in the shops and a late lunch followed maybe by some fireworks was such a nice day and worth repeating.

I know, you NEVER watch the video, just go to YouTube and watch a pro video which will be better.

I can't believe it is nearly over too, it's been fun remembering all the details of our trip. I'm enjoying reading your trippie too!

[Guest]

Lol...I bring home all the bags, too. They usually end up being used for fireplace ashes. And we live in the country...so sometimes they get used...for mouse disposal. 'Cause I don't want to look in the big bin outside and see that.

I liked the movie montage/Star Wars fireworks things way more than I thought I would. Here's hoping we see more of that - all over the parks. It's such a good idea to spread out the crowds. Though I'm sure it's very irritating for people who want to try and do DHS in one day...hmm...

Boo! to padholes. Put your stupid tablet/phone down unless you are standing BEHIND everybody else. Or - at the very least - turn around to the people behind you and tell them that you want to film the show. Give folks a chance to move.

Oh, that RNR snap...I feel your pain.