The Mad Hatters in Florida May/June 2018 - Day 9 - Walmart/Pool/Longhorn’s Steakhouse

Mad Hatters · 22 Nov 18, 12:24 AM

Hello and welcome to my very first trip report

So we are the Hatfield’s: Adam (Me), Grace (Wife), Joshua (Oldest Son), Trayvon (Youngest Son), Mick (My Dad) and Sue (My Mum).

Link to Index: Index

Link to previous day: Previous Day

Saturday 26th May: Day 9 – Walmart/Pool/Longhorn’s Steakhouse

Today’s report is going to be yet another very short one, as we did hardly anything. The day started off with me waking up first at 7:30am. Grace and the boys were awake too, not long after me.

We got down to breakfast at 8:15am. It was very busy, which I guess is to be expected on a weekend. Luckily, there is a little overflow room, which I think is used for conferences/meetings, which had been opened up. We got ourselves a table in there which was nicely out of the way of all the rush

Food time. This morning I chose some corned beef hash along with an omelette, which I topped with cheese, spinach, peppers and salsa. This was actually quite nice to be fair, despite its appearance. This was washed down with the imitation POG juice.

Grace had some little potato hash brown things and the corned beef hash, which she topped with a little cheese.

Trayvon had some toast and one of the omelettes.

Joshua made a ‘create your own’ Mickey waffle covered with chocolate, syrup and cream. He also had one of the omelettes.

We all had a krispy kreme doughnut as well. Can’t beat a breakfast desert. Yum

The boys thoroughly enjoying them haha.

We headed back to our room to let our breakfast settle and to make our plan for the morning. This was a planned in, full rest day. We let my parents catch up on some sleep to try restore some of their energy levels, they aren’t as young as they used to be haha

My mum will kill me when she reads that.

We asked them if they wanted to come with us to Walmart, but they were nowhere near ready at this point, so told us to just go and catch up with them later.

With our shopping list for Walmart all sorted, including a new suitcase, as ours had become damaged before we even set off from Manchester, we were ready to go.

We booked our Uber, which arrived within a couple of minutes. Our Uber driver was called Morris. He was very chatty, although his car, a Toyota Corolla was pretty beaten up. The trip cost us $7.25 and I added a $2 tip using the app.

We arrived at Walmart at 9:29am. Grace had never been to a Walmart before, so she was excited to have a good look around. Many times I had gone on about how awesome the place is and the fact that they have everything there haha.

Jars of dill pickles. Oh I do love dill pickles. A favourite snack to eat at work, while trying to annoy my shift mate

They have everything you need ……..

And, things most people don’t need ……………..

We deliberated for a little while on which size case to go for. In the end, we chose the bigger one. In hindsight, it’s probably too big really, as we will struggle to fill it with the usual baggage weight limit per case.

The boys also used up some of their personal spending money to get a few little bits. We also treat them both to a mask and snorkel. I had promised Joshua I would get him one for the holiday and he had waited patiently for one.

Anyway, we had pretty much finished our shopping trip and so, by 10:55am, we had paid up and ordered an Uber XL to collect us. We chose the XL due to the size of the case and everything we had bought. This cost us $10.85.

Once we were back at the hotel, we sorted our shopping items out.

Our little haul from Walmart.

We made up some sandwiches, same as we had yesterday, and packed these up to take to the pool area with us. We got the boys ready and I inflated the new swim ring. We grabbed my parents on our way to the pool.

Thankfully the weather was a bit better, still overcast, but luckily not raining.

The boys ready for playing in the pool.

Geico banner which flew overhead most days.

The boys using me as a floatation device.

We dragged the boys out of the pool to eat some lunch at some point haha. I also took a picture of my dad’s scalp for some reason. Think I was winding him up, saying he was going bald

We headed back up to the room at 2:30pm to relax a little bit and have our baths and showers. I most likely had a beer or two, while Grace spent a good 2 hours getting ready

During this time, I nipped down to the reception area to use the PC so that I could print out a voucher for Longhorn’s Steakhouse. It was for a free appetiser, which I got for signing up to their website.

{Continued in next post}

Mad Hatters · 22 Nov 18, 12:31 AM

{Continued from previous post}

At around 5:30pm, we knocked on my parents’ door, ready to set off to the restaurant. It was still dry out, although the sky was definitely getting a bit darker. It was a nice steady stroll that took about 20 minutes, and by 6pm we had arrived.

We didn’t have to wait too long for a table tonight. It was long enough to grab a couple of pictures of me and the boys being daft though

Once shown to our table we ordered up some drinks. My Dad and I went for a bottle of red wine to share. Well, we actually ended up having 2 bottles of wine. Hick! We had a bottle of Pinot noir first, then ended up ordering a merlot.

Grace got herself a strawberry margarita. She had this when we came in 2016 and really enjoyed it.

Mum and the boys all had Coke zero/Diet coke.

We ordered a couple of appetisers to share between us, 1 of which was a freebie. We got:

Seasoned steakhouse wings (Crispy chicken wings with our signature seasoning, served with housemade blue cheese dressing and buffalo sauce).

Boneless spicy chicken bites (Fresh and tender hand cut chicken tossed in a sweet and spicy chilli-ginger sauce).

We were also brought out some rather nice bread (shame I didn’t take a picture until we had hacked it up).

This was all very, very nice. The chicken bites in particular were really good. Wings always go down well with us too haha

Next up was our entrees. Just as a side note, I had promised Joshua he could have lobster when we came here on this holiday. He had really enjoyed it, when I gave him some to try at Christmas the previous year.

Joshua had a kids 6oz sirloin steak, with fries and obviously some of the lobster tail.

Trayvon had the kids chicken tenders, also with fries.

Grace went for an 8oz sirloin steak. She had this with fries and instead of salad, she had mash potato.

My mum also chose the 8oz sirloin steak. She had this with a loaded baked potato and a Caesar salad.

My dad had what I had in 2016, the Outlaw ribeye steak. This is an 18oz bone in rib eye. He had the same sides as my mum, the potato and Caesar salad.

I went for the 16oz Prime rib this time. I tried to get this in 2016, but they had run out on that occasion. I got this with a loaded baked potato and the mixed green salad.

The Lobster tail that Joshua and I shared.

The food was absolutely delicious. Everything was cooked exactly to our liking. The prime rib that I had was so tender, it was gorgeous. Joshua really enjoyed his lobster tail too. We offered Trayvon a taste, but once again, he didn’t fancy trying it.

I remembered to take a picture of the receipt this time. Not a bad price considering there was over $60 spent, just on wine

We gave a good tip as our server had been really attentive and helpful. We left with very full tummies and had really enjoyed our evening meal here. This sets me up for comparing later in the holiday as to which restaurant I preferred, Longhorn or Outback.

Seen as we were already part way down I drive, I asked if everyone was ok with walking further on down to ABC liquor store for me to have a good look. This got the thumbs up, as long as we could go in some of the tat shops along the way

We saw these guys outside Hogans beach shop.

Sky getting a bit darker. Please hold off until we are back to the hotel, rain.

We got to the Liquor store and thankfully, this time, it was open. There was far less choice in there, with a lot less shelving to what I remembered. Still, there were some absolute bargains to be had.
I settled for a 1.75 litre bottle of Sailor Jerry rum. This only cost $24.49 with tax added. An absolute bargain.

We nipped in a couple of other shops on the way back, looking for T-shirts (we always buy a t shirt when in Florida). The boys were also eager to see if there was anything they wanted to spend their money on.

Trayvon decided to buy a seal teddy with his money. He really loved his seal on holiday. Doesn’t bother with it so much now though. Obviously.

We had a look at the newly opening Starflyer while on our way back to the hotel. Wow, that thing goes up high

Interestingly, we were there for the opening of the Orlando eye in 2015 and this time, for the Starflyer.

It’s a lovely area here. There is more pictures to come at a later date.

Good old pirate cove golf.

We arrived back at the hotel at 8:38pm. Thankfully the weather had held off. We didn’t bother playing any games tonight. We just called it a night and got the kids straight to bed. We did the same and watched wedding crashers for a while. We went to sleep not long after 10pm.

Total steps for the day: 15,753.

Thank you for reading

caitlinsmummy · 22 Nov 18, 12:23 PM

Those breakfasts look lovely

at the comment about your parents, I'm probably half there age and I feel like that haha.

Longhorns looks lovely, Joshua looks so happy with his meal bless him. Those loaded baked potatoes look lovely, I look a baked potato like that.

What a lovely relaxed day, sometimes you just need it don't you, great day xx

**Goldia** · 22 Nov 18, 09:33 PM

Longhorns is amazing! I love the steaks there. What a brilliant idea to sub in mash for salad and get mash and fries! Ha I've never thought of that. Although I do like the Caesar salad and the loaded potato. I can't wait to hear whether you preferred Longhorns to Outback. I haven't been to an Outback in Orlando. The last one we went to was in Vegas I think.

i love jack · 28 Nov 18, 12:06 PM

Love a longhorns

Mad Hatters · 2 Dec 18, 08:49 PM

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

Those breakfasts look lovely

at the comment about your parents, I'm probably half there age and I feel like that haha.

Longhorns looks lovely, Joshua looks so happy with his meal bless him. Those loaded baked potatoes look lovely, I look a baked potato like that.

What a lovely relaxed day, sometimes you just need it don't you, great day xx

Thanks for reading once again.

Joshua was really pleased with his meal in Longhorn's. He does love his steaks

I'm a sucker for a loaded baked potato, they sure know how to do them in the USA.

The relaxed days were superb. This holiday really was a tail of two halves. Manic Disney days and chilled out days on I drive. The perfect balance for us

Originally Posted by Goldia

Longhorns is amazing! I love the steaks there. What a brilliant idea to sub in mash for salad and get mash and fries! Ha I've never thought of that. Although I do like the Caesar salad and the loaded potato. I can't wait to hear whether you preferred Longhorns to Outback. I haven't been to an Outback in Orlando. The last one we went to was in Vegas I think.

We are big fans of Longhorn's. Its a must do restaurant for us. Without giving the game away, i would definitely recommend trying Outback

Thanks for reading.

Originally Posted by i love jack

Love a longhorns

Longhorns is brilliant isn't it haha.

Thanks for reading

DISNEYNIC · 17 May 19, 12:34 PM

Joshua's breakfast looks amazing! Nice rest day and dinner looks good.

Mad Hatters · 19 May 19, 03:38 AM

Originally Posted by DISNEYNIC

Joshua's breakfast looks amazing! Nice rest day and dinner looks good.

Can’t beat a nice sweet breakfast haha.

Thank you, it was a good chilled out day.

Thanks again for reading 😀

22 Nov 18, 12:24 AM	#1
	22 Nov 18, 12:24 AM Mad Hatters slightly serious Dibber
Mad Hatters slightly serious Dibber Join Date: Mar 17	The Mad Hatters in Florida May/June 2018 - Day 9 - Walmart/Pool/Longhorn’s Steakhouse Hello and welcome to my very first trip report So we are the Hatfield’s: Adam (Me), Grace (Wife), Joshua (Oldest Son), Trayvon (Youngest Son), Mick (My Dad) and Sue (My Mum). Link to Index: Index Link to previous day: Previous Day Saturday 26th May: Day 9 – Walmart/Pool/Longhorn’s Steakhouse Today’s report is going to be yet another very short one, as we did hardly anything. The day started off with me waking up first at 7:30am. Grace and the boys were awake too, not long after me. We got down to breakfast at 8:15am. It was very busy, which I guess is to be expected on a weekend. Luckily, there is a little overflow room, which I think is used for conferences/meetings, which had been opened up. We got ourselves a table in there which was nicely out of the way of all the rush Food time. This morning I chose some corned beef hash along with an omelette, which I topped with cheese, spinach, peppers and salsa. This was actually quite nice to be fair, despite its appearance. This was washed down with the imitation POG juice. Grace had some little potato hash brown things and the corned beef hash, which she topped with a little cheese. Trayvon had some toast and one of the omelettes. Joshua made a ‘create your own’ Mickey waffle covered with chocolate, syrup and cream. He also had one of the omelettes. We all had a krispy kreme doughnut as well. Can’t beat a breakfast desert. Yum The boys thoroughly enjoying them haha. We headed back to our room to let our breakfast settle and to make our plan for the morning. This was a planned in, full rest day. We let my parents catch up on some sleep to try restore some of their energy levels, they aren’t as young as they used to be haha My mum will kill me when she reads that. We asked them if they wanted to come with us to Walmart, but they were nowhere near ready at this point, so told us to just go and catch up with them later. With our shopping list for Walmart all sorted, including a new suitcase, as ours had become damaged before we even set off from Manchester, we were ready to go. We booked our Uber, which arrived within a couple of minutes. Our Uber driver was called Morris. He was very chatty, although his car, a Toyota Corolla was pretty beaten up. The trip cost us $7.25 and I added a $2 tip using the app. We arrived at Walmart at 9:29am. Grace had never been to a Walmart before, so she was excited to have a good look around. Many times I had gone on about how awesome the place is and the fact that they have everything there haha. Jars of dill pickles. Oh I do love dill pickles. A favourite snack to eat at work, while trying to annoy my shift mate They have everything you need …….. And, things most people don’t need …………….. We deliberated for a little while on which size case to go for. In the end, we chose the bigger one. In hindsight, it’s probably too big really, as we will struggle to fill it with the usual baggage weight limit per case. The boys also used up some of their personal spending money to get a few little bits. We also treat them both to a mask and snorkel. I had promised Joshua I would get him one for the holiday and he had waited patiently for one. Anyway, we had pretty much finished our shopping trip and so, by 10:55am, we had paid up and ordered an Uber XL to collect us. We chose the XL due to the size of the case and everything we had bought. This cost us $10.85. Once we were back at the hotel, we sorted our shopping items out. Our little haul from Walmart. We made up some sandwiches, same as we had yesterday, and packed these up to take to the pool area with us. We got the boys ready and I inflated the new swim ring. We grabbed my parents on our way to the pool. Thankfully the weather was a bit better, still overcast, but luckily not raining. The boys ready for playing in the pool. Geico banner which flew overhead most days. The boys using me as a floatation device. We dragged the boys out of the pool to eat some lunch at some point haha. I also took a picture of my dad’s scalp for some reason. Think I was winding him up, saying he was going bald We headed back up to the room at 2:30pm to relax a little bit and have our baths and showers. I most likely had a beer or two, while Grace spent a good 2 hours getting ready During this time, I nipped down to the reception area to use the PC so that I could print out a voucher for Longhorn’s Steakhouse. It was for a free appetiser, which I got for signing up to their website. {Continued in next post}

22 Nov 18, 12:31 AM	#2
	22 Nov 18, 12:31 AM Mad Hatters slightly serious Dibber Thread Starter
Mad Hatters Thread Starter slightly serious Dibber Join Date: Mar 17	{Continued from previous post} At around 5:30pm, we knocked on my parents’ door, ready to set off to the restaurant. It was still dry out, although the sky was definitely getting a bit darker. It was a nice steady stroll that took about 20 minutes, and by 6pm we had arrived. We didn’t have to wait too long for a table tonight. It was long enough to grab a couple of pictures of me and the boys being daft though Once shown to our table we ordered up some drinks. My Dad and I went for a bottle of red wine to share. Well, we actually ended up having 2 bottles of wine. Hick! We had a bottle of Pinot noir first, then ended up ordering a merlot. Grace got herself a strawberry margarita. She had this when we came in 2016 and really enjoyed it. Mum and the boys all had Coke zero/Diet coke. We ordered a couple of appetisers to share between us, 1 of which was a freebie. We got: Seasoned steakhouse wings (Crispy chicken wings with our signature seasoning, served with housemade blue cheese dressing and buffalo sauce). Boneless spicy chicken bites (Fresh and tender hand cut chicken tossed in a sweet and spicy chilli-ginger sauce). We were also brought out some rather nice bread (shame I didn’t take a picture until we had hacked it up). This was all very, very nice. The chicken bites in particular were really good. Wings always go down well with us too haha Next up was our entrees. Just as a side note, I had promised Joshua he could have lobster when we came here on this holiday. He had really enjoyed it, when I gave him some to try at Christmas the previous year. Joshua had a kids 6oz sirloin steak, with fries and obviously some of the lobster tail. Trayvon had the kids chicken tenders, also with fries. Grace went for an 8oz sirloin steak. She had this with fries and instead of salad, she had mash potato. My mum also chose the 8oz sirloin steak. She had this with a loaded baked potato and a Caesar salad. My dad had what I had in 2016, the Outlaw ribeye steak. This is an 18oz bone in rib eye. He had the same sides as my mum, the potato and Caesar salad. I went for the 16oz Prime rib this time. I tried to get this in 2016, but they had run out on that occasion. I got this with a loaded baked potato and the mixed green salad. The Lobster tail that Joshua and I shared. The food was absolutely delicious. Everything was cooked exactly to our liking. The prime rib that I had was so tender, it was gorgeous. Joshua really enjoyed his lobster tail too. We offered Trayvon a taste, but once again, he didn’t fancy trying it. I remembered to take a picture of the receipt this time. Not a bad price considering there was over $60 spent, just on wine We gave a good tip as our server had been really attentive and helpful. We left with very full tummies and had really enjoyed our evening meal here. This sets me up for comparing later in the holiday as to which restaurant I preferred, Longhorn or Outback. Seen as we were already part way down I drive, I asked if everyone was ok with walking further on down to ABC liquor store for me to have a good look. This got the thumbs up, as long as we could go in some of the tat shops along the way We saw these guys outside Hogans beach shop. Sky getting a bit darker. Please hold off until we are back to the hotel, rain. We got to the Liquor store and thankfully, this time, it was open. There was far less choice in there, with a lot less shelving to what I remembered. Still, there were some absolute bargains to be had. I settled for a 1.75 litre bottle of Sailor Jerry rum. This only cost $24.49 with tax added. An absolute bargain. We nipped in a couple of other shops on the way back, looking for T-shirts (we always buy a t shirt when in Florida). The boys were also eager to see if there was anything they wanted to spend their money on. Trayvon decided to buy a seal teddy with his money. He really loved his seal on holiday. Doesn’t bother with it so much now though. Obviously. We had a look at the newly opening Starflyer while on our way back to the hotel. Wow, that thing goes up high Interestingly, we were there for the opening of the Orlando eye in 2015 and this time, for the Starflyer. It’s a lovely area here. There is more pictures to come at a later date. Good old pirate cove golf. We arrived back at the hotel at 8:38pm. Thankfully the weather had held off. We didn’t bother playing any games tonight. We just called it a night and got the kids straight to bed. We did the same and watched wedding crashers for a while. We went to sleep not long after 10pm. Total steps for the day: 15,753. Thank you for reading