** The BROCKWELL Nov 10 Trip Report - Day 8 ** Blizzard Beac

[jbrockwell5081]

Trip Index

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Day 8 - Blizzard Beach
16th Nov

Holly wakes us at 7:15am today, but we're going to have a lazy morning before heading to Blizzard Beach. We have breakfast and then cream up by the bucket load; it looks like I burnt quite a bit yesterday. Holly plays with the Mr. Potato Head stuff we bought her yesterday and seems thrilled with it.

We receive an automated call from Brighthouse this morning, addressed to the villa owner, advising us that as the bill hasn't been paid we will be cut off soon. We finally figure out that is the TV and the internet, so get on to the management company to advise them.

We leave at 9:30am and arrive at 9:50am.

We get out of the car - OMG what are we doing? It's blinking freezing, and we're at a water park? Anyway, stupidly we carry on in just in time for "rope drop" - at a water park? Didn't know there was such a thing, but apparently there is; on a slightly smaller scale though.

We hurry off and bag some sunbeds before they all go (silly us; we're the only ones silly enough to come here today!). We go and grab a locker and then a lifejacket for Holly. These are much better than her wearing arm bands.

Holly spends quite some time in Tikes Peak going down the slides before we head for the lazy river. She is as good as gold on here, even has her own ring and goes off on her own a few times which I think is great for her confidence. After a dunking through the cave (we did grab some photos on an old water camera but haven't had them developed yet) she heads back to Tikes Peak again for a bit while we wait for Mum and Dad.

Teamboat Springs up next; not sure what she's going to make of this as it's quite fast; but we do like to try her with new things all the time (Tower of Terror is a bit of a way off yet though).

OK, we're on with no trouble and she doesn't say she doesn't want to go which is a great start; and we're off. Faster, faster, round the corner, over some bumps; hmm ok I may have forgotten quite how fast this goes or how high it goes up the corners. A quick check of Holly confirms my suspicions; she is firmly holding on to both handles bless her and has not let go; has her eyes shut for most of it (and at other times are wide open with an I'm going to die look) and keeps saying "I don't like it" but not once did she cry, scream, let go or panic at all. She did us all proud.

I'm a little gutted at the end of this ride to find no photopass photographer. We now convince Holly that we won't be going on that again so she doesn't have to worry, and head back towards Tikes Peak. We get waylaid on the way though as Holly it appears has now grown beyond her years and wants to head for the teenage section with the great big swimming pool.

I watch her for a little bit here (Rob goes in with her) as I'm freezing. I then head back with Mum and Dad to dry off a bit and get changed as "they" are too cold to do any more today.

I now go to find Rob as he has been AGES with Holly and they were only meant to be 10 minutes as Holly needed more sun cream. She has spent quite some time pointing out the ducks in the swimming pool and trying to chase both them and Daddy across the pool. I finally rounded her up to come back and get creamed up (kicking and screaming I might add) and then she went back in to Tikes Peak with Rob for another 1/2 hr before we got more huffs coming from across the Sunbeds and knew if was time to be heading off.

Rob and Holly now get dried and we have another family discussion as to where we are going to eat tonight. The suggestions are the Cheesecake Factory (which we recommended as it does loads of veg and salad for Dad); eating at the villa; or Ruby Tuesdays. He does his usual of just saying "whatever" which usually means he's just going along with it.

I promise we didn't drive anywhere with Holly in the boot! (she seems to keep asking to go in the boot?) - gives you a great idea of how much boot space there is in a Full Size car as well

Right, well here we come again Cheesecake Factory; this time with littley in towe. We arrive; are this time seated in the "family" section it seems. We noticed yesterday that all the families with kids appeared to be in one area of the restaurant and the couples or families without kids seemed to be in another.

Continued below...

[jbrockwell5081]

After reading through a total of 1 page of the menu; Dad orders a b****y Salmon salad! Oh I am so cross . 16 pages in the menu and he doesn't even attempt to look for anything even though there's TONNES of veg and nice choices in here. His reasoning for this? Because everything else will be covered in butter and sauces...! Well ask for them not to have butter or sauce on? Plus the fact that I had already told him what I had yesterday and that didn't come with either of those.

Out comes our bread and drinks; I had a Strawberry smoothie and Mum orders a Pina Colada. Dad orders a wild mushroom soup for starter (which he raves about) and Mum orders a little house salad.

As it turned out, the Salmon came out with butter and sauce on! Haha; serves you right for not asking in the first place. I have the Pulled Pork sandwich which is just OK really; Mum and Rob both have the Shepherds pie again; and Holly has the Pasta Marinara.

I skip the cheesecake for now and will get some on the way out; but Rob has a Godiva Brownie something or other which could feed the 5000 (well, Holly helped quite considerably) and Dad had the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake.

We pay the $116 + tip bill and I end up working all out wrong so somehow we end up paying way more than our share; oh well.

We pick up a couple of pieces of cheesecake on the way out. Mum and Dad give us $20 towards gas on the way back to the villa for their "share"; that goes a long way towards the $120 we've spent so far, thanks guys.

We get back to the villa and pig the cheesecake (hence no photos again, sorry guys!). Holly has a bath and hair wash, and then Rob, me and Holly head on out to DTD to get some more Mr. Potato Head pieces to complete the missing items from yesterday.

This was almost as much fun as yesterday. Holly was climbing all over the display, picking up an arm here, a nose there; and coming back with armfuls of stuff saying "i need this, i need that" then running off to get more stuff which we dutifully crammed in to the box until it was overflowing.

When we were here yesterday we asked the cast member if they had ever refused a box because it had too much in it; and to our surprise they said no! So we made the most of that today and our box barely closed. We did however have more big pieces and very few smaller items today so couldn't make use of all the gaps in the box very well.

Box filled and paid for, we head out of the shop just as a Hula Hooping competition is starting on the stage and Holly wants to join in. She may not be able to Hula yet but she certainly did enjoy it.

Well that is until she trips over and gets a massive gash on her knee (by the way, we're almost 4 weeks on now and she is still complaining that her knee hurts! ). I feel quite bad after as I thought it was just another graze but it is actually quite big (not doctor or hospital big or anything though). So, the world has now come to an end; we hurry back to the villa and I sit in the back of the car with her screaming all the way back. Wow that's a long trip home.

Magic cream is out (savlon) along with a rather large Nemo knee plaster (thank goodness I remembered to pack those), some "pink goo" (Calpol), and some icecream and she starts to settle down a bit and heads to bed.

Rob plays pool with Dad for a bit with the new queues the management company had left us; I set up a couple more Mr. Potato Heads and then we head for bed about 10:15 but it's boiling in here tonight. The aircon is up the wall where the management company still haven't adjusted the time on the unit correctly.

Total Spends for today: $83.95

Thanks for reading!

Next Day - Day 9

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Gratuitous cat photo of the day

[joanna23]

Great day, Blizzard Beach is a great favourite of ours. I made the mistake of taking my DD (14 months) on Teamboat Springs. It is fast and we weren't expecting it. We couldn't stop laughing. Love the Potato Head family.

[Guest]

Great read, awe poor Holly wot a shame, we love BB too and teamboat springs hope we get a warm enough day next week to go, looking forward to tomorrow hope you get it on before i go

[Guest]

Awwww, poor Holly (this message is for Holly... I still cry if I graze my knee and I'm 2 point 3, oh wait, 23... I'm not in Disney )

Love your reports... MORE please

[jbrockwell5081]

Oh I'm annoyed. I had just answered all the above posts and was about to press Post but it deleted all my reply

I'll try and repost individual replies when I have a bit more time.

[Guest]

Another great day!

[Redrach1903]

Another great day. Bless Holly on that water slide!

Lol @ your dad in the cheesecake factory - karma huh!

Totally love her wee outfit and hair bow - adorable!

xx