Bayous to Beaches. October 2019. Day 1. And on the First day you shall shop till you drop. Orlando.

[WileyCoyote]

Orlando 1 October

Yesterday, travel day and arriving in Orlando is ...HERE

Today we shopped. A lot.

So if you don’t really like shopping this day is not for you.

I have put the pics of our buys into the second post so its not too dull for non shoppers.

Today was probably going to be our only stop in Orlando so we intended to make the most of it on the shopping front ... having made a good start last night.

Non shoppers will be pleased to know there are very few purchases in the following week after this.

Shoppers and regular readers will be slightly horrified by that revelation but have no fear, normal service is resumed later in the trip.

Back to the day in hand.

Despite it being a very comfy bed I woke up every hour at 2.30, 3.30 and 4.30.

I had a headache and was thirsty and by 4.40 Andy was awake too so we had a coffee and watched a bit of tv and did manage to doze a bit until 6.30.

I do love that first morning feeling watching WESH tv news in bed. It’s the thing that says “hello Orlando holiday ” for me

By 7.30 we were already downstairs for breakfast. What a shame the shops don’t open till 10

We had planned to go to Perkins to use the 20% sign up voucher that I had, but we were handed free breakfast slips when we checked in so decided we would give it a try

It’s a small dining area and quite busy - you hand the slip in and are given your crockery and glasses.

They had a small selection of fruit and yoghurt, bread, bagels, a few cereals and then hot items - sausages, scrambled eggs, hash browns, French toast , gritz.

They also had starbucks coffee in the dispensers or you could pay and have a speciality starbucks like a cappuccino or whatever.

Limited pic as it was too crowded to get a decent photo and I hadn’t yet got my trippy groove on with buffet set ups

As a freebie, it was perfectly fine.

We decided to just take a drive round the are with no particular destination in mind.

Endless Summer resort was looking fine

Just as well as we we had no place to go as e discovered the sat nav was still playing up so it might take us a while to get to the outlets.

It wouldn’t hold any charge even when plugged in and it kept turning itself off.

We thought this would be easily sorted with a replacement charger lead so headed to the nearest Target . Which didnt sell sat navs nor have a suitable lead. Ho hum . We don’t feel the love for Target at all. Oh the Dibb shame

Off to Walmart, where despite numerous attempts with other leads, the blasted box still wouldn’t work and we were now considering whether to just get a new one.

I also contemplated jumping into this sweetie display in a fit of childish hysteria . Like an adult ball pit. But with sweets.

I think I might patent that as an idea. Could be in to something

Andy also denied me purchasing one of these in every character pointing out the upcoming flight tomorrow and luggage space.

I also desperately wanted mini pumpkins

It was already 1030 by now and all we had done was try and sort the sat nav out and find stuff we couldn’t buy

Recriminations were being exchanged by now about who possibly packed the wrong sat nav (that would be me of course ) and who was actually responsible for putting out the right sat nav to be packed in the first place (that would not be me ).

All because we have several at home, of which only one really works and this clearly wasn’t it.

Ah this is an epic start. Lots of driving in the weeks ahead, knackered sat nav and both grumpy.

Outstanding.

Look it’s that ball pit idea . I knew I was on to something.

Recognising that by now it’s almost 11 am we had achieved naff all we headed down to the clearance outlets at Kissimmee.

I am not sure we will visit here again as the Nike has gone and the Tommy Hilfiger was a nightmare.

After deciding to get a few things I stayed to queue while Andy headed off to buy a new sat nav.

Some 45 minutes later neither of us had made much progress. I dont queue for rides this long.

The people in front of me had bags and bags and more bags of stuff that they either wanted to ...

Pay for it in $100 notes that all needed checking one by one

And/or...

Look at each item and inspect it thoroughly to decide if they still wanted it , including, but not limited to showing it to every other family member, store staff, passers by and any other Tom Dick or Harry unfortunate enough to be in the store for their opinion as well.

They really didn’t want to know my opinion On what they could do with it.

Buy. Don’t buy.
Who cares.
Just get on with it.

And/or ...

Then let said other family members bring their all their stuff to be cashed up as well

Who proceeded to go through one bag at a time and then start the whole rigamarole all over again.

Ah just stick pins in my eyes someone. I was completely fed up and half tempted to just leave the things we had.

I am glad i didn’t as they weren’t in the other stores but oh my life this was a painful shop.

Lots of very British vexed tutting ensued.

An hour later I walked out . I repeat. An hour later .

5 minutes after that Andy turned up. Things on the up then.

Got some haul and now a sat nav that works and is much better than the one sat at home.

Once we got it to work that is

A few tense moments setting it up and I suspect a few non Disney words spoken too

We headed to the Nike down near Celebration and then made our way to the Panera Bread at the Vineland outlets. So far so good with the traffic, we had managed to miss any major hold ups

After a slightly fractious morning, we stopped here for lunch.

What a little oasis of calm this was. Service was excellent and the food superb. We were surprised by the volume too. Such good quality

Andy chose the Steak and Cheese toasted sandwich that came with some crisps.

I went for the half and half. Half a Turkey,Cheese and Apple sandwich with a small mac’n’cheese. It came with some of their flatbread.

And I had a cheery Cheese Brittany as well.

It was all absolutely delicious. The bread on my sandwich was gorgeous.

We could really have shared just one meal as it was much more than we had planned for.

From there we went across to the outlets and straight to an empty space - result

Look, empty space . No stalking required

Managed to pick up some decent buys in Polo and Adidas and also Lacoste.


Andy wouldn’t buy this though. No fun.

Thought the Disney store was disappointing. It was a jumble of stuff and crazy in there.

Picked up a couple more nice dresses in Tommy Hilfiger and as i went to leave the changing room caught sight of the back of my dress and it had horrible marks on it which looked like i had pooped myself.

I was horrified and spent the next 5 minutes frantically using wet wipes to get the offending marks out.

Note to self about eating chocolate in the car , dropping it and then and sitting in it .

Ah well, now i just had a wet patch so that didn’t look bad at all either did it

And it’s always the palest patch of clothes that attracts marks isn’t it, never the dark bit that would hide it.

I shuffled out in a crab like fashion, positioning my bag awkwardly over my butt with Andy laughing at me, as he pointed out its not like I knew anyone so who cares if they were sniggering.

I was mortified.

Thank goodness for Florida heat as it was soon all dry and despite deep paranoia every time i passed a mirror I didn’t have to swop to one of my new purchases

Just before 4.30 we headed to the Outlet Market place and picked up a few things at Calvin Klein and Nike.

I was tiring a little and stayed in the car while Andy went to the Adidas a little further along.

From there it was a stop at the Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando where Andy popped in the Zebra Bar and I nipped across to the Tommy Hilfiger store. I did get a couple of jumpers but am not sure it was worth the trek this time.

We were both flagging now so headed for dinner at the Red Lobster just around the corner from the hotel passing the Endless Summer buildings again. Traffic was heavy on the I4, but going the other way

This was a great choice - not busy, round the corner from the hotel and served quickly.

The cheddar biscuits came out quickly - we didnt eat them all though,finally learned not to do that and fill up before dinner comes out !

I went for the superb value $16.99 4 course feast and a Bahama Mama ($7.99)

A small cup of Potato and bacon Soup

Caesar Salad

Coconut Shrimp with rice

And upgraded to dessert to the Key Lime Pie to go ( promptly leaving it in the fridge the next morning when we left for New Orleans. Tragedy TBH)

All of it was delicious

Andy went for the endless shrimp .

You get two sides with the first lot of shrimp and then they keep topping up as required on the shrimp. He went with Garlic and Nashville ( not on the menu but a spicy hot sauce) with fries and coleslaw.

The first lot completely defeated him so not so endless in the end

He had a water as he was driving

Excellent value $46 for all that food. We had a great server and left a $10 tip.

By now we were dog tired - although my dogs seem tired all the time so maybe not the best comparison

We were back at the hotel by 8pm and it took me an hour or so to pack away the shopping

and re pack one of the cases so it would see us through our stay in Louisiana and include some of the new purchases.

Finally all done and the case labels written for tomorrows flight.

It was about 9.30 and we thought about another trip to the bar but we were too tired and decide just to go to bed.

After a while I had to get up as there was some light coming in from the curtain and some creepy tree waving its branches so it was like one of those things you see in a horror movie with wavy branch silhouette on the wall and it was proper freaking me out.

Of course if i pulled the curtain one way, it just let light in the other end.

Why don’t they make the damn curtains wide enough to block it out properly?

Cunning use of the lamp to wedge one end and it was pitch back now so i could sleep easy.

Early wake up tomorrow for the flight to New Orleans -which is HERE

Some pics sourced via google images