Returning to Jamerica! Day 11 - Rest Day / Manny's Chophouse / Epcot

[JoJo88]

Returning to Jamerica! November 2013

INDEX

Day 11 – Rest Day / Manny's Chophouse / Epcot

Sunday 17th November

Okay, so despite telling you that yesterday’s report was going to be brief, I still managed to ramble on a bit (mainly by including the villa review), so here, when I tell you that today is going to brief, I do actually mean it. Or do I... ?!

Here we go……

Today’s plan was, well actually, today was the kind of day that was open to suggestions – the only thing on the agenda was to be at Epcot later on in the evening for Illuminations. My most vivid memories of an evening at Epcot are from 2009. I remember walking away in tears after Illuminations, and I feared that today would be no exception – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, I don’t want to spoil it for you

I woke up this morning feeling slightly better than I had yesterday, which was a good start to the day but I still popped some more magic pills just to try and hurry things along! We had a chat about what to do, and the general consensus was that we’d have a relaxing one, and see what happened. The boys were pretty tired out to be honest, we’d barely stopped since we’d arrived, and I will say that even though I’ve barely mentioned it in this report, they were both getting extremely tetchy with one another. Lots of unnecessary bickering and at times it did get me down.

There was once occasion, and I can’t remember for sure which park we were in, but I do remember Simon & I were strolling along, having had to separate the boys after another spat, and we both agreed that we were feeling a little ‘Disneyed out’. I know right?! We both felt a little bit like we were going through the motions, I have a feeling it was at Hollywood Studios, which would have been our third day there. I know a few people talking about jetlag, and hitting ‘the wall’, so maybe this was our way of hitting the wall, and the boys being as they were just added to that feeling.

Anyway, a rest day was agreed on, but we all know that a rest day doesn’t really mean a rest day! As we had no immediate plans we decided to head out for breakfast, and after a little look at our options we chose Bob Evans down Hwy 192.

We pitched up about 9.30 and were shown to a table and handed our menus. Honestly, I find some menus very confusing, and this one was no exception. There just seemed to be so many variations and too many choices so in the end I had to work out what I wanted through process of elimination. Which is why a buffet breakfast works so much better for me 

I’m afraid we are very short on photos again for today (blame Daniel) and so you will have to use your imagination to picture what we had but it shouldn’t be difficult:

3 x Eggs & Meat Breakfasts @ $6.49 each
1 x Farmer’s Choice @ $8.49
1 x English Muffin @ $1.99

Along with 4 x juice @ $2.39 each and 1 x kid’s juice @ $1.99.

Total bill came to $40.80.

Of course, lack of photos (and memory) means that I’m not actually sure what all the above was apart from the obvious, but I do remember that Daniel didn’t like his muffin. Also, we will have had turkey sausages as none of us like bacon, and Adam won’t have liked his eggs as they would have been different to the ones he has at home.

I’ve just found a page of the menu online for you to enjoy – you’re welcome

The food was all fine, nothing special, nothing wrong with it, and enjoyed (by most) none-the-less. I remember looking at the little info cards they have on the tables and seeing one for Thanksgiving Dinner To Go where they cook it all for you and then you just pick it up. (And no doubt pretend you’d done it all yourself – not that I would EVER do that, of course not…….)

However, this is where the day took a turn for the worse for me, as within minutes of getting in the car I felt a certain familiar rumbling coming from my stomach. I wasn’t hungry, not possible after having just eaten, so that could only mean one thing, and if Simon didn’t get his foot down pretty sharpish, this wasn’t going to be pretty……

I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say I was relieved when we pulled up outside the villa, and I was in that house and up those stairs quicker than a – oh, you know the rest by now!

The boys had taken it upon themselves to enjoy some pool time, and the rest of us (me after taking yet more medication!) sat on the side and kept an eye on them. After a little while we decided to head over to Rolling Oaks and have a look in TJ Maxx (TK’s brother I assume?) and the other shops over there.

I can’t find my receipt for what we bought here but I do know that Simon shopped up a storm in the underwear department. It was something like $12 for 3 pairs of Calvin Klein’s so he loaded himself up with every pack he could find in his size! Adam got himself some headphones for around $16 which sadly didn’t last very long once we got home to the UK. I think that’s all we bought. We had a quick look in Dollar Tree, but with my dicky tum I was quite keen to get back to the safety of the villa! I don’t really know what caused the upset, maybe the magic pills, or breakfast, or even just anxiety, knowing that we were coming to the end of the holiday. I used to suffer with IBS many years ago, and every now & then it rears its ugly head. Back then I pinpointed a few foods that seemed to cause it but stress & anxiety were the main contributors. So on this day, perhaps it was a combination of all three!

Once back at the villa we chilled out for a little while longer. Mum put on a wash, including Simon’s new purchases as well as the Coke t-shirt he’d bought a few days earlier. I mention this because, when taking the washing out of the machine, Mum couldn’t help but notice that the white band on all of Simon’s new Calvin’s was now a fetching shade of pink! Even my black leggings had noticeable streaks of red in them. It looked like there’d been some kind of massacre! Oh dear! We said to Mum that it really didn’t matter, Simon’s a confident man, not afraid to wear pink, especially when nobody except me is likely to see it! However Mum put everything (except the offending t shirt) straight back in the wash to see if she could get it out, and miracle upon miracle it worked – every little last trace of fuschia disappeared. Unfortunately the Coke t shirt had also disappeared on first wash and was completely thread bare, two sizes smaller and pretty much see through, not to mention a gorgeous shade of salmon!

Similar to this, but less Bieber, and more Rab C Nesbitt……

Simon might be confident, but he’s not that confident, so I fished out the receipt for the t shirt and put it aside to take back to Target at some point.

At around 3.30pm talk turned to where to go for tea and we soon decided on an early one at Manny’s. I was feeling a little bit more settled by this point, but still didn’t leave home without these trusty companions

I know, I know, I’ve shared far too much in this report, I’ll stop now, and rest assured, there’ll be minimal illness talk for the rest of the holiday. Talking of which, my cold was much better! Every cloud…….

We got to Manny’s for around 4.15 having called ahead, and were seated straight away.

I have no idea what is going on in this photo, suggestions on a postcard please!

Whatever it is I’m saying, it looks as though Simon is thinking ‘if I ignore her for long enough, hopefully she’ll shut up! ’.

Random restaurant shot:

Once again we perused the menus, but, creatures of habit that we are, we pretty much all ordered the same as before, only Mum didn’t go for the Lobster this time, and Simon & I had chips rather than jacket potatoes. No photos, but I’ll borrow them from our last visit just to add some colour to the trippy.

Me & Simon
9oz Filet Mignon $19.98 each

Just substitute the potato for chips!

Mum had the same but a 7oz version @ $17.98 with a scoop of mushrooms @ $1.29.

Adam
Big Cheeseburger $8.29

Daniel
Kid’s Chicken Fingers $3.99

The boys got to work doodling on the table…

…while we waited for our rolls & salad which we then all tucked into.

We also ordered soft drinks ($2.15 for the grown ups, $0.99 for small people) and asked for 4 bottles of the salad dressing to take home, which were $4.69 each. Me & Mum had two bottles each, and we’ve loved recreating the salads at home, with varying degrees of success. I’m almost out of it now

The food was fantastic as usual, but tinged with a little sadness with us now being near the end of the holiday, compared to our first visit to Manny’s which was near the start.

Total bill came to $105.61 incl tax but no tip.

We made our way out of Manny’s at around 5.30pm, stopping to take a couple of photos:

Bye bye for now Manny’s, see you next time

Continued in the next post...

[JoJo88]

Continued from above...

From Manny’s we headed back towards Walt Disney World, and to the Boardwalk. We love having a stroll around here, particularly at night time, and if we were to ever stay on-site, my choice would be one of the Epcot resorts. I think Simon would agree.

We parked up at around 5.50pm with no problem at all. I told Simon to tell the CM on the gate that we were visiting Beaches & Cream – did you spot my error?! The CM informed Simon that we were in the wrong place for that and that we actually needed the Beach Club . (I knew that really, obviously got things a bit mixed up in my weakened state!) Still, she let us in and we soon found a parking space – not a good one, but it was a parking space!

We had a little wander around – Mum had her eye on a cart selling funnel cake, so she stored that snippet of information for later.

We then hopped on a friendship boat over to Epcot to get ready for Illuminations.

I had a quick look in ImageWorks when we got to Epcot, and picked up a couple of filled pencil cases as a thank you to the children next door for looking after Charlie. Simon then suggested that perhaps I should buy them and take them home instead of just picking them up, so I did – they were $19.95 each…..

We had a little bit of time to kill and so knowing full well that we had a snowball in hell’s chance of getting on either Soarin’ or Test Track, we went in the direction of Spaceship Earth instead, which was of course a walk on. I’ve never known it to be anything but a walk on!

We stopped off in Club Cool first

And then carried on round to Spaceship Earth.

The boys sat together, Simon & I sat together, something he was obviously very excited about

So poor old Grandma had to sit by herself. She was probably grateful for the 10 minutes peace & quiet! In fact, she was probably still thinking about the funnel cake she was going to have later…..

I really enjoy Spaceship Earth, but there was one part of the ride that struck a chord with me.

It’s not a great photo (I found it online), but it’s of the family all sat together watching the moon landing. And the reason it struck a chord is because I liked how it looked, and realised that just sitting around together, all in the same room, doing the same thing isn’t something that happens very often in our house any more. I know that TV is different these days, in that we are no longer dictated to by the TV stations as to what we watch and when, and that in itself has changed how a lot of families’ evenings are spent, I’m sure. But in our house, we are generally all spread out, one or both boys might be on the X Box, another will be plugged into earphones doing something on a tablet, Simon & I will also be on phones or tablets, surfing the net or whatever with something random on the TV in the background.

So now, since being home, we make sure that every now and then we do all sit down together to watch something on TV, or play a game with no other distractions. And dinner times are always together now, (time permitting) whereas before the boys would usually eat earlier than us simply because of Simon not getting in from work until late. I now make them wait! Sentimental mush coming up……. Adam starts secondary school soon, and I’ve heard how they generally leave home on the morning of their first day, and get delivered back to you at the end of the day a completely different person, and I’m not ready for that yet. (Well, sometimes I am, and actually pray for it!). And so I’m now trying to grab as many moments with the boys as I can without interfering too much in what they actually want to do Looking back over old holiday photos while writing this report has really brought home how much they are both growing up, and I realise that it won’t be long before Simon & I will be going off on holidays on our own again. And as much as it sounds appealing at times, I do know that once you get to that stage there’s no going back

2009

2011

2013

Wow, wandered off for a bit there didn’t I?! Sorry about that!

When we were returned safely back to earth we looked out for us on the big screens and successfully spotted me & Simon:

It was still only 7.30 by now so we decided to have a look round Mouse Gear (well, me & Mum did ).

I seized the moment and bought myself some goodies….

Victorian Mickey & Minnie Christmas Countdown Ornament $34.95

2013 Disney Christmas Tree Decoration $16.95 (wow, that was expensive!)

And some corn holders ($4.95) & a pack of two Mickey hand clips ($5.95). One of them has since gone AWOL

I also really loved this ornament but it didn’t come boxed so I was a bit wary about getting it home and so left it

I love being at Disney at this time of year, and being able to stock up on Christmas bits & pieces. I know there’s the Christmas Shop at DTD all year round, but I’m not sure it would be the same buying that sort of thing in August. Give it a couple of months and I’ll let you know...

It was 8 o’clock by now so made sense to find somewhere to watch the fireworks. I stopped off quickly at Starbucks to grab a Cherry Jubilee Mocha ($3.99). It sounded like it might be sickly, but I love anything with cherries so got one anyway, and I was right, it was sickly. I’ll never learn though!

We walked round towards UK pavilion and found a perfect spot on the bridge between UK & France. Perfect also because we were right by the International Gateway, or International Getaway as it was known that night!

We had a little while to wait still, but there was a nice atmosphere around there, and we had fun watching the Illuminations cruise boats dock beneath us. I realise a photograph would have been good around about now (Daniel!)

Just on the stroke of 9pm, the lights were lowered and the sound of a slow drum beat began, beating faster and faster until the first explosion of light and colour was above us. And that was it, once the music kicked in I was gone. Tears pricked my eyes but there was nothing I could do to stop them, and soon enough they were making tracks down my cheeks. I turned towards Adam and could see that he was struggling to hold it in as well (he’s his mother’s son!). I’m filling up now just thinking about it!

The rest of the show was brilliant as usual, we had a fantastic view of everything from where we were. By the time the final song, We Go On started playing, I was a complete mess, proper shoulder shuffle sobs – pathetic isn’t it?! And poor old Adam, he was in bits as well. Mum wasn’t holding up too well either, but I think Daniel was able to keep it together. And as for Simon? He might have looked fine out the outside, but I bet he was crying inside

And then, just to make matters worse, there’s the little thank you speech as you leave:

“Ladies and gentleman, the entire Epcot family thanks you for having been with us for ‘Illuminations: Reflections of Earth’. We hope that your visit to the Walt Disney World Resort has been a truly magical experience for you and yours. We wish you a pleasant evening and a safe journey home. Thank you and good night.”

And then another song, Promise, that just about finished me off. Any more and they’d have to drag me away kicking & screaming…….. Perhaps I need to schedule Illuminations in for the start of the holiday next time, and not the end!

I walked away from Epcot for the last time this holiday, silently, hand in hand with Adam. I honestly think he has the Disney bug, he’s very sentimental, and loves tradition, he’s sooooo like me. He has even said that he is getting married at Disney, so there’s something for me to look forward to!

Through the International Getaway there was a boat waiting at the dock so we boarded that back to the Boardwalk which gave me time to compose myself under the cover of darkness! Once we were back at the resort I'd pulled myself together - it’s the saying goodbye that’s always the hardest part isn’t it?!

As we got to the Boardwalk we stopped to watch a magician. Adam loves magic, and has done since he was very little so he was absolutely thrilled to be chosen as the magician’s assistant for one of his tricks.

Adam had to jumble up a Rubik’s Cube and then the magician completed it blindfolded. Pretty impressive if you ask me!

We watched the rest of the show and then took a stroll around some of the shops, stopping off at Boardwalk Bakery for some treats.

Daniel chose a chocolate chip cookie ($2.39), Adam had an Oreo Cupcake ($4.19) and I chose a Cannoli ($3.39), simply because Marie Barone off Everybody Loves Raymond makes them. I didn’t actually know what it was!

We love Everybody Loves Raymond, such a brilliant show – we have them all on Sky+ and are working our way through them all again, episode by episode. I didn’t, however, love the Cannoli, which was a little pastry tube with cream inside. It was okay, just nothing special. I bet Marie Barone’s are better!

Simon didn’t have anything from the Bakery and neither did Mum as she was saving herself for her funnel cake which she bought from the little cart she had seen earlier, and promptly shared with the rest of us. We may pay a visit to the Boardwalk in August, and I’m sure if we do we’ll be partaking in a little funnel cake action!

After we’d finished our goodies we headed back to the car park, and back to the villa, trying not to think too much about the fact that the last few days of the holiday were upon us. On the journey home I reminded Simon about our conversation earlier in the holiday, about feeling ‘Disneyed out’, and admitted that, after a few days away from the parks, and after the lovely evening we’d just had, I no longer felt that way. “I know” was the reply I got, “I know”…….

Day 12 - Magic Kingdom / Texas De Brazil

[Guest]

Another great day. Love the whole Boardwalk, Yacht Club, Epcot area, I WILL stay there soon (and when I mean soon, I obviously mean a very long time away). I'm a bit of an ornament hoarder as well, clothes shopping, couldn't care less but I often find myself in a shop like World of Disney or the Christmas one constantly going "ooh, that's nice"

And don't worry about Adam and Daniel not wanting to go away with you, as long as you keep going back to Florida, they'll keep coming (especially if mum and dad are paying!)

On a side note, wonder what was up with you having a funny belly, I sometimes get that and put it down to the difference in food, I eat more chips in 2 weeks away than I probably do in a month back home. Anyway, great day. See you on the next.

[sandshal]

Another fab day Jo xxx

[yellowrose78]

Brilliant day, thanks for sharing

[Wozi]

Another great day, and read

[Guest]

Shame about your tummy troubles today - 3 or 4 days of the same on our last trip was not pleasant, so I feel your pain. Had to 'lol' at the t-shirt washing incident, although annoying that a new purchase was ruined (hopefully you'll get this sorted before you leave).

Loved your report as always but I do wish there was a way to 'un-see' those Bieber crop tops. Highly disturbing.

[kellie]

another fab day apart form you not feeling too great

glad you felt better and managed to enjoy your day

[Milner]

Fantastic day.

[Guest]

Made me cry reading about your emotional au revoir to Epcot. Honestly the whole Disney, Florida thing makes me go everytime.