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24 Apr 19, 04:18 PM |
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Apprentice Imagineer
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Team Groves are Florida Bound! October 2017 Day 9
Day 9:
Saturday 14th October 2017 Villa time, Bonefish Grill and Seaworld Both kids had a little bit of a lie in this morning after yesterday’s late night. We had another slow morning in the villa. They watched a movie in the film room, played with their toys and obviously had some swimming time. It was a lovely relaxed morning and it was times like this that confirmed a villa is the right choice for us. My kids needed some time to relax and it just wouldn’t have been possible in a hotel room. Our plan for the afternoon was to go and get lunch and then visit seaworld for the Halloween event. Clearly we didn’t feel we had collected enough chocolate the night before! We left the villa at 11.30 and drove up to international drive. We hadn’t decided where we were going to go for lunch, we thought we’d just see what restaurants were close by to seaworld. We ended up deciding on Bonefish Grill. This was a new one for us but we had heard good things. When we walked in I felt like we’d made a bad choice. It seemed a bit too fancy for us. Lol . The tables were all very formally laid out and each one had a number of wine glasses on. I rather eat at more family friendly restaurants so that we can relax a bit. Grayson has a lot of energy and fidgets a lot at the table. So all the extra glasses make me nervous! But we were inside now and it felt rude to leave. As it was still early, barely noon, the restaurant was extremely quiet with just one other table occupied. It wasn’t the most relaxed meal as it felt like a very formal environment. But the food was nice and served its purpose. But I don’t think it’s one we will rush back to. We finished up quickly and were done by 1pm and driving into the Seaworld carpark at 1.10pm. ** I’m not going to go into the debate around seaworld. I don’t think it’s a straightforward subject and there is no easy answer no matter what anyone tries to say. ** We were parked up right at the end of the carpark which was a bit of a bummer, but not unexpected as it was a weekend and it was the middle of the day. Today are only aim was the Halloween activities as we were planning on returning later in the holiday. Getting into this park always feels like a bit of a chore and today was no different. They certainly aren’t as efficient as Disney. Although the staff today were all very happy and friendly. We walked around to the new rollercoaster called Mako so that Simon could try it out. I didn’t feel like doing a single rider today. By the time we got there Grayson has fallen asleep in the stroller and so I took him and Miley into a gift shop and looked around whilst we waited for Simon. I think there was a technical issue as it ended up taking Simon longer than we had expected. So we left the gift shop and waited outside for him, as the shop was only small and I felt dodgy doing laps of it with my stroller! He appeared after about 20 minutes and said the ride was amazing. He encouraged me to try it but I just didn’t feel like doing single rider today. I generally much prefer to ride with people so I’ll only do single rider if I’m in the right mood! Miley and I were both boiling hot now as we’d been waiting around in the heat for Simon. So the next stop was ice-cream! We’d been to this place on our last trip and the ice cream had been great. But this time the service was terrible. The server couldn’t understand our order no matter how many times we explained. It became very frustrating and we ended up without getting exactly what we wanted. Miley wanted a vanilla soft serve with caramel sauce and fresh strawberries and I wanted a vanilla soft serve with caramel sauce and Oreo pieces. Sounds simple enough. All of these toppings were listed on the soft serve menu, so we didn’t anticipate it being a problem. But it was. The member of staff spoke very broken English and so just was not understanding what we were saying. We were pointing at the menu and everything in the end. But nope. Miley ended up with caramel sauce and sprinkles which she was happy with. And I ended up with just plan Oreo pieces. It was nice but I really wanted caramel sauce too! It was frustrating but what can you do. We paid and went and sat outside to eat the ice-creams. Poor Grayson was still asleep in the stroller so didn’t get any. Grayson was very almost 4 years old at this point. His birthday would be two weeks after we got back. Lots of people thought he shouldn’t need a stroller, but days like this showed we really needed it. He obviously needed to rest bless him. Anyway we enjoyed our ice cream break and then we took a stroll around to the start of the Halloween candy trail. Miley was very excited and she and Simon picked up two candy bags, one for her and one for Grayson. And we were off! This was a fun event and the trail was really nicely decorated with lovely bright decor. The amount of candy given at each station was different and I assume was dictated by the company sponsoring that station. The Oreo chocolate bar station was the most generous! We walked along the trail once and came to the section near the lake where they had fairground type games and some characters to meet etc. You could buy a game pass which gave you access to five games. I believe it was $20, but can’t say for sure. As Grayson was still asleep we let Miley have three turns on the games. They were guaranteed a prize every time which I thought was good, I assumed we would come away with 5 small toys. On the first game Miley played she won the large prize! Argh! She chose a plush toy which is a pizza slice and is almost the same size as her! Luckily on the next two games she won small prizes thank goodness! She’d had her three turns so we went over and had photos taken with their characters. Miley was too nervous to meet them alone so Simon went with her. They were odd but were being very funny, although I can’t remember what they were saying now. we walked back the other way as Simon had agreed to let her have her face painted. She chose to be a cat (no surprise there at all!) and whilst she was having this done Grayson finally woke up! It was 3pm now, so he’d been asleep for about 90 minutes! Mileys face paint was finished so Grayson chose to get his done as well. It was actually really well done and I was particularly impressed with Mileys cat! Both kids suitably pleased we went and headed for the Halloween candy trail again so that Grayson could have a turn. He obviously enjoyed this greatly because what kid doesn’t like getting given sweets! We reached the funfair games section and Grayson used up the last two tokens left on our games pass. In the first game he won a small toy. Yay! Then in the second game guess what he won! A large toy! Argh! And guess what he chose? The large pizza slice! Yes we ended up with two of them! All I could think of was how on Earth we would manage to get them home! The sight of the two kids each with a giant pizza slice provided much amusement to other guests! Americans seemed genuinely excited we had won two big prizes! Where as English guests found it amusing in a ‘I’m glad I’m not the one who has to fit those in a suitcase’ type of way! Grayson managed to smudge his face paint on his and this was the way they told them apart from then on! Weighed down by candy and soft toys we headed towards the exit. The kids feeling very pleased with themselves. They paused to watch some dolphins on the way out. We left at 3.40 and we were back at the villa around 4.15 where the kids decided to check out the combined candy haul. It doesn’t look like a lot but that table was really really big! They were also very pleased with their new soft toys! Yay! We did manage to fit both the pizza slices in suitcases and bring them home. We did toy with the idea of leaving them behind but Miley cried her eyes out when she thought that might happen. So home they came! We did dinner in the villa again as the kids weren’t particularly hungry so we made use of the food we had in the fridge and pantry. |
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