From Pacific to Atlantic - August 2019: Day 1 (US, Toothsome,IoA)

[sarmori]

We woke up at about 4.45am - we had all slept soundly but were now wide awake! We sat playing on devices until about 6am when we started showering and getting ready. We went to the club lounge at 7am and had a variety of random breakfast foods. The pastries got a thumbs up but the oatmeal was not great. We went back to our room, sun creamed up and set off walking to the park. It was a pleasant walk that took about 10-15 mins and we were in the park just after 8am (early opening for on site guests).

More random breakfast food.

On the walk in.

Another photo on the walk in.

We headed to Gringotts along with everyone else and then had a nightmare trying to work out how to use the lockers. We wanted a big locker because we had a bag with us, but managed to pay for a locker that was connected to someone else's ticket so we had to get the attendant to come and help us! Eventually into the queue - it's really impressive inside with all of the goblin animatronics and the massive chandeliers (but no photos apart from the green screen one because I left my phone in the locker). The ride is a lot of fun, especially the bits in the dark where you feel like you are flying!

We wandered around the Harry Potter area for a while and DD had a look in the shops. She is a massive HP fan so enjoys this area. I am not - but it is so well themed you have to be impressed.

Harry Potter land (I know it is not called that but I can never remember which area is which!).

Not sure what they were so interested in here - they were pointing in the direction of the restrooms!

We went on the Simpsons ride which was great (DH favourite as he enjoys the jokes).

Men in Black was up next and it was a walk on. Probably actually slowed us down being in the express line as we had to stop to get our photos taken. The scores on the doors were DH 117200, DD 67320, DS 79840 and me 32410. Last time we were here I beat DH by a mile and he insisted that it was because his gun was not working - he says today's scores are proof that was the case!

We were all concentrating on MiB - except DS.

We walked back over toward Fast and Furious and stopped at Richter burger for an early lunch ( 11am!). The burger and fries were actually really good surprisingly and we all really enjoyed them. The kids both had a chocolate thick shake - so thick it came with a spoon!

We then watched a couple of shows - I am not sure what they were called but they were builders playing buckets and trash cans like drums. Then we watched the Blues Brothers show which was great - we also enjoyed embarrassing the children by singing and dancing along.

We decided to head out of the park now - planning to go swimming back at the hotel. We went on the Jimmy Fallon ride on the way out. We went on this ride last time we were here and really enjoyed it, although we had no idea who Jimmy Fallon was. Since then DD has watched lots of his shows on YouTube and can do a great impression of him as the character Sarah (Sarah with no H because H is ew!).

We got back to the hotel at about 1.30pm and went to the club lounge for some cold drinks. We rested in our room for awhile, waiting for the pool to open because there were some thunderstorms coming so it was closed. It never did open but we were quite happy having a break and a lie down!

We watched quite an interesting show about JP Morgan, Edison, Rockerfeller and Carnegie - very educational for holiday viewing!

We went back up to the club lounge, but didn't really fancy the food there much - we had a little bit but decided to go out for dinner.

At about 5pm we got the boat down to city walk to go for dinner at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. We had to wait about 15 minutes for a table which wasn't too bad. While we were waiting we saw some steampunk characters in the shop.

Love the outfits.

We were obviously keen to have a dessert here and didn't want to fill up too much on savoury stuff so we ordered two appetisers to share - Philly cheesesteak rolls and baked Brie with chocolate almond bread.

Baked Brie with almond bread - delicious!

I chose waffles with bananas foster and cream - it was very nice. The others ordered a sundae each but didn't appreciate how huge they would be!

The huge Chocolate Brownie bark sundae that DD had - there were at least 4 massive pieces of brownie in it.

DH and DS both had the May contain Nuts sundae each - which was lovely but absolutely huge.

DS with his sundae so you can see how large it was! No surprise but they were unable to eat all of the food. DD asked for a doggy bag and we took some of the brownie away with us.

Lovely chocolate stuff in the shop at Toothsome.

Macaron.

We then did something a bit dumb and went into Islands of Adventure and walked the whole way round the park. Probably too much walking for me in one day - I got tendonitis in my hips after we were here last time so I said I would take it a bit easier this time, so I've failed on Day one!

We went on Kong Skull Island which was really good although I hated the bit with the spider things (closed my eyes) and I held on to both DS and DH for dear life!

After that we went round to the Popeye & Olive boat and spent some time squirting people going by on the Bilge-Rat Barges. There is nothing more fun than squirting complete strangers with water!

We walked round to the Harry Potter area as we were thinking about watching the evening show / fireworks but the area was absolutely rammed and there was still about half an hour to go, so we decided to walk out.

We walked back - I had walked my legs off by that point so I was really glad to get back to the hotel! Total step count for the day according to my Fitbit was 26,834 steps! When we got back to the hotel DH ran me a bath and I soaked my aching legs! We were all asleep by about 10pm.

[app]

New Photo Added by sarmori - 13 Aug 19 7:15 PM.

[darbs]

Shame you didn't get in the pool, you had a busy day though, those sundaes look amazing, my sons would love the thick shakes from richter too!

[Grannie]

Three days steps in one then ! Looks brill chocolate place brill xx

[JanetteP]

That Sundae terrific day

[mick]

Those sundaes are huge


Joan

[Michyloulou]

A great day! Wow, those desserts at Toothsome are absolutely huge!
Hope your hip is feeling better now. I don’t think you appreciate the amount of walking until you are there!

[sarmori]

The sundaes were delicious but absolutely massive - honestly one between four would have been sufficient but we didn't realise how huge they would be!