The One With No Pretrip And A Better Chance Of Finishing - Day 15 - Moving To St Petes

[clubhouse]

We were up and repacked fairly quickly this morning since we hardly unpacked anything. I did have a big bag of wet clothes though as our clothes from yesterday didn't seem to dry at all! We stowed the bags in the car so we could make a quick getaway later today.

Checkout was straightforward but there was a bit of a wait as there were lots of people checking in the front desk are very thorough about giving you all the information about the resort. When I got my turn I asked for some leis as the kids were disappointed they hadn't got them when we checked in.

We agreed before we set of that we could choose 2 rides maximum each and that we wanted to leave the park at 2pm to set off for St Petes. That would be tough since it was already 10.30!

We made our way to Islands of Adventure and got straight on Dr Dooms Fear falls (Abbie's choice) then stopped off to listen to what to do if we wanted to report a plot for world domination.

Daniel's first choice was to go do the Raptor Experience, so we got in line. We waited ten minutes only to hear the words no one in a theme park line ever wants to hear “so, ah, Blues gonna leave in about 5 minutes cos we need to feed her and ensure she doesn't get too aggressive, she'll be back in around 30 minutes”. I was marginally hopeful that we'd get our turn in the next 5 minutes but Scott and Abbie weren't fussed so went off to Hogsmeade to do some spells while I waited and melted a bit not much shade at the front of the line here) but we didn't make it. Daniel had his wee heart set on it so I updated the a wee bit of the trippie while we waited. It turned out the wait was a bit less than 30 minutes and it was totally worth it (even I thought so!).

The patter from the “keeper” is brilliant here, it's all a bit cheesy but he had us in stitches. Because we were now first in line we got a great view of Blue coming out. The ushered us in front of the opening, I didn't really want to be in on it but I'm glad they made me as I'm not sure how Daniel would have reacted on his own. The photographer was great too, offering to take photos on my phone - these turned out well and he even took a video, which I wasn't expecting. So even though I hadn't wanted to hang about waiting, what I'm trying to say is it was worth it - do it!

We made our way to Hogsmeade, where we found Scott and Abbie at Zonkos casting spells having already been in the Forbidden Journey, we caught a bit of the Frog Chorus on our way - they didn't seem to be having any muggle equipment troubles today.

By the time we got there it was quarter to 12, tick tock, time's running out! Next ride on our list was Men in Black (Scott's choice) so we set off via the Hogwarts Express.

We got our bag stowed and on the ride quickly thanks to the express passes. It was busy today so they were adding single riders in the same car, which meant Daniel was in the middle seat. None of us managed to hit the button again : ( and Daniel mentioned to the ride attendant when we got off that his zapper wasn't working. I wasn't expecting them to do anything, but they sent us through the curtain and we rode again, after the car with the faulty zapper had moved past. This time Scott and I both pushed the red button at the right time so finally got good scores! But we had lost a bit of time, so someone will miss their rides, I wonder who it might be?

Next ride was Gringotts (Daniel's choice, so we headed into Diagon Alley stopping very briefly to listen to Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees.

When we got to Gringotts we were a bit put off when we saw the line just to enter the lockers as it was now 12.45.

I think the ride had been down and was now swamped so they were trying to manage the locker area a bit better, so were only allowing one person per party to enter, which really makes sense as the lockers get rammed and there's nothing worse than people just standing about getting in the way when you are hot and trying to hurry.

The ride was really good as ever and we were on our way around 1.10. My choice was the Mummy, however since it was 1.20 when we got to here we decided we needed to decide on one final ride before heading back to the car.

So I sacrificed my rides (ET was my other choice) and we headed for Minions (Scott's choice).

We enjoyed our last ride, but sadly it was time to go. We weren't too sad though since we are heading back in October and still have 4 nights at St Petes. On our way out of the park we headed into Guest Services to upgrade our tickets to annual passes. We are booked to stay at Cabana Bay in October (but we might end up tweaking that) and so we had agreed we wanted 3 park passes as we will be so close to Volcano Bay. We had looked into the upgrade earlier in our stay but the concierge had helpfully told us to wait till the last day as the black out dates meant you couldn't enter during July on the cheapest annual pass as we wouldn't use the other benefits anyway. The lady helping us was very thorough checking that our vacation was over for now and we wouldn't want to re-enter a park, we confirmed we were done and complete the upgrade.

The overall cost to upgrade the 4 tickets was $325.86, which was what I was expecting based on what I'd seen on the Dibb on the run up to our holiday. We might even manage a couple of days next summer, depending on when we fly out. It was now 2.20 and we were starving!

The kids fancied Voodoo Donut but it was queued out the door, so we ditched that plan in favour of an ice cream from Coldstone Creamery in City Walk. No decent photos I'm afraid as we ate them as we walked back to RPR. It was delicious, but melty and messy, I was very glad I had some wet wipes in the car!

The clothes Scott had spread out to dry were indeed dry now and gathering them up and wiping the ice cream off the kids gave the car a chance to cool down and we said good bye to RPR, having really enjoyed our stay. I totally recommend a stay here for the value added by the Express Passes, especially if there are more than 2 of you in the room. I think I'll be tweaking the Cabana Bay stay as I might add an RPR night if I can get a good rate. Having read Scottish Nellie's report I'm quite keen to try Club Level, so fingers crossed I find a good deal!

It was ten past three when we passed faceless Mickey, so we had made not bad time today.

The kids passed the time reading and Daniel started to complain he was still hungry so we stopped off for something else to eat.

We ended up at Socrum Loop, which had a few choices although I misread it as Scrotum Loop! Hilarity ensued, until Abbie asked what's a scrotum. We quickly explained that and tried to decide where to eat. I think I may have read about this location in Wizzos trip report. We picked Wendies, it was a bit meh, I think I just wanted to get to St Petes. But at least Daniel was happy.

Son of Baconator.

Chicken tenders and fries.

Baconator fries.

Spicy chicken sandwich. After that quick pit stop we were soon back on our way.

By 5pm were we're finally in St Petes and checking into the Guy Harvey Outpost. We chose here to get a bigger room than we had at the Grand Plaza on our previous visit and the kids went on and on about the giant slide when we were last here and it's included in the resort fee. The resort fee was a bit steep at $47 a night, however we were fully aware of it before we got there and had included it when we were working out where would work out best for us. It's surprising how many of us Brits are not aware that the resort fee is generally not included in your booking cost and needs to be paid at the resort. The receptionist even commented on this, it we confirmed we were fully aware. She mentioned she could upgrade us to a Gulf View room for $25 a night and knowing it would be a great view, we thought what the hell and went for it.

This was our view, pretty good eh? Although by upgrading we gave up a balcony, which truth be told I perhaps would have been happier with a partial view and a balcony, but never mind, it was lovely to wake up to that.

The room was a bedroom with 2 queen beds (definitely on the small side), a decent bathroom, small kitchen area cooker, microwave, full fridge freezer, sink (sadly no washer though) and a lounge with sofa bed, seating area and that great view.

We went for a wee explore and paddle, as how could anyone resist it?

I left them to it and went to get ready for dinner, we agreed on Skidders which the kids love as the name makes them giggle and we love as the food is great (and they serve my favourite Kim Crawford wine... winning!).

We had the lovely bread to start off.

Oh and the wine, Scott had beer, obvs. No photo as it's just beer.

The kids shared a 16 inch pepperoni pizza (they didn't even manage half and even though it was boxed and we had a kitchen, it ended up in the bin) and Scott and I each had the Souvlaki combo platter.

I wish I'd moved the gyro meat as it doesn't look great, but please take my word for it after lots of rich food, this was great. Fresh salad, olives, feta, grilled chicken and pork, some fries and some fresh pitta - yum! Can't recommend this enough and it's not expensive either.

We were all tired now so settled the bill and headed for home. We hadn't decided the sleeping arrangements. The queen beds were smaller than expected and the sofa bed was a good size but not suitable for 2 adults (high roll together factor), the kids couldn't see why Daniel couldn't have 1 bed, Scott and I the other queen bed and Abbie have the sofa bed to herself. We couldn't convince them that they should share the sofa bed and in the end tiredness overtook me and I agreed to share the sofa bed with Abbie. Daniel definitely won this round. I'll regret this decision! But by 11pm I was shattered and gave in.

Thanks again for reading along and thanks for being patient. I am determined to finish and am home now so no excuses eh? The unpacking can wait.

[app]

New Photo Added by clubhouse - 20 Jul 18 11:18 PM.

[darbs]

We're planning on eating at skidders, will try the wine recommendation!

[Jake71]

Shame you missed your ride choices, but hey that’s the sacrifices us mums make! You still managed a great half day before hitting the beach. The hotel looks good and that view is fab.

[mick]

Another good day your hotel at St Petes looks lovely,

Joan

[Cinderella]

You achieved a lot in your last visit to US 👍

[JanetteP]

What a busy day - you packed in so much. We're hoping to upgrade our tickets next year, so thanks for the advice.