Day 8. Shopping, Aquatica, House Of Blues At Disney Springs - April 2016, Scottishnellies 2nd Live

[scottishnellie]

I was awake at 6 and up by 6:30, folding washing, having my tea, messing on the iPad. Once the others were up we started getting organised. We had decided to go to Vineland Outlets for them opening around 10, shop til 12:30, then move to Aquatica.

As before I will show you what we ended up with rather than go though each shop. The only thing of any note that happened was my patience being tested big time in Forever 21 when the service was a joke. The funny thing was I remembered the exact same thing happening last year and my blood boiling in the queue then. Today it started when they only let us take 6 things in to try. You have heard this before. Leave them out here and we will swap them over for you when you are ready. Hannah tries on the 6 things, I open the door to swap and not only has the assistant disappeared but so has every item of clothing that had been hanging on the rack that Hannah wanted to try. So I wait till another assistant comes and explain to her what's happened. She couldn't care less. Eventually she finds them hanging somewhere and tries to tell me they had been on the rack the whole time. That would be the rack we both agreed was empty would it? Then in the queue of around 6 or 7 customers there is one serving while another 4 chat beside empty tills. Drove. Me. Nuts. Anyway I digress. Here is what we bought.

I bought (another) Calvin Klein dress from the CK shop. This works out at £52 with today's rate and I think it will be really smart for the office this summer.

Hannah's buys from forever 21. Notice not only do they not know how to serve customers, but they appear not to know how to bag things without making them look like a dogs dinner either.

My North Face buys. A fleece and a knee length winter jacket.

Hannah's North Face jacket. Receipt for all 3 below

As it was now 12:35 we headed back to the car for a quick picnic (Kevin had packed sandwiches into a coolbag with frozen water, crisps and cereal bars) and on to Aquatica. Paid the $15 parking fee and in we went. Changed and sun creamed up in the restroom which have 2 lines of loos and 1 line of showers/changing rooms. Everything into a large locker ($15 rental for the day now) and went off to choose a sunbed. There were plenty to choose from. Left the towels and I had a walk around the park with the others while they had a go on some of the rides. I had a dip to cool me down then headed for the sunbed and this was my view for the rest of the afternoon.

I had forgot to bring my kindle so had to make do with people watching and earry wigging on other folk. It's a chore eh? Kevin and the kids rode every slide in the park, although Hannah joined me at the beds when the boys went off to do the one where the floor drops away from you as she did it last year and didn't like it. We called it a day at 4:15 and headed back to the restrooms for showers and change.

We decided to go to Disney Springs for dinner at House of Blues as we have a couple of $50 restaurant.com vouchers to use, and also to see if we could use the groupon I had bought for Characters in flight (the big tethered hot air balloon). Programmed HoB into google maps and she led us straight to the new multi story. We were parked in Orange and you come out between Splitsville and AMC. Really easy to get to. It has been quite breezy today despite the roasting sun, so unsurprisingly CoF was off. The guy gave us the number to call ahead next time to see if it is running.

We spent quite a long time in the new Star Wars shop where our little Jedi spent $100 of his savings including buying the Yoda backpack that he saw a boy with last year but we couldn't find it.. Took lots of photos for any other SW fans.

Then it was off to HoB. We really liked this last year and it was no different this year. By now it was 6pm and we only waited 15m to be seated. Service was good, food was lovely, no issue using our $50 coupon (which I paid $8 for when there was a promo on).

I had Lobster Mac and Cheese

Hannah had the kids roasted cheese

Kieran had the Juicy Lucy burger

Kevin had the pulled pork sandwich. Kevin and I ended up swapping a bit too as I fancied the pulled pork more than the Lobster when it arrived.

I had key lime pie for dessert

The kids were both torn between the cookie ice cream sandwich and the triple chocolate cheesecake so ordered one of each and went half n half with each other

On the way home we stopped in at Target as Kevin needed more Beer. Kieran picked up lots of Star Wars stuff in the dollar spot and some colouring pencils and things. Hannah bought a wee cross body bag to wear in the parks.

Home, showers, PJs on, drinks poured. Kieran retreated to the PlayStation. After getting the washings sorted and taking the photos of our shopping haul, I settled in the living room, where Kevin and Hannah are watching Charlie's Angels, to do my TR.

Tomorrow the plan is Animal Kingdom, so finally our first Disney park this holiday!