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Old 12 Jul 19, 04:10 AM  
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scottishnellie
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Scottishnellies 5th Element 2019. Day 20. Train To Winter Park, Boat Trip, Magic Kingdom


This morning kevin was up before me at 7am, with me following at 7:45. He only got up as he was too hot. We've been turning the aircon off at night as that seems to help the girls sleep with their ongoing sniffles, but it does mean it gets warm by the early hours. Once I got up and put the aircon back on he went back to bed for another hour.

But not before we saw these wee beauties out the back. Florida White Tailed Deer!









This is the first time we've ever seen these. The Mum was very watchful the whole time. Not surprising given what else must live over there eh? Hoping not to see our own live version of Bambi we were kind of urging them to get back under cover but loving seeing them at the same time!



I started today's trip report notes and footered about trying to work out how to save/back them up.

The way I do my report is to use the notes on my iPhone throughout the day, and whenever I have a gap like in the car, or in a ride queue, I will type up what's happened so far and just keep it running all day. At the end of the day I use the photo reporter app to upload it. To do that you choose a picture, then cut n paste in a paragraph, wait for it to upload, then choose another picture, cut n paste another paragraph and so on. So it takes some time even when the text is already written.

Last night, relaxed but tired, I started the upload whilst having some ice cream. And as a pretty woman once said. Big mistake. Huge.

I dropped a blob of ice cream on my phone and as it ran down the screen it highlighted all my text. When I juggled everything enough to get a tissue to wipe it, it deleted the entire text. All gone. And notes are not like word. There's no back button, there's no undo button. It was just gone! I was nearly greetin'!

And although I could remember all the wee details of the day, no way was I able to type it all up again. I'd have been there til 2 in the morning. I was not a happy bunny 😔 so that's why yesterday got picture heavy with no info towards the end!

So I sat at the pool with my coffee til 9:15 then woke the girls and Kevin. Today we originally had magic kingdom planned for daytime but, much like the other day, we modified the fastpasses to evening to give us a free day, as our main reason for visiting MK again was Happily Ever After for Caitlin. I messaged Stan who also had morning MK FPS and told him what ours were now. He said he would try to do the same and do the outlets during the day. Check him out! Using MDE all on his own to modify!

So today we are now off on another Randy planned adventure, We are getting the train to Winter PARK (not winter garden where we went the other day. 2 totally different places as you can see from left to right on this map)



As before, Randy had given us full info on the logistics of this trip including he and Barbs favourite restaurant. I LOVE that!

We got ready which ended up being a fractious affair as Kevin locked our bedroom door then swanned into the shower forgetting to unlock it, leaving me unable to finish getting ready. I wasn't happy. Then when we were all ready to leave he decides to start googling about where we are going while we are all standing waiting for him. Aaaargh. Then he was a grumpy sod in the car. He would probably say it's all my fault but it's my trippie so unless he wants to write his own...

We left at 10:20 to Kissimmee train station, arriving at 10:55 so a 35min Drive. Waze had showed it would have been an hour to drive straight to winter park from the villa so the train doesn't really save any time, but its a new experience if nothing else. But things were about to take a turn.

When we looked at the website I thought this meant the trains would be every half hour



This would turn out to be a major fail, which did not help Kevin's mood.

There was no ticket office, but there was an employee sitting reading his book who then stood to help us as we appeared on the platform.



He helped us use the ticket machine to buy tickets. He correctly predicted it would reject our credit card as it won't normally accept anything but US cards. It did, so we then had to use cash which you just fed into the machine



He then said the next train was at 12:20. EH? so that's what 'less frequently during the mid day' meant. Aaaargh! Why on earth hadn't I looked at the schedule in more detail?

When I looked up waze it would be a 45 minute drive from here to winter park, yet we were going to wait an hour for the train to come which would then take another half hour to get there. But kevin was not for budging as we had just bought the tickets. This is going well eh?

So we settled onto the benches in the shade and waited it out. Thankfully there was a nice breeze. I think the kids were scared to say anything as they didn't complain once, probably seeing that the day was already heading to hell in a handcart!

While waiting, a maintenance truck drove along the line. It Looked so weird.



Then a train arrived on the opposite platform and it was a double decker.






Each time another family appeared the ticket guy would help them. Another Scottish family turned up, also going to winter park



When the train came we sat upstairs, purely as it's a novelty! The places we went through were very industrial, so not too much to see. Arrived in winter park just after 1 and headed to the lake as we wanted to do the scenic boat tour. It's an hour long, around 3 lakes and the prices are below. For 4 adults and 1 child we were $63 inc tax.












there was a wee turtle and lots of fish swimming around the pier. There are loos here and they sell water at $1 a bottle. Once you get on the boat there are no facilities so make sure you go, before you go, if you know what I mean.

Off we went at 2pm. This was really good. If we thought we had house envy at celebration, it was nothing on the houses round this lake. They were amazing!




































And because we went from lake to lake we travelled through these tiny wee canals which was quite cool.



By the time we reached the third lake the big black clouds were rolling in and the wind was pretty strong. Warm but strong. My cap blew off but thankfully only into Kierans lap behind me. The guy at the back from Aberdeen wasn't so lucky and his was left floating in the lake.

The guide explained we would have to head back so we docked at 2:45 instead of 3pm. Even though it was only 15mins short, as we left he handed us all rain check vouchers to come and take the trip another time, so I will leave these in the villa for Randy and Barb to use sometime.



It was windy and dark but didn't actually start raining. We had a look around the shops at the square, stopping at Barbs favourite shop



It was while in this shop I broke my reading specs, completely in two with one lense out and away. So I then couldn't see what on earth I was looking at.

we were supposed to be finding somewhere to eat. But Kevin was turning his nose up at every place we looked at, saying he didn't know what he wanted. Normally I'd have googled, or browsed the restaurants and just put my foot down deciding what was to happen. But I couldn't see a thing with no specs. Even when we reached the place Randy recommended he wasn't happy with that either.



The kids were trailing behind us getting more starving by the minute. In the finish up I asked kevin would he rather get an earlier train back to Kissimmee and eat there, So we ended up back on the 3:36 train. Hannah was glowering daggers at her dad by this time. At the station we were still asking him where he wanted to eat but he still didn't know. I explained he would need to google and find somewhere as I couldn't bloomin see now!

In the end he decided we would eat at johns BBQ place or something right at Kissimmee station before we head to disney. God knows what it would be like.






So here we are up to this point. I'm sitting on the train with Kevin acting like he doesn't know what the problem is, the weans all starving, glaring at him, and me sitting here updating my notes like mr magoo wearing broken specs with one eye shut. Help me!



We get off the train and I stop at the car in the car park to see if I have any other specs. The only pair I can find are tinted, so now I'm going to be sitting in the restaurant studying the menu looking like Roy Orbison.

I catch up to the others who by now are in the ‘'restaurant'. Oh dear god this place.






I join them at the table and Hannah has her arms folded, looking at the menu with a face like fizz refusing to eat anything. To be fair, the place looked rank. So we abandoned ship to the pizza place across the road



I ordered boneless bites, which I thought were boneless wings but turned out to be processed chicken in batter. I are 2 of them. Even Kieran thought they were rotten. When the waitress asked if everything was ok I said I hadn't realised they were processed chicken. She just looked down her nose and growled ‘yeah, they just come in a bag'. She couldn't care less. This day just gets better.



Kieran ordered a meat feast which looked amazing and he said was nice, but to be fair he was so hungry I think he would've eaten his own toes



Kevin ordered pepperoni which certainly had plenty of pepperoni on it



Hannah ordered a white broccoli pizza which was cheesy and garlicky - very nice



And Caitlin ordered a chicken and apple salad which she thought was lovely.



With various waters/lemonades

We started off inside but the aircon was fierce so we ended up moving to outside.



Finished eating and paid the bill leaving $65 so only a 15% tip. I also paid cash as I didn't want that mardy besom taking my credit card away. Our drive time on waze showed we would arrive 6:20pm our first fastpass being Haunted Mansion 6:05-7:05.



Parked and walked to the TTC as the current construction means you are dropped miles from the entrance anyway. Reached TTC and through security. Both girls needed the loo which was waaaaay over to the side so they legged it over there while we went towards the monorail. As we approached we bumped into Stan and Calum getting help from a security guard to cancel an uber. When the girls appeared I was waving at them to hurry so we could try to get on the monorail that was waiting as it was now 18:43. Seeing this, the security guard called Kevin back and gave him 7 fastpasses from his top pocket, saying not to worry about missing it, and if we made it to go ahead and enjoy another ride. Woo hoo! Finally something good has happened today! This meant we would be able to do Seven Dwarves Mine Train that I hadn't been able to get a fastpass for despite constant checking. And for all 7 of us too!



We still made it onto that monorail and through the entrance, Stan and Calum headed off towards Buzz to catch the end of their fastpass window on that. We reached haunted mansion at 18:50 and the fastpass line was right out past the scanners. Scanned our FP at 7pm. The FP line moved along and we entered the stretching room at 7:05. We were only on the ride a minute when it broke down. And we sat, and we sat eventually moving again at 7:17



Other than the breakdown (or maybe boarding wheelchairs or whatever) everyone liked it.

We came out and over to Pirates of the Caribbean. Our fastpass was 7:05 and Stans was 7:25 so a convenient overlap. We got on at 7:36 and again it was fun. The boys especially liked it.

Next up we marched over to SDMT to use our freebie fastpasses. And I mean marched. I was determined to shoehorn it in. Because nobody else has any clue where they are going, and with there now being 7 of us and it being mobbed, I was up front and kept waving my arm up so they could see me. The girls thought this was hilarious and sent me this.



Yay! We got on at 8pm. This was a laugh with both Stan and Kevin bellowing out Hi Ho! The kids loved it and it was really nice for Calum and Kieran to do it together.



Next was back over to Big Thunder Mountain for our 8:20 FP. Stan had managed to modify his to 8:25. Hannah said she was dead proud of her uncle Stan!

This was also really good fun and for some reason seemed to go on for ages! Maybe because SDMT is so short.



We had loo breaks on our way round to Main Street, arriving there at 8:45. Main Street looks so pretty all lit up.



And at 9:15 Happily Ever After started. Wow. Just wow. It was fabulous. The projections on the castle are just stunning and it's so atmospheric.


















When it finished Caitlin just turned with a huge grin and said OH I LOVED THAT!

We all did.

We linked hands and made our way out with the crowd. Then onto the resort monorail. Remember dibbers - always the resort monorail, never the TTC monorail. As we pulled away we could see the massive queue for the TTC monorail snaking right back down to the park exit. The monorail stopped at the Contemporary then the TTC as always.

Stan ordered his Uber and he and Calum ran off for that. We walked back to Scar and into the car. We were out and away by 10:05.

As we got into the car I said how we might have had a doofer of a day but we had a magic night. Both girls piped up that they had really loved the boat ride today, so there you go.

But tonight being our last Disney Park visit, we did indeed end on an absolute high. Just fab.

Home to the villa and kevin turned the spa on to heat up while I uploaded my trip report. The girls fixed themselves some snacks and disappeared to their rooms. Kieran was straight into bed.

So that's me all done.

Bikini on, drink in my hand. I'm off to the spa!

Night all x


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Here's a link to all my previous trip reports since 2015
trip report list by year
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Old 12 Jul 19, 04:50 AM  
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app
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New Photo Added by scottishnellie - 12 Jul 19 4:50 AM.
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Old 12 Jul 19, 06:00 AM  
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sheluk
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Despite some initial set backs it was a lovely end to the day & some Disney magic too from the security guard!

I had a feeling that food situation wasn’t going to go well from how you phrased it when you didn’t go to the recommend place

Boat trip sounds lovely and some of those houses are incredible! X
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Old 12 Jul 19, 06:48 AM  
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Ciano
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We all have days like that in hols Helen... Sounds like it finished great though! Thanks so much forndoung the report. I hope you know how much we all enjoy them. I set my alarm early so I can read it in bed before I start my day!
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Old 12 Jul 19, 07:02 AM  
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JoJo88
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We all have days like that, but at least it ended on a high! x
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Old 12 Jul 19, 07:09 AM  
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Inky
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A great end to the day after all the !
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Old 12 Jul 19, 07:15 AM  
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m84ourlife
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Thanks for going beyond the call of duty on getting todays trip report done with the mishap with your glasses ,am enjoying each and everyone.Maybe Kevin’s mood could be put down to the end of your holiday nearing.
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Old 12 Jul 19, 07:15 AM  
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Mrs Red C
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Glad you survived the day, what a pain with your glasses. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow 😊
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Old 12 Jul 19, 07:29 AM  
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fletchie148
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The train ride and boat trip looked great fun
Again something new to try
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Old 12 Jul 19, 07:31 AM  
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OB1LukeLucas
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I have us pencilled in to go on the train to Winter Park to do the boat ride. I already knew about the ticket machines not taking our cards but I’m going to have to try and investigate train times better now! Where were you going to do lunch? I’m pleased the day didn’t end up a disaster, it’s nice to hear the girls enjoyed the boat. A fantastic evening in MK for you all especially with your pixie dust.
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