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Old 9 Oct 16, 04:41 PM  
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juliab
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:) Another Dose of Disney Dreams - August 2016 - Day 2- IOA & New Sapphire Falls Resort

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Saturday 6th August

It probably comes as no surprise to hear that I was awake ridiculously early, looked at the time and saw that it had just turned midnight! I know I’m not a brilliant sleeper but that was ridiculous, thankfully I dropped off for a few more hours. Later I could hear some noise from the planes but considering where we were situated it was much. You had to strain your ears to notice it. Scott woke around 4am, I made a few notes then had my wash. The kids were still fast asleep.

Shortly after getting ready Scott took her wash, I heard Hayden and Jamie moving and chattering away to each other. It was more of a respectable time, 5.15am, so I think they’d slept quite well.

The boys got ready next, Poppy woke up at that point and was eager to get ready too. It didn’t take long to sort the bags out, I’d used another packing cube so all our clothes for the day were quickly located, saved all the fuss about who was going to wear what and where exactly in the cases they were packed - anything to make the morning run more smoothly.

Quietly went down to reception, Scott got on with the job of loading the car back up with all the cases, Hayden helping along too.




Breakfast didn’t start until 6am and we were leaving 15 before it opened. I enquired whether we could get some kind of grab bag for our journey which had been mentioned to us at check in. The lady told us that they’d just finished setting up for breakfast and we were more than welcome to go in early to get some food, how fab.


The selection was more than adequate for us especially as we just expected to be taking out a few muffins maybe and a few pieces of fruit. Of course the kids soon homed in on the waffle maker and soon set about making yummy waffles for us all.






Still trying to be healthy!

The breakfast really set us up for the morning, plenty of fresh fruit, cereals and pastries. Scott and I had some coffees’ too and we took a couple out with us for the last leg of our journey up to Orlando.

The sun was starting to rise by the time we had left the hotel, had to dodge the sprinklers as we walked over to the car.


We turned the transponder on (think that’s what it’s called) so we didn’t have to pay cash on the tolls. First time we’d used one of these.


It then started to rain as we set off. The shower only lasted a few minutes, soon we were leaving Miami, we could the skyline in the distance of the city with the sun rising

Totally amazed that we didn’t get lost, soon made it onto the Turnpike, we’d used this route the previous time when we drove up from Fort Lauderdale. Not a great deal to say about the drive except that it all went well and it was a nice steady drive up.




We had one stop for a toilet breaks and to pick up a few more drinks. I took the opportunity of taking a few pics of our hire car.




Carried on with our journey, soon started seeing the signs for the parks so we knew we didn’t have long. Just before 10am we saw this sign which meant we had made it to our final destination Sapphire Falls. It felt so good to be finally there knowing that this was the end to our travelling and we could start our holiday in Orlando now. We’d be spending the next 5 nights here and we couldn’t wait to take a look around




Parked up in the multi storey carpark near the entrance then walked into the brand new resort. The lobby was very colourful and modern, a lot lighter than my picture made out. It was very quiet too so I headed on over to check in whilst the kids settled down on one of the sofa’s.








Jamie's new cap!

I knew it would be too early for our room to be ready and it was explained that an email would be sent to us when it came available. We still needed some room keys to be able to access the hotel’s facilities such as the pool and gym so they printed some off for us.

I ask we could pay of parking charges for the 5 nights, I wanted to use a traveller’s cheque, and he said that would be fine. Thought it would be one less thing to do. I enquired about the $150 food credit which was part of the booking offer, he wasn’t sure what I meant as it didn’t state anything on our reservation. I produced our confirmation email from BA which showed the credit so he said not to worry and then applied the credit to our booking, we were told we could use it for any food and drink purchases within the hotel.

Finally sorted we had a look in the Universal shop before heading out to the park. The shop was well stocked, there was a large area of Harry Potter merchandise along with Despicable Me and toys from the new brilliant film The secret life of pets.












Time now for us to visit our first park, we popped back to the car to get some sun cream as we’d not applied any first thing. It wasn’t a clear day but you know how you still burn easily even through the cloud. Walked back down to reception and then to the main stairs to catch the boat to Citywalk. We couldn’t believe how beautiful the stairway was.




We easily found the boat dock, it was nearly midday so was really quiet as you’d expect. Most people are already in the park. Quickly went through security, it wasn’t long before a boat arrived.








Our hotel keys

We were soon on our way to Citywalk passing the Royal Pacific resort along the way. It was a lovely boat ride which took around 10 minutes. Noticed they now had traffic lights, there must be quite a few more boats running now.




I’d noted on our plan to visit Islands of Adventure today. I didn’t think it would really matter which park we’d have visited, I really expected it to be busy in the both of them as it was a weekend in early August.



Not sure why I was surprised but I couldn’t believe how busy the lines were to enter, I just presumed that people got there early like we normally do lol.


After a while we were in the park, located Guest services first as we wanted to enquire about the assistance card for Hayden. There was a long queue which we all joined, a cast member came down the line asking what the purpose of their visit was, Scott explained and she said that we all didn’t need to be in the line. I found this a little strange but none the less the kids and I found a shaded area to wait it just back from the queue. We’d brought a letter from Hayden’s doctor, Scott had no issue’s and was given a card to help Hayden.

Had no plan so we just walked, headed over towards Suess Landing Poppy said she’d like to go on a few rides here.




First ride was the cat in the hat, out of all of them this is the worse one for me. Yes I’m a real wimp but it’s the spinning bit that sometimes makes me feel a bit queasy. I could hardly sit out our first ride so off we went to join the line, only a 15 minute wait. It wasn’t too bad, I shut my eyes when we spun round, not sure if you’re supposed to but it helped. Had a good laugh in the shop afterwards, trying all the funny hats on.


Continued below

Edited at 08:28 PM.
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Old 9 Oct 16, 04:44 PM  
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juliab
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Next was the Caro-Seuss-el, I think Hayden thought he was too “big” to go on this so I said I’d sit with him and we could watch the rest of the family enjoying the ride. What made me smile was Jamie, as soon as i pointed the camera his way he did a move called the dab I think? I might know what dibbing Is but I don’t have a clue about dabbing? Remember I am getting on a bit now so I’m not really up on the latest trends haha. Well little did I know that this would feature a lot over the course of the next couple of week’s





Last ride in this area was the trolley train ride, another short 15 minute wait time.


The boys wanted to go over to the Harry Potter area so we headed on over there next. It was midday now and it was really busy in Hogsmeade, we knew the queue for Forbidden Journey would be massive so we thought we’d leave that one for another day.


Jamie spotted that the wait time for Dragon Challenge was only 15 minutes, now Jamie was desperate to ride his first proper roller coaster, he’d not been quite tall enough on his last visit but now was able to ride everything. Hayden wasn’t bothered about trying out this ride - think he was more interested in having a look in Honeydukes - so us three went there while Scott took Jamie on the ride.










Full of totally yummy things!

Spent quite a while in there we came out and there was no sign of Scott and Jamie. Had a look in a few more shops then Hayden wanted to get one of his favourites, Butter Beer. Got some drinks for Poppy and me.


Still no sign of Jamie and Scott, it had been a while now and it was just getting busier and busier. Checked my emails and saw that Sapphire Falls had sent one to say that our room was now ready, really happy as it was sooner than we’d thought. Eventually the boys came back, 45 minutes later. Jamie had really enjoyed the ride which I was so glad of. It had been worth the wait.

Decided then to leave, it was too busy as was to be expected. So we caught the boat back to the resort and agreed we’d visit Walmart to get a few supplies as we could get in our room. Now the kids were more than delighted at the prospect of visiting a supermarket, think it had something to do with all the American candy!


We did take a wrong turning when leaving the hotel which meant we ended up on a longer journey to the Walmart at Turkey Lake road that it should’ve been. We got there eventually.

As mentioned we just needed a few essentials, fresh fruit, milk, cereals, muffins, cookies, beer and wine. Kids had watched loads of Youtube challenges which involved various flavours of Poptarts, Oreos, Goldfish and the like, so were very keen to have a look for some. We bought a few packs of each then moved onto the sweet aisle. Again just buying a few, I had to get a few packets of my favourites, Twizlers. Oh my word I love these, the black liquorice ones are the best. Thought I was being quite restrained at only buying 3 packets of them.


I totally forgot to take a photo of our trolley! Never mind we would be revisiting again!

Realised that we’d not eaten for quite some time, it was well past 2pm now. Spotted those big pizzas’ on the way out of the shop and we ended up getting a meatfeast, think it was $5. Along with a few muffins and cookie’s, it made for a lovely lunch and we shamefully ate it the car!

The drive back to the hotel took minutes, we parked back in the mutli storey carpark then carried our bags back down to reception, well some of them. We knew the number of our room, 2342 Lagoon view, but I wasn’t sure whether we needed new keys? Popped back to reception to ask and was told that the cards we already had would be fine, so off we went to find our new room.

Found our new room, tried the card but the door wouldn’t open. Tried a different card, we tried all of them but they wouldn’t work! Scott had already gone back to pick up the last of the bags, there was no way we were carting all our bags back to reception so I told the kids to sit tight and not move whilst I ran back up to sort the keys out. Luckily at the side of our room was this little alcove, so we put the bags there and I told the kids not to move from the seat!


I quickly run back to reception, thankfully no one was waiting, explained the situation only to be told we did need new cards! At this point Scott was walking back with the last of the bags, I told him to hurry as the kids were down there waiting. They were literally left for 5 minutes, thankfully!

So grateful for our new keys working this time, we were greeted with our new room which we absolutely loved. I asked Scott to give me a few moments before bringing all the bags in, so that I could take a few photo’s of the room before it got cluttered!






















We were more than happy with the room, it was so lovely and bright and everything was so shiny and new.

Kids were desperate the try the new pool out so we got changed and walked along the corridor to find out way to the pool. By the time we’d reached the end of the corridor it had started to rain, Poppy wasn’t one bit happy about that!


Nothing we could do apart from wait for the rain to stop. Gave us a bit more of an opportunity to have an explore around the resort and to try and get our bearings.






New Dutch Trading Co


Strong Water Tavern

The rain was quite short lived, much to the relief of Poppy so we found an entrance to the pool area. Unfortunately the pool was still closed. We sat a while waiting for it to open back up, the kids played with the games for a while.

After waiting quite some time the pool was still not open, we left and went back to get showered and changed. We could’ve been waiting for ages. Poppy wasn’t happy but I explained we still had plenty of other days and nights to use the pool, it wasn’t going anywhere.




Deciding where to eat is always an issue with us, we can never make our minds up! Hayden said he wanted to go to Olive Garden so we drove over to International Drive. Time was getting on a bit, it was now 7.30pm and we didn’t realise we’d have so much difficulty trying to find a parking space.

Drove round a couple of times then the kids and me got out and went to reserve a table. We were told the wait time was 45 minutes. Didn’t really have a choice but to wait, I suspect that most of the eateries would have similar wait times so we just waited outside with everyone else.

Scott drove kept driving by bless him, still having no luck. Jamie and Poppy amused themselves by playing some racing games!



Some 30 minutes or so later our buzzer went off but there was no sign of Scott. We were shown to our table and I explained that my husband would be a long shortly. About 2 minutes later Scott came in, talk about good timing.

Our server was really busy, the whole place was packed. Took a while to take our drinks orders, we also ordered the food at the same time too. The kids were playing with the tablet which was on the table but Jamie and Poppy soon started arguing about whose turn it was. I told them if they didn’t stop arguing I’d play with the tablet lol, that soon shut them up. I much prefer it when they just have the kid’s menu sheets which they can colour in!

Our server brought the salad out to the table, really enjoy this, along with some bread.


At this point, sorry to say, that my battery went dead on my camera so there’s no more food photo’s.

Our mains followed not long after, Jamie and Poppy both had a kids. Some kind of spaghetti dish? I really can’t remember what we had, don’t have the receipt but I did note that the food was really good. The kids chose a smoothie as their desserts and Hayden had some ice cream, Scott and I didn’t bother with any. I noted the price, $71 for the 5 of us so really good value. It was really late for us we got back home to our hotel at 10pm and we were all really tired. We had to blow up Poppy’s air bed, we took it in turns as we didn’t have a footpump!

Had been a busy day today but yet it felt like we’d not done a lot. Of course we had, we’d travelled well over 200 miles! I still needed to do a bit of unpacking as I’d not had much time to do any. I’d allocated one of the cases as being the Universal case so we only had to open that particular one! Wouldn’t take me long to do that, I just got a clean set of clothes out ready for the park in the morning.

So happy with the resort, we jumped into our comfy big beds and we were asleep in no time!
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Old 9 Oct 16, 05:23 PM  
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Shame the pool wasn't open. The room is lovely though, looks very fresh and relaxing.
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Old 9 Oct 16, 07:16 PM  
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Another great day - my mouth is watering at the picture of the bread at Olive Garden, we ate so much when we were there in August. The server just kept bringing more and it would have been rude not to eat it!
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Old 9 Oct 16, 10:32 PM  
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Yay, another day up! The resort looks lovely, didn't know it offered a water taxi

Even my supermarket phobic children don't mind going to Walmart
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Old 9 Oct 16, 10:53 PM  
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Fab day, love your trippies...excited to see this one up! Your kids are getting so big!
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Old 10 Oct 16, 06:54 AM  
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A lovely relaxed day and I must admit to wondering where the 5th person was sleeping so glad to read that you had a blow up bed

Did you find the room big enough for the blow up bed?
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Old 10 Oct 16, 12:20 PM  
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What a full day, you did well doing so much. I also wondered re the room and 5 people, good solution.
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Old 11 Oct 16, 10:01 PM  
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Resort looks lovely. Sounds it was a nice, easy day to start with
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Old 12 Oct 16, 09:09 AM  
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That sounds like an amazing day!
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