A Decade of Disney Dreaming - 2017- Day 13 - Putting for pleasure? and a Trip to Altamonte Mall.

[walt4it]

Welcome back, and as always thank you for your continued reading and posting so many replies. They really are appreciated - they are the words that keep me going until I can get this whole report finished.
Appreciate all the support I can get

If you have missed yesterday day 12 is here

The whole index of days is here too if you have missed anything that has gone before


Welcome to Day 13
Tuesday 8th August 2017

Planned Fp’s today

Epcot
Journey Into Imagination With Figment
11:40 AM - 12:40 PM
Test Track
12:40 PM - 1:40 PM
Spaceship Earth
2:15 PM - 3:15 PM


We were suffering this morning, my notes in particular don’t exist at all for this day which does not make for good trip report writing! It is day 13 after all!

I still think it was that turtle we saw heading for the ECV line yesterday – even the turtle knew better and headed for the regular line for the bus.

I am still stunned that there is not a note to be found anywhere on my phone nor indeed laptop as to our today, but thankfully photos fill in the gaps and I have to admit the boys also remember this day. It has also proved a day that reminds you of how quickly a down day gets away from you on holiday.

We were shattered, the water park yesterday and still ongoing heat had really done for us over the past few days, I also think the late night swimming sessions were also a factor.

We ditched the planned FP’s for today and decided we would go and sweat some more – our annual Fairways golf visit was upon us.

In recent years this has proved to show how poor my golf has become, when Josh, in particular, has become rather more adept with a golf club in his hand. That unfortunately includes a putter!
Behind those sunglasses you can see the eyes of incoming dad shame!

At least Joe took the same thought as I had - smile and hope it gets in the hole!

For anyone who has read any of my previous trip reports, you will have read of how Josh's sole aim in life was to beat me at golf, he is doing that on a regular basis now and next week has been invited to play THE Old Course at St Andrews as his handicap now allows him to do so. I’m taking the photos as my golf game will no longer stand up to the test

Fairways putting may not be St Andrews, but this was as competitive as it gets- even Alison got in on the act and put her tee shot to a mere inches on the difficult par 5 hole. Fairways course Albatross

I only had to take a little solace in the fact I was able to hand back the ball I had started with – unlike these players!

There was just one winner today and despite Alison’s albatross- Josh won by a mile, he deserved it and as much as it pains me, it was a great round of putting.

As we finished we had that familiar overheating experience, the sunglasses were filling with moisture as you stood over a putt. It had been a few days of intense heat without a storm to relieve the increasing humidity.
This was a first for us in August. We also knew we had burnt the candle at both ends, and in the middle too, for most of our days so far.
It was an opportunity to simply stop and take a bit of time.
As we sat in the car, cranked the air con up to full blast we then decided what to do next.
This took a long time, simply because we were just enjoying that cooling feeling.

We had Epcot planned and could just make our second FP if we put a bit of effort into it, but knew we needed just a little down time, a time to just literally chill out, so we went for a drive!

We headed north on the I4 to a place we had never, ever visited, Altamonte Mall. Now, again for regular readers you will also understand we do like a bit of bargainous shopping, having read so many reports on The Dibb about how this place was significantly cheaper than Orlando malls and outlets we thought we would give it a go.
The drive there was interesting as we drove up the I4 amid so much construction work that was in Downtown Orlando, looks as though there has been a huge effort to improve the infrastructure and I did wonder if this signalled the same sort of toll based driving that can be seen around Miami.

As with most construction feats as this it is better to pass opinion when it is finished rather than when you are stuck in slow moving traffic.

Strangely the worst traffic occurred in the area around the Mall, from leaving the I 4 it took an age to get parked and by that time there were significant hunger pangs from all of us.

The food court was our first stop – it also brought about the only evidence of our afternoon and proved a huge help in acknowledging what we did that day!
Name that table top back ground!

This picture is the only one I took in the whole experience of today. My phone does not even recognise the location as the wifi there was so poor/ non existent!.



We explored the mall and I have to admit we were less than impressed – even in our bargain favourite place of JC Penney there was nothing cheaper than we had seen and to be honest, Abercrombie and other stores were selling at prices we would never buy at – even in Florida.
When we returned to the car we were empty handed, despite my time spent in a great CD shop that had a rather fine selection of music and tee shirts.

I have to admit we did feel as if we had chased a dud today. There perhaps was a intuitive reason we had never visited. The Mall itself needs a bit of TLC to keep up with what is available in Orlando, but our experiences in Clearwater and Tampa show there is value to be had away from the tourist trail. This mall has certainly opted into that trail and was priced accordingly.

As we left, we played with the Sat Nav, an aging memory card that harks back to possibly 2009 and a great Dibb thread that showed a bargainous Garmin memory card for a price that was still too good to ignore. As much as it does not behave on occasions – I still trust it more than the inbuilt one in my own car.

We took the scenic / expensive route along the Toll road that is the 429.
It takes you past Winter Garden and all the way down to the 192. An easy drive and we really should have used this road to travel up there. It was a delay free trip back to the villa.

Once back our evening was unleashed – swimming pool, hot tub and beers for the adults.

As much as we had no bought anything, we had once again done something new, something that I don’t think we will do again, but the chill out time was appreciated by all.

Once again though , when you pass on a park day it serves to add to the anticipation of the next one, we had it sorted to explore Epcot again tomorrow and add as much as we had missed today!

I thin k you know what will be coming next!

Until day 14 -see you real soon.

DAY 14 is just a click here away