October 18 Its Meant To Be A Cheapie - Day 7

[clubhouse]

After our late night last night, we had a bit of a lie in. I was getting ants in my pants as I wanted to get out for some sunshine and spent a couple of hours bashing about, doing laundry and hoping the rest of the gang would hurry up and get up! They surfaced around 10.30am and first order of the day was for the kids to sort out the candy haul. I was amazed we managed to bring it all home - but we did. My waistline continues to expand as a result!

We had a quick breakfast of cereal pots we'd procured from Hard Rock. We are heading to the Amway Centre tonight to see the Orlando Magic play the Charlotte Hornets so Scott decided he wanted to see if he could track down a Magic T-shirt beforehand. Although I fancied a browse round the shops I couldn't be faffed with sports shops and I REALLY wanted to get out in the sun. It's like I can feel my batteries recharging and with the Scottish winter to look forward it's essential!

Abbie decided to go with her dad, so Daniel and I headed down to the pool. It didn't take him long to get bored. He wanted one of the pool toys so I sent him back to the room to get Lobby the Lobster. There was no pump to blow it up that I could see but it turns out I had enough hot air to blow him up.

By 1pm we were getting a bit hungry, so snacked on pringles.

Scott and Abbie messaged to sat they'd pick up Chipotle for lunch. We got 2 kids meals, one with barbacoa and black beans, one with pulled pork and red beans - both come with 2 wraps, rice and tortilla chips. I had a rice bowl, though it's topped with lettuce so looks like salad and Scott had a burrito.

This was very yummy. Abbie is slightly obsessed with Chipotle, I think a YouTuber must be a fan, so now she'll hopefully shut up up about it.

Scott and Abbie has been away for hours but only managed to come back with a pair of trainers for Abbie and no Orlando Magic gear... rubbish shoppers!

We all had a couple of hours by the pool. No photos as I needed to charge up my phone. We did play bingo by the pool, the prizes were more candy, as if we needed more! Grande Villas seem to have a couple of activities on every day which helps pass the time.

After double checking I had the tickets downloaded and the parking ticket on my phone we set off. It was an easy drive and before long we were parked up in the Amway Centre parking garage. We had to go up one level where we headed to security, unfortunately we didn't get far before we were told we couldn't take our backpack with water and snacks in, so Scott had to run back to the car with it. It was pretty straightforward after that, we got through the metal detectors, showed our tickets and made our way into the arena.

First stop was the Magic store were the kids picked up some giant hands.

I wanted them to go for the classic foam ones a la Gladiators but they wouldn't listen. Scott got an Orlando Magic T-shirt for the bargainous price of $10. As we passed the store we were given some branded noisemakers, we were all a little excited but still had a bit of time before taking our seats. We had a wander round some of the exhibits they have to pass the time.

Abbie couldn't believe the size of these shoes!

We decided to have something to eat before the game started. We got a pizza, grilled cheese burger, chicken tenders and fries.

It was all a bit greasy and meh. We got a ginormous refillable soda too in a souvenir cup. We decided to take our seats as they had a few dance acts and kids choirs to pass the time beforehand.

We had pretty good seats, the kids were impressed. Before long the sun pass crew were handing out bam bams. We had no idea what these were but soon got the gist.

They are blow up noise makers and boy they are loud. We brought them home so I can torture the kids when they won't get up in the morning.

We even managed to get on the big screen. We missed the kisscam though!

The game started quite well but the Magic ended up getting beat 120-88 and lots of the fans left early. I'd really recommend going to anyone, even if you are not a basketball fan. I didn't have a clue what was going on half the time but the atmosphere is great, the crowd get so involved, you really get sucked in. They had lots of entertainment on for each of the breaks and the music and cheer leaders kept us all engaged. The kids loved Stuff the Orlando Magic mascot, a very cheeky dragon (I think it's a dragon anyway). At the end they were shooting T-shirt's from a canon but we didn't manage to catch any. We made our way back to the car and headed home. There were a few diversions in place and we found ourselves in a pretty dodgy looking street for a bit but before long we were on the highway and soon back at Grande Villas after another exciting day!

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New Photo Added by clubhouse - 19 Nov 18 9:42 PM.