Day 18 - Back once again like a Floriday Master - Shopping/Menchies/Taco Bell

[Man v Disney]

While Han has been helping and proof reading a number of the reports I have written, she will be taking the lead on today as she actually left the house!

Today Josiah and I (Han or Lincolnhan here on the Dibb) decided that it was to be a day for shopping. We had ventured out a couple of times before and picked up Josiah’s Vans but that was between parks and swims so we wanted to get to the outlets for opening to see what bargains we could get.

Having seen on facebook groups that there were a few bargains at International Drive Premium Outlets, that’s where we started. It took us about 30 mins to get there and we parked straight away, congratulating ourselves on getting a spot quickly – until we realised that it was because we were the other sides to the shops. Doh.

Anyway, we set a pace and headed to the Disney Character Warehouse, specifically to see if I could get the Dooney & Burke handbag that was at Vineland last week that I now regretted not getting. It was around $100 but with Jamie racking up his t-shirt purchases and me having only got my Pandora charm, I couldn’t think of anything else I want as a memento except this.

Unfortunately it wasn’t there so we picked up a few family Christmas gifts and moved on. You may remember that we had spotted a Yankee Candle sale at Cracker Barrel so I wanted to compare prices at the outlet. I am pleased so say that they compared favourably so I picked up 2 ‘Pink Sands’ large candles and some cranberry melts for our wax melter. When we got to the checkout, there was an offer where you could get a sea smelling candle for $8 (rrp $29.99) if you spent over $30 so we bagged that too – Josiah wants it for his rooms because he thinks it smells like a cross between Pandora and Soarin’ – and he isn’t wrong (although we have discovered that fresh cut watermelon smells just like Pandora – go on – try it!).

Just outside the Yankee Candle shop was a Pop figure stand and we had wanted to pick one up for one of Josiah’s friends, Macky, for his birthday as he collects them. A quick call to the UK to Macky’s Mum, Becki, and we bought Golden Groot for his collection. Well – tried to buy – Han’s credit card was declined 3 times so she ended up paying with some cash.

Up until then, we had been using the Revolut card that we had been regularly transferring our saved spending money on over the last 18 months and exchanging to dollars when we got a good rate – mostly $1.29 (those were the days huh). We had also set aside a few hundred £ from our usual monthly Tesco Credit Card spends to subsidise – need to build up those points to pay for hotels for future holidays!

While Josiah was looking at clothes in Vans (again) I called Tesco, only to find that our card had been stopped without us knowing due to a potential fraud. They hadn’t notified us but had sent out new cards- to our UK address – the week after we flew out here. After 40 minutes on the phone, they agreed to transfer some money, fee free, to our current account so that I can top up our Revolut card with that. We could have got round it but that was the best possible solution at this time.

With that sorted, it was onwards to trying to top up Josiah’s wardrobe! A stop in Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger and a few others resulted in wide eyes at price tags so we left, having a long walk to the car!

We drove from there to the other Premium Outlets on Vineland to see if I had any better luck with the handbag there. The short answer was no and we left to see what else we could find! A few false starts again left us deflated until we made it to the Levis Store – with 40% off most things in store and a live DJ, we couldn’t go wrong!

My Mum and Dad had said that I could look out for something for him for his birthday, and they as well as his great-grand parents had given both him and Eliana some money to come away with so he settled on a ‘distressed’ denim jacket, a pair of skinny jeans and 3 pairs of socks…which look great with his new Vans.

He came away happy and has saved enough still for an interactive wand at Universal so him and Eliana can do the ‘spells’ around Harry Potter land. Good going!

Although we had paid $3 to park through the My Park app (so easy to use) and still had 25 minutes left, we were getting hungry so decided to leave at this point to grab a bite to eat before heading home.
‘Lunch’ was to be Menchies – a frozen yogurt bar – at Rolling oaks. I know it’s not the most nutritious but we both wanted to try it and didn’t feel like we wanted anything cooked or huge and Jamie and Eliana hadn’t fancied it (which Jamie regrets now!).

Well – it was incredible! Just what I had hoped! Josiah and I were in our element! There were around 10 different flavours of yogurt/sorbet and loads of the little paper pots you get your ketchup in at UK McDonald’s so you could try all the flavours before you committed to choosing your actual flavour for your big pot.

Our favourites were the watermelon sorbet, raspberry tart, dulche de leche, Ghiradelli salted caramel, cake batter and oreo!

Once we chose, we picked up our pot and put in our yogurt then moved to the toppings bar(s). First there were the ‘dry’ toppings including Heath bar pieces, m&ms, mini reeses pieces, gummy bears, choco rocks and so, so many others! After that came ‘liquidy’ toppings – marshmallow, honey, nutella or peanut butter, then the next set including cherries, boba balls, strawberries, blueberries, cheesecake squares etc. Then, finally, came the hot caramel or chocolate sauces!
In total it came to around $15 for both pots as it is weighed at the end – 59c per ounce.

Suitably stuffed, we set off for home, via McDonald’s as Eliana fancied another plain burger and apple slices for her lunch.

We popped to the Maccys near our villa and it was NOT fast food! It took almost 40 minutes from joining the queue to getting our food and in that time we had been handed 4 orders and none of them were ours. Finally we got our food, and someone else’s it turns out. Just bizarre – no idea how they can have made so many mistakes! At least Eliana was happy as she got her food and the rest of us benefited from the extras we found amongst it.

Josiah treated us all to a little fashion show and then we settled into our now usual routine at home – swim, games, DVD, writing up this report!

Jamie and Josiah decided that they were hungry around 6pm and popped out to Taco Bell to give that a try -their verdict – it was really tasty. A real bargain at $15.80. Jamie got the Nacho Cheese meal, a spicy taco, a beef burrito, nacho fries with cheese sauce and a drink. Josiah got two of the spicy Taco’s as well some of the Nacho Fries. We also got a beef quesadilla in case the rest wasn’t enough as we didn’t know the sizes. I don’t think we really needed it though, there was so much food!

We decided to try and get an early night as tomorrow we were heading to Royal Pacific to check in for our overnight stay to get express passes and early entry at Universal! Can’t wait!

[eleele]

I’m sorry you couldn’t get the handbag. You did well with your other purchases though. That yoghurt at Menchies looks amazing, so many choices - my DS2 would be in his element! Noted for future trips!

[Suzieee]

Mother and son day... plus shopping... perfect! Xx

[lincolnhan]

Originally Posted by Suzieee

Mother and son day... plus shopping... perfect! Xx

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Absolutely! I did say to him that I was making the most of it as one day, possibly soon, he won’t want to (unless I’m paying &#128521

[sheluk]

I hope my son enjoys shopping with me as much when he’s older and the froyo sounds amazing x