'Going the Distance' June 2017 - Day 5 - IOA+US, Moving to Villa, Target + Chinese.

[H_C-2017]

Wednesday 14th June

Day 5

Index: 'Going the Distance' June 2017

We got up quite late today at about 8:30-9am and spent a good hour and a half finishing up our packing. Somehow we were struggling to get everything back in and we hadn’t even bought that much which was not a good sign as I suspected I was going to buy a lot in Disney.

Breakfast was our room snacks again which did us really well for our time at universal. We had a muffin, some cookies and a couple of Twinkies left and we packed them up to take with us. We left all of our luggage with bell services.

We decided to head to the parks for a few hours. Chris decided that he wanted to do all of the roller coasters on the front row so that’s what we set out to do.

I had some more photos by the water feature and by the ‘river’ area – such a poser :P

We arrived at Islands at 11:20, the queues were definitely longer to get in and we got stuck behind a family who had forgotten which finger they had all used.

As soon as we got in we headed straight for the hulk. We had to wait abit longer for front row (total around 20 mins) but it was worth it. Such an adrenaline rush.

I took some photos around the superhero areas, loved how bright the theming was here.

^ I couldn’t wait to get a photo with this sign. I know what people mean when they say that Orlando is not a very relaxing holiday although to be fair we felt reasonably well rested.

We stopped to get a drink at the Jurassic Beer Cart. We got a Raspberry Icee to share which was $5.32 including tax. I love drinks like this, reminds me of going to the cinema.

More Harry Potter photos ahead

We then headed onto dragon challenge again riding both coasters on the front row. Glad we did this now as the Dragon Challenge is no more. Fingers crossed the replacement is good and not another simulator.

Chris took a photo of this:

He thought it was really funny and I have no idea why. It really tickled him. Strange boy.

We then had one last ride on the Hogwarts express over to Universal studios. I didn’t want to say goodbye to the Harry Potter areas. I could have stayed forever. I had to keep reminding myself that the holiday wasn’t over and that we were going to Disney soon.

We made a beeline for Rip Ride Rockit at this point. The sky was starting to get scary looking and I was worried that if it was a storm they would close the outdoor rides. The queue was only 10 minutes long in the express queue and luckily we ended up in the front row – there isn’t a separate queue for the front row here like on the other coasters although I guess we could have asked anyway.

It was much scarier being front row – when you get to the top you really can’t see the track until you start to go down. I think this was my favourite rollercoaster at the Universal Parks. I really loved it and I didn’t feel that it threw me around too much. We actually ended up being the last ride before the storm closed the ride – super lucky timing!

It was around 1:40pm at this point and so we decided to head out of the parks to City Walk and get a quick lunch before heading back to the hotel. We left via the gift shop which wasn’t a very good idea.
I ended up buying two pins, a Hogwarts Express Christmas ornament and a triwizard cup keyring. I borrowed the photos of the Christmas ornament and the keyring from google as I couldn’t find a photo.

Total came to $57.30 with tax.

The sky was starting to look very stormy.

It was 2pm by the time we decided where to eat and so I was starving. We decided on the hot dog hall of fame.

I ordered a Detroit and Chris had the Washington. These both came with fries. I had a pink lemonade and chris had a sweet tea.

Mine is on the left and had chilli and onions on it. The chilli could have done with some spice but was still good and the onions were nice and crisp.

I always make a mess eating things like this, and this time was no exception. The fact I like to wear a lot of black really helps in situations where I start to spill things down myself.

Total was $24.05

It was sort of raining at this point but our table had been undercover so we were okay. It wasn’t too bad so we just decided to brave it and walk back to the hotel.

We went to Jakes bar use our drinks vouchers. I ordered a white zinfandel and Chris had a highstepper.

We ordered another round after.

The first ones were free and I think the second round came to $16.
At 3:45pm we ordered an Uber to take us to the Villa, getting our bags from bell services en route.

We arrived at the Villa just after 4pm. I spent ages running around going snap happy with the photos. We were so impressed with the space and how lovely everything was.

There were 4 bedrooms which was completely lost on us. We used the ‘kids’ room as a spare room to put the suitcases and souvenirs etc in.
<3 The hot tub. One of my favourite parts of the holiday just sat there in the evening after a long day.

We then headed to Super Target to get some basics in terms of breakfasts and drinks. Could have spent a fortune in there. We didn’t look at everything – I made a note to go back and look at the makeup etc another time.

We spent $108 but could have easily spent double that and double the amount of time :’)

We unpacked the shopping and then decided to order a Chinese takeaway. Chris used an app on his phone, it was similar to Just Eat. Delivery time said around 40mins so we decided to have a quick dip in the pool and hot tub.

Complete bliss.

The food arrived on time and we quickly tucked in whilst watching an episode of House of Cards.

We ordered special lo mein, egg fried rice, general tso chicken, beef in black bean and honey wings.

I loved the little boxes with handles – reminded me of American tv programmes.

Chris really enjoyed the wings, the sauce was very sweet
With tax and delivery it was $43. We had leftovers that we put in the fridge - we always tend to eat leftover Chinese for breakfast - classy people!

We then basically did some more unpacking and had a fairly early night ready for our first Disney day! Think we got in bed at 10:30ish, I was super excited to experience Magic Kingdom the day after.

Steps: 16,434.

Thanks for reading

Day 6 is HERE

[Floridaagogo]

Love the idea of doing front row on all the coasters.your villa looks fab x

[Goldia]

Another fab day. Your villa looks great. I think you were quite restrained with your supermarket shop, it's so easy to spend spend spend!

[DISNEYALI]

Fab day villa looks great where is it located.

[Jaspercat10]

Great day, and you can't beat leftover takeaway the next day 😉

[H_C-2017]

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Love the idea of doing front row on all the coasters.your villa looks fab x

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It was a good experience although I was a bit jittery with all the adrenaline after!

Originally Posted by Goldia

Another fab day. Your villa looks great. I think you were quite restrained with your supermarket shop, it's so easy to spend spend spend!

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Oh god you should see how much makeup I bought when we went back

Originally Posted by DISNEYALI

Fab day villa looks great where is it located.

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The villa was in the formosa gardens area - really close to the 192 + disney.

This is the villa.

Originally Posted by Jaspercat10

Great day, and you can't beat leftover takeaway the next day 😉

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Love leftovers. Thanks for reading.

[DISNEYALI]

Thank you

[H_C-2017]

Originally Posted by DISNEYALI

Thank you

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thanks for reading.

[duchy]

It does look nice ... we are booked there in September

[H_C-2017]

Originally Posted by duchy

It does look nice ... we are booked there in September

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The Villa?
It's lovely! Honestly such a good home away from home, so close to the parks, supermarket and eating places.
Enjoy!