Team Groves are Florida Bound, October 2017 - Day 15

[berniegroves]

Day 15 – 20th October 2017:
Swimming, Super Target, Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Islands of Adventure

I really do love it when we come away for three weeks. It is so amazing getting to this point and knowing that in the past we would have been home by now, but as it is we still have a week left. I think three weeks in Florida is great, as there is so much to do and it takes some pressure off when you have small kids.

Anyway, we changed up our plan today as we felt like having a lazy morning so we spent the morning at the villa enjoying the swimming pool and the lovely views. It really was so peaceful out there. We always saw lots of wildlife as well which was interesting, birds, raccoons, alligators and pigs! Yes wild pigs! Crazy!

Graysons hair was starting to annoy him as he hates when his fringe is long enough to get into his eyes, so we’d been saying we would get it cut for a few days. Well today was the day, we decided we would stop at a barbers near the villa on the way up to Super Target. So after we’d finished swimming we had a late breakfast in the villa and then at 10.30am ish we left the villa and headed over to the barber shop which was in a small cluster of shops near Championsgate.
I felt totally out of place in here but Grayson had a great time and his haircut was the best he has ever had! He looked so adorable.

Both Miley and I were very excited to be heading up to Super Target as its one of our favourite shops. Surely it can’t just be us that looks forward to visiting Super Target when they are in the States? That store has literally everything, I could spend ALL our money in there!

We all enjoyed having a look around and we got some clothes for Grayson and for Miley, now we are 18 months later I can confirm that these clothes were all really good quality. They all lasted really well, both kids still wear their tshirts from here and the trousers were the nicest ones we’ve ever had for Grayson.

I bought a nightdress here in 2016 which I loved and so I bought two more of them, they are the only ones I wear in the summer now. I also bought a scarf and some socks, because I am addicted to both!

The kids also spent some of their birthday money in the toy section, Miley bought a Barbie and Ken and some small lego sets and Grayson bought some Imaginext figures.

I feel I am underplaying the task of them choosing some toys. We spent a really long time in the toy section! A REALLY long time! Grayson just wants everything and Miley cannot ever decide as she is worried about making the wrong decision.

We also bought some food and a few bits and pieces for Mileys birthday in two days. I have blocked out how much the whole shop came to as its always far more than we would want.

We got back to the villa at around 1.30pm and relaxed for a few hours. The kids had great fun playing with their toys and I got some laundry done. I know lots of people are happy to be on the go all day, but my kids need some downtime, otherwise it would be tantrums galore.

At 2.45pm we headed out to Universal and were parking up in the carpark at around 3.15. The carpark here just isn’t anywhere near as organised as Disney and today it was chaos. We were directed right up to the roof top carparking, we’ve never parked up there before. The car infront of us was determined to do what he wanted and would not listen to the parking attendant. He parked across two spaces and just refused to move. We had been directed up to park next to him, which was the last space on the row but then obviously he didn’t park properly and the cars behind us were right behind us so we were kind of stuck for a while until the attendant could get it all sorted.
The guy refused to move and just got out of his car and walked off, with no concern for the issues he had just caused, it was so annoying as he hadn’t paid for two parking spaces so he should have just parked in one like everyone else! Argh.

Anyway we eventually got parked and were headed towards the elevator at 3.30pm. Our plan was to get an early dinner in City Walk and then go into Islands of Adventure afterwards.

I always love the walk into CityWalk, it reminds me of the holidays Simon and I took when we were child free and we spent most of our time at Universal.
Miley also loves the walk in as she finds the walkways a lot of fun!

It took quite some time to actually walk through citywalk because the kids were very distracted by the surfboard! Soooo many photos! They absolutely love this thing!

We went over to the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium, we’d not been here before but I was desperate to try one of the milkshakes.

It didn’t take long to be seated and we were taken to the upper floor to our table. The theming in this place is just awesome!

I really liked it and the kids loved the music and kept dancing in their chairs. All of the staff were very friendly and it had a good atmosphere.

(*** I also wanted to say that Wikkistix are amazing to help keep the kids entertained! My two love them and they really help fill time without making any mess.***)

Simon ordered a burger, I had the cheese flatbread and the kids had chicken tenders and chips. All of our food was great. I loved my flatbread.

I ordered a Salted Caramel Milkshake to try and the kids chose a strawberry milkshake to share between them. I’ve just checked the menu and it looks like they don’t do either of these milkshakes any more which is shocking as they were both amazing! The looked fab but they tasted even better.

All in all we had a really great meal and it was one of the best ones of the entire holiday. I’ve seen mixed reviews but we couldn’t fault our experience here at all.
We were finished up at around 5pm and left the restaurant to walk over to Islands of Adventure for a few hours.

Its always so satisfying walking into a theme park when loads of people are leaving! Lol. We walked around to Seuss Landings first and got some of their rides under our belt for the day. We did One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and then Cat in the Hat and then Caro-seuss-el. Phew. All of them were walk ons as the park was pretty quiet which is always nice.

After the kids had their fill of seusslands multi-coloured spinning rides we walked up towards Hogsmeade, but we made a pit stop at the Magic Fountain. We were there for quite a while actually as the kids (and simon) find this all very amusing. According to the time stamps on my photos, we were there for at least 20 minutes.

Miley was very excited as she heard the fountain sing happy birthday to someone and she started begging us to bring her back on her birthday so that the fountain could sing happy birthday to her!

We eventually made it up to Hogsmeade and we decided to visit Ollivanders for the first time with the kids.

Miley was really unsure as its obviously very atmospheric in there and that can make her worry that something will be scary, but she was totally fine. Obviously after watching someone choose a wand they both wanted one as well. I wasn’t going to buy them one but Simon said they could have one each so off we went to buy them. Miley got Hermiones wand and Grayson got Harrys. They got the interactive ones and so we spent a while going around Hogsmeade having a go at the different ‘spells’.

We were told that if the interactive wands ever break then they can be exchanged. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but we’ll take the wands away with us next time and see if they still work.

We went on Flight of the Hippogriff three times in a row as Miley loves this ride so much and Grayson enjoys it as well. The castmembers all found this very amusing and were high-fiving the kids as they got back on the ride each time.

I bought a frozen butterbeer as its my favourite drink in the whole world! And then we stood by the castle and watched the show they put on with students from Beauxbaxtons and Durmstrang. These little shows are always good fun and we all enjoyed watching.

We decided that we were done for today so we started heading out of the park at 7.30pm. It was a nice walk back to the car, seeing the park and citywalk all lit up. Simon and I used to go to the parks a lot in the evenings before we had kids and I always loved how pretty they looked at night. But now with two kids who really need their sleep we don’t get into the parks at night very often, and so this was a nice treat.

We were back at the car just after 8pm and the views from the top of the carpark were really impressive.

We had an uneventful drive back to the villa, although it was always on the drives back to the villa that I wished we were staying a little bit closer. This villa seemed like it was just a little bit too far away for us, I think next time we need to be a bit closer.

We were back at the villa around 9pm and Grayson was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, Miley took a bit longer but was still asleep by 9.45pm.
And relax!

[tory79]

My children are also obsessed with the surfboard and the talking fountain 😂

[berniegroves]

Originally Posted by tory79

My children are also obsessed with the surfboard and the talking fountain 😂

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Lol. At least its not just us. I wonder how many kids have their photo taken on that surfboard each day!

And honestly my husband loves the talking fountain more than all of us! I think it would be his dream job!

Thanks for reading