Mountains, Zombies & Disney Roadtrip - Day 9 - Disney Springs & A Quiet Hollywood Studios

[miss_mouse]

Trip Report Index

US ROADTRIP – TENNESEE – ALABAMA – GEORGIA & FLORIDA

Day 9 – Saturday 14th July – Disney Springs & Hollywood Studios



Just to start, I'm Lisa - the planner and reporter. Ade is my hubby and he's our driver and there's Hollie who turns 19 on this trip and Louis is 16.

We didn’t set alarms this morning. We’d had such full days.
We are firm believers that rest time is so important on these kind of trips.

We were up around 8am. We got showered and ready for Disney Springs.



I did work for quite some time. I hate having to work on holiday. But at the same time I have to be grateful that I’m self-employed and can still earn the same amount of money when I’m away on holiday.



We left for Disney Springs, stopping in at Concierge on the way out. Hollie and I booked the bus to Disney from the Grove for the following day as the boys were staying in to watch the world cup final. It was a free bus service and we were excited to try something new and head off on our own.



We were driving away from The Grove at 10.18am.
We wanted to get to Disney Springs early as it was a Saturday.

We tried a new road from The Grove which missed out the 192 altogether. It saved so much time. I filmed this with all the details on my youtube channel (lollipop box club).
We used this road all the time from now on.



And we were walking into Disney Springs here having parked in the empty Lime Garage at 10.42am.
Not bad going!



The first stop was the lego store.
A request from the 3 of them.



Then straight to Earl of Sandwich for our early lunch before it gets too busy.







We love this place.
It wasn’t until we got the order though that I realised Louis’ order was wrong. I hadn’t noticed it on the receipt.
And I know I got it right when I ordered as he’s so bloody fuss and I had to order his buffalo chicken wrap but without anything else in it, so we had to go through all of that with the CM and I joked about him being so fussy.
But they were really good and swapped it for him.



We always sit outside in the shade.



Tuna for hollie.



Holiday for me.



Beef with French dip for Ade.



And buffalo chicken (without all the stuff) for Louis.

We spent some time then looking at all the pins.



Hollie got another pressed penny.

We split in Co Op for a short while.



Ade and I loved this Splash Mountain Artwork.
Then the kids came over and they’d been looking at the prints of this.
Louis was thinking about buying one, the exact print that we'd just been admiring

We wandered around a few stores.

Hollie and I bought stuff in Kiehls and Sephora then we headed out.

It was 1pm as we left and Disney Springs was getting busy.
There was a big queue now to get in to the Lime Garage.
Getting there early is definitely a must do on a Saturday in the Summer.



We laughed at the missing letter on the signage.
This changed through the stay. At one point they were replaced but they looked written in and then they were changed again but using slightly different fonts.



We got ready and sent down to the new waterpark at The Grove resort, the water safari park.

It was Saturday afternoon and really busy.
We did finally manage to find 4 sun beds though.
The pool was busy but we chucked a ball around.
Then Hollie and I got out to lay down in the sun.



The boys carried on playing ball.
There was a huge group playing Marco Polo.
Have you seen the Modern Family episode with Marco Polo?
This reminded me just of this.
Can you spot Ade?
He was starring in my very own Modern family episode and had no idea.

The kids soon had enough but didn’t want to head back to the condo on their own as they were worried about getting lost due to the complicated routes and the lack of signs.
We ended up going back.

We weren’t there for long and this was the only time using this pool.
We used the other quiet pools after this.

I do have an issue with this pool.
The Grove charge $25 to park per night and I think $25 for resort fees too per night and then on top of that $7 each to hire tubes to use the lazy river in the water park (you aren’t allowed to use your own).
I think it’s really cheeky when you are already paying so many extras. Especially considering it’s hotel only guests here.
If you are like us and you just like to pop to the pool for an hour every 2-3 days, I’m not paying that!

We had some downtime, showers and got ready for an evening out.



5.20pm and we were on our way to Hollywood Studios.



This was our favourite park last year, so we were so excited to be back.



We popped in to the stores on our walk down for the aircon.



We were really surprised looking at the app at how short the queues were for a Saturday evening in July.

To meet Olaf was 10 mins, Star Tours was showing 15 mins.

We had a fast pass for Toy Story Mania but as the queue was so short for Star Tours we decided to stop there on the way through…..15 mins? Silly app. It was a walk on.

Hollie was the Rebel Spy!
We always like a mooch in the Star Tours store.

Next up first time in….




We were so excited about visiting here.



We had fastpasses but the actual standby queue was just 30 mins.

I never do well, but I love this ride so much.







We wandered taking it all in.
It was much smaller than we expected, but we really loved it.
And it made us really excited for Galaxy’s Edge too.





I really wanted to try the Alien ride until the wait time jumped from 30-50 mins and we left it.





Loved watching Slinky and we were so excited about our fast passes later in the trip.



We had fast passes for Tower of Terror next.



The park was looking really busy despite the wait times not being that bad.











Now Louis has always struggled with Tower of Terror.
He tried it again a few years ago and still hated it so he tends to sit this one out.
However a few weeks before we went away he went to Thorpe Park with friends and it really built up his confidence with rides, so he was wanting to give it a go again this trip.



He did it!



He’s still not a convert though!


Cont...

[miss_mouse]

Cont...




Hollie added to her pressed penny collection.

We looked in a few stores and then decided to sit on the curb and rest our feet to wait for our Rock n Roll fast passes to open.
It was really hot and sticky. Just over 90f but no sunshine, just humid.



The kids wandered off to get some frozen drinks each and snacks and Ade and I started vlogging whilst sat on the curb.
There was a young couple who asked if we were vlogging when we put the camera away. I’d hoped we’d been discreet, I still find it really embarrassing.
This couple were so cute. I thought they were siblings to start with, but they were so chatty and asking us so many questions. They wanted to know all about our lives in the UK.
Turned out they were from Kentucky and knew the town where my Dad worked.
They then wanted to know what crops we grew in the UK. And were asking about our sports.
So many questions, but it was so nice chatting with them.
He even showed us some videos of tractor racing. That’s ‘a thing’!

We found out that they were a couple visiting with his family and were still in high school.
We were so shocked, from the conversation we’d guessed they were mid 20’s.
It’s so nice chatting with people from such different backgrounds.

Next Up…






We all love this one!

We came out and it was just so hot. We walked around the stores for some more aircon.



We really liked this Christmas tree deccie but didn’t want to make a choice today as it was only day 2. So I took a photo and then when I got home and unpacked I couldn’t find the tree dec. I then realised that we forgot to buy one. Thankfully a friend picked it up in October and I surprised the family when we put the tree up, as we were all disappointed.







I decided this was my favourite time of day in a park when it’s starting to get dark and the lights go on.

Hollie found another pressed penny machine.



Next we were on a mission.
Last year Hollie and Louis really wanted to buy a Mouse Droid, but ended up not getting one.
Hollie really regretted it all this time so today she was going for one.



She was very particular with which one she had but they were all on the top shelf. Not an easy task when you are 4ft10.
She didn’t want one with finger prints on the box. (semi mint condition in her words).
So she made Ade go through them all until she was happy.

She didn't take many things to uni with her when she moved. No photos, nothing sentimental... just her plants and her mouse droid!

We lost Ade at this point when we headed out of Starwas Launch Bay, we couldn’t find him.
We hung around until he found us again.



We’d hoped to stay for Starwars fireworks, but as it’s peak season they aren’t on until 10pm. We still had an hour to wait and none of us wanted to despite so wanting to watch the fireworks. We love them so much.
So we decided to leave and go for late night Ihop instead.
Always a favourite Florida tradition of our’s.

We did pop in to another store on the way out.
The cute kitchen stuff lured us in.
We always buy something for the kitchen every trip.
I got a set of 2 mickey spatulas and little frames with magnetic backs for the fridge.



Then whilst the kids were browsing we snuck off for a quick photo pass on our own.
It was the first time we’ve ever had a photo pass on our own.
The kids didn’t even notice we’d gone.




At 9.40pm we were pulling in to Ihop on the 192 (near the Mermaid gift shop).
It had been revamped since our last visit





We like going through our photos when we sit down and sharing them with each other.



I had steaktips with mash.



Louis pancakes and bacon.



Hollie pancakes with a side of hashbrowns.



And Ade went for the breakfast Steak tips.
We love the steak tips.

It was such a perfect supper.
We love night trips here.

It really was a perfect evening and although we love the Starwars fireworks so much, we were all so tired and we felt like we’d had such a perfect evening and we didn’t want to run the risk of ruining it by staying late and going past it, which can easily be done.
We’d definitely made the right decision.
It was another perfect Disney day.

Thanks so much for reading.

[Zomax25]

A lovely day! Thanks for sharing.

[Palm trees]

Another lovely day and another set of lovely photos too. I'm with you on the extra costs on your resort, I'd prefer to have an all in price rather than think of the cost of a pool I'd not made use of.

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by Zomax25

A lovely day! Thanks for sharing.

See more...

Thanks for reading

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

Another lovely day and another set of lovely photos too. I'm with you on the extra costs on your resort, I'd prefer to have an all in price rather than think of the cost of a pool I'd not made use of.

See more...

Thank you.
Yes totally. Especially when they say the resort fees cover the use of the waterpark. Surely that would include the use of the tubes to use the lazy river?!

Thanks for reading

[Jules32]

Another Fab blog ( loving your vlogs too) tower of terror is my all time favourite ride
thanks for sharing xx

[chriswol]

Hi Lisa, thanks for posting. Another great day for you all. I love the photo pass photos. Maybe we should try and sneak off to have a photo done as well without our daughter
We did manage to go to ihop by ourselves for breakfast one morning, daughter was still asleep and did not want to go. We love the breakfasts there.
Looking forward to your vlog on Saturday x

[i love jack]

Another lovely day

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by i love jack

Another lovely day

See more...

Thanks