The Highlands Fling Day 5 Shopping and Applebees

[ChoppyGirl]

After our lovely night at the The Grand Plaza - nothing fancy but clean, comfortable and a great position, we got ourselves up and ready to head back to Orlando where the plan was shopping!

Paul went to sort the stuff out in the car and I waited in the queue to check out. The guy tried to charge me the resort fee but my booking included it. I had booked through Travel Republic and noticed a few months after I had booked that the price had gone down by about £30 for the same room. When I questioned it Travel Republic said they my rate included the resort fee so I made sure it was on the booking notes. Luckily I had kept the accommodation voucher from the day before which stated that the rate did include the resort fee. He read the voucher then said he needed to speak to someone to confirm what I had paid. Speak to who you like mate but there is no way I am paying the resort fee twice I was thinking! He came back and said that all was ok and we were off on our merry way.

When me and Beth got to the car, Paul pointed out a bump on the boot that he hadn’t noticed before and to be honest, neither had I. When I looked closer it had a clear sticker with a number so guessed that it was to indicate that Dollar knew about it, I looked at the scratch on the side that we knew about and that also had a sticker on it.

We drove over the road to IHOP where Paul nearly drove on the wring side of the road and settled in ready for our lovely breakfast. Paul had an omelette, Beth the Split Decision and I can’t remember what I had - I think it was a make your own kind of breakfast.

The food was really lovely - I wish we had IHOPs here but even if we did it wouldn’t be as nice. The waitress gave us all a coffee to go and we headed back to Orlando where our first stop was Florida Mall.

The car park was quite empty when we got there and we parked near Macy’s. Paul popped to the loo whilst me and Beth went inside to have a mooch after collecting a free voucher book from the desk outside. We were conscious of the time and Paul waiting outside so didn’t send much time in there. I did manage to buy Michael Kors bag but no 20% discount via the voucher unfortunately. I did think about putting it back and waiting until the outlets but I really liked it so bought it anyway. It was reduced from $249 to $199 anyway but still a bit more than I wanted to pay. Iw as a bit disappointed that they put the bag in an awful Macy’s carrier bag which looked like a supermarket carrier - I though I would at least get a nice paper bag with strings. I also bought a MAC lipstick - no discount on that either! Next up was Sephora where Beth was ready to spend until she announced she had not made a note of the pin number of the Fairfx card which we had loaded her spending money onto! It was linked to ours so I used that one every time she bought something and transferred the money from her Fairfx card to ours. We were in there ages whilst poor Paul was sat waiting outside. I bought a Benefit eyebrow pencil, Kat von D mascara and a face pack. I signed up for the mailing list and the girl gave me a branded lipstick (can’t remember the name now) and a Kat von D gift set which was the birthday gift. My birthday is in March but she said I could have it anyway. Beth has since nicked both of these! I told Beth to join up but she didn’t realise all the freebies you could get. Beth bought a few bits and pieces (not a lot) and we then went into Victoria’s Secrets where once again Paul waited outside and Beth picked 10 pairs of knickers for $35 which I paid for. Whilst we were waiting outside we had an email from Spirit of the Swamp cancelling our trip for the Saturday as the dock owners had closed it all down because of Storm Dorian. They refunded us the cost onto the credit card we had booked on.

Beth had wanted a halter neck bra she had seen online but it was in the Pink section which was in a separate store there so we had a look at the online map and headed there where she got what she wanted. I spotted Hot Topic which I knew Beth would like from her emo days and pointed it out to her so we went there. Just outside was one the stands they have there and the woman was so pushy trying to get me to try her face cream that it made me uncomfortable and I had to be a but abrupt in the end which is not like me at all. It meant that I had to wait in the stores for aaagggeeesss whilst Beth looked at virtually everything in there as I didn’t want to wait outside and face that woman again. Beth was spoilt for choice and ended up with 1 sale top and 3 of the ‘3 for’ tops. Service was very slow in there and the music was giving me a headache!

Paul was starting to lose the will to live so I agreed to just go to Bath and Bodyworks and we would go to the Premium Outlets. I bought 3 items and got 3 free there. It was nice but not as good as I thought it would be. I bought perfume sprays and body creams. I wanted to go to JC Penneys but Paul said it was that or the outlets so I chose the outlets!

The outlets looked a lot busier than Florida Mall and we noticed people where stalking spaces. We just missed one as Paul just drove passed even though I told him to wait and then someone else was waiting and we couldn’t reverse. Words were had shall I say!

We eventually found some spaces across a road so parked up and the two of them had a comfort break. It was starting to rain whilst I was waiting but it only lasted a few minutes. Both Paul and Beth wanted Levis so we looked at the map and found the store. I spotted the Disney Warehouse and went in there as I am the wring shape for Levis (20 on the bottom) and knew that Paul wouldn’t want to face the queues in the Disney store. It was very messy in there but I did pick up some Haunted Mansion playing cards and a Haunted Mansion travel mug, The mug was reduced from $19.99 to $7.99 and I later saw it in World of Disney still at $19.99. It was too manic in there for my liking and the queue was massive but I did wait in it. Some people in there had baskets full of the same items so I assume they were buying to resell. There was a big basket on the floor of Disney Ears and some people where just grabbing handfuls of them to buy. It wasn’t a pleasant experience like it used to be. At the till I did ask to look at a Toy Story Dooney and Burke purse but it was over $80 so decided not to and have a look at purses in the Kate Spade store.

Over to meet Paul and Beth at the Levi store where they had picked a pair each for $49.99. There was an offer where if you bought 3 it only worked out $20 more for the extra pair so Beth got another and whilst she was trying them on I found a nice t-shirt for Paul which was reduced to $19.99 but on a stand where everything was $9.99 so we got that too.

I promised Paul I would just go to Kate Spade then we would go home so I went in there to look for a purse. The purses were about $45 but some of the bags had really good reductions which worked out much better value. I ended up with a lovely bag which was 70% off then an additional 20% and was already reduced. It was $349 to start with, then reduced to $299 and it worked out at £63 when I checked my banking on the online app. Very pleased with that although Paul wasn’t when he saw I had bought another bag! it is really nice though and I don’t have a Kate Spade bag.

Whilst I was getting served there was a woman at another cashier who was asking for a discount as she said the bag didn’t close properly. There was nothing wrong with it, it just had a magnetic clip but she insisted it was broken. The cashier refused to give her a discount so she said she would have it anyway! Some people - there was really good discounts in there but she still tried for a bit more.

We got caught in the rain going back to the car but again it didn’t last long. Decided to get fuel on the way back as the news reports suggested. The garage we went to only had premium fuel left but we didn’t want to take a chance so filled up with that - it was a quarter full and we filled it up for just over $20 - which it was that cheap at home. I also got me and Beth a slurpee. When I went to the till the guy said that because of Dorian the garage was closing and he would have to confiscate the slurpees and fuel. I said take the fuel but not the slurpees as I could tell he was joking!

At Berry Town Centre we called at Publix and Paul got the 2 cases of water we were allowed to buy.

Quickly got changed and walked over to Applebees . I had joined their loyalty scheme and had a voucher for a free appetiser. The server was really good - friendly without being pushy and really informative. Certain draft beers were BOGOF so me and Paul both went for the Bud Light which came in a mega glass! Beth had coke as usual.

For our free appetiser we could have any except for the sharing ones so went for the loaded nachos which we struggled to eat between the 3 of us! I said that as we were English, could we have the nachos and order our main later and the server said that was no problem LOL. For mains I had the half rack of ribs with garlic green beans and loaded mash, Paul had a burger which cam with unlimited fries and Beth had chicken fajitas.

Fajitas

Burger

Half rack of ribs

All were really good and Paul had an extra portion of fries. He also had another mega beer and I asked for a long island iced tea. The server said as long as I had the house and not top shelf spirits he could make it a house special which turned out to be BOGOF - result!

Whilst we were eating I sent a message to BFF over there to see if they had heard about their flight back as they were due to fly to Manchester on the Monday and to make sure they had fuel and water etc. They were ok for water but were struggling to find fuel and had tried a few places but with no luck. In the end they found an app which said where fuel was available so was sorted.

Our bill at Applebees was $77 and we gave the server a $20 tip as he was so good. I know you tip percentages but I find it odd that he would get $14 at 20% but he was much better than some of the Disney servers who got twice as much as the food was twice as expensive (but not twice as nice necessarily).

We staggered back to the villa with very full tummies, had a dip in the pool and went to bed. We also decided to change our plans and not go to Tyhoon Lagoon Sunday.

[Excitedx4]

Fab day! The unlimited fries seem a good deal my kids could eat them all day 😂