Going Out in a Blaze of Glory - Summer of Sorcery 2019 - DAYS 12 and 13- Shopping fest or days off?

[walt4it]

Welcome back - you made it...I hoped you would!

If you are a first time reader - it might be worth clicking on here to understand a little bit about me posting the rest of this report.

If you missed day 11 it can be read here


If you missed anything that went before the whole index and links to all of the previous shenanigans is just a click here away.

Stay safe and thanks for reading

Welcome to DAY 12 ( And DAY 13 too!)

Sunday 4th August

Without the sound of us all sleeping within the same room and with the thought of our first day staying off site, we made a startling decision that would impact us all – we were going to have a day off - we needed it.

We were all shattered after a huge 12 night stint of all being in the same hotel room - from Manchester Airport, Boca Raton and then The Yacht Club.

I’m sure every parent has been there , you listen to the sound of them turning over every 10 seconds whilst we all lie there listening to the snoring – except me, as obviously I don’t snore – I just lie awake listening to it!

As always with a day off, the notes become rather sketchy, so I am very thankful for all the whatsapp messages I shared with our friends – The Reetser family.

Having shared some beers on the 26th , they had made the conscious decision to avoid interrupting our stay at the Yacht Club, although we kept in touch enough to know which parks were busy or quiet and where the weather was hitting hardest!

Their deliberate avoidance will become more apparent in upcoming days – but their thoughtfulness was something that needs a massive THANK YOU all of its own. x

We had not realised at the time, but they had consciously planned their holiday itinerary in order to allow us some family time and then to max out the opportunities to join up together once we were off site.

It is those shared messages that are proving the most valuable source in typing up today! As well as this pic I found that I should have posted yesterday.

It was an official slow start, in which two of us started watching the Hungarian Grand Prix and watching the Australian cricket score ominously grow on the phone updates. We were on a slow day and as Joe and Alison joined us for some breakfast, so the awareness of just how shattered we all were. It was as if we had all hit the pause button at exactly the same time!

The Villa was ticking as many boxes as we had hoped – a beautiful place on Lake Wilson Preserve which is close to Championsgate. We had stayed in another Villa around the corner last year and as is often the case, when you leave a good review for a Villa in August, it gets booked up more quickly than you can rebook!

So, we found this one instead on Homeaway, the owners were from the UK, so we could pay in £’s rather than dollars, which saved us a bit along the way amid the sinking value of the £ against the dollar.
After some fun in the pool and an opportunity to unpack properly, to do some washing and then to make a list of stuff we needed from the supermarket.
Plus the chance to add some photos of the Villa too!

We made a tentative move out in the car with a plan of hitting Premium Outlets and The Florida Mall. Well that never makes for good photo taking opportunities – it was good to just have a drive and to make our first tentative steps outside that Disney bubble – it was one small step, yet a huge leap at the same time!

A walk around the Outlets at the top of I Drive saw for a Disney outlet shop that was a bit of a bargainous haul –but the thing is, we only bought one of each of the things we wanted, not the basketfuls carried by others - even the boys started taking photos in incredulity.
It was a true Unbelievable Jeff moment!

I’m not going to name nationality or ability to ship it all home, but there was some wider, informed shopping greed going on here, not seen this in all our previous trips to this scale and should be easy for the Disney Outlet to stop, yet they just want that surplus stock off the shelves and moved on.
They saw a prime profit to be made in what Disney was practically giving away at less than cost price. I will avoid the debate of retail suicide by Disney/ entrepreneurism at its best or just sheer greed and hoping ebay will mop up a huge profit.

It must be said though, that our visit there today made the journey worthwhile, as we never saw as much in the Disney outlets in future visits – I’m guessing all the good stuff got sidelined by the rush for ebay or the export market!

We then made the best of JC Penney at the Florida Mall, with some more bargains snagged and an awareness that the day was getting away from us _ JC Penney tends to do this to us on a regular basis as we seem to find loads of bargains with 50+% off and then a coupon on their app takes another 20 % off

To be honest, not so much the shopping, but just the down time in the car became the best bit about the whole day. Even in a non- park day we can seemingly fritter away hours in the blink of an eye! It was tax free weekend after all!

A stop off for some food to cook from Walmart, on the way back and we were sorted for a pool night. Even the weather started to clear.

But not before Joe found a car to take photos of!

Swimming Pool , hot tub and then food - Bolognaise and garlic bread.

As much as we tried, it was impossible to extend the day, sleep was much needed.



Monday 5th August Day 13


Well , we enjoyed the sleep and decided the best option was to continue the relaxation in order to recharge the batteries, to click on MDE and cancel a day we had planned late on in The Studios we decided to just put those FP’s back in the MDE pot and then thought about how our day would pan out.

Time for the pool then!

Once more with the though of saving a bit of tax we went shopping and managed to avoid spending as much as yesterday! Which is always a good thing, but also an opportunity for me to once more whinge about the change in parking at Premium outlets Vineland Road.


With previous experience it was back to the cunning plan to avoid being wound up by this!

Simply head across the road, which ends up being a similar distance away from the back of the Hilfiger shop that the Multi Storey is away from the first stores. Costs nothing and saves you so much wasted time searching for a space.

Lunch was needed by this time and as we sat for a hot dog/ Subway split, we were still looking at the Disney Character warehouse with some degree of trepidation , after yesterday, it was possibly a case of missing the boat here, the lines were long , yet there was nothing interesting to buy, a prime requisite of any visit here. Otherwise you just end up buying tat.

Tat that you don’t need and certainly becomes a pain in the back side to take home. You know you will never use it and despite it being 70% off will sit in the cupboard under the stairs and then get put in the loft (OK – I do have previous on this!) Trust me, if you think it is a bargain you need to wear it and you need to use it or at least look at it! (Having done it before and had it stare back at me when I get the Christmas tree down each year – I consider this a lesson learnt!)

Having had a bite to eat we passed on the large queue and had a look around the rest of the mall.

A few Vans things bought and that was about it I think.

We did spot this sign too - the 99c divorce -maybe that was for those who had max'ed out the credit card at the shops!

As we headed out and off to the fancy looking new Walmart on the 192, so the skies filled with thundery venom once more.


This is not as big a Walmart as the one on the 27, however this is a good thing- you don’t get lost from everyone quite as easily! As a supermarket the roofing structure is quite amazing as it sheds the most amazing amount of natural light into the store, a design that I’m sure someone will think of here one day, instead of flat roofed building and acres of artificial lighting.


Only the thunder, the lighting and the torrential rain in the Summertime meant that there was a lack of light in what seemed like an instant and the store lighting must have kicked into night time mode.

It certainly didn’t drown out the sounds from outside. The rain was torrential and being able to use the free Walmart Wifi meant we could have a check on the live doplar radar from Channel 9 news. It did not make for good viewing. We were the first stop off point as it was about to sweep all of the parks and whilst sharing the sight of the bar at Seaworld we cast a bit of an idea for the evening.


From a text at 4pm in Walmart, we arranged a night out with friends, the very same who appeared in our very first trip and of whom there will be a whole lot more in upcoming days.

They were stuck in the bar in Seaworld, good place to get stuck amid a huge thunderstorm. We tiptoed our way up the Old Lake Wilson Road which was slowly filling up with water – the sight of the golf courses on each side told their own stories – waterfalls from greens onto fairways that resembled lakes.

We did make great use of the automatic door of the garage and as a result it was only me who ended up getting wet as the rain continued to hammer down

When it comes to catching up, our brief meeting in the Rose and Crown last week was merely the start – Millers for tea tonight it was then!

I have said it before and will say it once again, how we managed to become friends was something of a Dibb thing a shared Illuminations cruise in 2008, yet as we have grown older and we have watched our children grow too , that shared moment has developed into so many messages being shared between both families. Our children are great friends as are the adults and the shared Disney journey is one that transcends the years of friendship.

Yep 8 people dining and with a few drinks in there too! Now we were not on the dining plan a place like this comes into its own!


With some great food, great company and another late night we bode farewell with a shared mission – meeting tomorrow for time together in Magic Kingdom.

As this was their second trip of the year, they had upgraded tickets to an annual passes and that means a great way we can share free parking - I do like free parking!

Anyway - once back I checked the emails and found that this had been dispatched after I ordered it last night - express shipping and it should be with us by the time we depart the villa

Just remember this moment - we will return to it!

Thanks for reading -I know two shopping days does not make for great entertainment - but, we were rested and raring to hit the parks once again


Until DAY 14 – See ya’ real soon

DAY 14 is just a click here away

[disneywiseowl]

Another good (2) days & that bolognaise looks yummy. I’m enjoying reading another of your trip reports.
Thx so much for continuing to post.X

[mick]

It was time you had a bit of relaxing
You can’t beat shopping and you got a few bargains.

Your meal at millers looked good

Joan

[Palm trees]

Looks like you got some good bargains and had a nice, relaxing couple of days. I really like the monorail t shirt in your shopping haul.

[mossyflossy]

Great couple of days relaxing, shopping and chilling with friends. Your homemade meal and Millers look delicious. Keep them coming x

[Holiday time]

Thanks for posting. That Soarin t-shirt is fab.

[walt4it]

Originally Posted by Holiday time

Thanks for posting. That Soarin t-shirt is fab.

See more...

Thanks for putting a comment on here and welcome to the trip report Hope you stick with me 'till the end

The tee shirt has a story all of its own - will add the background in an upcoming day , however as a preview -

We had seen a couple of tee shirts that were obviously not Disney official merch - every time we saw it we all tended to laugh and just wonder where it had originated.
An internet search whilst on site - threw us towards Teepublic. Once in the villa I knew we had a discreet place to leave the tee shirts - so bought one for all of us They were having a sale so it was 40% off advertised prices
Result! Or so I thought!

Stay with us for the tale of the tee shirts !

Thanks for reading

[flo-tinka]

Serious t shirt shopping family!
The tale of the t shirts😂🤣

[Goldia]

Ahh, the villa part of the holiday starts and so do the shopping trips. My favourite line of today's report is "Tat that you don't need and certainly becomes a pain in the backside to take home" as yet we've never set foot in a Flordia mall for this reason, that doesn't mean I don't love the shopping haul parts of trip reports. As I really enjoy looking at Walmart shelves and photos of the outlets, even though we've never been. But that line did make me smile.

It seems a relaxing few days were on the cards and you had a lovely time at the villa watching sports and chilling out. It sounds like you had a lovely meal with friends and enjoyed catching up. A well deserved rest and recuperation. I'm disappointed to not see a golf club in your hand though Surely that can't be too far in your future?

[walt4it]

Originally Posted by disneywiseowl

Another good (2) days & that bolognaise looks yummy. I’m enjoying reading another of your trip reports.
Thx so much for continuing to post.X

See more...

Appreciate you reading and just leaving a comment - it will see me through until the end!
Home cooking after days of dining plan, need something that is a simple taste of home and with salad!