Floridays15 - Grumbles

When my alarm went off at 6.30am this morning, for a brief moment I thought it was a work day. Until I remembered;

a.  I don't have a job at the moment

b.  I was on holiday in Florida

c.  It was Saturday.

Oh yes, it's match day! Even on holiday, football comes first whenever possible. In fact not just football. In years gone by we have changed plans to be in the the room or local bar to watch England play rugby, cricket and the Olympics.  Today it was Newcastle versus Manchester United at Old Trafford. Luckily we are only missing one home match while away, but as it's Arsenal we will certainly be having another early Irish breakfast at Frankie Farrell's next Saturday.

Frankie Farrells - Lake Buena Vista Factory Outlets, Orlando

Surprisingly the day started well, a load of new players playing well against Man Utd gave us hope for the rest of the season, probably more so than the lone Man U supporter on the next table who kept flinging his arms up in despair as they missed chances and gave away the ball. Never mind, they can try again when they come to visit us at St. James' Park later in the season.

Jordan kitted up for the match.

Sunny and hot again, we had decided to change plans to go to Epcot and go to Blizzard Beach Water Park instead. There have been thunder storms every afternoon for the past few days so going there early meant that we should be able to have a few hours of sunshine and not have to come out of the park when the weather changed. 

We arrived just after 10am and by the time we got changed into swimwear not a single free sun lounger was in sight. Oh there were little low chairs a plenty.. piled up on the sand. But every sun lounger had a  towel or something to ' baggsie' it for someone who was not lying on it but would probably spend most of the day in the water or on slides or in queues for slides.  That REALLY irritates me, especially when most of them will be children who would never actually lie on a sun lounger unless they were ill or grounded. 

If it were me, with my two boys, I would 'baggsie' two loungers and two chairs...knowing the chairs would be used mostly for T Shirts and flip flops and not children's backsides... because we all know that children never sit still or sunbathe and always play in the water until their skin shrivels up or they are kicked out of the water because of a storm.

Towels reclining comfortably in the sun... 

Anyway, because of all the inconsiderate folk at Blizzard beach,  I had to spend most of the time there, sat in the sun on a chair with my legs stretched over another chair while 90% of the sun loungers around me were being used by towels.  I had volunteered to be 'bag keeper' as I am not fond of water slides, but happy to have a bit of a paddle or drape myself over an inflatable doughnut and bob about on the lazy river. Even that bores me rigid by the time I get halfway round.

Today was hot. Damn hot..sweat dripping from every pore hot. Even sitting in the shade it was hot. Going for a swim gave some respite but since all the sun loungers were in the shade to stop the towels getting sunburnt, I was forced to grumble and sweat while 'keeping the bag' so the boys could go and do 'boys' stuff.

And then there were the wasps... grabbing a bite to eat on the way out, still dripping with sweat, even after getting dried and changed we sat in a shaded area wafting away wasps. Funnily enough, earlier in the day I had read a tweet on Twitter about wasps... the post read "Wasps are made entirely from bastard". (@mrdaveturner). This is so true. They are bastards....just there to annoy you and nothing else. Just like the bastards who put towels on sun loungers they never use...

behind that smirk is an evil wasp.

It was nothing short of heaven then to get into the air-conditioned car, and cool down en-route to Walmart to stock up on water supplies and a few other items we needed. As predicted there was a heavy downpour over the Kissimmee area but was dry as a bone by the time we got back to the hotel. 

Tonight we had arranged for the boys to eat at the Mara market in the hotel - pizza and burgers, while we went to Jiko, the superb african restaurant. We have eaten there several times before and have had fabulous meals. Tonight was no exception. Filet Minion cooked to perfection with red wine jus and spoon bread with jumbo asparagus for me plus a glass of $20 red wine that almost caused hubby to fall off his chair...well it was the one recommended on the menu to go with my $50 steak.....

Filet minion with spoon bread and asparagus

Hubby just had a Bud Lite with his Short Rib Steak - said he couldn't afford expensive wine with his. 

Short rib steak with roasted veg and some hot sauce stuff

Dessert came with the Dining Plan meal, so of course we had to have one. I had Ghainian chocolate with coffee and almond cream...heavenly delicious. Hubby had Passion Fruit Melk Tert which was also heavenly - I know because I always try his too.

Plates of heavenly things

Just to clarify that we aren't stupidly rich and eat $50 steak on a regular basis. One of the main reasons we love to stay in Luxury Disney Resorts is that if you wait long enough before booking you might get an offer of a stay with free dining plan. This means you get one snack (drink, fruit, cake, coffee etc) one counter service meal (drink, burger n fries/salad/pizza and dessert) and one table service meal (a two course restaurant meal with soft drink) every day for each person in the party. Believe me that is a LOT of food and we always struggle to use it all up. A meal like we had tonight costs us two table service meals instead of the usual one. So because the boys just ate their counter service meal tonight in the hotel, we used their table service meals with ours. (4 meals). Worth it when the boys are picky and unlikely to eat or enjoy something like we had tonight.

So despite sun loungers and wasps -  and the fact that the wires from my bra started poking out after getting changed at the water park,  the start and end of the day was great, it was the irritating bits in the middle that spoilt it just a bit.