The Whitts
06-29-2001, 07:34 AM
Cast members of the "we're here for our fix of MAGIC squad"
Graham (Dad): prev Chief Financier & Planner now promoted to Bus Driver & Disneyholic!
Lyn (Mum) : Chief Spender & I4 turnoff finder ( always after we have passed the junction in question)
Clare (DD14): Money Spender Extraordinaire
Phil (DS12) : Prev Navigator now chief expert on wrong turns which can be made off I Drive
David (DS8): Still DAVID!!
Plan : to have a relaxing day and visit Beltz Mall (Is it really possible to do both , I ask myself???????)
Despite late night we all trooped down to breakfast at 7:30. Initially a bit wary we were pleased to find the quality of the buffet breakfast at the Hawthorn Suites was very good.
Note: for those interested a typical choice included Cereals or Porridge,Scrambled egg,Bacon or Sausage or Pancakes, Toast or Bagels with Fruit juice, Tea and Coffee
After breakfast we got into the van and headed down I Drive to the Beltz Mall. First stop was the Nike store to replenish our stock of trainers (i'm thinking of patenting this part of the holiday as a new Gameshow, the object of which being to swap your money for boxes of trainers, the winner being the person who can balance his empty wallet in one hand whilst balancing several boxes of trainers in the other.) But seriously folks we yet again managed to find ourselves some good bargains not least of which was the pair of football boots for David at 29.99 usd , these being an identical pair to the ones I recently bought in England for Phil costing 70 gbp (ouch!!)
Next we hit Mall 1 our main aims being to buy a Disney snowglobe (Lyn) and to find some Cherry Icees (everyone). Unfortunately we could not find the Disney store where we got the cut priced snowglobe from last time (we found out later it has now shut).We decided to combine Icees with an early lunch and had a cheeseburger (3.69 usd) with the long awaited Icee (1.99 usd)
After lunch suffice it to say we completed our tour of Mall 1 and crossed the bridge over to Mall 2 where our main aim was to visit the Disney shop and get the children started with their pin collections. This still of course included the obligatory tour of all the other shops.
NOTE: As mentioned many times on the DIS if you're not particular about buying current items then the Disney stores in the Mall can produce some real bargains
We struck gold when we found a ten inch model of the Epcot Globe containing a lanyard and two pins all for 5.99 usd (lanyards alone can cost 8 usd and pins around 6.5 usd each), unfortunately as we picked up two another couple picked up the last one leaving us with an extremely unhappy DS David, but he was soon placated when we bought him a lanyard and three pins as seperate items.
Rather than bore you with the rest of our shopping trip, I have listed below some of the major highlights
DD Clare (spender extraordinaire spends most of her holiday money in one go on a talking E.T,(despite our words of warning)
DS Phil bought computer version of the Game of Life boardgame & Trivial Pursuits 12.99 usd)less a 10 usd voucher given to Clare for spending 40 usd
Also found Danish pastries to die for in foodcourt.
After returning to Hotel we decided to cool off in the pool (ha ha!) only to find that the pool temperature was somewhere between hot and even hotter., but who cares it was fun.
As a footnote to the day we decided to go out for a quick meal and eventually ended up at Denny's (just past the largest McDonalds)
We ordered our meal at 9:40 (as it was before 10 two of the children would eat free)we should have seen the warning signs when the grumpy waitress (this was our first and last experience of bad service) plonked our drinks on the table, at 10:20 we were told our meal would be with us shortly at 10:40 the kids meals finally arrived including their cold fries slightly warm burgers, when we complained the waitress begrudgingly replaced the fries. The adult meals were not much better, but by this time we were too tired to make a fuss, however we did tell the waitress that we were not impressed all she said was speak to the manager when you pay,too add insult to injury the bill included a charge for all the kids meals and when we complained to the manager he begrudgingly corrected the bill but just shrugged his shoulders about the quality of the meal???
Anyway evening meal apart a good start the Disney Magic is beginning to bite.Tomorrow we make our first trip to Kennedy Space Centre (report to follow)
Graham (Dad): prev Chief Financier & Planner now promoted to Bus Driver & Disneyholic!
Lyn (Mum) : Chief Spender & I4 turnoff finder ( always after we have passed the junction in question)
Clare (DD14): Money Spender Extraordinaire
Phil (DS12) : Prev Navigator now chief expert on wrong turns which can be made off I Drive
David (DS8): Still DAVID!!
Plan : to have a relaxing day and visit Beltz Mall (Is it really possible to do both , I ask myself???????)
Despite late night we all trooped down to breakfast at 7:30. Initially a bit wary we were pleased to find the quality of the buffet breakfast at the Hawthorn Suites was very good.
Note: for those interested a typical choice included Cereals or Porridge,Scrambled egg,Bacon or Sausage or Pancakes, Toast or Bagels with Fruit juice, Tea and Coffee
After breakfast we got into the van and headed down I Drive to the Beltz Mall. First stop was the Nike store to replenish our stock of trainers (i'm thinking of patenting this part of the holiday as a new Gameshow, the object of which being to swap your money for boxes of trainers, the winner being the person who can balance his empty wallet in one hand whilst balancing several boxes of trainers in the other.) But seriously folks we yet again managed to find ourselves some good bargains not least of which was the pair of football boots for David at 29.99 usd , these being an identical pair to the ones I recently bought in England for Phil costing 70 gbp (ouch!!)
Next we hit Mall 1 our main aims being to buy a Disney snowglobe (Lyn) and to find some Cherry Icees (everyone). Unfortunately we could not find the Disney store where we got the cut priced snowglobe from last time (we found out later it has now shut).We decided to combine Icees with an early lunch and had a cheeseburger (3.69 usd) with the long awaited Icee (1.99 usd)
After lunch suffice it to say we completed our tour of Mall 1 and crossed the bridge over to Mall 2 where our main aim was to visit the Disney shop and get the children started with their pin collections. This still of course included the obligatory tour of all the other shops.
NOTE: As mentioned many times on the DIS if you're not particular about buying current items then the Disney stores in the Mall can produce some real bargains
We struck gold when we found a ten inch model of the Epcot Globe containing a lanyard and two pins all for 5.99 usd (lanyards alone can cost 8 usd and pins around 6.5 usd each), unfortunately as we picked up two another couple picked up the last one leaving us with an extremely unhappy DS David, but he was soon placated when we bought him a lanyard and three pins as seperate items.
Rather than bore you with the rest of our shopping trip, I have listed below some of the major highlights
DD Clare (spender extraordinaire spends most of her holiday money in one go on a talking E.T,(despite our words of warning)
DS Phil bought computer version of the Game of Life boardgame & Trivial Pursuits 12.99 usd)less a 10 usd voucher given to Clare for spending 40 usd
Also found Danish pastries to die for in foodcourt.
After returning to Hotel we decided to cool off in the pool (ha ha!) only to find that the pool temperature was somewhere between hot and even hotter., but who cares it was fun.
As a footnote to the day we decided to go out for a quick meal and eventually ended up at Denny's (just past the largest McDonalds)
We ordered our meal at 9:40 (as it was before 10 two of the children would eat free)we should have seen the warning signs when the grumpy waitress (this was our first and last experience of bad service) plonked our drinks on the table, at 10:20 we were told our meal would be with us shortly at 10:40 the kids meals finally arrived including their cold fries slightly warm burgers, when we complained the waitress begrudgingly replaced the fries. The adult meals were not much better, but by this time we were too tired to make a fuss, however we did tell the waitress that we were not impressed all she said was speak to the manager when you pay,too add insult to injury the bill included a charge for all the kids meals and when we complained to the manager he begrudgingly corrected the bill but just shrugged his shoulders about the quality of the meal???
Anyway evening meal apart a good start the Disney Magic is beginning to bite.Tomorrow we make our first trip to Kennedy Space Centre (report to follow)