Dimplenose
09-16-2005, 04:25 PM
Libby’s Trip – Day 14 Blizzard Beach and Down Town Disney
Cast – Me 43 in love with Mickey Mouse
DH (of 20 years) 43
DS 14 cynical teenager
DD 11 a stroppy little madam
Location – 14 day holiday at Windsor Palms with 1 night trip to Royal Pacific Resort
Date – August 11th to 25th 2005
Wednesday August 24th
It’s 3am and I meet DS in the kitchen. We sit and chat for a while as neither of us can sleep. We don’t want to go home now that our return is imminent, but he is looking forward to seeing his friends again. We wander back to our bedrooms but I take a very long time to get back to sleep.
Next thing I know it’s 7:15am. I get up and make a token start at the packing for tomorrow.
We’ve not much food in the villa so we decide to go out for breakfast before heading off to Blizzard Beach. It’s 9:30 before we get our act together and get out of the door. We head for IHOP but the queue is out of the door so we head back to Golden Corral which was cheap and cheerful.
We go back to the villa to pick up our swimming things. I get outside the villa and have just locked up when I realize that I’ve just locked our WDW tickets ion the safe – lucky we weren’t at Blizzard Beach before I found out. We also made sure we had enough money with us today!
The journey there was very sticky as we are without air conditioning. The car park at Blizzard Beach isn’t too full (compared to Typhoon Lagoon last week where we walked a long way from the car to the entrance). We stop and buy new goggles for DD
As I left hers at TL and we rent a “large” locker. This time we get a locker which is near the changing rooms so the boys head off to the Snowmen changing room and DD and I go to Sleighbelles.
Once changed we meet by the locker and manage to get everything into it (including 1 pair size 10 sandals and 1 pair size 11 and 4 towels!) Then we’re straight off to Teamboat Springs – the family raft ride. The sign at the bottom says the wait is minimal but by the time we’ve climbed o the peak the queue was about 15 minutes long. I love the ride down it’s the best part of the park for me. We then go and get drinks – we turn down the chance of getting refillable mugs as we’re only at a water park for about 2 hours.
We then spend some time in the bobbing pool which is a bit dull as we don’t have a ring. It gets more exciting when a couple of kids (about 8 years old) keep ignoring the life guards safety warnings so she jumps in the pool and drags them out to talk to their parents – the kids did look rather shocked when she jumped in.
After this we went to Castaway Creek. Although the park didn’t seem too busy there did seem to be a shortage tubes. We managed to get 2 so DD and I floated off so that we didn’t cause a blockage while the boys waited for 2 more. We didn’t see them again until we got out of the creek after a complete circuit. All the entrance points were mobbed with people waiting for tubes making it quite difficult for DD and I to stay together.
Once we’d met up again we decided to go to Winter Summerland to play mini golf but before we reached the changing rooms it started to rain. A tannoy announcement asked people to leave the water and beach areas and most people just headed for the shops or other shelter. We changed and gave up the idea of golf as the rain was getting heavier. We headed back to the villa unable to drive above 20 mph at times because the rain was so heavy. We were never more glad of the remote control garage door and let ourselves into the villa without getting any wetter. The communal gardeners were trimming the grass and carried on for a while despite the rain but eventually the storm worsens and they abandon their task.
The storm was directly overhead and the rain was streaming off the roofs and down the streets. I noticed for the first time that none of the villas that I could see had gutters which made the rain even more impressive.
We watched TV and heard news of the approaching storm Katrina (we hope it won’t affect our journey home tomorrow). It’s 2pm and we’re quite hungry now so we snack on anything we can find as we’ve run down the food supplies for tomorrows departure.
After 2 hours of the storm circling around us the sun reappears and we head off to Down Town Disney Marketplace. We’d planned to finish our souvenir shopping here but as soon as we get there we go to McDonald’s for a late lunch. DS finished his meal with the most enormous McFlurry I’ve ever seen – although DH assures me it is regular size.
We feel much better now we’ve fed and go and have a look at the Lego store. This appears to be a larger version of the one in the Bentall’s Centre in Kingston and there was nothing different or special here. We then hit the World of Disney and spent a small fortune! We do the rest of the shops and DD is given stickers in most of them. I buy a couple of tree decorations at the Christmas Shop. I’d really like to buy the Mickey baubles but I can’t be bothered to try and get them home in one piece.
It’s 7pm now and we head back to the villa. On the way we stop off to buy snacks for tonight and bottle of water for on the plane tomorrow.
Back at the villa I finish the packing while DD plays in the pool. We empty the bins and wash most of the villa towels. It’s really strange to think that last Wednesday I was packing for our trip to Universal And the one before that I was finishing the packing to come to Florida.
I’m going to be glad to get back home but I’m starting to get tearful about the end of our holiday. Still we’ve got most of the day tomorrow at MGM studios to look forward to.
Libby
Cast – Me 43 in love with Mickey Mouse
DH (of 20 years) 43
DS 14 cynical teenager
DD 11 a stroppy little madam
Location – 14 day holiday at Windsor Palms with 1 night trip to Royal Pacific Resort
Date – August 11th to 25th 2005
Wednesday August 24th
It’s 3am and I meet DS in the kitchen. We sit and chat for a while as neither of us can sleep. We don’t want to go home now that our return is imminent, but he is looking forward to seeing his friends again. We wander back to our bedrooms but I take a very long time to get back to sleep.
Next thing I know it’s 7:15am. I get up and make a token start at the packing for tomorrow.
We’ve not much food in the villa so we decide to go out for breakfast before heading off to Blizzard Beach. It’s 9:30 before we get our act together and get out of the door. We head for IHOP but the queue is out of the door so we head back to Golden Corral which was cheap and cheerful.
We go back to the villa to pick up our swimming things. I get outside the villa and have just locked up when I realize that I’ve just locked our WDW tickets ion the safe – lucky we weren’t at Blizzard Beach before I found out. We also made sure we had enough money with us today!
The journey there was very sticky as we are without air conditioning. The car park at Blizzard Beach isn’t too full (compared to Typhoon Lagoon last week where we walked a long way from the car to the entrance). We stop and buy new goggles for DD
As I left hers at TL and we rent a “large” locker. This time we get a locker which is near the changing rooms so the boys head off to the Snowmen changing room and DD and I go to Sleighbelles.
Once changed we meet by the locker and manage to get everything into it (including 1 pair size 10 sandals and 1 pair size 11 and 4 towels!) Then we’re straight off to Teamboat Springs – the family raft ride. The sign at the bottom says the wait is minimal but by the time we’ve climbed o the peak the queue was about 15 minutes long. I love the ride down it’s the best part of the park for me. We then go and get drinks – we turn down the chance of getting refillable mugs as we’re only at a water park for about 2 hours.
We then spend some time in the bobbing pool which is a bit dull as we don’t have a ring. It gets more exciting when a couple of kids (about 8 years old) keep ignoring the life guards safety warnings so she jumps in the pool and drags them out to talk to their parents – the kids did look rather shocked when she jumped in.
After this we went to Castaway Creek. Although the park didn’t seem too busy there did seem to be a shortage tubes. We managed to get 2 so DD and I floated off so that we didn’t cause a blockage while the boys waited for 2 more. We didn’t see them again until we got out of the creek after a complete circuit. All the entrance points were mobbed with people waiting for tubes making it quite difficult for DD and I to stay together.
Once we’d met up again we decided to go to Winter Summerland to play mini golf but before we reached the changing rooms it started to rain. A tannoy announcement asked people to leave the water and beach areas and most people just headed for the shops or other shelter. We changed and gave up the idea of golf as the rain was getting heavier. We headed back to the villa unable to drive above 20 mph at times because the rain was so heavy. We were never more glad of the remote control garage door and let ourselves into the villa without getting any wetter. The communal gardeners were trimming the grass and carried on for a while despite the rain but eventually the storm worsens and they abandon their task.
The storm was directly overhead and the rain was streaming off the roofs and down the streets. I noticed for the first time that none of the villas that I could see had gutters which made the rain even more impressive.
We watched TV and heard news of the approaching storm Katrina (we hope it won’t affect our journey home tomorrow). It’s 2pm and we’re quite hungry now so we snack on anything we can find as we’ve run down the food supplies for tomorrows departure.
After 2 hours of the storm circling around us the sun reappears and we head off to Down Town Disney Marketplace. We’d planned to finish our souvenir shopping here but as soon as we get there we go to McDonald’s for a late lunch. DS finished his meal with the most enormous McFlurry I’ve ever seen – although DH assures me it is regular size.
We feel much better now we’ve fed and go and have a look at the Lego store. This appears to be a larger version of the one in the Bentall’s Centre in Kingston and there was nothing different or special here. We then hit the World of Disney and spent a small fortune! We do the rest of the shops and DD is given stickers in most of them. I buy a couple of tree decorations at the Christmas Shop. I’d really like to buy the Mickey baubles but I can’t be bothered to try and get them home in one piece.
It’s 7pm now and we head back to the villa. On the way we stop off to buy snacks for tonight and bottle of water for on the plane tomorrow.
Back at the villa I finish the packing while DD plays in the pool. We empty the bins and wash most of the villa towels. It’s really strange to think that last Wednesday I was packing for our trip to Universal And the one before that I was finishing the packing to come to Florida.
I’m going to be glad to get back home but I’m starting to get tearful about the end of our holiday. Still we’ve got most of the day tomorrow at MGM studios to look forward to.
Libby