18 days with the 1 finger typist day 9

[mitchfishguard]

Today was the city tour and we went over to the quality inn international after a quick breakfast. We had to take a bus down to goodings at lake buena vista to split up to our various tours. Me and leander were the only two on the city tour, so we had the driver to ourselves, which was really good as we really did do exactly what we wanted, when we wanted it. The first port of call was downtown orlando where we saw church st station and the new orlando magic arena which was great for me as i follow the magic online and on espn and we were going to see the play-off game against atlanta on tuesday night. After that, we went to winter park to go on a boat-trip round the lakes and we both found it to be an hour well spent. Very scenic,interesting and very very calming. Next up was a 2 hour visit to downtown disney, but i said an hour was fine as we were staying in disney for a week starting on wednesday. And it was flaming sweltering!!! I always planned to eat a few times at the earl of sandwich, so we grabbed lunch there to see if it was going to be a good plan , if you get me. Well, after a hawaiian chicken and a jerk chicken, the plan was a VERY good one. Lovely. We wandered back to the cirque de soleil building to meet the driver and we drove down to celebration, where after a drive round the town, we went inthe tavern for a fantastically cold bottle of magners. When we got back to the hotel, i tried to give the driver 10 bucks as i couldnt really just get out, could i ? he refused to take it as he said hed enjoyed the day (talking about the basketball and the florida gators all day!! ) and he had a full bus to kennedy space centre the next day to make it up. Because he refused, i nsisted, telling him to "buy some cans". I have no problem giving somebody money "to have a drink on me" but i hate just handing over money as a tip because "its expected". Strange, i know, but thats how i am. After an hour so in the pool , we showered and walked up to the hard rock cafe at universal, wher after being "johnny tourist" with the guitar photo on the way in, we had a great steak each with all the usual. We both enjoyed the food and after a quck look at the nba gear next-door, strolled back down to i-drive where i shoved my head in my usual bucket of ice-cream at dairy queen. Leander ate hers normally, as usual. As ive posted before, these tours are excellent as long as you look past the dreadful attempt to get your cash at the end, because "the british want to tip but are embarrassed to ask how much" (it doesnt happen when youre in a small group) and i heartily recommend these trips as they really do make a difference to the usual big parks we are so familiar with. Gator tours get mixed reviews, but i can say they are very professional and their drivers are great people.