Florida Sun + 1 Back to The Magic Day 9

[florida sun]

Saturday 04th November 2006

Cast of Characters:

Sue - 44 - (Thinks she's 24) Chief Planner, Worrier, and Yo Yo Dieter.

Vicki - 16 - (Thinks she's 26) - Emo,Thrill Ride Seeker and Mums Best Friend.

We are really looking forward to today as my dear friend Pablo who works for Disney Cruise Line is picking us up at 10am to take us out for the day. Im not sure what is on the agenda all togther but we are starting with Celebration which I am really looking forward to as I have never been.

Grab a quick breakfast at the hotel and make our way outside to meet Pablo who turns up right on time. First stop Celebration. We find a parking space and then walk into the centre of the town. This place is delightful, and what I would give to live here. One thing I notice is that nearly everybody has a dog and even the Starbucks that we stop at first has a small area outside where the dogs can sit with their owners and there are water bowles on the floor for the thirsty doggies. I have a latte, Pablo has a coconut smoothie and Vicki has a hot chocolate and we spend a very plesant 30 mins outside Starbucks people watching.

We then move into the centre and there is some sort of car show going on today, so we have a little look around. We pop into a fantastic little shop that sells arty craft things and they also sell Yankee Candles and they have a sale on, so a lot of the small ones are reduced. Of course I have to purchase a few, would be rude not to From here we walk down to the lake area and have a quick look around Celebration hotel which is lovely.

Vicki then decides that she would like to have a look around the streets of Celebration, but before we move on Pablo notices that this weekend they have an "Open House" weekend running on all properties that are for sale. We head over to the town hall to pick up some leaflets, just to have a look what is on offer, and before I know it, we have a booklet giving us the details on all the houses for sale and a map of where they all are.The houses for sale ranged in price from $495,000 - $2.5 million. The lady at the town hall told us if we pass one we like the look of, just jump out of the car and walk in. At this stage we had no intentions of doing such a thing, but thought it would be nice to have a drive around anyway. There are some wonderful houses here in Celebration, most of them were all decorated up for halloween and we "Ooh and Arr'd" all the way around. Loads of jokes about when we win the lottery were made and although some parts were very "Stepford Wives" looking, I had to say I fell in love with the place.

 

[florida sun]

All of a sudden Vicki shouted out "We are on Wisteria Lane and indeed we were and there was a house here for sale and it was an open house. Pablo suggested we just pop inside and have a little look, after all what harm could it do. So out of the car we get and go into the open house, only to be greeted by the estate agent or whatever they are called over there, welcoming us to Wisteria Lane. Pablo had to fill out a form and we were bombarded with questions such as " Are we looking to move to Celebration" (I wish), What price were we looking to pay??(Um about the $30 and 25 cents I had in my purse) How many bedrooms(As many as possible) Were we looking for a swimming pool property(You bet I am), I left Pablo to do all the answering bless him, as the agent thought I was the wife and Vicki the daughter and all that I would be interested in was the size of the closets!!!!! Before we were allowed any further into the property, we had to either remove our shoes or wear covers over them that looked like somebody from CSI investigates would wear and as they were bright blue and wouldnt go with my outfit, I decided to remove my shoes instead, hoping and praying that the soles of my feet were clean enough not to leave any marks on the beautiful beige carpet throughout this fabulous home. We were then told a bit about the property and its owners. It was bought 2 years ago by a family in the UK (well I'll be) but it had never been furnished or lived in as they had decided not to move after all due to family reasons and were looking for a quick sale. (how quick it would sell at 1.8million dollars I didnt know, but I really wanted it.

It had what they call an In-Laws apartment at the top and that was where we started,guided by our host Crystal, it was one bedroom, with a kitchen/diner and living room and separate bathroom, its own entrance or accessable from the main house. Vicki quickly decided that this was to be hers, "just think mum, I could live with you forever if we bought this" From here we moved into the main house, 4 bedrooms(well I would say 8 bedrooms if you count the walk in closets, they were huge) 4 ensuite bathrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 living rooms, a games room, a study, a hall with ceilings so high they gave you vertigo, and a 3 car garage, and as I only have 1 car, Vicki says a great place for her band to practice in. The biggest Kitchen I have ever seen in my life and a utility room.

Oh I so wanted this house and Im telling you now, if I ever win that blooming lottery this is where im coming. For just 15 mins or so I was in another world, a world where I could see me selecting what furniture I wanted, baking cookies in the kitchen(who am I kidding) Kissing Vicki bye bye at the door and watching her go to college at Celebration and joining the mothers union or the Celebration residents union(they are bound to have them). It was all to soon that the time had come to the end of the viewing and told to go away and have a think about it and let them know and my dream had come to an end. It was nice while it lasted and if I could only find my Millionaire husband then mine it would be.

That is me and Pablo making our way into my new home

This was the apartment closet, you could fit a single bed in there no problem

The apartment small bathroom

3 Car garage

The apartment kitchen

The main house hallway, must be a devil to clean those top windows

The main house kitchen

Looking down from upstairs to one of the living rooms

Another view of the kitchen

The Electric car that came with the property!!!

Anyway enough of the dreaming, time to move on, so after saying bye bye to Crystal our host, and saying bye bye to Wisteria Lane (Bree,Susan, Lynnette,Gabrielle,and Edie.........Ahh!!! One day maybe...One Day) and Celebration we went to find somewhere to have lunch.

We stopped at the Golden Coral for a all you can eat buffet and my goodness they sure have enough food in here to sink a ship. You pay as you go in $10 each + drinks and the waitress brought over about 10 plates stacked high on top of each other. I was a little confused as there were only 3 of us but Pablo told me everytime you go up take a clean plate, so I did. I started with a nice Salad, then had a combination of Steak, shrimps and mash pots, I then spotted some pot roast which looked and tasted wonderful, so I had some more, by my third plate, I was fit to burst, so took 5 mins before starting on the desserts, I had warm cheery pie with Whipped cream which was wonderful, Cant remember what the others had but it was a combination of everything I think and for $48 + tax and tip which included never ending refils of coke for me, Fanta for Vicki and Iced Tea for Pablo, a dam good deal me thinks.
We had a little walk up International drive and by this time it was about 4pm, Pablo suggested he drop us back to the Dolphin for a rest(after all that food I needed it) and he would pick us back up at 8.30 tonight and take us to the Adventures Club at Downtown Disney, good plan.

When we got into our room the phone was flashing to say there was a message, it was from Alan to say that they had been to MGM today and tonight at 7.00 they were doing a sneak prieview of the Osbourne Christmas Lights. When we were here at Christmas time a few years back, they were not doing the lights that year and we were really dissapointed not to have seen them, so I felt we had to take this oppertunity to have a look. We figured if we got showered and changed right away, we could get the bus to MGM and still be back in plenty of time for Pablo. So that is what we did and we were not dissapointed, they were wonderful and thank you to Alan for the heads up.

Well with a bit of a run, we manage to get the boat back to the Dolphin, with just enough time to pop to the room before Pablo was again waiting for us outside, the journey down to Downtown Disney didnt take to long. We parked up and walked over to Plaesure Island. They are doing loads of work here and to be honest at the moment it looks a bit of a mess, however Im sure once it is completed it will look great. We purchased our tickets for the Adventures Club and made our way in, it was heaving in there, there were some "characters" doing a bit of a show in the main room, so we got ourselves a couple of drinks and watched the show. For those who have never been to the Adventures Club, I highly reccommend it. We were then ushered into the Liberary to watch another show. We ordered a couple of cocktails, Pablo and Vicki had the non alcholic version while I went for the club trademark of KUNGALOOSH, lovely and only $4 each, bargain. Great fun and great interaction, I was picked on in great fun at one stage when one of the "characters" made me laugh with a mouthful of cocktail and I appeared to spit some out because of laughing, he told me not to do that again as he was Scottish and would be down on the floor to catch it before it got there, I replied well Im Welsh and you'll have to move pretty fast to beat me.

We had the most wonderful night and we stayed until about 11.45 as we had to be up early in the morning. We said goodbye to my dear friend Pablo and he said he would call me in the week as he was taking us back to Sanford next Saturday.

Day 10: At last I get To Universal.

 

[SusanEllen]

Isn't it fun to let the day take you a direction you hadn't expected? House hunting! Don't worry about the Stepford Wives look of Celebration. You know those women looked so happy, so happy, so happy, so happy . . .

 

[florida sun]

Here are a few more piccies of Vicki and I at MGM:

 

[AlanUK]

Sue, if ever I win the lottery I will buy you that house in Celebration just down the street from the one I will be buying It's a wonderful place and I'm sure it captivates everyone who visits

I aslo want to add that Vicki's photos are once again wonderful. That really is a super camera you bought her, which in addition to her talent and photographic eye makes for some fantastic pictures

 

[KayleeUK]

Another great report. We will have our houses in Celebration one day Sue

 

[Minniespal]

Another wonderful day ~ I just love Celebration and your piccies are beautiful

 

[mandymouse]

What a great day Sue, Celebration looks amazing, I could picture myself living there too. Love your photos of the Osborne Lights, and I can't wait to see them

 

[KAC2005]

Great report! Those houses look amazing!

Kathryn

 

[Ware Bears]

A great day

 

[jns]

another great report and photos

we got a great surprize the night we went to MGM , i didn't know that they were light
the boys didn't know why I was getting so excited about xmas lights untill they saw They are something else

 

[motheroftink]

Wouldn't it be fantastic to live in a house like that, and any time you had a free day you could just pop over to one of the parks as the fancy took you!

Oh why couldn't I have been born the child of millionaire parents?

Never mind, as everyone has said, there's always the lottery, and we just need to keep on wishing and hoping.

 

[mark&sue]

Celebration looks like a great way to spend a day. Hope to go there next time we are in WDW.


Susan

 

[Lisash]

What a fabulous house! I would have to agree with you about the Stepford thing we drove through Celebration last year and I found it a little disturbing it's just a bit 'too' neat

 

[traceycooper]

OOh i want to live in celebration too, maybe one day we will be neighbours
We saw the osbourne lights 2 years ago & was really dissapointed we missed them this time by a few days (we were in clearwater on the 6th!) They are sooo gorgeous & i love the photos

 

[El Tel]

What a great day! Lovely photos - so many new things to see.

Celebration looks great - I've only been in that area the once: when I got lost coming back from KSC one evening - not quite the same as your visit I wonder if they would exchange a couple of teenagers for that house in Celebration ?

I love the dinky little car in your photo. Maybe with so many dogs they should have had a dog show too.

I'm going to have to visit a bit later when I next go to WDW - the Osbourne Light look fantastic.

When the kids grow up a little more, we will also have to visit the clubs and bars in Downtown Disney. I've also noticed that Brits seem to be picked on (in the nicest possible way) at shows in the parks and attractions (I was pulled out of the audience when I went to the Wonderworks magic show in 2002) - we must radiate good humour (or insanity)

 

[carolfoy]

What a fabulous and different day Sue, how exciting to see inside a celebration house. I know why you want to live there sue, you're just hoping for a hunky gardener aren't you?

 

[natalielongstaff]

sue im very dissapointed that you didn't buy that house

 

[Chilly]

I wanted to go to Celebration but never go there, it looks great, come on Lotto!

 

[Kevin Stringer]

Great report Sue.

I guess I could slum it in Celebration if I had to.

The photos of the Osborne Family Lights are very nice.

Kev