wilma-bride
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- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
- Messages
- 22,681
Fred and Wilma Second Time Around 19-26 Sep 05
CAST
Me Joh (32) Chief (well, only) planner, lover of thrill rides, impatient and exciteable
DH Gary (38) Chief photographer, also lover of thrill rides and mad about Tigger!
Day 5 24 Sep 05 Posh hotels and shopping
After sleeping through the night yet again, I am ridiculously pleased to wake up at 8 am!!! Feeling really refreshed, I am glad we are doing nothing more tiring today than a spot of shopping. We take our time getting ready and head off to Dennys at 9:30, for breakfast (sorry, cant remember what we had although it did involve eggs, bacon and hash browns!)
Outside Dennys we wait for the I-Ride trolley to take us down to the Renaissance Orlando Resort at Sea World, having decided to go and have a look around as were staying here next year. I am also hoping to get some idea of the shuttle times, so I can start planning on my return home. While we are waiting for the trolley, two guys come walking towards us with two parrots. I am ashamed to say, we fell into the trap and, when he asked us if we wanted to take a picture, we said Yes. DH posed with a parrot on his head while I took a photo, then quick as a flash the guy pulls out a polaroid camera, takes a picture himself and hands it to me with the words Only ten dollars to you. I hand over the $10 feeling a tad foolish how stupid of me to think this guy would let us have a picture taken with his parrot for nothing. The trolley pulls up and we jump on, clutching our expensive Polaroid photo (which, luckily, came out really well).
We get off at stop 38 and cross the road to the Renaissance. At first glance, the hotel seems really impressive. However, when we get inside it is absolutely fabulous. The lobby is massive, bright and airy, with a pond full of Koi Carp and an atrium with some lovely birds, including a Kookaburra. The restaurants also look lovely, if a tad expensive ($15 for buffet breakfast) but its a really beautiful hotel and we just know were going to have a great time here next year. I am even more excited and happily tell DH we have only 55 weeks to wait. At the Guest Services desk, I ask if they have timetables for the shuttle buses and am pleased to note that the shuttles run every hour to each Disney park (including the water parks), from 7 am until an hour after closing, and only need booking 90 minutes before. I am indeed a happy teddy bear.
Leaving the Renaissance, we catch the trolley up to Belz and spend an enjoyable afternoon doing what I do best. We buy 2 pairs of Skechers Lights for DS (they are fantastic and I only wish they had some in my size), a couple of pairs of jeans for DH, some clothes for the girls and absolutely nothing for me but Im still happy cos I got some great stuff for the girls and Daniel. We head back to the Holiday Inn, drop off our bags and then catch the trolley down to the Peabody Hotel. We had great intentions of seeing the ducks at the Peabody last year but never got round to it so decided to go this afternoon. We arrive in the lobby (God, this hotel is posh), feeling a little out of place in our shorts and tee-shirts, while everyone is wandering around in suits. We get a drink from the bar and sit at a table in the lobby, next to the fountain, where the famous ducks are having a whale of a time. We sit for a while, just taking in the atmosphere and daydreaming about being able to afford to stay in posh places like this.
Then we head back to our own hotel and back down to Earth with a bump.
Having had a lovely relaxing day, we decide we can manage a park tomorrow and agree to go to Sea World. Just one more decision left where to have dinner. Again, I had read good things on the DIS about Friendlys so thats where we went. It was a lovely evening so we walked all the way down and arrived about 7:30. We were seated immediately by a really chatty waitress, who handed us two menus, with so much choice I thought we would be there all night. After the poor girl had given us just a couple more minutes several times, we finally decided. We both had Fribble shakes (Vanilla for DH and Chocolate for me), DH had the Oriental Chicken Wrap and I had a Grilled Chicken Melt. For dessert, we had 2-scoop ice-cream sundaes (Oreo Cookie for me and Peanut Butter brittle for DH). The bill came to $29.94 so we left $35. We will definitely come back here again the food was great, service was fantastic and the ice cream was delicious (theyve got so many different flavours, you could spend all night choosing).
Again, we walked all the way back up I-Drive to the hotel. We were so stuffed, we wanted to let our dinner settle before we went to bed.
Back at the hotel, it was the usual routine of watching telly, then bed.
I dream of next years holiday I can hardly wait!
CAST
Me Joh (32) Chief (well, only) planner, lover of thrill rides, impatient and exciteable
DH Gary (38) Chief photographer, also lover of thrill rides and mad about Tigger!
Day 5 24 Sep 05 Posh hotels and shopping
After sleeping through the night yet again, I am ridiculously pleased to wake up at 8 am!!! Feeling really refreshed, I am glad we are doing nothing more tiring today than a spot of shopping. We take our time getting ready and head off to Dennys at 9:30, for breakfast (sorry, cant remember what we had although it did involve eggs, bacon and hash browns!)
Outside Dennys we wait for the I-Ride trolley to take us down to the Renaissance Orlando Resort at Sea World, having decided to go and have a look around as were staying here next year. I am also hoping to get some idea of the shuttle times, so I can start planning on my return home. While we are waiting for the trolley, two guys come walking towards us with two parrots. I am ashamed to say, we fell into the trap and, when he asked us if we wanted to take a picture, we said Yes. DH posed with a parrot on his head while I took a photo, then quick as a flash the guy pulls out a polaroid camera, takes a picture himself and hands it to me with the words Only ten dollars to you. I hand over the $10 feeling a tad foolish how stupid of me to think this guy would let us have a picture taken with his parrot for nothing. The trolley pulls up and we jump on, clutching our expensive Polaroid photo (which, luckily, came out really well).
We get off at stop 38 and cross the road to the Renaissance. At first glance, the hotel seems really impressive. However, when we get inside it is absolutely fabulous. The lobby is massive, bright and airy, with a pond full of Koi Carp and an atrium with some lovely birds, including a Kookaburra. The restaurants also look lovely, if a tad expensive ($15 for buffet breakfast) but its a really beautiful hotel and we just know were going to have a great time here next year. I am even more excited and happily tell DH we have only 55 weeks to wait. At the Guest Services desk, I ask if they have timetables for the shuttle buses and am pleased to note that the shuttles run every hour to each Disney park (including the water parks), from 7 am until an hour after closing, and only need booking 90 minutes before. I am indeed a happy teddy bear.
Leaving the Renaissance, we catch the trolley up to Belz and spend an enjoyable afternoon doing what I do best. We buy 2 pairs of Skechers Lights for DS (they are fantastic and I only wish they had some in my size), a couple of pairs of jeans for DH, some clothes for the girls and absolutely nothing for me but Im still happy cos I got some great stuff for the girls and Daniel. We head back to the Holiday Inn, drop off our bags and then catch the trolley down to the Peabody Hotel. We had great intentions of seeing the ducks at the Peabody last year but never got round to it so decided to go this afternoon. We arrive in the lobby (God, this hotel is posh), feeling a little out of place in our shorts and tee-shirts, while everyone is wandering around in suits. We get a drink from the bar and sit at a table in the lobby, next to the fountain, where the famous ducks are having a whale of a time. We sit for a while, just taking in the atmosphere and daydreaming about being able to afford to stay in posh places like this.
Then we head back to our own hotel and back down to Earth with a bump.
Having had a lovely relaxing day, we decide we can manage a park tomorrow and agree to go to Sea World. Just one more decision left where to have dinner. Again, I had read good things on the DIS about Friendlys so thats where we went. It was a lovely evening so we walked all the way down and arrived about 7:30. We were seated immediately by a really chatty waitress, who handed us two menus, with so much choice I thought we would be there all night. After the poor girl had given us just a couple more minutes several times, we finally decided. We both had Fribble shakes (Vanilla for DH and Chocolate for me), DH had the Oriental Chicken Wrap and I had a Grilled Chicken Melt. For dessert, we had 2-scoop ice-cream sundaes (Oreo Cookie for me and Peanut Butter brittle for DH). The bill came to $29.94 so we left $35. We will definitely come back here again the food was great, service was fantastic and the ice cream was delicious (theyve got so many different flavours, you could spend all night choosing).
Again, we walked all the way back up I-Drive to the hotel. We were so stuffed, we wanted to let our dinner settle before we went to bed.
Back at the hotel, it was the usual routine of watching telly, then bed.
I dream of next years holiday I can hardly wait!
