03/05/2013: SHOP TIL WE DROP!
We had another non-Disney day planned for today; whats as good as Disney and dolphins? SHOPPIIIIIIIIIIING!!!
We got up at around 8am, with plans to leave for 9am. Since my phone took a dive in a puddle yesterday, it had been playing up and so whilst I got ready I tried to sort it out by restoring to factory settings etc etc
all boring stuff really! All this techy stuff took longer than I thought though, and we ended up leaving at more like 9:30.
The plan was to get a bus to DTD, and then the Lynx onto the malls. Of course, when you want a specific bus, it doesnt come for ages, so we ended up getting to DTD for a lot later than we would have hoped. Never mind! We made our way over to the Lynx bus stop, and we didnt have to wait long for a number 50 to turn up. I swear theres always a mass of British holiday makers at this bus stop, and we felt quite at home!
Unusually so, our bus driver wasnt the most helpful. We were planning on heading to the Florida Mall today, so knew we had to transfer to the 111
we just didnt know where! The driver told us to get off at a stop and assured us that the bus stop for the 111 was directly across the road but we couldnt find it! Looking obviously confused, a strange man approached us saying that he could take us to Disney
I instantly got on the defensive and told him that we were OK, and that we didnt need to get to Disney. He kept offering us lower and lower prices for his service and was quite persisting and pestering and just wouldnt listen. Eventually, I lost my cool slightly and exclaimed weve just come from bl**dy Disney, were heading somewhere else. Please leave us alone. He eventually got the message and asked us where we were going. We just told him we wanted the bus stop for 111 and he directed us down the grassy sidewalk.
At this pointed, I started to get déjà vu of the time during our program where we had headed to TGIs after staying at Seaworld until closing one night. Of course, by that time of night, the I-Ride trolley which we needed to get back to our appartments had stopped running
we were pretty much stranded and stupidly decided wed try and walk back. I think back now and shudder at how stupid and dangerous this was. We walked along a road for a long while - there was no sidewalk, we were getting bitten by anything and everything, and it was pitch black. We tried ringing a cab, but seeing as we had no idea of actual street names, that didnt work out! Eventually, one of our flatmates found us in their car and brought us back to the apartments I think we ended up getting 8 people in a 4 seater car! I can laugh a bit at it now thinking how ridiculous it all was, but at the time I was petrified.
Funnily enough, I still havent got round to telling my parents about that night
Anyhow, I digress.
We got to the stop and Tanya checked the Lynx website for the bus times it sure is handy having an American in the party! Unfortunately, there wasnt going to be another 111 bus for 30 minutes; we had already been out for a long time and hadnt really gotten anywhere and I started to feel bad as I had tried to organise this. When a number 8 bus turned up, we decided to pack in our Florida Mall plans and get that to the Premium Outlets instead! Finally we were on our way to somewhere!
We arrived and headed straight to the Food Court I got to have my fix of Taco Bell! I had the Doritos Cool Ranch flavoured tacos; I was glad that we were only coming here once, as I could easily have seen those things getting addictive!
We always used to come to the Premium Outlets during the College Program as they were just a 10 minute walk from our appartment complex. Again being here felt like we had never been away it would have been nice to have visited a mall that we hadnt been to before, but in no way could we complain about ending up at the Premium Outlets! I forgot how big this place was! We had a really good afternoon; I loved the Dooney and Bourke shop but managed to tear myself away without buying anything Im still in love with the bag that I bought from there in 2011 and didnt really want to swap it for something else yet! I did however splurge out a bit in Ralph Lauren on some shirts, tops and jumpers I cant resist that shop! I was also on the lookout for two dresses: one for my graduation and one for my graduation ball. There wasnt really anything suitable available for the ball, but I did find a dress for my graduation. Its grey/blue, plain and smart with thin black leather edging from Elie Tahari. My limit for the dress was going to be $100, so it was lucky that this dress was in the sale for $99 it was obviously meant to be! I also ended up buying a pair of Rayban sunglasses that I had now promised my brother. I text him the names of a couple of the styles he then Googled them at home to see what they looked like, and text me back with his preferred style! Its a round-about way to buy them, but what can you do when theres no wifi? I wasnt going to spend all that money for him not to like them! My final purchase was an emergency pair of flip flops I was wearing a pair of shoes today, shoes that were quite old and that I have worn many, many times so couldnt work out why this happened. My feet were already in pain, but today another huge blister came up which these shoes rubbed, and so it was American Eagle to the rescue with a pair of flip flops. These ended up being my favourite flip flops and I pretty much wore them every day for the rest of the holiday!
We had an ADR for the Spirit of Aloha dinner show this evening so we caught the Lynx bus from the Outlets at around 4pm. We got off near Seaworld and waited for a number 50. However, they were either majorly delayed or they had skipped one from the schedule, as we ended up waiting for ages! Finally one turned up, but it was comical. The driver pulled in, attempted to open the doors but they just got stuck on the verge as he was too close. He tried to close them but they were jammed on the grass. Quite a croud had built up waiting for the bus now, and everyone started telling the driver that he had to pull out a bit to free the doors from the verge, but he just wasnt listening he just kept wiggling them and scratching his head in confusion. Cue lots of tutting from the passengers lol! Eventually he got the message, a few of the passengers helped him free the doors from the jam, he got in the bus and pulled it out a tiny bit. If only he had done that 10 minute ago! After all the palava, we ended up getting back to DTD at 5.30pm when we should have been there for before 5pm!! I double checked the ADR time for Spirit of Aloha I just wanted to see that it was 8pm so that I didn't feel so worried about having arrived back late from the mall. Luckily I did, because even though the My Disney Experience app stated the reservation as 8pm, the dining reminder email which I had just read for the first time, stated that we needed to be there for 7pm! Tanya rang the Poly to check, and they confirmed that we needed to get there early! So now we were definitely late!
As youd expect in these kind of situations there was no bus for OKW for ages from DTD!!! We considered getting a bus direct to the Poly from here but we were all sweaty and laiden with bags it would not have been pretty! Finally an OKW bus pulled up. It stopped off at Pleasure Island, and as luck would have it, we had to change drivers who then took their time doing their handover paper work! We got to the resort, and our bus stop ended up being one of the last. We got back to the room at 6:05 where we wanted to have been changed and ready and leaving at 6:00! We legged it to the room, had the quickest change ever, a quick spray of perfume and we were back out by 6:15! Now that is some record!
This time, luck was on our side, and we didnt need to wait for long before an MK bus arrived. Im such a worrier anyway, so you can imagine how on edge I was right now! We rushed over to the monorail after arriving at MK, but of course the monorail kept stopping along the way for traffic clearance! You couldnt make it up! We rushed in, and guess what
. We ended up being the first people to check in! How on earth did we manage that?! We were super late, rushed all that way and ended up being the first to check in and have our photo taken we couldnt stop laughing!
The weather was being a bit iffy as usual, and so we were all kept in the check in area for the time being, rather than making our way over to the cove. However, when it was time to head over, it started to pour down as if on cue! The CMs started giving out ponchos, but stopped at the family in front of us. They claimed that it had stopped raining and that we didnt need ponchos now
stopped raining my foot! It was still pouring down they were just worried we were going to be late I think. However, we were now at the cove by 8pm but were rather quite wet! We were soon seated and was really impressed. Being wet didn't matter so much now! By being on the
DDP, we had category 2 seating (I think) but we were dead centre and at the front of the raised area it was perfect!
Our view! Those front tables did fill up!
In short (because Im aware that Im dragging on and havent shown any photos yet!) we loved the whole thing! The food was good a mixture of salad, veg and noodles, bread and coconut butter to start, followed by meat and rice for the main (the rice was sticky like sushi rice and quite unsual but nice, whilst the meat consisted of ribs, pulled pork and chicken), and then some type of bread pudding for dessert! The dessert stole it for me as I love anything caramel-ly, apple-y and stodgy!
I also loved the story and the singing and the dancers
especially the men! The six packs were to die for! The man with the fire who appeared at the end really stole the show though I have no idea how it doesn't burn him, and it reminded me of the guy with the fire in the festival of the lion king show in AK! The only thing that would have made the show a teeny tiny bit better would have been an appearance by Lilo and Stitch during Hawaiian Rollercoaster ride
but that's just me and my Stitch obsession! As I mentioned in the PTR, we had already done Hoop Dee Doo and so decided to go for a different dinner show! We were so glad we went for this, and had such a fun night!! Would definitely return!
We managed to get out of the Luau Cove at around 10:00 and were luckily in a good spot to catch Wishes! I love seeing Wishes from the Poly, as you get the perspective of how big the fireworks are compared to the castle! We all vowed that we would somehow manage to stay here one day!
On our way back through to the monorail, a sculpture in the Wyland Galleries shop caught my eye it was a sculpture of Ariel with a manatee. Anyone who knows me knows that I loooooove manatees! We decided to head in and take a look, but that was a mistake there was so much gorgeous jewellery in there and we didnt resurface until around an hour later. They were even vacuuming and shutting up the shop whilst we were still chatting to the sales girls! Jo ended up buying a Kameleon ring where you can interchange the stones, and bought two further stones to go with it! I had never seen this brand before but thought it was a great idea. I got chatting to Tanja, she was one of the sales assistants from Germany, as she complemented the big beetle necklace I was wearing that night (dont worry, it looks nicer than it sounds
). She started picking pieces that she thought I might be interested in it was all so lovely, but I would have needed to have won the lottery if I were to take it all! Two things really caught my eye though: a big amber necklace and a silver/gold tamsonite ring I was going to have to think about this carefully (considering the necklace was over $500; luckily the ring was a quarter of that) and assured Tanja I would be back next week.
I dont expect anyone to appreciate this ornament as much as I did! 
We eventually caught the monorail back to MK and then a bus back home. With us being tyical girls and being unable to resist the jewellery, it meant that it ended up being a late night, and not quite as planned as we had an early ADR for tomorrow morning! It was obviously worth it, because I was going to be coming home with a new ring at the end of this holiday now! We will find opportunities to shop EVERYWHERE!!!
you being a cleaver clogs and all.
thank you for reading along and your kind comments 
it was just one thing after another - I'm calling it 'Mickey Brain' 
! She was only joking, but she had a point I told her that I was now a tourist, and this is what we do! 
