Something Wicked this MAY Comes! 18 nights @ RPR & SFR. An April/May 2025 TR

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We live in Florida now but we're originally from Indiana & the first time we came down here & I saw Florida squirrels I looked at my husband & said, "Look at all the baby squirrels!" He was like, "Honey, those are adults down here."

It's been over 10 years & they still look like a bunch of undergrown runts to me

You know it`s funny, it never occurred to me but there was always something odd about the squirrels and yes, it was indeed that they are a little on the scrawny side

Ones we have here can be quite chunky, so yes they probably are rather like runts

 

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We had a quick wander into Diagon Alley, only to get some final pictures of the area and I fancied an ice cream from Florean Fortescues which is very nice, not an essential visit every trip, but once now and again is enough. I much prefer Haagen Dazs.

It was completely deserted today so we had time to choose what we wanted, although I knew what I was having.
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I opted for Huckleberry which is a weird flavour, not quite blueberry and no quite much of anything else, it`s a hard flavour to describe, but it is very nice, Tom went for the Clotted Cream which tastes nothing like real clotted cream as we know it, it`s more a key lime flavour, but he likes it.

I think Clotted Cream would be classed almost as a butter in the US due to the fat content, but it is the most decadent of products to be enjoyed with desserts, or just tuck in with a spoon if the mood takes you!!!







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We enjoyed the ice cream, had a final wander through Knockturn Alley and headed back out to the gorgeous sunshine and boy had that heat ramped up!!

This took us right back to 2007 when we first visited and had our first Nathan`s Hotdog, it was so nice and not something I ever ate, but it gave us the taste for them and good fries too!

They had added some other props since last night including the weirdly placed coca cola truck for some reason!!

I did notice they have now added Chief Brody`s truck in this area despite all the Amity props being taken down, looks good though, I wish they`d had that in May too it would have fitted in nicely.

We had missed out on trying the food options on offer while they were celebrating 50 Years of Jaws, but I think I said before, we had been told we really weren`t missing much as it wasn`t the best of options they had on the menu.

And we are fussy with seafood, it has to be very fresh and well prepared, so I`m not sorry we missed this.

And talking of messy hair

I really do look every bit a ragamuffin in this picture!!!! Hat and heat are never a good mix for hair, but it`s one of the pictures of us together with the temporary background, so I`ll live with it!!!

But, it was fun and we did pose a scary look but the picture is awful and Tom hates it too, so it will stay hidden away with the other pics that won`t see the light of day!! A TM we`ve known a long time took those pictures and he was encouraging us to be scared or at least look a little wary.....nope not working today!!!

The store had some lovely and quite apt merchandise and it was displayed nicely, many of the items were instantly recognisable if you had seen the movie and I was surprised how much merchandise they had managed to create for this anniversary and some of it looked very retro and will be popular as part of Christmas and Birthday gifts....we hope!!!

Spoiler to a couple of my friends and godchildren.....

You may get one of these or similar in your Christmas box....or maybe not......

We didn`t need to buy anything today as our lovely manager friend had arranged for all we had ordered to be sent to the hotel, so we had everything we needed from here including those much wanted sipper cups!!

The store is attached to Richter Burger which again, is not somewhere we ever eat, but the building is well decorated inside and has some very cool art work around including some real pics from that last big quake in SF.

We headed out of the park, but first we stopped to have a picture of our favourite stilt walker.

We have been pictured with this guy once a trip since 2007, he never changes and one of the ladies who walks with them as they come and go once told us they do remember folks that they see regularly and do what he did to us today, which was a gesture to come over for a picture!

It`s a tradition!

We managed to have a conversation of sorts, as much as you can with a man who doesn`t normally talk, but this is the coolest guy!! Several years ago we were lined up to get a picture with him when a man jumped in front of us with kids in tow and he very obviously gestured to the man we were next and to get back in the line with a slow finger waggle. The man did as he was told and looked rather sheepish in doing so. We made sure to thank him very clearly after that incident.

We were rather sad to leave the park today, we always enjoy our times here, but I do think we have maybe overdone our visits here.

Time for lunch and my lovely husband adores Margaritaville and for some reason we hadn`t visited it yet this trip, so it was today or miss it altogether, but we did stop first to get a picture of one of the prettiest views in UOR.

We sat at the bar and one of our favourite barmen was working, Michael, he has worked there forever along with Irish Jack, who is not Irish but used to be a wrestler and that was his fighting name, two of the best guys around and Irish Jack introduced me to Blackberry Margaritas, for that I`ll always be grateful!! He was also the first one to yell "Hey Scotland" when we came into the bar area many years ago


Today was a simple order, I went for an extra spicy mango margarita, Tom had a fruity concotion that I forget what it was but he enjoyed it and we stopped at one each today as we had a night at Bar Helios ahead of us.

The Beach Club sandwich is huge, so we decided to share it today with a salad instead of fries, the fries here aren`t anything special but the sandwiches more than make up for that, I knew this would easily keep us going till we ate dinner tonight.

Margaritaville is sometimes overlooked but it is steadily decent, nothing gastronomically wonderful, but you`ll get a really good meal and the atmosphere is always fun, especially sitting at the bar which we do prefer. And listening to Jimmy Buffet is always good.

More to follow

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