The Trip on a Budget (ish) Day 4, Illuminations cruise

RobynPrincess

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The Trip on a Budget (ish) Day 4, Illuminations cruise


We got up and decided we would go out for breakfast. We’ve never been to Denny’s before but Anne and Cliff have when they did their west coast tour and really enjoyed it, so we thought we would give it a go.

We drove along the 192 and every one that we came to had a huge queue out of the door! We did eventually find on near SeaWorld that was off the beaten track a little that we got seated straight at.

It seemed like most of the other chains of the same price, wipe clean menu’s etc. The food was good and the waitress was lovely. We would definitely go back (and we do later in the trip). Cliff and Simon didn’t seem to notice the food and surroundings much though, they found their eyesight kept landing on the head waitress… she had a rather large bottom that they were admiring ;) hehehe... As in the style of the whole Trip Report, we spent $25 on breakfast including tip (for the 2 of us, it was $50 in total for 4 adults).

We went for a wander round Walmart after what was then brunch ;) and bought a few bits to bring home. We then went to the Premium outlets by Wet and Wild. We were so upset to see that Beard Papa’s had gone :( we ate many a cream puff from there over the last 2 years :( Will have to go to London more often for our fix hehehe ;) I did get some candles from Yankee Candles though ($25)

On our way back we stopped at Bed, Bath and Beyond as we'd never been there before and thought it looked like a good shop. I think we spent about an hour and a half in there! I bought a Bagel slicer and Sy got a fancy zester. ($21)

We started to get really thirsty on our way home and were on the lookout for a bar to stop at. We ended up at Houlihans on the 192. It was pretty empty, there were a couple of other people at the bar inside and a few people at the bar outside. There was only 1 barman as there were so few customers, he split his time inside and out. We sat inside as it was nicely aircon’ed ;) one of the customers from outside came in a shouted at the barman because he wanted a drink :confused2 it was pretty uncomfortable, I applaud the barman though, he kept his cool and apologized and went straight to serve him with a smile, I would have given the man a few choice words personally!

We had a cocktail each and the guy’s had a beer each. The cocktail was very strong, Anne and I started to feel woozy after just 1! We spent $15 on drinks ($30 in total for for 4 of us).

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We then headed back to the condo to get changed and ready for our illuminations cruise. We were going with another forum family, I had noticed that we both had adverts in the ‘wanted’ sections of the cruise thread so I PM’ed the family and asked if they would like to join forces. They did and they even booked the cruise for us :) (how lovely is that?!). We got to the Yacht Club nice and early and had a drink in the bar before heading out to the dock to board our boat. ($18 per couple for drinks). We got there first and kept an eye out for them. When they got there we said our hellos and introductions and then went onboard. We really enjoyed their company for the evening and couldn’t have asked for a nicer family to share a cruise with. I haven’t mentioned names as I forgot to ask if that was okay! I did ask if it was okay to post pictures though :D (cruise was $35 each person, the other family paid the tip as they had the boat decorated for a birthday).

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Our Skipper tried many times to get us all in the picture but she couldn’t quite do it, this is the best one hehehe

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The Globe from our boat.

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Having now done a Wishes cruise and an Illuminations cruise I definitely prefer the Wishes cruise. We got glasses for our eyes once we got moored up at the bridge between France and the UK however I still got a few ashes in my eyes which put a bit of a dampener on it for me. Plus there were still a lot of people around us when we watched Illuminations, at Wishes it feels like it’s just you and the fireworks. Still really enjoyed them both though!

After the cruise we went for a wander around the Boardwalk. We had a look in some of the shops and watched some of the street performers. We decided (why? I don’t know) that it would be fun to hire a Surrey Bike. Having done this before I have NO idea why we did it again hahahaha. We made it once round and a half, the boys dropped us off at the car and we were getting the car and picking them up at the boardwalk as their shoes were rubbing and Anne needed the toilet (and we were right by it at the Yacht Club). (Surrey bike was $22 so $11 each couple)

We had a bit of trouble getting into the car park of the boardwalk, I don’t think the man at the barrier believed that we were just picking them up and didn’t trust my I.D, he did eventually let us in though and we picked the guys up and went back out again and made our way back to the villa.

Total spends for the day $197.50 which inluded petrol.

Tomorrow, Discover Cove!!!
 
Yay! More TR!

What a fab day... sounds quite relaxing! I love the sound of an Illuminations cruise, but I think, like you, I'd prefer Wishes. Maybe I'd have to try them both!
xxx
 














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