Saturday 29th October
We went back to Universal Studios to do some more of the rides we'd missed. We started with the Bourne Stuntacular again since it's our favourite and it was no less stunning. Different actors this time, and once again the audience clapped enthusiastically at the end. It really is one of the best shows I've ever seen.
Roderic and I read our books in the sunshine while the children did the Hogwarts ride again, and then we went through to Jurassic Park to do some rides and have lunch. We chose a fast-food burger place, but while the meat burgers were all cooked in advance and most customers collected their orders within two minutes, we waited 25 minutes for my "herbivore" burger. Around us were two other families also waiting for the vegan burger. It was delicious, though, once it finally made an appearance.
After lunch we went on my favourite ride, the bilge-rat barges, a Popeye-themed raft ride with lots of splashes. It warns you will get wet and may get soaked, and we got completely drenched. We did it three times because once you're already wet there's no wetter you can get, and the queue was less than five minutes.
Hari had worn a poncho so was only a bit damp, but her feet were soaked and she didn't like that. I paid $5 for the children to go in the people dryer but it didn't help much. We were ready to go home but were too wet to get an Uber, so we went to Dr. Seuss area and did a couple of rides as we waited for the Florida sun to dry us out.
Sunday 30th October
We went back to Walmart in the morning to stock up on a few bits, including some Christmas presents, and then in the afternoon Hari and I went back to Universal Studios. With only the two of us we could join longer queues without worrying about the rest of the party, so we finally managed to do Minion Mayhem. It had changed slightly since last time we did it, primarily in that there were no longer 3D glasses to wear. I was pleased about this, as wearing 3D glasses over normal glasses is really difficult, and I don't thnk the ride lost anything for the lack of 3D effects.
Universal Studios was closing at 5 for a Halloween event, so our plan was to do the last couple of rides there and then go to Islands of Adventure, which was open until 9, and is the better park anyway in our opinion. We went back to Diagon Alley and got a Butterbeer each and some great photos, but the queue for the Gringotts ride was almost an hour, and the queue for the Hogwarts Express (to get into the other park) was 90 minutes. Since the park would close in under an hour neither seemed to be a good idea, so we decided to walk back to the entrance and from there to the park next-door. We'd have dinner there, and Hari would do the Hulk roller coaster.
Unfortunately, as we neared the entrance Hari suddenly felt ill. We sat down at a table outside a restaurant. Feeling sick and faint, Hari said she couldn't stand up. I asked in the restaurant where the medical centre was and although it wasn't far Hari couldn't get there, so I flagged down a team member, who called the medical centre for help. Her name was Harley and she was lovely and very helpful. She chatted to us and fetched some water and a wheelchair. Iris from the medical centre showed up only a couple of minutes later. She took Hari's pulse and blood pressure, and said she thought it was heatstroke. Hari had been wearing her Slytherin jumper, and it was 29 degrees.
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| Heading into the park - Hari wearing her Slytherin jumper (she left the park in a wheelchair) |
We loaded Hari into the wheelchair and Iris told us how to get out of the park. I filled in a form with our details, and we set off back to the rideshare pickup point. We had to return the wheelchair at the bag check area, but they were able to lend us one which we could take to the pickup point so it was all very smooth and organised. Hari was able to get into the Uber, and the Uber took us all the way to our door.
Hari was fine after a couple of hours in an air-conditioned room and plenty of water, just very embarrassed and sad about our evening being cut short. She doesn't remember meeting either Harley or Iris, but I did email Universal to thank them and tell them how well their team members did, and they did reply.
Monday 31st October
Discovery Cove is our luxury park. Visiting is extremely expensive, but it's very special. We opted not to do the dolphin swim this time, having done it before, and that made it a little cheaper.
Everything about Discovery Cove is perfect, from the quick check-in (we were checked in by a lady called Anne from Colchester who had moved to Florida to be near her daughter) to the beautiful landscaping. It's limited entry numbers so it's never too busy, and towels are provided. All food and drink is included, not just full meals but snacks, ice cream, and slushies in interesting flavours like white cherry and pina colada.
We arrived early and had breakfast there. I've found on this trip that America is getting slightly better at offering some vegetarian options, but it was funny, looking back, that one of the buffet servers was quite concerned that my breakfast consisted of just eggs and potatoes and I had forgotten to take a sausage or bacon. That same server, at lunchtime, tried to offer me chicken and pulled pork to go with my chips and broccoli and was most perturbed when I refused both. He didn't seem to speak much English so I couldn't explain. I did, however, find a child's macaroni cheese to add to my plate.
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| The flamingos waddled round the park all day. Here they are enjoying a shower. |
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| Pina colada slushie |
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| Fun in the sand |
We found ourselves some sunbeds, donned our masks and snorkels, and started exploring the Grand Reef. I'd bought a waterproof phone case (from Walmart, so at less than a quarter of the price of buying one from Discovery Cove) so was able to film the amazing underwater scenery and the beautiful fish. The children played fish bingo, taking a waterproof card to identify as many fish as they could, and I explored the rest of the park - the slow lazy river which passed through the aviary, the warm freshwater pool with an island in the middle where marmosets lived, and pool full of lively and energetic otters, although unfortunately I wasn't able to get any underwater footage of them because of a crowd of people in the best filming spot who refused to move. I also spent some time watching the dolphins perform.
Discovery Cove is about relaxing and experiencing nature, and I actually dozed off on my sunbed for an hour or so. We stayed for the whole day, only leaving when the park was closing. The only thing I'd change about it (and this goes for other water parks too) is to switch off the air conditioning in the toilets and changing rooms. When you leave the hot sunshine to go into the "restrooms" and you're wet, it is freezing! And it's very difficult to dry off and get changed when you're very cold. I've no idea why they would want to have air conditioning there.
Tuesday 1st November
We'd decided we needed a full day for shopping, and we picked the right day. The day after Halloween, and Florida Mall was all decked out for Christmas. It's a great shopping mall, smaller than Lakeside but obviously the shops are more interesting. In particular we found lots of "geek" shops like Hot Topic and Boxlunch and that's where I bought the bulk of the Christmas presents. I also loved Bath & Body Works.
We had some interesting "not in Kansas anymore" moments. For example, to log into the mall Wi-Fi you not only have to give your name and email address, but also your date of birth, address, and annual household income. And no, you can't skip any questions. I was quite surprised in shops, too, to be asked my email address (lots of places in the UK do this so that they can email you your receipt) but also my phone number, address, and date of birth. Although in Hot Topic doing do enrolled me in a loyalty scheme (!) which resulted in a good discount.
The infamous great US customer service was also evident, with us being warmly greeted in each shop, and friendly and chatty assistants always wanting to help us find what we were looking for. I quite enjoyed that, but I could see that it would start to grate after a while.
I was less keen on the pushy sales tactics from the people with stands in the mall. I accidentally made eye contact with a chap who then waylaid me to put some magic wrinkle-reducing cream on my eyes which he would sell me at a third off - only $200. I've never used any products of any sort on my skin and wasn't planning to start. He then grabbed my hand and started to buff one of my fingernails to demonstrate yet another product. (This on the person who has never had a manicure, ever.) Unfortunately, he chose the nail I have to keep very short because otherwise it splits lengthways, and the encounter only stopped when I had to pull my hand away because it was actually very painful.
We regrouped at the food court for some lunch. Val/Ceri chose Popeye's, I had my first ever (cheese) empanada with a bean stew and fried plantain, and Roderic went for the Asian noodles. Hari wasn't hungry but had an Auntie Anne's pretzel later which she said was very nice.
Hari and I continued shopping in the afternoon while the other two went home. I got all Hari's birthday presents and was very pleased to get some nice shoes for myself - my first pair of Vans, and Motorhead themed. I also enjoyed a cinnamon Auntie Anne's pretzel before we squeezed ourselves and all our bags into the Uber back to our resort.
Wednesday 2nd November
Volcano Bay is Universal's water park. To get there we had to be dropped off at the usual place for Universal and then get a Universal (free) bus as there's no onsite parking or drop-off. It looks as though they've sandwiched in on a vacant parcel of land between I4 and Turkey Lake Road, so when you're waiting for the slides you can watch the cars going past below, which is a bit odd. We loved the raging river - a particularly fast "lazy" river with waves and bubbles and fun round every corner. but the wave pool was less impressive than Typhoon Lagoon's, and the slides all had confusing random names which made it difficult to work out where you were going - or tell anyone else. We did like the idea of the TapuTapu wristband which enables you to join a "virtual" queue for a ride, but the day we were there was very quiet so it was only needed for one ride which I chose not to do. The food choices were also more limited and less inspired than Typhoon Lagoon's, so although we had a lovely time and stayed the whole day we agreed that Typhoon Lagoon (where Gwen and Harley had gone for the day) was the better park.
In the evening we ordered Uber Eats again, this time from Checkers. Zero vegetarian options so I just had the loaded fries and asked them to leave off the bacon, but we all agreed that they were the best fries we'd had in America.
Thursday 3rd November
In the morning Roderic and I walked to Walmart and back once more for essential supplies (diet cola). In the afternoon Hari and I went to Universal for one last time to mop up the rides we didn't get to do last time when she was ill, including a couple of Dr. Seuss rides (nightmare fuel!). We did Hogwarts together (and scored a free locker because we messed up and accidentally opened the small ones) and then got into the queue for the Hogwarts express to get to the other park. While we were in the queue the ride broke down, and the staff told us we might have to wait a "few extra moments". I had my Kindle and we were queued on the stairs so we just sat down to wait it out. Several people ahead of us in the queue gave up, so that when, ten minutes later, the ride opened again we found we were right at the front of the queue.
Back at Diagon Alley I went into the single rider queue and got onto the Gringotts ride in just ten minutes while Hari treated herself to some Harry Potter merchandise with the last of her dollars. For dinner we decided to go to the other Harry Potter themed restaurant, the Leaky Cauldron. I wasn't sure which drink to choose so got chatting to the chap on the door, Elijah, who told me that the hot butterbeer would be the best thing I had ever tasted. They had a vegetarian pasty so I ordered that and a hot butterbeer, and Elijah was right. He came over to see us while we were eating and I told him so and we chatted for a while.
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| Frozen butterbeer (very nice too) |
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| Sign in the Leaky Cauldron |
We'd wanted to get our caricatures drawn and I'd suggested we do it at the end of our visit so that we didn't have to carry them around all day. Unfortunately, we left it too late and they were closing by the time we remembered.
Friday 4th November
Roderic and I walked to 7-11, only ten minutes from our resort, to get milk for breakfast. I'd wanted to have another look at the new timeshare we'd bought, so Hari and I went to the South Welcome Center [sic] but there was no one available to take us round it, so we'll have to wait until our next visit to remind ourselves what it's like.
In the afternoon we gave the resort's water park another try. I went down a flume, and once round the lazy river, and then spent a pleasant afternoon on a sunbed reading my Kindle. At 5pm the water park closed so I headed back to the apartment to reluctantly start packing.
Somehow when we booked our flights we managed to book Premium Economy seats on the way home at no extra cost. The huge advantage of this is that we each get an extra suitcase coming home, free of charge. My plan had been to do all my Christmas shopping in America, but what actually happened is that we bought lots and lots of food American cereals, ranch dressing, cornbread mix. and enough food to fill one and a half huge cases which we had taken empty for the purpose. I just hope customs are okay with us having a 2kg bag of Captain Crunch in our luggage.
Last minute cleaning, laundry, packing and panicking got tiring, so Gwen, Harley and I headed for the hot tub and spent a pleasant hour chatting in hot bubbling water. It's 25 degrees even in the evening ehre and there is no better way to end the day than putting the world to rights under palm trees. I shall be very sad to have to go home tomorrow.
We decided not to leave a tip for housekeeping because they kept randomly removing stuff we needed. Initially it was tea towels and potholders, then our dishwashing sponge, and bin bags. Every time housekeeping came it seemed we lost more stuff we actually needed and had to ring them to ask them to bring it back. I've given up now and we're still minus a dish sponge and are using Walmart bags as bin bags, but I hid the tea towel last time housekeeping came so we still have that.
What I'll miss...
Evening hot tubs
More junk food places than you can possibly imagine
Glorious hot sunshine every day
McDonald's egg and cheese biscuits and hash browns
An apartment bigger than my house
Sam's Diet Cola
Ultra-friendly and helpful shop staff
Cheetos
The amazingly quick and efficient washer and dryer
The weird and wacky randomness of Uber drivers
Shaved ice slushies in every flavour
Everything smelling of cinnamon
Walmart
Hot Butterbeer
