Shopping day…pretty uneventful and finally a rest day from the parks…as much as I love them, I needed this, and so did the kids.
Latish start at 7:30, chill, bit of Bluey…Grays new obsession apparently…Me, Gray and Paige out on a shopping trip that had to include the old faithful, Walmart (no idea why we enjoy it so much, it’s not like I’d wander Asda aimlessly)…Jo and Alaska had a pool day planned.
Decided I didn’t have enough universal merch (can you ever?), so took a trip back to City Walk to get my mitts on a jacket I had my eye on…City Walk parking is $28…bugger that…. I wasn’t about to spend that just to get a jacket…sneaky plan…parked in our old hotel…damn I miss the smell…and belted across to the store so fast that I still had a Dean shaped dust cloud holding my place…Kerching, $28 saved…good start.
Continuing our tour of Orlando …on to the premium outlets to check out the Disney store…I know, I know…WTF are we doing in a Disney store outside Disney?…well we’d heard there were some pretty boss discounts in store and so like Arnie in ‘Jingle All the Way’ we hurried over to look for a turbo man…well not quite, but we expected the shop to be a Disney free for all…very disappointing, and we just left sad…Gray was sadder though, I wouldn’t buy him a $13 bag of sweets that I could get at trusty Walmart for a few dollars..it’s cool, there’s a happy ending to his sweet hunt.
Walmart it was…Sweets, Coffee (finally), and any other shit that tickled our fancy at the time…was on the hunt for a PS5, but just left PiS5ed off at the lack of service (see what I did there?)…bollocks to it, let’s take our trolley of random shit and never return (well not until this evening anyways)…Gray got his sweets BTW (see a happy ending).
On the final stretch of our pointless shopping destination road trip…Florida Mall…FML this place is too big, navigating it for parking was insane. On the way, realised how mental American drivers are…we had a truck stop randomly on the highway, causing me to hammer my brakes on fearing for an actual reason (silly me), but turned out he just did it for shits and giggles, then I finally recognised that indicating is obviously a sign of weakness, and actually causes the driver in the lane your indicating into to go full throttle as a fuck you for daring to drive properly…using indicators for indicating… tell me your not from around here without telling me your not from around here (to be fair most British drivers are just as bad)…the best though… if you don’t move on immediately as the lights turn green, you have a host of cars beeping their horns at you…this place gives me anxiety to drive around mun…it can’t just be me…can’t wait for the Busch Gardens trip.
Anyways…Florida Mall…huge…realised we were just pointlessly ambling in and out of shops with no intention of buying anything because we’re just not that cool anymore and would rather rep Disney instead…but we love pointless shopping, been doing it all week!! Gray had a great time though, lunchtime dining for him was a tour of the food hall enjoying all the free samples…bourbon chicken done 10 ways….chefs kiss!!
Cheeky Crumbl cookies again (there’s new flavours this week and we can’t miss out) and back to the other half of team Fletch.
Now our morning was hectic…Alaska and Jo had a leisurely poolside photo shoot with Sebastian, Arial and co, chilling (literally, it’s been cold today) by the pool.
Time to spoil all that…what’s a leisurely time when your in Disney?…off to Disney Springs…Chicken Guy (surprisingly delicious), World of Disney (Alaska stealing hearts again…and almost a load of cuddly toys…c’mon loo loo save us some money), Christmas Shop…obligatory personalised Bauble…now I’m not saying its a scam, but…$5 per word on the Bauble, $15 total to customise our family name and the date mun…feels like a scam. Should
have told them my last name was Fletcherfamily2022 and been done with it….at least the pixie dust design was free ey? Jordan picked out a lovely Aladdin anniversary bauble, which Grayson quickly switched out for a design he preferred…Mommy don’t like it, but I do, so buy this…yeah ok, it’s cooler anyways bud…ah I moan but I love it…
Little more milling around Disney Springs…Grayson tried out a new role of toilet usher…directing people to their designated urinal…not sure that’s an actual job but the kid was bossing it anyways….Disney, I fully expect his payment for works done.
Hollywood studios for Fantasmic…well hopefully…last time we were thwarted by monstrous crowds, but we had a plan today…join the queue 3 hours early…that will do it…expect we were waiting 3 hours…great stuff…was sent on nappy disposal and refreshment pickup and they let everyone in…FFS…pelting from rock and roller coaster faster than if I was on it (Aerosmith got nothing on a madman desperate to see Fantasmic)…got in, but my family had fucked off an left Paige to wait for me..cheers guys, nice to know I’m wanted more than front row seats 😂.
Decent seats anyways (not quite front row but they’ll do)….only bloody sit next to a family with a kid as mental as Grayson…my god the now 2 hour wait for the show felt like a lifetime…there was chatting shit from both sides, I got battered with flashing wands, and 10 minutes later I’d had a titful…fortunately a Mexican wave and some corn dogs broke it up…now that’s some Disney magic….I love how he’s so social mind considering his insanely introverted parents. You keep being you kiddo….
The time came, Mickey gave Maleficent a bollocking as usual...top man is Mickey…Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Heart…go planet…Fantasmic is still amazing…really the only Disney Show I’ll wait around for (likely because I’m a lazy bugger and you get to sit around for it)….loves it.
Show ends… commence the madness of exiting the amphitheatre…Tap on the shoulder…’dude, your kid is the coolest kid ever, he’s been giving me the rock and roll horns all the way out of here’…hyped up little social butterfly as he is…thank god he didn’t give him the ‘power rangers’ (which for some reason is the middle finger)…no idea where he got that from mind…I blame YouTube, or his uncle Mike 🙄.
It’s only 8:30 so of course it’s back to Walmart (we did have a reason this time mind) then Disney Springs for bauble collection and a browse…to be fair it looks lovely….gold encrusted ink (or so I assumed due to the cost), and pixie dust was a boss choice…let’s hope it survives the journey home.
Back to hotel….roadworks blocking entrance…FFS…this car didn’t have flight mode so we had to find another way around…follow the car in front (mind you we realised the dangers of aimlessly following someone earlier this week), but not much choice…success!! we found a way home…more knackered today on our rest day than when we are busy…I guess the best medicine is an early morning Magic Kingdom start then…yay!
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