Day 3 - 30 August 2016 - Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom

Today saw our first trip into the World of Walt Disney, in this case Animal Kingdom.  Jodie (assisted by TomTom) from this point onwards was and is in charge of navigation and for once we managed to get somewhere (and nearly back) without missing or taking the wrong turn.

The American road system still continues to be a source of wonderment, they seem to have times where its ok to go on red, other times when its green random traffic pops across the path deemed as your time to go plus they have crossroads where everyone stops and no ones seems to have any idea who goes first! 

Anyway first stop (aside from the restrooms of course) was 'Africa' where we all enjoyed the Kilimanjaro Safari complete with a dodgy bridge, Lions, Elephants, Giraffes, Hippos, Rhinos, Zebra's and other wild animal and birds. Half way around they make the bridge pretend to collapse as the truck goes over, the lady behind us (a fellow Brit) actually thought it was real and her reaction (words of which are unrepeatable here!) was even funnier than the trick itself.

We finished in good time to go to one of the festival of the Lion King shows, which was excellent.

Lion King show finale

Then it was on to the Gorilla falls exploration trail where we saw some gorillas up close and personal and extremely captivating. We watched them for a while as they did us! The highlight had to be seeing one of the baby gorillas, Jodie was in charge of a camera and got some amazing footage.

If I just nip round here do you think the Silver back will notice?

Cute junior

Hmmmm - what's junior up to now...

I've got my eye on you

A quick (as in length of time as opposed to speed) train journey to Rafiki's planet watch to see the petting animals including a Bearded Dragon, a quick pose with Chip & Dale for the girls and then off to the Kai rapids which were a little disappointing and Expedition Everest rollercoaster which only Jenny and Trudy braved. The thing with this ride is that you can't see where it goes and so until you get on it you have no idea what is in store............ There were a few unexpected happenings so probably a good thing otherwise Trudy may well have chickened out!! Simon of course would have gone on but he didn't want to leave Jodie on her own......................righto ;) 

View looking towards the Expedition Everest roller coaster

Trudy & Jenny "enjoying" the Expedition Everest roller coaster

'It's tough to be a bug' 3D show was in a cinema under the tree of life and included some great special effects as well as the 3D presentation.

The Tree of Life

More pictures here

Day 2 - 29 August 2016 - Taco Bell, Shopping & Universal

Waking up on the first morning to the sound of two hungry teenagers is not a good start to the day, or holiday for that matter.  It was late when we arrived (uk time) and we were in no mood to go out again and get essential supplies. So the first priority was food and water which meant venturing out from our luxury accommodation, braving the road system and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Following the problems with navigation on our arrival we downloaded the maps for southern north America for TomTom (other satellite navigations systems are available) and updated the "home" location for our new base, at least we will be able to get back easily!!

It was decided (by said teenagers) that "Ihop" was the place to get breakfast from, so off we set in search of one.  Suffice it to say that after some driving around, and having spotted Ihop's on the other side of the highway (road), hunger levels were going through the roof so we pulled off the main highway (road) into a shopping complex in the hope of finding something.  The first place being a Taco Bell which ticked the boxes and in we went.

Taco Bell

It did hit the mark, although Trudy was not keen on her iced tea without ice (would much rather have preferred it hot with milk)!

Suitably refuelled next stop was grocery shopping and as luck would have it we were right next to a huge Walmart store.  Supplies were gathered and we headed home using sat nav, with a car boot full of plastic bags of groceries (no charge for the bags!!!).

Jodie in her element

After a few hours in the pool we decided to have a drive down International drive.  International drive sounds grander than it is and doesn't seem to be a straight road, or at least not the way Simon drives down it.  Anyway we finished up near to Universal studios and decided to go to City walk at Universal.

Large is large

"Life's a box of chocolates"

More pictures can he found here

The journey to the USA! 28th August 2016

Preparations, unusually so, had been good for this years 'vacation' so the stress levels pre-journey initialisation had been kept to a relative minimum. There was the obvious niggle 'will Jodie throw up throughout the whole flight' and 'will I manage not to feint or be a jabbering wreck pre-boarding' but to be honest from a blog point of view it was really all rather boring. Jodie was fine. I was fine. Nobody sat around us had issues and I'm pleased to report that the flight was lovely and smooth, until we were just about to land and there was a tiny bit of bumpiness, but I even managed to keep my eyes open on landing and I didn't scream at touch down! I think I can now declare to the world that I am no longer scared of flying!!!!

So..... no drama's there...........however......the whole driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, the lack of a satellite navigational system or map, a driver that pays no attention to the instructions of the navigation officer led to a very turbulent arrival to the villa. I think I shall leave that one to your imaginations and move on!!!

The Villa however, exceeded all expectations, the bed is so big I feel like princess and the pea trying to climb in (I am sad to report though that there was a distinct absence of the pea so that means I can't be a princess)! Jodies bed is simply the widest bed I have ever seen...... ever! I say Jodies as I assume she won the fight about who got that one!  Its simply perfect. The only thing we (well I) missed was a cup of tea on arrival. The fraughtness of the car journey meant that no provisions were purchased so we were all hungry and thirsty!

The Villa

The time difference is 5 hours (behind) so after the explorations we called it a night and went to bed around 8.30 (1.30am UK time).

Looking forward to the next fortnight