The Traffords: Florida

Thursday, 1 September 2016

Day 4 - 31 August 2016 - Shopping & Ponderosa

First designated shopping day saw us take an uneventful journey to Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets. Freeway 192, onto IS 4 and off at junction 68.

Brands

Jodie & Jenny went off together in search of "bargain" designer ware, whilst the olds had a leisurely Starbucks and wander around. Trudy enjoyed people watching as well as observing the sparrows who seem to be the resident birds at the outlet. Simon's purchased of a pair of Nike running shoes - although these shoes get off lightly as they will not see any running!!

It was quite amusing that the girls reappeared a few hours later with the same selection of shopping bags, containing the same selection of items just in different colours.

A plan was hatched for an evening meal at Ponderosa, mainly because we were confident to get to it without problem, having driven passed it a few times, and also because it had been recommended by our friends Sue & Andy - no pressure!!....

The offering consists of an all you can eat buffet, including afters to which you add your main dish i.e. steak, chicken, etc.

I am pleased to report that we all enjoyed the food although we weren't really sure of the correct way to tip, Trudy was carefully watching the other diners to see what they did, it appeared none of them left anything so we came to the conclusion that we should have tipped at the point of ordering? Who knows?!

After a wander around the shop next door we ventured home where our resident Gecko was waiting for us. There are loads of them around, we like Gecko's.

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

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 ;)