Gryffindor's on tour 2017 Day 3 10th Aug Drive to Orlando

[Excitedx4]

So today isn't really an exciting day if I'm being honest, it won't make a great day for the trip report 😂🙈 but if you want to carry on reading here goes...

I woke up at a more reasonable time of 4.45am and set up camp in the bathroom again doing my usual notes and social media. Jacob woke at 5.45 and the other 2 at 6.30. The breakfast party was dwindling by the day as today it was just me and Jacob, Dave and Evan didn't want anything. Jacob and I will never turn down free food so we headed off and left Dave to pack up the cases. Jacob had a few bowls of these toxic things

Fruit loops 🤢🤢🤢

We headed back to the room with meals on wheels for Dave and Evan some snack items from the buffet which they both wolfed down, gannets. We packed up and got everything into the car and hit the road at 8.30am. We decided to go up US27 instead of the turnpike for no other reason than we seen the road when we went to Sawgrass and Dave liked the feel of it. Men weirdos.

As we started driving up US27 we had about 100 miles of fuel so obviously needed to fill up along the way, the car had a button to tell us how far away fuel was, it was around 5 miles. As we were driving these fuel distances were growing meaning we were driving away from the fuel stations. I was getting very nervous literally imagining us dying of heat exhaustion on the side of the highway because Dave hadn't filled the car up. He was laughing at me panicking. I was on Dave's phone (EE max plan so free to use) looking for fuel stations and seen some at the town ahead about 30 miles away which calmed me down . I loved passing through all the little towns and seeing some of the real Florida, not just the touristy areas in Orlando that we are used to.

It took a measly $32 to fill up the tank! $2.26/gallon!

The iPads worked as the kids were good as gold the whole way up.

I'm unsure why I took this picture but I'll add it anyway, the inside of the car and satnav on the way up

We stopped at a McDonald's in Haines city by request of the kids, who am I to complain, this was at 11.45am so we had made pretty good time. We got a Big Mac, bacon double and 6&4 chicken nugget meals.

After our pit stop we set off for the villa and arrived at 1pm. The villa we chose was on Crescent Lakes and I was a bit concerned that it is further out but as we weren't doing Disney it wasn't a massive issue as it is close to Seaworld and we would be staying onsite at universal for 4 days anyway. The villa is absolutely lovely and we couldn't be happier to spend the next 18 nights here apart from RPR and HRH one night each. We all unpacked, or rather me and Dave did and we all jumped into the pool. The pool area in the villa was amazing and a major selling point for us in the hunt.

We were all having a lovely time in the pool until Evan decided to see if he could walk in water, he couldn't. He can't walk on land I'm unsure why he thought he could walk in water 😂😂 he was in the jacuzzi and nearly drowned himself. Luckily I am stealth and jumped into action pretty sharpish pulling him out from under the water. He can swim slightly but he just panicked. He vowed never to return to the pool again

We headed to aldi on the 192 across from Walmart and picked up most of the essentials from here, loads more cheaper than Walmart. Packs of ham and sandwich meats half the price as we like to take packed lunches into the parks it made sense for us. We spent $33.49 in Aldi, then headed across to Walmart for the branded items and in my notes is says "fishing cr*p" 😂 We spent $57.95 in here. We headed back to the villa to put away the food and back to the 192 to Olive Garden for tea.

We got to Olive Garden and must of had the most miserable server in the world, plus the restaurant was absolutely freezing, I mean Baltic cold. Our meals however were lovely. we had a selection on salads, soups and the breadsticks to start followed by stuffed chicken Marsala for me, scampi shrimp pasta for Dave, pizza and chips for Evan and spaghetti bolognese for Jacob followed by ice cream for the kids. Evan was happy to eat off the kids menu in most places and nobody ever questioned this. It was $58.18 and we left a $10 tip to the miserable server. We had to go looking for him so many times, he was lucky he got $10 but Dave felt embarrassed giving him less

When we were in Walmart earlier I was looking for a lilo for the pool, I love nothing better than chilling on a lilo in the pool and was disappointed to find there were none in there and a store assistant told me they were a seasonal item and it was the end of the season, seriously Orlando is a year round destination, anyway after Olive Garden we headed next door into one of those tacky Disney gift shops just to see if they sold lilos and they did! Gift shop to the rescue! It made my day! $9.99 for my lilo and Jacob got a blow up alligator for the pool for $12.99. Evan didn't want anything as he still wasn't going near the pool after his near death experience

We went home to the villa settled down and watched some telly before bed.

Once in bed I can hear Evan crying in his room, I go to see what the matter is, he had been on his iPad and convinced himself he was going to die from secondary drowning, he is such a drama queen I calm him down and ask him if he has any symptoms of secondary drowning, which he hasn't, he then finally laughs about it all and we head off to the land of nod.

Sorry it's not been a real exciting day but like I said we wanted a bit more of a relaxing holiday this time around. The park action begins soon.

Tomorrow Seaworld

[Pussycat Doll]

Oh dear, a near drowning so close to the start of your holiday, Google is not your friend when looking for symptoms! Bless him! Hope he was ok after that and did venture back into the pool. Apart from that it sounds like a good day, Olive Garden is one of our favourites too. X

[Goldia]

Sometimes the air con is really high in restaurants isn't it? At least the meal was tasty even if both the server and the room were frosty.

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Oh dear, a near drowning so close to the start of your holiday, Google is not your friend when looking for symptoms! Bless him! Hope he was ok after that and did venture back into the pool. Apart from that it sounds like a good day, Olive Garden is one of our favourites too. X

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Nope definitely not he had convinced himself he was dying! He does this at home too sometimes he can never breathe properly! The stuffed chicken Marsala is lovely I have it every time x

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Sometimes the air con is really high in restaurants isn't it? At least the meal was tasty even if both the server and the room were frosty.

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This air con was set to arctic! I usually have a cardigan in the car and this was the only restaurant I needed it in in 3 weeks! The server was just plain rude though 🙈

[i love jack]

A good drive up from Miami
The pool looks lovely

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by i love jack

A good drive up from Miami
The pool looks lovely

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It's a real,easy drive, straight up the US27. The pool was perfect! 😊 thank you

[scottishnellie]

Aw bless Evan

Pool looks really spacious . Off to read more!

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by scottishnellie

Aw bless Evan

Pool looks really spacious . Off to read more!

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The pool area was amazing! Thanks for reading x

[darbs]

Lovely big pool! I love Olive Garden, top of our list of restaurants to return to this year, my children ate so many of the breadsticks it was embarassing! I didn't realise you could request extra pickle on a big mac, I shall be trying this!