Gryffindor's on tour 2017 Day 14 Solar Eclipse and BG

[Excitedx4]

Today was solar eclipse day in the US and we were taking ourselves off to Busch Gardens for the day.

I woke at 7am and let everyone have a bit of a lie in. I started getting them up around 8ish and finally dragged Evan out of his pit at 9am. Gave them all some cereal and pop tarts (only evan eats pop tarts &#129314 We were in the car and on our way for 9.30am. We were parked up and in Busch Gardens for 11am.

Ready for Busch

Parked up in the lot in disabled bays at the front of the park.

We got another DAS card for Evan and headed round to the sesame area for Jacob as we had missed it last week. Jacob went on a few rides and wanted to go in the play area. Dave took Evan off to ride Sheikra whilst I waited with Jacob and caught some sun. I'm a bit strange in the sense that I don't really sweat. I am a regular gym goer and the only place I ever sweat is my backside 😂😂, but this day I was sat in the sun and the only part of my body sweating apart from my bum was my elbow, I really am a freak of nature 😂🙈

Dave rings me (we use either what's app or messenger to contact in the park via the wifi, it works well for us dave has the EE max plan and can use his phone for everything, I don't so can't use my phone in USA) and tells me to meet him by Sheikra so me and Jacob walk round. We were all hungry so decided to go over to Dragons Grill and eat our packed lunch of subs, crisps and chocolate. We buy the small snack size chocolate bars and have a couple troughout the day.

We love a little coolbag lunch with frozen water bottles as ice packs. It works really well for us.

We went on a few more rides, Sand serpent, Scorpion, Phoenix when a lovely lady came over to Evan and gave him a pair of glasses to see the solar eclipse. I tried to take a picture of the eclipse through the glasses and this was the result...

Haha not the best! But it was great being able to see it happening. You couldn't really notice any difference other than through the glasses here in tampa.

We filled up our refillable drink with Coke Zero and I took a big gulp, it tasted really syrupy and cherry. It must of had the wrong mixer attached, instead of Coke Zero it was full fat cherry Coke 🤢🤢. We tipped it out and went to another machine for some Coke Zero. As we were walking dave was pushing Evan in his wheelchair and he ran into the back of me, scrapped all the skin off the back of my heel, he does it all the time, doesn't look where he's going. I was so angry and sore I was really going to rip his head off. To say the atmosphere was frosty was an understatement 😂😂. There you go, the marital row of the holiday!

We took a stroll over to Cobras Curse where dave bought me some dipping dots to try and soften me up and say sorry. I took them still glaring at him, he was not forgiven just yet.

I also bought a turkey leg from the stand, remember having one in Disney when I was little and loved it. I kept meaning to get one the last few years but never got around to it. So I finally got one...

It was not good. It was really rubbery and just not how I remembered. Evan and dave liked it though and ate it. Dave was like oh well it's only $5 I didn't correct him if him or the kids had wasted $11 I'd of made them eat it, double standards

We carried on round and rode Cobras Curse twice, montu and cheetah hunt before calling it a day at 4.30pm

We were heading to get something to eat near the silvermoon drive in theatre we were going to tonight in Lakeland around half way between tampa and Orlando.

We drove to the theatre to see where it was and decided to drive somewhere close to find something to eat. It was a bit of a random area, more like an industrial area. Dave's 4g wasn't working so we found a random strip with a few places to eat and spotted Steak 'n Shake so we obviously went in, we can't miss a Steak 'n Shake 😂

I had a double cheeseburger, dave tex mex, Jacob grilled cheese and evan a hotdog. Plus a few kids milkshakes.

It cost us $35 including tip. It's such a bargain!

We got to the drive in theatre at 7.20pm for the film to start at 8.05, or so we thought. It didn't start until 8.30 pm woops. We waiting in the line with about 3 other cars. We were going to watch the nut job 2.

There was only 4 cars on our side, there are 2 screens, one shows family films, the other older films. We set up a bed in the back of the car from quilts and pillows we'd brought from the villa and settled down to watch the film. It cost us a grand total of $12 and we could of stayed for 2 films for this price but we had to leave after the first one as we had to be up early for our stay at hard rock hotel the following day, I was really regretting booking the hotel as I felt we had done a lot of Universal and IOA already but couldn't cancel so close. The drive in theatre was really good and we really enjoyed it.

We were home for 11pm and off to bed. The overnight bag could wait to be packed in the morning. We'd have a lovely day.

[Goldia]

The drive in theatre sounds great. It's not something I've seen in a trip report before but it's so typically American, how fab that you got to do this!

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by Goldia

The drive in theatre sounds great. It's not something I've seen in a trip report before but it's so typically American, how fab that you got to do this!

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I found out about it from the dibb but not sure if it was a trip report of if it is from the sub section about things to do away from the parks. I'd definitely recommend it though 😁

[Pussycat Doll]

Looks like a lovely day, my MC often goes to the drive in movies! Xx

[mouselover22]

A drive in movie, how American! 🇺🇸 Love it! And the little bed you made up in the back 😊

[i love jack]

Love the bed in the car! Looks super comfy

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Looks like a lovely day, my MC often goes to the drive in movies! Xx

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It was great and so cheap too!

Originally Posted by mouselover22

A drive in movie, how American! 🇺🇸 Love it! And the little bed you made up in the back 😊

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It is so American isn't it! The bed was ace!

Originally Posted by i love jack

Love the bed in the car! Looks super comfy

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Haha good job I remembered to put all the quilts and pillows in the car in the morning before Busch. Organisation is key

[MinnieMrsA]

The drive in theatre looks great! Absolute bargain too xx

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by MinnieMrsA

The drive in theatre looks great! Absolute bargain too xx

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It really was, nice to do something a bit different too!

[jothp]

Another great day at Busch Gardens. What a lovely idea to go to a drive in. It's something I never would have thought of.