Tuesday 9 April 2013

I chicken out!

We awoke to another beautiful day and spent the morning and early afternoon lazing about by the pool and making the most of the lovely sunshine, as mum had warned me that the weather forecast for when we get back to the UK was not good. No! We've got so used to summer living now, it will be a real shock if we go back and have to wear winter clothes again!

As the end of the holiday is approaching, we're now having to try and use up all the food we have in the fridge because we don't really want to have to throw it all out! Keith and Mikey feasted on the chicken that Keith had ordered at the Amish restaurant yesterday while Sophie and I shared a pizza. I think, after this holiday, I will never want to eat again!!

4pm found us heading to Universal and what a change there was! For a start the closing time was 8.30pm, so much earlier, and all the crowds had well and truly departed. We arrived at the park just as the parade was finishing (again!) and decided to ride the new attraction, Despicable Me, just as all the people who had been watching the parade made the same decision! The wait time was 20 minutes but with the influx of people this must have lengthened to at least 40 minutes, but it was still better than the wait times of last week!

We hadn't seen the film, so we weren't really sure what was going on, but there was a lot of lead-up to the ride with Gru doing a fair amount of shouting at us...I think we were all destined to become his Minions? Anyway, Sophie and I enjoyed the ride which was almost the same as the Jimmy Neutron ride we went on back in 2009. Everyone sits in four seat cars arranged in a semi-circle in front of a screen. The ride is then very similar to The Simpsons with 3D images coming out of the screen and the cars tilting and moving in time to what happens on the screen. Mikey and Keith weren't impressed at all and I am very glad we didn't have that long to wait to ride it!





We then decided to do Revenge of the Mummy, but I chickened out! Yes...I am officially a wimp! I urged the rest of the family to go and do it, but they didn't want to either so we made for The Simpsons ride instead, with me annoyed with myself for not being brave (or stupid!) enough to go on. Maybe next time I come to Florida!

We rode the Simpsons in the back row of the car and what a difference that makes! It's nowhere near as exciting because you don't get to see a great view of what's going on on the screen. I'm so glad we were able to experience the ride in the front on two occasions! Mikey then wanted to do Men in Black again so off we went to that and just walked on, the crowds were so thin.

Last up today was E.T. again and then it was time for dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe. We were told there was a 10-15 minute wait but we were called in barely 5 minutes after arriving. Just before we were seated one of the staff handed the children a guitar and asked if they could take a photo of us all. Keith and I shied away so they took a snap of the kids. It was very busy and noisy as usual but we were seated upstairs where it wasn't quite as manic. We ordered a Jumbo Combo to start (spring rolls, chicken wings, jacket potato skins etc) and then I had a steak, Keith ordered fish and chips and the children had their famous burgers. As we were eating a staff member came around with the photo and said it would cost $20! Um, I don't think so!

The food was plentiful and although I enjoyed my steak the rest of my meal did not have a lot of flavour. Being very naughty, three of us had desserts (at least Sophie's and my pud were in shot glasses) and then we paid the bill, the highest of the holiday so far at a shade under $160! The thing that miffed me a bit was that the drinks menu did not have any prices on it, which I thought was a bit unfair as I'd ordered a glass of wine that turned out to be almost $9!

Anyway...it was almost the end of our holiday and we had to eat in the biggest Hard Rock Cafe in the world, didn't we? We had a great journey back to the villa along the I-4 (it's trying to redeem itself) and before bed we sat and relaxed by the pool with a nightcap. We have one more day and then it's the flight home!




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Over so quickly Jane!
sws

Janie said...

All good things come to an end...just need to plan the next one now!