Sunday 10 April. Settling in...

The first night in a strange place is always a little disturbed so we were up several times on Saturday night. Firstly because our body clocks were still attuned to UK time - 5 hours ahead - and secondly because of the small noises that weren't familiar to us, like the whirring of the fridge and the beeping of the alarm!

After breakfast we headed off to find the Thomson offices where we had to register. Luckily we knew roughly where they were but Sophie spotted them and after about ten minutes we were all done and heading to Walmart to get some more shopping. Walmart was HUGE! We bought essentials such as loo rolls, washing liquid and foods for lunch then returned to the villa to spend the afternoon by the pool.

I suppose I should mention our villa! It's beautiful, has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large open plan kitchen, diner, living room and a snooker room!

Our plan was to go to Universal in the late afternoon to activate our park tickets so we set off with Keith giving me great directions. The roads were a lot busier than the last time we were here, with the freeway being very busy indeed. It was slightly hairy having cars overtaking me on both sides! However, we found our way to the park without any trouble and activated our tickets very easily. The park looked busy but there was hardly any wait time for the four rides we managed to fit in! First stop was Shrek which Keith loved, especially when the dragon sneezed and we were squirted with water! Next stop was The Simpsons ride and I think we annoyed the Chinese family in front of us who shared our car as we were shrieking and screaming the whole way through, while they just sat there looking terrified! Men In Black was a fabulous ride and needless to say Mikey got the best score in shooting at the Aliens!

Our last ride was Jaws - very cheesy but great nonetheless. By now it was still very hot, and as we'd walked around the entire park we headed back to the villa to have a swim in the pool before dinner. The temperature in the car was measuring 96F so a cool down was definitely needed!

Our dinner choice of Sunday night was the local Applebees, great because it's literally five minutes away. It was packed to the gunnels so we had a little wait, but the food was delicious. Three of us chose steak while Sophie went for the half rack of baby ribs. We decided to start a new exercise over the next few nights...we will each choose a restaurant and then the other three will score it, as in Come Dine With Me! The person who picks the most popular restaurant will win $10 off the other three!

After dinner, it was back to the villa, a glass of wine for me (I found a 1.5litre bottle of my favourite wine in the supermarket!) and then thankfully to bed!