Watson's Very Merry 24 nighter TR. Completed!!

No not nosey at all, we have annual passes so we will get this last trip, our 14 nights trip in April and our 24 night trip in October out of them, makes them feel like a bargain when I put it like that

Day 7

The alarm went off at 8am and we dragged ourselves out of bed. Today we were heading to the Magic Kingdom for a Dapper Darling event (an offshoot of Dapper Day) called 'on Wednesdays we wear pink'. Sy hopped in the shower as I started to get ready, there was no hanging around this morning. After the crowd pictures from yesterday we were planning to get there with plenty of time to park and get through security.

As soon as we were ready to go we grabbed a couple of croissants from the lounge and ate them on the go in the car, trying not to drop crumbs all over us and failing miserably! In another attempt to avoid some of the crowds we decided to valet park at the Grand Floridian, we weren't 100% sure we would be allowed so we asked at the gate and were told its fine as long as we valet and don't self park. It took no time at all to valet and we even still had enough time to take some pics around the lobby.

Finished posing we hopped on the monorail.

We walked into MK at 9:45 after no queue whatsoever at bag check! Whoa, this was not what we were expecting. Still early for the meet so we went to take more pictures up at the train station. (Cue more posing! In fact just prepare for a lot of posey pics all day haha)

This was actually not posed...

We then hopped on the train and went all the way around the park it was closed the last time we were both here. Love a ride on the train.

When we arrived back we could see other people dressed in pink so we went over to say hello. There were clearly a lot of people who already knew each other so we seemed to make friends with people who's first time it was like us. When we arrived we all had to sing the Bing Bong song to the organiser to get a little badge, I had literally no idea what the song was until someone else sang it lol (shameful really as I had seen inside out and watched it again on the plane over!)

Who's your friend who likes to play
Bing bong Bing bong
His rocket makes you yell "Hooray!"
Bing Bong, Bing Bong
Who's the best in every way, and wants to sing this song to say
Bing Bong, Bing Bong

I felt a right plonker singing it on my own!! Sy was literally no help. And there didn't seem to be an option to opt out and not have a badge haha.

We had little challenges set out for us for the day, actually that's not strictly true... We had a LOT of challenges set out for us for the day. We quickly decided we weren't going to be able to do them all, they seemed quite intensive and we wanted to just enjoy the day. I did feel a bit bad as the organiser Marina had clearly put a lot of effort into them all, there were just too many of them for newbies like us. We decided to skip the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom challenge where we had to try to get all of the pink cards by swapping them with people in the park, and the one where we had to try to find one of the other members of the group all day and get pics with them (as that would mean being on our phones all day looking for where they were going to be). The ones we decided to do were get loads of autographs in with pink pens and try to get a 'Mean Girls' inspired pic.

We had some pictures taken before we were ushered off to get on with the challenges.

We had been chatting to other newbies Lorraine, Liz and Nicole. Liz and Nicole were friends and had come together but Lorraine had braved it and come on her own! We quickly decided we would hang out together.

As I said one of the challenges was to take a picture in one of the Mean Girl poses, the most liked picture on Dapper Darling Facebook page would be the winner. So being tactical we wanted to get our picture up asap so we could get as many likes as possible. There was a cast member standing nearby who said hello to us, asked if we were having a nice day, he was really sweet and offered to take a picture for us.

Sy makes a good mean girl hahahahaha

As we went to say thank you to the CM I spotted his name badge and that he was French, hmmmm.... I was friends with a French CM working in WDW on Facebook. I knew him through another friend who had asked me to bring a few things over for him. His name was slightly different from the one on Facebook though, and he was really tall and for some reason I thought the guy I was bringing the stuff for was really short. Also my friend said he was working in Epcot in the France pavilion. But turns out it was him! I asked him if we were friends on Facebook and he said yes he thinks so, that's why he was hanging around us as he thought he recognised me haha.

He was such a sweetie and we hung out with him more later in the trip. He offered us a couple of Fastpasses each to use that day too, how lovely was that?!

We chatted for a few minutes and then we headed off towards Anna and Elsa as Lorraine being a local could never get Fastpasses for them so we could make the most of those extra Fastpasses from Louis. Liz and Nicole had an ADR lunch at Be Our Guest so we agreed to meet up once they had finished.

Anna graciously took a mean girls pose with us too

We decided to ride the carousel next as it would be a perfect photo opportunity. Half way through the wait it started to rain and we got a bit wet! It cleared up again soon after without us getting soaked though, phew!

We then decided to ride the Dwarves Mine Train, again as Lorraine can never get a Fastpass, not that we minded! Love that ride.

We then went to wait for Gaston, we thought he might be good for getting a mean girl picture. We had a little wait, he was out on a break and yet there was still a massive queue. While we were there a girl CM came by to say hello, she's a Dapper Darling but she had to work that day. Was lovely to chat to her, she told us about a dress she's making for the official Dapper Day in spring. Liz and Nicole finished their lunch soon after came to meet us in the queue.

Gaston was of course a total hoot. He loved all the women around him we asked him if he would take a picture standing out front flexing his muscles while we stand behind, I don't think he expected us to pull faces of disdain though, think he was hoping we would all faint at his beauty hahaha

It was then time to meet up in front of the castle for pictures. We had to wait for ages as they wanted to get the end of the Dream Along With Mickey show to get the fireworks in the background. It was soooooo hot stood in the sun waiting. To kill some time they asked me to stand out front and twirl (they loved my shoes!).

Finally got the fireworks pic

Feet were now killing so i had to swap to my comfy crocs, not quite as pretty lol. The group was breaking up again for more challenges. Liz and Nicole headed off home now. Still feeling pretty hot and icky we decided to go ride the peoplemover for the breeze. And then into Monsters inc for the aircon

We then decided to call it a day as well, my feet were hurting hehe. We headed back over to GF via the boat.

We stopped for yet more pictures and to see the Gingerbread house in more detail (we didn't really stop by for long this morning) got the resort boat over.

Some pics of the lobby and gingerbread house.

(looks like I've got my own beast in this pic haha... Seriously Sy, get a shave!)

Back at the hotel we got changed and headed to the club lounge. We got another little friend left for us in the room - how amazing?!?!?!!

In the lounge we chatted for ages with Andrea and gave her some more chocolates we had brought over for mousekeeping (we still had enough).

We got some apps in the lounge, I was not a fan of today's offerings.

We then went to the room and chatted our parents back home. I promptly fell asleep for half an hour - oops! Must have been tired haha. We hadn't had much to eat all day so we decided we should go out for some dinner. We ended up getting what turned out to be a rather disappointing Wendy's as it was nearby and we were both shattered.

Back to the hotel and pretty much fell into bed.

Awwwwww shucks thank you

As much as I'd like to say I'd made this one.... That would be a big fat lie! No I bought this from eBay for 20pounds! (Roughly $30) I actually didn't like it when it arrived it wasn't the right pink it had looked online so it didn't perfectly match the shoes... But I had left it too late so I took it anyway. And I loved it.

I have literally no idea what happened about the competition! Sorry can't help you out with that one.
The girl in black and white, I actually asked her about this! She doesn't own anything pink so she came as a dork who is holding something that says 'you can't sit with us'. She was a really sweetie!

Thank you so much I must confess I did swap between my heels and crocs during the day but those shoes are pretty comfy actually I know they don't look it

Awww thank you!

Day 8

Thanksgiving

Today was a sad day as we were checking out of Club Level, boohoo! Luckily though we were still staying in AKL but simply moving to a value room to save DVC points. We started to pack up our things, we had pretty much unpacked everything for our 24 night trip so there was a lot of stuff to pack lol. We took a break and went to get some breakfast in the lounge, it was pretty quiet in there compared to other mornings. They had cute little thanksgiving decorations out, a sparkly thing on each table and a few turkeys out under the TV.

Back in the room and back to the packing We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade on TV while we packed eeeek! Loved watched an American tradition! When we hit 10:45 we called down to ask for a bellman to help us with our luggage. We needed bell services to hold onto it for us as the room we were moving into wasn't due to be ready until 4pm, the last guests had said on the online check in that they wouldn't be checking out till 11am so we were prepared to have no room for a few hours, no biggie.

We went down to the front desk to check in and were told the room was already ready! Woohoo! We headed up to the room but our bands didn't work. I decided to hang at the room with the stuff (we had packed a day bag as we didn't think we would have a room for hours). Sy seemed to take absolutely aaaages lol. A guy came out of the room next door and stood chatting with me for a little bit which helped pass the time

Bands working Sy returns and we get into our new room. The value rooms are so called because they are smaller... Tbh I couldn't tell the room was any different than the club room we had just come from, the only real difference for me was that the bed was on the other side of the room next to the window with the sofa on the inside.

What an awesome view, thank you Andrea!

We unpacked our things and I did some washing. We then went for a quick swim and stopped by the club lounge on the way back, they had some special mini cakes out.

We got showered and ready for our thanksgiving meal at Carrie's mum Betty's, house. We could not WAIT to get there.

It was about 50 minute drive from AKL so we headed off at 3pm. We grabbed the little things we had brought over for Carrie and Mark and Betty for all the effort she had gone to.

Carrie was already at her mums when we arrived. Mark came a little while later with his sister and brother in law.

I took pictures of the amazing table.

Dinner was AMAZING. O.M.G.

We had turkey - naturally, ham, cheese grits, baked beans, green bean casserole, mash potato, stuff and a unique savoury pineapple thing - I was very dubious about that to begin with but it was a total star of the show!! There were home made bread rolls to go with dinner too. Yummy!

For dessert there was spiced cake or a rich chocolate cake. I went for a spiced cake, omg!! Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!!

I couldn't believe the amount of effort Betty had gone to, she'd been busy for 2 days straight to get everything sorted. We were completely blown away by it all.

We ate SO much food. I cannot even begin to put into words how much food we ate! I now know why in Friends Joey wears his special thanksgiving pants with the elasticated waist hahahaha There was loads left too so we were lucky enough to be able to take loads of it back to the hotel with us and eat it over the next few days

After dinner we sat round the table chatting, Carrie tried to pass off the turkey hat wearing as a Thanksgiving tradition hahaha but we all played along maybe it will be the beginning of a new tradition in their house? Hehe

What a good looking bunch we are eh?!

After dinner we gave Betty her presents which she loved I had some help from Carrie I must admit, I wanted to get her mum some things she would really love so I'd messaged Carrie in the run up to us coming over and she'd given me a few ideas. We got her some florentines from Fortnum and Mason, a grown up Christmas colouring book and a couple of other things.

We left at about 8:45pm and went with Carrie to Michaels to have a look at the Black Friday deals, it was pretty empty! I was imagining some scary scenes like from Walmart of Best Buy but I think there were about 10 people in the whole store, kinda felt cheated out of a true Black Friday sale haha, I guess people don't get aggressive over pretty organza bows... I managed to avoid spending a huge amount of money but got a few things to work on

We paid up and headed out to the car, we sorted out the meeting time for tomorrow as we were heading to Blue Springs and we then headed back to the hotel. Arriving at 11pm, going straight to bed

Day 9

There was no lazing about today we had to get up and get going - we had places to be! The alarm went off at 7am and we quickly showered and got dressed. We left the hotel at 8:15, we were due to meet Carrie, Mark and Mark's sister Katherine and her partner at 9:30 in Blue Springs state park. We were booked on the 10am boat trip

We were hungry and no more club level (or so we thought...) so we decided to stop for an expensive McDonald's - expensive cause apparently the McDonald's on Disney property is more expensive than going to one offsite, being out of towner's we had no clue until someone pointed it out to us haha. We had places to be though so we just thought to hell with it and paid the extra few cents for convenience. I went for an egg mcmuffin and Sy got a mcgriddle (we can't get either of these in the uk!). Sy quickly scoffed his down and got back to driving, while i having never been a fan of indigestion ate a little more slowly (I guess it also helped that I didn't have to do the driving so there was no real rush).

We arrived at the park dead on 9:30 and parked up. Carrie and Mark were in the car in front of us for the last few miles but we didn't realise, as we went to pay for parking the attendant told us they had paid for our parking too! How lovely <3

First up we went to pick up the boat tickets which were $20 each, we then had a bit of time to kill so we wandered up the river looking at manatees <3<3 amazing!

Mark's favourite sign, no fish allowed in the river haha

We boarded the boat at about 9:50, we were the youngest on there other than toddlers with their grandparents hehe. I guess with some of the worlds best theme parks on the doorstep people our age just weren't interested in seeing the natural beauty Florida has to offer! We saw so much wildlife, though there does come a time when you've seen enough birds I must admit. Sadly we only saw 2 manatees from the boat but it didn't matter. I took a million pictures so get comfy...

I was starting to get a headache while we were on the boat and hadn't brought any pain killers luckily Katherine had some she shared with me which really helped.

If you'd ask me I'd say the boat trip was just half an hour too long, the kids (and I) started to get a bit restless in that last half hour haha, I'd totally do it again though - loved seeing all the animals and the beautiful scenery.

12 pm arrived and we hopped off the boat, we walked along the water trying to look for more manatee but sadly couldn't see anymore Boohoo. We went up to where you get into the springs but it was closed off at this time of year due to the manatees coming in.

There was a cute little shop that we had a look around, they sold supplies for people who were camping at the park as well - smore kits etc, all the essentials hahahahaha I can't imagine an American camping trip is complete without smores! (Another thing we don't have in the uk at all).

We the headed back to the cars and went in search of some food. Carrie and Mark new of a great bbq place nearby called Sonny's so we made our way there.

The heavens opened just as we arrived so we had to run inside trying to not get too wet. eeeep!

Sonny's didn't look much when we first walked in, everything was pretty wipe clean :-/ but the food spoke for itself! I decided to get a smaller plate from the lunch menu (smaller, ha!) while Sy got a normal sized meal and for 2 meals and 2 drinks our total including tax and generous tip was $33! Total bargain!

Possibly the worlds largest drink cups. I'm not sure the picture does it full justice... It was so big I couldn't pick it up in one hand!

I had pulled chicken, garlic bread, baked potato and Mac and cheese.

Sy went for pork 3 ways with corn bread, crinkle fries and bbq beans.

The food, wow. This is one place I cannot wait to go back to! We both LOVED it. I wanna have the exact same thing when we go back.

We paid the bill and made our way outside, the rain had all gone and it was sunny again now!

We said goodbye and set the satnav to AKL, it was about 45 min easy drive down the I4.

We got back to the room and were surprised that it had been cleaned? We were normal DVC now so room clean is every 4th day. Hmmm. We chilled in the room for a bit before heading downstairs to see the animals... We walked past the stairway up to the club lounge and tried our magic bands.... They still worked so of course we popped up... Be rude not to right?! We went to the desk to see Andrea and mentioned about our bands still working, she said they had been activated for the rest of our stay by Mickey Mouse hehe she was confused about the room clean though, she had a look at our reservation and couldn't see why other than that there was a problem with our bands yesterday (Mickey had likely been fiddling with them). We couldn't believe it. We had club level access for the rest of our stay! o.m.g! We never did make it down to see the animals that afternoon lol.

We stayed and chatting with Andrea and Brian for a little while and grabbed some drinks. It then hit appetiser time! Woohoo lol who knew we still had room for more food haha. Tonight was spiced butter turkey, lush!!

Back in the room we have some visitors

We were meeting Carrie, Mark etc over at Bay Lake Tower at 7:30 to watch the fireworks so we got changed and made our way over. We arrived at the same time again and headed up to the lounge.

Carrie had been saving herself for some of the famous 7 layer chocolate cake. That is some amazing looking cake! she'd tried one bite of someone else's a while back and promised herself she would buy it once so she did it was surprisingly light for a big chocolate cake, but as I'm not a huge chocolate lover it was wasted on me (I had to try some though, naturally).

We went outside just before the fireworks started, it was quite chilly again tonight but this time we had come a little more prepared with jumpers and scarves Abby and Kev had been in Disney springs watching La Nouba with family, they came over to watch the fireworks and arrived just after they started.

After the fireworks we headed back inside to the warm, we chatted for a while before Carrie and Mark had to leave, Mark's sister and brother in law were flying home the next day boohoo! We stayed for a while longer though and chatted with Abby and Kev, can't believe they were so close to Disney but had no actual tickets to go in the parks! Soooo harsh. Don't think I could do it lol but it was so nice to see them and their family. We finally left at about 10:30pm.

We headed back to AKL but instead of Jambo house we were making our way to Kidani as our friend Jen was staying over there. We had hoped to meet up before now but we couldn't make it work, and tonight was their last night so of course we had to swing by and say hello! Couldn't be that close and miss the opportunity! We chatted in the lobby for about half hour - 45mins, but it was late and we were all shattered. Jen was clever enough to remember pictures...

We said goodbye and then drove back over to Jambo. There were giraffes right outside our balcony

I was starving so we decided to make up sandwiches from the thanksgiving leftovers, they were LUSH. We ate them in bed at 12:30 hehehe

Day 10

We woke up about 8am and took our time getting showered and dressed. We then went to get some breakfast in the club lounge (yay for club lounge access!), I could totally get used to that lounge!

Carrie had saved me her leaflet with Joann's Black Friday deals in it knowing I'm a keen sewer and wanted to get some fabrics... The deals were going on all weekend so I dragged Sy along with me. Oh boy was he pleased about that HAHAHAHA . It was quite busy in there but not unbearable, was easy to look around and grab the things that I wanted. I had a good look around the fabrics and grabbed pretty much all the Disney fabrics I could find... (I made Sy push a trolley and I promptly filled!). Then I needed to get the fabric cut, I wasn't sure what to do at first but I soon spotted a little ticket machine so I went to grab a ticket, number 80. I looked up to see the current number, 42. Oh holy crap. There were like 4 people stood cutting at the cutting tables and each person like me had masses to be cut. This did not go down well with Sy Hahahaha poor lad. We queued for 90 minutes. Sy was about ready to kill me, I'm sure I could read his mind and he was going through different ways to make me pay for making him do this about an hour into the wait we were given a ticket from someone else who got bored and couldn't stand it anymore, I think they saw Sy and felt sorry for him as I was off looking at more fabric again hahaha. Sy even did some periscoping and moaned about me to anyone who would listen hehehe.

I came back with more Disney fabric that I'd found and put it in the trolley, I needed the restroom so went off to find it but had to use the men's.... The staff member outside said there was a code V in the ladies - clearly someone couldn't take the sales pressure

We finally got to the front of the queue and got all of the fabric cut, we then went to pay and parted with about $100, oops! I think I have a fabric addiction! In my defence, some of it was for my mum (who I'd facetimed to show her all the different fabrics so she could have some too hahaha). We finally headed back outside, can't believe it had been so long since we'd seen the sunshine hehe. We were now desperate for a drink, we hadn't come prepared clearly! Right next door was a Panda Express so we headed in for some lunch.

The food wasn't great, it was dead in there so the food had been sitting out for ages. The best bit were the pot stickers which were cooked to order. I'll remember that in future such a shame though as we'd really liked Panda Express in Vegas and we're looking forward to eating more. I know it's not exactly high quality food but it's something we can't get back home.

Guess which one's mine hehe (the plain rice!).

Next door was a Target so we headed inside to have a look. We were pretty shopped out by now so we didn't buy much, think Sy had gone back to thinking up ways to kill me... We did get a few Christmas presents and some foodie things to take home so it wasn't a complete waste of time but tbh neither of our hearts were in it lol.

I took a pic of this reindeer made entirely of cupcakes!

We head back to animal kingdom lodge, arriving back at 3:30. I snapped a pic of a pretty butterfly on the way in, made me smile!

Back in the room I called mum and showed her all the fabrics and then had a nap - shopping took it out of me clearly!

Tonight was our horse and carriage ride that had been rearranged from a few days earlier, it was booked for 7pm so we got ready and headed out of the room at 6pm. We drove over to Port Orleans Riverside and parked out front (after driving around a few times as there were literally no spaces!). I've actually been to POR once before when I'd bought an annual pass thing for a friend who was staying there, we bought it on our last day so stopped at their resort to leave it there for them on the way to the airport. It's a pretty reception but it was pretty loud right now with people checking in and coming back from the parks.

We went out through the back of reception and met the horses and their respective drivers (there were 2 carriages). There was a guy waiting there with a clipboard ready to check us in.

Our horse was Wreck it Ralph cause he was big and beefy (or as my notes say, he was a chunky monkey like us hahaha). One thing's for sure though, he was a real beauty! You're not really meant to pet the horses but as there was no one else around our driver Tim said it would be fine, yay! He seemed to like the petting I gave him (Ralph, not Tim that is ).

I grabbed a couple of pics.

We hopped in and started our ride, both carriages went at once with us up front. About 5 minutes into the trip Ralph decided he needed a erm, rest stop. So he stopped and took a massive poop Hahahaha he had something to catch it all though so no nasty surprises left for other guests... Sadly this meant we took the smell with us through the rest of the journey.

I tried to get a selfie on the journey but it didn't really work :-/

We went round POR and then into the French Quarter, I LOVED it. I knew from pictures I would like it and I wasn't wrong. It looked more like a deluxe than a moderate. I just loved everything about it, if we ever stay moderate I could totally stay here!

Our 25 min ride went on for about 35 cause Ralph decided he was on a go slow, I put it down to him pulling a lot of weight poor Ralph lol (though technically you can have 4 people in the carriages so I dunno).

Back at reception and our trip had come to an end, sniff sniff. Tim offered to take some pics of the 2 of us.

We charged the ride to our room and were able to use our annual pass for a bit of discount, woohoo! Every little helps. We really enjoyed the little ride but it was quite expensive, I'm not sure I'll rush to do it again. Though I might be tempted by one at fort wilderness during the holidays to see the decorations.

We headed back to the car and decided to pop to the outlets, I know, you'd think we would be done with shopping for the day really but I wanted to check the Disney store again to see if they had my dooney bag. We parked up easy and right near the Disney store so we headed right there. And would you know it, they totally had the bag! Woohoo! I still had a mini meltdown though as it was a lot of money even on sale so I almost didn't buy it... But then Sy talked me into it and bought it for me, I couldn't turn that down now could I? That would be rude

We also went into hilfiger and got Sy a jacket and me a jumper so it was a successful shopping trip all in all. Those were the only shops we went in though as I started to feel a bit icky, I'd been poorly for a few days with what felt like a nasty cold so we made our way back to AKL, Sy dropped me off at the hotel and went out to find some food. Half an hour or so later he came back with McDonald's, he'd got me some chicken nuggets even though I'd told him I didn't want anything but he didn't want me to not eat anything *aww* . I ate them in bed and then went straight to sleep. Sy stayed up for a bit and sat out on the balcony watching the animals, he came to bed about an hour later after he'd fallen asleep out there and woken up freezing cold lol.

That sounds pretty much how Christmas Day works for us in the uk lol emergency chairs pulled out, everyone sitting at a different height at the table lol. We eat buffet style at my parents house too, too many to feed it would take forever to plate up everyone's food lol

Thank you so much for saying how much you enjoy my reports, i can't tell you how happy that made me!!

It was amazing!! I'd love to be able to do it again (maybe 2017!? We'll see...). You gotta make friends with some Americans on your next trip and see if they ask you over for dinner hehehe

Yeah I kinda figured most people don't go to quite the same detail, but it was amazing, like everything I thought it would be! Thanks for reading and enjoying!

You totally need to try it, i know it looks really sticky and heavy but it's as light as air! I don't know how they do it. Is the Canadian thanksgiving similar to the American one? Similar food etc?

I hope you did make it up there for cake, you can afford it after that run! We usually get there 45 mins before the fireworks but we have arrived 5 minutes before in the past and got a spot to watch.

I agree so much. I LOVE the lounge there, it feels like our own personal lounge lol

I agree! Something about the lighting, I think I need Jen's camera lol

It really was sooooo yummy! Thanks for reading, next day is finished now

Day 11

I didn't sleep very well as the cold I had was really taking hold of me I felt like death. Sy went to get some breakfast from the lounge and left me in the room. He brought some back for me to eat in bed, love him!

Now it was daylight I had to take a pic of my new pretty bag to send to my mum...

I was going a bit stir crazy by about 11:30 and the pull of the parks was too much to bare! Hello it had been DAYS since we last stepped foot inside a Disney park... So still feeling weak I dragged on some clothes and we headed to Animal Kingdom. First stop was in Starbucks to pick up one of the new AK mugs for Sy and a Christmas one for Ali back home. I did like the little Christmas tree versions but oh my they were soooo expensive!! I didn't like them that much to pay all that for them...

We then went to ride/watch it's tough to be a bug. I always feel rushed walking in as there are people right behind us so I never get to take in all of the animals along the queue line. I wanna try taking my time next trip and get some pics, I'll just keep telling people to go around us. I feel like I'm missing out!

As always, we ended up sat near a child who screamed pretty much from when it started. This time the child was seriously upset/scared and screaming blue murder. It was sat right next to me. The parents however were not moving and missing the show. The CM came to ask if they needed to go out but they said no in the end someone else in their party took the child outside. I mean come on, not only is that awful for the poor child who wasn't just screaming for attention but genuinely petrified but it's not fair on everyone else who's waited in line and was in the show. I dunno, maybe I was grumpy cause I felt poorly too, but boy I was miffed with those parents lol.

Afterwards it looked like it might rain so we decided to head out, plus I really was feeling like death still. In the weeks leading up to the trip I kept reading about people coming down with norovirus in Disney and I was SO scared of getting it (it can end up with me being hospitalised) so tbh really I did well just to get this nasty cold thing.

It started to rain on the way out we didn't get too wet as it wasn't like the normal summer storms but just a bit of light rain, something we aren't used to in Florida lol. We decided to head over to publix to get some lunch, Sy wanted a big sub! I got some chicken tenders and then made our way back to the hotel.

Emma, Scott and their gorgeous little boy Mason were waiting to say hello to us. We sat outside on the outlook for a while waiting for the rain to go away. Lea, Alexander and Luas came over to say hello too! They didn't have much planned for the afternoon so thought they would come over to see the animals. When the rain had gone we went down to get some loungers by the pool. As it wasn't busy we asked if Mason could go swimming (they were staying in another Disney hotel) and they said yes so Sy and Scott went to get Mason's swimming stuff from their hotel while the rest of us lazed by the pool chatting.

The boys came back and took Mason swimming while we lazed and chatted some more... Well that's not exactly true, we did go watch Mason swimming lol. Sadly the rain decided to come back so the swim was cut short and we headed back up to our room so Mason could get dried off and changed

We didn't hang about in the room for too long, Mark was taking Sy to see the basketball tonight and Carrie and I were off shopping and for dinner.

We went over to Carrie and Mark's house and the boys went off pretty much right away. Carrie and I headed to do some shopping! We went to JoAnn's (yes I was looking for yet more Disney fabric haha), kirkmans and a few other home stores. There was one shop which stocked British foods and omg the prices were eye watering! $20 for a PS1.50 box of mince pies! I did however buy some really nice mango black tea in there. I'm a black tea drinker (you can keep your green tea rubbish haha) and usually when you see fruit teas they are green teas so I buy black ones when I can find them, I'm currently working my way though Apple black tea from fortnum and Mason and these mango black teas. You don't even wanna know how much they were :-/ but they are lovely so I'm glad I got them. They weren't from the British section so no idea where to get the next lot, might have to take a trip back there in April

It wasn't long before we started to need some food... We went to a Red Robin on Carrie's suggestion, a first for me. It was pretty good. I think I would have enjoyed it even more had I not been feeling like death still and dosed up on pain killers.

Carrie had some fish and chips, she nearly had Worcestershire sauce on her chips as the waiter had brought that out instead of vinegar " whoops!

I had some chicken tenders and sweet potato fries.

Total was $38 inc hearty tip. I paid as the basketball tickets were really good seats Carrie got through work, they were $110 each face value! Sy bought dinner for him and Mark as well as a thank you.

After dinner Carrie and I went into Cracker Barrel next door where I bought some more Christmas decorations (like I need anymore of those!!). To be fair, I didn't spend a huge amount of money while out shopping today - Carrie was shocked haha, think my heart wasn't in it cause of being poorly.

We then headed back to Carrie's house and arrived about 2 minutes before the boys got back - good timing eh?

We sat and had a couple of drinks with Carrie and Mark but we didn't stay too late. I did get some cuddles with this little beauty though...

That's Alfie. Isn't he handsome?!

We headed back to the hotel and I took poorly again in the car, I had the shakes so bad blooming hate being poorly! I tried having a hot shower to counter act it but it didn't help so I just got into bed and closed my eyes hoping for sleep. Finally drifted off about 12:30.

I hate ending on a depressing note, so to skip forward to the next morning... The shakes had gone by then and I saw Neil Patrick Harris in the club lounge! Pics to follow

And till then here are a couple of Sy's pics from the evening...

Yes. These are the pictures my pervy husband took hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! To be fair he did take pics of other parts of the game too...