Finally today we woke to clear blue skies. We quickly changed our minds to take Neil to the Premium Outlets until much later that morning.
It was just a shame that this morning was also the day that Barry & Ellie had planned a lie in. By the time that got up the clouds had started to appear.
I had a lovely relaxing morning laying in the Hot Spa reading. Karen busied herself for a while tidying the Villa before joining me. Neil listened to some music whilst laying on a sun bed.
Just before noon we headed to Premium Outlets which was about a 20 minute drive away. We parked as usual at the shops across the road where there is always car parking spaces available. Karen & Neil went to the Old Navy outlet whilst I went and had a look round the North Face store. We then crossed the road to the main bulk of shops.
We headed to the Official Disney Outlet that Neil was keen to visit.
Unbelievably there was a queuing system to get in and we were told there was a 30 – 40 minute wait such was the popularity of the store. Neil decided to wait but I refused to and so Karen and I wandered off to look elsewhere and meet him at the Starbucks later.
Once we had finished looking around we wandered past the Disney shop and found the queue had disappeared and went in ourselves. It was still very busy and we saw Neil in the most enormous queue inside to pay for his chosen items. The stock is all from the last ‘season’ and is between 50 – 75% reduced from original prices. Some items are still available in the Disney Parks at full price. Neil said that people in front of him in the queue were buying at least 20 of the same item, like socks or caps or toys. They all seem to know each other and all the staff and seemed like regular visitors. Neil presumed they were therefore buying to resell at a profit on eBay.
We mused that Disney should introduce an item limit per person but then just thought the same people would just keep going round and round again the same day. At the end of the day Disney just want to shift excess stock and we assume they are still making a profit on the items which shows the margins they make actually within the Theme parks themselves.
On the way back I then stopped and ran into Publix for more milk and juice before heading back to the Villa. I spent sometime catching up on holiday admin whilst Neil watched some Live Champions League on TV.
Barry & Ellie then returned from their visit to the Boardwalk and having ridden the new Disney Skyliner for the first time. We then all chilled outside as it got dark either in the pool or spa.
Then we headed to Disney Springs for the evening. Just as we arrived it started to rain and then rapidly turned into a full Florida electrical storm. The lightening and cracks of thunder were directly overhead.
Fortunately it didn’t last too long or impact us as we darted into different shops. We looked round the new NBA experience and deemed it to have been an expensive waste of money.
After visiting the usual Marvel & Star Wars stores we headed to Blaze Pizza to meet up with Barry & Ellie for the evening. The Pizzas were excellent as usual.
It was lovely walking round with everyone together. Everyone was relaxed, chilled and chatty. Ellie even took us in a shop that we had never been in before or even considered called Anthologie. It is funny how we have come set in our ways in walking round and it is good that the dynamic is changing for the better.
At the Disney store which is the Worlds largest we all separated as it is pointless all trying to keep together as we have found to our cost over the years. I seem to have spent hours just trying to find people in the past. We agreed a time and location to meet up again.
Actually I was last back as I had sneaked a look in the Lego Store and was fascinated by the opportunity to make a mini me out of Lego. I didn’t get a chance to do so but am convinced that if they did so then commercially make it I would become a best seller.
The weather was now fine and dry and the temperature still in the mid 80s. It was then time for the traditional Ghirardelli stop. I secured a table whilst everyone else went and made their choices. They all came back with something different. Neil chose my favourite which was a Salted Caramel shake thick with their Ice Cream. As I am still avoiding sugar wherever possible I looked on enviously. Karen & Ellie both had a single scoop of Ice Cream which was flipping enormous whilst Barry had a Raspberry Sorbet with Fudge sauce concoction.
It was by now getting quite late (for us anyway) so we only went in one more shop before heading to the Christmas Shop. The ornaments always cause us amusement in there. There are some lovely things to buy but they are all so expensive. Most ornaments are now around $25 each. We escaped without buying anything and headed tired by happy back to the Villa.
It had been yet another really good day.
