Tried to amend my carnivorous habits
Made it nearly seventy days
Losin’ weight without speed, eatin’ sunflower seeds
Drinkin’ lots of carrot juice and soakin’ up rays
Who would have thought it yet another easy morning start. It was a quiet start as well with Barry & Ellie being away for a couple of nights.
This morning was to be Typhoon Lagoon which didn’t open until 10am and had free parking which was an added bonus. We arrived into an almost empty car park at exactly 10am and parked almost directly outside the entrance. Our Disney Tickets covered the entry to the park itself.
Of the two water parks this is my favourite. I just love the look and feel of the whole place. It is so laid back. We wandered and tried to find our usual spot by the right-hand side of the big wave pool. To Karen’s considerable annoyance the spot had been taken over by cabanas which had to be booked at an additional cost. She was not happy especially as they remained empty all the time we were there.
We found another spot close by and as the park was quite empty had loads of space around us.
Now normally we all head off to do as many of the slides as we can before any queues build up. Karen was worried about her arm and although I really fancied doing some thought I should try to protect both my knee and back this time. I promised myself that I hadn’t retired from the slides and I would do some next time we are here.
So, Neil went off to risk life and limb on the slides alone whilst Karen & I went to the lazy river which is always our favourite. It takes roughly 20 minutes to gently float the 2000ft all around it. This year they have introduced new rubber seats in addition to the rubber rings that you float on which are very comfortable. It was bliss although Karen always hates going under the waterfall as it messes her hair up.
Floating round listening to the water themed music always takes me back to previous visits. One time was when we passed the Duchess of York with her children and security guards floating around and another when bizarrely my boss at the time in Aviva called out to me from a bridge as I floated underneath it. I had forgotten he was even in Florida.
One interesting thing about the rest of the people in the park was that it was probably two thirds British today. I’m not sure why. None of them seemed to lairy or embarrassing either which was nice.
One circuit wasn’t enough for me so we went round again.
Back at our chairs and loungers I managed using the Wi-Fi to get the Radio Norfolk commentary on my phone of the Norwich match away at Rotherham. Karen & I shared one air pod each. It did seem almost surreal to be sitting in the sun in the picture-perfect surroundings of a Disney water park made all the better by listening to a Norwich win. I celebrated by having another float around the lazy river.
After another sit down we were all ready to leave and so headed back to the villa where the rest of the afternoon was spent sitting by or in the pool reading and chilling, although Karen would also want pointing out that she did several loads of washing as well.
This evening we headed up to Universal City Walk where we timed our arrival for just after 6pm to ensure that we took advantage of the free parking. Unfortunately, so did hundreds of other people and it was chaotic with a long queue to get finally parked on what I believe was once the worlds largest multi-story car park.
Neil had long wanted to explore the Universal Hotels and so we walked to the dock in the middle of City Walk and waited to catch a boat to the Portofino Hotel. There was a queue and we had to wait for a second boat before we could get on. It was a short but pleasant ride to the Hotel. It was very pretty and themed in an Italian style but didn’t resemble the pictures I had in my head of what Portofino looked like. We had a look around the Hotel. The restaurants outside overlooking the water all looked very enticing but the prices weren’t. Then we caught the boat back to the City Walk.
By now it was closing time in both of the Universal theme parks. It was manic with thousands of people exiting. Karen was now hungry and so we thought we would try and get in somewhere to have a meal. I had booked Margaritaville for 9pm which was the earliest available at the time but we thought we would try to get somewhere earlier.
Everyone else had the same idea and we queued up in a couple of places only to be told they were full for the night. I suggested a Pizza but Karen wasn’t happy with that idea. We all got a bit snappy with each other whilst trying to come up with an alternative plan. In the end we decided to walk around the lake for a bit and go to my original 9pm booking.
Fortunately, at 9pm we were seated almost straight away on the outside terrace which was rather pleasant. Again, there were many empty tables so we assumed that they just had a staffing issue rather than a capacity one. The food when it came was not bad (I had the Mahi Sandwich), just over priced for what it was. I assume it’s all to do with the brand name and the location. Jimmy Buffet can almost do no wrong (except for cancelling his London Palladium performance last year through Covid and not yet rescheduling it).
Back at the villa we all sat and watched the conclusion of the World Series which saw the Astros win. We didn’t mind the time as we knew we would gain the extra time in bed tonight as the clocks went back.
That concluded another day at our happy place remembering there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow at the end of every day.
