Another start to the day that involved another call with Apple Support. Today’s theory involved 3rd party apps interfering with the Apple Health App causing the current issue. This did sound plausible and indeed the Apple chap found traces of an app that I had long thought had been deleted. I was on the call for 90 minutes by which time Karen & Neil were all ready and itching to leave. In the end I had to cut the support guy short whilst promising to make the other changes he was suggesting and scheduled another call for Saturday.
The reason that Karen & Neil were keen to leave was because the plan was to be at Aquatica for opening time at 10.30am. We made it with minutes to spare. This was only our second visit (Neil’s third) to what is considered to be America’s best water park. Our admission was covered as part of our Discovery Cove ticket which was just as well as the day ticket price was $103. I’m not sure any water park is worth that much.
Today Karen had cunningly wrapped my towel around some snacks and we made it through security with no problem. The whole park was pleasingly very quiet all day despite the weather forecast to hit 30c by lunchtime.
We chose some sunbeds and chairs under an umbrella for some shade. Neil immediately went off to tackle some terrific looking big slides. I was envious but erred on the side of caution with my knee and back. Hopefully next time I will be able to try some of them.
Instead, Karen & I headed to the Lazy River or equivalent but were disappointed to find it shut. We went to the not so lazy river called Roa’s Rapids instead. Karen was very hesitant to get in as she is not confident in water and wants the reassurance of being able to always put her feet down and not be out of her depth. So being the perfect husband I decided to walk round her first whilst she sat and waited. I quickly realised that walking was not really an option in parts as the rapids just pushed you along. However, I figured that if we wore the life jackets that everyone else seemed to be wearing then Karen should be fine although it was probably at the edge of her confidence levels.
It was then with a very nervous Karen that we got back in wearing green life jackets. At the first rapids I was nearly drowned as Karen pulled on my lifejacket for security and dragging me underwater. As soon as we were out of the rapids and she realised she had survived (never mind about me) then her confidence grew. Soon she was gently bobbing along and then enjoying the rapids each time we got to them. We went round three times before heading back to our beds and chairs. It was great fun.
The constant soundtrack being played over the park sound system for the day was Jimmy Buffet so I very much approved of the playlist.
Neil returned with a big smile as none of the slides he had done had any queues. He rested a while before heading off to tackle the ones that he had not yet got round to.
Meanwhile Karen & I headed back to the rapids where we passed another hour laughing as we were swept around.
It was then time to head out of the park with that lovely water park feeling of having had a good time and a glow all over from the sun and water. That is a feeling you cannot get from anywhere else.
Back in the villa we sorted ourselves out for a while and then chilled for an hour or so in the beautiful weather.
Whilst sitting by the pool reading, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a mark or so I thought on my wedding ring. In fact, it was a break all the way down it. I have no idea how or what had happened. I decided to take it off completely to ensure I didn’t lose it by it falling off without me noticing. I took it upstairs to show Karen who responded with ‘That’s strange – when did you get it?’ And that is in summary what I must put up with on a daily basis. That’s another job to take it to be repaired for my todo list for when I get back.
Tonight’s dinner plan was to go to Saltgrass Steakhouse. It took about 30 minutes to get there in the traffic. The service and food were both flipping excellent. The steaks just melted in our mouths. It is a bit more expensive than Outback but worth it. However, having a $25 credit from having a Landry’s loyalty card actually made it cheaper than Outback. It got a big thumbs up from all three of us.
Then we headed to the Boardwalk and were allowed in to park by a very disinterested security guard. It was as ever a lovely walk around the whole boardwalk in the warm evening temperatures. It was quite busy and had a really nice atmosphere. We stopped on the bridge to look at the ‘rich’ people who had tickets to get into Epcot and then went into the Yacht and Beach club hotel to look at their Christmas Carousel.
It took us about a hour to walk around. We debated stopping further but the price of drinks and the fact that Neil was still adjusting to the time difference meant we decided to head back.
At the villa we all had a drink and watched part of yet another Shark Tank before going upstairs to bed at 10pm as we planned to be out at 7.30am in the morning.
