Even I didn’t make it to the poolside until just after 8am following our very late night with Mickey Mouse. The weather was as it has been everyday so far just stunning and is something I know I will be yearning for when back home next week.
Karen & Neil eventually joined me. It turned into another morning where they both wanted to enjoy some down time in the sun. Karen & I caught up with some admin around things we wanted to do at home with the run up to Christmas. I also finally completed the editing of all the lots of old photos.
We had some rolls and nibbles by the pool before getting ready to go out for the afternoon at 1.30pm. We decided to head for the Boardwalk again but unsurprisingly were turned away again at the Car Park. It looks that that option may now be permanently closed to us. The same happened at the Caribbean Beach Resort hotel and so we cut our losses and headed to park at Disney Springs to catch a free bus to the Boardwalk itself.
Stupidly I was excited for my first Disney bus ride. I was looking forward to comfortable seats, and free Disney cartoons to watch as we travelled in air-conditioned luxury. Sadly, I was mistaken. It was a cramped ride with most people having to stand because of lack of seats. It was more like a shuttle bus to collect your rental car, from the airport. Another Disney illusion shattered.
We got off at the Beach Resort and wandered to the Boardwalk. The sun was scorching and it felt like the hottest day we had had so far. We went to the Epcot Skyliner stop and took a leisurely ride over Epcot to the Riveria resort where we alighted and walked to one of Karen’s favourite coffee stops on the 1st (or in US terms 2nd) floor balcony.
We sat for a while looking at all the rich people below enjoying their vacation time but with a cost of $800 per night. Our villa is costing much less than a quarter of that. It is a lovely hotel and very convenient to be able to get to either Epcot or Hollywood Studios from here, but for that money I would want to be here all the time to ensure I was getting full value from my stay.
Many of the guests would be Vacation Club members which is also very poor value for money. They would have invested a very hefty lump sum up front and then still must pay annual fees which far exceeds what we are paying for the villa for the whole fortnight. And they are then tied into coming back here year after year or reselling their points for less than they paid for them. No wonder Disney continue to promote Vacation Club membership, and it’s not through altruism.
Neil & I decided to use the ‘guests only’ Bocce rink below the balcony to try out the game as we had never played before. We played 2 ends. It is like a sanitised version of Bowls as we would know it. I won both ends not that we were counting.
We caught the Skyliner back to the Boardwalk and carried on with on slow walk around. The old ESPN is now an up market restaurant and bakery where slices of cake are sold at $25 each. We just shook our heads and walked on.
The bus back from the Boardwalk was just as crowded and disappointing. At Disney Springs, it was fake snowing as we walked around the central shopping area with everyone enjoying the foam floating down. Neil went back to the Ghirardelli shop whilst Karen & I went into the Lego shop as there was no queue.
For the first time this trip we almost forgot what row we had left the car in and it took a minute or so to correct ourselves.
We set off for the drive to our restaurant choice for the night. It was dusk as we got to the car but still very bright inside the car park.
We were pootling along having just left Disney Springs when some flashing lights appeared behind me, I pulled out of the way and the lights followed me. I quickly realised it was me being pulled over. It was a dual lane highway and I wasn’t sure where I should stop. When the siren was blipped on and off, I just stopped anyhow and got out of the car and saw it was a car from the Sheriffs department. I was told to wait next to the car whilst he got out. Immediately I realised the problem was that I didn’t have any lights on and it was now quite dark. A stupid rookie mistake of my own making. At home my lights in my car come on automatically. I had started driving in the brightly lit car park and along well-lit roads and just hadn’t noticed.
The sheriff or whatever he was extremely friendly, helpful and sympathetic. I apologised for my error and he said he was just concerned about our safety. After he checked I knew how to switch on the lights and checked over my driving license he let us leave. We carried on with me cursing my own stupidity and it was a lesson learnt.
After that excitement we arrived at Cheddars restaurant. Karen & I had tried eating here once in the past but hadn’t been impressed but other people had still raved about it. We were seated quickly. Karen had one of the Margaritas that was on offer. The food was superb. Neil had a rack of ribs that must have 18inches long. I had the half rack ribs with a small sirloin steak. The steak was good but the ribs were out of this world. The meat was plentiful, so tender and very flavoursome. We will definitely being coming back here another time.
A quick dash to Publix followed before heading crossing back across the road for Karen & Neil to visit the Coldstone Creamery. They enjoyed eating these on a bench in Margaritaville before heading back to the villa. An intended short outing had lasted almost 8 hours. We had some drinks whilst Karen watched this week’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and moaned a lot about the Americans messing around with the format. And with that we retired for the night.
