Today was one of those days where the all best plans didn’t all come to fruition.
As part of our Christmas present, Neil had purchased for Karen & I tickets to ride the Orlando Eye. So after an unhurried start to the morning we set off and headed back up the I4 to reach it.
As we pulled into the car park we realised that the wheel wasn’t turning which we thought was strange. We made our way into an impressive complex underneath the wheel which also housed the Sea Life Centre and Madame Tussauds. After asking what was happening we were told the Eye was closed for maintenance. We were not happy as we had checked the website before leaving. Neil checked Twitter and they had just tweeted it was closed due to weather conditions. We walked outside to check and found the sun shining brightly. Hmmm.
It seemed that actually they were spending the day rebranding the wheel itself. Poor communication and marketing on their part.
So we decided to wander round the area and it was all very pleasant with huge amounts of money obviously been spent upon it. There was a Shake Shack so Karen took the opportunity to have a Frozen Custard which is one of her favourites but not always that readily available.
We then wandered back to the car and drove the short distance to Top Golf. We had been here on our last visit and enjoyed the experience. It is essentially just a golf driving range but with a real difference. There are 3 levels to the range so we choose the top floor this time. You pay for the bay for a time period. With a voucher I had it only cost us $17 for one hour. There is waitress service for drinks and food. It operates much like a very posh plush bowling alley.
The real difference is the use of the technology. Even ball you hit has a chip in it. You can watch your shot afterwards on the TV Screen where it gives you distance, height, flight etc. You are aiming to score points by hitting into very large targets and you can vary the type of game you play.
Even Karen enjoys it as the first target is just within her range. The not so competitive Neil and I were aiming for ones much further away for more points. He narrowly beat me at the first game but I hammered him in the second. I was confident enough to try the biggest driver available and amazed myself by hitting (carry) the very end of the range. That distance is totally alien to me normally.
So after a fun time we went back to the Villa for lunch. As the sun was still out we decided to sit by the pool for a hour. This turned into 4 hours as we were enjoying just chilling out.
The evening had been scheduled to watch the Kissimmee Firefrogs Baseball team. We drove very slowly in traffic along the 192 to the venue. As we were doing so it started to rain heavily. The traffic meant we were late arriving but the place was deserted. The game had been cancelled 8 minutes after we had left the Villa.
This was our second disappointment of the day but understandable as there was now torrential rain. So we drove back to near the villa to the Miller Ale House. However it was 10 minutes before we actually could leave the car because of the weather. Karen really liked the food which was very reasonably priced and full of Brits for that reason. Neil & I thought the food was just OK.
It seems the weather we are getting now is very unusual for the time of year and it is making headlines on all the local news channels for all the wrong reasons. It is unseasonably wet and stormy for this time of year. Needless to say we are not happy about it.
Tomorrow is our big Disney Day. Hopefully not another Hmmm day.
