Fletch
12-02-2005, 02:53
Sorry for the delay for those of you who have been asking for the next instalment. Here goes:
Sunday 9 January
Woke up to a glorious day - deep blue sky, not a cloud in sight and the temperature was set to reach 80 degrees according to Channel 13 (which we tended to follow for news and weather). John, Amy and Jay decided to go to Blizzard Beach while Andrew and I spent some quality time together in the villa. Truth be known, Andrew needs some medical "attention" every 2 - 3 days which was a blessing in some ways as it made us pencil in a "quiet" day every few days in our itinerary, for which we would be mighty thankful by the end of the holiday!
After breakfast, Andrew and I waved the others off as they set off on their first venture onto Disney territory and we then went for a walk round Cumbrian Lakes community. I took Andrew to the "tot lot" and he enjoyed the slide (or rather he tolerated me trying to encourage him to enjoy the slide!). We then walked to one of the lakes in the community - it is such a pretty place, and very peaceful.
When we got back to the villa I decided to soak up some sun on the lanai while Andrew had a daily dose of "Bob the Builder" courtesy of one of the videos we bought him yesterday - what a good purchase that turned out to be! I got chatting to our neighbours who were also English and who were villa owners. They don't rent their villa out, but use it as a holiday home for themselves and their family. They were in their first week of a six week stay (GREEN with envy!!!)
After a lovely swim together, lots of games and giggles, Andrew and I settled down together to watch another of his favourites - Pingu - on the laptop and before we knew it the others were back full of tales about the fun they had had on just about everything but Summit Plummet! None of them was brave enough to try that one[msnscared]
We then went out to eat at Carabba’s – at least that was the intention. We had found the location on our map and were pretty pleased with ourselves when we turned off the 192 into Formosa Gardens. After driving up and down a couple of times without a sighting of Carabba’s I went into a supermarket to ask for directions. The young boy on the till looked rather blank when I asked him, and replied that he’d never heard of it.
There was an Italian restaurant called Giordano’s almost opposite the supermarket, so we decided to give it a try as we were all starving by now.
(We later found out that Carabba’s was little more than a stone’s throw away, just a little further down the 192. So either the guy in the supermarket was new to the area or he was on commission from Giordano’s)
The atmosphere in here was very relaxed and the staff were extremely friendly – they were especially attentive to Andrew without being patronising, which I was especially touched by.
We shared a platter of deep fried mozzarella sticks, mushrooms, zucchini and calamari to start with. There was enough to feed the whole restaurant and at least two-thirds of it went to waste! Jay and I had the lasagne, John had spaghetti bolognaise while Amy tried the Tropic Delight pizza. We all enjoyed our meals and despite being sorely tempted by the delicious desserts on the menu, we settled for cappuccino’s all round. The waiter, who had by now become best friends with Andrew, insisted on bringing him a huge bowl of ice cream despite my protests that he wouldn’t eat it. I always feel as if people think we are neglecting Andrew when we are out for a meal as he refuses to eat when other people are around so we have given up even trying. I usually give him his meal before we go out, but I still feel as if people think we are starving him.
Stuffed to the gills, we set off back to the villa and hit the sack early in preparation for our first Disney park tomorrow - EPCOT
Monday 10 January
We were all up early and en-route to Epcot by 8.30am – straight up Poinciana Boulevard all the way to Osceola Parkway. By 9am we were at the entrance to Epcot and after we’d gone through the secu
Sunday 9 January
Woke up to a glorious day - deep blue sky, not a cloud in sight and the temperature was set to reach 80 degrees according to Channel 13 (which we tended to follow for news and weather). John, Amy and Jay decided to go to Blizzard Beach while Andrew and I spent some quality time together in the villa. Truth be known, Andrew needs some medical "attention" every 2 - 3 days which was a blessing in some ways as it made us pencil in a "quiet" day every few days in our itinerary, for which we would be mighty thankful by the end of the holiday!
After breakfast, Andrew and I waved the others off as they set off on their first venture onto Disney territory and we then went for a walk round Cumbrian Lakes community. I took Andrew to the "tot lot" and he enjoyed the slide (or rather he tolerated me trying to encourage him to enjoy the slide!). We then walked to one of the lakes in the community - it is such a pretty place, and very peaceful.
When we got back to the villa I decided to soak up some sun on the lanai while Andrew had a daily dose of "Bob the Builder" courtesy of one of the videos we bought him yesterday - what a good purchase that turned out to be! I got chatting to our neighbours who were also English and who were villa owners. They don't rent their villa out, but use it as a holiday home for themselves and their family. They were in their first week of a six week stay (GREEN with envy!!!)
After a lovely swim together, lots of games and giggles, Andrew and I settled down together to watch another of his favourites - Pingu - on the laptop and before we knew it the others were back full of tales about the fun they had had on just about everything but Summit Plummet! None of them was brave enough to try that one[msnscared]
We then went out to eat at Carabba’s – at least that was the intention. We had found the location on our map and were pretty pleased with ourselves when we turned off the 192 into Formosa Gardens. After driving up and down a couple of times without a sighting of Carabba’s I went into a supermarket to ask for directions. The young boy on the till looked rather blank when I asked him, and replied that he’d never heard of it.
There was an Italian restaurant called Giordano’s almost opposite the supermarket, so we decided to give it a try as we were all starving by now.
(We later found out that Carabba’s was little more than a stone’s throw away, just a little further down the 192. So either the guy in the supermarket was new to the area or he was on commission from Giordano’s)
The atmosphere in here was very relaxed and the staff were extremely friendly – they were especially attentive to Andrew without being patronising, which I was especially touched by.
We shared a platter of deep fried mozzarella sticks, mushrooms, zucchini and calamari to start with. There was enough to feed the whole restaurant and at least two-thirds of it went to waste! Jay and I had the lasagne, John had spaghetti bolognaise while Amy tried the Tropic Delight pizza. We all enjoyed our meals and despite being sorely tempted by the delicious desserts on the menu, we settled for cappuccino’s all round. The waiter, who had by now become best friends with Andrew, insisted on bringing him a huge bowl of ice cream despite my protests that he wouldn’t eat it. I always feel as if people think we are neglecting Andrew when we are out for a meal as he refuses to eat when other people are around so we have given up even trying. I usually give him his meal before we go out, but I still feel as if people think we are starving him.
Stuffed to the gills, we set off back to the villa and hit the sack early in preparation for our first Disney park tomorrow - EPCOT
Monday 10 January
We were all up early and en-route to Epcot by 8.30am – straight up Poinciana Boulevard all the way to Osceola Parkway. By 9am we were at the entrance to Epcot and after we’d gone through the secu