Dad’s Taxi Finally Runs Out of Gas – Part 11

[Dads_Taxi]

No, you're not imagining it, I'm still reporting on our holiday even though we've been home 6 months! I promise this is the last instalment. I'm sure none of you will remember that I'd got up to about day 11, and the weather had turned grotty. This final report has been written in short bursts over the last 3 months, mainly for my own entertainment, but now it's finished I'll post it in case anyone wonders - what happened next?

And so, finally, I present:Dad’s Taxi Finally Runs Out of Gas – Part 11

Wednesday 6^th June 2012

As previously mentioned, the weather has taken a turn for the worse, and no matter how many weather websites I surf or TV channels I watch, I can’t find a weather forecast that looks remotely optimistic for our remaining three days. We have a quiet morning in the villa, desperately wanting the sun to come out, and sitting outside in-between rain showers, and inside during them. Slowly all the kids disappear into their respective rooms, till there’s just the two of us sat outside in the sheltered area which has a fancy name but I’m not villa-savvy enough to remember it!

And then – Mrs Dad’s Taxi makes the best suggestion she has ever made...........
“Why don’t we go to Super Target and you can buy that colour Kindle you saw?”

Now, I realise that this was really a poorly disguised excuse for yet ANOTHER trip to a huge shop, and it was going to cost me several hundred dollars, but I was sold on the idea. So we fire up the 15-seater (Gene Hunt style) and speed away towards the Mecca that is Super Target, Visa debit card at the ready. The purchase was swift and reasonably painless, yet it still took us a ridiculously long time to make it to the check-outs due to Mrs Dad’s Taxi’s meandering around the aisles.

On returning to the Villa the gang announce they want food, so I stick my new toy on charge and we boomerang back to Rolling Oaks to have a Sweet Tomato lunch. This salad-eating is becoming a dreadful habit. Over lunch, Mrs Dad’s Taxi enthuses about all the bargains in the Super Target next door, so to my dismay we’re soon back in there AGAIN, and I console myself by sneaking a nice leather Kindle case into the trolley of “bargains” that are bound to tip us over the luggage allowance on Saturday.

Back to the villa we trundle, and I have some fun exploring the new Kindle. It’s soon on the villa’s WiFi and I’m suitably impressed when all my books pop up on it, and it even knows what book I’m currently reading. Then I configure the email client and I’m even more impressed. Technology, amazing.

We still have a day left of our Disney tickets, and looking at the forecasts we know we’re not going to be enjoying any more parks in glorious sunshine, so we decide to end our day at Magic Kingdom, whatever the weather. It rather takes the shine off the Disney Magic when you’re puddle-dodging between attractions, but we make the most of it.

It’s still remarkably busy despite the weather, and we don’t last too long. Thankfully we took along our recent purchases from Super Target: rain ponchos.

Next day, Thursday, is tagged on our agenda as Universal Studios. The day starts with reasonable weather, no sunshine, but more importantly, no rain. Now, I have a liking for Rockport shoes, which I struggle to buy at home, and I know that the mall right at the top of International Drive has a huge Reebok shop with a Rockport section, so I come up with a plan. We drop the kids at Universal’s drop-off zone, then Mrs Dad’s Taxi and I head up to the mall. It’s a good start when we find the Reebok shop has its own car park, and so I manoeuvre our 15 seater into a space, and go into the shop. My first impression is that prices have definitely gone UP. Most shoes are around $100 but there are pairs around $75. I scan the store hopefully for the “buy one get one half price” promo that I associate this shop with, but can’t see any clues. I try a few pairs on, and then the inevitable sales bloke comes to proffer help. We establish that, yes, the promotion is in fact on, it’s just that no promotional material has yet arrived to advertise the fact. He makes a big deal of the “buy two pairs get a third pair free” promo being even better value, but I’m still worrying about our baggage allowance (and my $$$$). Sensing that he’s on a loser trying to flog me 3 pairs of shoes, he tries his luck with Mrs Dad’s Taxi, “Oh no”, she says, “I only wear Skechers”, to which he expresses his displeasure, but all in a really friendly way. So, I decide on my two pairs and go to the counter, but he has sown a seed, and just as I’m putting the debit card in the machine – a quiet voice says “so, if he’s bought two pairs of shoes, I can have a pair for free?” The smiling, joking salesman has her hooked, and Mrs Dad’s Taxi then spends bloomin’ages looking at shoes that she doesn’t really want. The outcome, I’m sure you’ve all guessed already, is that I pay full price for my two pairs of shoes, and Mrs Dad’s Taxi walks away with a free pair. Sort of defied the point from where I was standing.

Next stop was the Skechers shop. Ha, no, not really, but we did cruise the mall for a while, and a few more carrier bags were filled.
Universal Studios is not my favourite park, but as a big fan of The Blues Brothers I did have one objective – to watch the Blues Brothers show. I’d got the show schedule from the website, and as the day went by I’d been mentally ticking the show times off until it really was a case of “we’re going NOW or we’ll miss the last Blues Brothers show”. So we skipped the food court at the mall and headed back to Universal. After parking we made our way to the park entrance, and suddenly the dull dry day became an extremely wet day. It really poured down, but we made a bee-line to New York and found the spot for the Blues Brothers show. There was no-one daft enough to be stood waiting for the show in the rain so it seemed reasonably safe to nip into Louie’s Italian for a slice of pizza, then we went and found a reasonably sheltered doorway to lurk in. The kids all found us and our doorway was soon extremely crowded, but I think really we knew this show wasn’t going to happen. Eventually the announcement was made, “no more Blues Brothers today”. Doh! At least the cast were decent enough to come along to meet the “crowd” (me and about three other sad old blokes)

We got the low-down from the kids on everything they’d done before the rain. Bart had had an eye for the ladies:

Hang on, that’s my picture limit. Read on, if you’re still awake..........

[Dads_Taxi]

Part 11B

Those cheeky minions had been getting up to mischief

Unfortunately the Despicable Me ride still wasn’t open.

The other thing I really wanted to do today was Shrek 4D, and we nip into Twister as we pass since the queue isn't too bad. I love that flying cow, still makes me laugh. Having survived the tornado, and got even wetter into the bargain, we arrived at Shrek 4D to realise that the parade is in 15 minutes, and the Shrek show queue says 20 minutes. The gang are split on this one, so the Shrek fans join the line and the others try to find shelter. It looks to me like the Shrek queue is the better choice – it has a roof. We in the queue are feeling rather smug as it would seem that we’ll get a great, dry, view of the parade as it passes by, but our smiles fade as we find ourselves entering the holding pen and the doors close behind us just as the parade rounds the corner.

For anyone that hasn’t tried it, the Shrek 4D show is superb. I love the humour of these guys, it is definitely written for adults and I think I made the right choice today. Outside, the parade is damp:

And from what I’m told not particularly impressive.

Jack, our eldest, has been a wrestling fan from an early age, and was amazed to find that a Wrestling show was being recorded that night at Universal. He’d got us all tickets whilst we’d been at the mall, and Hulk Hogan was supposedly on the bill – one of his heroes (20 years ago that is). Doors opened at 7pm, so we still had time for one more attraction. We head for Men In Black: Alien Attack, but then it didn’t just rain, it was a deluge. We arrived dripping at MIB, to be told that all bags etc had to go in lockers, and the lady pointed back out into the rain. That was it, we cracked. As we stood there, soaked to the skin, I risked the question that everyone wanted to ask – “Jack, will you be offended if we bail out of the wrestling?” “Nah, sack it” he says, in his best Mancunian. He’s just as wet as the rest of us and in desperate need of a hot shower and clean clothes, so we squelch our way back to the car park and join the other steamed up cars and vans on the I4. That’s it, our park tickets are all used up, just one day to go.

Friday 8^th June

So, our last day is here. We’ve no park tickets left. The weather is dreadful. I suppose there’s only one option left – more bloomin’ shopping.

I plead with the gang not to go over the top today; I’m having nightmares about excess baggage charges. It is mutually agreed that since only Mum and Dad have been to the Premium Outlets at the top of I-Drive then that will be our destination today. So off we go, and after another warning about weight limits we split up to explore the mall. I’m somewhat annoyed to find one of the voucher booklets has a full page voucher for the Reebok shop, and I could have saved $30 if I’d had it yesterday. I’ll remember next time! I needn’t have worried too much about the gang over-spending – they’re nearly all skint of course!

Our culinary delights today will be courtesy of Fuddruckers. We actually have no idea what Fuddruckers is, but our vegetarian contingent have done their somewhat questionable research and have determined that it is suitable for vegetarians. Once the shopping was over we set off looking for one, and really didn’t have to go far. The next block of shops South of Premium Outlets claimed a Fuddruckers. I think this mall was called Festival Bay, but I’m not sure. It was virtually deserted I do know that. Those of you who know Fuddruckers can imagine the grins of delight amongst us meat-eaters when we realise it’s a glorified burger joint, with a heck of a choice and a help-yourself salad bar. I placed our order for 11 assorted burgers (quite a lot of them vege) and heard the chef’s “whoaaaa” when he was handed the lengthy strip of paper. Our verdict – excellent burgers, but they took a lot longer than we were expecting. In the mean-time, whilst waiting for the food, the kids spotted the bakery counter, where they appeared to be serving quite remarkable milkshakes. Several of these were enjoyed by the gang, and all in all Fuddruckers got a big thumbs up from us.

Not much left to do now, except cram everything into 11 cases.

As reported MUCH earlier in my trip reports, all my concerns about being over our baggage allowance were for nothing. We had brought one empty bag and none of our bags had been up to the limit on the way here. I’d even bought a baggage weigh-scale gizmo that we had tried at Manchester Airport on the way out and had been impressed to see was spot-on compared to the scales at check-in, so having distributed our booty amongst the 11 bags I was pleased to find that none was over 20Kg. I slept better that last night!

Saturday morning sees me up first and straight on the computer to see if our plane had left Manchester on time. Uh-Oh. It shows a 10 hour delay. This doesn't bode well. As a devotee of this forum I decide to tell the OV community of our troubles, as documented here:http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums...selves-Sanford

I rouse the rest of the household and tell them the not so good news. Nothing we can do about it though, so we stick to the plan. Beds are stripped and the washer is put into action. The 3D tetris game is played once more as we try to manipulate 11 large bags, 11 small bags and 11 people of assorted sizes into the space available inside the van. Very reluctantly, at 10.00 am as planned, we drive away from Butterfly Crossing. If you’re reading this Eric and Ann (and I don’t suppose anyone is reading this since I’ve waffled on so much), we love your house and thanks again for letting us stay there.

We stop at the Ponderosa for a last breakfast, all wondering what the heck the day will bring. It takes the shine off the day with the threat of not actually getting home today looming over us. I have little enthusiasm for my breakfast, even pancakes with bacon and syrup. Then normality returns and after an entire two weeks of my phone not ringing or bleeping, a colleague phones me for advice on fixing a vision mixer which is 5000 miles away at Oulton Park Race Circuit in Cheshire. My successful repair by telephone perks me up a bit so I get a second helping of pancakes and syrup!

On arriving at Sanford, and having off-hired the van, we find an orderly queue at the Monarch check-in; apparently no-one has yet announced the news. Then letters are handed out, and they are vague, to say the least, but promise us lunch at a nearby hotel. Chaos then ensues as we are asked to prepare an overnight bag “just in case” by removing medication and wash-kits from our hold baggage before checking them in. This is a tricky operation as of course anything we hold on to has to be less then 100ml, and so the check-in area becomes a sea of people opening cases and juggling contents. Then, just to really take the biscuit, they decide to weigh all our hand baggage, individually, to make sure we’ve not pulled a fast one on the baggage allowance. We form a chain, all 11 of us, and bags are passed down to me and I pop them on the check-in belt to be weighed. I find the bags lighter than I expected, and realise that obscured by my gang is a pile of laptops and chargers that they’ve taken out to avoid any debate over weight limits. Once we’ve checked in and ensured that this time we’ll all be sat together, which we were, we wander off to wait for the bus to the hotel that we’re spending the day at, The Westin Hotel at Lake Mary. The kids aren’t particularly enthusiastic:

but we’re all being philosophical about the whole thing. Incidentally, whilst we were in this queue for the bus we saw the only bit of “delay rage” of the day, which we found quite amusing but really was pathetic, and if the gentleman responsible ever reads this I hope he feels extremely guilty. When the bus finally turned up for us, it drove to what had become the end of the queue, and the gentleman concerned had been waiting at the start (ie the opposite end of the queue) assuming his family would be first on the bus! Well, he went ballistic, marched down the line to the bus and gave the lovely lady who was looking after us some serious verbal abuse, which she handled very well but really shouldn't have been subjected to. As we boarded the bus we all thanked her for looking after us so well, then we waved to Mr Angry and family as the bus set off on the first of several trips.

I won’t recount the full day, but I must stress that Monarch and their associates at Sanford Airport were absolutely brilliant, and the ten hours delay couldn't have been less painful. Thankfully the airport arranged for passport control to stay open later than usual, and even kept the duty free shop and restaurant open until our flight was ready, and it was exactly ten hours later than scheduled that we took off for Manchester. The one thing they got wrong though, was that after we’d checked in our hold baggage some dimbo in baggage handling must have made a huge pile of cases outside, then the torrential rain soaked them all. Half our bags were full of soggy clothes when we got home, most of them brand new.

And that, dear readers, is that. Ten months to plan it, two weeks to enjoy it, then six months to recount it! 2012 has been a big year for us – our Silver Wedding, our amazing holiday, our two eldest children have both bought their first homes, and our family increased by one when in September we began to care long-term for a lovely little 3 year old girl who will hopefully be meeting Mickey and co in 2014. When we get back there, I’ll tell you all about it.

[dawn]

Loved it - thanks for taking the time to complete -cant wait for your next trip Dave

[blytht]

Well done, lovely to read very honest ;-) Wish you and your family all the best for 2013.

[steph_goodrum]

Wonderful, I'm sure 2014 will come quickly enough and how special it will be for the lucky little girl living with your family (and youu when you see her face).
Incidentally, the trick with the voucher booklet for Reebok would have been to take your shoes back the next day and rebuy them with the voucher (have I ever done this - maybee, once or twice). When there is a significant saving to be made Ii have no qualms, that is their policy to allow refunds for whatever reason, so I'm happy to play the system to my advantage. (You don't want to be behind be in Asda when I do my big shop and they have their £5 voucher when you spend £40, I'm the one who isn't too embarrassed to ask the cashier to keep a check on the running total and stop at £40 and process it. Last time I got 4x £5 instead of the 1 would have got if I'd done it as one transaction, so I didn't mind.

[E. Cosgrove]

A great finish!
we are going to be having weight issues looking at the amount of shopping my friends have done!
I brought a half empty suitcase and have a husband arriving with hand luggage only, and a spare hold all in the owners cupboard so it looks like I will be taking someone else's goodies home!

[eagleydo]

[clap]Thank you Dave, loved every part of all your reports. So pleased you finished albeit that we had to wait, in fact all the better for waiting methinks.

[Madabouttigger]

Worth waiting for, thanks, [msnwink]

[erowlands]

Hello Dave,
well we have been to the villa and back but it was well worth waiting for the last art of your report,had me and Ann chuckling away.We loved your comments in the visitors book, incidentally when we had our stay earlier this month we had no rain,just sorry we could not help you with the weather but glad you enjoyed our villa
best regards to all the family
Eric and Ann

[Philomena]

Fantastic reports Dave - and it just proves there is something for everyone in Florida no matter what age.

2014 will be here before you know it!!!