Day 1: Off we go....
Woke up at 4am all excited but tired and ready for the taxi to pick us up at 4.30, checked in and waited for the flight at 7am, it was on time thank god ! and even better the plane was half empty, i left Jayne watching the movie while i went to the seats behind and had a kip.
Arrived in Orlando at 9.30 earlier than expected, the airport is huge and after walking outside the humidity was unreal, very very humid and hot, yahooo, now were on holiday ! we managed to get a minibus to our hotel for $42USD, nice chap drove us and gave us his card for the return trip, were staying in Old town Kissimmee right on the strip near lots of shops and restaurants.
Couldnt get to our room till 3pm so we checked in dropped off the bags and went next door to IHOP for brekko, huge omlette with some delicious fresh orange juice, Afterwards we checked out a mini outlet mall next to the hotel, they had a Nike factory outlet there, looks like we'll spending some money there before we leave ! went to payless and shoes and got a pair each for $20 i picked up some champion trainers. By the time we strolled back to our hotel our room was ready, it was nice and not as bad as we thought as some reviews were bad on the internet. After relaxing for a bit we decided to go to an outlet mall as this was our only shopping day, we ordered a minibus and went to Lake Buena Vista, 10 mins prior to this the black clouds were rolling in with some wicked lightning strikes, as we got in the cab the heavens opened with torrential rain and the loudest thunderstorm you have ever heard in your life.
After touring the very dissapointing mall, where we got nothing between us (well jayne got a pair of pants) we got a free shuttle back to the hotel and chilled out checking out some freebie brochures on discounts etc.... (on a side note we discovered our hotel didnt have a free shuttle to Universal so were stuck with getting a cab at $55 per round trip each time....that is until i had an idea to check out other hotels in the area to see if they provided shuttles and we could scam it and use theres ! we found one down the street and was going to pass by it on the way to dinner)
It was still slightly raining as we went for dinner, first stop was "Quality Suites" 2 mins down the road to check out the free shuttle, i went into the lobby and got a schedule, it set off at 9am, were in business, now all we had to do was sneak on the thing and we were saving $60 per trip !
For dinner we decided on Bennigans, it was a busy fairly evening being the long w/e, we got seated and waited for a waitress, 5..10..almost 15 mins passed with no one seeing to us ! we then stormed out and jayne handed the menu's back the woman on the door back to her in disgust. We then tried a place called "Logans" nearer our hotel and another streakhouse sort of place (little did we know this place would be very kind to us!) great meal and it was even 2 for 1 drinks, where we had our first frozen margarita's of the holiday, they were yummy and coooooold.
By 11 we were knacked and was time for bed, made our way back to the hotel ready for an early start in the morn and the start of the theme parks.....Universal Studios first stop.
Arrived in Orlando at 9.30 earlier than expected, the airport is huge and after walking outside the humidity was unreal, very very humid and hot, yahooo, now were on holiday ! we managed to get a minibus to our hotel for $42USD, nice chap drove us and gave us his card for the return trip, were staying in Old town Kissimmee right on the strip near lots of shops and restaurants.
Couldnt get to our room till 3pm so we checked in dropped off the bags and went next door to IHOP for brekko, huge omlette with some delicious fresh orange juice, Afterwards we checked out a mini outlet mall next to the hotel, they had a Nike factory outlet there, looks like we'll spending some money there before we leave ! went to payless and shoes and got a pair each for $20 i picked up some champion trainers. By the time we strolled back to our hotel our room was ready, it was nice and not as bad as we thought as some reviews were bad on the internet. After relaxing for a bit we decided to go to an outlet mall as this was our only shopping day, we ordered a minibus and went to Lake Buena Vista, 10 mins prior to this the black clouds were rolling in with some wicked lightning strikes, as we got in the cab the heavens opened with torrential rain and the loudest thunderstorm you have ever heard in your life.
After touring the very dissapointing mall, where we got nothing between us (well jayne got a pair of pants) we got a free shuttle back to the hotel and chilled out checking out some freebie brochures on discounts etc.... (on a side note we discovered our hotel didnt have a free shuttle to Universal so were stuck with getting a cab at $55 per round trip each time....that is until i had an idea to check out other hotels in the area to see if they provided shuttles and we could scam it and use theres ! we found one down the street and was going to pass by it on the way to dinner)
It was still slightly raining as we went for dinner, first stop was "Quality Suites" 2 mins down the road to check out the free shuttle, i went into the lobby and got a schedule, it set off at 9am, were in business, now all we had to do was sneak on the thing and we were saving $60 per trip !
For dinner we decided on Bennigans, it was a busy fairly evening being the long w/e, we got seated and waited for a waitress, 5..10..almost 15 mins passed with no one seeing to us ! we then stormed out and jayne handed the menu's back the woman on the door back to her in disgust. We then tried a place called "Logans" nearer our hotel and another streakhouse sort of place (little did we know this place would be very kind to us!) great meal and it was even 2 for 1 drinks, where we had our first frozen margarita's of the holiday, they were yummy and coooooold.
By 11 we were knacked and was time for bed, made our way back to the hotel ready for an early start in the morn and the start of the theme parks.....Universal Studios first stop.
posted by joeintoronto at
4:03 PM
