Well Black Friday didn’t turn our quite as expected. Despite getting to bed early on Thanksgiving neither of us could sleep and were restless to well after midnight. When the 6:30am alarm went off neither of us felt remotely awake. I dragged myself to the shower and Paul suggested another hour in bed, the lure of sleep was far greater than the lure of shops; bargains or otherwise so we eventually got up at 7:45. We stopped first at Posner Park then went to the Florida Mall, getting there about 10am. We managed to park ok (more by luck, as it was busy) and went in through the Florida Hotel. The mall was quite busy and only seemed to get busier. Since we were late there were no real bargains. There were still door busters at some stores but nothing we really wanted. I managed to get the things from my list I wanted; some cool James Bond nail varnish and gold leaf top coat and a great magnetic set that creates stripey nails. We managed to get a few more Christmas gifts too. Paul was disappointed once more, unable to find his work shirts in the right size.
It was getting really busy so we left the mall at about 2pm and as it was a nice day we decided we’d go and have some lunch at the Yacht Club. We parked and headed through the hotel, seeing a Scottish Bride on the way. Sadly, when we got out back we saw that Hurricane Hanna’s was all boarded up and closed for re-furb. AAARRRGGHH. After a bit of a re-think we ended up at McDonalds on Osceola Parkway, at least we could sit outside.
On the way home we stopped at Target for a browse around and then came home early and chilled out. It was a fairly quiet and bargain free Black Friday I am afraid to say.
Saturday morning we were up about 9:30 and decided to watch Brazilian F1 GP Quallies before heading out. The rubbish US channel skipped the start and put adverts in ridiculous places but we still enjoyed seeing an all McLaren front row, the first time a McLaren was on the front in Interlargos since 2007.
We headed out about 12:30 and were off to the Orlando Science Center, primarily for the Star Wars exhibit. We later went into Epcot so today you have an Epcot and Star Wars themed quiz…..
- Who currently narrates Space ship earth and who was the previous narrator?
- Who was Luke Skywalker’s father
- What do the Finding Nemo seagulls say (found outside The Seas With Nemo and Friends)?
- What is the name of Han Solo’s space ship
- In which pavilion is Soarin’?
- What species is Chewbacca
The Science Center was just off the I4 in Downtown Orlando. The car park looked pretty empty but there were a few families queuing to pay. It was $27 per adult entry fee which we thought was a bit steep (and said so later when we were asked to take part on a survey about our visit). We went straight into to the Star Wars exhibit, which was really good. There were models of all the ships and vehicles as well as all the cast costumes, Vader’s mask (in all 3 parts) as well as the droids, various guns etc and a lot of interactive Star Wars themed games. We took pics of most things although the glass cabinets caused some glare and the ban on flash meant some were just too dark. There were some cool souvenirs in the gift shop too including a 12 inch model of Vader but we didn’t buy anything.
After the Star Wars area we explored the rest of the Science Center and found that the adolescent alligators were being hand fed. I know they were adolescent as someone asked if they were babies and this was the answer. They were only about a meter in length. They sat patiently and begged for food with their mouths open. The feeding guy explained that they could be trained like other animals and any that nipped or got aggressive got no food. Food seemed to be dead skinned rats. There were other snake and bug type exhibits in this area that we chose not to explore in detail!
We then headed up to the top (4th) floor and worked our way down through the other exhibit areas. These included a dinosaur area with huge skeleton structures. A space themed room which still had Pluto as a planet (something else we pointed out in our survey). An electromagnetic room with cool interactive exhibits including a laser harp (yes we did pretend to be Jarre). The final area was about construction showing how beams are made stronger by the way that are constructed. All very educational and actually quite interesting. We didn’t stay too long in any area but I can see how families could spend a good few hours there and it was definitely well worth the visit as something we hadn’t done before.
We came out about 3:30 and after a quick Walgreens stop we went into Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was good and we naturally had the filet. We decided again to take in some Disney and chose Epcot. We got in quite quick and despite a small queue at Spaceship Earth we were riding in about 5 minutes. Sadly, our video and pics could not be located but the computers at the end so we couldn’t get them. That’s the second time that’s happened to us. After the ride we went into the Mouse Gear shop and managed to get even more cushions to add to the collection. We got the Nemo Seagulls (with the answer to Q3 on it) and a Christmas Mickey one that says “twas the night before Christmas’. I also got a new Tinkerbell top.
We came out of the shop and made our way over the Ellen’s Universe of Energy but as we arrived it was closed. It closed at 7pm and it was now 7:03, how unlucky could we be?! We stopped and got a coffee instead and sat and watched the world go by for a while. We could clearly hear them testing the new test track but it was still closed and all boarded up.
Since Illuminations was not until 9:30pm and a lot of the rides were closing we did not fancy another 2 hours in the World Showcase so decided to blow the joint. We did get to ride Nemo on the way out as this was still running. We ended up exiting about 8pm but that’s the beauty of our passes, we can nip in and out as we please. I also got my 20% discount on my cushions.
So we’re back at the villa now, watching Star Wars and are going to watch X Factor once I’m done here that Paul has downloaded. So I guess all that is left for me is to give you those answers. I hope you found these ones a bit easier;
- Dame Judy Dench and Jeremy Irons
- Darth Vader; Anakin Skywalker
- Mine, mine, mine
- The Millennium Falcon
- The Land
- Wookie