Well it’s a one for the money – two for the show.
After a surprisingly comfortable night in our suite, even Karen decided that it wasn’t a bad place to stay for the one night. A bonus was that we didn’t have to check out until 11am and so we decided to take advantage of that.
We thought we would have breakfast out and after some deliberation decided to go to Golden Corral which was less than a mile away. Now Golden Corral is not exactly an upmarket diner. It is a cheap all you can eat self service buffet. I am not sure we had ever tried it for breakfast. It is one of those places that I crave to go once every few years and when I do I remember why we don’t go there very often.
Actually, for breakfast it was almost acceptable. We filled our plates with scrambled eggs and bacon. I also found the corned beef hash which is always a favourite. We had 3 cups of tea each and then made our way back to pack up the car.
Whilst doing so I managed to find a decent stream from Carrow Road and watched the first 20 minutes of the match against Stoke. We didn’t look great again during that time.
Today we didn’t have any real big plans as we would have our luggage with us until we could finally get into the villa at 4pm. So initially we headed to a couple of shops to kill some time. Then we drove into Disney for the first time and headed to Fantasia mini golf which we knew would be covered by our 14-day Disney pass. The parking here used to be free but now it is only free for 3 hours providing you get the ticket validated which we did.
We chose to play the Gardens Mini Golf course as opposed to the Fairways course which they described as the hardest putting course in the world. Having played that several times I can confirm that indeed it is. It may not have any obstacles but the putting greens are the most ridiculously undulating.
There was about a 10-minute wait before we were called to play. We were told that today’s best score was 39. If that was true that was impressive. I absolutely though did not believe the course record of 31 though. That is an average of less than 2 shots per hole. Complete poppycock and in no way possible.
Anyhow we had fun, well at least I did. Karen kept muttering something about being handicapped by having a broken arm but I let that wash over me. I won by an impressive 19 shots and went round in 43. I missed a couple of shots only and without fluking a couple of other shots could not see how anyone could get less than the high 30’s. Karen just said it was the taking part that mattered, whilst I was considering whether to buy and award myself a trophy.
On what was the old car park, Disney have built another Hotel. Although not really themed, it seemed pleasant enough and so Karen thought we should get a drink from inside the Swan Reserve.
We found a nice café by the pool and sat a while. I read about the win that City had managed after all at Carrow Road. It was very hot where we sat with no shade and eventually Karen made us relocate inside.
Before our free parking expired, we left and drove to a Publix to do another ‘big’ shop to set the villa before the boys arrive tomorrow.
Then we headed off to find the villa. The villa was not the one we had originally booked as that had been sold by the owners. Instead, we had accepted a move to another one which was much bigger although not situated in exact area we wanted. It was still on a gated community and the security staff were expecting us when we pulled up.
The villa was massive. 5 bedrooms all with en suite. The kitchen area alone is about the size of our whole house at home. It was all very clean with quality furniture. The only fault we have found so far is that it has a limited number of things like mugs for a house that could sleep 10+. We have only found 7 mugs so far which means the dishwasher will need to be used frequently.
We spent the first hour unpacking and getting organised and then chilled reading by the pool. This was after the great tea bag panic where Karen couldn’t find the tea bags, we had brought with us from home (US teabags are not great and you can need 2 per cup from their supermarket ones). Karen never one to panic or over dramatise a situation declared it a state of emergency, the whole trip ruined and it was all my fault as we had had them this morning in the hotel.
My case was the only thing not opened and so logically I thought that where they must be. Within a few minutes I found them she had done her usual trick of putting things in my case without me knowing. Apparently, it was still my fault for not having opened my case sooner.
Then we were in contact with both of the boys as they made their way to the airports for their flights tomorrow. To begin with they were on the same flights out here, but Barry changed his plans a couple of times and was now flying out of Gatwick whilst Neil was flying from Heathrow.
As we were about to go out for the evening, I saw we had a raccoon eating berries from a tree next to our car which freaked out Karen for a bit.
For dinner we thought we would give Outback another try. What a difference to last time. Fantastic service and good quality food. A real pleasure.
Back at the villa, I set up the VPN on the laptop so that Karen could watch the Strictly Halloween special whilst I had the World Series on mute on the oversized TV in the lounge.
I took a map with me to find my way to the bedroom we had chosen as it was such a long walk and I was worried I might get lost. The bed was comfortable although it made some enormous creaking noises whenever you got in or out of it.
