Today is a rest day; no driving, or bus tours, and definitely no theme parks - relaxing by the pool or a short walk across the road to Downtown Disney is the order for the day. I think there comes a time, probably around the one month mark, where you hit 'the wall', you need to rest, to recharge the batteries, to do, quite frankly 'bugger all', even for just one day.
Yet, at the same time you don't want to go home. Funnily, as I write this a black snake slivered past me in the garden behind my pool deck chair.
"Hey, look at the snake." I said.
"I'm sure it's just a lizard.' she said, with her eyes closed. Slowly, she turned and sighted the one metre long snake now directly behind her.
'SNAKE!' she screamed, jumping up on her sun lounge.
Too funny, so much for relaxing by the pool. If an alligator gets in the pool, that's it, we're out of here! (Pictured above – I managed to get this picture on my phone before it slivered away).
It's easy to forget Orlando is built on a swamp (until your attacked by a snake), but like Las Vegas, built in, what should be a similarly hostile environment the desert, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States. Why? Firstly, both are relatively cheap, in our case to stay at a Hilton Hotel, with breakfast, and the internet, it's about $150 US a night. The second reason; Entertainment, nonstop entertainment - Theme parks, Shows, Space Centers, etc. Lastly, they make money, buckets of it, as gamblers drop millions in the casinos, families drop millions into Disney Parks, and Disney merchandising - can you imagine any kid coming back home without a Disney product? Even Big kids, like Louise, have spent hundreds of dollars on her three year old niece.
Whilst, waiting for our laundry, we had an ice-cream from Main street market, a shop in the hotel. Every now and then we come across a great product or retailer, like Edy's Fruit Bars - strawberry flavour - all natural - winner of the Best Taste Award in 2008. "It's the best ice block I've ever tasted......there are real chunks of strawberries in it' Louise said, with a big smile on her face. Remember the name - Edy's Fruit Bars.
Late in the afternoon we wandered across the road to Downtown Disney, where we enjoyed a chocolate fudge sundae from the famous, Ghiradelli Chocolate Company. We saw the original headquarters in San Francisco, now turned into a San Francisco landmark near Fishermans Wharf.
We continued walking past this dragon made out of Lego, outside the huge Lego store. (pictured above – snakes, now dragons?). Our hotel is directly behind it.
This is the world's biggest Planet Hollywood, where we ate the other night (pictured below).
Then it was onto this massive Virgin Megastore, that I couldn't get Louise out of, and where she subsequently bought five CD's, a book on Madonna, and a DVD. What did I tell you? - Disney Orlando makes people go shopping mad.
Then it was back to the hotel for room service - they do a great Spagetti Bolognaise.
Tomorrow we’re off to Hawaii. It’s a long flight; we have to stop at Los Angeles, and won’t arrive until 8pm. We will be staying at Hotel Renew on Waikaki Beach. We're excited by this boutique hotel, because it's rated number one on Tripadvisor for Honolulu.
TRAVEL TIP: www.Tripadvisor.com is a travel internet site, where people can rate hotels, and provide feedback. We used this internet site to choose each one of our hotels; each of the hotel's we stayed in came in the top five for that city, and as a result each hotel has been perfect. There's also useful advice in the feedback comments, like "pick a room at the rear of the hotel to avoid noise', that turned out to be a real lifesaver in New York. It's not just hotel information, but everything to do with travel, and we would strongly recommend checking this website before you plan your next trip.
