October 2019 – Rosemarys Travels

Florida 2016

1st January 2017 (Day 15)-Seaworld and Home

Posted on October 28, 2019January 7, 2020 by Alun

The end of our trip.

We packed up our bags and loaded the car and had decided to spend a few hours at SeaWorld before going to the airport.

We first headed the Wild Arctic and took the motion simulator (as there was no queue today) to gain entrance to the rest of the Arctic area.

The Beluga Whales were particularly active and swam past several times.

While in that area of the park we had some snacks (making sure we had used up everything we had bought in Walmart) and Rosemary had a Shamu ice cream.

And a ride on the Shamu Express as well.

After 14 days I was pretty burnt out taking photos so there wasn’t photos of everything and we just wanted a nice relaxing few hours before the long flight home. But were looked around some the aquariums and spent time just watching the animals.

We did get to ride the Empire of the Penguin ride and see the penguins at the end of it.

And a last visit to see the stingrays as well.

And then unfortunately it was back to the car to head to the airport. A smooth drop off for the car at the terminal and then a straightforward check-in followed (once we found the right set of desk, having gone in completely the wrong direction to start with). And then an overnight flight back to London.

So….until the next time!

Florida 2016

31st December 2016 (Day 14)-Magic Kingdom

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Alun

Our last full day and it is New Year’s Eve. Our original plan before arriving in Florida was to spend the day at Hollywood Studios. But with so much closed there we decided that we had done all we wanted to do there and wouldn’t visit it again this trip. So we changed plans to and decided to go to Magic Kingdom instead. In hindsight this may have been a mistake. The queues to get into the park were massive and we spent probably over an hour in a traffic jam. As a result we lost our first FastPass reservation as I couldn’t access the app to change anything.

But on arriving and eventually making it into the park (getting the bus as the quickest option by a mile from the Ticket and Transportation hub) we went straight to the Tomorrowland Speedway.

It wasn’t the most comfortable drive for the passenger but Rosemary enjoyed it even if she did crash into the middle rail quite a lot.

We then decided to get some family photos with the Cinderella coach which was done up for New Year. The queue was quite long but wasn’t too bad and we did get a nice photo of us for the New Year.

We decided to take it easy for the day after the terrible start and needing some snacks we headed to Gaston’s Tavern for some cinnamon rolls.

We decided to avoid the TERRIBLE coffee they serve there and actually seem to be quite proud about being so bad. So we tried the Le Fou’s Brew, which we’d not had before.

After chilling and having something to eat Rosemary went to play in Circus, dodging the water sprays.

We also got some candy apples from the Big Top Souvenirs shop, which is never very busy it seems and has a really good selection of stuff, including a whole counter of candy apples, cakes and handmade stuff.

As we still had to fully pack we didn’t want to be out too late so unfortunately had to think about heading back to the hotel. So just a chance for 1 more picture before leaving for the last time (this trip).

We went to dinner that night at Red Lobster and Rosemary had her favourite Lobster, Spinach and Gruyere dip.

And while packing up there were was quite a lot of purchases to find space for in the case…..

Florida 2016

30th December 2016 (Day 13)-Epcot

Posted on October 28, 2019October 28, 2019 by Alun

Another day at Epcot today and it was a little on the chill side. Bit of a shock after so many days of hot, sunny weather!

In the entrance area we got some lovely shots with the PhotoPass photographer of the 3 of us and they dropped in an extra visitors as well.

We had some FastPasses reserved and these were around the entrance area rather than in the World Showcase, although we were going to venture there later in the day. First one we had was for Soarin’ which was great as ever.

Immediately after that we made use of our second FastPass, for Spaceship Earth. I’m always slightly reluctant to use a FastPass for this ride as it’s not normally got a very long queue. But there aren’t that many FastPass rides in Epcot and I figured I might as well.

We had a little time before our final FastPass, so went to Club Cool to try the different flavours of Coke products. Rosemary to tried the Beverly and was NOT a fan of it.

Our final FastPass was for Journey into Imagination with Figment, which must say was definitely not worth a FastPass, as straight in regardless. We’d not done this classic attraction previously. It’s a bit odd to be honest…

For the rest of the day we had no real plan beyond going into the World Showcase and seeing what happened. But first we got some snacks from the pop-up Christmas booths. This was a very good pecan pie.

We met Pluto just at the entrance area of the World Showcase and there was almost no queue to see him. Pluto is definitely Rosemary’s favourite so it’s always good to meet him.

We also met Princess Jasmine at the meet-and-greet in Morocco.

And that fairy also got into our pictures from the PhotoPass Photographer again while we were there.

While in the France area we got to see Sleeping Beauty and got a great interaction with her. She was very complimentary about Rosemary’s manners, and said she was going to speak to Mary Poppins about it.

We also met Pere Noel as he was passing. He seemed a bit grumpy though. Maybe he was cross that he was still working several days after Christmas!

While making our way around the area we were taking a short break in the quiet area at the International Gateway when some characters came out. So we got to see King Louie and Pooh. There weren’t many people there so Rosemary got some really nice interactions with them and got to dance with them as well.

Around this time we were into late afternoon and we were going to head to Disney Springs for dinner that night. But as we were heading out of the park Daisy Duck was meeting her fans at the front of the park.