30th July 2015 (Day 7) – Day Off the Parks

After a late night watching the fireworks at Epcot we had a late start and a “doing very little” day.  We’d also had 4 days in a row at the parks so needed to have a day off really.

We started with breakfast at Perkins on International Drive before going on to the outlets at the very top of I-Drive.

Breakfast at Perkins

Had a look around the various shops and got some things, although nothing very much.  Just chilled out and took it easy. Maybe a bit too easy, or maybe just bored.

Shopping

For the evening we went to Disney Springs and had dinner at T-Rex.  The queues (even though it was early) were already big with 30-40 minute waits for tables.  We were offered to eat at the bar though and decided to take this option.  Was actually quite a nice spot to eat and Rosemary liked it because she felt grown up on the big barstools.

T-Rex Cafe

T-Rex Cafe

Rosemary had a pizza, which was really cheesy and very tasty.

T-Rex Cafe

Afterwards we went to the Build-A-Dino store which is at the back of T-Rex Cafe.  It’s basically Build-A-Bear where you choose an unstuffed teddy bear, have it stuffed and then choose clothes for it.  The twist here is they are all dinosaurs.  As this is (almost) unique to Disney Springs we thought we’d give it a go.  Rosemary chose a pink dino who was named Orlando.

Build-A-Dino

Afterwards she was introduced to the other dinosaurs.

Build-A-Dino

There is a video for the evening at T-Rex and Build-A-Dino which you can find here:

 

18th March 2012 (Day 7): Relaxing Day

After several days of hectic activity and already having visited 3 theme parks we had a day off (Sunday as it happens) to relax, do a bit of shopping and take things slow.

We went to the top of International Drive to the outlet stores there and had quite a successful few hours looking around and getting quite a few bargains, including some designer stuff for Rosemary. Including Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Laren Polo.  Got myself some bargain walking boots in North Face which were reduced from $120 to $24.  Great deal as they were 80% off.  Woohoo!

Shopped Out

We decided to go to Downtown Disney to have a look around the shops there but first headed straight for the T-Rex restaurant for dinner.

This is a big, big restaurant which is themed with animatronic dinosaurs and was really popular to the extent that even though we were really early for dinner we still had to put our names on the list.  Fortunately we really didn’t have to wait very long before being led all the way through the restaurant to our table.

The designers had done a good job and there is foliage everywhere (all false I’m sure) and there are dinosaurs visible everywhere.  We had some leaning directly over our heads.  They move a little bit all the time but every 15 minutes there is a meteor storm when the lights go down and there is lots of flashing and noise.  The dinosaurs move a lot during this and the “ice cave” changes colour. (apologies for the poor photos but I only took my iPhone and the little Canon Ixus camera went flat because I had forgotten to charge it the night before).

T-Rex

T-Rex

T-Rex

T-Rex

T-Rex

The food, considering the massive size of the place and the fact that people probably don’t really go there for the food, was actually pretty good.  Rosemary particularly enjoyed her macaroni cheese.

Mac and Cheese

And the non-alcoholic cocktail (which was quite frankly revolting) went down quite well.  Not sure the colourings were a very healthy option though.

Cocktails

(Incidently, still don’t like the flash on the iPhone4S which always seems to wash everything out.)

Some posed shots with the dinosaurs.

Mammoth

He bites

With the T-Rex

That’s the same dinosaur as in the picture above but he had bent right down and was trying to bite us.  Rosemary wasn’t too worried though.

By the time we left the queues were really big.

Outside

Once we had eaten we had a walk around the shops in Downtown Disney, where there is a really huge Disney shop selling literally everything you would ever want that has a pair of mouse ears on it.

Disney Store

Regretted not bringing my SLR as there were a lot of opportunities for some good pictures amongst the items on the shelves.  Had a go with the phone camera but not as good.

Dolls

Mickeys

Mickey

Walking back through we couldn’t help stopping at the Candy Cauldron to have a look at the Toffee Apples which they make in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears.

Toffee Apples

Toffee Apples

Toffee Apples

Finally, a picture with Mr Potato Head.

Mr Potato Head