Walt Disney 2020
Day 4: Disney Springs: A full day of spending more money than we ever thought we would and taking a walk through the jungle to eat.
Sakari was up at the crack of dawn for school and not only did our internet not work in the house but Sakari's hotspot wasn't connecting either. As she sat there in frustration, I woke the hubby up because I had received a message from the property manager. She said she "called the house" but not sure what she thought that would do seeing how the phone, internet and cable was out. But, she said she called Spectrum and they seem to think the "amplifier" was unplugged. She said it was located upstairs in the loft and needed to be plugged in.
I started breakfast and the hubby went upstairs to diagnose and repair the problem. He found wires everywhere in the loft and a plug that was not working. I guess the breaker had kicked. However, when he kicked the breaker back on, it still wouldn't work. So, he had to unplug it, drag it across the room, and plug it in somewhere else. WALAH, it worked. We were back in service again and I'm pretty sure Sakari was let down about this because she now had classes until 1:30pm.
As Sakari finished out her school day, I did a little cleaning and watched the weather. It was a little chilly out today so we decided pants and a hoodie would be best. At 1:30pm, we off and ready to head to Disney Springs.
We put the address in our GPS and off we went. As we passed places like Sea World, I hear Sakari say "ARE WE GOING THERE??????". Of course I had to let her down and tell her no. Our GPS led us around in circles around DS and down the road and another U turn and I thought we would never find how to pull into this place.
Now although this is pretty much a shopping mall with things to do, they have this thing blocked off like the president was coming. When you park in the garage, you have to take an escalator upstairs. There you are directed to walk to the other side of the parking garage and around these barriers and then circle back down to the side you were on. There you would be stopped so they could take your temperature and have you walk through the metal detectors and then release you. Thank goodness Sakari didn't have any weapons on her this time.
Back down a set of escalators and you have arrived at your
destination.
Off we would go exploring the area. It was so pretty and
I wouldn't discover just how big this place was or how
much we missed on this day.
I immediately spotted the hot
air balloon. Only another day I
would discover it's not a hot air
balloon at all.
It was HUGE and so round!
We took a walk around the lake, stopping at intervals for me to rest my leg. It was a cloudy day, which gave off the appearance of being cold and dreary, but honestly, it was pretty nice out as far as the weather temps. Very comfortable and with walking around, at times a little warm.
Continuing to walk around the lake we spotted Santa's sleigh and reindeer parked at a dock. How cool.
Sakari loves her some lizards. But, these were different than any kind we had seen in the past. they were a brownish red color. There were also a lot of shells and snail shells in the area.
Prior to coming to Orlando, I had read up on Disney Springs during my planning stages. I knew the days that we would not be at a park, I would need to find something to keep my mini me entertained with. I purposely picked a home with a private pool so that the days we weren't going to a park, we could stay home and swim. That quickly changed up when I seen the temps for that week. (Predicted temps in the 30-40s at night and 60-81 during the day) During this planning, I found that this place had a "Christmas Tree Stroll". When I looked at a map, it looked to be in an area at the end of the "mall" area. But, I would later find out when we arrived that these trees are situated throughout the entire shopping mall area (which is huge). It was neat to spot them here and there and you just never knew what you'd find. We made it a game of trying to figure out what each tree represented before looking at the description.
There are 12 trees total and include:
*Mickey and Minnie
*The Lion King
*Haunted Mansion
*Princess and the Frog CAN YOU GUESS WHICH TREES ARE WHICH?
*Frozen
*Mulan
*Toy Story
*Star Wars
*Pluto
*Disney Parks
*Jungle Book
*Fantasia
We continued our Happily Whatever You're After shopping spree as well. Speery, Ugg, Lego, Coca-Cola Store, Uniqlo, World of Disney, Disney Style, Disney's Days of Christmas and so many more. We gave new meaning to "shop to you drop" to the point we had to buy a backpack to put everything in as we went along. LOL
I ended up finding the cutest little Mickey ears Disney World Christmas ornament. The price on it said $29, which is outrageous for a bulb! But, that's the Disney Trademark and they make loot off it. I talked myself into paying that much for the bulb and the hubby agreed, as always, saying "Get whatever you want and if it's what you want don't worry about the price, it's memories". So, get it I did. However, we made it up to the counter and she rang it up and it was $45. Wait, what???? She said the "regular" Mickey ears bulbs were the $29 and this one was personalized. Wait, I didn't have anything personalized. I got it off the wall with a bunch more that looked like that. She said it came pre-personalized with the "Walt Disney World" and "2020" written on it. So, that made it more. Ugh, that's the only reason why I wanted it versus a "plain" Mickey ears bulb. Bait and switch I tell ya. If it's personalized and all the bulbs in that area I got it from is like that....maybe you should make the price sign reflect the REAL price. Well, hubby said "get what you want" and I wanted it.
As we shopped, Sakari decided that she wanted a plaid and
black Disney shirt. This came as a real shock to me. I questioned
her over and over about is she sure she would wear it. Disney
logo crap isn't cheap and I didn't want to make a "spur of the
moment" purchase that she'd never use again. She assured me.
You see Sakari has NEVER been into Disney. Not Mickey, not
Minnie not anything. She's never had a desire to go to Disney
World and when I mentioned going for Christmas her reply was
"never really wanted to or no thoughts of it have ever crossed
my mind". LOL But, after I showed her the rides that it had there,
she was game. I wanted her to experience it at least once. Once
she becomes an adult, if she ever wants to go there again, it will
be up to her. But actually wearing a Disney item I never expected
out of her. But, I'm happy to say she has worn it a lot since the
day we purchased it. She's just not in to "kiddie" looking apparel with characters on it.
This was at the store we purchased her shirt. Even though we didn't ride the tea cups at Disney, it made for a good picture opportunity and she did say "Hey, I remember seeing that at Disney".
The Lego store was pretty neat here and they had created a lot of characters out of Lego's around the outside of the store...even a dragon was in the water and so cool. This is more Sakari's style. ;)
Everywhere you looked, you would find Christmas cheer. I absolutely loved it.
They had a bowling alley there called Splitsville. It was 2 stories tall and from online, it looked pretty cool. They also had an AMC Dine-In Movie theater. I figure on this outing, we could go to one of them to entertain Sakari and she wouldn't feel like we didn't really do anything this day other than shop.
Now I did have a surprise for her later that evening. I had made reservations to go to the Rainforest Cafe and eat. The hubby and I had went there many years ago (in Canada) and thought it was the coolest thing ever. The animals inside move around as you eat, there's a rainforest storm, and it's just a neat place all around. I knew Sakari would love it since there were animals.
However, we had been at Disney Springs since around 2pm, had done a lot of walking and shopping, and it had been since around 8am when we ate last. I called them on the phone (since we were all the way on the other end of the shopping area) and ask if there was any way we could switch our 8:15pm reservations to earlier and by earlier I meant NOW! They told me I would have to walk over and ask the restaurant attendant at the counter. We started our long haul and I just couldn't wait to sit down! My foot was aching so bad and I knew that it was swollen.
Once we arrived, they said "Sure, come on in". I let them know that I needed to cancel my reservation for that evening.
Sakari absolutely loved it and went around taking pictures and video's of everything. We found the food to be good and the service was good as well. On the Disney forums people insisted it wasn't worth the money and the food wasn't good. However, I know that when we went years ago, it was good and I'm glad I decided to go again this time. Sakari loved the "dino nuggets" and talked about it for awhile that night (and later on that week).
I knew we had scored big time with this restaurant and I was happy that Sakari loved it.
After dinner, we headed out and it was dark already. We walked around some more and finished our shopping spree.
I had ask Sakari what she would like to do next. I told her we could go to the movie's or go bowling. I thought she would be excited about either one but I knew we only had enough time left to do one of them. I knew it was going to be a hard decision. Her reply was "I don't care" but it wasn't like ♪ I don't care ♫ I'm so excited! It was more of an I really don't give a flying flark what we do at this point type of I don't care. Hmmm, um ok. Not the response I usually get from her or expected. So, I pushed it a little more. "Ok, do you wanna go bowling?" She said "My feet hurt". "Ok, would you rather just go watch a movie so that we can sit down?" Her reply ... "I really don't care" again, in the same tone. Ok...that's it, we are just leaving then and we won't do anything else. I'll just save my money. The hubby insisted it was because she had a new toy. A dino toy! One that is a popular hot sensation on TikTok and she had scored one today. He said "babe, she just wants to get home to play with it...I can guarantee it".
We headed to the parking garage and on the way I caught a glimpse of the T-Rex Cafe. Little did Sakari know, that was her surprise for our Friday night out. Luckily, she was tired and "her feet hurt" so she didn't say anything about "going in" (because she thought it was another store). Thank goodness. The surprise was not spoiled.
My feet never hurt so much by the time we made it to the car. I was use to that wheelchair that I had at Disney. Whew! I was starting to wish I had rented a people mover here as well. But, I wanted to tough it out. I figured I could do it (and I did just with a little difficulty).
I put our address in the GPS and whadda ya know...it took me home an entirely different way than we came again. I guess it wants us to see the sites in this area.
After arriving home, Sakari immediately heads up to her room upstairs. She would later return with a talking, roaring animal attached to her shoulder. The hubby said "See, I told you. She just wanted to come home and play with her new pet". He was right.
We were able to watch actual tv now that it was fixed. A little tv, a shower and then off to bed early since tomorrow was going to be another big day and we were getting up early.
