Florida 2001 page 6

The last early morning of the holiday, and the last big park to visit, Islands of Adventure at Universal. Nicky managed to keep his breakfast this morning when arriving at the car park, and we grabbed express fast passes for The Hulk, before heading over to the water ride 'Ripsaw Falls', then to the duelling dragons (Stewart and Nicky), leaving Diane and Thorfinn to go on the Teradactyl flyers ride. Thorfinn was definately not fancying it much whilst queuing, and when he went on he disliked it a lot, as it was 'aflly wobbly'.

Various rollercoasters and rides followed including Spiderman 3D, X-Men, and for the 'men', the death defying, 'Doctor Doom's Fearfall', Nicky claimed he liked it, but vowed not to go on it again! Thorfinn enjoyed 'The Cat in the Hat' rollercoaster.

The Hulk

Atlantis, Poseidon in the backround

The clouds were looming and the threat of most of the rides closing due to lightening approaching, so a swift visit to the express fastpass machine for tickets to the Poseidons Adventure, proved a good call, as the heavens opened as we got inside to the show.

The rain was easing when we left, but we still decide to catch another show, Sinbad.

bit smaller than the Westray boat

The girls then head over to have their go on Spiderman3D and Hulk, while the boys spend a while in Toon Lagoon, firstly playing on Popeye and Blutos boat, then over to the 'water squirty thing' where Thorfinn spent a grand hour or so cooling off in the water squirts. Over to 'Jurassic Park' again and a go on the River Adventure, Thorfinn was too small be a few inches so had to give it a miss. Another quick go on Duelling dragons, with Diane this time, who really enjoyed it.

starts innocently enough

gettin chilly

It was now getting close to closing time, so a quick look around the gift shops and a slow walk out to Universal city, to try a find a place to eat that wasn't too busy. At the gates we bump in to Billie Piper, Chris Evans and Danny Baker, but they weren't speaking so carried on our way. After a good scout about, it was obvious that everything was chock-a-block, so headed in the homeward direction, stopping off at a diner for tea.

Friday 17th August

Up and out after breakfast at home and to the last parl of the holiday, Typhoon Lagoon, Disney water park.

The place was busy by the time we arrived, but we managed to get some chairs near the ketchakiddies play area, which was perfect as Thorfinn could play in the water all he liked.

It was kindo a lazy day taking in the sun and lounging about. Lizzie liked the wave machine in the main pool.

Geronimo!!

Thorfinn had a 'inner tube' flume which he did not fancy at first, but once on it, was impossible to get him off!

cheese!!!

The river raft ride also proved a hit and a few rotations were had by all. Most of the flumes and slides were tried by Nicky and Lizzie, including the Storm slides, and family raft ride. The park quietened down late in the afternoon, and we carried on our 'star' spotting, by seeing Sarah-Louise from Coronation Street.

We left there around six and back to the villa passed Mcdonalds for the youngsters. Once Thorfinn was sleeping, Diane and Stewart headed out for supper at TGI Fridays, before coming back to start the packing for the next days trek home (or so we thought!).

Nicky enjoying a spot o lunch

Saturday 18th August

Everybody up early to get the final packing done, and out by 10am. We find that we can bearly fit every thing in to the bags, "...we havent bought that much stuff, have we?"......(!). Over to Denny's for our final fix of pancakes etc., and to the Florida Mall for some final shopping. Diane decides to go for her 'free' make-over. It turned out that the make-up 'artist' was a bloke, in the vaguest sense of the word, called Eric, with shaved arms and a lisp, mmmmm. Once fully made-over she then got done-over, by being sold the products that were used for the 'transformation'.

We then headed over to the Belz shopping mall, for the final souvineers and the like, and then over to airport, dropped everyone off, unloaded the car, and dropped the cruiser back at the car hire. We checked in and because we were going overseas had to get our bags X-rayed, with equipment that damages film in cameras, so we had to open all the bags up again and search for the cameras, films, and video stuff, which was fun on the floor of the airport. Once all checked in and sorted headed over to departures. Nobody was looking forward to the flight, with the stopovers and airports throughout the night. The thunder and lightening then again fired up, closing the airport. It was quickly obvious that because of the delay, that we were going to miss our connection in Boston, so we spoke to the USair rep. to see if she could help us out. She was more than helpful, sorting us out a direct flight with British Airways to Gatwick, then on to Glasgow, the following day, with hotel and meals arranged for the night. She was thinking about sending us that night, first class, with Virgin, but when she saw the cost ($4000 per person), she decided that her supervisor might not be best pleased.
We picked our bags up and over to the Hilton, a few miles from the airport, when there, we were put in two separate rooms, which were both nice.

Re-packed all the bags and lay by pool, Nicky spent most of the morning in the fitness suite.

Went to Airport around 2.30pm, had some lunch spent the last of our money in the Duty free shop, then on the plane for a 6 hour flight to Gatwick.

Arrived in Gatwick at 6.30am British time, 1.30am Florida time, the only one who slept was Thorfinn, who was completely miffed that he had missed the film on the plane, 'Dinosaur'. Had some breakfast and hung around the Airport until our next flight up to Glasgow 9.40am. Arrived in Glasgow at 11am, Stewart went to pick up our car, picked up the luggage.

The drive up took the best part of 6 hours, with only a quick stop in Inverness for coffee. Carried on up, and with only 100yrds to the ferry terminal, nearly knock a couple off their bikes. A yell and some fists thrown in our direction and we were at the terminal. Home at Terrawinz by 9pm, just in time for back to school the next morning!!