Florida - Day 13

I took today as a relaxing day because that's how I like to holiday, but it isn't the way I get to holiday.  I spent the entire morning in bed and then took some time to get the posts on this blog updated.  After lunch, I spent most of the afternoon sitting beside the pool watching Bradley and his cousins play in the water until they were so tired and cold that they had to wander shivering into the house to warm up.

At the end of the day I caught a ride with the Brownings to Medieval Times, where a bunch of us went for supper.  It is a horse and knight show with supper and was quite a fun time.  Jason takes his family every time he can and they went Saturday night while I was in Tampa at the NHL game, so this was the second group to attend.

You get fed a chicken meal with no utensils while sitting in front of a big arena where knights and horses perform feats in front of you.  Each section has a knight they are cheering for and there is a lot of screaming and hollering during the meal.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of food.

We then returned home and crawled into bed, as we are headed to Hollywood Studios tomorrow and it opens at 7:00am, which means we want to be on the road shortly after 6:00am.

Florida - Day 12

We spent the day at LEGOLand, which was busier than the last time we were here, but that is still extremely quiet compared to the big parks.  We even lucked out and went on a Kids New Years Eve day, which meant that they finished the day with fireworks.  I know that my family likes this park more than the others because we always run out of time at it, rather than trying to find something to do before we leave the other parks.

The park opened at 10:00am, so we didn't even have to leave very early and we easily arrived and were in line when the park opened.  A bunch of the other families also came to the park, but they arrived after us, so while we waited for them, we scoped out the store and built our minifigures before that part of the park became busy and messy.

Then it was off to the rides.  We did a new LEGO Movie ride that was basically a giant IMAX screen motion simulator, which I really liked.  I tried to get back to it during the rest of the day, but was quite unsuccessful.  After a number of other rides, including the wooden roller coaster, we stopped at a busy restaurant for lunch.

Then there were more rides before we stopped to go through Miniland.  Evan wasn't done riding, so he went with the Brownings on a few more rides while we explored the LEGO creations.  It was mostly the same as the last time we were here, though they added a big Jakku section from the new movies.  Alex was wearing his IDF hoodie and was stopped by a lady from Israel who told him that she liked his shirt.

The two little kids did a scavenger hunt in Miniland and received a custom printed Duplo brick when they completed and they were doing a large mosaic where you got an 6x6 plate printed with the required colors that you filled in from boxes of 1x1s.  We did a few of the plates and watched them fill in the big mosaic.

Then it was shopping time, and I may have spent far more money than I expected.  The pick a brick wall is by weight and I'm used to the LEGO stores where you stuff a cup full and pay a fixed price, so I filled my bag as full as I could and ended up buying almost $40 worth of bulk LEGO.

Finally, it was fireworks time and like all fireworks in America, it was awesome.  This country is really good at blowing stuff up.  They even gave us odd glasses to wear that have a filter in them that makes every light look like two small 2x2 LEGO bricks and watching the fireworks through those was very neat.

After the fireworks, we left the park, drove home and shoved some supper in the kids before going to bed.

Florida - Day 11

Today was an official Stein family day that started with family pictures.  There was a small amount of rain during part of the pictures, but it quickly cleared and we were able to get pictures of all the families and groups that were required.  We even had matching shirts made by Allison and Jason, which most people wore for the rest of the day's activities.  Kristen took the pictures for us, so we got to visit with her for a tiny little bit and wish her a great time at her upcoming wedding.

The big activity was a tour of a chocolate factory up near SeaWorld and it was a lot of fun.  We got to sample chocolate at various stages, including a cocoa bean covered in sugar, which I liked, but my kids did not.  In fact, most of the in production samples were bitter, since chocolate isn't sweet until the end of the production process.

The tour guide was very good - friendly and engaging, though I imagine if you took the tour a second time all the scripted jokes would seem less funny.  At the end of the tour, you could make your own chocolate bar and we had prefilled in our selections and dropped them off before the tour started, since there were 30 of us.  So Sandra got a giant box of chocolate bars that we brought back to the house to handout.

The evening finished with a special early 70th birthday supper and cake for Charles and then we relaxed and played games and watched football until bedtime.

Florida - Day 10

I am way behind on my posts because I am tired and because the Internet connection in the house cannot handle 8 teenagers watching Netflix at the same time.

This day started by hanging around the house with everyone and with my smallest child spending an inordinate amount of time in the pool.  Late in the afternoon, we piled into the vans to drive to Tampa for the Tampa Bay vs Montreal NHL game.  We arrived super early because we didn't want to be late and did a little bit of shopping before the game.  Evan was able to pick up a souvenir puck for the game.  After that, we stood in the rain waiting to be let into the game, which they ended up doing a bit early due to the rain.

Upon entry to the arena, we asked where the visitors practiced and then headed down there to secure a spot.  I expected the practice to start earlier than it did, as we stood around for around 45 minutes before the players came out.  Watching practice was fun and we got to see Cale Fleury, one of the Pats from our Memorial Cup team a couple of years ago.  One of the Montreal players even tried to get a puck to the kids by shooting it at the netting and hoping it would fall down behind the glass, but after two quick attempts he went back to regular practice.

Once practice was over, we climbed up to our seats, which were on the second last row from the top, so we were a long way away from the ice.  From there we watched the first period and then grabbed some supper (which cost more than all six of us eating at Magic Kingdom).  The game ended with the Canadiens losing, which is whom my in-laws were cheering for, but I thought it was nice to see an NHL game.

Sadly for me, at the exact same time that I was watching this game, Adam Brooks was starting his first NHL game on Hockey Night in Canada, and I wasn't able to watch it.  I even paid for a month of NHL Live, but the aforementioned Internet problems have meant that I still haven't watched his first game, and I may not be able to until I get back to Regina.

Florida - Day 9

This is now the end of our family holidays and the start of the actual holidays that we are down here for.  We checked out of the resort, had lunch, did a little bit of shopping and then spent the afternoon mini-golfing in some light rain, as the check in for the new resort wasn't until 4:00pm.

The mini-golfing wasn't super busy, which was very nice.  The kids actually did quite well and we had a nice time.  We finished and went to Krispy Kreme again, but this time we took all the kids in and watched the donuts getting made.

At that point, Charles had checked in at the new resort, so we slowly drove over there and found our way in to the house.  It's nice and big, since the entire family is staying here.  After getting settled in, Sandra and I drove to a nearby grocery store for meat and then had supper as families started to arrive.

At the end of the day, Charles and I drove out to the airport to pick up Rene.  Everyone has now arrived and this starts the Stein family part of the trip.

Florida - Day 8

Today was our day at Universal Studios, and I'm pretty certain it is my last time at that park.  It is always ridiculously packed and they don't move people very quickly.  In the line for tickets, one of the booths had a family at it for 20 minutes.  At two separate times, I abandoned a line for a bathroom after waiting 15 minutes and not having a single stall open.  It's just ridiculous.

Anyway, we got to the park, went through the line for tickets and then went in and to the Harry Potter area.  We were at Islands of Adventure, as there are two parks, but we spent most of our time at the other park three years ago, so we figured we would focus on this park this time around.

In the Harry Potter area, we stood in a 30 minute line for the wand choosing skit and then purchased an interactive wand that the kids spent some time using at various parts around Hogsmeade.  We then went into the exceedingly long line for the Harry Potter thrill ride.  No one was going to ride, but the line goes through a mockup of Hogwart's castle and they let you go through the line and then abandon it before the ride.

It was pretty neat, but the line was super long and took most of an hour and a half, so I'm not sure it was actually worth it, though the line only got longer during the rest of the day.  We then headed over to the Dr. Seuss area and had lunch, where we ate at Green Eggs & Ham, which is where Sandra really wanted to eat.  We both had Green Eggs & Ham - eggs, ham & cheese over tater tots, while the other kids had pizza tater tots and tater tots with chicken tenders.  Then we went over and watched the Grinchmas production, which was in one of the studios outside the park.  It was pretty good and the kids really liked it. And there was more fake snow.  Only people that haven't fought with real snow would spend so much time creating fake snow.

Then it was off to the Dr. Seuss rides, which all the kids liked.  We even split up for a bit as Jonathan didn't want to go on one of the rides.  After that area, we were pretty much done for the day.  We went to the Marvel area and shopped, then went to the Jurassic Park area and played a bit and then went home.  I was in a lot of pain and just wanted to sleep.

I-4 was a parking lot, as it has been most of the time we've been here, so we took a scenic drive home on some toll highways and got home an hour after we left.  Then, like yesterday, the kids relaxed, went to bed and I collapsed.

Florida - Day 7

Sorry for the late posts - I've managed to catch a pretty bad cold and it is all I can do to drag myself home at the end of a long day.  Also, Merry Christmas!

Today was an odd Christmas, as we didn't really celebrate anything.  Grandma made crepes for the boys and we FaceTimed my parents in the morning.  We then bundled everyone up for the 1.5 hour trip to Cocoa Beach.  Upon arrival, we found a place to park and wandered out onto the beach.  Bradley and Jonathan were wet before I could get them into their swim trunks, but once everyone was changed, the boys spent the better part of three hours playing in the waves.  The beach was quite nice - not too busy, but with enough waves that the kids could play.

In fact, dragging them out of the water when it was time to go was very difficult to do.  And by the time we got them to the van and tried to get the sand off of them, they were pretty worked up.  It was pretty difficult to get them changed into regular clothes, but we somehow managed it and then headed to a nearby IHOP for supper, as there weren't many restaurants open on Christmas Day.

After our meal, we piled back in the van and drove back to our resort.  The kids relaxed for a bit and then went to bed, while I took some pills and collapsed on the couch.

Florida - Day 6

Today was Christmas Eve, but really didn't feel like it, due to the warmth and lack of snow.  Everybody except Jonathan slept in this morning and we spent a very lazy morning doing nothing.  Sandra went out with her parents to get some fruit from an orchard, while the kids built and played with some LEGO and then had lunch.

The afternoon started out the same way, though Alex and Grandpa went for a round of golf.  It had been overcast and sprinkling rain all morning, but some sun briefly appeared in the afternoon, so Bradley, Evan, Grandma and I ran over to the pool.  We made a few laps around the lazy river, played in the big pool, sat in the hot tub and then Bradley went down the water slide 50 times.

After supper, we took a drive out to Celebration, a town just south of the Disney parks that was designed by the Disney company in the 90s.  So a kind of manufactured town, if you will.  In the town center, they setup a Christmas tree, a fake skating rink and every hour they fill the block with fake snow.  I believe I forgot to mention the fake snow that Disney had falling along Main Street USA as we exited the park last night, which was quite well done.  This snow was less well done - I believe it was the same product, which is vaguely soap like, but looks like floating snowflakes - but you could see the the devices producing the "snow" and it didn't really disperse into the sky everywhere.  Still, there were a lot of excited people, most of whom have never had to shovel snow in their lives, so snow seems exciting.

We then took a short ride around the town in a train car pulled by a tractor that looked like an engine and then drove over to another part of the town where the entire street has all their Christmas lights sync'd together and they have a LOT of lights.  At one point I looked at a house and then had to blink a ton before I could see Alex clearly again.  We walked up and down the block and then returned to the van for the drive back to the resort.  The kids were exhausted by this time and Bradley had fallen asleep on the drive back, so it was off to bed and the end of another day.

Florida - Day 5

Today was our day at Magic Kingdom and everything went very well.  We didn't have any meltdowns, from Dad or the children, and only had to deal with a small amount of grumpiness at the end of a very long day.

We successfully got everyone up early and arrived at the park, tried to park in cast parking and then found a correct parking spot, and made it through security and to the gate exactly at 8:00am when the gates opened to the general public.  The park was not busy, as it was still raining, and we were able to get in the line for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and ride the rollercoaster all within the first hour of arriving at the park.  The younger kids didn't like the rollercoaster, so we went on a few smaller rides for them before the rain stopped and the park got busy.

The sun came out and it got quite warm and the crowds limited your rides, but we had a few Fast Passes scheduled for just after lunch, which allowed us to get rides in that the kids loved, such as the Buzz Lightyear ride where you shoot targets and Splash Mountain, though Evan really got himself worked up over the drop at the end and spent the entire ride scared.

Around 3:00pm, it rained again and the park emptied out.  I mean, not empty, because it is Disney, but much smaller crowds than earlier in the day.  We were able to ride the kid rollercoaster five times in a row when I noticed that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was down to a 30 minute wait from the 90+ minutes it was at all day.  We rushed over there, but it is on the other side of the park, so it was up to an hour wait by the time we arrived.  However, the time was not correct, as I and the older two kids made it through the line and out of the ride in exactly 30 minutes.

By this time it was getting late and the kids were tired and our feet were soaked from the rain, so we stopped for supper and then a tiny bit of shopping.  There was an hour until the fireworks, but the kids were done with rides, which was OK, as we had gone on every ride we wanted, but they really just wanted to go home.  Sandra made them stay, which they did, with Jonathan and Evan hunkering down on her jacket and closing their eyes.  The fireworks were really good and after Jonathan proclaimed "I regret wanting to leave before the fireworks!"

We then joined the giant crowd leaving the park, which is where the only "disaster" of the day occurred.  We made it out and into the line for the monorails.  After two monorails left, we were at the front of the line and the two Disney workers were listening to their radio and making exclamations and then talked to us, as one of the trains that left had an emergency break down, due to someone leaning against the door.  That meant there was a long delay, which they dealt with by moving us into a monorail and then

sitting, while moving the back of the line to the ferries.  After sitting in a monorail for 30 minutes or so, we were told there would be a long wait and they got us onto the other monorail in haphazard fashion (because everyone was tired and stressed) and over to the parking lot.  As we left, the poor workers we had been visiting with looked very stressed out - I have to imagine that a monorail breaking down at exit time is one of the worst case scenarios for them.

We drove home, got everyone into bed and I quickly fell asleep.  Tomorrow will be resting and relaxing, for at least part of the day.

Florida - Day 4

It rained a lot today and we kept checking the Disney app when we could, and for the morning, the ride lines seemed reasonable.  It is supposed to be rainy at the start of tomorrow and then dry off in the afternoon, so hopefully that allows us to get some rides in early in the morning before the crowds really arrive.

We started the morning at a local church and then returned to the resort for a quick lunch, after which we headed to a small military museum in Kissimmee for Alex.  On the way there, we stopped and picked up some Christmas donuts at a nearby Krispy Kreme, which Sandra really wanted to try.

The museum was small, but had a good amount of interesting things to see, including a couple of Jeeps and a German Jeep (Kubelwagen).  It was also empty of people, which is the only time this trip that we will see that.  Heck, we stood in a decently long line for the donuts.

We then drove over to Disney Springs, which is a shopping area that Disney built on their property.  It's in the park area, but open to anyone, and it was crowded, even with the rain, which was on and off the entire time we were there.

We took the kids into a Marvel store (where they had to buy a build your own Infinity Gauntlet) and then a Star Wars store (where they had to buy a build your own lightsaber) and then a LEGO store (where they had to buy LEGO).  Of course, that was all of their demands to buy.  In the end, they only purchased some LEGO, as did I.  The statues going into the LEGO store, of Elsa, Anna and Olaf were very well done.

After spending some time in a very busy Disney store, we made our way to the end of shopping area, where there was a Christmas tree walk.  Each tree was decorated with a theme from a specific Disney movie, and it was a nice walk, even though it was raining quite hard by this point.  They also had a Santa you could have your picture taken with, but there was a 450 minute wait.  Ah, Disney.

After that, we found the ticket office where we picked up our Magic Kingdom tickets for tomorrow and then drove back to the resort for supper and to try and get the kids into bed early, since we plan on being at Magic Kingdom when it opens tomorrow.

Florida - Day 3

I have discovered that after celebrating Christmas 45 times in Canada, I cannot separate Christmas from snow and cold.  People keep saying "Merry Christmas" and I keep looking at them like they are aliens.  And then I remember that it IS Christmas.

We split up today, as Charles and I drove to Tampa for the Tampa Bay / Houston NFL game.  We left shortly after breakfast and drove the hour down I-4 and found our parking spot with only a couple of wrong turns.  We then explored the stuff around the stadium and waited for the gates to open, after which we wandered around and took a few pictures, had lunch, and made our way to our seats.

The game wasn't very well attended, as the stadium only appeared half full.  And after Tampa Bay's first two possessions ended in interceptions, I fully expected the fans that were there to leave.  Most of them were livid.  It also didn't help that the entire first half, every judgement call made by the referees went Houston's way.  However, despite doing everything possible to lose the game, Tampa Bay tied it up right before half-time.

There wasn't a lot of scoring the second half, and Houston managed to eke out a victory after a Tampa Bay receiver dropped a 4th and 3 pass that hit him in his hands with under 3 minutes to go.  All the fans left after that.

After the game, the drive home was pretty stressful.  It was dark, raining and the Interstate in downtown Tampa was packed full of cars.  We slowly made our way through and things got back to normal once we go out of the city.  Upon returning to the resort, we had supper with everyone else and heard about all the things they did during the day.

They explored the resort and spent three hours in the pool, which has a water slide and a lazy river where there is a current that pushes you around.  Alex apparently spent most of the three hours with a life jacket on, moving around the river.  After the pool, they created a gingerbread house and a gummy brick house that we purchased yesterday, and then waited for us to arrive for supper.

It is currently raining and more rain is forecast for tomorrow, but that should be OK because we don't have a lot planned for tomorrow.  Monday is our day at Magic Kingdom, and the rain is supposed to mostly stop by then, which should be good.

Florida - Day 2

Today was a setup day for the next week, as we ran around getting all the stuff we needed and moving into the townhouse that will be our home until everyone else arrives.  And, spoiler alert, our lost luggage finally arrived.

The day started by dragging the kids out of bed so that we could get breakfast in before it ended at 9:00am.  They had Mickey Mouse waffle makers, of course, so both younger kids had waffles, though they each only had a couple of bites before declaring themselves full.  After that, I had to go pick up our rental van.  We had rented the van from a location in Orlando, since it was drastically cheaper than renting it at the airport, but it left us needing to get to the location where the van was.  Enterprise may pick you up, but they won't if you are too far away from them.

I went downstairs and asked for a cab, which was met with stares, because everyone just uses Uber now and cabs no longer exist.  Eventually one of the guest services clerks called me a "cab", which I'm pretty sure was just her husband in his Uber car.  Regardless, I got to Enterprise and had a nice visit with a local on the drive.  Having secured the van, I attempted to drive back to the hotel without using Google maps in order to save my roaming data, which was probably a mistake.  I took quite the scenic route and at one point ended up in Universal Studios, but I made it back to the hotel.

Sandra then phoned WestJet and they had found our luggage.  Basically, it had been accidentally sent to a Disney hotel, as the fancy Disney packages include luggage delivery from the airport.  Disney phoned WestJet and told them that they had an extra bag, which was ours.  They setup a delivery time at our townhouse and then we checked out of the hotel.

Our next stop was a nearby outlet mall, which was quite busy, but allowed us to buy Bradley some new clothes, since he was quite excited about that, and apparently WestJet is paying.  He got a new shirt and a new pair of shorts, but found one thing that he absolutely could not leave without in each store we went to.

Then it was off to Wal*Mart to buy groceries for the week.  The kids were fading fast at this point, but we got through the store (in fact, the same store we bought our car seat at the last time we were in Florida) and then made it out to the resort where we are spending the next week.  It's a bunch of townhouses in a gated community, most of which are rented on AirBnB and VRBO, and we've discovered that they work really well with a family, since it gives the kids room to stretch out and do things, and gives us a kitchen so we don't have to eat out every meal.

After a supper of spaghetti and tomato sauce, we let the kids watch TV.  Charles & Eleanor arrived shortly after that, and our luggage arrived right before 9:00pm, so all is well.

Tomorrow Charles and I are off to Tampa Bay for an NFL game, while everyone else will explore the resort and build gingerbread houses.

Florida - Day 1

On the flight down to Orlando, I couldn't decide if the theme of today was "Hurry Up and Wait" or "Acceptance of What Is".  After arriving, the decision was easy - "Acceptance of What Is".  From Bradley accepting that the Winnipeg airport restaurant did not have chicken strips or fries and deciding to happily eat home made potato chips, to Jonathan accepting that the plug in on the airplane did not work with the 3DS charger, to all of us accepting that we don't have any clothes for the trip, due to our main luggage bag having gone missing.  :(

Everything was uneventful in Regina.  We got to the airport early, there were no lines, and we settled in until boarding, having met Kevin B. who was headed to Winnipeg on a business trip.  After getting on the plane, I realized that my middle two children were quite scared of the flight, though they hadn't said anything previously.  Jonathan refused to sit by the window and asked for the windows to be closed, and while I was doing that, I saw Evan getting quite upset on the other side of the very small plane.  It was a rough take-off, as I couldn't do anything to help Evan, but he managed to power through.  Thankfully, I was able to sit by him on the way to Orlando and help him with his nerves.

In Winnipeg, we went through customs, where there was no line, had lunch and then boarded the plane to Orlando, which left quite late, due to other late flights and slow baggage handlers.  The flight to Orlando was marred by the fact that in all my electronics preparation, I did not prepare for none of the 3DS chargers fitting into the plug in on the aircraft, nor the fact that the Sandra and my phones (the only ones that could play movies) did not have a headphone jack.  And that was after I ran out to Dollarama before we left Regina to buy new headphones for Bradley.  *sigh*

The kids found things to entertain them on the flight, and we arrived in Orlando around 9:00pm local time.  We made our way to the baggage claim, where only two of our three checked bags arrived, so we then had to spend half an hour with the WestJet baggage employee, as there appears to be no information on our main luggage bag, other than that we had it in our possession in Winnipeg as we went through customs.  Bradley was quite upset about that, as he misses all his clothes, and I have to admit I will be quite unhappy if it ends up not being found, since my pills and all of our hockey jerseys were in that bag.  At this point I have a small amount of faith that it will show up in the next couple of days.

After dealing with that, we took a cab to the hotel, ordered a pizza and got to bed very, very late.  Tomorrow starts our official holiday in Orlando.

Florida - Day 0

I literally cannot type Florida without adding a y - Floriday.  So, if any of the posts from this trip end up misnamed, it is entirely my fault.

Tomorrow we board a plane for a flight to Orlando, where we will spend the next two weeks.  This trip is a bit of a departure for us, as it wasn't planned by us.  Sandra's parents bought everyone in her family a one week trip to Florida for Christmas this year, and we took advantage of that to spend an extra week by ourselves before the rest of the family arrives, though Charles & Eleanor are also coming down a week early and will join us on Friday.

Originally we had direct flights from Regina to Orlando, but Boeing's disastrous 737 Max ended those.  So, we have to fly to Winnipeg and then to Orlando, but that is far better than the alternative.  The flight tomorrow should be fine, as we have lots of time in Winnipeg to get through customs, and all the kids are much older, so they shouldn't require as much maintenance during the flight.

The past couple of days have been a bit crazy, as we celebrated a very early Christmas with my family and then went back to school and work while getting all of the packing and last minute tasks completed.  We don't have to be at the airport super early, so tonight should be fairly stress free, and then tomorrow will be an entire day of travelling.

The next time I post will hopefully be from sunny Orlando, where the predicted high is 19 degrees.