Monday, March 12th
This was the one day of our trip that was calling for rain. When we got up, it was still dry, but definitely looked like rain was coming, so we got out our raincoats and got ready to head to US. DS wasn’t really feeling like cereal that morning, so we decided we’d get him something in the parks that morning. Just as we got to the gates, it started sprinkling, then by the time we got around to Springfield the skies had opened up and it was pouring. We headed over to Diagon Alley and DS wanted to go into Sugarplum’s Sweetshop to buy a chocolate wand, jelly beans and to buy a second Chocolate Frog for his best friend. After that DH and DS went on Gringott’s while I tried to stay dry and wait for the dragon to breathe fire so I could take photos. Once they were out DS was hungry so we went to The Leaky Cauldron and got him some breakfast. He had the American Breakfast and I ordered a croissant and a coffee. DH wasn’t hungry so he didn’t get anything. The breakfast was large and we noticed a lot of people leaving a lot of food on their plates when they left. The family of three next to us shared one which seemed like a great idea for smaller appetite’s. I thought the croissant was ok, the coffee was terrible, but I could have predicted I’d not like it as I like really strong coffee and typically restaurant coffee is not that. By the time we were done, the rain had stopped but it was still overcast.
We wandered around the park a bit, checking out the Irish shop which seemed like such an odd assortment of items for a theme park but had some neat things, the Tonight Show Store (I was terrified the giant hashtag was going to come to life!), the Christmas store which I was hoping to find an ornament but nothing caught my eye. We ended up by the Transformers entrance, so DH and DS decided to go on it. DH was a bit whoozy after it, but fine. He said he definitely felt jostled around after Gringott’s and Transformers. While they were in the ride, I found what we had been waiting for……Scooby Doo and the Mystery Inc gang. The Simpson’s were also out for a meet and greet, but we were singularly focused.
DS had worn his new Scooby Doo shirt in hopes of finding Scooby today, so we headed down and got in line. We were maybe the 8th family in line when we got there. After about two families they announced that Fred, Velma and Daphne would be leaving after the next family, and Scooby and Shaggy would take a quick break and be right back out. This was fine for us, as Scooby and Shaggy were definitely who we wanted to meet. Shaggy came over and was assuring everyone in line that they would be right back after he took “his dog for a walk”. He saw DS’s shirt and ran over and gave him a big hug and told him how much he loved it. They were gone for maybe 5 minutes and back out and we quickly were up to the front of the line. Well Scooby also thought DS’s shirt was awesome. They had quite the fun interaction with Shaggy asking DS where he was from “Canada”…. are there any monsters or yetis there? “No”……. is there good food there “Yes”. They thought Canada sounded pretty good. They took several pictures including pretending there were monsters coming. This was absolutely the best character interaction we’ve ever had and were so glad DS wore his Scooby shirt. Shaggy was incredible and did a fantastic job of portraying his character. I remember reading Schumi’s reports saying how wonderful the Mystery Inc gang are and I could not agree more. This was definitely the highlight of our trip.
After this, we headed out to Citywalk for some lunch at Breadbox again - same as the previous day for DS and I (veggie and a ham and brie minus the brie). DH tried the Tomato and Mozzarella which was good but his least favourite of the three he tried as it was a bit soggy due to a heavy hand on the balsamic glaze. After lunch DS and I played a round of mini golf while it rained a bit on and off. Definitely a fun mini golf course and was nice that it wasn’t busy mid-day so we didn’t wait at all. We paid for 36 holes as it was a bit of a price break and they said that if we didn’t want to play the second 18 then that we could come back anytime to play again.
After mini golf we headed over to Toothsome as DS had been wanting milkshake for the last couple days, but when we had gone over the one evening after supper at Margaritaville, the lineup was outrageous. Midday there was no line on the takeout side. DS got the Marshmallow Crisp and started giggling when it came out and he saw how huge it was. He made me take a picture and text to his Aunt back home who is pregnant and craving ice cream. She was definitely jealous. In spite of fake whipped cream, it was delicious. I had a bit of it as there was no way he was finishing it alone and it was a quite a good milkshake. We asked fora container to take the rice crispy in and he had that for a snack later. While we were sitting waiting for him to drink it I did the US to CDN $ conversion which I typically don’t do while we are away - I just enjoy and don’t worry too much as I have a good idea of how much food costs while we are away for the three of us and budget accordingly. Well this was an $18 milkshake (in CDN $) which is now how I refer to the milkshake. Would definitely do it again, but it is a once per trip kinda treat partially due to the ridiculous amount of calories they contain and partially due to the $. It made DS’s day and that was what was important.
DH had slept terribly the night before so we headed back to the hotel so we could rest. After a while DS and I were ready to do something so we went to tour the hotel. The sun had come out by this time and was a beautiful afternoon. We played a couple games of bocce by the Villa Pool, checked out the lobby and the balcony looking over the Piazza and checked out all the stores. When we got back to the room DH was up and said he would take DS swimming as I had to phone Westjet to deal with an issue regarding our flights (on the way down I couldn’t do online check in and was trying to sort out why as I wasn’t confident they fixed it at the airport when we flew to Orlando). Once I got that sorted out I joined them at the pool.
We decided we didn’t want to go into the parks so had supper at Sal’s. DS had the Salvatore again and DH and I had the farm pesto minus the chicken. The Farm Pesto was excellent but had a horrifying amount of whole garlic on it that I would not consider to be roasted as they say in the description. They put whole garlic on the pizza but definitely not roasted ahead so it was barely cooked by the time we got the pizza and was a really ridiculous amount - between the two small pizza’s there was probably the equivalent of two full large bulbs of garlic. Both DH and I love garlic but ended up picking it all off. I said if we ate it all we’d have to get separate hotel rooms as there’s no way we’d be able to stand being in the same room!
After supper we got DS settled in the room watching TV and playing on his iPad and DH and I went for a short walk because I wanted to stretch my legs and get a bit more walking in - up to HRH to check it out and look around. We were gone about an hour and then made a quick stop at Starbucks for me then back to the room where we rented a movie and relaxed for our last night at PHB.