My Happy Place

Finally the weekend was here and this means we are going to Seaworld. The night was short after Mickey's Halloween Party but we had no problem getting up.
Kim picked us up and we drove to Seaworld just a short distance away. It was already very busy but finally we were at the parking lot and parked our car. Went to the bag control and we were inside.
First we ate some breakfast and debated how our day would go.

After breakfast we started at Pets Ahoy. A great and sweet show with dogs, cats, ducks, rats, pigs etc. They all have been rescued from shelters. This show is so much fun and you walk away with a smile.

We walked to the back of the park and went to Shamu Stadium. After a short wait we could go inside and yes we were sitting in our favorite spot.

The show was ofcourse fantastic. They changed it a bit with more education. Also cool is the fact they name the whales by their names and tell us what they love about that praticular animal.  I was home....

After the show we ate a light lunch and waited for our tour. It was a surprise for Lianne. We booked KIllerwhale upclose tour.
After dividing us in small groups we could go inside and we had Nalani. This sassy lady is something. What a beautiful animal.
The tour was fantastic. You could do several pictures with your animal. And even request poses. No you can't jump in or touch the whale. But it was a fantastic experience.

After the tour we stayed in the neighbourhood and met up with Friends Cathy and Brandy.We sat with them and a lot of fun.
After this show we waited again and caught the last One Ocean too.  Yes we are addicted....
These animals are really my favorite.

After the show we said goodbye to Cathy and Brandy and we went to the Seafire inn and had dinner.
We drove home and after saying goodbye to Kim we went to our room. We were very tired. I managed to finish a blog about Disney but not about Seaworld. I was too tired.  Yes Iḿ getting older hahaha
Sunday will be Seaworld time too with different plans....See you tomorrow....

Cats and a Mouse

Today would be a very long day for us. We had so many things planned with a Halloween party at the end. 

KIm picked us up early morning and we drove to the 192 and went for a breakfast at the Golden Corral. That's an All You Can Eat restaurant. Quality of the food depends on what you are getting but all in all it is eatable. And itś not that expensive which is also important ofcourse.

After breakfast we drove to Target and had a quick look here. I bought some T-shirts I had my mind set on when I was back home.  We also bought some stuff for the party later on in the day. 

We went back to the car and it was cuddle time. We went to the Cat Café of Orlando.  I was so excited cause I was more than ready to cuddle. We bought a coffee and it was time to go inside. Before entering I saw some catfaces looking at us. All of a sudden another cat face came looking through the window and I was sold. My heart opened wide and pulled that little face in. 

It was a beautiful red cat named Twinkle. It was love on first sight. What a sweetie, what a beauty. 

We spend more than an hour drinking coffee and cuddling with cats. They also had 2 kittens Spunk and Lady Grey. I bought a play toy at Target and they totally loved it. This is me with Lady Grey. Have you ever seen a belly like that?

After the cuddling we drove back to Orlando and it was shopping time. We went to a few department stores and also the Dollar Tree. It's always fun to browse all these stores and collecting some ideas for gifts for home. 

Time to get changed and get into our Halloween Costume. We drove to DisneyWorld. It was the first time for Lianne, not for KIm and Me. 

Disney is outraged with prices . It was kind of a shock. 25 dollars for parking. They were busy with the tram station so we had to get out early and walked a large piece to get to the monorail that will take us to Magic Kingdom. 

THe Halloween party was completely sold out and it was busy like crazy.  What a people...

We started with Pirates of the Caribean and went to  Splash Mountain(Zippediedooda zippedie jee) We were a little wet afterwards but what a fun ride it is.

It was time for dinner and Pooh and Friends invited us to their restaurant. 

The food was great, characters too. We had Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet. 

Maar toen kwam de rekening. Zijn ze nu helemaal mesjogge daar in Disney. 65 dollar p.p. incl. fooi. 

Nee dat was het niet waard. Gaan we niet meer doen,...

Terug het park in en hebben we de snoep trail gelopen en ondertussen nog wat attracties gedaan zoals de Haunted Mansion en It's a small world. 

Het was bijna tijd voor het prachtige vuurwerk spektakel zoals alleen Disney dit kan. We hadden een superplek vlak voor het kasteel. Het was er mega druk. Maar we stonden en dat was het belangrijkste.

Een impressie:

Na het vuurwerk gingen we meteen Mainstreet in om een plekje te zoeken voor de parade. Aangezien dit de tweede parade was viel het ons op hoe verschrikkelijk druk het nog was. Volgens ons heeft Disney de capaciteit op deze speciale avonden flink verhoogd. 

Het was een hele mooie en gezellige avond maar er was een hoop veranderd in Disney. Het echte Disney gevoel hing er niet meer. Het was allemaal veel commerciëler.  Nee hier hoeven we niet meer zo nodig heen.

We gingen terug met de Ferry boat en even rond de klok van 1.30 p.m. zette Kim ons af bij het hotel. 

Het zou een korte nacht worden want om 9 uur zou ze weer voor de deur staan. Dan wacht Seaworld.

Day in Paradise

The day started bright and early for us. Around 6 o clock in the morning we were up and about and excited for the day to come.
Kim picked us up at 7.15 and we drove to Discovery Cove. At 7.30 we got checked in and we walked into the park.
We started straight away with some breakfast. It was delicious!!

After breakfast it was time to change into our bathingsuits and explore the park. This park is so beautiful. Pretty landscape and almost peaceful.


Soon it was time for our dolpin interaction. It's so amazing to be close to a beautiful animal like that. So close in the animal's environment.
Our Dolphin was Yoko. She is 24 years old and a little sassy. I love that ... What a beautiful animal.
What a beautiful experiment. So amazing!!!

Ofcourse some family photos too.

What a joy, what a joy.

After the dolphins swim and a little break we went to the lazy river and relaxed in the nice hot water. We went to see the otters and the marmosets.

After a few minutes watching these cuties we continued our journey and got out at the aviary where we could feed several birds. Beautiful area.

 after the aviary we jumped back into the river and  enjoyed eachother's company together with the beautiful landscape

Floating in the river makes you hungry so it was lunch time and I chose the steak with potatoes, vegetables, a salad, watermelon and a cheesecake afterwards.  It was very good.

The rest of the afternoom we spent snorkeling with the stingrays. That area is so beautiful. I had a full mask snorkel which is amazing. I could see clearly underwater and I could breath normally.

We were getting cold in the freezing water(hahaha) and got out and got dressed.

We jumped in the car and drove to Lake Buena Vista outlet. Somehow my favorite....
We went shopping and we all came back with bags with goodies.

We ate a light dinner at Five Guys and after that we coninued shopping.  Again bags for us all.

Kim drove back to the hotel and dropped us off. And now we are chillin in our room and admire our new bought stuff.

We are getting ready for tomorrow. It will be a long day as we are going to  Mickey's Halloween party.
So I'm not sure I have time to write a blog.  Iĺl do my best I promise.

THanks for reading and commenting folks!

Shopping 1

We had a perfect first night. We went to sleep straight away but woke up early morning. Normally becaise of the time difference you are awake in the middle of the night. But not us. It was early but not that bad. Around 8 we got dressed and went outside and catched a bus to International Drive. We took the I-ride Trolley and it was the Green Line. I found that weird cause there was no busstop for the Green LIne. We hopped on and after 15 minutes the driver realized he put on the wrong sign. He was driving the Red Line. THankfully not a lot of people were on the wrong bus.

We got out and made our way to Denny's. This has been my ritual for years. First breakfast in US will be enjoyed at Denny's. Why? For me this is the real USA. It's a feeling I guess.

I took the French Toast platter and Lianne had the Grand Slam with pancakes. DELICIOUS!

During breakfast I got a message from Kim who is also in Orlando what we were going to do today. I told her we are going shopping at the Outlet mall North. She asked if she could join us...ofcourse. After a while there she was and we were complete once again.

We strolled through the whole mall and bought some here and there. I needed new Skechers and so did Kim. We bought some stuff at the Disney outlet. Lianne wanted some VANS and got lucky too. 

A short stop at Starbucks and we finished our round. We hopped in the car and drove to Florida Mall where we sat down and drank something cause it is bloody hot. We strolled through the mall and bought some stuff here and there. It was quite an adventure cause I forgot to bring my 1 piece bathingsuit from home and I had to find another one. Iḿ pretty picky and I only want a competion bathing suit. Nowhere to be found. THey are pretty into Tankini's. Not me....But I got lucky at Ron Jon's Surfshop. Still not hungry after that breakfast so we decided to drive to the Walmart and have dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. 

At Logan's I had Steak and chicken with some potato chips and Cinnamon apples. Lianne had the ribs and steak. We had a wonderful dinner and after that Lianne wanted to have some ice cream. So we drove to Twistee Treat and had a small Sundae. KIm dropped us off at the hotel so here we are. Chillin' and getting ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow w are going to Discovery Cove for a day of pampering.

The new collection .....so far!

See you Tomorrow!!

Airline or Eatline

Finally the day was there. The day that our vacation would start. Packing was done, suitcase way beneath the maximum weight(for now)

My dad offered to drive us to the train station and after we picked up Lianne he drove us there. We had to wait a little bit but soon we boarded the train that took us straight to Amsterdam airport. Check in went smooth, self-service bagage went smooth. We passed the bomb and powder test with flying colors. We went straight to Starbucks and rewarded ourselves with a nice cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin for Lianne and some banana bread for me..

After constantly checking the gate we went to E 17 and when we arrived there they changed it to D42. You have any idea how large Amsterdam airport is? Wow.

It was time to board and we found out we had to go by bus to our aircraft.  Thatś so old Fashioned but it went still smooth. We had bus nr 1. THey let us wait for 10 minutes in a packed bus where the temperature was rising. Even the bus driver asked why we could not board. But finally the doors open and we could board the aircraft. We had perfect seats with lots of room for our legs. Ideal for my knee ofcourse.

We left the airport on schedule and once we had the cruising altitude we got drinks and chips and cookies. 

During the flight  I watched Aladdin and Mary Poppins returned. 

Time for dinner...a big plate full with the honey glazed chicken with mash potatoes and carrots as hot meal. A salad, crackers, cheese, a pretzel roll and as dessert Lemon Caramel cheesecake. DELICIOUS.

Another movie and we got a hot cookie. Some hours later close to landing we got a Turkey cheese croissant and an ice cream (do you understand the title now?)

But it tasted very good!

We had a bumpy ride but all and all it was smooth

After the plane was at the gate we went straight to custums which was very relaxed.  We had to  wait for a little while for our suitcase but they were there too. Yes smooth!!

We had to wait a little for our taxi which took us to the hotel. I booked a 30 min. grocery stop underway and we bought some water and soda at the Publix.

Finally we were at the hotel. Impressive. Large rooms, very need and clean.

After we settled in we had a small meal at the IHOP and we walked back to the hotel. Time to go to sleep....Goodnight, Goodmorning, see you tomorrow....

Whaaatttttttt????

Yes she is back!!! It's been a while since my last vacation in the United States but that had many reasons. For example a new house and an accident with my bicycle that destroyed my knee.

Last year I had plans, no I already booked a trip to South Africa prior my accident. So I had to cancel that. 

Now I am be able to walk, to work with my knee but it is still bothering me a lot. Its very painful sometimes. In fact after my vacation I need another surgery. But let's not talk about that, but let's talk about my plans....

My friends know my heart is always in the USA. But I do want to see more of the world. But the USA was calling and I made plans to go to Las Vegas this year. 

When my best friends came to visit they brought along their daughter and I was telling them about my plans. Their daughter(Lianne) really wanted to go too and her parents gave permission she could go too. Very funny because when Lianne was six she asked me if she could come to USA when she was 18. Ofcourse she could. She is 22 now. So we made plans and already booked a hotel. 

But my knee got worse and I realized that Las Vegas was too much for my knee. Too much walking. So I talked to Lianne and we changed our destination to Orlando. Which is tourist friendly and we are be able to do things in a pace that will fit my knee.

We got lucky and could book cheap tickets to Orlando for just over 400 Euro per ticket. And we fly with my favorite airline: Delta.

Then the search for an hotel...

Because of my knee I didn't want to rent a car so we need to be a little close to parks and all.

So International Drive is the place to be. Tons of hotels and I spotted a very nice hotel and booked that. But just a week ago I got a very nice offer from another hotel site which I couldn't refuse so I cancelled our first booking and booked this hotel.

We are staying at the Monumental hotel International Drive. Very good reviews it has. Besides we will only sleep there but the room has a TV, coffeemaker, fridge. So all the basic necessities are there. 

Now we've got a full schedule ahead of us that contains a little Disney, A little shopping, A little (kidding) Seaworld, a little BuschGardens and a little shopping. Lots off little will make it Lottle right? And in between that all kinds of other stuff.

So funny that Kim is also in Orlando and what started out as 1 day doing something together turned out in lots of things together. 

For the Newbies thats reading my blog. Kim is a friend that went with me to the States in 2007. She was a Disney fan but I transferred her to a Seaworld fan.....

And now I'm bringing fresh blood....Orlando watch out...

As you notice I'm writing in English but the reason is mainly that a lot of my friends are from around the world and are having major issues with Dutch so that's why my Blog is in English. Don't worry you can put your comments in Dutch. 

Well my next blog will be in the USA. We'll be leaving on the 24th of September. So let's wait together, then it's not so bad....