Day 168 - No More Storms Now Please

We set off on another long drive at about 11:00 and drove our way through multiple storms to finally reach Charleston, South Carolina at about 16:00. The weather was pretty poor here too and so we only ventured out to get some food for tea.

Hopefully tomorrow will be kinder to us as we have a day’s break from driving and are hoping to have a look around the town of Charleston as it’s meant to be quite a nice place.

Day 167 - Escaping Debby Begins

As we only had a drive ahead of us and it would probably rain we decided to sleep in today. We left at 11:00 and drove all the way up the east coast until we reached Ormond Beach, Florida. There was very little in the way of rain too, though the sky was packed with dark clouds. We also learned that Hurricane Debby had slowed down and so we may be able to escape from Florida before she sweeps across from the west coast.

After check in and some lounging around we looked for some places where we could get some food. 

Miraculously we found a Thai restaurant nearby that had received lots of good reviews and so off we sped. The food was great and we each helped ourselves to lots of, lovingly received, steamed vegetables with our meals.

Day 166 - Are we in England

We both were rudely awoken during the night by an incredible thunderstorm that eventually passed right over our motel. The heavy rain continued into the morning and so we decided it was best to cancel our plans to venture down to the Florida Keys. We had put this trip off each day hoping that the next would give us better weather but these storms are endless. We’ll just have to come back to Florida to do that trip another time!

The day was spent indoors once more and our past few days in Florida has been very reminiscent of the family’s trip to Florida in Home Alone 2.

We did go out once but this was just to Applebees, when the rain had died down, for some tea.

Watching the weather channel it would appear that Hurricane Debby is moving in on Florida also and so, along with all the forecast rain, there is also a whole heap of tornado warnings being issued for Florida – woooo!

Day 165 - Miami Beach

We had a short lie-in and then decided to go out for once as the rain seemed to have let up a little.

We parked up and then went for a long walk along the sands of Miami Beach. The clouds were still lingering overhead but the heat was still there and there were plenty of people sunbathing too.

After the walk we decided to go to the cinema again, this time to watch Brave – which was really good btw.

We were just glad to have made it out of the motel room today; it has delayed our going insane for a little bit longer.

Day 164 - Miami Heat, We Wish

The rain didn’t let up today either and so it was another day spent indoor finalising our plans.

After tiring of that we nipped out to the supermarket to get some supplies before coming back to call it an early night.

The forecast for our remaining time in Florida doesn’t look too promising either so we may have to come up with some alternatives to sunbathing.

Day 163 - Motel Bound in Miami

Corrie’s master plan of sunbathing in Miami was scuppered this morning as the weather channels forecast was correct – lots of rain for Florida. The rain continued on and off throughout the day and so we never ventured out to the beach. Instead we began our diet of cereal, without milk, and knuckled down to some more in depth planning for the remainder of our travels. Today is when we discovered that we’d no longer be renting a car to drive across Canada as the cost would be through the roof (due to steep one-way costs and the fact that we’re both under 25.) We have now reverted to our old plans of getting the train across; stopping along the route to hire a car for a few days and explore. We also discovered the train journey has 50% off and so the tickets won’t be quite as expensive as we’d previously thought.

After lots of planning we journeyed out to Applebee’s where we both ordered a steak with a double helping of vegetables each!

Day 162 - Tropical Downpours in The Sunshine State

We slept in after yesterday’s mammoth day in the theme park and then left Orlando at about 12:00. We then had about a four hour journey down the east coast until we reached Miami. This drive wore Danny out, not really because of the length of the trip but because we were under the full force of thunderstorms almost all of the way down. The 65 and 70mph speed limits were easily halved as Danny strained to keep us moving towards our destination.

We finally arrived and checked in and then, after a bit of resting in the room, we went to Wal-Mart to get some water etc and then grabbed some tea which came in the form of a Burger King. This was the last straw for Corrie who claims she simply cannot eat anymore of this stuff. Danny was in agreement but we’re going to really struggle to eat healthy AND stay within budget. If we were in a campervan again or if we had a fridge and/ or cooking facilities everywhere we stayed then we’d be ok as we could cook our own food. We’re not sure yet how we’ll be getting around this issue but where there’s a will there’s a way ey?!

Day 161 - Hollywood Studios

We were up and off so we could get into Disney’s Hollywood Studios park at 09:30. Danny had done some quick research online and discovered a top tip for this park: The major ride here is the Toy Story Midway Mania! Ride and the queues get big fast. We had learned that you have to make your way straight to it and grab yourself one of the free FASTPASS tickets that gives you a designated time to return to this ride and you’ll pretty much get straight on the ride. Once you have a pass you can’t get another one for a ride for a good couple of hours depending on the ticket and so this prevents abuse of this system; it also means you have to choose your FASTPASSES wisely.

We then started working our way through almost everything the park had to offer, popping back to the Toy Story ride at 14:00 to see what all the fuss was about. By this time the FASTPASS machines for this ride had been closed as all the passes were gone for the day! The queue time was still at a steady 140 minutes which is the longest queue time either of us has ever seen at a theme park – we got on within 5! Just so you know, it is an awesome ride; one of the ones where you shoot things to score points but it’s all Toy Story styled so it’s cool.

We slowly conquered the entire park, missing out only one or two things and then we went to get in line for the Fastasmic! show that started at 21:00. This show was pretty good too and was a great way to finish up the day.

We both left drained but completely satisfied with our 12 ½ hour day at the park, our highlights of the day being: Toy Story Midway Mania! Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and the Fantasmic! show.

Day 160 - Back to SeaWorld

We had been planning on seeing the launch of a shuttle of some sorts today but after checking up on its status last night we learned that it had been postponed. We therefore treated ourselves to a lie-in before making a return trip to SeaWorld simply to ride the two rollercoasters and the log flume there. Danny had missed out when he was ill and didn’t go on the Manta and so this was the first port of call. Then we went on the log flume and finally we rode the Kraken; all three were good and worth the trip – Manta was the best of the three though.

After wasting some time in SeaWorld we made our way back to the motel and grab some more, almost unavoidable, junk food for tea. We called it an early night and are both pretty gutted that we’ll be missing the launch of something into space!

Day 159 - Motel Switching and Travel Planning

Today we got up late and then had to pack away all of our things as we were checking out of this motel and into a cheaper one! Upon arrival at the next motel we were told that we’d have to wait until 15:00 before we could get our room and so we then had a few hours to kill. We decided to go to the cinema to watch Madagascar 3 – Twas good.

Back in the motel room we started planning the remaining part of our travels; seeing how to fit what we wanted to do into the remaining days we have with the car before it’s returned to Philadelphia. We did most of the planning and now just have a little left which is the Canada part. We’re nearly there now, it’s just a case of when we’ll get a car there, and for how long we’ll keep it. Danny’s also trying to find how to see about people that have cars that need taking from A to B and they will pay you to do it – That’s what we really need!

For a break/ tea we hit Applebee’s for some cheap food.

Day 158 - Bye-Bye Sean and Steph

Corrie and Steph were up early as Danny and Sean had assured them that they would be picked up at 08:15. Sean however was not feeling this early start and so the two of them finally arrived at the motel for 09:15 to be confronted with a very disgruntled looking pair of women.

We then had to go to Downtown Disney once more as Sean and Steph were flying home later on and were able to do an early check in here; cutting the need to be at the airport very early and giving them a little more time to do stuff.

Stuff came in the form of a return trip to Islands of Adventure as Sean and Danny were keen to pay another visit to Harry Potter land! We ended up going on a few of the rides in the park before we eventually made a move.

Before dropping the other two at the airport we stopped at Denny’s for some cheap food.

It’s been a very busy past week with lots of late nights and early mornings but we got a lot done and it was fun. We’re not sure if Sean and Steph will have really felt like they had a “holiday” but at least no time was wasted!

Back at the motel, after saying our farewells, we both crashed into bed and watched films ‘til it was time for bed.

Day 157 - Disney World’s Magic Kingdom

We all made it to Disney’s Magic Kingdom park before 12:00 where we purchased our tickets and then went in for a day in the theme park.

The park was alright but didn’t really outshine any of the others we’d been to. This was largely due to the lack of big rollercoasters and extremely long queues but we still had a good day here.

We’d decided on this park out of the five Disney parks that there is to choose from because you can’t really say you’ve been to Disney World without going to the Magic Kingdom. It is really aimed at kids but any fan of Disney movies will find something they like here. The Space Mountain ride here was a bit crazy; Danny had been on the one in Paris but that turns out to be SM2 and a completely different ride to this one. This ride actually feels as though it is broken and the breaks do not work as you free roll at high speeds around this track that is all in the dark – it was pretty intense.

We spent the whole of the day here and even stayed to watch the Electric Parade at 21:00 and the spectacular fireworks display at 22:00.