Magic Kingdom & Epcot

July 7th 2016

SSR check out & St.Petes Beach

The Disney Bubble part of the holiday was now at an end
I woke at 8am and started tidying away the remaining mess before getting washed and dressed. My throat had been a bit sore and irritated since yesterday but this morning it was throbbing, I think it was the aircon.
The boys slowly surfaced and got organised, then we went to Artists Palette for our last free breakfast on the DDP.
The boys wanted Mickey waffles and bacon, Nigel the bounty platter and I got a cinnamon roll. We only had 2QS and 2 Snack credits left so I had to pay for one breakfast and with the remaining snack I got some minnie cookies for later!


I know we were only there for 5 days but we honestly didn't think there was too much food on the DDP we actually could have done with more haha! We did use a few snacks on drinks at the parks which I know wasn't a great use but it was baking hot and the Dragonfruit Vitamin water was so good.

All fed and watered we went back to the room to gather our things and phone Bell services to come and collect them at 11am.
Me and the boys left Nigel to deal with all that and walked up to Carriage House to check out and get a receipt printed out of our final bill, which was around the $500 dollar mark, that was all tips and a few purchases like the boys ears, autograph books and things.


We didn't have to collect the car until 2pm to we had a few hours to kill, with this in mind the night before I had packed our swimming gear in a separate bag that I had with me.
Nigel arrived saying how nice the Bell Hop guy was that he didn't want him to help with the luggage, but if you knew Nigel you'd know this was impossible for him haha! Nigel had more or less loaded and unloaded all the cases, then tipped the guy and he told Nigel he should be tipping him lol!

We all went and got changed into our swim stuff and filled our mugs, this time deciding to spend our last hours at the main pool at The Springs. It was another boiling hot day and it was a relief to be in the pool and not the parks. We really enjoyed those few hours splashing about and using the slide just chilling out.


By now it was 1pm and we had to get changed and order an Uber to take us to Double Tree Hilton so we could collect our car from Budget. It was our 1st time using the Uber App and thankfully it was really easy and stress free .We watched as our driver made his way to SSR, his name was Gerardo!

When we got to the Double Tree we headed straight for the Budget counter and gave our details. I was ready to turn down any upgrades they offered but there was absolutely no hard sell and I checked the papers to make sure it said $0.00 before signing.
The guy pulled the car round, we had no idea what we would get other than a full size car, we got a Chevy Equinox with 9'000 miles on the clock. Plenty of room for our luggage and the boys enjoyed the USB charger in the back and the little cup holders and trays.


Nigel was a bit nervous about driving on the wrong side of the road for the 1st time, I had brought our SatNav from home and had purchased USA maps, and saved all the addresses we might need. All plugged in we were soon on our way. We had a short stop back at SSR for our luggage, Nigel again loading the car and tipping Bell services :/
We all made a trip to the loos and I grabbed a few snacks for the journey.


Bye bye Disney see you in a few days!


The drive to St.Petes was easy enough, although we were shocked at the concrete roads and all the ripped tyres along the way. The sky bridge was amazing.
I had to remind Nigel to keep to the left as he was starting to veer a bit too far over to the next lane, I'm not the best passenger I do that thing with my foot as if I'm controlling the brakes... Nigel loves it when I do that


We arrived at St.Petes at 4pm and were soon parked up out side The Grand Plaza. Our room was ready and up we went. On first impressions it looked nice, the main bed was massive and I loved the shutters on the windows and our view was great. The bathroom was a bit small and everywhere could have done with a fresh lick of paint but overall we were very happy.


The View from our balcony

And this..



The boys were itching to get to the beach and we started to feel very hungry, so we went down to Bongos and got a table straight away on the beach.


There was a wedding just finishing off and our server told us they hold between 500-600 per year and today alone there were two.
It's easy to see why, it's just so beautiful and that sunset is something else.


Anyway back to the food, everything was fresh and tasty and we all cleared our plates and went for a nice walk on the beach.

The sunset


We waited until the sun went down, drinking in every last minute. Liam had went into the water and soaked his shorts and we'd want to walk down the street for some supplies in Publix so we made a detour to the room. I thought it would just be easier to run him a shower to get all the sand off, well this is what greeted me in the plug hole of the bath...

eewwweee!
Totally gross.

I quickly got Liam cleaned up using the sink! We went down to reception to tell them about the bath and I have to say the guy just looked like he didn't care, he just wanted to get his shift in and go home.:angry: He asked me if we wanted to change room or have someone clean it, we just said have it cleaned cause we had all our stuff there now and we were tired. He said he'd get someone from housekeeping on to it, fine I thought we were going to the shop anyway.
We walked the short distance to Publix and got some drinks and snacks for the room we also went into CVS but we were too tired to really have a good mooch about, so said we'd come back tomorrow for a better look as there was a Dollar Tree to.


We'd been gone a good 20mins and when we came back I asked the guy if the room was sorted and he said Oh I'll get someone now!
We had to sit in the lobby for another 10mins before he gave us the nod to go on up.

I went straight to the bathroom to check the bath and the hair was all gone but the bath was bone dry! Yes the cleaner had just lifted out the hair and didn't even give it a wash round. I was so tired I just wanted to cry, I ended up cleaning it myself with shower gel.
My throat was still sore so I hopped into bed, had some pain killers and ate some chocolate to console myself with.
ZZZzzzzzz!

StPetes & shopping

St Pete's looks beautiful
How awful about the bath though ... x

We are staying at the Grand Plaza next year - can't wait for Bongos and Sunsets! Hopefully they'll be no yucky bath plug holes though!

It's so pretty and the sunset is amazing... the plug hole not so much

The hotel is just in a perfect location, a few steps to the beach and Bongos is really great! You'll have a great time x

Gorgeous pic of you and the boys on the beach

The plug hole has made me gag

Awe thank you x

Sorry about the plug hole pic... disgusting wasn't it!

Beach looks fab. Shame about the bath hair 😷

Lovely day! St Petes beach and a meal at Bongos whilst watching the sunset is on my bucket list!

Ha that photo turns me a funny shade of green every time!

Yes do it! The boys would love the beach.

Lovely day