Florida 2020: Diary – Day 10

Christmas Day had arrived! We took advantage of the off day from the parks by sleeping in before heading down together for breakfast. On the way I stopped at the front desk because they hadn’t given us enough breakfast vouchers. We only counted 28, which is enough for 7 days for four of us, but we were staying 9 days. They apologized and replaced the missing ones for us right away.

A New Breakfast Buffet and Resort Activities

We had skipped the hotel breakfast the previous day to get to the park early enough so we didn’t know what to expect from breakfast. As it turned out it was a buffet with the typical hot items and a variety of cereals, fruits, and yogurts. There was also a pancake station and we could order custom omlets and toast from our servers. The quality didn’t match the previous hotel, but was above average with a decent selection.

After breakfast the boys were restless and wanted to try out the golf course that was part of the resort. It was a short pitch and putt layout with 8 holes. We got the clubs and balls from the desk and found the course a short walk away. Luckily we brought extra balls because we lost all of ours, though we found even more than we lost by the end. It was a lot of fun playing golf with the boys. We even played two rounds despite the windy cold…

And it was cold. It was in the mid 30’s and very windy. It was a big change from the shorts weather from the previous day. The next few days were scheduled to be similarly cold, too.

Christmas Lunch

For lunch we decided to go to Disney Springs because we weren’t sure what else would be open. Arriving in one of the parking garages we had to go through a temperature check in order to get in. It took longer than expected since everyone had to go in through the same floor of the garage, but it only took a few extra minutes.

We split up as my youngest wanted to go to Blaze Pizza, a family favorite, for lunch. It wasn’t very busy but there were more people than expected for noon on Christmas Day. Then again, everyone there is a tourist so where else would they go?

When my youngest’s pizza came out, unfortunately someone else took it thinking it was part of their order. Luckily they didn’t try to give us that one when the customer brought it back. They fired him a new one that came out quickly. The manager brought it over to us personally and gave us a coupon for a free pizza at our next visit which was a nice gesture.

After lunch we went to the same running store Tomatico had gone to the previous night to get his insoles and shoes. My youngest’s feet were bothering him and the insoles we had gotten him earlier in the trip from Walmart hadn’t helped. The specialty running store had a special machine to measure your feet and find the correct type of inserts.

My youngest went through the process to measure his feet and they found the correct style for his feet. While they didn’t have his size, they found the equivalent size in women’s and they fit his shoes perfectly. We hoped they would help his feet deal with all the walking he’d be doing over the next few days!

By this time, Tomatico and my wife had met up with us. We did some more window shopping before heading back to the hotel for the afternoon.

More Resort Activities

Back at the resort the boys wanted to check out the basetball courts. At the activites desk we got the basketball and directions to the courts. They were a 10 minute walk away so we weren’t sure we were headed in the right direction before we finally saw them. We played for about 30 minutes before switching it up to toss the frisbee.

As it got towards dinner time we had to decide what to do for food. Like the previous year in San Diego, we hadn’t planned ahead and weren’t sure what was open. We found a few places that looked good and my youngest and I went out in search of takeout. The first place we went to was closed. Ugh. As were the second, third and fourth places we went to. It was getting pretty frustrating and we decided to cut our losses and just grab something quick at McDonalds.

Of course there was a line there and it moved extremelly slowly, but at least it was open. We finally got our food and brought it back to the hotel. It wasn’t a glorious holdiay dinner but it was enough. We got some snacks in the market using one of our vouchers as more of a treat.

Before bed we got prepared for our visit to Hollywood Studios in the morning. We had the goal to get to the parking toll plaza at least an hour park opening to get into the park as soon as possible. The weather was supposed to be cold so we’d need to dress appropriately and bring our jackets.

Everything was set and we went to bed.