After a good nights rest, we woke up normal EST time but in our heads it was 6:30am. A bit hard for Mason to wake up at noon let alone prior to 7am. I had breakfast on our balcony:
I made him breakfast and we were out the door headed back to DW. I was excited to see Hollywood Studio as it would be a brand new experience for both of us.
We paid for parking and noted our lane in the giant parking lot. For this area of Disney, no transport was needed to the gates. Our passes were good for all three days so it was a quicker entry. We had three rides noted down that were of interest to Mason but one was closed.
We headed to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The wait was quick and this ride was cool because we were in one ride with about 15 others. I didn't do any research about each ride on purpose, so I couldn't back out. Note: I've jumped out of an airplane and gone parasailing, so I'm not afraid of heights but in my old age I've had issues with my neck and I'm terrified of putting it out. Especially on the other side of Canada nowhere near my Chiro.
The lights went out and we went up up up and then free fall. OMG I screamed but I loved it. I like that feeling when your stomach bottoms out. As we were leaving, Mason informed me that was NOT a fun ride and he wouldn't be doing it again.
Now off to kill some time before Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. We didn't have much interest in looking in the stores and the rest of the rides were either too young for Mason or he didn't have any interest. My brain kept reminding me that the tickets and parking were almost $500 but I'm not going to force him into doing something he didn't enjoy.
We headed into the ride and it was similar to space mountain, long hallways and dark. This ride was for 6 and we were at the front - steering. The people behind us were shooting, I think. I was going to give up my seat as I don't know how to fly a helicopter. I decided to wing it. The ride was okay, a lot of fast moving video and Mason going left and right and me listening to Mason scream "Pull UP! Pull UP! and Go DOWN DOWN!" lol. I have no idea how we did.
At that point, Mason wanted to leave. We had only been there for a few hours but there wasn't much more for us to do and with the limited food items, eating there wasn't an option. I packed my salad & snack box which was yummy.
So we left. Mason stated he wanted to go back to the hotel but we have a rental car and I didn't want to go back quite yet. He stated he wanted to see Alligators while we were in Florida. Gator Land was only 20 mins away so after stopping to get a 10" cheese pizza ($10.68 USD), we were on our way.
Gator Land was $89.26 CAD for two of us, parking was free. It was an outdoor animal sanctuary. A nice walk in the jungles and seeing various animals:
By 2pm, we figured we'd head back and enjoy an hour of sun before the rain was predicted to come. When we got in the hotel, Mason asked for a lay down. I really wanted to go to the waterpark, we had free passes and I didn't want them to go to waste. He's not sleeping but asked for me to lay down with him. This is the part of motherhood that's hard. He's not going to be with me forever and I might as well savour these times he wants to cuddle and forgo sunshine by the pool.
Fast forward to dinnertime, I started to get hungry and Mason ate leftover pizza. Orlando is not devoid of restaurants but they aren't walking distance from our hotel. Mason seemed hungry soI had to find a teen friendly restaurant that would have basic carb heavy foods (pasta, pizza or chicken fingers...not much else). I settled on TGI Friday's as it was more like Boston Pizza back home. The parking was full but the restaurant was half empty. They had cool weird objects stuck to the walls:
I ordered chicken & steak fajitas and Mason wanted chicken fingers with mac & cheese but the waitress told us that they were out of mac and cheese so we opted for a caesar salad which is a rare thing for him to eat but I was glad he was eating a vegetable. When the food arrived, the portions were HUGE. I forgot we were in the US. And it turns out they weren't out of mac & cheese so she gave him that two but in two small boats. She didn't charge us extra for the salad. Needless to say we didn't get through it and it was a meal for tomorrow. Total cost with tip - $68.91 CAD.
Back to the hotel. Driving in a new city wasn't stressful but I did notice their traffic lights are super long. There is a lot of waiting. We have also gone through 3/4 tank of gas jetting around. Luckily I am driving a Toyota Corolla and so the gas bill won't be huge. We were treated to a short lived lightening show when we got back.