Day 6- More of the same and Florida Mall

Tue Nov 16- Today started with a presentation of sorts at the convention centre, with someone retiring from the association. As a going away present, they brought Disney characters onto the stage to liven up things.


After that, we went out again to visit (more) themed hotels. This one's based on some Southern architecture, called Saratoga Springs.

One had a water wheel..

Most had pretty flowers..

And people were lazing around the pool in these hotels a lot.

This one's called Boardwalk Resort.

And this is the nice wide boardwalk.

Bored.. so I took pictures of myself.

At night I took a bus out to a shopping centre called The Florida Mall, which was the biggest shopping centre in Florida. Ok lah quite normal, like a single storey Marina Square. I bought 2 magazines (maybe can keep for reading on the plane ride back to Singapore)- Mad magazine and Wizard magazine (a comics magazine).

Yeah- counting down.. as I am writing this on Wed morning, I have exactly 2 mornings left until I leave Orlando. On Fri morning I leave for the airport, and head for home sweet home.

Miss you, my dear ah bao, meimei and didi.

Day 5- Convention begins, Disney Animal Kingdom and Bracelet

Mon Nov 15- Convention starts today. Basically it comprises of talks and an exhibition. So the day is busy but not terribly exciting- staying indoors listening to people making their presentations..

After the last presentation of the day which was about Disney's Animal Kingdom, they brought us on a tour of the Animal Kingdom, which is Disney's largest theme park, with animals.

But since the tour was conducted after the theme park was closed, it meant that we couldn't get to see the animals, which had retired for the day. Instead we got to watch shows like Finding Nemo- the Musical.

And here is the highlight of the day.. I bought a Mickey/ Minnie Mouse bracelet for Meimei at Animal Kingdom. Quite pretty I thought. It is made up of clear beads which are shaped like Mickey/ Minnie Mouse.

Hope you like it, Meimei!

Day 4- Swan, Harry Potter, Comics, Italian and Coach

Sun Nov 14- We visited Swan Resort, another Disney themed hotel.


We met our local host who brought us on a tour of Universal Studios theme park.

This is the latest opened part of the theme park- based on the Harry Potter movies.

Very popular leh... many people.

This is the cartoon strip part of the theme park.

Marvel comics is also here...

This is called the Hulk roller coaster...

... I didn't take the roller coaster. Just stayed on the ground and took pictures...

... with Captain America.

Portefino. An Italian themed resort within Universal Studios area.

In the evenings, an tenor or a soprano will make an appearance at one of the balconies and sing to the audience in the plaza...

Must.. eat.. rice.. again.

Surprise! I bought a nice blue Coach bag for ah bao. I thought the colour is quite nice.

Hope you like the bag dear.

Day 3- Cook School, Fried Rice, Spongebob and Lego

Nov 13- On Saturday morning, we headed for Le Cordon Bleu, which is a cooking school with its origins in French cooking. It is a culinary school (you learn full course restaurant cooking, including pastry making) with about 1,200 students. Students pay about USD38K - 42K for their education here, which is for Bachelor's degree. This morning, we were fortunate enough to chance upon a cooking competition, between 2 lecturers and their respective group of students. It was a competition which was open to viewing by the public. You could tell the students were tense, as they did not pay much attention to the public.

And this is me with my Gap cap which I bought yesterday. As usual the sun was very hot, with hardly any clouds in the sky.

For some reason, we visited another premium/ factory outlet place. Didn't buy anything this time (I tried looking for some lady's bags at Fossil, but I found out the bags didn't have a lot of storage space, though they looked big from the outside). Lunch was at a food court at the premium outlet (see photo above): fried rice, with broccoli with beef, and cheese wonton. The wonton's filling was cheese, not minced pork and shrimp, yucks...! Wasn't really looking out to eat rice, but when I saw the fried rice at the Chinese stall, I thought, hmm yum yum, and ordered it. Taste was not bad (except for the cheese wonton, which is disappointing).

After lunch, we visited Nickelodeon Suites Resort, which was a resort with characters from the Nickelodeon cartoon channel, including Dora, Jimmy Neutron, Rugrats and...

... Spongebob Squarepants!

But this kind of place... I think the adults are all very bored. Here are some bored adults lying on their deck chairs beside the pool.

We continued on to Disney Downtown, which is basically like a Clarke Quay developed by Disney. It had a river next to it, and shops lining all along the river. Here I am in front of a Lego shop. Transformer figure behind made entirely of Lego.

Some of the Lego creations on display.

And this dragon in the water was also made of Lego! Amazing.

Our last stop was at an old fashioned looking hotel in the Port Orleans area. We had another long day- we started from 9am and ended back at our hotel around 8.30pm. Slept soundly after that.