Spring Break in Florida (Journal Included)

We got out of bed at 8:30 a.m. We slowly finished unpacking and looking around the condo. A week before the trip we had discussed whether or not to make reservations for a fancy Sunday brunch at The House of Blues or The Boheme. We took in to consideration that we were going to be spending a lot to get in the theme parks, plus we wanted to go out to a top notch restaurant for dinner one night. Therefore, after tons of research and much discussion, we figured a zillion good reviews couldn't be wrong and went to the I-Drive Golden Corral (GC) buffet. It was further up I Drive than I thought. We had to go to the other side of the convention center and the convention center is huge.

Our biggest mistake was that we got to the GC at 10:45 a.m. We arrived during the breakfast to lunch transition, because lunch begins at 11 a.m. We knew we were surrounded by other people on a mission to get breakfast. We queued up in the line and waited (somewhat) patiently. We could only wonder if the pancakes, eggs, and bacon would be all taken and replaced by lunch food by the time we got to the cooks. We got our turn and took a little bit of everything. Pancakes were at the end of the buffet line, in short supply, and the cook at the griddle couldn't make them fast enough. A woman from the dining room walked up to us and politely, yet firmly, said, "I just want a couple of pancakes, nothing else, so I'm just going to get a few...." The man behind me and my husband said, amazingly calmly, "Oh! No, ma'am." She stood up perfectly straight and said, "Excuse me! Even if I only want this one thing?" He replied, "Ma'am, I have waited to get pancakes, so you should step back." Several other people in line were nodding vigorously in agreement. She was majorly outnumbered, so she sighed heavily and stomped off. All we could do was laugh. Those people were serious about getting their breakfast food!

We found a booth towards the back of the restaurant, next to the dessert preparation area. There were only two booths there, so you'll see where I'm writing about if you go, and I think those two booths are the best seats in the house. You're out of the flow of traffic and it's much quieter than sitting in one of the large, open dining rooms. I enjoyed watching the woman making coconut cream pies and cutting cakes. We weren't in a hurry, so we took our time and went back for a few nibbles of lunch food. I got broccoli, collards, and brussel sprouts.

We could see I-4 from the restaurant, so when we left, we followed the signs and got on I-4 west. There are two grocery stores near Horizons: a Publix and a WalMart Super Center. My husband wanted an extra pair of inexpensive shorts and we needed groceries, so we decided to go to Wal-Mart. We bought breakfast food, sandwich fixings, some snacks, plus beer.

After putting away the groceries, I logged on to the Internet through the free wireless connection provided by Horizons. I purchased our tickets to go to Sea World the next day (the tix are a few dollars less expensive online), then called the front desk to find out where their business center was to print the tickets. That's when I found out that Horizons does not offer a business center. The front desk will print an airplane boarding pass for you, but that's it. We were told to go to the Marriott Residence Inn, which was the next hotel up the road. We decided to go swimming for a while, then drive by the other hotel on our way to dinner. Horizons has two pools. Both have water slides and are decorated with a pirates theme. There are good photos on the Horizons web site.

We got to the Residence Inn and we found the business center quickly, but we needed a room key to open the door and our condo key would not work. Luckily, there was already one young lady in the room using a computer and she opened the door for us. We were running late for our dinner plans, so I did not waste any time logging on to my e-mailbox and printing the tickets.

We went to the home of friends for dinner that night. We had an excellent dinner of steak, salad, veggie casserole, potatoes, and cheesecake with cherries.

We got back to the Marriott around 10:30 p.m.