Day 14 - Cirque Du Soleil

TLDR: Mum and dad left today so said our goodbyes and headed to the Shopping Malls. Picked up another few games for myself and the boys and Ann finally got her new Apple watch. Home and ready for tonight star attraction - Cirque Du Soleil. An absolutely fantastic show and one of the best attractions Ive ever been to here in Orlando. Thunder and Lightning loomed as we headed for dinner, which ended up being The Olive Garden. Great Italian and extremely reasonable too! Winner winner, chicken dinner (I did actually have the chicken as it happens).

Shopping for the bazillionth time

So not much in terms of plans for the am. Parentals were heading back home today so met up with them in the morning to say cheerio and give them my old laptop to take home (which is technically now my dads anyway). After that we headed off to the Florida Mall again to visit some additional Games shops for the boys (and me) and see what last minute things we could pick up. There are two Gamestops which are just like what Game is in the UK and they picked up another few games including Dishonored II, The Borderlands Collection and the new Crash Bandicoot for PS4 (which we all agreed to chip in for as it was a ‘family’ game). We then stopped for a bite to eat at a New York Pizza Deli, which was technically breakfast (my Starbucks Energy Coffee doesn’t count), before continuing to peruse around the shops. Then it appeared in all its magical glory - The Apple Store. Dun dun dun! Almost like all other Apples stores really, however on this particular day we had a sole purpose - to get Ann an Apple Watch. You see, I picked up mine about a week or so ago and while Ann was meant to do the same, she hesitated and wanted to see how it performed before taking the leap. After I wouldn’t stop going on and on about mine she finally decided on getting one at some point, so seeing the store just confirmed it. She went for a rose gold (read pink) number and as youre paying the same in dollars here as you are in pounds in the UK, its saves quite a bit. Never mind all the smart tech-y stuff it can do though, she just wanted it for the Minnie clock-face! :P Patrick really had been wanting to go to the bookstore since he got here, to look at comics and stuff (though he has amassed quite a collection already), but we had to postpone it again to get home and changed in time for our Cirque Du Soleil booking later in the day. He wasn’t too pleased we had changed our minds yet again but did leave us with today’s Fun Fact:

> The first ever Superhero in a DC comic was Superman and made his debut in Action Comics #1

All ready to take a whole load of photographs at tonights event: La Nouba at Cirque Du Soleil in Disney Springs, I was informed that no photography or videotaping was allowed. We took our seats at pretty much floor level, 3 rows from the stage and settled down with some popcorn (and a beer for me) to enjoy some awesome entertainment. I’d been wanting to see a Cirque Du Soleil performance for years and the tickets became available through our ticket supplier so we jumped on it. The show was spectacular and in the end glad that I wasn’t photographing as I got to enjoy the whole spectacle in its entirety (ok, maybe I was still a wee bit sad). From clowns to high wire acrobats to little girls performing unbelievable tricks with Diabolos, it had everything! It was truly amazing and something Ill never forget for a very long time. Highly recommended.

Now the plan was that after we finished La Nouba, we would head to Magic Kingdom to get in the evening shows (of which there were three). As we didn’t manage to fit in any dinner, we though the best option would be to go grab a bite to eat instead and hit the park again on another night. Five minutes after leaving we knew we made the right decision - we were being chased by some very angry thunderclouds (like literally, in front of us was a nice orange sunset sky and behind us was nearly pitch black with flecks of white shooting across the sky every so often). It was pretty late for dinner so it was really busy everywhere and after being turned away from Chilli’s we thought it was a lost cause. We decided to try the Olive Garden as that was on our to-do list and we hadn’t ever visited (apparently the bread-sticks were awesome). It was pretty much right next to our hotel so we thought we give it a go. We were told about a 20-30 min wait, which wasn’t too bad so sat back down to look at the menu. Now this is where things get interesting, drinks while you were waiting were half price. As Ann was driving I went up and got me a wee Sam Adams and glass of Pinot Noir. It was 6 bucks for both! Hey man, I’ll just wait for a few hours for my table if that’s an option!!! Sadly, after exactly 20 minutes we were shown to our table. Chicken Parmigiana for me, Seafood Pasta for Ann (again she had the better looking meal), and the kids went for a mixture of Make Your Own Pasta (a great invention) and Chicken Strips. Ours also came with a huge salad, soup and the supposed-to-be-amazing bread-sticks (which were amazing). The food was excellent and the kids for once cleared all of the their plates – mostly. And then we got hit with our bill - the cheapest we’d actually paid for an evening meal this entire holiday - why oh why weren’t we here sooner???

A short trip back to the hotel and the rain had stopped thankfully. Early-ish to bed tonight for the little ones as we have a full 13hr day ahead of us tomorrow at Hollywood Studios! And to make up for the lack of photos (and to create an icon for my post), here’s a wee pic of Gracie tonight - prior to her spilling marinara sauce all over her nice new dress :P