Vacation Florida - indoor water park OMG

Always do more than planned

It doesn't matter how much there is to do at the hotel - Coco Keys is great and all with it's two water parks being right there but it closes at 7pm and then what?

And considering how much money I spent in the large arcade room - I needed to do something more.

So, I started planning in hopes of getting ahead of the wife and kids coming up with some crazy idea to go somewhere and spend an outrageous amount of money on something silly. Yes, like visiting the next door Titanic Museum ??

Yep, thats what they wanted to do - "it only cost $100 for just the 4 of us Dad"?????

So you know I had to be prepared for the "What do we do now Dad?"
So I decided to take the kids to a big Movie theater.. not like home. An Imax theater to be exact and try to have some fun. First I was going to make the son happy ( and me too ) and watch the new "Battle: Los Angeles " movie...... not so good.

The daughter started complaining and after some whining ( and the wife chiming in ) I decided to watch the movie: RANGO ( family approriate as in everyone wanted to see except me). The movie looked funny in all the previews I’ve seen - but it wasn’t as funny as I thought. Maybe it was because the chairs were a bit uncomfortable - felt like I was stuck in the upright position the whole time. Also the movie just didn't have enough good laughs. Sorry Johnny.

But a funny thing did happen
A funny thing happend on the way to the movies: I was depending on my GPS to get me to the Imax theater ( I did not want to get lost ).. what I did not figure on was that my wife was conspiring against me. First we turned right and all was well, then we turned right and not left as my wife insisted she was told by the GPS.

After a few turns and couple of miles, my daughter surprisingly said "hey there goes our hotel" ... that surprised me ( I should have known when everything started to look familiar ). But what really made us laugh was when we did it again.. that's right people - twice in a row and my wife swears she was right and the GPS was wrong....

"Oh look, there goes our hotel again Dad " said my child.......

Finally we ignored the wife and the GPS brought us right to the Imax theater... I had to laugh, for five minutes out loud.... until I couldn't figure out how to get into the parking garage - then my wife laughed? ... out loud....

Still with too much time
After the movie: I decided to take a walk around the hotel area after the movie and ended up at a MCDONALDS... no, we didn't eat but it had a large arcade and a huge kids play area - so the kids played and the wife sat in a message chair... more money spent and I didn’t' eat a bite...LOL ....


You always eat on vacation
Unlike most people I eat a lot on vacation compared to my regular days. I rarely eat breakfast or lunch, often its a cup of coffee in the morning and one full meal for the whole day ( not counting some snacks ). On vacation though - I eat whenever any one says "I'm hungry", which with my kids its every fifteen minutes. At the hotel there is the usual restaurant. They have a Pizza Hut and a restaurant called Trade Winds. Not a big deal it's geared toward the theme of the hotel - and it's an all you can eat buffet. It is not the greatest experience in the world but it is nice to be able to eat a good burger or something without leaving the water park area or even your hotel. And they give you a large area to sit and eat in their indoor area and even by the pool area.

But you guessed it - that wasn't good enough for me.

I just had to have a nice dinning experience, it had to be more...
Which I sort of got.

I tried getting into one of those big dinner shows I've always wanted to see. You know - Arabian Knights, Pirates Dinner adventure and so forth. But 1. it was expensive and even though I was willing to pay so much 2. you have to book the dinner shows in advance. ( so much for spur of the moment thing )


So I thought maybe this is the universe saving me some money and I'll just go to a nice simple restaurant. We went to Bahama Breeze. Ok, not an average restaurant but I've never been there. It was very nice, great decor, the server was wonderful. They were serving lunch but I had to have Ribs, so I asked for the dinner menu. The ribs were great and so was everyones food. But Oh the desert - the desert was amazing.

I normally don't eat desert but what the heck it was a vacation so let's live. This banana surprise supreme desert was to die for.
But, yes there is always a but...

I spent just as much on this dinner as I would have on one of those 2 hour dinner shows. So I didn't save any money but I did enjoy the experience. If your thinking of having a nice vacation my advice to you is to stay at "Coco Keys" hotel w/ indoor water park or a hotel in that same area and be prepared to do more and spend more than you planned. But you will have fun.

Places we visited
Imax Theater international drive
Bahama Breeze Restuarant Disney Quest Orlando Florida
Coco Keys Hotel - indoor water park