Trip to Orlando – Day 6

We have great intentions to get up early and get off to Cape Canaveral really early, but we sleep in and have to pack and it is decided that we need Krispy Kremes for breakfast, so it’s not the speedy departure I’d been hoping for. Krispy Kremes proves to be an unexpected hit, I knew the donuts would be good, but I didn’t realise there was a donut factory in the store. The kids spend ages watching the machine, which isn’t working quite right and producing some very oddly shaped donuts. The staff are throwing them out and trying to fix it. It’s all quite interesting.

Eventually we are on our way, and head out to the coast, it’s a fairly straightforward drive, not to exciting. Katie is reading Harry Potter so we never hear a peep out of her. Molly is singing Abba again. The lyrics haven’t really improved…

Eventually we cross the rivers and spot the ship. It’s a really beautiful looking ship, quite traditional looking. Molly spots Donald and the ‘twit-lets’ on the front of the ship, and coins a new family phrase. We park up and they take our bags. Phil then has to take the car to the carpark and we head into the terminal building. Whilst we wait for Phil, I sign the kids up for the kids club, and we meet Goofy. Katie and Molly also spent ages looking at a model of the Wonder. Phil arrives, and we check in, much like an airport, and then head straight onto the boat. I had expected lots of queuing but it’s all fairly painless and before we know it ‘The Stephenson Family from England’ are being announced and we are on. It’s quite a stunning looking atrium, and we stand and gawk for a few minutes, before being ushered into lunch. We opt to go upstairs and eat at Beach Blanket Buffet, on the top deck. It’s rather lovely, sitting in the sunshine, looking at the sea and eating lunch.

After lunch it’s announced that the cabins are ready, so we go and find ours. We are in a Category 11 and I am really not sure what to expect, but it’s very nice with lots of drawers and cupboards for storage. We settle in, and then go and explore. We take a look around the kids club areas and then waste about an hour whilst we wait for the life boat drill. The kids wanted to swim, and in hindsight we should have swam and then gone to the lifeboat drill in swimming costumes, but not realising that I thought we didn’t have time for swimming.

The drill didn’t take long and then we went up to the top deck for the sailaway party. This was excellent, the kids were really enjoying it and dancing and singing along with the cast. After the party, it was time to get changed for dinner. We had an early seating so had dinner at 5.45 every night. Our first night was in Animators Palate, which is a restaurant which starts out black and white and then turns to colour throughout the evening. It was quite entertaining watching things change colour. We had a lovely meal, but I can’t remember what we had. I know I had chicken, and the kids had something with Jacket Potatoes on the side as the waiter was most surprised that they didn’t want fries as all the other kids were having fries. The waiter was excellent and did some magic tricks for the kids during the meal which Molly thought was brilliant. Just before dessert the room exploded into colour and all the waiters reappeared in coloured waistcoats. (Disney Magic, or reversible waistcoats? You decide!) After dessert, our head waiter appeared with a birthday cake for Molly. We were too full to eat it, but she thought it was brilliant.

After dinner we had some photos taken with Minnie , and then the kids went into the kids club for the evening. Molly asked to come out of the club to watch the show but Katie stayed there all evening. We had about an hour to relax before the show so we just walked around the ship seeing what was there, and then we collected Molly and went into see Golden Mickeys. After the show we collected Katie who was very reluctant to leave the kids club and returned to our cabin, where the sofa had become a bunk bed, and we had bedtime chocolates. Katie was so excited as she had made some friends at the club and thought it was brilliant. We finished the evening with a little birthday cake.

Trip to Orlando – Day 5

We have a booking for Cape May for Breakfast, so we are up fairly early and head down to breakfast. We have a short wait so we take some photographs in the lobby. It’s a really beautiful hotel and I haven’t really taken many pictures of it. We are seated quite quickly, and head up to the breakfast buffet. There’s the usual hot food, eggs, bacon, waffles, sausages, cooked tomatoes (which turns out to be cold tomato relish!), plus muffins, croissants, danishes etc, fruit, cereal and bagels and toast, pretty much anything you could want except pancakes. The hot food isn’t very hot, so I am a little disappointed, but we do all have plenty to eat. Goofy comes around and he is in a bit of a hurry, but later on Minnie comes around and she is brilliant.

She makes a big fuss of Molly’s dress, and ‘talks’ to the girls for ages. We are finished eating by now, but we wait for Donald and when we arrives he doesn’t disappoint. Molly has brought a little Donald down to breakfast and he thinks it’s great and steals it whilst he goes round the other tables. I think Molly was concerned she wasn’t going to get it back. Breakfast costs $90 as Katie is considered an adult now. I did briefly consider saying she was only 9 but I don’t like to lie. I think $90 for breakfast is ridiculous though, and we didn’t really feel it was value for money so I left with mixed feelings, Minnie and Donald were brilliant, but Goofy and the food were disappointing, I’d give it only 5 out of 10.

The girls really want to go swimming and I need to so some laundry, so we have a lazy morning. This is out last day at the Beach Club and the pool was the main reason we booked here, so Phil takes them in the pool for most of the morning. I put the laundry in and then Dibb for a while. The laundry room is free for DVC members but the detergent is $1. Unfortunately, the vending machine is empty, so I walk down to the shop to buy some and it’s $1.75. I am not amused. I know it’s only 75 cents, but that’s a big difference. I go back to the laundry room and put the clothes in, and a cleaning man is in there. I complain to him about the detergent and he kind of shrugs. I decide I am over reacting, but he comes back 5 minutes later and gives me 2 free boxes of detergent. The morning is fairly boring to report but very relaxing, I just pop up and down to check the laundry now and again, and at one point I go down to watch the swimming.

I try to video Molly coming down the big slide, but I miss her every time.

By 2pm we are ready to head out for the day, and we decide to walk along to Hollywood Studios (it will always be MGM to me). We walked from the Boardwalk last year, but it’s just a little bit further from the Beach Club and Molly suffers a severe case of achey legs. Phil and I are both wondering if the afternoon will be a disaster as she moans and groans her way towards the park. We do make it, and once again our tickets don’t work as we try to enter the park, so we head into guest services and ask them to issue new tickets which they do without a problem. As we enter the park, it’s nearly parade time, so we find a spot on some steps by American Idol and wait for the parade. Phil runs over to the Toy Story ride but the fastpasses are long gone, which doesn’t surprise me. The CM tells us the parade will stop right in front of us and do a 10 minute show, but we can see it down the street and it’s not stopping, the CMs look really confused and are asking each other what’s going on. The parade comes by but it’s not stopping, we thinking they are trying to get it finished before the rain starts. It’s quite good fun, even if it is a little quick to pass us by.

We are quite hungry by now, and grumpy Molly wants Pizza, so rather than argue with her we go to Pizza Planet for Pizza. This is stright out of Toy Story and my idea of hell, a big warehouse full of arcade games. We order some pizza and find a quiet spot upstairs. We get the kids, kids pizzas and they are tiny, so it’s really more of a snack than a meal. We decide on a plan of action, we will do Muppets 3D, then walk around to watch the HSM show. Into Animation Tour, and then some dessert as lunch wasn’t very big.

As we walk over to Muppets 3D, I show Molly the key under the mat, and the CM tells her to be sure to leave it under the mat as he will need it to lock up tonight. We watch the show, and when we come out it’s raining pretty hard, so we don our ponchos. They actually bear a lot more resemblance to a drycleaning bag, but they keep us fairly dry. After the Kali experience, I am taking no chances. The Cars are nearby so we have a photo with them

and then walk over to see the HSM show, it’s raining really hard now so they aren’t dancing but the stars are posing for photos, so we have a photo taken, we are not sure which characters they are though.

I take a look at Toy Story to see if the standby line has gone down due to the queues but it’s still showing 60 minutes, so we skip that and head into the Animation Tour. Here we see a short film about the history of animation, and then go through into an area filled with characters, there are absolutely loads of characters in here, I am not sure if this is because of the rain or if they are always here, but we see Mickey, Pocahontas, Mary Poppins, Chip & Dale and that was only about half the characters that are here. The Queen is in this area, so Molly goes up to meet her. Katie will not meet any villans but Molly is quite brave, so this is a new experience. She is very good and says “Child, can I help you’, so Molly very politely asks for an autograph. Another child wanders into the photo, so the Queen says ‘Child, go away’, she is brilliant.

The Characters from UP were here, but they had a really long queue and we haven’t seen the film, so we ignored them. The girls really want to try the area where you can learn to draw a character, so we go into this show and learn to draw Donald Duck. I am a little worried when the animator starts by saying ‘this is supposed to be fun, so no crying’, and it is in fact quite tricky. Molly really struggles as you have to start with a circle and her circle isn’t very round. It doesn’t help that she can’t really reach the desk from her chair.

I can see she is getting really frustrated, but she perseves and if you know what you are looking at you can see every element the animator described, they are just not all in quite the right place. Phil and Katie draw quite a good Donald, and mine is even recognisable, I am quite pleased with myself as I can’t draw at all. When we finally leave this area it’s nearly 7pm and the park is technically closing. We been in the Animation Tour for over 2 hours and cleverly avoided the worst of the rain. Although it’s park closing time, the finale of American Idol is just starting, so we manage to get in there just as they are closing the gates, another no queue/back row result. I am really not sure what to expect, but it is brilliant, really really good fun. There are 7 people singing, who have had to audition in the morning and then win one round earlier in the day to make it to the finale. There are 2 girls from the UK who are pretty good, Ernie, a guy who sings something like Drops of Venus ? who was excellent, and a young girl at the end who eventually wins who was superb. We are up out of our seats clapping along. They have 3 judges including a ‘Simon Cowell’ character who are really good, and the whole thing is just really well done. Ernie came second, and the Brits came nowhere. After the show, we walk out of the park and ‘get the ship’ back to our hotel. As we are sat on the ship, Ernie gets on board and everyone starts clapping and cheering, it’s a really good atmosphere. The skipper of the ship gets Ernie to come up to the front and sing for us, which he does to a rousing ovation.

Everyone is in great spirits and it feels like a party. The skipper sings ‘Swanea River’ only he changes the words so they are about the ‘Swan and Dolphin’ hotels and he gets a great cheer too. We eventually get back to the hotel and we are all saying this has been our best day yet, and we’ve hardly done anything but it’s been good. We never did have dessert, or any tea, so we stop into the marketplace at the BeachClub and get some hot sandwiches to take up to our room. We get 2x roast beef and brie, ham and cheese and a turkey kids meal, which comes to $40 – not exactly cheap for sandwiches but they were very good and there was no way we are going to go out for a meal as it is past 9pm. The sandwiches are really good, and then Phil and I talk about packing for the cruise, but instead we go to bed as it’s been a long day.

More photos here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bevs97/

Trip to Orlando – Day 4

Day 4 – Animal Kingdom

We arrange to meet Fiona at park opening which is 9am, so we are all up and out just before 8 and head down to the bus stop. Phil spots the Animal Kingdom bus is already at the bus stop, so we sprint down there and catch it. Just what i need in the morning, a heart attack before breakfast! I sit on the bus and catch my breath for a few moments, and before you know it we are at the park. We are quite early as I’d assumed we’d need to spend some time waiting for the bus, but the sun is warm so we find a bench and sit and soak up some sunshine. Whilst we are waiting a lady walks around offering maps and fast passes to the 10am Lion King show. We take some fast passes, but on reflection we decide that there is no need for a Lion King show Fastpass, and the free fastpasses are more of an inducement to get people to come to the 10am showing then an actual bonus.

Fiona, Laura and Sally arrive just as the gates are opening, so we head into the park, and our tickets work! We decide to do Expedition Everest first, but we stop at the Central FP location and get Safari passes first. Whilst queuing fro Safari Fastpasses, we are offered Kali River Rapids fast passes from the CM working there. It appears they don’t have a machine set up for Kali so if you ask for a FP for that they just give you a pre-printed one, so it’s 9.05 and we are currently holding 3 lots of fast passes, quite a good result so far. We walk on round to Everest and the queue is about 15 minutes so we decide to go on. Unfortunately, Molly is not tall enough and Katie’s not keen, so Phil waits with the girls whilst I ride with Fiona and her girls. I’ve not done Everest before so I am a little nervous. I like some coasters but not if they are too big, but I am assured it will be just fine. The queue moves very quickly and before we know it we are on the ride and heading up the mountain. I wave to my family, but they pretend not to notice me. We keep on climbing, and then would you believe it – someone’s ripped the track up! We had to come down backwards which was rather scary, and during all the pre ride assurances noone mentioned that it went upside down! We return to safety, narrowly escaping a Yeti (Fiona’s classic quote ‘I’ve never noticed that Yeti there before’, her Daughters response ‘Mother’ in that tone teenagers do so well)

The ride was rather good so we decide to do it again, this time Fiona waits with my girls (thank you ) and I ride with Phil. The queue is even shorter than before and we are back on in no time. It’s even better the second time around, but I am definitely not up for a third time as I left my stomach on the top of the mountain.

We have a quick debate about what’s next, and then universal decision is Breakfast, and that’s Kusafari is the place. They have my favorite cinnamon rolls so I am happy with that. As we walk around we meet Terk and have a photo and an autograph.

My kids do, Fiona’s big kids prefer to watch from afar. We are in a very relaxed mood and just chill out with some coffee and buns, soaking up the sun for a while. We have Safari fastpasses, so we head there, and as we enter I remark that we are just within our FP time, and the CM tells me a secret, she says ‘We pay absolutely no attention to the closing time on Fastpasses’, I didn’t like to tell her this was a raging debate on the Dibb and could I get that in writing! We have a good safari, although it’s cut short by Poachers, we do seem to have bad luck with those poachers! Phil gets some great shots of his knees , the empty trees and occasionally a giraffe!

We have arranged to meet Fiona’s daughters back at the Lion King show at 11, and it’s 10.45 when we get off the safari, so we hurry around to Camp Minnie Mickey – we are really not doing this in any logical order, just cutting backwards and forward across the park between attractions. We get to the show right on 11 and the CMs make us run to get in, however about 50 people end up entering behind us, so I wish I had just sauntered to be honest! We are giraffe’s and join in with the bleating. This is a brilliant show but completely impossible to photograph! The bird looks gorgeous, I think she is wearing a new costume, but I don’t manage to get a picture of her, she keeps landing before I press the button.

After the show, my girls would like to meet the characters but the lines are immense so we promise to come back later (we lied ) We are going to have to meet loads of characters next week, as we’ve met very very few this week. We all fancy Kali River Rapids, and for the first time Molly is tall enough, so we all ride together. It’s really good fun going on as a group, and nice not to have to leave anyone behind. We have fast passes, so there is no queue and we walk straight on. Fiona and I sit next to each other, and we go up the first hill and straight into a nice refreshing fountain! In fact, we hit every major water feature on the ride including the massive big splash near the end. Molly and Katie also get rather damp, in fact, we are all pretty much drenched when we get off. It’s quite good fun walking back up the line at all the people waiting to ride and seeing the horror on their faces! It’s quite refreshing being wet, at least for the time being. Very very soggy, we stand and debate what to do. We are by the tiger walking tour, so we walk (or should I say squelch) our way around that. To be honest, Fiona and I are yakking away so I don’t really see many tigers.

After the tour, we are hungry again. Well, it’s been at least 2 hours since breakfast! I quite fancy the Yak & Yeti counter service since my previous favorite CS Tusker House has closed. We get in a short queue and wait seemingly for ages. There seems to be a lot of confusion with someone’s order and the customer doesn’t speak English so it proves tricky to resolve. Eventually we get some food, we opt for Honey Chicken, Sweet & Sour Pork and a Beef something, with some Spring Rolls and 2 drinks. I think it was around $40, we can’t decide if prices have gone up or we are ordering more food now that Katie is a bit older, but it seems like we used to spend $25-$30 for lunch and now it’s nearer $40. Which does make the DDP (Dining Plan) look more attractive. The other problem is the kids meals are a bit pathetic. At Yak and Yeti there is no chinese food option for kids, they can have cheese burger, chicken nuggets or Spring Roll (OK, I suppose that is chinese food). Katie wants real food, like sweet and sour pork, and who can blame her, so we are ordering more adults meals and sharing them around. The food here is very good but you have to sit outside and it’s really hot, I don’t really understand why they don’t have an inside seating area as you do really need to get out of the heat for an hour at lunch time. Anyway, we sit and natter and eat and it’s really rather pleasant. Fiona has a Mango pie with her meal so we pass that around and it’s lovely, not something I would have ordered but it was really delicious.

We are all starting to dry off, except my shorts which are too heavy a material I think, and they are showing no signs of drying this week! Fiona and the girls want to make one last trip to MGM (It’s their last day) and we want to see the Nemo show, so we say our goodbyes and head our seperate ways. It’s been good fun sharing the morning with them.

We walk around to the Nemo show and get seats up near the back, only a short wait before it starts. Fiona and I had been discussing how it’s much better to get there late and get a seat at the back than to spend half an hour sitting waiting just for a front row seat, and this is exactly what we have done here. This is a great show which I really enjoy, I love the way the puppets and the actors interact, it works really well. After Nemo, I am still wet, so we decide to go home. The wet rides are fun, but walking around damp for hours afterwards is really not fun, so we head on out of the park. We have actually done quite a lot in the morning, so we are ready to go. We take the bus back, and then have a nap for a couple of hours. I think we would quite happily all just spend the afternoon sleeping, but we are on vacation we aren’t here to relax! So I rouse the troups and we go to my favorite destination, Target. I am after a pair of shorts, and have an interesting encounter with a sales lady who looks me up and down, and annouces very loudly that I need the ‘Plus department’, yes, thank you lady, I did know that already. Plus department is found, but there are no shorts, it’s August in Florida, and I can buy wooly jumpers and long jeans, but apparantly not shorts. We do buy a few secret surprises for a special day next week, and then Katie and I head across the carpark to a shop called DOTS which has been mentioned on the Dibb. They do have shorts, but they are either bright pink or extremely short, the sales lady informs me they are called ‘Daisy Dukes’, I don’t know if she realises I do know who Daisy Duke is, and I really don’t want her shorts. Regardless, we head over to Lane Bryant, which is one of my favorite shops and really, I should have just done straight there. They are having a 70% sale, so I get a pair of shorts and a skort (a skirt with shorts hidden inside) for $10 each. Result.

The sky is looking really ominous and dark now, so we get in the car and head to Red Lobster. Its just starting to spit when we get there, but before long the heavens have opened again. We are getting a lot of rain on holiday but for the most part we have managed to avoid getting soaked (apart from on Kali RR)

Red Lobster is good – the kids have Popcorn Shrimp, I have a massive platter with 2 kinds of shrimp and seafood alfredo, and Phil has a portion of seafood alfredo that looks like a child’s portion – that will be why I need the Plus department I guess ($50) The food was lovely, although the waiter brought the girls Shirley Temples with their meals and Molly really didn’t like it. He was fine and brought her out a Sprite instead, but she was a little upset as she thought it sounded ok. We are quite amused through dinner as the lady in the table behind us told every person she met that her brother was general manager of Red Lobster in New Jersey, then she found something wrong with her meal and complained and again repeated about the brother being general manager. We become increasingly convinced she is trying to get a free meal, but the staff were not biting and just chatted with her, we didn’t stay to see if she got a bill but I suspect she did.

Trip to Orlando, Day 3

We finally get a good nights sleep and all wake up around 9am, it’s bliss, although not very good for the commando touring plans! We make some bagels in the room for breakfast, and potter around getting ready very slowly. I get a call from Fiona and we arrange to meet up for a drink later this evening. We finally leave the room to walk over to Epcot about 11am, this is about 3hours later than my plan suggests!

We walk to the International Gateway, and Phil gets straight in, but Katie, Molly and I are all rejected. I explain to the CM that we have had a problem and suspect a mobile phone has caused it, and he scans a barcode on them and has us rescan our fingers and lets us in. We walk through England and Canada, completely against the flow of traffic, as world showcase has just opened and everyone is walking into the countries. Our first stop is Soarin’ for a Fastpass, but the return time is not until 2.45. We take one but suspect we won’t get back in time.

We leave the Land and take a visit with Nemo at the Living Seas, I really like this new ride and it’s a walk-on, so it’s a winner all round. After Nemo the kids play in the shark area for a while, and then we go and talk with Crush. This is really clever but I overhear a family discussing it, they describe it as just like ‘Laugh Floor but not funny’ which I thought was a bit mean as i thought it was quite amusing.

Next we want to ride Spaceship Earth, or Epcot as Molly calls it. She was quite cross on our last trip as we couldn’t go to ‘Epcot’, and no amount of assurance that we were indeed in Epcot would satisfy her. We walk over via Innoventions which I am ashamed to admit we have never stopped in, it’s always just been a shortcut to a destination. On the way out of Innoventions we notice the Kim Possible stands, they look really interesting and we decide that on our next trip to Epcot we will be doing some KP Missions. There is actually a queue for Spaceship Earth, quite a long one, which I have never seen before, but we wait and it is only about 20 minutes or so and then we are on. This is the newly revamped ride and it’s pretty good, although I can’t quite get used to Judi Dench commentating. I like the changes, and the computer generated scenes at the end work really well and are quite funny. I ride with Molly who is convinced this is a rollercoaster, and keeps pointing out to me that we keep going up, so we must be coming down at some point. My assurances that we will come down slowly are met with a little suspicion. She is engrossed with the screens on the ride down, and is quite confused when we disembark – where was the fast bit? When we exit the ride there is a large screen showing where each guest is from and the UK is very brightly illuminated. There must be a lot of Brits in Epcot today.

We have been in the park for about an hour, so it must be time for lunch! We’ve never eaten at the electric umbrella, so we give that a go. It’s quite good, we get a kids wrap, ceasar salad & greek salad and shared it around. It was about $30 for the 3 meals. After lunch, we are conveniently located right next door to Mouse Gear, so it would be rude not to pop in and have a browse. Molly chooses a Minnie Mouse bumbag to match the one Katie has had for a few years. She is really pleased with it and immediately puts it on along with autograph book and pen.

Our next stop is Mexico where we ride the new ride, on the way out we bump into Donald in his Mexican gear. There is a really fun CM organising the line, and he chats with the kids and has them laughing whilst we wait. Donald is in a fun mood too and tickles the girls and steals Molly’s pen after the autograph.  

we wander around the world showcase, just soaking in the atmosphere, then head back to the  Beach Club to pick up the car when it starts to rain, and around here, when it starts to rain, it doesn’t mess about, within minutes it’s chucking it down. Fortunately we are very close to the Beach Club so we dive into the nearest door and make our way through the hotel back to our room where we dry off and then go and collect the car and drive to Downtown Disney where I have arranged to meet a friend from University. Kathy is also at Disney on vacation, so we are meeting at Ghiradelli’s for an ice-cream. As we are driving up, I spot Kathy waiting as she hasn’t changed a bit. We all go into Ghiradellis for some sundaes and spend an hour catching up on life after University and Disney holidays. We had found each other on Facebook, it is, as they say, a small world after all.

We take a wander through the World of Disney, Katie & I are looking for ideas for Molly’s birthday next week, but we really aren’t sure, Molly seems to like everything she passes but I can’t quite determined what is her favorite thing, she just says it all looks good. After shopping, we are headed back to the Beach Club, where we have plans to meet another friend, Fiona & her girls are eating at Cape May so we have a cocktail with them before dinner. I have a mudslide and it’s rather lovely. I remember to drink it very slowly as the last time I had one I drank it far too quickly and was then disappointed when it was finished.

Fiona’s daughters take Molly and Katie for a walk around the Boardwalk (actually I rather suspect Molly took the other 3 for a walk) and they came back with some snacks from the Boardwalk sweet shop. We arrange to meet up at AK in the morning, and then say our goodbyes. We decide to go to the Dolphin for tea and eat at Picabu which is one of my favorites, for $25 we get a chicken, bread and 3 sides (mash, stuffing & sweetcorn). I think it’s a bit of a bargain, and it’s really yummy too. We wander back with the intention of watching Illuminations, but we are too tired so we just head off to bed.

Trip to Orlando – Day 2

The beds are comfortable and I have a lovely nights sleep until I wake up. Phil says is 6am which doesn’t seem too bad considering the jetlag etc. Katie wakes up and she’s in a bit of a grumpy mood and really cross with Molly for being fast asleep. I suggest that Katie and Phil go out for a walk around Pop to check out all the buildings, so they get dressed and I glance at the clock and realise it’s not 6am it’s 4am! Undeterred they head off for their walk anyway. I do wonder what the ducks will make of the early morning wanderers. They are gone for quite a long time, and I pretend to go back to sleep. Eventually they return and Molly wakes up, we pack back up and head out for some breakfast. We drive down to the 192 and stop at Perkins for breakfast. I fancy some pancakes, and we end up with massive amounts of pancakes, sausages, eggs and hashbrowns. It’s all very delicious and costs around $30.

We stop in at Walmart on the way back to Disney and buy a pair of Net10 phones, and a few other park essentials (bottles of water, spray fan, sunglasses, hats etc) and walk out $120 lighter. The staff in Walmart set up the phones for us, so by the time we leave Walmart we have 2 fully functioning phones. Next stop, Magic Kingdom!

We park up in Pluto and have a small family argument about which bag the autograph book’s are in. I attempt to unpack 2 weeks worth of stuff in the boot of the car to find them, whilst a CM tells me to move to the front of my car for safety, Eventually we give up, and Katie has a huff whilst we take the tram and then the monorail around to the park. Even on the monorail, I still can’t really believe we are here, it’s been a really long week and I think we are all dazed a little bit. We enter the park, and I take a deep breath and try and take it all in. Katie has calmed down a little, we decide not to see any characters today since we have no autograph books so we walk past them all in the hub and have a photopass picture taken in front of the castle. The castle complete with Crane!!! There’s actually quite a lot of work being done and there are hoardings covering lots of buildings

. Photo taken, Molly decides the first ride must be …….. wait for it …… It’s a Small World. Yup, all those months of planning and studying touring plans, and we head directly to IASW. We pick up a Peter Pan fast pass on the way, and then ride IASW. I have heard there are characters mixed in with the dolls but I can’t spot any. We have about an hour before we can use the Fast Pass, so we walk around to Mickey’s Philharmagic and walk straight on. The theatre is quite empty and I am wondering where August’s crowds are, as it’s not very busy at all. After Philharmagic we still have half an hour, so we go to my favorite, Pirates of the Caribbean! As I walk up, I can remember reading a really good tip – all the crowds go left, so we should go right, or maybe it was all the crowds go right, so we should go left. I realise I have no idea which it was! So we go right and have to wait in a short queue, the left side was a walk on. Never mind, we will definitely remember next time. It’s not a long ride, and we are off, ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’…… We come out through the shop, and try on a few Piratey hats, before heading outside where there is a show going on. The kids love it, but I have a hard time watching, as I know the previous Capt. Jack has died very recently, and whilst I know ‘the show must go on’, I can’t help feeling sad that it’s all going on as if nothing had happened. Katie requests a visit to the Tiki Rooms, so what the heck in we go. I’ve been in here loads, but must have blocked it out, as I spent the whole show thinking, I don’t think this happened last time. Phil tells me it was exactly the same as the last 4 shows. A quick stop at the restrooms (no gaps!) and we are using our fast pass on Peter Pan. After Peter Pan, we are all thirsty/hungry, so we decide we want a snack. We head over to Scuttles Landing to get a frozen lemonade but they don’t sell frozen lemonade, so we are sent around to another stall to find them. On the way, we pick up Winnie the Pooh fast passes, but Phil has some problems with the tickets. We will find out later if they are going to work anymore. He thinks maybe his phone has affected them. Whilst he is getting the fastpasses, we watch a Marching Band perform. I spent many years in a Marching Band, so spend a few minutes thinking I am back at Lehigh watching my friends. I swear half the band looks familiar.

We find the frozen lemonade, but no Mickey Bars. The CM tells me something I should have learned years ago, Mickey Bars are sold at stalls with blue umbrellas – How did I not know this? Mickey Bars are purchased and after about half an hour of faffing around we are suitable refreshed. We still have half an hour before FP time, so walk around to Toon Town, we wander along the secret path between Tomorrowland and Toontown and arrive near Goofy’s Barnstormer. Still no lines, so Phil takes the girls on for a ride, and I take a look in the shop, it’s Molly’s birthday next week so I am looking for ideas. They are back quite quickly and we walk back to Pooh, they spend 5 minutes in the playarea and then we are on the ride. After Pooh, I decide that we are heading quickly towards a melt-down, hot, tired kids, and it’s starting to get busy now, so we head out of the park and back to the car (via the boat, Molly’s choice).

We find the Beach Club and pull in to the parking area and  I head off to find Bell Services to get our bags (not travelling so lightly now, 2 cases, 3 carryons, case of water, case of cola, and 4 carrier bags….) and we valet park and head inside. Check in is very fast, and we are given our room number 549. We find the studio and bell services arrive with our bags very quickly and we settle in. It’s really really lovely. I wasn’t sure how small a studio would feel, but the night at Pop was money well spent, as it has made the studio feel massive. [

We quickly unpack, and decide to have a late lunch at Beaches and Cream and then a swim in the pool. We are seated quickly at B&C, and order (Roast Beef Sandwich, Chicken Cesear Salad, 2 kids meals, – total $42 + tip.) While we were eating, 2 people had Kitchen Sink’s, so we watched them making the Kitchen Sinks, and then bringing them out. They look quite sickly to be honest, but its good fun.

After lunch, we head out to the pool, but unfortunately it’s pouring with rain and they have closed the pool – Molly is furious as she was really looking forward to the swim. We walk back up to our room, and it stops raining almost immediately but the pools remain closed for quite some time. I think the concern is that there is lightening in the area. Up in the room, I Dibb for a while, Phil sleeps and the kids watch Zac & Cody. It does storm quite strongly so the pool really wouldn’t have been the best option. After relaxing for a couple of hours, the skys have cleared so we go down for the swim. The pool is massive, and confusing and I can’t quite work out it out, we head into the shallow end initially but it’s extremely shallow, so we move into the ‘lazy river’, we haven’t got tubes so this is most definitely not lazy and requires some serious swimming. Katie finds an abandoned tube, so the girls pile into that and I try and hang onto the side and we do a couple of circuits like that. Then we move into the main pool area, which is fairly deep in places and has a sandy bottom. The girls decide they want to go down the slide, so Phil took them up and I waited at the bottom to catch Molly. Eventually Molly slid down and swam straight off with no problems, she was fine. We go back up to the room and get changed, then go out to Sweet Tomatoes for tea. I have a 2 for 1 coupon, so it comes to $31 for 4 meals, and it’s really quite good. We go to to the store to get Bagels for breakfst and Molly falls asleep in the car.  When we get back to the hotel, Phil manages to carry her all the way from car to room without her even flickering,  I think it’s been a long day.

Trip to Orlando – Day 1

The longest day

We decided to eat breakfast at the travelodge.  Not something I normally do at £7.50 a breakfast,  but what the heck,  we are on holiday.  And apart from that,  we have absolutely no idea where we are, or what is nearby.  Breakfast was ok,  but I am not in the holiday mode because I never thought to take a photograph!   We filled up on a full english,   and returned to the room and packed up.  We had arranged to meet the parking meet and greet at 10.30 but we were ready and raring to go at 9am,  so I gave them a ring and they agreed an earlier pickup.   We drove over to the terminal, and no sign of the meet & greet but quite a few security guards  so I wasn’t comfortable just hanging around,   so we went around the block again, and this time, just as we pulled up,  there was the parking guy just pulling up at the same time.   It actually worked really well,  we just got out of the car,  and he got in and drove off.  Not without first checking our car for damage.  Our car is quite old and well used, so there was plenty of damage for him to note,  which was ever so slightly embarrasing!

Into the airport,  and we checked in at a little kiosk,  no bother at all,  and not checking in online made very little difference.  Check in was very painless,  and we headed upstairs through security and back in to the shops.   Security is very high tech compared to Newcastle,  with secure gates you need to swipe your boarding pass to go through,  it reminded me of the tube.   We all went through security,  and Molly was beeped!   The lady was lovely and chatted to Molly whilst she checked her over, and then wished her a happy holiday.

Once in the shops,   we were a little confused,  I couldn’t work out how to get to the gates.   It transpired that we had to walk through a shop – I should have realised,  they’ve obviously been taking lessons from DIsney!

We do the normal hanging around the airport thing for quite a while.

Still Waiting

There is no gate listed for our flight,  but we can see a Virgin plane,  so we go and sit by it for a while,   and even take a photo of it.

Kids in front of the wrong plane

Then we discover that it’s the wrong Virgin plane,   eventually we found ours which is the Virginia Plain.

At one point all the Virgin stewardesses walk up and down the corridor looking for the gate,   and they appear to be reenacting the latest Virgin commercial as all heads turn to watch them go.

We finally board, and our seated in the seats I picked months ago,   33 DEFG,  right across the middle.   They are as comfortable as can be expected (ie, not very at all),  and we are provided with kids packs, amenity packs, pillows and blankets so as to effectively clutter our limited space with as much unwanted junk as possible.

The seat back tv’s are a revelation,  in 7 trips this is only the 2nd or 3rd time we have had them,   so we always travel armed with nintendos, ipods, colouring etc.   The travel bags were barely cracked open,  we all plugged in and watched tv most of the way.   I watched Star Trek (absolutely brilliant),  Last Chance Harvey (ok),  Life on Mars,  and a Documentary about Alan Sugar (by this point anything would have been deemed interesting),  Phil and Molly watched Monsters & Aliens,  and Katie watched Hannah Montana,  three times.

We flew a rather strange route,  really far inland over Pennsylvania and Virginia,  apparently to avoid storms.  It was still quite bumpy,  but eventually after what seemed like the longest flight ever,   we land.    The head steward then comes on the tannoy and tells us 300 BA passengers are about to land, and if we want to avoid the queues we should hurry – Immediately 300 people leap to their feet,  grab their bags, and push their kids off the plane.  Personally,  I think the steward wanted to get off work as quickly as possible!     Approaching immigration I remembered a Dibb trick I’ve never been able to employ before,  and we took the queue next to the US Citizens only line.    We were immediately called through and cleared in immigration in record time.    We had to wait a while for our bags,  and then up the escalator and onto the monorail and out of the airport as quickly as possible.  This was one place where I thought Molly’s achy legs might become a problem, but she was a star and kept on going.  We had done FastTrack for Budget,  so straight to the garage,  no queue,   although we did have to fill in quite a lot of paperwork considering we were fasttrack,   and we get they keys to our Chevy Cobalt.

We had booked the basic car which came with our package – I need to check but I think it was Compact.   Well,  it was great.   I opened the boot and my eyes popped out,   it was massive.  Our 2 enormous holdalls just disappeared into the back of the boot no problem,  along with the 3 carryon bags as well.   I would be quite happy with a car this size every time,  we don’t need anything bigger.

Big Boot

We finally escape the airport at 7pm, just about an hour after we got off the plane.  The last time we did MCO it took us over 3 hours to get out,   so we are quite pleased with this result.

Drive down to Pop Century is fairly painless,  and as we pull into Pop excitement levels are reaching fever pitch.   It looks brilliant as you drive up,  the signs are all brightly coloured and funky.

I really like all the little signs on the way in that say,  ‘AirConditioning’  and ‘Colour Tv’  etc.  just little things that add to detail.   No queue at check in,  and we are given a room in the 50s.   I decide to pop into the store to pick up something to drink,  and this is where I notice the first difference fron the other resorts we have stayed in.   We have always been able to buy groceries in the resort shop,  but I couldn’t find them anywhere at Pop.  They had ‘Grab & Go’ food,  but no section with boxes of donuts, 2 liter bottles of drinks etc.    I remain convinced they must have them,  as I didn’t even see diapers and they must surely sell things like that  but it really wasn’t obvious.    We find our room and the kids decide they want a swim.    Phil takes them in the pool,

Swimming in the Bowling Pin

whilst I walk over to the Food Court and collect some food.    By this point it’s about 8pm,  which makes it 1am in my head,  so I am feeling just a little tired.    I wander around and around in the food court – it would’t surprise me if they had security tailing me,   I just couldn’t focus.  Eventually chose some pizza and Shrimp Lo Mein,  both chosen primarily because they were easy to carry!  and I find the kids in the pool and we return to the room.    I had forgotten to get drinks in the food court,  so I popped to the vending machine to get a couple of bottles of pop.   $2.75 for a bottle of coke.  Ouch.  I am now wondering if that is standard Disney price for a bottle of coke,  I suspect it probably is.   A trip to the supermarket is definitely in order.

Dinner eaten,  and we finally head off to bed around 9pm.       9’s not too early I tell myself,  maybe we’ll manage to sleep until a normal time in the morning.

Thoughts on Pop Century

It’s quite fun and colourful.  When we pulled into the drive,  we were all really taken with it and thought it looked brilliant,   loads of ‘ Aw Cool’,  and “check that out’  could be heard.  Check In looks brilliant,   and Phil and I spent ages looking at the displays of 70s ad 80s gear,   going ‘OMG,  we had one of those’

We found our room,  which isn’t in the best location in the resort,  however since we are only staying one night  that’s fine and I presume why we weren’t given a ‘desirable’ spot.    The 50s doesn’t really have the same ‘Wow’ look as the other buildings,  the icons seem a little more bland,    the 60s building looks brilliant covered in Flower Power.     There is a massive Jukebox by the 50s pool which is pretty cool looking.

The first thing that struck me about the room is how small it is.  I’ve read sq footage before,  and never really thought there was much in it between the Values and the Mods,  but when you open the door into our room you walk straight into the bed.  I think maybe it’s poorly laid out?  If the beds were on the other wall it maybe would fill bigger as that wouldn’t happen.   I don’t know.   There is no coffee machine/refrigerator,  or curtain across the bathroom area,  and only one sink.  The only one of those I would miss on a longer trip is the coffee machine/refrigerator,  as it rather effectively means you have to buy the $12 mugs and walk to the food court every time you want a cup of coffee.

Compared to the travelodge last night,  it’s absolutely wonderful,  the bed was comfortable and the pillows are really massive and puffy.  But,  if I am completely honest,   if we took a non DVC trip,  then I think rather than staying at POP I would look at somewhere like Cypress Pointe or maybe Downtown Disney hotels.  Mainly because of the size of the room,  but also the lack of coffee maker & refrigerator really makes it hard to do anything for yourself and whilst the food court was fine,   i don’t like to be reliant on it.

Trip to Orlando, Day 0

This ain’t no Posturepedic

We are counting down all week,  and excitement is building to feverish proportions,  only slightly tempered by the fact that the kids are doing skate school all week and we’ve been getting up at 5:30am each morning for skating,  and then returning home after lunch only slightly shattered!

Friday morning arrives,  and I wake up Molly with ‘Molly, Molly,  Zero more days’,  Molly groans and pulls the duvet back over her head,   it seems at 5:30am she’s not really feeling the excitement.

I take the girls to skate camp, and Phil stays home and finishes packing.  After camp,  we return home and put the cases in the car, head back into the house 3 or 4 times for bits and pieces we’ve forgotten,  and finally head off to Manchester airport around 1.45  Google says it will take us 3 hours to get to Manchester Airport.   It’s never taken us only 3 hours to get to Manchester,  but I have faith in the internet,   if google says 3 hours,  then it must be so.

As we leave, it starts to hail,  really hard,  and by the time we get to the Tyne Tunnel there are large piles of hail on the road.  I really hope this isn’t some sort of foreshadowing of the trip to come.

We stop off at the service station for a Burger King (BK,  £18.14) and I try to log onto the internet,  as I’ve remembered I forgot to send a really important email,  and we never did online check in.

There appears to be a Wifi connection but I can’t work out how to connect to it,   so I text the important bits of my email,  and we decide we will have to check in the old-fashioned way.  I’m not entirely sure if you can do online checkin without a printer anyway.

We head across the M62 and the traffic is horrendous.  Molly is listening to Abba on her ipod and singing rather loudly and very random words,   I keep hearing snippets of ‘Super Trouper’  and ‘Mamma Mia’  she is getting louder and more random ‘Yes, I’ve been broken hearted,  la Da di da  the day he farted’  which normally means she is tired,  and eventually she drops to sleep.   Rather stupidly,  I try and make her more comfortable,  and she instantly wakes back up and starts singing again.    One day I will learn,  don’t touch a sleeping child,  no matter how uncomfortable they may look.

We eventually find the Travelodge around 6pm,    so that was 4 hours 15 minutes from home….    and get checked in.   We had paid £9 for our room,  so we weren’t expecting much – which was a good thing really because we didn’t get much.   We had to pay £5 to park for the night.  The problem with paying only £9 for your room is it make everything else look expensive.  £5 to park!  that’s nearly as much as the room costs.  £10 for internet,  not paying that,    the room was only £9 you know…..   and so the evening went on.   We have stayed in lots of Travelodges  and they are all pretty much the same,   but this one seems to have taken back to basics right back to a new level.   There is not even a picture on the wall.

Molly is hot and decides she wants to wash her feet,  so I lean in to turn on the tap,   and manage to switch the shower on instead, I get a rather cold surprise!  I am just a little drenched.  We watch a little tv,  and hang out in the room for a while and then decide to go to the Travelodge restaurant for tea.

This was actually pretty good,   we had Chilli and Rice,   Kids Sausage & Mash,  Kids Spaghetti Bolognese, and I had a Jacket Potato with Tuna,  along with drinks and a beer it came to £24.35  which we thought wasn’t too bad at all.   The food was ok,  and the service was quick,   which was really all we were after.

We headed back to bed,  and decided that since we’d had such a long week we would all be really tired,  so we’d better set the alarm.      Ha!  This was to prove somewhat unnecessary…..

The bed proves to be the most uncomfortable lumpy thing i’ve ever not slept in,   and I am not entirely sure I fell asleep at all,  although Phil assures me when he was awake at 1am I was asleep.  I was definitely awake by 4am and we are all wide awake by 6am.   That extra £1000 to fly from Newcastle is starting to sound like a bargain!

It’s now 6:50am,  and we don’t need to leave the travelodge until 10am.   The kids are entertaining themselves by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors,  and apparently Katie’s pumped.  I think it’s going to be a long morning.

a crop with a difference

today I went to a class at the scrapbook shop, nothing unusual in
that, except today the class was for the kids and Mum’s just had to
be the helpers.

Originally I was only going to take Katie, but Gill said Molly was
welcome to give it a try if she wanted, and she really surprised me
and did a lovely job, and Katie was amazing and made an absolutely
beautiful album.

 

Tomorrow they went to spend the day scrapbooking at home. They both
have big plans for things they want to make, and if they are going to
work carefully and make lovely things then I am all for that.

A couple of skating related updates.

Last weekend was the Whitley Bay Annuals,  the big excitement was that it was to be Molly’s first proper skating competition.   The morning started well,  we all got up at 4:30,  dressed in competition finery and hair done, and it was off to the rink.

I left the kids in the waiting area and sat down to watch,  I’d been sitting for about 2 minutes when the power went out.  We were all escorted outside to wait,  and then eventually it came back on and we went back in and started again,  unfortunatly the power just wasn’t reliable and after it went off for the third time the competition was cancelled.

So,  no video of Molly’s first competition but here is a photo taken outside whilst we waited for the power to return.

Unfortunately,  the competition has been rescheduled for a weekend when the girls are on holiday wiht granny,  so she will have to wait until October for her next chance to compete.

 

Katie didn’t have to wait quite so long,  as she was competing in Hull this weekend.  We have been to Hull a few times now, and it’s always a lovely competition,  I really like the rink there,  it’s nice and bright and warm!  It was a very hot day and we were all roasting in the ice rink,  it’s not often we are sat by the side of the rink complaining about the heat.

Katie had a lovely skate,  and after a rather funny fall in the warmup (sadly not caught on film),  she managed to land everything when it really counted.   She ended up in 7th place.

 

and here are a few photos

Been Sewing

   vs 

A few weeks ago a friend of mine shared some gorgeous handbags she had
made. I was quite inspired, but not quite ready to try a handbag,
so I bought some lovely fabric and then pondered what to do with it.

There was the very real risk of the fabric sitting in my pile and
never being made into anything, but I really didn’t want that to
happen, so today I decided to make some lunch bags. I really like
the size of the Bloomindales Little Brown Bags, so that is the sort
of shape/size I was hoping for, and I found these instructions which
seemed to follow that idea. The instructions don’t have handles on,
so I added some with ribbon, the blue gingham ribbon was perfect but
that was all I had, so I have 2 very short handles on my bag. Katie
chose a thinner ribbon and longer handles, and Molly chose some very
sheer ribbon so I plaited it to try and give it a bit of strength.

The next question is how well they will hold up with lunch in them,  we shall find out tomorrow.