Mum was up at 6am and was knocking on our door telling us to get up
before our alarm had even gone off. Why couldn’t she have been that
enthusiastic about getting up and out throughout the holiday? Despite
our best efforts to get out of the villa and make it to the parks for
rope drop, we had only managed it on our first day.
We showered and dressed, packed outr nightwear, toiletries and make-up,
cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen and wheeled the luggage out to the car
and tetris-ized it all into the boot and in various other parts of the
car. Tracy wrote in the villa’s guest book and left a nice message for
Joanne, we said a sad farewell to the villa and was pulling off of the
drive at 8:30am, an hour later than planned.
As we booked our Flydrive and tickets through Virgin holidays, we got
free Downtown Disney check in. When we used it last time in 2009, by
9am the queue was snaking down the road, so we wanted to get there for
when it opened ideally. I was expecting a huge queue when we arrived,
but to my amazement there was only 2 families queuing already!
We jumped out of the car, unloaded the luggage and jumped in line,
passports at the ready. We were all asked to fill out a questionnaire
which we did, and gave it back to the rep and we were then next in line.
We all held our breath while the cases were weighed. Mum’s was
slightly over at 29kg, but she wasn’t charged any extra money. Phew.
There was another slight mix up with Amelia’s ticket, but thankfully
they sorted it out there and then and we were walking away from the
Virgin Check-in desk, free of cases and boarding passes in hand at
9:15am.
It was Cars Weekend this weekend so we had a look around at all the
different... erm...cars! I’m assuming they were all from films? But I
am sorry to say I have no idea. My knowledge of cars is “a blue one”
and that’s about the extent of it. But there were some pretty cool
ones...
A red one with flames on...
A black and gold one... This one was all signed in the boot...
Painted ones...
Oooh oooh, I know this one... Herbie!!
Oh what I would do for one of those badges!
The Cars gang were there too..
OK, enough cars. I’m boring myself so I hate to think what it’s doing
to you! For anyone who is interested though, I do have tonnes of photos
which can be found
HERE
We made our way up to D-Street as Oliver was pestering me for a Perry
Vinylmation. I told him not to get his hopes up as most of the shops
didn’t open until 10am. But to my surprise, it was open and I endured
several smug comments from Oliver proving that I was wrong. Pfft.
I told him he could have the Perry one he wanted but then he started
looking at the other ones; fell in love with a star wars one (which was
boxed so you didn’t know which one you got until you got home) and then
couldn’t make his mind up. He continued umming and ahhring over them
for about 20 minutes until I told him we were going and if he didn’t
make his mind up he wouldn’t have any. Then came the waterworks because
he wanted both. My dad told him to stop being silly and make a
decision and then he cried more because apparently we were all ganging
up on him.... grrr. In the end I made the decision for him. I went and
bought the Perry one, which I told him I would buy in the first place
as it was the one he originally asked for. I think he was hoping that if
he cried long enough he would get both but I wasn’t going to let that
happen. It works on his grandparents, but not me. I gave him the bag
and off we went.
We headed back to the car and on the way I noticed that the whole of the
other side of the car park was full of cars for Cars weekend. Their
owners were so proud and were continuously polishing and buffing them.
Each to their own
It was absolutely scorching now and the car’s thermometer told us it was
97°. After all the rain we had yesterday, why did it have to be a
gorgeously hot and sunny day on the day we were going home?
We drove to Magic Kingdom and used our car park pass for the last time.
We decided to use the ferry one last time. I found it odd that so many
people were wearing red T-shirts today and then I remembered reading
somewhere online before we came to Florida that it was the Gay Days
weekend this weekend.
As we got off the ferry we were behind this HUMONGOUS guy in a red
T-shirt with “Hello Gay Florida” on his back who was with a really
skinny bloke. They couldn’t have been more opposite to each other. I
couldn’t get over just how big he was, and we saw some pretty big people
in Florida. Dad was trying to hang back to see how he would fit
through the turnstile but he was walking so slow that we had to overtake
him as we were missing valuable last-day park time!
Not my photo, but this is kind of what it looked like...
I think Gay Days is so good. It was such a great atmosphere to almost
be a part of and I kind of wished I was gay so I could join in! There
were some really funny slogan’s amongst the sea of red T-shirts. Some
were in the style of the Universal Thing 1, Thing 2 and Thing 3
T-shirts, only these ones said things like Dick 1, dick 2 and dick 3 and
Bear 1, Bear 2 and Bear 3. I didn’t know what this meant until I read
ahrimaniac’s fantastic trip report on the Dibb (
The big gay 4 week honeymoon) where he gives a great explanation into the animal names certain members of the gay community tag themselves as! His trip report has had me in hysterics many times and it's well worth a read!
As we arrived the Move It Shake It Celebrate It parade was just starting, so we watched it go past...
... and then headed straight to the Main Street Bakery where we all had
cinnamon rolls, a cherry Danish, crumb cakes, coffee, apple juice and
chocolate milk.
What I would do for one of these right now!
We then walked up Main Street and had some Photo Pass photos done.
Only on the last day did it occur to me that we hadn’t had any magic
shots taken! I asked the CM if he had any and he said yes and told me
and Amelia to look at my hand.
Oliver did the same. I was amazed how good they came out when I saw
them when we got home! It was a bit unfortunate that Oliver was stuck
with Tinkerbell though! We tried to ‘man it up a bit’ by adding a
border!
We walked up Main Street via the restrooms where I used the baby care
centre to change Amelia. It has just occurred to me that I haven’t
mentioned these throughout my report; for those of you who haven’t been
yet, there is a baby care centre in each park and they are FANTASTIC! If
you need to feed and change your baby/toddler or just want to get them
out of the sun for a bit, the baby care centres are invaluable.
The Baby Care Centre at the Magic Kingdom is located near the First Aid
Station between Casey’s and Crystal Palace. You enter through a small
waiting room that contains a small sofa, an arm chair and a cabinet
which displays items that are available to purchase. If you need to buy
any baby care items, you can do so in the kitchen. The centre offers
baby formulas, baby foods and juices, nappies and wipes, bottles, teats,
baby lotions, sunscreen, and some children’s over-the-counter
medicines.
There are four rooms dedicated to the many different needs of your baby;
The kitchen is equipped with a microwave, plenty of counter space and a
small sink.
There is a private nursing room that can accommodate up to four mothers
at a time. It has 4 wooden rocking chairs, a few side tables and there
are electrical outlets available for mummies needing to use a breast
pump.
The changing room includes 5 large changing tables and a unisex
restroom. The feeding area has several wooden highchairs, as well as
other chairs for parents to use whilst bottle feeding. There is a TV,
small table and chairs for older children to use and lots of toys so you
can just chill out and take the weight off for a bit.
It is one of the busier centres and they require guests to park their strollers outside of the main entrance.
The room where we changed Amelia was huge and the changing tables were
clean. There were tissue rolls for place on the tops for that extra bit
of hygiene.
I have done a bit of research for those of you travelling with babies and have come up with a list of baby care centres in WDW:
• Magic Kingdom - Next to the First Aid centre in between Casey’s and The Crystal Palace restaurant on Main Street.
• Epcot - Inside the Future World Odyssey Centre.
• Hollywood Studios - In the Guest Services Building inside the Main Entrance.
• Animal Kingdom - Behind the Creature Comforts store in the Discovery Island area.
• Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach Water Parks - The water parks do
not have a dedicated Baby Care Centre, but the restrooms do have baby
changing stations.
• Downtown Disney does not have a baby care centre, but there are changing stations in the restrooms.
Amelia played in the fountain again when we come out and then we made
our way towards the castle and saw the statue of Walt and Mickey and the
bronze statues of some of the characters. I can’t believe we missed
this on our first day and the other two evening visits we had done here!
How did we miss it??!
I really wanted to get a picture of the castle from the bridge into
Tomorrowland, so Paul and I walked over there while the others took
photos by the castle.
I got my photo and then we asked a Photo Pass photographer to take a
picture of the two of us. She got us doing some silly poses.
We met up with the others and walked up the path to go through the
castle... I hadn’t even realised you could go through the castle! I
can’t believe that after 18 months of planning, I hadn’t heard of this.
I knew there was a restaurant inside, but didn’t realise you could walk
through! How did we miss this on our first day?
The mosaic murals on the walls of the castle entrance were amazing.
Apparently they’re made of Italian glass, silver and 14 carat gold!
When we went through to the other side I realised we were in
Fantastyland. We had seen Dumbo on our first day but hadn’t seen any of
Fantasyland other than that. We obviously entered from a different
direction.
We took some photos of the castle...
Amelia played with the water in Cinderella’s fountain...
And we had a look around...
Paul went off to get some drinks which took FOREVER and I was getting a
bit peeved as Mickey’s PhilharMagic was about to start and I really
wanted to see it. He eventually showed up and we just got in in time.
The show was brilliant; much like Universal’s Shrek 4D, with a Disney twist! Amelia loved it and was clapping along.
We came out of there and I declared to everyone that I would not go home
until we had done It’s a Small World. I had heard so many poor reviews
of it, but as I understood it, it was a traditional ride that MUST be
done... so we did it. The queue seemed to go on forever, but we
eventually got on our little boat and were taken off around the world
where the music got drummed into our heads and that’s where it stayed
for the rest of the day!
Yes it was lame.... but I enjoyed it, as did the kids. Amelia was in
awe. Mum loved it and my dad and Tracy amused us by pretending it was
good while Paul held his head in shame most of the way around and
occupied himself with the taking of photos while I held Amelia.
His photography skills are almost as good as his driving ability!
I knew time was getting on now and begrudgingly we queued for a ride for
the last time. It’s funny how throughout the holiday I refused to
queue for anything longer than 20 minutes, but now I would have gladly
queued for 3 hours if it meant we didn’t have to get on the flight home.
As our luck would have it, there was no queue at all and Paul, Amelia
and I walked on to the Carousel while the others all went to the
restrooms. We took it in turns taking her on and went on twice before
the others arrived back to meet us. She loved it and I got some
beautiful photos. I want to get this one blown up, but I’m undecided
whether to have it done in colour or black and white...
I thought Oliver would be too big to want to ride this, but he REALLY wanted to go on, so we all went on for a third time!
We exited the ride and looked around one last shop where I bought another photo album and a matching WDW bag for life!
It was almost 3pm, and we quickly headed to Aloha Isle in Adventureland
to get a dole whip before we had to leave. However the queue was just a
massive long snake of red T-shirts stretching right around the corner.
I couldn’t wait in the heat for that long. We were already melting and
we were running out of time. It would have to be another one of those
things that I would have to save for our next trip
Dad also wanted to get a turkey leg. He still hadn’t managed to get one,
and like my dole whip, it was his mission to get one before we went
home. Every time we had seen one throughout the holiday he hadn’t been
hungry, we’d just eaten or were about to go somewhere to eat so he’s
missed it. We looked all around Adventureland for a cart selling them
but we couldn’t find one anywhere. He admitted defeat and with heavy
hearts we said a sad farewell to the castle and headed towards the exit.
The others waited for me while I quickly ran into Town Square and asked
to merge both of my photopass cards onto one. Sarah (Brummymummy) sent
me a message on Facebook asking me to do this as apparently they only
allow a maximum of 20 cards to be uploaded onto Photo Pass accounts and
she was a little worried that with 11 people in our share, we might all
have too many cards. The queue to the counter took longer than it did
for the CM to transfer the photos and after 10-15 minutes, I was outside
in the scorching sun again.
As I met the others outside the gates I suddenly remembered that I
wanted to get the kids one Disney dollar each to put in their scrap book
when we got home. I remember someone telling me you could get them at
Guest Services, so I ran over and asked the CM but she said I couldn’t
get them from there and I would have to get them in the park. I was
gutted. I guess it’s my own fault for leaving it until the last minute.
I took one last photo of the most wonderful place on earth as the train
pulled into the station. The others yelled after me and I ran with them
to catch a monorail back to the car.
Now we had to get to the airport without any sat nav help, and we also
had no map. Paul said he read in the villa’s guide that we should go
through Celebration, which we found with no trouble. I could REALLY move
here. The houses are all so beautiful; it’s such a quaint little town.
I highly recommend going here. We went in 2009 and we had dinner at
the Columbia Restaurant and it was such a lovely evening. It was such a
shame that we had run out of time to come here this year as I had
planned to in my itinerary.
As we drove through, everyone was in awe as we marvelled at all the
stunning houses and picturesque views and we all joked about which house
we’d buy when we win the lottery. Paul was so preoccupied looking at
them that he failed to remember that he was driving and as I looked up
we were hurtling towards the back of a car that had stopped at a
junction. I screamed and shouted, and everyone else did the same. I
think all of us had our life flash before our eyes. I’ve never been
that close to death! Paul was braking as hard as he could but we
weren’t slowing down. I was preparing for the huge crunch, but as he
released the brake and threw his foot down again, the car screeched to a
halt millimetres away from the trunk of the car in front. Honestly,
you could have got a Rizler between us. None of us could speak and I
was literally shaking. I think my Dad said something to him about having
the whole of our family in the car and it must have hit home, as for
the first time Paul actually started to drive sensibly after that. We
got lost for a bit and I think we had to ask for directions, but we
eventually pulled up to Orlando International airport.
There was a bit of kerfuffle when we reached the Alamo car return. The
guy must have been in his 70’s and couldn’t make his mind up where he
wanted us to park it. In the end Paul made the decision for him, we
parked up, unloaded our hand luggage, shopping bags and Amelia’s
pushchair and headed for the entrance.
Unfortunately I don’t have any photos from here on...Apparently it’s
forbidden to take photos on government property or something (as they
announced on the tanoy when we first arrived) but I remember we went to
the food court and got a McDonalds to eat and one of their hideously
disgusting strawberry milk shakes (I was not a fan!).
The kids played with their happy meal toys and we had a mooch around the
shops. I was devastated to find they had my size Go Walks in the
Sketchers store, but they were now full price and we didn’t have enough
money left.
I spent the last $22 that was on our travel money card on some caramel Ghirardelli squares. I got myself and my Nan a bag each.
It was then time to board and we headed over to the gate. I took Amelia
into the restrooms and changed her into leggings, a top and a cardigan.
She did some colouring and played with a few bits from her Trunki.
Again, she was really well behaved and I had to remind myself how lucky
we were with her. Even when our flight was delayed twice! First they
delayed it until 7:35 and then they said 7:50pm. We eventually boarded
at about 8:15pm. There was an announcement asking if anyone wanted to
upgrade to PE for $50 but sadly we had to decline.
As we entered the aircraft there was the most disgusting smell. I
couldn’t describe it but it got right down my throat and I could hardly
breathe. I don’t know if maybe they spray everything with something
between flights? Whatever it was it was making me heave.
It was so depressing as we took off and I could have cried. Amelia sat
on my lap and looked out of the window as we took off. No crew told me
off this time!
The flight went quite quickly, I think mainly because Amelia and I slept
the entire flight home! Oliver sat with Mum and Dad again and he
managed to get 4 hours sleep.
Paul watched Sitter and Sherlock Holmes and woke me up when the food
came round which I wasn’t happy about. He didn’t sleep at all for the
entire flight.
I had the beef and mash and Paul had the Korma. I couldn’t face it and
had one mouthful before I went back to sleep again. It was very
uncomfortable. I constantly had the arm rest digging in my back and was
getting tangled up in the mass of blankets that Amelia had wanted on
her. She was also really heavy and wouldn’t sleep on her own seat, she
had to be on me the whole flight. We were right next to the galley too
and the flight attendants kept leaving the curtain open so that the
bright lights shone in our eyes.
We landed at Gatwick at 8:15am UK time to this miserable weather...
As we retrieved the luggage I realised Paul had left my Ghirardelli
chocolates in the pocket in the back of the seat in front of him on the
plane (apparently it was my fault because I didn’t remind him!). Mum
went over to the missing baggage desk to see if she could get them back
for me while I went to change Amelia’s nappy. I met her back at the
desk and someone had brought a bag out but it was full of Silk Cut
cigarettes, so she had got back in the queue and returned them and the
guy said he would get someone to have another look. We must have waited
35 minutes before we went up and asked again, thinking they had
forgotten about us. He phoned through again and he was told nothing had
been found. So either a flight attendant or one of the passengers had
obviously taken them. I was so upset.
As we exited into the main airport, I phoned Cophall Farm to tell them
that we were on our way out of the terminal and the lady on the other
end said he was already there! Fantastic service! I ran ahead to meet
him while the others followed behind. Mum was trying to get hold of the
car company they had booked with who turned up 2 minutes later. We
couldn’t have planned it any better! The bloke was really nice and
chatty, handed over the keys and went on his way. Paul said he was
probably waiting for a tip but it didn’t even occur to me!
With our car loaded with cases and Mum’s car loaded with kids, we drove a
short distance to the services where we all got a McDonalds happy meal
each! Dad and Paul filled up on coffee and we set off on what should
have been a two hour drive back to Northampton. Unfortunately there had
been an accident between junction 17 and 18 on the M25 and we had to do a
detour on the M40. From landing at Gatwick to arriving at Mum and
Dad’s took 5 hours! Paul was dead on his feet as he hadn’t slept all
night. Oliver and Amelia slept the whole journey in the car.
We had a cup of tea at Mum and dad’s, unloaded the luggage and Mum
phoned Nan to say we had arrived safely. Apparently she was sitting
with her coat on waiting for one of us to take her to Tesco to do her
big shop! Pfft. What is it with old people? Don’t mind us, we’ve only
been travelling for over 14 hours!
We arrived back at our house at 3:15pm. Jacob was so excited to see us,
I thought his bum was going to fall off, his tail was wagging so much!
I wasn’t pleased to find he had worked out how to open Amelia’s bedroom
door and he and the cat had been sleeping on her bed for the past two
weeks! It was covered in hair and I had to strip her whole bed off and
wash it all.
Paul slept for a few hours while I unpacked and we just had some
spaghetti on toast for dinner as none of us felt particularly hungry. I
had an hour’s sleep, uploaded some photos and we just watched TV and
had a lazy evening. The kids went to bed at 8:30pm and Paul and I
turned in at 11pm.
And that’s it. The end of a fantastic fun-filled family floriday! We’ve
had our ups and downs, but all in all we had the BEST time ever
imaginable. And I’ve managed to convert everyone into Disney fanatics!
Even my Mum who was apprehensive about going because (in her words)
“Disney is for kids!” is now a fully fledged Disney fan and regularly
wears her lanyard whilst doing her housework i’m sure!
Tracy laid out all the bits she bought in Florida and took a photo of it
all. She actually has a shelf in her bedroom dedicated to Disney
now... the sacred Milk Duds and goldfish have yet to be opened.
We are all craving the magic and hope to return again in 2014-2015. I’m
sure I will keep you all posted when we decide to go back. We’re
thinking maybe Halloween or Christmas next time, although I worry it
won’t be the same without so much sun!
Thank you all for your kind words and replies to my trip reports. They
have been really encouraging and have kept me going when at times I’ve
felt like giving up on it. I’m so glad I carried on. I think I might
print it all off and bind it like a book for Amelia to read when she’s
older.
Thanks for reading,
Aimie. xxx
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