I turned over to find Paul awake too, and we sat there whispering for a while until the alarm went off at 6am. Even then the kids didn't stir. They are both heavy sleepers like me. Paul got up and filled the kettle and then little murmurs could be heard coming from Amelia's side of the room. Soon a sleepy Amelia sporting the bed head look was creeping into our bed with Minnie doll in hand, still very much half asleep, but very excited! Oliver woke a little while after. We had tea/coffee and the remaining Mickey biscuits and we were all soon bouncing around the room, showering, getting dressed and sorting the bags. We disposed of our old clothes and toothbrushes so we only had to carry the minimum, and once I'd finished straightening my hair, we left the bags in the room and took the short walk down the corridor to the restaurant where we filled up on scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, etc.
My breakfast
Amelia just wanted a croissant, but ate very little of it. She had a few mouthfuls of yoghurt before declaring she was full up. She is normally a big eater at home. In fact, the past few weeks before we came away, she wouldn't stop eating!
I pinched a couple of packets of Weetabix to take with us (ssshhhhh, don't tell anyone
) and then we headed back to the room to get the bags. Paul and the kids went to the front desk to check out while I used the bathroom, and when I went back down two minutes later, they were all sat on the sofa; Paul with another cup coffee in hand and Amelia sitting at one end of the table eating another yoghurt! I was a little miffed as I wanted to get going but I figured, if I can't beat them, join them, so I grabbed another quick cup of tea and then we walked to north terminal which looked a lot different in the daylight!
We met Daniel and Sam outside their Premier Inn and at 8:36am we were on the monorail over to south terminal. The girls were very excited!
We went through security which would have gone smoothly, IF Paul had listened to me. I had packed our liquids, pastes and gels into clear plastic bags back in the hotel room, and put them in the end of Paul's bag to make it easier to get the out when we needed to. I heard a security officer telling some people in front of us to take liquids out of their bags and place separately in the trays on the conveyor belt. When I relayed the message to Paul, he chose to ignore it, so when all of our bags went through, guess which ones got picked out for checking? Yes, you guessed it, Paul's. And surprisingly, Amelia's Trunki.
We moved to the end of the desk and waited for someone to come over with them. The kids sat down with Daniel and Sam at the end of the room and eventually someone came over. He was really nice and understanding and it was just because of the liquids that the first bag got pulled out. Quickly rectified, and re-packed, he then went on to Amelia's Trunki. He and Paul both had difficulty opening it, so I had to step in and help.
Everything came out until he found what he was looking for... Amelia's playdoh! I hadn't even thought of that! I guess it is kind of like a paste. He looked at it suspiciously and took it away to be swabbed. He seemed to be gone for ages.
He appeared a little while later and we were pleased to hear that it was clear of any narcotics and were free to go. He was really nice and friendly. Whilst I squeezed everything back into the Trunki, Amelia came over and asked for some change for a poppy, but we didn't have any on us, so the security guy gave her 1p off the top of his computer and told her to get one.
Checking the boards, we discovered the boarding time for VS027 wouldn't be available until 09:40am. We made a swift exit through Duty free, stopping once so Oliver could look at something or other. Then we found a kids lounge area... If you could call it that. It was just a load of red matting put together with some soft chairs around the outside. There was a TV playing CBeebies and a few big soft shapes and that was it. OK for little ones, but it was certainly no V room. The girls had fun though.
We all sat down for a while and then Paul and Daniel went off to have a beer. Oliver played on his phone for a bit while Sam and I watched the girls. Amelia made friends with a little girl who must have been about 15 months old. She LOVES babies and once she gave her a cuddle, that was it, she was smitten and followed her everywhere as she toddled about. Very sweet. I took Amelia to the loo several times. Something that continued throughout the holiday. Why are little girls so fascinated with public toilets? Amelia always has to pick the cubicle she wants, and apparently washing your hands with soap from a dispenser and using a hand dryer provides endless hours of fun. Not.
Paul and Daniel were gone for ages. Sam tried texting them but got no reply. I've just looked on my phone and found a text I sent to Paul at 09:55am: "Hurry Up, we're gasping for a drink!" We really were, and Paul had all our money on him. About 10 minutes later they appeared, so Sam and I went off to Costa. Amelia had raspberry and apple juice and Oliver and I both had hot chocolates which Paul proceeded to spill all over the floor and my camera case when he got up to get a coffee a bit later. Baby wipes to the rescue! I also got an apple and mango juice for us for later if we got thirsty. The total came to £7.35, but she undercharged me as she entered two coffees into the till instead of hot chocolates. She told me not to worry though as the coffees were cheaper.
I don't seem to have a time in my notes, but if memory serves me correctly, we could start boarding at 11am. We were right down the bottom at gate 21, and as we approached, we caught a glimpse of our plane...
Jersey Girl
I gave Amelia half a travel sickness tablet just in case. Last thing I wanted is to be covered on sick when we arrived in Orlando.
The kids were given the free Virgin bag which has changed a bit since 2012. They no longer get a canvas messenger bag. It's now a little drawstring bag and they get a choice of red or black, despite the contents being the same; an eye mask, Where's Wally book and a multi-coloured stacking crayon. Oliver chose black, while Amelia chose red. She couldn't stop grinning when the lady called her Princess.
We grabbed some free newspapers and magazines (which never got read), took pics of the plane, and then we were soon called to board right after premium economy as we were in the bubble
We got chatting to one of the flight attendants who spoke to the kids about where they were going and asked if they were excited. I told him about our reveal and how they only found out yesterday. He was lovely.
We found our seats and sat where we wanted without an issue, despite my mix up of family members when booking them. Nobody checked or said anything which was good. The compartments next to the windows were very handy and I stowed Amelia's Trunki liner in there while the Trunki itself went in the overhead compartment.
Being 5'1", I never have any problems with economy leg room... The one time I'm actually glad I'm short!
Amelia threw a tantrum just as we took off because she wanted her play doh out. Me obviously being the terrible mum that I am, made her wait until the plane was on an even level and not at a 40 degree angle. I didn't think the people behind us would appreciate play doh flying into their faces as we soared down the runway. Colouring books and stickers kept her occupied for half an hour at most. She made some little cards with this cute sticker book I got her from Asda and passed one to Sarah in the seat behind her, but she got upset when she gave it back to her, saying she didn't want it, and didn't want to make them anymore. For the next 15 minutes or so, all I got was this:
Can I have my play doh now?
Mummy please can I have my play doh
I want my play doh now
Pleeeeeeeeease can I have my play doh?
I want my play doh
Mummy pleeeeease (crying now)
Angry eyes from Paul asking me why she couldn't have it
Angrier eyes from me - am I the only sensible parent here? Can he not see what a mess she'll get into early on into the flight? I only wanted to use it as a back up in case she got bored of colouring books or the TV. Maybe he would like to swap seats with me? No?
I began to wish I had never brought it as that's all she wanted to do for the entire flight when I got it out. I bought her a mini Mr Potato head play doh plunger thing from Amazon which made play doh squirt out of his mouth and head to make a tongue and hair, but it was too hard for her to do. So guess who got given the job as plunger pusher. Every. Two. Minutes. The mess on the floor was horrendous. I felt so bad. Luckily it hoovers up unlike that dreadful moon dough. So those of you with little ones who were thinking of taking play doh on the plane. For the sake of your sanity, don't. Just don't! Or if you do, hide it in your handbag and don't tell them you have it unless you have to!
Once up in the air we were given menus, and at 12:35pm drinks and nibbles were brought round so the play doh had to go away . Nobody liked them except Amelia. I think she ate three bags! Obviously making up for the lack of breakfast!
The flight was uneventful. It was quite turbulent at times, but the food was surprisingly nice. Especially the kids meals. For those of you who may not know, celebrity chef, Lorraine Pascal designed a new menu for virgin. I'm not sure if she had anything to do with the adult economy menu, but I know she developed the ones for kids and other classes. Amelia's was macaroni cheese which I was dreading opening, expecting to find some sort of illuminous sloppy goo under the foil, but I was pleasantly surprised when it looked like this...
Proper pasta and chunks of ham and not a trace of illuminous sauce in sight
. I tired a piece and it was lovely. In fact, I wished I could have had it It also came with carrot sticks and hummus and a roll and butter. Well done Lorraine! 10 minutes later my lasagne came round. It was quite nice, especially considering we were thousands of feet in the air. I've had worse lasagnes.
It also came with a roll and butter and a pot of salad.
Oliver had the same as me and across the aisle, Paul had the chicken (sorry no pic).
Amelia's GU Choc banoffee pot came with her dinner, but ours came around afterwards with tea. I think ours was just plain chocolate but I honestly can't remember
Throughout the flight I tried to watch a few films, Maleficent being the first. I had already seen it at the cinema, so knew I wouldn't miss much through my play doh plunging duties. I ended up turning it off half way through and succumbed to the fact that playing with play doh was all I was going to be doing. She did become obsessed with aeroplane toilets though, and thankfully, Paul took her as he was on the aisle seat. I lost count of how many times she went. (Hehe
)Ice creams were brought round later... Mini Fab lollies which I declined, but everyone else ate them. Amelia did have a sleep eventually and I watched The Inbetweeners 2 which wasn't as funny as I had anticipated, but it did have a couple of laugh out loud bits. Then I watched the Fault in our Stars which was lovely. I managed to hold back the tears at the end.
Amelia woke up at 20:45pm UK time - about 45 minutes before we were due to land and I switched places with her so she could talk to Sarah behind her whilst sitting on the baggage compartment. It made me feel really uneasy with her sitting on there and I was having kittens the whole time. I know she couldn't possibly fall out of the window but that's all I could keep thinking about! I didn't have time to watch another film so I watched two episodes of Big Bang Theory and Amelia and I sent messages to Paul through the inflight messenger. We were almost there!
Afternoon tea was brought round which consisted of 2 cheese and sun dried tomato fingers ( I hate cheese, but ate them as I was so hungry and they were actually lovely! The mayonnaise took over the cheese taste - there was not enough of them though! They were tiny!), Tyrells plane crisps and a Broderick's Caramental which was as delicious as advertised on the menu
Kids got given the same as the adults, but 10 minutes earlier. The flight was good. It went fairly quickly considering it was 9 and a half hours. The kids were fairly well behaved, apart from a few arguments over whose elbows should be on the arm rest. That was only because Amelia was tired though.
I was pleased to feel the heat on my skin as we walked off the plane through the tunnel as the temperature had dropped a week before we flew out. It certainly made a nice change to UK weather!
We collected the luggage, car seats and strollers (see, I've only been in the US for a few minutes and I'm already picking up the lingo
) and made our way over to the Alamo garage minus trollies again. For those interested, to get a trolley you have to insert payment in the machine at the end of the trolley row. It's $5 per trolley and you get 35c back when you return it. Hence why we coped without them. (Because we're tight ) We picked a white Dodge Grand Caravan and loaded her up with luggage. Then Sam and I took the kids back into the airport to catch the Magical Express while Paul and Daniel made their way to OKW with the cases, under instruction to pick up a few cases of water, bread, butter and milk on the way Finding the Magical Express was easier said than done. I had written notes on the location of where to catch it from which I had left in my bag with Paul in the car. DOH! We asked one lady who spoke really fast with such a broad accent that we could barely understand her. We followed the parts we did catch and took a lift upstairs and to cut a long story short... after getting lost, and very stressed, half and hour later, we eventually found it with only one person in the queue. We both checked in our families, minus Paul and Daniel which wasn't a problem, and boarded the motor coach to Old Key West. Then waited about 20 minutes for it to actually move. It was dark now so couldn't see any of the US scenery from the window, so we watched the video that they played. Amelia fell asleep and woke up as everyone did a countdown as we passed under Disney's main gate. Very exciting!
When we arrived, the boys were nowhere to be seen, so we went straight to reception to see if they were in there. Nope. I took our paperwork up to the desk and the CM said it looked as though somebody had checked in already and said she would call up to the room to see if Paul was in there. She passed me the phone but he didn't pick up. She continued to give me our magic bands, map of the resort, leaflets, what's on guide, etc which I thought was strange... surely If Paul had checked in already, he would have taken his magic band to get into the room. She also said there was a package for me which was quite large and she said she would have it sent up to our room. It was all the stuff I had had delivered to Carrie.
We went outside and asked bell services if a cart would take us over to our room which was 3225 in building 32 on Old Turtle Pond Road.
We sat on a bench, constantly keeping an eye out for the others, and also a cart. Buses came and went, but no white cars. We waited and waited and still no cart showed up. Then all of a sudden, who should swing in but Paul and Daniel! We assumed they had taken all the cases to the room and were coming back to pick us up, but they had only just arrived from the airport! We arranged for them to drive back to the room and dump the luggage, then come and pick us up. I told bell services we wouldn't need the cart anymore. We didn't know how much longer it would be and by the time we got there, Paul and Daniel could have come back and we would miss them. I don't know what happened, but there was some confusion with Sam and bell services, and what was happening, but after about 30 minutes the boys turned up and we all drove back to the room. It was sooooo nice! I couldn't get over how big it was and lost my bearings coming out of the laundry room! It was perfect. Here's some photos (although they weren't taken on this night
)
The package from Carrie had already been brought up and I had a quick peek inside at all the goodies I had brought - some of which from July! It was like Christmas!
We freshened up, donned our magic bands and went back down to hospitality house. Daniel, Sam and Sarah were put in the room downstairs from us which they weren't happy with, so they asked to be moved next door to us. Luckily the occupant of the room next door was leaving on the 7th, two days later. So they didn't fully unpack right away. While we were waiting, we asked for a tea kettle as there was only a coffee machine in the room. They said it was no problem, and it was put in our room before we got back.
Here's our magic bands. Apologies for the poor quality of todays photos. They were all taken on my iPhone and Amelia actually took this one. They do get better honest!
We were all too tired to go to Downtown Disney as I had originally planned for us all to do, so we bought the kids autograph books from the general store at OKW and then got some food from Goods to Go. Ordering quick service was a bit confusing as it was our first time, but we got it sorted in the end and the CM was laughing with us. Bloody newbies!
We didn't realise we had to take our desserts up to the counter when ordering the entrée. Then we had to get our refillable resort mugs. Amelia and I don't drink fizzy drinks and the only thing available was pomegranate lemonade which was still. It tasted pretty grim though. We found a table over by the water and could finally relax. We were here! After dinner we went back to our rooms and put the sofa beds up which the kids got into and fell asleep immediately which wasn't surprising, considering it was about 3:30am back home in the UK.
Paul and I unpacked everything and went to bed about an hour after them. I didn't want to move this little guy off the bed...
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