April2012
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2012
So after returning from our first ever family holiday to WDW, I thought I might make an attempt at a Trip Report seeing as I enjoy reading other peoples so much and its kind of nice to do it for myself too 
.
But before I begin I just want to pre-warn you that Im definitely no David Bailey when it comes to picture taking (lol) and thought Id actually got a lot more variety of pics than I actually did
Also it might be a bit repetitive for some of you as I know the things that were new to us, you guys may have seen a thousand times before but hey ho, no harm in having a go I guess?
So enough waffle from me, allow me to introduce my little family:
Me Louise (37) Main picture snapper & general dogsbody
DH Marcus (43) My partner in crime and everything else!
DS Kade (4) Star of the show and always centre of attention
Day 1 - Travel Day Sunday 15th April
The alarm woke us at 6am. Surprisingly I had slept much better than I thought with no excited wake ups in the middle of the night. Kade was still snoozing away when Marcus went in to wake him, which I was glad about as travelling with a tired grumpy little man is never fun.
We all got washed and showered and Kade & Marc had some breakfast while I did some last minute packing. (toiletries, make-up, straightners etc)
The taxi firm called to say they would be arriving at 7.15am instead of 7.30am as arranged. We guessed he was just allowing a little extra time just in case of heavy traffic.
As promised he arrived on the dot ready to whisk us away for our first ever long haul holiday to Disney World Florida!!
The journey to Manchester was a little more interesting than usual as it turned out our driver had just returned from Disney himself in Feb, so was more than happy to chat away and provide answers to our never ending questions
Once we arrived at T2 we got through security without any dramas and made our way to Duty free as we wanted to get Kade some new shades as he had lost his. After trying many pairs he settled on a pair of Disney Cars shades for £24.00! Well they had to be Disney didnt they?
Popped into WHSmiths for some snacks and magazines before going to sit down and watch the planes. We spotted a VA plane that we thought might be ours so told Kade it was which he was mesmorised by.
Time seemed to pass fairly quickly and before we knew it, we were going downstairs to wait in the lounge ready to board flight VSO75.
Once seated it seemed forever till take off and as Im not the best flyer in the world, my anxiety had started to build by this point but I had pre-mixed some calming essential oils which I had dropped on a tissue so I was taking slow deep inhalations on this to try and help. I think you could smell me a mile off
.
Once in the air I started to feel a bit easier and was able to relax a bit more taking my mind off things by flicking through the programmes on tv.
Kade kept us busy most of the flight too with drawing, playing and what not.
The food came before long and I was quite surprised when a flight attendant came over holding a meal and calling my name. Id forgotten but when wed been checking in, we were looking at the meal options and in my attempt to be healthy, I chose a low fat option. It was ok though apart from all the yummy sweet stuff was substituted with fruit lol. Normally Id be happy with this but I think my tummy had gone into holiday mode already, which kind of blows a raspberry at anything that isnt loaded with calories lol.
So my meal was A bowl of salad, chicken breast & potatoes with a mustard sauce and veg, a bread roll all followed by a pot of grapes & melon.
Marcus & Kade both had a bowl of salad, cheese & tomato pasta with peppers, bread roll and a nice, creamy, yummy chocolate dessert with caramel toffee .of course I wasnt at all jealous!!
As it happens I wasnt too hungry anyway as when Im nervous about anything my appetite is the first to go so I didnt really eat much.
Marcus watched a couple of films, Kade was entertained by the Disney channel and I watched Friends with benefits along with a few other tv shows.
Nothing much else happened during the flight and after what seemed like a fairly long time to me we were beginning our descent to Orlando airport.
As this was all new to us, I was quite surprised (although I dont know why?) at how tight security actually is what with all the finger scanning, photos etc but anyway we got through unscathed and headed to collect our bags.
Once we got these we went off to find the magical express check in. We walked for what seemed like miles but only because Kade was insisting on helping with the cases so it took twice as long lol.
Anyway once we found it, a slight drama unfolded. We had forgotten to collect our pushchair from the carousel!
We checked in at the ME desk and the lady told him he could go back up and find it so Kade and I waited with the luggage.
20mins later, Marcus appeared looking flustered and empty handed. Apparently he had spoken to someone upstairs who had told him that to get the pram he would have to go through the whole security process again (getting to the back of the huge line of course) which could mean he could be there another 90mins!!
He said we would collect it on a later day or on our return so off we went to queue for our Magical Express Coach.
After a short wait we climbed aboard our coach and made the exciting journey to Saratoga Springs!!
It was so lovely to feel the heat and sit on the coach full of other high spirited people all starting their hols too.
It was exciting to see the Disney world sign as we approached and thats when I knew our holiday was now really about to start!
The coach made a few drop offs then stopped at ours, Saratoga Springs.
Now, previously Marcus had understood that our bags would be delivered directly to our room however I wasnt so sure?? In any case when we arrived at our stop we jumped off the coach, thanked the driver and trotted off happily to check in.
The lobby was really nice (sorry no pics ..not sure why I forgot that) and the CMs gave us our first visit buttons and some stickers.
I couldnt wait to go outside in the lovely warmth again so as soon as we were done we headed out to take a slow walk to find our apartment.
We hadnt got very far when a young lad came jogging up to us dressed in his bell boy uniform clutching a piece of paper. He asked DH if we were (our name) then explained very politely that we had left the coach without collecting our luggage!! How embarrassing!! Marcus explained that we thought it got delivered and he replied something about us having to had done something online for this or something along those lines. So anyway, he said it was fine and he would have it go straight to our room but we left feeling a slighter deeper shade of pink than we had originally
On our way to find the apartment.
So once we had found our apartment we were really pleased.
This was the only moan I had about the apartment as this was ALL the wardrobe space we had between us all!
Marcus went out to get us something to eat whilst I sat and had a cuddle with my baby. We were both feeling very tired by this point.
The bell boy delivered our cases and I tipped $10 as had no less but it was worth it for the hassle caused.
Marcus returned with some bread and ham & cheese from which we all had toasties and two refillable mugs filled with hot coffee. By this point we hadnt given a thought to the DDP we were on so he bought them!!
As my title says .lessons learned
Got to bed about 8pm.
. But before I begin I just want to pre-warn you that Im definitely no David Bailey when it comes to picture taking (lol) and thought Id actually got a lot more variety of pics than I actually did
Also it might be a bit repetitive for some of you as I know the things that were new to us, you guys may have seen a thousand times before but hey ho, no harm in having a go I guess? So enough waffle from me, allow me to introduce my little family:
Me Louise (37) Main picture snapper & general dogsbody
DH Marcus (43) My partner in crime and everything else!
DS Kade (4) Star of the show and always centre of attention
Day 1 - Travel Day Sunday 15th April
The alarm woke us at 6am. Surprisingly I had slept much better than I thought with no excited wake ups in the middle of the night. Kade was still snoozing away when Marcus went in to wake him, which I was glad about as travelling with a tired grumpy little man is never fun.
We all got washed and showered and Kade & Marc had some breakfast while I did some last minute packing. (toiletries, make-up, straightners etc)
The taxi firm called to say they would be arriving at 7.15am instead of 7.30am as arranged. We guessed he was just allowing a little extra time just in case of heavy traffic.
As promised he arrived on the dot ready to whisk us away for our first ever long haul holiday to Disney World Florida!!
The journey to Manchester was a little more interesting than usual as it turned out our driver had just returned from Disney himself in Feb, so was more than happy to chat away and provide answers to our never ending questions
Once we arrived at T2 we got through security without any dramas and made our way to Duty free as we wanted to get Kade some new shades as he had lost his. After trying many pairs he settled on a pair of Disney Cars shades for £24.00! Well they had to be Disney didnt they?
Popped into WHSmiths for some snacks and magazines before going to sit down and watch the planes. We spotted a VA plane that we thought might be ours so told Kade it was which he was mesmorised by.
Time seemed to pass fairly quickly and before we knew it, we were going downstairs to wait in the lounge ready to board flight VSO75.
Once seated it seemed forever till take off and as Im not the best flyer in the world, my anxiety had started to build by this point but I had pre-mixed some calming essential oils which I had dropped on a tissue so I was taking slow deep inhalations on this to try and help. I think you could smell me a mile off
.Once in the air I started to feel a bit easier and was able to relax a bit more taking my mind off things by flicking through the programmes on tv.
Kade kept us busy most of the flight too with drawing, playing and what not.
The food came before long and I was quite surprised when a flight attendant came over holding a meal and calling my name. Id forgotten but when wed been checking in, we were looking at the meal options and in my attempt to be healthy, I chose a low fat option. It was ok though apart from all the yummy sweet stuff was substituted with fruit lol. Normally Id be happy with this but I think my tummy had gone into holiday mode already, which kind of blows a raspberry at anything that isnt loaded with calories lol.
So my meal was A bowl of salad, chicken breast & potatoes with a mustard sauce and veg, a bread roll all followed by a pot of grapes & melon.
Marcus & Kade both had a bowl of salad, cheese & tomato pasta with peppers, bread roll and a nice, creamy, yummy chocolate dessert with caramel toffee .of course I wasnt at all jealous!!
As it happens I wasnt too hungry anyway as when Im nervous about anything my appetite is the first to go so I didnt really eat much.
Marcus watched a couple of films, Kade was entertained by the Disney channel and I watched Friends with benefits along with a few other tv shows.
Nothing much else happened during the flight and after what seemed like a fairly long time to me we were beginning our descent to Orlando airport.
As this was all new to us, I was quite surprised (although I dont know why?) at how tight security actually is what with all the finger scanning, photos etc but anyway we got through unscathed and headed to collect our bags.
Once we got these we went off to find the magical express check in. We walked for what seemed like miles but only because Kade was insisting on helping with the cases so it took twice as long lol.
Anyway once we found it, a slight drama unfolded. We had forgotten to collect our pushchair from the carousel!
We checked in at the ME desk and the lady told him he could go back up and find it so Kade and I waited with the luggage.
20mins later, Marcus appeared looking flustered and empty handed. Apparently he had spoken to someone upstairs who had told him that to get the pram he would have to go through the whole security process again (getting to the back of the huge line of course) which could mean he could be there another 90mins!!
He said we would collect it on a later day or on our return so off we went to queue for our Magical Express Coach.
After a short wait we climbed aboard our coach and made the exciting journey to Saratoga Springs!!
It was so lovely to feel the heat and sit on the coach full of other high spirited people all starting their hols too.
It was exciting to see the Disney world sign as we approached and thats when I knew our holiday was now really about to start!
The coach made a few drop offs then stopped at ours, Saratoga Springs.
Now, previously Marcus had understood that our bags would be delivered directly to our room however I wasnt so sure?? In any case when we arrived at our stop we jumped off the coach, thanked the driver and trotted off happily to check in.
The lobby was really nice (sorry no pics ..not sure why I forgot that) and the CMs gave us our first visit buttons and some stickers.
I couldnt wait to go outside in the lovely warmth again so as soon as we were done we headed out to take a slow walk to find our apartment.
We hadnt got very far when a young lad came jogging up to us dressed in his bell boy uniform clutching a piece of paper. He asked DH if we were (our name) then explained very politely that we had left the coach without collecting our luggage!! How embarrassing!! Marcus explained that we thought it got delivered and he replied something about us having to had done something online for this or something along those lines. So anyway, he said it was fine and he would have it go straight to our room but we left feeling a slighter deeper shade of pink than we had originally
On our way to find the apartment.
So once we had found our apartment we were really pleased.
This was the only moan I had about the apartment as this was ALL the wardrobe space we had between us all!
Marcus went out to get us something to eat whilst I sat and had a cuddle with my baby. We were both feeling very tired by this point.
The bell boy delivered our cases and I tipped $10 as had no less but it was worth it for the hassle caused.
Marcus returned with some bread and ham & cheese from which we all had toasties and two refillable mugs filled with hot coffee. By this point we hadnt given a thought to the DDP we were on so he bought them!!
As my title says .lessons learned
Got to bed about 8pm.
