A Whole New World - First Time at WDW

joolz1910

<font color=green>I would have gone down to recept
Joined
Aug 24, 2008
Well, it's ONE MONTH since we travelled home and I can only just bring myself to write this trip report. I want to be back there so much! This was the 'holiday-of-a-lifetime' for us and supposed to be a 'one-off'. Needless to say, we have already started saving for our next 'one-off':goodvibes

The family:
Me - Juliette, part-time teacher and Disney fan
DH - Kev, likes Disney but doesn't love it
DD (12) - Olivia, teenager: need I say more?
DD (8) - Jess, slightly crazy, says she is not very girly
DD (5) Emilia - shy and (as we would discover) scared of characters. Princess fan.

Disclaimer - to my horror, I have lost my holiday notes :blush: so I going to write this from spreadsheets and memory!:scared1:

28th October

The Premier Inn

We travelled up to Manchester on the Sunday evening as we were staying at the Premier Inn FT before our flight the following morning. Olivia knew that we were going to WDW as she has anxiety disorder. Jessica and Emilia were oblivious! We had told them that we were staying in Manchester and going to Legoland the following day. I told them that we would probably stay a few days and go shopping etc. This did not go down well as they both wanted to be home for Halloween as we always go Trick or Treating. *evil Mum laugh*

The Premier Inn was lovely - no problems.

29th October

Those of you who are my friends on Facebook will know that I had planned a big 'reveal' this morning before we headed over to the airport.
Things did not quite go according to plan.:rotfl:
I gave the girls a home-made boarding pass with their names and the date - 29th October and told tham that I had finally booked a holiday to WDW and that the boarding pass bore the date. Once the news had sunk in (slowly) I made the fatal error of saying 'We are going to Disney World to see MICKEY MOUSE! Emilia is terrified of characters so immediately declared that she didn't want to go.:sad:
She kept up this protest for most of the flight. Not quite the tears of joy and gratitude I had hoped for.:rotfl2:
Don't worry, her Disney-resistance didn't last as she asks me almost every day if we can go back (that's my girl;))

I will try to post the video of this anti-climax later, once I've worked out how to do it!

The Airport


We went over to the airport and checked in. We had a little look around the shops and then headed to Frankie and Benny's for breakfast. I had scrambled eggs on toast, Kev had a full English breakfast, Emilia and Olivia had the kids' breakfast and Jess had a bowl of cereal. The girls had juice and Kev and I had coffee. The bill was around £35. I would have much preferred to eat at the Premier Inn but the flight was early, so we decided against it. F&B's was OK, but nothing to shout about.

The plane

I had arranged for us to pre-board because of Olivia's problems with crowds and had requested the bulkhead seats. We had been assigned 4 bulkhead seats and one aisle seat. They were great and I was relieved as Olivia coped really well as a result of this pre-planning. The IFE was really good, although I had problems watching anything as I was surrounded by my kids fussing and fidgeting - Kev cleverly opted for the aisle seat and managed to watch several films...

The food was as expected - pretty grim. I had the veggie option which was a rather wet pasta dish.

Getting there

Once we had arrived at MCO, we navigated our way to immigration. I forgot to mention that Gordon Banks was on our plane. We kept passing him in the immigration queue and (god bless him) he smiled at everyone. Olivia lasted about 40 minutes in the queue before she started to have a panic attack. I spoke to one of the officials who escorted us to the front, and we went through quickly. I was really relieved and grateful for this.:thumbsup2 We finally found the Magical Express and boarded the bus. The little film made me want to cry. I could not believe that we were FINALLY on American soil and (more importantly) on our way to DISNEY WORLD!!!:cool1:

Arriving

When the ME pulled up outside OKW, I immediately knew I had made the right choice. I loved this place! It is beautiful and tranquil. We checked in with the friendly CM's and headed for our room. I had asked for a top floor room in the Turtle Pond area. I was a little bit disappointed to see that we were on the ground floor but the room was well appointed, overlooking a small lake.

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The one bed villas are enormous! All of the girls tried to make a claim on the master bedroom with the superking size bed. The open-plan living room and kitchen was spacious and well-equipped. The shower was big enough for all of us to fit in - don't worry, we didn't attempt this;) - and the jacuzzi bath was fabulous.

I hadn't told Olivia that the restaurant was named after her...

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After dumping our stuff, we decided to head to DTD and grab a bite to eat. We caught the boat at the marina and took made our way to DTD. With hindsight, this might have been a bit ambitious for our first night as we were all tired.

Wolfgang Puck Express


Our first meal but not the first time that Kev would declare that the free DDP was 'superb'. Thanks to my fellow Disers for recommending this place! We all went for pizzas / pasta. Kev had a huge slice of cheesecake and I had the creme brulee. The food was plentiful and delicious. I think the bill came to around $84. We both felt rather pleased with ourselves for having the free DDP and decided straight away that it would save us a small fortune.

We headed back to the villa with full stomachs and tired kids, looking forward to our early breakfast the next morning at Crystal Palace.

I sort of hoped that Emilia's character-phobia could be cured with a bit of aversion therapy. Hmmm.
 
A great start Jules! :cheer2:

Sorry that the reveal didn't go as planned, that's kids for you! However, they make up for it, because they are beautiful girls!

Can't wait to hear more!
Steffi x
 
A great start Jules! :cheer2:

Sorry that the reveal didn't go as planned, that's kids for you! However, they make up for it, because they are beautiful girls!

Can't wait to hear more!
Steffi x

Thank you - I think they are beautiful too.princess:
I am going to try to get the first week done before Christmas.

Woohoo, you've started. Looking forward to reading all about it

Thanks Natalie. I'm hoping my photo pass CD comes so I can use some of the photos from that.:thumbsup2
 


Fantastic start! Can't wait to read the rest :) Sorry to hear the reveal didn't go as planned but from the sounds of it Emilia can't wait to go back so all ended up well :goodvibes
 


I am not reading this in order, but never the less enjoying your reports :)

Ha ha, that's OK. I'm writing this from memory, so it's probably not in the right order anyway. I should have kept it all in one thread.
 
Shame the reveal didn't go quite as planned. Look forward to reading more.
 
Great first installments, looking forward to reading the rest! We stayed at OKW from the 13th Oct to the 30th and loved it!

And I have a 12 year old called Olivia who has a photo in the exact same pose!
 
Great first installments, looking forward to reading the rest! We stayed at OKW from the 13th Oct to the 30th and loved it!

And I have a 12 year old called Olivia who has a photo in the exact same pose!

It's a small world after all.;)
 
Been meaning to read this for months! So glad Olivia managed the journey OK. Now off to start on your adventure.
 

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