Howard412's Very Delayed Trip Report

[Howard412]

I was posting my Trip report from January/Feb '07 on the forums over at Sorcerer Radio when I remembered all the great trippies I had read here at the Dis that had put a big smile on my face and given me some great ideas when I was planning my trip. I thought it would be sad not to repay in kind, however late I am posting this! These are copy/pastes from my original report at the SR forums;

(Warning, this post contains alot of reading)

Well it's about time that I started my trip report! I'm hoping that by at least making a start today it will give me a kick up the backside to give it some more thought and get it finished soon!

Reading other peoples trip reports gave me some good ideas, and really put a smile on my face reading them. I hope that this does the same for you reading at home. The plus point for me is I get to re-live my holiday!

I'll use this first post to introduce myself to everyone reading this so the lurkers among you reading this don't need any explanation of who I am, my Disney history etc. I'll also use it to index future posts in this thread so people who just want to read the trip report and skip the hundreds and hundreds of encouraging posts from my adoring fans ( ) can do so.

(Chocolate pudding always puts a smile on my face)
I am Howard (currently) aged 23 and I live in leafy Warwickshire with my father. I have had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalitis/Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome (depending on which name the "experts" are using this week) for the past 6 years 4 months (give or take a few days!). I don't work full-time because of this.

I went on this trip with my brother, 25 who pilots a desk in wide world web of IT. The smart money was on him to say "uncle" before I did while walking around the parks.

This was our 4th trip to The World - the other three had been in 1991 (I-Drive), 1994 & 1995 (C. Beach) with responsible adults. That's right; this was our first trip for TWELVE years!

The idea for the trip came about in June '06 after finding a bit of spare change down the back of the sofa. What would be the best way to burn a few weeks of horrible British winter?. Two wonderful weeks in sunny Florida of course. A few cold ciders on a summers evening at a friends wedding was all the convincing my brother needed.

Having stayed at the Caribbean Beach on two previous visits, there was little discussion over which resort to go back to! Staying off-site never even crossed our minds. Having not looked at a brochure, or consulting a travel agent,we set ourselves a budget of £1,500 to include.. well, to include everything. My first stop - the book shop! Or, Amazon really. I bought the Unofficial Guide 2006 (read it cover to cover in just over a day) and Birnbaums Official Guide (looked at the pictures). The next stop was the Virgin website to check availability and the important thing of cost. UG2006 said the last week of January/first week of February were quiet times to go, and that suited us just fine. We finally booked with JetSave (Virgin Flights, Virgin Transfers) for alittle over £872 for 14 nights (24th Jan - 7th Feb) at the Caribbean Beach. We scored a great deal for our 14 day ultimate tickets by booking with JetSave and not taking the Virgin Package - £199 each.

The next 8 months were going to pass very, very slowly....

Next time - Tuesday 23rd Jan - Travel Day #1, The Gatwick Hilton & It's A Small World After all...

 

[Howard412]

Not much to say about today, apart from it was super super boring

Finished up my packing in the only style I know (bung it all in, shut the lid), a light lunch then off to the station to catch my National Express coach down to Gatwick to meet my brother at the Hilton (that's right, I willingly gave money to Paris Hilton's heritance :rolleyes ).

On the way down on the coach I got talking to a family from Coventry that were flying off to Hong Kong for 8 days. Once I mentioned my destination, they asked me if i was going to Disney - "yes, of course". Are you going to MGM "yes, of course" - Ahh, well when you get there, our uncle works in Keystone Clothiers, go and say Hi! Then I found the words "Well, it is a Small world after all..." slipping out of my mouth. They all laughed, but I didn't get my own joke
It turns out that they go every year, invite all their extended family and stay with their uncle for 2 weeks who acts as their own personal tour guide.

Eventually circumnavigated the M25 and the coach got to Gatwick South Terminal. Checked into the Hilton where my brother was waiting for me.

Our room at the Gatwick Hilton, shortly before we wrecked it

As good little boy scouts, we had taken a sandwiches down so sat with a cup of tea eating those and took a quick jaunt over to the airport for a recce. Found the Virgin check-in desks but wanted to find somewhere to have breakfast tomorrow (the Hilton wanted £19.99 a person for a full english!), but the best place we could find was a Cafe Nero. Scratch that idea, I can't fly on an empty belly!

Returned back to the hotel (alittle too excited for some of the "suits" sat in the lobby!) to play with my new digital camera;

(aren't we a couple of good looking chaps!)
and eventually tried to get some sleep after watching a bit of television and forcing my brother to read his copy of UG2007.

Next time - 24th January, Travel Day #2 and Shall We Build A Snowman?

 

[Howard412]

Woke up at The Hilton Gatwick about 8 o clock and flicked the TV onto Sky News to find disastrous news; SNOW! This country grinds to an absolute halt in any weather that is slightly out of the ordinary, so it was panic time. Either that, or we'll build snowmen in the car park.

Had an amazing breakfast of Belgian Buns and a cup of tea before showering and checking out at about 9.25. Quickly over to the airport expecting to find chaos at check-in from delayed flights etc, but all was eerily quite!

Obviously we were too shifty to use the self check-in machines as it kept rejecting my passport but there was noone queuing at the check-in desks so everything passed without a hitch. Again, we looked far too odd to get a free bump up to first class and neither of us fancied stumping up extra cash for the extra leg room so we settled for an aisle and a middle seat. We were reassured that the snow was not causing any delays.

Straight through the security checks - well I was. The shiftyness struck again as my brothers bag was completely emptied and he was given a thorough pat down.

We wandered upstairs and got a table in the restaurant whose name escapes me that's next to Garfunkels for a couple of cooked breakfasts. Into a few shops to buy the traveling necessity's - chocolate biscuits, books, water and Top Trumps! We settled down on a few seats for the wait.

Eventually the all-knowing tv screens displayed our gate number which as ever when I fly, is the furthest walk away.

More boring sitting around and boarding was uneventful so I'll skip straight past that.

Watched The Departed until lunch was served. Was a bit miffed though; they announced lunch would be a choice of beef, chicken & pasta or sausage & mash, but by the time they had reached us sat almost right in the middle of the plane, they only had chicken & pasta left. Oh well - into the Disney spirit watching POTC2 after lunch and caught the end of the very funny Talladega Nights. More food as tea was served. Announced was a choice of chicken salad sandwiches or cream cheese. Now I hate cheese, it is the work of the Devil, but they only had cheese left when they reached us. They even missed out our entire row which made us all look at ourselves to make sure we didn't have "TREAT POORLY" written on our foreheads. Staff weren't even that apologetic about the lack of food or missing us out. Later in the flight I wasn't feeling fantastic so pressed the call button to get some water - I waited 15mins to be told "I'm busy, get it yourself". Hmph.

The Tv's in the back of the seat infront of you are fantastic (first time I have used these), but I found the map of your progress very depressing! It displays how long you have been flying, current altitude, ground speed, and most importantly, stimated time until you land, which I promise you was going backwards just to annoy me. After thinking "wow I'm bored, we must almost be there by now!" and checking the map, I found we had only been flying for 5 hours. Another 4 to go.

Nothing could break my spirit though, even needing 3 attempts at filling in my green card correctly

We landed ahead of schedule to find that the glorious Florida weather I had seen on the internet the week before our trip had been told of our arrival and had let the rain come back.

Straight through Immigration. I think the fact my brother had been reading his UG2007 on the plane and was carrying it as we approached the desk helped. The officer simply asked "Off to Disney huh?", stamped our cards and we were in!

Collected our luggage, then gave it back to security... and then collected our luggage again.

We met our rep - or rather she met us. She spotted the JetSave tags on our bags and came up and greeted us by name! I was alittle shocked until she mentioned we were the only JetSave'rs on the flight. Cushty job if you can get it obviously! We were given directions to the Mears desk so off we trotted down the "elevator" (must start speaking the lingo now I'm in a foreign country). We found the Mears desk, and the long queue that was associated with it, with only one very stressed looking lady manning it. We spotted the Magical Express desk next to it with no queue, 7-8 helpful friendly looking people with Mickey Mouse :mickey: gloves on and I wished I had made ME Reservations. After 15mins of moving about 4 steps forwards, and being awake far too long I was getting alittle ratty, so when the Stressed Lady announced "40min wait for the next shuttle", I wasn't very impressed. A guy behind me shouted back "Does that include the wait in line??".

My brother thought I was mad when I just picked my suitcase up and walked over to the desk to see if we could catch a Magical Express bus instead of waiting, but the smile soon returned to his face when the girl I asked said "Of course!" - A few fights with the computer to find our reservation at The CBR and we were on the next coach out. Quietly cursing Mears under my breath, I noticed that Magical Express is operated by... Mears.

By this time it was all dark;

so we didn't get to see a lot - only the spot lights at MGM roaming the sky and "The Golf Ball" all lit up. The bus made 2 stops before ours, The Yacht & Beach Club and The Grand Floridian so we didn't mind!

Over to The CBR, we were the only ones left on the bus. Checked in but we weren't given our requested room in Aruba (for reasons to become clear later!), but a 2nd floor room in Martinique means a shorter walk to the food hall so no complaints from us.

Over to Old Port Royale at 9.30 after a sit down to get our souvenir mugs and our first lemonades (that Minute Maid lemonade is obviously made from crushed angel wings, it's THAT good!) of the trip before falling into bed after being awake for far far too long.

Lemonade Count; 1

Next time - 25th January, The Addiction To Buzz Lightyear Begins.

 

[jockey]

Great report, looking forward to more!

 

[natalielongstaff]

Great reports my gate is always the furthest away as well and i have to agree that that little plane on the screens definatly flies backwards !!

 

[Lizzy Lemon]

Come on, you can't leave it there, where's the next instalment?

 

[KayleeUK]

Loving these Howard - thanks for sharing them with us

 

[tashasmum]

great report and a good result with the ME
Keep the reports coming

 

[irongirlof12]

wow, I'm impressed that you are doing disney with ME - brilliant reports so far...keep going!

 

[zippyhannah]

great report cant wait to read more :-D

 

[Minniespal]

Great reports Howard ~ Looking forward to reading more

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Howard,
Where in Warwickshire do you live?

Regarding the awful service and food choices on the flight, please complain to Virgin atlantic, as they need to be told to get their act together!
The more people tell them, the better chance of getting it sorted

 

[Girlsontour]

Great start - hurry and post some more. We stayed at CBR 2 years ago in Martinique..really handy for the Food Court, buses and the main pool.

 

[mark&sue]

Great report


susan

 

[Howard412]

wow, I'm impressed that you are doing disney with ME - brilliant reports so far...keep going!

It was just something I had to try out. I started walking in the gym 4-5 months before the trip to get myself ready. It also gave me something to concentrate on and a goal to work towards. In the end, the break from day-to-day life at home, the daily exercise and the sunshine (the limited amounts of it we saw!) did me the world of good.

Howard,
Where in Warwickshire do you live?

Regarding the awful service and food choices on the flight, please complain to Virgin atlantic, as they need to be told to get their act together!
The more people tell them, the better chance of getting it sorted

I'm just outside Warwick.
I wrote to Virgin. Wasn't shocked at all when I received no response!

Great start - hurry and post some more. We stayed at CBR 2 years ago in Martinique..really handy for the Food Court, buses and the main pool.

I'd recommend Martinique to anyone going to the CBR. I was a bit miffed at not getting our first choice in Aruba, but if I was to go back next year ( ), I'd request Martinique.
Girlsontour, I have to say a big thanks for writing your trip report; it's one of those that sticks in my mind, and is a reason I wrote mine!

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Hi Howard,
I live pretty close by then, I am just outside Leamington!

Regarding Virgin, if it was Virgin Atlantic, I would write to Richard bransons office and also add the complaint about not having any response to your first letter.

 

[Howard412]

Finally, onto the good stuff. No more planes and coaches.

I would have thought that after our long day yesterday that we would have slept through earthquakes and woken at a more "ordinary" time, but alas; 3.30am and I was wide awake and wondering why a park doesn't open about this time for all of us UK travellers on our first day My brother was still fast asleep, so I eventually drifted back off to sleep at about 5am. The plan was that we'd both be awake stupidly early and would make it to Magic Kingdom in time for park opening at 8am...

The next thing I know, my eyes open and I'm up with a jolt as the clock tells me it's 7.45am. Lesson learnt - alarms required! I woke my brother up gently (screaming, WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE, GET UP, GET UP!!), and then we stumbled across a problem - the showers at the CBR are just TOO powerful, and TOO hot for someone who is in a hurry to go somewhere! Off to Old Port Royale/Centertown (depending on which entrance you use ) to pick up breakfast - mmmmmm french toast and maple syrup

Far to delicious to leave a scrap;

We were eventually on the bus to MK abut 8.30am. Rope drop will have to wait for another day.

As it was pouring with rain, we stopped at the shop just on the left after the security checks and bought ponchos. No pictures of us looking ridiculous in those, sorry.

We walked down Main Street and walked into a media storm infront of the castle. Hundreds of video cameras were setup with people talking into them. Thousands of people were packed into designated areas, all wearing ponchos, waving newspapers. Signs nearby just informed us that being in this area granted the news corporations and disney to use our image in anyway they saw fit. Not wanting to appear on CrimeWatch/Americas Most Wanted, we steered clear and found ourselves in Tomorrowland. (We never did find out what all the kerfuffle was about, I'd be very interested to find out if anyone knows).

My brother had gotten quite animated talking about Buzz Lightyear, so that was our first stop and we walked straight on. He cheated and beat me by a clear 100,000 points. He wanted a repeat to show it was a fluke, but I was not amused, and convinced him that Carousel of Progress was next up. There was a small queue outside, but we realised it was to meet Buzz Lightyear, and not for COP. He didn't really get into this, but I thought it was fantastic! was singing "There's a great big beautiful tomorrowwww..." all day long. Onto Space Mountain next, which we both left grinning from ear to ear. As the Indy Speedway was going to be closed at some point during our stay, I wanted to get it done.

It wasn't until we were almost in the cars that we started feeling a touch silly - everyone else around us looked like they hadn't even been born when we were last here!

It wasn't quite the thrill ride we remembered it to be.

Eventually I was convinced to go back to Buzz and while I improved on last times score getting an extra 50k points, so did my brother. 2-0 to him.

It had stopped raining at this point so it off with the ponchos and a walk into Fantasyland for a journey on The Happiest Cruise to Ever Set Sail. Needless to say, after we got off this, I wasn't singing There's a great big beautiful tomorrow.... Peter Pan next which we were both glad to say hadn't changed in the 12 years since our last flight to Neverland. We didn't hang around in Fantasyland; The Haunted Mansion was our next stop. I'm ashamed to say this was our only attempt to become the 1000th Happy Haunt!

We walked along the waterfront through the rest of Liberty Square and spotted;

It looked almost serene and peaceful!

We rode Big Thunder and then skipped into Frontierland the back way and found "The Jack Sparrow Show" starting just outside PoTC. We stood and watched and my naughty brother took various photos of me in silly poses getting into the show that he's keeping for blackmail purposes. Quite a crowd gathered, and the show was very entertaining, especially when they got the littluns up for sword fighting practice. We left just before the end as we quickly realised that everyone here would be descending on PoTC next. The new PoTC wasn't what I expected, but it was still good fun. I thought it was a shame that they only inserted the new Cpt Jack animatronics, and didn't replace them all with the new technology that makes Jack so life-like.

By this time it was about 12:30, and while my mind was set on foooood, my brother only wanted to give me another thrashing at Buzz so we headed back into Tomorrowland and caught lunch at Cosmic Rays - Bacon Double Cheeseburgers and Chocolate Milk x2.

Back to Buzz. 3-0 to my brother. 'Nuff said.

We spotted a cart selling Balzac Balls - I bought one on my last visit, and they are great fun in the swimming pool. So we bought one.

I wanted to ride the TTA for a nice sit down tour of Tomorrowland.

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Inside Space Mountain, I discovered the power of my cameras flash;

We were both a bit weary by 2pm, so decided to head back to the hotel for more lemonade. It started raining again so we stuck it out in our room having a "who can be the more stupid" contest.

Quite obviously, I was the winner.

The rain stopped and we headed down to the pool with our Balzac. No pictures of us in swimming shorts , sorry ladies

Before we knew it, it was dinner time, and the weather had cleared up a treat. It was still a bit windy, but the skies had cleared and it had become and lovely evening. We took these shots on our way over to dinner.

We ordered a 16" supreme pizza between the two of us

We were starving hungry after being in the pool, but while we waited for it to be cooked, we both started to feel a bit queasy. Next time we'll stick to drinking lemonade instead of the pool water. We managed about 3 slices between us, then fell into bed at 8pm.

Weather - rainy and yuck in the morning, cleared by 5pm. Chilly.
Lemonade Count - 4 each.


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Next up; 26th January - Year of A Million Dreams!

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent ~ Thanx for posting

 

[irongirlof12]

Can you just pass me a slice of pizza please? Love the clip of TTA, brings it all back. Photo's are great. hope there is more to come.

 

[wils]

Great report so far - just what I needed on a rainy day in Coventry!

Look forward to reading more