Mayhem and Meltdowns! aka Adventures with my Family & Other Animals! SUMMARY

[missoverexcited]

It was hard to believe we'd been in Florida a week already, the time had flown by But here we were, it was Saturday again and today we were going to Blizzard Beach. My original plan had us going to Typhoon Lagoon (my favourite of the 2), but not long before our trip I checked for changes to Extra Magic Hours, and TL was now opening early on a Saturday. So I had switched the water park days around. Lucy and Dan had told us they weren't coming, because there would be nothing for the children to do - that would be the children who we could hardly get out of the pool to eat Everyone wanted a later start, I told them we didn't need to be at rope drop but we would need to be there fairly early to get sun beds and to go on the slides before it got too busy. It would have been a good day to go out for breakfast, but it was clear that my mum and dad really didn't want to eat out at all if they could help it. So we ate in the villa and finally made it to BB by 10am.

It was already busy unsurprisingly, it was red hot again with no rain forecast. We hired lockers - we've never bothered before but I read recently somebody on Lines had their backpack stolen at one of the waterparks and I didn't want to take the risk - and we went to look for sunbeds. We managed to get 5 and a couple of chairs in a shaded spot near the Polar Pub, right in front of the wave pool. My mum and dad hadn't got sun cream on, so we left them and me, Steve, Joe and John got in the wave pool - it felt so good to cool down Sean had come with us to the park but said he didn't want to go in the water so he stayed on the sunbed with his ipod.

It wasn't long before my little adrenaline junkie wanted to do Summit Plummet. None of us did, and we tried everything to put him off but he wasn't having any of it, so off we went. The wait was supposed to be 30 minutes, but it seemed much longer. We amused ourselves by pointing out landmarks in other parks, we could see Expedition Everest, the sorceror's hat, Spaceship Earth - we couldn't see MK at all though. We also spotted my mum and dad in the queue for Teamboat Springs. Joe had decided what order we had to go in - Steve, then Joe, then me, then John. John really, really didn't want to do it, and was considering walking back down the queue once Joe had gone The anticipation waiting at the top was just awful, I had butterflies in my stomach. As I sped down the slope I screamed my head off, I was scared to death...and then it was over. The photopass photographer at the bottom was a nice touch too Joe had loved it, he was jumping around with excitement, but the rest of us unanimously decided we would never do it again! We had to ride Teamboat Springs next to calm our shattered nerves - that was fun. Then I think we got in the Cross Country Creek. It took ages to get tubes but finally we were off. It was absolutely full but it was still relaxing, the only problem was that we had no idea what exit we had got in at! But luckily we recognised it when we got back there. We had another quick dip in the wave pool, then decided it was time to eat.

We got back to our sun beds and my mum and dad were already there, they had just eaten. I went back to the locker with John to get our money and go for the food - I was wearing flipflops but he had bare feet, I had to abandon him halfway as his feet were burning on the hot concrete! We got burgers at Lottawatta Lodge and headed back. As soon as we'd finished eating, Joe wanted to get back in the water but we explained he would have to let his food settle. Steve and John buried him up to his neck in the sand which he loved - we have a photo of Sean buried from our previous holiday and Joe had wanted to do it too ever since he saw it. Then a passing guest gave him a bucket and spade so he built sandcastles until we could swim again.

We had another dip in the wave pool, then we wanted to do the Toboggan Racers which we'd seen from the queue for Summit Plummet. The wait said 15 minutes, and we knew you picked the mat up at the top, so we set off up the steps. We had seen a huge queue at the bottom of the steps for mats, but we assumed that was for another slide. Sadly it wasn't. The conveyor belt that takes the mats to the top was broken. We made our way back down, and asked somebody who had just got a mat how long they had waited - 30 minutes. We couldn't be bothered waiting that long, it was too hot. So we went to Runoff Rapids instead, where we only waited a couple of minutes for 2 person tubes. Joe wanted to do it alone of course, but when we realised how slow that line was going we persuaded him to ride with Steve instead. Then we got back in the Cross Country Creek to get back to the front of the park.

Since it was far too hot to queue for slides, we got back in the wave pool. Steve got Joe on his back and swam to the deepest part (Joe is a good swimmer but not used to waves, and Steve is 6'4 and a very strong swimmer) as Joe wanted to get the full force. John and I stayed where we could stand up. At first everything was fine, I could see Joe was loving it. But then Steve starting letting the waves wash over him instead of staying on top, so they were crashing down on Joe's head - after seeing it twice I realised he wasn't getting chance to breathe, and John saw it too at the same moment. We swam across to them, shouting to Steve but he obviously couldn't hear us, John got there first and pulled Joe off Steve's back and out of the water to breathe. He swam back towards the shallows with him, while I was asking Steve what on earth he had been thinking of - but I was way of of my depth and started struggling too, Steve ended up having to drag me into the shallows too. Luckily Joe was fine, but I was really upset and wouldn't let him go deeper than chest height again. We had a few near drowning incidents in the villa too - on 3 or 4 occasions Alex slipped through his rubber ring when Dan was supposed to be watching them, one time John happened to go out to the pool and saw him under water, another time Joe was in the pool too and pulled him out - no wonder Lucy didn't want to risk the water park. Anyway, we hung about in the wave pool for a while and then decided to get out.

My mum and dad were already getting dressed, they had had enough and we agreed. I was shocked to see it was 4.30, I thought it was more like 2pm. We went back to the villa where Lucy and the kids were in the pool and we all jumped in with them - even Sean. When Steve got out of the pool he slipped in a wet patch on the kitchen floor and smashed his head into the wall. He started feeling sick and I was really worried that he had concussion, he said he was ok though and it was the pain making him feel sick - he had landed on his arm and twisted it too. I kept a really close eye on him though, and we ate at home again as he wasn't fit to go out. We were all exhausted anyway after swimming all day and the intense heat.

We all got an early night as we had a long drive in the morning - to Busch Gardens!

 

[missoverexcited]

Sorry for the lack of recent updates - I haven't been able to get motivated, things at home have been mental. but I've finally got my head down and got typing. Coming up - Busch Gardens!

 

[missoverexcited]

I don't know how many people who visit WDW go to Busch Gardens, but we have done on all our trips - we have family near Clearwater who we have stayed with overnight and gone to BG with the next day. This time that wasn't really feasible though, imagine 8 adults and 4 children decending on you it was hard enough to squeeze us in when there were only 8 of us altogether. So it was to be a day trip instead. We had downloaded directions and it should take around 70-80 minutes, we decided to set off about 8am. Considering how many times we had missed or nearly missed our exits I wasn't that confident, but amazingly we set off more or less on schedule and arrived about 9.30.

We didn't have any kind of touring plan, we were winging it and hoping for the best! Lucy and Dan took their kids to Sesame Street Safari of Fun, while the rest of us decided to do Gwazi in Morocco, a wooden coaster, since it was right there. The posted wait was 10 minutes but it was a walk-on. We were surprised that at the loading platform there were no CMs directing you where to go, it was a free-for-all, but we assumed it was because it was early and still quiet - it wasn't, this continued throughout the day. My mum kept saying "they wouldn't do it like this at Disney, they would be telling you which bay to stand in" It was a really really rough ride, fun, but I wouldn't want to do it again in a hurry. Sean had wisely not bothered riding.

We walked through the Bird Garden and Sesame St to Stanleyville. Our first priority there was SheiKra which we had never been on. Joe begged to be measured for it even though we knew he was too small and sure enough, he hadn't grown an inch in the last 5 days! So Steve, Sean and Joe went to the Stanley Falls Flume instead. The wait was about 10 minutes for SheiKra, we weren't too impressed with it though. The big drops were pretty terrifying but the rest was just meh. When we got off we had a wait for my boys, but we got to see them coming down the drop so that was good. While we waited there were some street dancers setting up in front of us, we watched for a while as Joe really likes dancing. Then we went to the Tanganyika Tidal Wave as Joe was disappointed he hadn't got very wet! My mum and dad absolutely refused to do it and the rest of us weren't keen - the last time we had been here, John had to buy a new T shirt - but it was another roasting hot day so we thought we would dry out. We all enjoyed it and we didn't get too drenched, which was a miracle, the water was raining down all around us.

We walked up to Jungala next. We looked at the tigers and orang-utans, and visited the information centres. I love the white tigers! Joe went to play in the Treetop Trails, while we all had a nice sit down in the shade. I'm sure the play area used to be dinosaur themed, I remember Sean playing on it with my little 3rd cousin (? some kind of cousin anyway) back in 2000. Not that Joe cared, he loved it. Then we all rode Wild Surge - a kid sized version of Doctor Doom's Fear Fall, or TOT but outside. Oh my goodness, kid sized didn't mean less intense - even though it was tiny you got tons of air time, I think the height was actually a disadvantage as your stomach didn't get chance to get back to its normal place before it was being thrown about again I'll definitely skip that on any future trips!! We calmed down with a wander round a gift shop. Then we went to the Bengal Bistro for some lunch. I thought it was a lot more expensive than Disney, but it was good food, my parents were glad of some fries with no skin on.

Our next stop was Congo - sadly the Congo River Rapids was closed, but I was looking forward to Kumba which is a great coaster. Joe wasn't tall enough again, so he lined up with Steve and Sean for the Ubanga-Banga Bumper cars while we went on to Kumba. The wait time was zero which seemed unlikely even though we had walked on to everything so far....and sure enough, it was actually down due to lightning in the vicinity. We had gorgeous weather there with not a hint of rain or storms but it must have been close. We weren't sure what to do so we joined the queue while my mum went to ask if the CMs had any idea when it would open again - they said they didn't. So we decided we'd wait 10 minutes and see what happened before going back to meet the others. Only a couple of minutes later it reopened. As the queue started moving a woman barged past us with her daughter and I made a sarcastic comment loud enough for her to hear (I can't remember what it was but you can be sure it was both witty and cutting ) - we had seen a lot of queue jumping in all the parks but this particular day it was very bad and I was getting sick of it. She turned back and said she had been in the queue when the ride went down and so actually we were all pushing ahead of her John jumped in then and told her that she should have stayed in the queue, it had been her choice to leave it, and she wasn't any more important than the rest of us standing waiting and she should get to the back of the line. She moved to behind us, still having cut in front of 20 or 30 people but if they wanted to let her do it, that was their problem. Embarrassingly, we ended up next to the same woman in a queue at MK 3 days later We walked on to the ride and it was fantastic! When we got back to the bumper cars, Steve and the boys weren't there. We had a quick look around the area but couldn't see them so we just had to wait - about 15 minutes later they reappeared, they had been in the next land Timbuktu getting drinks as apparently they couldn't wait 5 minutes for us to get off the ride. I was so annoyed with Steve, it was so thoughtless.

But he wasn't the only one to be thoughtless that day.....

 

[missoverexcited]

Next we boarded the train at the Congo train station. Only a couple of families were waiting and there was loads of room on the train so we picked the right station - the others were really busy. The train took us back through Stanleyville where there was another station, around Timbuktu and past Nairobi and Egypt, and through the Serengeti Plain. Though it was a nice enough journey, I was disappointed that we didn't see many animals. There were a fair few giraffes and zebras, but not a lot else. They were all there somewhere but not in our sight unfortunately. We got off the train back in Congo and walked over the bridge to Timbuktu. Joe really wanted to go on one ride in particular here, Phoenix, which is like a pirate ship but actually goes upside down and leaves you hanging there. We got drinks first, then I took him on it. Though the line was quite short, it still took at least 15 minutes to get on. He really enjoyed it though. My mum and dad couldn't believe it, everyone thought he would come off it crying, but he's made of stern stuff - like his mum It must have been 2.30-2.45 by now because Mum and Dad went to meet Lucy and Dan for the 3pm Iceploration show. I love ice-skating and I probably would have really enjoyed it but I was out-voted by Steve and John and the kids who would have rather poked their eyes out with sticks. So I suggested we would see the 3pm Pirates 4D show and we would meet up at 3.30pm at the giant tortoises in Nairobi which was the mid point.

Joe immediately told me he didn't want to see the show, he wanted to ride Sand Serpent which was your bog-standard wild mouse. We tried everything to talk him out of it but he was determined. So into the line we got, except for Sean who opted to stay at his nice shady table with a drink. The wait was posted as 20 minutes but there were 5 cars so we thought the line would go quickly...until we realised only one of the cars was on the track at any time, meaning the line was only moving by 3-4 people every couple of minutes. I was tearing my hair out by the time we got on. I wish I could say it was worth the wait but even if I'd walked on I would have felt short-changed. Annoyingly, we now didn't have time to ride Scorpion which looked pretty good - if the wait had been 10 minutes we would have done it and been a bit late meeting my parents but as we passed the line was huge. We got to the giant tortoises and had a look at them, we took photos from various angles, my mum and dad didn't turn up. We went to see if they were outside the Kenya Kanteen which was the first place I had suggested, they weren't. John was furious and thought we should just carry on with our day, but i persuaded him we couldn't possibly do that - apart from anything else we had to go home with them, we couldn't do that if we didn't know where they were! But by 4pm I did agree that we couldn't just stand there waiting for them, so we nipped into the nearby Curiosity Caverns, rushed round and went back again. Mum and Dad weren't there, but a couple of minutes later we saw them coming from the Kenya Kanteen, complaining loudly that we hadn't been waiting at the tortoises when they arrived. We were unimpressed, and pointed out that we had waited 30 minutes for them before taking a 5 minute diversion. If they had told us they wanted to spend some time with Bella, Faye and Alex we could have arranged to meet them later on rather than standing round waiting bored and too hot.

Squabbling done, we went to Egypt to ride Cheetah Hunt which looked amazing. The wait was huge, I think 60 or 70 minutes, but as we debated whether to join the queue or not (John, Joe and I really wanted to do it no matter what the wait was) we realised that it wasn't running. It had broken down - this was particularly annoying as it had been running the whole time we waited for my parents... So we went to Montu instead. On the way we stopped and had ice-creams, then we left Steve Sean and Joe (who was too short again) in a sand pit/play area. The line was only 10 minutes for Montu and it was probably the best coaster of the day, its an amazing ride and we loved it. As we got back to my boys, they told us Cheetah Hunt was back up. We wanted some air-conditioning first though, so we went for a look around Tut's Tomb which was small but really interesting. We particularly liked the Medusa hats in the gift shop with snakes poking out. As we walked back to Cheetah Hunt it went down again! We were disappointed but realised it was just one of those things, we weren't going to ride it that day. So we went home.

That night we made it out for dinner again, we went back to our local Applebees which was delicious again. This time we had space for desserts - the waitress warned us they were big enough to share so we only got 3 between the 7 of us (though Joe did have some ice-cream with his kids meal). I think we could easily have eaten one each, other than my mum who only had a bite. But we did get to see our local girl Rebecca Tunney on the GB Gymnastics team doing her beam routine on TV in there - she was the youngest British competitor in any sport and she did us proud

It had been an exhausting day but we were planning a bit of a lie-in next day before we did some of my favourite things - shopping, snacking, drinking, and of course saving the world Yes, we were spending the morning in Downtown Disney, before heading to World Showcase

 

[missoverexcited]

I was really excited about going to Downtown Disney and especially going back to Epcot - nobody else in the family seemed to agree with me though I had to drag them up and out. Lucy and Dan had decided they weren't going back to Epcot but they would come to DTD.....they really weren't in any rush to get ready though! I was tearing my hair out when we eventually set off about 9.30. My dad moaned all the way there that the signposting was no good - he couldn't seem to get his head round the idea that if the sign says straight on, you keep going straight on until there's a sign telling you to turn. He refused to drive to the car park we wanted - at Marketplace - because of it. So instead of parking up at the shops which is where we were going, we parked at AMC and walked Though they had their buggy with them, Lucy let Faye and Alex walk too - it was the longest walk ever! They must have taken nearly 45 minutes and it was sooo hot!

We had a look round the Lego store, but weren't too impressed. The only thing I really wanted to see there was keychains - we have a Legoland near me in Manchester and the shop there has a massive selection of keychains so I was expecting bigger and better, but I was sadly disappointed, I don't think they had any character ones at all. Luckily Steve has bought me a Wonder Woman one since we got back Then it was on to the main attraction - World of Disney! I was in heaven, I could have spent all day there, not to mention thousands of pounds! I had to restrain myself since I didn't have either of those, but I got lots of stuff. My mum and Lucy and her kids were loving it too, but the men in our group were really there on sufferance... A long time later I found Steve, Sean, Joe and John, and suggested going to Ghirardellis for a sundae. It was so hard to choose, but in the end I got a Gold Rush, and Steve and the kids had a World Famous. They were all delicious! John picked a peanut butter Quake Shake, he said it wasn't what he expected because it was quite lumpy, not as blended as he thought. I tried it and it was nice, but I agreed it needed to be smoother.

My mum and dad, and Lucy, Dan and the kids had met up with us in Ghirardellis, and as usual took forever with their icecreams. Finally we were ready to move on to Once Upon a Toy...I was really excited about this because my boys were going to get a surprise When we went in, Joe wanted to play with the Mr Potato Heads, but I encouraged him as quickly as possible into the next room. He was thrilled to see the build-your-own lightsabres and begged me to let him make one even though he knew it was too expensive to buy, so of course I let him. When he was finished, I told him it was so good I would have to buy it for him - he thought I was the best mum ever! And of course Steve and Sean were not too grown up to get one either They all loved them, and I was so glad my surprise had gone to plan

We sat outside a while while the children played in the fountain, though I was chomping at the bit to get to Epcot. My mum went to Pin Traders to look for a Piglet pin as she hadn't found one at World of Disney, and when she got back (empty-handed) I thought we would be leaving. But Lucy wanted to go to the Xmas shop and mum wanted to go with her. Why are there Xmas shops everywhere?? I had avoided them like the plague because I love Xmas and couldn't trust myself not to spend spend spend! But I figured it was meant to be.... Steve, Sean, John and Joe stayed sitting by the fountain while the rest of us went to shop. I loved so many of the decorations, but I thought most of them were too expensive to risk breaking them on the flight home - we didn't have much space in our carry on luggage and I could just see our suitcases being thrown around and opening them to find lots of smashed ornaments! But I got one cute bauble. As soon as I'd got it I was ready to collect the boys and move on. Mum and Lucy had other ideas though, they were still wandering round choosing 30 minutes after I wanted to leave.

Ideally I had been planning to eat at Earl of Sandwich before going to Epcot, but we were all too full after our sundaes, so we set off back to the car. After the walk to the shops that morning, we knew it was going to take forever. So Steve, John, Sean, Joe and I set off as fast as we could and stopped at the Hole in the Wall at Raglan Road for Baileys milkshakes! I was starting to get a headache from the heat sadly so I only sipped from Steve's glass, but it was yummy! We had just about finished when the others caught up to us, I don't think my mum was too impressed.

I didn't care though, because I was too busy looking forward to OGMS and caramel

 

[missoverexcited]

So after a fun morning at DTD, we were going back to Epcot to see the rest of World Showcase. We arrived at around 2pm and Joe begged to do Sum of all Thrills before we left Future World. When we got there the wait was 40 minutes, but we weren't on a tight schedule so we did it anyway. Steve had told me by this time that he was fine going upside down on this as he knew there was no chance of him dying So we made the most of our second try - we went for a jet, and did the right option twice with the speed as high as it would go and still complete the move, then the middle option twice with the speed right up - you can go faster on the middle option. And this time the sum of our thrills was....990! Much improved from 270 on our previous attempt and better than anyone else's! The funny thing was though that I didn't enjoy it that much, it kind of paused between each move. I don't think I would bother with it again, though I know Joe would want to...he got measured again hoping to have grown the extra inch to be able to go upside down

We walked over to World Showcase and split up again, Sean went with my mum and dad. It was coming up to 3pm by this time, and we had 4 Agent P missions to do, and 8 countries, so i suggested meeting up again at about 7pm. My dad replied that he didn't think anyone wanted to stay that long... Well I did, I had been really looking forward to wandering round World Showcase, but since he was the one driving I didn't have much choice but to agree to meet at 6pm. i was disappointed though.

We signed up to do Agent P in the UK. On the way we went to the Kidcot stop in Canada, but we didn't fancy the film so we just carried on. We've never spent much time in the UK before - we never really saw the point, apart from a quick drink in the Rose and Crown - so it was really interesting to have a good look round and go in the shops. We could hear British Revolution but we didn't see them, they had finished when we were near the stage. I hoped we'd be able to answer the phones but we didn't hear them ring, there were a lot of people having their pictures taken with them so they probably weren't on the hook! Once we had defeated Dr Doof, I had to call into the Tin Soldier to meet my faves, Pooh and Tigger! I couldn't persuade Joe to meet them with me and I did feel a bit silly on my own as an adult, but then I thought "Who cares!! I'll never see these people again!!" and it was fine We saw Alice in Wonderland too, but didn't stop to meet her.

Next stop was France. I enjoyed it here, it was very picturesque, but the Agent P mission took us ages for some reason, I think the sun was addling our brains. We were starting to get hungry so when we got near the patisserie we stopped in for a snack - I had an almond pastry and Joe had an eclair, I can't remember what Steve and John had, but we all really enjoyed them. Again we skipped the film, we saw Marie and Aurora but didn't meet them. We also watched a little bit of Serveur Amusant which looked fun. Time was ticking on though! I'm not sure what time it was, but we didn't think we would have time to do the remaining 2 missions and see all the countries/do the Kidcot stops too, so we reluctantly turned in our F.O.N.E. There was just one more stop to make before we could move on though - we had to get some OGMS We had been looking forward to them for months, and they certainly didn't disappoint - yum!

We had a quick look round Morocco, did the Kidcot stop and me and Joe had our photo taken wearing fezes (Is that how you spell it? No idea!) with the camel. We saw Jasmine there too. Then we went to Japan, where I was excited about shopping in Mitsukoshi. Before we went in though, we got a pineapple sake to share - not quite as good as the OGMS but pretty good all the same! We shopped for quite a while, Joe got a pokemon and we bought a few other things. I watched Pick a Pearl for a while, I was fascinated by it. I didn't think I would wear the pearl in jewellery though, so I didn't do it myself - maybe next time. As we got outside Matsuriza, the drummers, were just starting. I actually wanted to go in the exhibit which I think was about Spirit Warriors, but we didn't have time... So on we went to the USA. All we did there was the Kidcot stop. As we waited, black clouds were gathering and the wind was really picking up - we were praying for rain, we hadn't had any since AK the previous Tuesday and we were all exhausted from the heat.

We went to Italy next, I think we only did the Kidcot stop here and took some photos. we were looking for a man holding a globe to make a hidden Mickey, the man who sold us our passport had told us about it when he saw our hidden Mickey book, but we couldn't find it, and we were really running out of time so we couldn't hang around. We saw Sergio while we were looking but we weren't too impressed. It just started to rain as we left. Finally we were at Germany. We stopped to look at the trains but they weren't running, presumably because of the weather which had got much worse very quickly. So we dived into Karamell-Kuche, where we were delighted to find there was no queue. I picked a caramel pecan bar, Steve had a caramel chocolate marshmallow and Joe had a caramel chocolate fudge - it took quite a while to decide though, everything looked delicious. Then we ran across to do the Kidcot stop and get our final stamp in the passport

We made our way back through China - where I had missed the acrobats again and stopped for a few minutes out of the rain in the Viking exhibit in Norway which we had missed the previous week. Then we had to make a run for Club Cool where we had arranged to meet my parents and Sean. I had hoped that even though they wanted to meet up again at 6pm, that wouldn't be the end of our day, but my mum had had enough so home it was. As we passed Spaceship Earth, Joe asked if he could go on it again because he liked the end where it shows you the future. The wait was only about 5 minutes but we were soaked and nobody else wanted to ride, so I persuaded him to skip it.

That night we went out for dinner. We really wanted a buffet, but we weren't sure which restaurants had one for dinner, so we picked Houlihans as we knew it definitely had a breakfast buffet, and it looked really nice from the outside. Alas, it wasn't a buffet at all, but it was a great meal, we really enjoyed it.

Coming up....Seaworld and some major meltdowns!

 

[missoverexcited]

I have been putting off writing about this day at Seaworld and afterwards, in a lot of ways it was the worst day we had. And now, annoyingly, I have discovered I haven't got a map/show times to help me remember! So it may be a bit vague...

As usual we missed rope drop, I think we arrived about 9.15. We immediately split up from Lucy, Dan and the kids as our first focus was the thrill rides! We hit Manta first - the wait was really long, 40 or 50 minutes, but we saw a sign for a single rider line so we searched it out. Not many people were using it but I think that was more to do with how well hidden it was than not wanting to split up - even as we started down the path we weren't sure we were in the right place. It was well worth searching for though, we waited about 5 minutes and were soon back with Steve and Sean who had chickened out, and Joe who wasn't tall enough. It was a really strange ride, you are tipped forward so you're horizontal and doing loops feels a lot different in that position - it took my breath away!

Next we went to Journey to Atlantis - though I thought we should do Kraken next, it was another that Joe wasn't tall enough for and he was really upset about it, so a family ride seemed fairer. Luckily it was a walk-on. Its not fantastic but the big drop is as good as Splash Mountain. We remembered getting totally soaked on this ride, I don't know if we were just lucky but we didn't get very wet at all this time. Then me, mum, dad and John went to do Kraken while Steve took Joe on Journey to Atlantis again - Sean had a nice sit down. Kraken is great, I felt sorry for Joe that he couldn't do it - unlike Manta which I was actually quite glad he couldn't ride once I knew what it was like! And again we were lucky with the wait, it was another walk-on. When we met up with Sean, he told us Joe and Steve had been on once and had decided to go again as they thought we'd be a while, the third time though they hit a queue so we had a 10 or 15 minute wait for them.

While we waited, we tried to make a plan for the shows but it was really difficult, it seemed like every time a show finished another one was starting on the other side of the park so you had to wait for the next one. And there were signs outside the shows saying you needed to get there 45 minutes before it started. Eventually we decided to go to Turtle Trek, before the dolphin show Blue Horizons. When we got there though, the wait was too long to fit it in. We went to the underwater dolphin viewing area instead. I could have stayed there all day, I love dolphins, but the boys were getting bored so we went to Blue Horizons. We got there about 30 minutes before it started and got fairly good seats - well out of the splash zone! I was at the other end of our group from Steve but I could see he had his arms crossed and looked a bit grumpy. Once the show started though, I forgot about him, I loved it - on our previous visit the dolphins had refused to perform so I was glad we didn't miss out again. The human performers were great too.

Afterwards we went for lunch at the Seafire Inn. When we got there though, Steve (who by now had a face like thunder) refused to go in. He sat on the floor and wouldn't budge. I sent the others in, then tried reasoning with him. He said he hated Seaworld, he hated watching performing dolphins, it was cruel.... I told him that if he felt that way he should have stayed at home that day, but he was here and he might as well eat his lunch. But he was having none of it, he was really angry and just sat there with his music blaring in his ears. I couldn't get another word out of him, and had to go in and get lunch. I could hardly eat though, I was really upset. When I gave up on my food, I went out to see him again, but I still couldn't get him to come in to eat, or even just get a drink - and it was a scorching day. I was angry with him by then, and went back in to plan the rest of our day. The plan was to go and see One Ocean, the Shamu show, and then Clyde and Seamore take Pirate Island - which my mum had been going on about for weeks! But then Joe threw a spanner in the works - he didn't want to see One Ocean, he wanted to go and feed the dolphins!

I had to send the rest of the family to get seats, while I took Joe to Steve and tried to negotiate. I didn't think I'd be able to persuade him to take Joe to feed the dolphins, but he wanted him to have a good day and reluctantly agreed. We arranged to meet up afterwards at the stingrays. I then rushed to meet up with Sean, John and my mum and dad. There were hoards of people making their way across the bridge and I wasn't confident I would find them, but they were waiting for me near the entrance. The show was good but I was too upset to really pay attention, I spent a lot of time cursing Steve in my mind When it was over, my mum and dad went to see Clyde and Seamore while me, Sean and John went to meet Steve and Joe. We waited quite a while for them, but it was shaded and we liked the stingrays. And when they got back, Steve seemed to be in a much better mood. Joe had enjoyed himself, but he didn't like touching the fish! And when a bird had swooped down and stolen his first one, he had given up altogether and made Steve throw nearly all the others

So it had been a grumpy morning - but who was going to make it a grumpy night??

 

[missoverexcited]

My photos suggest that we went to see the sealions and seals next while we waited to meet up with my mum and dad. Joe didn't like it here, he said it stank of fish Next we headed over to Shark Encounter, which is where we were meeting my parents. We knew we were really early so we wasted some time in the gift shops, then just sat on a bench waiting. Just as we saw them coming, it started to rain - we didn't mind though, we needed cooling down and we were going inside anyway. Shark Encounter was ok, it was really crowded. We liked seeing the sharks outside more. When we came out, we went to see the alligators, then tried Turtle Trek again. By this time, the wait was 40 minutes. We were all fed up anyway and decided to skip it.

We couldn't leave without riding Manta again. We hit the single ride line again, only to find we didn't need it - there were only about 10 people in front of us and we got straight to the front of the queue The coaster pulled in, the people were hanging there....it became obvious that they weren't going to get upright any time soon! I was with John on one side of the coaster and my mum and dad were on the other side, we couldn't see them but decided to give it 10 minutes before we gave up - and about 9 minutes later, the riders were straightened up, as everyone cheered! The ride was as good again the second time around, but definitely not for the faint-hearted - the Gs on the first loop were unbelievable!

By now it was around 4pm and the heavens were opening, so we gave up and drove home. On the way, my dad announced that he and mum didn't want to go out for dinner but they would drop off anyone who wanted to go out - we would have to make our own way home. Well the only place even vaguely within walking distance was Applebees where we'd been twice already, and we didn't fancy the hour long walk back in the dark with no pavements, so we didn't bother. We all went to Publix to buy food instead - we were there every couple of days, we spent almost as much time in the supermarket as we did in the parks

John had told me that he really wanted to go to a mall to do some proper shopping, so that night I mentioned it to my dad, suggesting we could do it on Thursday afternoon on our way back from Islands of Adventure where we would be spending the morning. He said no, we could do it on Friday. We were supposed to be going to Typhoon Lagoon on Friday, our last full day, but apparently, despite having known that was the plan for months and not said anything, my parents thought one water park day was enough He did offer to drop me off there and pick me up on the way back from the mall, but as much as I love TL, I couldn't go alone - Steve wanted to go shopping too, Joe would probably go with him, and Sean hadn't even got in the water at Blizzard Beach so wasn't exactly my first choice of companion. I was really disappointed though

The evening passed peacefully enough, everyone started to go to bed, and when me and Steve went up, John was left alone downstairs. I should explain that there were 6 bedrooms upstairs, and one downstairs which he had picked, mainly to be away from Bella, Faye and Alex who don't sleep through the night and tend to cry a lot, and also because he is a night owl and could have the run of the house without disturbing anyone. It was about 10pm when we went to bed and we dropped off almost immediately. About 15 minutes later, we were woken by raised voices. One was definitely Lucy, and I thought she was having a row with Dan. I crept to the door and listened, realising that the voices were downstairs and it was actually John she was arguing with. I didn't like to open the door so i couldn't hear all that was said, but it sounded to me like Lucy had locked John out of the villa while he was outside smoking. Then I heard my mum shouting "What's going on?" and someone going downstairs, i could hear my dad's voice though not what he was saying. There were shouts, slammed doors, then quiet.

What on earth had happened with my family? And what did it mean for the remaining 3 days of our holiday

 

[missoverexcited]

After being woken up the night before, we slept surprisingly well, and at first I didn't even remember the argument we had heard. When we got downstairs, everyone was up early and eating breakfast, though there was definite tension in the air. Then I realised John wasn't there. Mum came over and told me that as I had thought, Lucy had locked John out as she thought the patio door had been left open by accident, and they'd argued. Neither mum nor Lucy had slept that night as they were too upset. Now nobody had seen John. My dad knocked on the door a while later as we were all frantically rushing round trying to make rope drop for once....no answer. Then just as we were about to leave, I tried, and John came straight out, completely ready to go, and got in the car. We were off to the Magic Kingdom! And it looked like we would make rope drop! But half the family wasn't speaking the to other half But 2 out of 3 ain't bad

We parked up at the TTC, and as we walked to the monorail, John told Steve and me his version of what had happened - the TV and lights were all on when Lucy came down, and she had still thought that everyone had gone to bed. She couldn't see John outside as he'd finished his cigarette and was watching the fireworks - we never worked out where the fireworks were, they happened at 10pm though and we caught them a few times. John said he had had enough of Lucy, and in particular Dan, and our mum, and the end of the holiday couldn't come soon enough for him. It was less than magical, and I had no hope that he would breathe in pixie dust and cheer up. But luckily we were splitting up - Lucy and Dan were getting the ferry, then taking the kids to meet princesses and fairies, while we were getting the monorail and then going to do Tomorrowland.

We missed the Avengers monorail But I was excited to go through the Contemporary, and get a glimpse of Chef Mickeys. As we were pulling into the station, the welcome show was in progress, but we were just too late and as we rushed down the ramp it had just finished. Still, it was closer to rope drop than we'd managed before, which seemed like a good omen. We dashed to Space Mountain, where the wait said 10 minutes. My mum and dad grumbled and thought we should skip to the next step because the line was outside the building, but I reminded them that it had been outside on previous trips too first thing in the morning, and there was no way we could be standing in a 2 hour line at 9am. They were partly right though, it wasn't 10 minutes. The time clicked over to 15 minutes just before we got in the building, and it was probably more like 20 minutes. We really enjoyed it again though, I let Steve sit at the back this time so he'd have more space for his legs! We got a fast pass as we got off so we could ride again.

Next on our plan was Buzz Lightyear - again the wait said 10 minutes, but this time it was accurate, and in no time at all we were helping Buzz defeat the evil Emperor Zurg! Not that I was helping very much lol, I am useless at this type of ride, I couldn't tell what I was aiming at, and even when I was convinced I was hitting the target I wasn't getting any points....I ended up with a horrible score of 3400 , Steve couldn't stop laughing at me. When we got off, I said we should ride again as the wait was still 10 minutes, but Joe said he wouldn't, because he had done really badly. When I asked, he had got 3800 so he'd beaten me! But he was inconsolable and marched off. We were at some bushes with a wall around, as Joe went one way Steve followed him, and I went the other way to cut him off - but when I got there, there was no sign of them! I knew they couldn't have gone far, there was nowhere to go, so I told the others to go on Buzz and we'd be a few minutes behind them. I could see Chip and Dale getting ready to meet and greet (if I remember correctly), but I couldn't see my boys anywhere, and I was getting really annoyed - even though I was rubbish at Buzz, I still wanted another try. After about 10 minutes, they reappeared, Steve said they had been just at the side I had walked round a few times, over to CoP, to the little gift shop, they were nowhere in sight. Bizarre! And then the others were back, so I never got my second try, and my pathetic score was unimproved!

We were supposed to do Carousel of Progress and the Peoplemover next, but my parents and Sean had done them while we were in the epic queue for Space the previous week, and the rest of us weren't bothered about them. So we went to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor....which I won't abbreviate !! We didn't really know what to expect from this, but it was pretty funny. "That guy" was a really distinctive man with long white hair and a long plaited beard, who took it a lot better than Steve would have, though by the end he was hiding behind his daughter! We also saw Marty Wazowski almost stumped by a child who told him his favourite sport was skiing...he managed to come up with a punchline though. For the next few days, Joe kept pretending to be Marty and asking us our name, where we were from, and our favourite sport - he wasn't as quick with the jokes though After Laugh Floor, it was time for us to go back to Space for our 3rd ride of the trip - I love it, one of my favourites, and I was really happy we got to do it again.

My mum and dad went to see the Swiss Family Treehouse, while we rushed to Splash to get FPs - it was 11.25 by now, and the FPs were for 1.35. As we went back to Adventureland to meet them, we saw Captain Jack's Pirate Tutorial going on, but my plan was to see the 12.25 show so we hurried Joe past. We had decided to skip the Enchanted Tiki Room and go straight to Jungle Cruise , but when we got there, it was closed! We waited for a few minutes while my dad went to find out what was going on, and it was closed due to lightning in the vicinity. It was another boiling hot morning but clouds were gathering, it was still dry at MK though. As Dad came back and we started to discuss what to do, Jungle Cruise opened again so we got in line. It was supposed to be a 20 minute wait but it felt longer, it was loading really slowly. The ride itself was fine, the skipper did his best but I think it was a tough crowd! When we got to the end we had to wait about 10 minutes while 3 other boats were brought out and loaded, I really felt sorry for the skipper then as he tried to entertain us with nothing to look at. Just as we eventually got off, the heavens opened and the rain started hammering down. We had to get Joe's Mickey poncho on him, and we cowered under the shelter at the FP machines wondering what to do next.

We had managed to get a lot done so far...but what would we do with the rest of our day?

 

[missoverexcited]

It was about time for the next Pirate Tutorial but we assumed it wouldn't be going ahead in this weather so we opted for lunch, hoping the rain would stop while we ate. I fancied burritos at Tortuga Tavern, and everyone else did too except Mum, so we ended up at Pecos Bills again. I went for the BBQ pulled pork sandwich this time and it was really good, but I struggled to finish it - Mum had it too and only ate about half, she said there was too much sauce. So we might as well have gone to Tortuga Tavern. Unfortunately, it was still pouring down when we finished. We decided to do Pirates again while we were in the area, it was about a 25 minute wait which wasn't bad. There were 2 Pooh-sized people in the row in front of me, they were sitting all the way to the left and there was nobody else in the row to balance it out, the boat was definitely tipping over to the left - where I was also sitting - and as we launched a tidal wave of water came over the edge and absolutely soaked me, I was not impressed. It happened again at the drop but I had made everyone move over to the right so it didn't get me as much.

After PotC the weather had died down but it was still raining. We were within our FP window so we headed back to Splash to see if it was open. Sadly it was closed, the CM said he had no idea when it would open but our FPs would be good all day so we could come back later. I really wanted to meet Mickey so we all went to Town Square Theatre to see what the wait was like. I thought it would be busy because of the weather but it was only 20 minutes for Mickey and 30 minutes for the princesses. We did feel rushed through, Minnie gave me and Joe a hug, she was pointing at my Mickey T shirt, and I think Mickey shook Joe's hand, but the CM was already trying to get us to pose for the photo, then we were ushered out. Back outside it was still raining, so we hit the shops on Main Street. We were finished around 3pm, it was still raining, and we decided to give up and leave. Mum said to Joe to have a last look around because he wouldn't be back for a long time, if ever, and I got a bit teary looking up at the castle, I had been trying not to think about the fact that it was our last Disney day .

We got the monorail back to the TTC which cheered me up a bit, getting a closer look at the Grand Floridian and the Poly - which I didn't like the look of at all. Back in the car, my parents revealed that their plan for the rest of the afternoon was....to visit Walmart. Yes, I'm serious Apparently its the biggest Walmart in the world, or something. Since our alternative was to go back to the villa and do nothing much, we decided to go too. We drove down the US27 for hours - well an hour but it felt longer - and just as we were about to give up, we spotted it. We picked up some snacks and some treats to bring home for our work colleagues. Then we looked at the clothes where we got quite a few things. Dad then told us they were eating at the villa again that evening so unless we wanted to be dropped off somewhere, we should get something for dinner. Initially, the same as the night before, we didn't really feel we could go out because we couldn't get home, but then we thought how much could a taxi cost, it can't be that much, so me and Steve, John and Joe decided to go out for an all you can eat buffet. Sean said he would stay in.

We went home and got changed, the sun was out by this time and Bella, Faye and Alex were in the pool - Joe took one look at them and decided to stay at home, he was in his swimming shorts almost before we'd said ok My dad dropped us at Golden Corral which we had checked out on line to make sure it was definitely a buffet this time! We really enjoyed it, the food was great and there was a lot of choice. But we still had to find a way home... When we got there, it was pretty quiet, but by the time we left, full to bursting, it was really busy, there was a queue out the door, and we didn't like to ask if anyone could help us get a taxi, so we just wandered out. We were vaguely thinking that we could find a hotel and they might be able to help us, at least by giving us a phone number and pointing us in the direction of a pay phone. But there was (of course!) a gift shop next door, and I wondered if they might be able to do the same. We had a look round first, and did buy something - some Minnie bootees for my friend's soon to be born baby girl - and I asked the man behind the counter if he knew where we could get a taxi. he asked if we had a phone, and when we said no, he rang it himself, which was really lovely of him. Especially as his wife was also serving behind the counter and started yelling at him for being on his mobile while she did all the work The taxi arrived quickly and the driver was really friendly, it only cost the same as it would have done to travel the same distance at home too - we were worried about that as we had no idea how much taxis cost in the USA!

Later that night, as I tucked Joe up in bed, he cried his eyes out because our holiday was so nearly over - no more Disney parks and only one more park day. I wanted to cry myself, how could 2 weeks go so fast! But we did have an amazing day to look forward to - the next day was Sean's 18th, we were going to IOA in the morning, and Planet Hollywood for dinner

 

[missoverexcited]

I couldn't believe this day had arrived - my baby boy was 18 We were all up early to give Sean his cards before we got ready for IOA, we were giving him his presents when we got home, though he'd already had an ipod touch to keep him entertained on the trip. IOA was open at 8am and we were determined to make it! We wanted to make sure we got to ride Spiderman at least twice since we had missed out on it earlier in our holiday.

We rushed through Citywalk but still just missed rope drop, only by about 5 minutes though. We dashed to Spiderman, while Lucy, Dan and the kids went souvenir shopping. There was no line at all, though it took a few minutes to get through the queuing area, then we were on. It was amazing Hence the name I guess! It was a great ride last time we were on it, but since its been upgraded its even better, we all loved it. We got straight back on with no queue again, and loved it just as much. I think Sean would have happily stayed there riding it all day, but we decided to go to Forbidden Journey to see how busy it was there.

Even though it was only about 8.30, the line was already about 60 minutes long, and we weren't allowed in the single rider line until we had put our bags in lockers. It looked like we would have to queue for about 15 minutes before we got near the lockers, so we went up to Filch's Emporium and went into the lockers from the ride exit. In no time at all we were riding, its unbelievable how few people use the single rider line. We rode 3 times in quick succession, until our heads were spinning and we knew we had reached our limit We had a good look around the shop, but it was too busy to see anything properly, so we gave up. Outside at the cart, Joe really wanted to buy a wand, he had saved his money for the whole 2 weeks so we had to let him get one. He took ages to decide which one, but eventually settled for Dumbledore's - you can't get better than the Elder wand after all! Then we had a look through the shops we hadn't seen - Flourish and Botts, and the Owl Post. Joe had enough money left for an owl of his own, and chose a brown and white barn owl, which he named Hermes after Percy's owl in the books. Unfortunately he kept mis-pronouncing it and calling it Herpes We didn't bother with Ollivanders. Steve took Sean and Joe to the Hog's Head next for Butterbeer, while I went with mum, dad and John to ride Dragon Challenge. DC was as empty as it had been on our previous visit, and we rode Chinese Fireball twice with no wait at all. We wanted Butterbeer too, but when we got back to the boys, the queues were enormous at the carts outside and at the Hog's Head. We could have waited, but it was really only me who wanted it, so we didn't bother.

We headed through Seuss Landing and spent quite a bit of time shopping there. After a while my mum and dad went to ride the Cat in the Hat, and when we finished in the shop I took Joe to ride 1 Fish 2 Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. The wait was only 10 minutes, but as we were joining the queue we saw the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, the Grinch and a couple of other characters getting on stage to sing and dance, so we watched them for a while. When we did get in line the wait was short and Joe loved the ride - I was surprised he agreed to go on it at all and even more surprised he liked it, but I think the fact that he kept steering us right into the path of the squirting fountains so I was drenched may have had something to do with it We went over to the Cat in the Hat to wait for my parents and looked in the shop there for ages, then we gave up and went outside to wait - we waited for well over 30 minutes for them. Then when they appeared they had Alex with them, so we had to wait for Lucy, Dan and the girls to catch up and collect him. Mum said they hadn't been far behind them in the queue, but it was at least 15 minutes before they met us - we passed the time eating yummy churros! They went back to the villa after that, their objective for the day was really just for Alex to get his photo taken with Spiderman which they had done.

After a fantastic morning, a fantastic evening to celebrate Sean's 18th birthday

 

[missoverexcited]

We had fit so much into our morning so far, and it wasn't over yet!

We headed back to Superhero Island. Mum, Dad and John went to do single rider on Hulk, and though I really wanted to as well, I stayed with my boys and treated them all to a T shirt - Sean picked Deadpool and Joe got Captain America, I can't remember what Steve chose. When we met up again we did more shopping, then went to the Fantastic Four cafe for lunch. I had pepperoni pizza which was fine, but John and my dad hated their lasagne - it was cheese lasagne with no meat in, I don't know if that's usual in the US but in England it has meat! John took his back and got spaghetti and meatballs instead. When our food had settled, we got in the single rider line for Spiderman. It had kept disappearing and reappearing while we walked around, and when we got in it we realised why - it was really long and slow-moving, they obviously took away the option when it exited the building We waited 20-25 minutes, it was worth it for one last ride. Then we said goodbye to IOA and our last park of the holiday I was so sad, it was hard to leave Hogsmeade behind

Back at the villa, we all got in the pool for an hour or so. I lay out in the lovely sunshine for my first sunbathing session - too little too late as I came home as white as I left! Then we all got ready to go out. I'd had trouble with the reservations as I didn't know you could book direct and I had done it on the Disney website and had to make 3 separate ones at 7.45, 8 and 8.15. When I found out on the Dis dining boards that I could ring them to sort it out I had tried, but they told me just to come early, so we were planning to arrive at 7 - we thought they would note that our ressies were linked and maybe tell us to come back at 8 or 8.15 when they could seat us together, so we could have a wander around West Side.

We arrived at about 6.45 and spoke to the guy dealing with reservations outside - he told us to go straight in to the 2nd floor and speak to the greeter there. The greeter didn't hold out much hope that we would be seated together, but asked us to wait and he would see what he could do. I was just about to go to the bar when he called me over and said they could seat us straight away at the high tables in the bar, there were 3 and they seated 4 but i didn't think Alex or Faye would be safe on bar stools, so I said we would wait. Again I headed towards the bar but he called me again and said there was 1 table free, the one opposite it would be 10 minutes, and there was another a couple of tables away which would be 15 minutes. I discussed it with the others and we agreed to do that. But when I went over to tell him, he had a change of plan for us - he said if we went up to the 3rd floor, we would be seated immediately all together

Sean and Steve were delighted as this was the Sci-Fi floor. We were immediately seated as promised at a table for 12 - in front of the kitchen but we didn't mind that - and they were off straight away taking photos. Bella and Faye were enthralled by the enormous Woody sitting above us! The food was fantastic. We shared starters of bruschetta and chicken crunch as we didn't want to be too full for dessert! The birthday boy went for burger and fries - you can take him anywhere and he will get a burger Me and Mum had chicken fajitas, John and Dan had New York strip steak, but I don't remember what anyone else had, I know Joe had some kind of chicken sandwich almost as big as his head - no kids meal for him! We washed it all down with some amazing cocktails - we sampled the Iron Man, Terminator and Hellboy Joe had a Transformers smoothie. During the main course, an Incredibles birthday message came up for Sean on the big screens, we all cheered and clapped while he slowly died inside Then his dessert (some sort of brownies and icecream) came out with candles in it, which we made him blow out while we all clapped and cheered again - it was a nightmare for him but we loved it! I had a banana split for dessert, no idea what anybody else had but mine was great. We finally left around 9.30-10pm, absolutely stuffed and in Faye and Alex's case, very nearly asleep. It was a good job we hadn't had to wait to be seated! We never got to look around West Side but we didn't care.

We were intending to celebrate some more back at the villa, but instead we all just went to bed exhausted! At least we could have a lie in the next day - our last full day

 

[missoverexcited]

Our last day dawned And even more upsetting, we weren't going to Typhoon Lagoon as I had planned for months, or for one last ride on our favourite attractions - we were going shopping. We had a lie in, it was an ideal day to go out for breakfast but we had food in that needed finishing, it was a depressing start!

It was going to be Alex's 3rd birthday the next day, but as we were flying home Lucy and Dan had decided to celebrate a day early with a pool party in the afternoon - they were having a full pool day in fact, and Sean decided to stay with them. Shopping really isn't his thing, he bought one T shirt the whole holiday. Before we headed off, my mum asked if there was any particular mall or outlet we wanted to go to - I wasn't bothered, I didn't really want to buy anything though if we'd made it back to the parks I would definitely have picked up a few last minute souvenirs

We went to the Orlando Premium Outlet at Vineland Avenue. I hadn't realised it was outdoor, and it was so hot and crowded. Steve was happy because in the first shop we went to, he got a pair of Batman Converse boots, but the rest of us were pretty grumpy. Even the Disney outlet didn't cheer us up - there was nothing good in there at all - though the cashier in the Nike store made me and Joe laugh doing his English accent for us, then got Joe to do his American one! We didn't really buy much, I got a T shirt and me and Joe both got new trainers. My mum and dad got quite a lot of things, But John, who had been looking forward to going shopping, didn't buy anything at all. He had been grumbling all morning about the shops, and ended up having a row with my mum about how he had wanted to go to a proper normal mall, and she pointed out quite rightly that she had specifically asked before we set off where we wanted to go, and that was the time to say something, not when it was too late.... It was awful, there was such an atmosphere in the car on the way home. I really couldn't take John's side on this one.

The closer we got back to the villa, the worse the weather got. We all got into our swimming costumes as soon as we got in, but it started to rain before we made it to the pool. Lucy said they had only had a few minutes all morning because of the weather. She had made an enormous buffet though, using all the food we had left in the freezer. It was delicious, she had done a great job considering it wasn't her own kitchen and if it had just been sunny it would have been a fantastic party. With so much tension between John and basically everyone else, me and Steve went to eat outside, and all the kids came out with us (we had a covered eating area at the side of the pool). But it was so windy our plates were flying away and we had to admit defeat and come back inside.

Steve and I spent the evening packing. It was such hard work! I was leaving our toiletries behind and I thought that would leave lots of space for souvenirs, but we still had a few unopened sun creams that I wouldn't leave because they cost too much, and with 3 new pairs of trainers too..... We fit it all in eventually but it was a real squeeze - there were a lot more things I'd wanted to buy but hadn't as I wasn't sure we would have space in our cases, and it was just as well I'd resisted John had disappeared off to his room but everyone else spent the evening watching TV - my mum and Lucy both said they had done their packing already. It was such a waste of our last day

 

[missoverexcited]

Departure day already - it only felt like we had been in Florida a few days, how could it be home time?

Steve and I were hoping for another lie in since we were all packed, but everyone else was up around 7 and making so much noise that we had to get up too. It turned out that Lucy hadn't packed at all, their things were everywhere and we were all soon engaged in searching for missing princess dolls etc. My mum and dad were packed but my mum was busy cleaning the villa from top to bottom. It wasn't dirty, we had kept it clean and relatively tidy, but she gets that way

We had to have the cars back by 12, and my dad wanted to allow 2 hours to get to the airport, so we were on the road just after 10am. We arrived at about 11.30, but there were already big queues at check in and security so it was just as well. We got some lunch, then had a look round duty-free. i really wanted some Vera Wang perfume but they didn't have it :-( We got lots of vodka though which made up for it a little bit! It was a long and boring wait, there were about 2 shops, but our flight was more or less on time.

The flight was pretty good, much better than the flight in. We had the second Sherlock Holmes film, I can't remember what else. The food was good again. Joe had a sleep but the rest of us didn't. We arrived in Manchester at 5am our time, but it was only midnight in Florida so although we were tired, we weren't exhausted. Though by the time we'd been through customs and collected our luggage, we really were! We eventually got home at about 7am, dumped the suitcases and went to bed - not the best thing for jetlag but we didn't care!

I can't believe this is my last proper update!

 

[missoverexcited]

All in all, it was a fantastic holiday!

My highlights were (in no particular order) -
1) snacking and drinking around World Showcase - I just wish we could have spent longer there.
2) riding EE for the first - and second - times, its a great ride.
3) WWoHP, I loved Hogsmeade so much and the Butterbeer was to die for.
4) how much Joe loved the thrill rides!
5) my dad being the rebel spy on Star Tours, it was hysterical.
6) managing to get Joe into JTA despite missing rope drop, and him kicking Vader's butt!
7) Magic, Memories and You/Wishes - I love these so much.
I could go on but I'd be here all day

There were low points too. Everyone recommended discussing plans with the whole family so everyone was on board - well we did, and we agreed to go out for breakfast most days...I had dreamed of big fat american pancakes with maple syrup for months, and what did I get? A couple of slices of toast and some Fruit Loops! It may seem silly but it was a real disappointment. I really wish we had got another car, but when we booked I hadn't been driving long and wasn't very confident. It would have allowed us to do what we really wanted, when we wanted, and not be tied by what my parents wanted to do.

We didn't find the heat and the crowds that bad. It definitely helped that we used a touring plan every day so we didn't have horrific waits in the main, and we used the best park recommendations on easy WDW - they worked for us. I would happily go in late July again.

Our favourite snacks were the Butterfinger cupcake at Starring Rolls, pastries at the Patisserie in France, and churros everywhere we found them. The OGMS was delicious!

Though we didn't really meet a lot of characters, I loved meeting Pooh and Tigger. Joe loved meeting Phineas and Ferb, and also Push in Tomorrowland. I forgot to write about that in my report - he didn't really get to talk to him but he did look in the back of him and was killing himself laughing that there was actual rubbish in him!

The best thing about our trip was that it persuaded Steve we need to go again Without the family this time! It will be a few years but we hope to stay on site next time, at both Disney and Universal. He even said he could imagine having a holiday home in Florida one day - when we win the lottery

Thank you for taking the time to read my trip report I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe even found some of it useful. For now though, I'll see ya real soon