The Trip Of Technical Difficulties-A Feb 2012 Trip report (updated 18/12/12!)

[Sparkly]

Or: A Lesson In Always Remembering To Fill Repeat Prescriptions!

Hi, I'm Emma and this is the first trip report I've written out..well..anywhere. This really wasn't the best trip for us and you'll see why. In addition, I lost all of my 2012 pictures due to my hard drive failing . So any pictures included are taken by my mother!

So who went on this crazy adventure?
Me, 18 years old. Loves videogames. Is dying to get another hug from Eeyore. Owns a huge amount of Disney t-shirts.
Mum, -AGE REDACTED-. Addicted to Disney. Voice of authority. Bargain hunter.
Dad, -AGE REDACTED-. Master of stating the obvious. Too "cool" for the characters. Addicted to the weather channel.

This trip came about due to a bad experience flying Virgin PE in Feb 2011, after which we were given miles. So when the opportunity came about for a trip in 2012, we jumped on it! This was supposed to be a early 18th birthday trip for me, as going in March when my actual birthday is wasn't possible due to sixth form college. Time went by and everything fell into place, including a breakfast at Crystal Palace and we were excited and looking forward to our holiday.

To be continued..


BTW, let me know if I'm doing anything wrong. I'm kinda of a newbie to doing these..

 

[Sparkly]

Moving on, here's the day/night before our holiday.

I went to sixth form college as usual (it's a wonder how I concentrated!) and then went home and packed.

Later on, mum came home and packed the main suitcases and we had dinner. We had pie and chips from our usual chippie with a side of arguing.

After dinner, we weighed the suitcases and hand luggage and loaded them in the car. We checked we had everything and all lights were turned off and doors were locked and set off for the guest house.

We drove 45 minutes in the snow to find the guesthouse and when we got there mum went to check in whilst we brought the cases in. It seemed alright, except for the fact that there was only one person on the desk and it was a busy night. We were lead to our room, which was really dingy looking and dark. The bathroom light wasn't working and the beds were really uncomfortable.

We got ready for bed, with difficulty and tried to get to sleep. I didn't sleep much at all- I need earplugs!

To be continued..

 

[Sparkly]

I haven't updated in a while, so here's more.

Had a bad sleep because the beds were hard and dad's snoring kept me up all night.

Eventually I gave up around 6am and played Plants VS Zombies on my laptop until breakfast. I had the guesthouse's cooked breakfast (bacon, egg, baked beans) and two slices of toast.

After breakfast, I sat in the sitting room reading my Kindle for a couple of hours. I repacked my hand luggage and then the taxi arrived to take us to the airport.

The journey went well and we were soon sitting waiting for our flight. Security was fast. We found to our dismay that M&S Simply Food was on the other side of the airport so had to pop to Boots for our drink and sandwich needs. We got a big bottle of water and a Kitkat Chunky each.

I was sent to check on the flight gate and to my surprise, our flight, VS 15, was already showing as boarding! Surprised, I decided to go and let mum know in the way only I can, by shouting across the terminal- MUM! DAD! OUR FLIGHT IS SHOWING AS BOARDING! WE HAVE TO GO TO THE GATE NOW! WE HAVE TO GO TO THE GATE NOOW!

So we did, and we arrived at the gate 15 minutes early. We saw our plane of the day- Ladybird and were soon boarding the plane. Here she is!

The flight was very full! There were a LOT of small children, including a huge family sitting in front of us. WE ACTUALLY TOOK OFF ON TIME! This was pretty amazing for Virgin.

The flight was uneventful but extremely turbulent! I was scared, but ended up just treating it as a rollercoaster, just in the sky. Our lunch was sausages and mash, which was surprisingly edible. The IFE wasn't very good, terrible quality screens.

Eventually we landed in MCO at 5:30 pm US time. Immigration was over pretty fast, except for me getting frightened by a automatic flushing toilet. Soon we were at the hire desk sorting out the car. Well, mum and dad were. I sat with the bags. It wasn't a Chevy Big Thing like our last holiday. It was a Mercury Milan. I am advised that it's a intermediate saloon. Here's a picture of it, taken just before we dropped it off at the airport when we left.

We found our way to the condo well, with no getting lost (shock horror!) On the way there, we had Wendy's for dinner. Yummy but not sure about the fries which are a bit tasteless.

The condo was good. We did very little else but watch TV and eventually go to bed!

 

[Sparkly]

The morning started with waking at 5:30 am because I was bursting for the loo! Dad was already up and on his computer (typical). I went back to bed and woke up again at 7:30.

We decided on Golden Corral for breakfast instead of the traditional Ponderosa. So we went to our nearest one, to find it only opened for breakfast on weekends. We ended up having a scenic drive down the 192 to find the nearest one. It was actually very average in quality. They had a chocolate fountain, even at breakfast! It wasn't working properly that time though. (and probably a good thing, think how many people will just dip fingers into it )

After breakfast, we did the other traditional first day activity- going to Walmart! We picked up a 28 pack of water (managed to drink most of it!), a cute Minnie Mouse t-shirt for me and some other bits and bobs necessary, like two big bags of peanut M&Ms.

After Walmart, we visited the Premium Outlets on Vineland Avenue. We had lunch at the Chinese booth in the food hall. It started a bit rocky, with the first of my stomach upsets, but took a good turn with a visit to the Fudgery to watch their hilarious show and get a free sample of fudge. I got two pairs of my beloved Sketchers trainers and a cute Disney fleece and Eeyore t-shirt for our Crystal Palace meal. We had a strawberry lemonade from the pizza booth as a quick drink (mmmm)

Then it was time to go meet our friends at Fuddruckers. I had chicken tenders, a Oreo milkshake (which was enormous, they brought the rest of it out in a metal cup!) and we had a great time. I could barely finish my meal.

Halfway through I was freezing so had to go fetch my fleece. Unfortunately I didn't know where we parked the car, so had to press the alarm key to find it. Then I couldn't get the boot open. Eventually I made it back and we continued chatting until me nearly falling asleep at the table ended our night.

Then it was returning to the condo to have a shower and snuggle into bed watching TV.

 

[Sparkly]

Today we were going to visit our first Disney park.

I was woken at 8:15am and got up and had a peanut butter sandwich and some orange juice for breakfast. We left the condo, making a quick stop at Walgreens for a bag and hat for dad.

Finally at 10:30am we got to Epcot! We got a Photopass card (we were part of a share) and took a couple of family shots in front of Spaceship Earth before heading to Guest Relations to pick up a GAC for me. Whilst we did that, dad got us both birthday badges! (mine being three weeks too early though thanks to exams in March)

Then we went to Spaceship Earth, which had a 10 minute wait. Epcot was pretty quiet today! I always love the animation at the end, it's a bit cheesy but funny.

After this, we went to Club Cool to try the different flavoured Cokes. I nearly persuaded dad to try the Beverley but he saw through my plan. My favourites were China and Brazil. The free drink was much appreciated too, as I was a tad dehydrated.

Next was our favourite, Test Track! I adore the part where you go outside and always wish it was longer.

Then we decided to go to The Land to get lunch at Sunshine Seasons. I had heard good things about it and fancied Chinese food, so mum and I chose sweet and sour chicken. I got noodles with mine and mum chose rice. It cost $9.99 and wasn't particularly good.

I kind of wished I had just gone to Electric Umbrella and got chicken nuggets or something because the quality was poor. The chicken was gristly and the noodles tasted funny. Not our best meal at Disney.

However, a few CMs stopped at our table to sing me Happy Birthday! Unfortunately they were right behind mum so she didn't benefit from it because they didn't notice her badge. Still, it was fun and I loved getting the attention.

After lunch, it was Soarin' time. We got the bottom row so unfortunately saw feet above us, but it was still a great ride and we didn't even wait too long.

Then it was time for Living With The Land. I really love this ride, especially when they go out into the greenhouse. I really want to do the Behind The Seeds Tour someday, maybe in 2015.

Then on the way back from the bathroom I saw these two cheeky chappies and couldn't resist a picture with them.

Then we went to the Character Spot to get my fill of the fab five. I can't find pictures of this unfortunately, but it was brilliant. We waited 25 minutes and it was well worth it. They showed classic Disney cartoons on screens above so the time passed by pretty quickly.

Before going into the World Showcase, I chose to have a quick sit down before doing all that walking.

Nice picture, shame about the fact that I'm not wearing my shoes!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the World Showcase. The Mexico ride was rode, funnel cakes were consumed and I braved Melstrom. We also got a pretzel from Germany which mum queued up for ages for. On the plus side I got to watch the clock- literally! We sat by the fountain in front of the cuckoo clock whilst waiting and it was quite pleasant watching the ducks swim.

When we got to America the temperature dropped so we quickly brought the funnel cake and some hot chocolate and sat in Liberty Inn's seating area. Whilst we were there we got to watch a show- a band marching into the building and backstage.

After this we all agreed that we were too tired to finish the rest of the World Showcase so caught a boat back to Canada and went home, stopping on the way for some Publix fried chicken for dinner.

Epcot was a great choice for the first Disney park- relaxing but still with a touch of magic.

 

[PurpleTurtle]

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