DISWolves
Dreams really can come true !!!!
- Joined
- May 26, 2007
TRIP INDEX
DAY 2 - Universal Studios & Wizzarding World of Harry Potter
DAY 3 - Harry Potter - Disney's Old Key West Resort - Raglan Road
DAY 4 - Magic Kingdom - Florida Mall - The Wave
DAY 5 - EPCOT - Yachtman Steakhouse
DAY 6 - Magic Kingdom - Les Chefs de France
DAY 7 - Disney Hollywood Studios - Yak N Yeti
DAY 8 - Earl of Sandwich - SeaWorld
DAY 9 - Chef Mickey's - Prime Outlets Shopping- DIS meet
DAY 10 - Premium Outlets/Mall @ Millenia - Le Cellier - Magic Kingdom Electrical Parade
DAY 11 - Port Orleans Riverside - Florida Mall/Mall @ Millenia - Tony' s Town Square Restaurant
DAY 12 - Typhoon Lagoon - Hoop Dee Doo Review
DAY 13 - Downtown Disney - California Grill
DAY 14 - Animal Kingdom - 50's Prime Time Cafe
DAY 15 - Aquatica - EPCOT Stroll Around The World
DAY 16 - Rest Day - Magic Kingdom Wishes + Extra Magic Hours
DAY 17 - Celebration Town - Akershus
DAY 18 - Downtown Disney - Mama Melrose with Fantasmic!
DAY 19 - Fantasia Miniature Golf - Grand Floridian Cafe
DAY 20 - EPCOT - The Cheesecake Factory
DAY 21 - Magic Kingdom - Sanaa - Magic Kingdom
DAY 22 - Cocoa Beach - Ron Jon's Surf Shop - Port Canaveral - DIS meet
DAY 23 - Typhoon Lagoon - 1900 Park Fare
DAY 24 - THE FINALE - Magic Kingdom - Orlando International Airport - Home
Firstly, I would like to apologise for the poor spelling and bad grammar, but as this is my first (and possibly last) trippie, I decided to do it on the spare of the moment, 5 days into our holiday.
I have spent hours and hours enjoying other people’s stories and learning lessons, so I felt obliged to hopefully return the favour!
Cast members are
Nigel (DISWolves)
DW – Sue
DD – Emma
DAY 1 - Outbound Journey - Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
Today was an early get up for me, as I didn’t sleep too well. At around 4:30 I decided to do the final bag checks, and very soon Sue and Emma were awake also. We set off for Manchester Airport at around 07:30. Our flight wasn’t until 13:45, but I’d rather wait there than being stuck in a traffic jam on the M6. I had checked in online the previous day for our Virgin Economy flight and also pre-booked 24 day parking at the short stay multi-story terminal 2 car park. I relied on the trusty TomTom to guide me there. We had to wait for our bag drop to open, as the 10:25 departure was still checking in.
After bag drop we went through security into departures and sorted our breakfast (sorry no pics as we are not there yet!) After a few laps of browsing the duty free shops, it was soon time to board ‘Ruby Tuesday’ for our journey to Orlando International.
The flight departed about 30 minutes late, but the Captain announced that the flight time would be 8 hours 10 minutes. From past visits I thought he was an hour out, but I was proved to be wrong.
Food was the usual bland offerings, but hey!, we are on our way to Florida – this was a small price to pay. We landed at around 17:10 local time and made our way to immigration. As I had read on other trippies, they have taken a leaf out of Disney’s book and the queue zig-zags until you reach the front and then you are steered to a waiting desk. Onto baggage claim and we had collected 2 suitcases within a few minutes. Things were looking good, only the canvas holdall now to collect. 5 – 10 – 15 minutes wait. The conveyor feeding the carousel now stopped. Lots of people were complaining of missing luggage. Sue and Emma went to check the Upper Class / PE bags, but no joy. I forgot to mention earlier, that I take quite a lot of electrical items with me (cameras, video, laptop, phone chargers, sat nav, extension leads)
I always pack these together in a clear plastic bag and expect the bag to be opened at security. This year was no exception, since at Manchester bag drop I was asked to take this bag to the security. Anyway, back to the missing bag crisis, I suddenly realised that if the bag had gone missing, all of my electrical items would be next to useless for the whole holiday.
After around 1 hour wait, an announcement was made apologising for the delay. It appears that the doors had been closed to the conveyor, so the baggage handlers could not load them. Sue finally got the missing bag from the PE carousel – Panic over!
A fast beeline to the garage, and we were at Dollar Express kiosk to collect the car. Again, this was pre-booked via a glitch that I think Martin (burt) or Wayne (wayneg) had found many months before.
We collected a big blue Ford Explorer. As I am only 5ft 5in I needed an oxygen mask to get into the driver’s seat!. With luggage loaded we were soon on our way. Usually on each visit, we have some sort of surprise for Emma, and this year was no different. I had booked 2 nights at Loews Royal Pacific Resort again via a mis-price posted on DIS boards (thanks Wayne!).
We arrived at the hotel and parked in the $15 per day parking lot. Check-in was quick and we were allocated room 2225. One thing I noticed that two half used bars of soap were still in the shower and sink from the previous guests, also the lighting in the room was quite poor, and this was made even worse by two bulbs above one bed were not working.
We decided to try the walkway into City Walk in preparation for our next morning early start in search of WWHP attraction. On the way out I called at the front desk to inform them of my findings and I was told it would be “put right – straight away”
I sent a text to Wayne, Karen and Matt to let them know that we had arrived; we arranged to meet in the hotel lobby at 22:00. We spent awhile exchanging stories of our journeys here, and then we decided to go to bed since it was really 3.00 am in UK. We arrived in our room and no one had been to sort the problems and in the meantime we also discovered a day old newspaper in the waste bin and to top it off, there was a long hair under the pillow!. For those of you that do not know me, I do not have any hair longer than 0.1” and the few that I do have are very precious!. Back to the lobby, and the assistant assured me this time that all would be fixed immediately.
To save hanging around, we caught the boat into City Walk and decided to eat.
Sue: Fries + coke
Emma: Fires + coke
Nigel: Chinese meal – Kung Po chicken, orange chicken in batter with rice. + coke
We caught the boat back to the resort and made our way to our room. Surprise!, three new bars of soap had been delivered, but the used ones were still in the soap dishes, and to top it off, the light bulbs had still not been changed.
It had been a long long day, so we decided it was time for bed.
DAY 2 - Universal Studios & Wizzarding World of Harry Potter
DAY 3 - Harry Potter - Disney's Old Key West Resort - Raglan Road
DAY 4 - Magic Kingdom - Florida Mall - The Wave
DAY 5 - EPCOT - Yachtman Steakhouse
DAY 6 - Magic Kingdom - Les Chefs de France
DAY 7 - Disney Hollywood Studios - Yak N Yeti
DAY 8 - Earl of Sandwich - SeaWorld
DAY 9 - Chef Mickey's - Prime Outlets Shopping- DIS meet
DAY 10 - Premium Outlets/Mall @ Millenia - Le Cellier - Magic Kingdom Electrical Parade
DAY 11 - Port Orleans Riverside - Florida Mall/Mall @ Millenia - Tony' s Town Square Restaurant
DAY 12 - Typhoon Lagoon - Hoop Dee Doo Review
DAY 13 - Downtown Disney - California Grill
DAY 14 - Animal Kingdom - 50's Prime Time Cafe
DAY 15 - Aquatica - EPCOT Stroll Around The World
DAY 16 - Rest Day - Magic Kingdom Wishes + Extra Magic Hours
DAY 17 - Celebration Town - Akershus
DAY 18 - Downtown Disney - Mama Melrose with Fantasmic!
DAY 19 - Fantasia Miniature Golf - Grand Floridian Cafe
DAY 20 - EPCOT - The Cheesecake Factory
DAY 21 - Magic Kingdom - Sanaa - Magic Kingdom
DAY 22 - Cocoa Beach - Ron Jon's Surf Shop - Port Canaveral - DIS meet
DAY 23 - Typhoon Lagoon - 1900 Park Fare
DAY 24 - THE FINALE - Magic Kingdom - Orlando International Airport - Home
Firstly, I would like to apologise for the poor spelling and bad grammar, but as this is my first (and possibly last) trippie, I decided to do it on the spare of the moment, 5 days into our holiday.
I have spent hours and hours enjoying other people’s stories and learning lessons, so I felt obliged to hopefully return the favour!
Cast members are
Nigel (DISWolves)
DW – Sue
DD – Emma
DAY 1 - Outbound Journey - Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
Today was an early get up for me, as I didn’t sleep too well. At around 4:30 I decided to do the final bag checks, and very soon Sue and Emma were awake also. We set off for Manchester Airport at around 07:30. Our flight wasn’t until 13:45, but I’d rather wait there than being stuck in a traffic jam on the M6. I had checked in online the previous day for our Virgin Economy flight and also pre-booked 24 day parking at the short stay multi-story terminal 2 car park. I relied on the trusty TomTom to guide me there. We had to wait for our bag drop to open, as the 10:25 departure was still checking in.
After bag drop we went through security into departures and sorted our breakfast (sorry no pics as we are not there yet!) After a few laps of browsing the duty free shops, it was soon time to board ‘Ruby Tuesday’ for our journey to Orlando International.
RUBY TUESDAY AT 40,000FT ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
The flight departed about 30 minutes late, but the Captain announced that the flight time would be 8 hours 10 minutes. From past visits I thought he was an hour out, but I was proved to be wrong.
Food was the usual bland offerings, but hey!, we are on our way to Florida – this was a small price to pay. We landed at around 17:10 local time and made our way to immigration. As I had read on other trippies, they have taken a leaf out of Disney’s book and the queue zig-zags until you reach the front and then you are steered to a waiting desk. Onto baggage claim and we had collected 2 suitcases within a few minutes. Things were looking good, only the canvas holdall now to collect. 5 – 10 – 15 minutes wait. The conveyor feeding the carousel now stopped. Lots of people were complaining of missing luggage. Sue and Emma went to check the Upper Class / PE bags, but no joy. I forgot to mention earlier, that I take quite a lot of electrical items with me (cameras, video, laptop, phone chargers, sat nav, extension leads)
I always pack these together in a clear plastic bag and expect the bag to be opened at security. This year was no exception, since at Manchester bag drop I was asked to take this bag to the security. Anyway, back to the missing bag crisis, I suddenly realised that if the bag had gone missing, all of my electrical items would be next to useless for the whole holiday.
After around 1 hour wait, an announcement was made apologising for the delay. It appears that the doors had been closed to the conveyor, so the baggage handlers could not load them. Sue finally got the missing bag from the PE carousel – Panic over!A fast beeline to the garage, and we were at Dollar Express kiosk to collect the car. Again, this was pre-booked via a glitch that I think Martin (burt) or Wayne (wayneg) had found many months before.
FORD EXPLORER
We collected a big blue Ford Explorer. As I am only 5ft 5in I needed an oxygen mask to get into the driver’s seat!. With luggage loaded we were soon on our way. Usually on each visit, we have some sort of surprise for Emma, and this year was no different. I had booked 2 nights at Loews Royal Pacific Resort again via a mis-price posted on DIS boards (thanks Wayne!).
We arrived at the hotel and parked in the $15 per day parking lot. Check-in was quick and we were allocated room 2225. One thing I noticed that two half used bars of soap were still in the shower and sink from the previous guests, also the lighting in the room was quite poor, and this was made even worse by two bulbs above one bed were not working.
ROYAL PACIFIC RESORT - QUEEN ROOM
RPR FOUNTAIN GARDEN NEAR TO LOBBY
ONE OF THE MUSICAL FROGS - HOTEL ENTRANCE
WALKWAY FROM RPR TO CITY WALK
We decided to try the walkway into City Walk in preparation for our next morning early start in search of WWHP attraction. On the way out I called at the front desk to inform them of my findings and I was told it would be “put right – straight away”
I sent a text to Wayne, Karen and Matt to let them know that we had arrived; we arranged to meet in the hotel lobby at 22:00. We spent awhile exchanging stories of our journeys here, and then we decided to go to bed since it was really 3.00 am in UK. We arrived in our room and no one had been to sort the problems and in the meantime we also discovered a day old newspaper in the waste bin and to top it off, there was a long hair under the pillow!. For those of you that do not know me, I do not have any hair longer than 0.1” and the few that I do have are very precious!. Back to the lobby, and the assistant assured me this time that all would be fixed immediately.
To save hanging around, we caught the boat into City Walk and decided to eat.
Sue: Fries + coke
Emma: Fires + coke
Nigel: Chinese meal – Kung Po chicken, orange chicken in batter with rice. + coke
We caught the boat back to the resort and made our way to our room. Surprise!, three new bars of soap had been delivered, but the used ones were still in the soap dishes, and to top it off, the light bulbs had still not been changed.
It had been a long long day, so we decided it was time for bed.
Shame about the room though and thats not good to have to complain straight away.I have heard people say they have had a few issues with their rooms at RPR. At least they sorted it eventually.Glad you are all havin a good time.
