Who we are:
Me (Fiona) 41 – Commando and Food Planner and Holiday Booker.
DH (Steve) 41 – He really does not like the cheese of Disney! Has got rather keen on golf since our last visit.
DD1 (Kate) 17 – I am ashamed to say that she wants to know if there is a hairdryer everywhere we are staying…shame on her!!
DD2 (Laura) 14 – The Fantasmic Laura of old.
DD3 (Sally) 10 – she will out park the lot of us…… and needs the least sleep.
Pre Trip Report Saturday 16th December 2006 - Monday 1st January 2007
Day 1 Saturday 16th December 2006
Who likes travelling? No one, surely. Just don’t mention the packing, that’s almost as bad. Work for both of us was very busy, and as we are both self employed then there is no skiving, consequently we had done well doing most of the packing Thursday night, a record to be packed by 11pm Friday evening. I know there were “What time do we need to get up?” discussions. I think 6am was settled on, and out of the house by 6.30am. Heathrow should be 1½ hours on a Saturday morning, and as Steve has been commuting to Maidenhead for the past year, it felt like a work day to him, in fact he had a lie in!
We parked at the BCP long stay (pre booked) around 8ish and in terminal 3 by 8.30, a record for us, we are renowned for cutting things a bit fine!! Our United flight to Orlando, via Washington Dulles is showing on time at noon. I am always booking tickets online in the future (I always have done the last 5 years), I had booked the fly drive through a TA, and the outbound flight had been changed three months beforehand. (to better times). I kicked myself for not checking that the seats had been rebooked. When I phoned to confirm 2 days before, we had no pre booked seats, hence why we got to the airport so early. I am used to doing online check in, which is not available with TA booked tickets. However, we had to check in and book our seats on a terminal, and it turns out we were booked as two unlinked parties. The two youngest were on their own and Kate, Steve and I on the other. We were all over the plane, not even as a three and a two, and it wouldn’t even read Sally’s passport. I had requested an aisle seat, to the left of the aisle so I could exercise my arthritic right knee, no record of that either.
Half an hour later we were told to go and stand in the “problem” queue as the machine refused 5 times to read the passport, now, I wonder why that queue moved so slowly? We finally checked in, no possible change in seats at all, except they said Sally and I would have seats sorted out at the gate so a child of ten was not sat on their own. I have never had a upgrade in my life, but hey we got Economy Plus. United Economy Plus gives you precisely 5” extra leg room, very welcome, but that was it, and they still had me in an aisle seat to the right of the aisle, not left as I needed. Sally was so superior, her “Magical Moment” was gloated about for days. Ironically, Steve really should have had the seat, he is 6 ft 4”, but there was no way I could be hemmed in the middle of the row of five for 8 hours. The other three were all several rows apart in that dreaded middle seat of five. I’m sure United has less legroom than BA and Virgin, and a huge amount less than American Airlines. Anyhow, as we wouldn’t have gone but for the good price, it was still a plane, and it got us there. Films were totally rubbish, no pre or current releases, and food was passable. Best channel was listening in on Air Traffic Control, a United “exclusive”, a bit like the Weather Channel being the only decent thing “on the telly” in the US!
We landed on time, but we only had an hour connection time, we just made it through bag reclaim, customs and quick hop onto a No 38 bus, we have never done an internal flight before. We waited for other connections and bags, and took off 45 minutes late. We had all been upgraded this time to sit us together, wow 25 extra inches. The flight time was much shorter than advertised (only an hour and a half), so we landed on time at 7.30pm. Weather looking balmy. The worst bit is nearly over.
I “so” wish I had gone and got the car before baggage reclaim (no customs for us), as it was an internal flight, and the big direct UK flights landed hours ago, I thought the queue would be OK, but we had to wait a while. Apparently there was “no way” that 1 case, 4 holdalls (smallish and squashy) and 1 set of golf clubs would go in such a “compact” car, ie a Full Size as booked, but we managed it easily, and even three large children. We declined the generous “upgrade offer”, the guy seemed surprised, duh. No bus to car rental was a nice surprise, we walked over and chose our standard white full size car. The usual testing of the controls took 3 seconds, Steve found the handbrake two days later, Florida is the flattest state in the US for a reason.
We rolled "home" into Port Orleans Riverside around 10pm, easy check in, we had a ground floor room in Block 27, a bit further from the food court and South Depot Bus Stop than Block 14 I had asked for, but fine. First night was "room only" and the nice CM assured me there was very little chance we would have to move in the morning, but we did have to recheck in the morning to get our park tickets and Disney Dining Plan credits for the following 5 nights. POR is as lovely as I remembered, with added Christmas decorations. I finished check in, where was my “darned” family? Three in Fulton’s General Stores and a tall bloke at the bar doing actions to a song loosely based on the “Twelve Days of Christmas”, I never knew the "Seven Swans a Swimming" did front crawl! The same piano man was still there 5 years on from our last visit, and the bar propper uppers had to join in and swim. I was rolling in the aisles, the Dysfunctional Disney Cheese hater was joining in action songs and we hadn’t been onsite longer than 5 minutes. Perhaps there is hope for this holiday after all.
We found our room, and we were crashed out half an hour later, after all it was 3.30am really. A bit of a fight over who was sleeping on the trundle bed, all three girls wanted it. All week the two bed sharers kicked, muttered, stole bedclothes and moaned about whichever sister was “smelly”. We are quite poor, we are not rich enough for “mummy” and “daddy” to have their own room each at home like they have, or even their own bed each, not a lot of sympathy from us then! The room was gorgeous, brighter with the patchwork duvets and blue curtains, and bigger than I remembered. I’d forgotten how high the beds are, but very comfy.
Sally was still capable of moaning about our refusal to set a cheesy “Wake Up” call, and to the drone of the air con we managed to sleep a bit.
Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom and Boma.
Day 2 Sun 17th Dec AK and Boma.
Me (Fiona) 41 – Commando and Food Planner and Holiday Booker.
DH (Steve) 41 – He really does not like the cheese of Disney! Has got rather keen on golf since our last visit.
DD1 (Kate) 17 – I am ashamed to say that she wants to know if there is a hairdryer everywhere we are staying…shame on her!!
DD2 (Laura) 14 – The Fantasmic Laura of old.
DD3 (Sally) 10 – she will out park the lot of us…… and needs the least sleep.
Pre Trip Report Saturday 16th December 2006 - Monday 1st January 2007
Day 1 Saturday 16th December 2006
Who likes travelling? No one, surely. Just don’t mention the packing, that’s almost as bad. Work for both of us was very busy, and as we are both self employed then there is no skiving, consequently we had done well doing most of the packing Thursday night, a record to be packed by 11pm Friday evening. I know there were “What time do we need to get up?” discussions. I think 6am was settled on, and out of the house by 6.30am. Heathrow should be 1½ hours on a Saturday morning, and as Steve has been commuting to Maidenhead for the past year, it felt like a work day to him, in fact he had a lie in!
We parked at the BCP long stay (pre booked) around 8ish and in terminal 3 by 8.30, a record for us, we are renowned for cutting things a bit fine!! Our United flight to Orlando, via Washington Dulles is showing on time at noon. I am always booking tickets online in the future (I always have done the last 5 years), I had booked the fly drive through a TA, and the outbound flight had been changed three months beforehand. (to better times). I kicked myself for not checking that the seats had been rebooked. When I phoned to confirm 2 days before, we had no pre booked seats, hence why we got to the airport so early. I am used to doing online check in, which is not available with TA booked tickets. However, we had to check in and book our seats on a terminal, and it turns out we were booked as two unlinked parties. The two youngest were on their own and Kate, Steve and I on the other. We were all over the plane, not even as a three and a two, and it wouldn’t even read Sally’s passport. I had requested an aisle seat, to the left of the aisle so I could exercise my arthritic right knee, no record of that either.
Half an hour later we were told to go and stand in the “problem” queue as the machine refused 5 times to read the passport, now, I wonder why that queue moved so slowly? We finally checked in, no possible change in seats at all, except they said Sally and I would have seats sorted out at the gate so a child of ten was not sat on their own. I have never had a upgrade in my life, but hey we got Economy Plus. United Economy Plus gives you precisely 5” extra leg room, very welcome, but that was it, and they still had me in an aisle seat to the right of the aisle, not left as I needed. Sally was so superior, her “Magical Moment” was gloated about for days. Ironically, Steve really should have had the seat, he is 6 ft 4”, but there was no way I could be hemmed in the middle of the row of five for 8 hours. The other three were all several rows apart in that dreaded middle seat of five. I’m sure United has less legroom than BA and Virgin, and a huge amount less than American Airlines. Anyhow, as we wouldn’t have gone but for the good price, it was still a plane, and it got us there. Films were totally rubbish, no pre or current releases, and food was passable. Best channel was listening in on Air Traffic Control, a United “exclusive”, a bit like the Weather Channel being the only decent thing “on the telly” in the US!
We landed on time, but we only had an hour connection time, we just made it through bag reclaim, customs and quick hop onto a No 38 bus, we have never done an internal flight before. We waited for other connections and bags, and took off 45 minutes late. We had all been upgraded this time to sit us together, wow 25 extra inches. The flight time was much shorter than advertised (only an hour and a half), so we landed on time at 7.30pm. Weather looking balmy. The worst bit is nearly over.
I “so” wish I had gone and got the car before baggage reclaim (no customs for us), as it was an internal flight, and the big direct UK flights landed hours ago, I thought the queue would be OK, but we had to wait a while. Apparently there was “no way” that 1 case, 4 holdalls (smallish and squashy) and 1 set of golf clubs would go in such a “compact” car, ie a Full Size as booked, but we managed it easily, and even three large children. We declined the generous “upgrade offer”, the guy seemed surprised, duh. No bus to car rental was a nice surprise, we walked over and chose our standard white full size car. The usual testing of the controls took 3 seconds, Steve found the handbrake two days later, Florida is the flattest state in the US for a reason.
We rolled "home" into Port Orleans Riverside around 10pm, easy check in, we had a ground floor room in Block 27, a bit further from the food court and South Depot Bus Stop than Block 14 I had asked for, but fine. First night was "room only" and the nice CM assured me there was very little chance we would have to move in the morning, but we did have to recheck in the morning to get our park tickets and Disney Dining Plan credits for the following 5 nights. POR is as lovely as I remembered, with added Christmas decorations. I finished check in, where was my “darned” family? Three in Fulton’s General Stores and a tall bloke at the bar doing actions to a song loosely based on the “Twelve Days of Christmas”, I never knew the "Seven Swans a Swimming" did front crawl! The same piano man was still there 5 years on from our last visit, and the bar propper uppers had to join in and swim. I was rolling in the aisles, the Dysfunctional Disney Cheese hater was joining in action songs and we hadn’t been onsite longer than 5 minutes. Perhaps there is hope for this holiday after all.
We found our room, and we were crashed out half an hour later, after all it was 3.30am really. A bit of a fight over who was sleeping on the trundle bed, all three girls wanted it. All week the two bed sharers kicked, muttered, stole bedclothes and moaned about whichever sister was “smelly”. We are quite poor, we are not rich enough for “mummy” and “daddy” to have their own room each at home like they have, or even their own bed each, not a lot of sympathy from us then! The room was gorgeous, brighter with the patchwork duvets and blue curtains, and bigger than I remembered. I’d forgotten how high the beds are, but very comfy.Sally was still capable of moaning about our refusal to set a cheesy “Wake Up” call, and to the drone of the air con we managed to sleep a bit.
Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom and Boma.
Day 2 Sun 17th Dec AK and Boma.
