MsPennieLane
<font color=660099>Self-confessed Disney addict<br
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2003
- Messages
- 904
Day 1 - Thursday 23rd Sept
An early start to our day - or rather a late one to our previous day. I stayed up all night to try and get some sleep on the plane. Hubby managed 2 hours sleep before getting up about 4.30am. My mum was due to pick us up about 6am. We showered and got ready and mum turned up just before 6. We were on the road by 6.15 and got to Gatwick just after 7am - after getting slightly lost as mum took a wrong turn!
The MyTravel desk was already open and luckily the queue wasnt too big. We asked if it was possible to have bulkhead seats but she only had one so we would have had to sit apart - oh and pay £30 for the privilege. Um, no thanks! We were given seats 18B and C - middle and aisle seat. In hindsight I wish Id have gotten the window seat for sleeping in but it didnt really matter. The seat configuration was 3 + 3 + 3 so we had someone sitting with us. After check-in we went straight through to the duty free part. We paid a visit to the Duty Free shop and bought cigarettes for hubby and some lovely perfume for me - Babydoll by YSL if anyones interested. We then stopped at Upper Crust for a sausage and tomato baguette (very tasty) before heading back downstairs to raid Boots and WHS.
We went to the gate and waited to be called for boarding. We were the last section to be called. We took off at 10.45am instead of 10.30. The flight was ok, quite smooth really. We werent expecting to think much of MyTravel as the seats had been rather cheap but I must admit we were pleasantly surprised. We had seatback TVs and the seats were a reasonable size, including the seat belt! The toilets were downstairs which was weird (the plane was an A330 Airbus by the way). Premiergold (the posh section) had their own separate toilet - ooh get them! The film selection was quite good and I was pleased as they were showing Shrek 2 and I hadnt got to see it before. Its excellent. It was a bit of cheek to be charged £2 per pair of headphones but I guess if we go with them again then we wont have to buy them - also I thought it was sneaky that they were a double pin adaptor instead of a standard headphone pin so you couldnt use your own. I guess you could say that theyve got you by the preverbials! Other shows you could watch included Only Fools and Horses, Friends, My Family etc.
The food looked quite bad. I couldnt eat mine, I just felt too nervous too eat and wasnt at all hungry. Hubby said I wasnt missing much. Instead later I had some Pringles from the snack service. As I said, the flight was quite smooth - we had one bit of really bad turbulence which got a few babies crying. It didnt help me trying to relax, having screaming babies behind me. I was very nervous but I have to admit that I handled it rather well. The turbulence was that bad that the seatbelt sign was put on for 20 minutes and they wouldnt serve any more hot drinks in case we spilt them! I dont think they should have announced this over the tannoy mind you - I was panicking enough thank you!
We landed at Sanford 20 minutes ahead of schedule and the landing was slightly bumpy - were both convinced that he misjudged his landing but never mind. Immigration was a nightmare - we queued for quite a while. There were 4 flights including ours landing within about half an hour of each other so you can imagine how many people there were about. We got through immigration ok - you cant say that about the man in front of us in the queue! He got pulled aside and sent into an interview room and that was after he was talking to the officer for good 5 minutes. I thought it was odd that we were asked when wed actually booked the holiday!
Next was baggage collection - we waited less than 5 minutes so that was brilliant. The same cant be said for picking up the car! Andy went into the Alamo office on his own while I sat outside with the luggage and wrote some notes. Andys comment on the Alamo office - too many people werent paying attention to the big notice on the front of the door which said drivers only and no luggage. Apparently there were families and luggage everywhere. I think he was at least 45 minutes in there. He had 3 offers of an upgrade starting at an extra $10 a day down to $7 a day. We still didnt get the economy we paid for (and we never have!). We had a Chevrolet Cavalier, 4 door. It was a family sized car which meant tons of boot space. We left Sanford 1 hour and 50 minutes after landing.
The drive from Sanford was very pleasant. We stuck to the 417 instead of heading for the I4 as we knew it would be very busy. We heard on the news that it was bumper to bumper at one stage so we were pleased wed decided not to take it. We had no traffic at all.
not far now.....
It was really bizarre driving along and seeing all the devastation from the hurricanes so far. Trees flattened, some bent over double, bits of tree over the road, roofs blown off, windows still boarded up etc.
I guess they were still boarded because the threat of hurricanes was still very much about. We checked the National Hurricane website before we left and were a bit dismayed to see that Jeanne was heading back towards Florida. Fingers crossed, it will stay away (as you can probably guess, it didn't.)
We arrived at Pop Century one hour after leaving Sanford Airport.
What's that sign up ahead? Could it be.....
woohoo it is!
Check in was easy and the queue was tiny, only 3 people were in front of us. We requested the 70s building and were given room 304 on the 3rd floor. It was very close to the room Id occupied when I came alone in July. You can see the fusball players from our room window. We went into our room and chucked the bags down. We left straight away and headed for ..wait for it .can you guess???? Yes, youre right - Chilis of course!!!
We headed for the 192 branch. We were there by 6.30 and the restaurant was very quiet. We ordered 2 diet cokes (youve got to love the free refills - you just dont get them in the UK, unless you go to Pizza Hut!), 2 baskets of boneless shanghai wings (what can I say, I just didnt want to share them!) and Andy ordered the chicken ranch sandwich and a chipotle blue cheese burger for me. Wow is all I can say. Those boneless shanghai wings are to die for! I wish Id taken the digital camera out with us as Andys face was an absolute picture when his sandwich came out. The piece of chicken was almost double the size of his bun so whatever side you looked at it from, chicken was hanging out of it. His chicken was really tasty, as was my burger. We stuffed ourselves silly and during the hour we were there, we were bought 3 drinks each! The cost of the meal was $35 including tip.
What's in the box?
leftover boneless shanghai wings of course!
I started yawning at the table and I told Andy that I didnt really want to go out. We were originally thinking of going to Magic Kingdom for an hour or maybe just the bar in the food court but all I wanted to do was sleep. By the time we got back to our room, Andy was feeling the same. I had a shower to cool off and then we went straight to bed. We turned out the lights by 8.30pm and were asleep as our heads touched our pillows.
An early start to our day - or rather a late one to our previous day. I stayed up all night to try and get some sleep on the plane. Hubby managed 2 hours sleep before getting up about 4.30am. My mum was due to pick us up about 6am. We showered and got ready and mum turned up just before 6. We were on the road by 6.15 and got to Gatwick just after 7am - after getting slightly lost as mum took a wrong turn!
The MyTravel desk was already open and luckily the queue wasnt too big. We asked if it was possible to have bulkhead seats but she only had one so we would have had to sit apart - oh and pay £30 for the privilege. Um, no thanks! We were given seats 18B and C - middle and aisle seat. In hindsight I wish Id have gotten the window seat for sleeping in but it didnt really matter. The seat configuration was 3 + 3 + 3 so we had someone sitting with us. After check-in we went straight through to the duty free part. We paid a visit to the Duty Free shop and bought cigarettes for hubby and some lovely perfume for me - Babydoll by YSL if anyones interested. We then stopped at Upper Crust for a sausage and tomato baguette (very tasty) before heading back downstairs to raid Boots and WHS.
We went to the gate and waited to be called for boarding. We were the last section to be called. We took off at 10.45am instead of 10.30. The flight was ok, quite smooth really. We werent expecting to think much of MyTravel as the seats had been rather cheap but I must admit we were pleasantly surprised. We had seatback TVs and the seats were a reasonable size, including the seat belt! The toilets were downstairs which was weird (the plane was an A330 Airbus by the way). Premiergold (the posh section) had their own separate toilet - ooh get them! The film selection was quite good and I was pleased as they were showing Shrek 2 and I hadnt got to see it before. Its excellent. It was a bit of cheek to be charged £2 per pair of headphones but I guess if we go with them again then we wont have to buy them - also I thought it was sneaky that they were a double pin adaptor instead of a standard headphone pin so you couldnt use your own. I guess you could say that theyve got you by the preverbials! Other shows you could watch included Only Fools and Horses, Friends, My Family etc.
The food looked quite bad. I couldnt eat mine, I just felt too nervous too eat and wasnt at all hungry. Hubby said I wasnt missing much. Instead later I had some Pringles from the snack service. As I said, the flight was quite smooth - we had one bit of really bad turbulence which got a few babies crying. It didnt help me trying to relax, having screaming babies behind me. I was very nervous but I have to admit that I handled it rather well. The turbulence was that bad that the seatbelt sign was put on for 20 minutes and they wouldnt serve any more hot drinks in case we spilt them! I dont think they should have announced this over the tannoy mind you - I was panicking enough thank you!
We landed at Sanford 20 minutes ahead of schedule and the landing was slightly bumpy - were both convinced that he misjudged his landing but never mind. Immigration was a nightmare - we queued for quite a while. There were 4 flights including ours landing within about half an hour of each other so you can imagine how many people there were about. We got through immigration ok - you cant say that about the man in front of us in the queue! He got pulled aside and sent into an interview room and that was after he was talking to the officer for good 5 minutes. I thought it was odd that we were asked when wed actually booked the holiday!
Next was baggage collection - we waited less than 5 minutes so that was brilliant. The same cant be said for picking up the car! Andy went into the Alamo office on his own while I sat outside with the luggage and wrote some notes. Andys comment on the Alamo office - too many people werent paying attention to the big notice on the front of the door which said drivers only and no luggage. Apparently there were families and luggage everywhere. I think he was at least 45 minutes in there. He had 3 offers of an upgrade starting at an extra $10 a day down to $7 a day. We still didnt get the economy we paid for (and we never have!). We had a Chevrolet Cavalier, 4 door. It was a family sized car which meant tons of boot space. We left Sanford 1 hour and 50 minutes after landing.
The drive from Sanford was very pleasant. We stuck to the 417 instead of heading for the I4 as we knew it would be very busy. We heard on the news that it was bumper to bumper at one stage so we were pleased wed decided not to take it. We had no traffic at all.
not far now.....
It was really bizarre driving along and seeing all the devastation from the hurricanes so far. Trees flattened, some bent over double, bits of tree over the road, roofs blown off, windows still boarded up etc.
I guess they were still boarded because the threat of hurricanes was still very much about. We checked the National Hurricane website before we left and were a bit dismayed to see that Jeanne was heading back towards Florida. Fingers crossed, it will stay away (as you can probably guess, it didn't.)
We arrived at Pop Century one hour after leaving Sanford Airport.
What's that sign up ahead? Could it be.....
woohoo it is!
Check in was easy and the queue was tiny, only 3 people were in front of us. We requested the 70s building and were given room 304 on the 3rd floor. It was very close to the room Id occupied when I came alone in July. You can see the fusball players from our room window. We went into our room and chucked the bags down. We left straight away and headed for ..wait for it .can you guess???? Yes, youre right - Chilis of course!!!
We headed for the 192 branch. We were there by 6.30 and the restaurant was very quiet. We ordered 2 diet cokes (youve got to love the free refills - you just dont get them in the UK, unless you go to Pizza Hut!), 2 baskets of boneless shanghai wings (what can I say, I just didnt want to share them!) and Andy ordered the chicken ranch sandwich and a chipotle blue cheese burger for me. Wow is all I can say. Those boneless shanghai wings are to die for! I wish Id taken the digital camera out with us as Andys face was an absolute picture when his sandwich came out. The piece of chicken was almost double the size of his bun so whatever side you looked at it from, chicken was hanging out of it. His chicken was really tasty, as was my burger. We stuffed ourselves silly and during the hour we were there, we were bought 3 drinks each! The cost of the meal was $35 including tip.
What's in the box?
leftover boneless shanghai wings of course!
I started yawning at the table and I told Andy that I didnt really want to go out. We were originally thinking of going to Magic Kingdom for an hour or maybe just the bar in the food court but all I wanted to do was sleep. By the time we got back to our room, Andy was feeling the same. I had a shower to cool off and then we went straight to bed. We turned out the lights by 8.30pm and were asleep as our heads touched our pillows.
More please 
