back from our little adventure!

[prue]

We got back yesterday morning from 17 days, we had the best holiday ever! I was nervous about the flight and was ok although on the 15th when we flew we had a very long delay after an aborted takeoff .... very long story but a 25 hour day!! Return journey on time, terrible choice of films so the three of us didnt watch any films but the staff were great and it went smoothly.

Car hire was good, Alamo through holiday autos. Wish they wouldnt try and sell you their grandmother but as long as you say no we managed to get the car and not pay extra unnecessarily as we had the max insurance and our little boot was fine!!

JW Marriott, grande lakes was AMAZING, desk clerk felt sorry for us after our very long day so upgraded us to a suite. HEAVEN. The best lazy river hotel pool I have ever seen or enjoyed for two days. A real treat and worth it. We then went to Longboat Key, a truly fantastic, incredible beach and we saw 2 dolphins swimming by 10 feet from beach.

And of course, DDP at POR for 11 days. The DDP was WONDERFUL, we worked out that we had £900 worth of food/soft drinks, we ate at California Grill, Narcossess, Le cellier, spoodles and O'Hana, and some not so great ones!! The frozen latte and cinnamon buns at mainstreet bakery are the best and naughtiest treat you will ever eat!!!

Was nervous about our August visit due to the heat but we drank masses of water, did some early mornings, swam and chilled in the afternoons and enjoyed whenever possible some air con! The pools were busy but no real queues when we went, timing is everything.. morning are the best time to go to the parks without question. I also loved that blue,blue Florida sky.

We were so sad to leave, good to be in one's own bed and see the dog but it already seems like a dream, please feel free to ask any questions, I want to do a trippie but have written so much here dont want to bore on too much... The three of us are going to go back in two years time, I cant wait...

best wishes, prue

 

[Leanne1977]

Thanks for the mini trippie Prue.

Nightmare about the delay, but glad the holiday improved after that.

Welcome home.

 

[wicket2005]

Glad you had a fantastic time. How lovely it must have been to see dolphins in the wild.

 

[disneyholic family]

welcome back!!

sounds like a magical time.....

yes, blue blue skies...i love that...

 

[lorapinky]

thanks for sharing!

It was nice of the hotel to upgrade you!

Thats was a long day with the delays, I worked out from the time I wake up on the day we go and finally go to bed when we are at WDW we will have been up for 25 - 27 hours!!!

luckily the disney buzz will kick in to give me the much needed energy!

Thanks for sharing again!

 

[natalielongstaff]

welcome back sounds like you had a good deal on the DDP

 

[prue]

Thankyou,

Its so nice to get responses! so thank you for reading and commenting.

I cant quite believe we are back, I cant help trying to plan another trip just to perfect it!!

Thanks again for your lovely responses,

Prue

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Sounds like you had a great time

Did you go to SW or shopping when staying at the Marriott?

Which restaurants in WDW didn't you like - always goot to know what to avoid?

 

[traceycooper]

Welcome home, glad you coped with the weather - we are doing our 1st August trip next year, sounds like you took good advice from here & it worked
Who did you fly with??

 

[prue]

We flew Virgin who we thought were excellent.

We stayed at the marriott for the first two days and didnt move just sat by their incredible lazy river pool and enjoyed the luxury, the most amazing hotel and the the best pool I have ever been to. I cannot recomment this hotel enough.

We loved California Grill, the sushi was brilliant, Ohana was great fun and food was good, I was a little worried as recent reviews have been mixed. Narcoosees was a real treat with an incredible view of wishes, and that lobster was good!! I did love that free DDP!! If we were paying I would go to all three and just eat a little less!! O'hana was the best value. We also got to see firework displays from all three restaurants!

One of my most favourite things to eat was mainstreet bakery cinamon roll and the frozen latte!!

Also Earl of Sandwich, good hot sarnies, yummy frozen drinks as well.

Would love to bore on with any other infor you want to ask!!

thanks, Prue

 

[Miffy2003]

Car hire was good, Alamo through holiday autos. Wish they wouldnt try and sell you their grandmother

This made me laugh! We had the same scenario this time wih Alamo who tried to tell me over and over that I had booked an exceptionally small car. Well, I told them I was very happy with my choice, and sure enough the car was huu - uge! (By my standards anyway )

It sounds like you had a lovely time. We found the weather rather nice for August, not as humid as usual, but I gather we were lucky as it was very hot in the weeks before we arrived (25th August).

 

[jtlover]

You were out there at times same as us - we also ate at Cali Grill and Ohanas. We also thought Ohanas was good

 

[maggs]

Sounds like you had a wonderful holiday.

Maggs

 

[prue]

We had the best holiday ever, fourth visit and best yet. Of course, I had booked in March our adrs and the one night we went to California Grill, (it was that friday )it rained from 3pm to 10ish and the fireworks at MK were very late. We did see them from the observation deck but obviously missed our sunset!!

O'hanas was so much better than we anticipated, and we will always go back there, I have to say we were disappointed with several restaurants which had had great reviews, so you never can tell, its so personal what you experience and food you have.

Thanks for reading my blurb, I love reliving it!!
Prue

 

[traceycooper]

which restaurants where you dissappointed with??
Just curious

 

[UKDEB]

Welcome home, prue. We've been back just over a week, so I guess our trips over-lapped. The JW Marriott is great, isn't it? We haven't stayed there, but we have visited a couple of times. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton a few years back and made the trip over to check out the lazy river and to eat at Primo.

Do tell the story about your aborted take-off.

 

[prue]

Hi Debbie,

Our trips overlapped but I cant wait to hear all about your amazing holiday, reading Mr. Stringers' amazing trippie, that log cabin and that view. .. I look forward to hearing both/all your adventures. I do so love america.

Anyway, this should probably go on the thread about Virgin delays, as quite frankly i dont want to fly unless everything works, quite happy being delayed if there is a tech prob.. here we go

Once upon a time a family of three, including a very nervous 41 year old woman checked in extra early at gatwick, boarded on time for 10.45 take off, full flight, so 400 and 20 odd people in a steel tube ready to fly 5 miles above the earth. My kalms, stugeron, rescue remedy and the obligatory OK mag working. It was going to be ok. The captain said we were 40 odd minutes late taking off but we would make up time, all fine. We are on our way, going faster down the runway, that back thrust, noisey bit starts and then we decrease speed, brake some and smoothly change direction and turn off the runway.. something was up. It was all very quick and our amazing captain did a great job. He said that there was a minor prob with the second engine. We taxied for about 5 minutes to repair area, after a couple of updates and an hour later. Bad news and the captain who said he was going to be honest we may not fly that day, no back up crew or plane but the work they had to do would take 3 or so hours.

Collective sigh, and then food vouchers, buses and back to terminal. Not a happy moment but am pleased it happened before we took off!!! So 3.45 back to plane and take off was at 5pm. Apparently due to health and safety we made it by 20 minutes otherwise the crew would have had to go home. They actually were prepared to work a very long day. The captain was honest and I am very happy that he didnt fly until the plane was 100%. We all clapped when we took off and landed.... We were up our first day 25 hours!!But we got there safe and sound. The virgin captain and crew were amazing, safety has to come first, and it was as smooth an aborted takeoff could be... Our return flight was on time and went without incident, just rubbish films!!

It was a long and tiring day though, but I did get my upgrade to a suite which we probably wouldnt have got if we had been on time!!

Hope that wasnt too long and boring...

Prue

 

[bob6sims]

Thanks for sharing about your holiday .

Its great to hear what people thought of resturants before going yourself .

 

[gbrchill]

We loved Californian Grill, enjoyed Spirit of Aloha, felt really rushed at Ohana, had a really bad head ache at Mickeys back yard BBQ (and the food was pretty poor). We liked Flying Fish and we really enjoyed Whispering Canyon Cafe. We loved the Earl of Sandwich


Next time we go, and we are paying for food ourselves we would go back to Californian Grill and Whispering Canyon.

Chris

 

[prue]

Chris,

I remember people saying that the food at ohana can be all brought out at once and they hurry you through the dinner... so we slowed it down by ordering our drinks and asking our cousin if we could go slow and enjoy the experience. He took us at our word and we had a fantastic dinner, he brought our food out in stages, we didnt manage any more of anything but we were there for a couple of hours. Also we had a great view of the fireworks.

thanks for reading my blurb

prue