wilma-bride
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- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
- Messages
- 22,681
Hollywood or bust! John finds his inner bunny...or not!
Well, this has taken a long time to write. I make no apologies for that, at least it's written - unlike some other reports I could mention (ahem...Here Come the Girls..ahem)
So, it was our last day. Normally, when I wake up on our last day, I feel sad. This morning, however, I didn’t – maybe that had something to do with the view outside my window…
Or the fact that we already knew we were coming back next year… (I'm sure it was that!! woop woop)
Or maybe just the fact that we were off to our favourite park again this morning, to finish the holiday in style.
Traditionally, we spend our last day at Downtown Disney, however in recent years we have found that, by early afternoon, we are bored and restless and – gasp – all shopped out! For that reason (and because Matthew hadn’t yet had a chance to ride Tower of Terror due to his shoe-throwing punishment) we had decided to head out to Hollywood Studios for some final thrills and spills.
Matt was really pleased that he had a chance to ride TOT as was I. I had felt so bad that he missed out the other day, he deserved it mind lol
We were all keen to get going and were showered, dressed and packed by 8.30. John and Gary, with some assistance from the children, took the numerous cases down to the Mystery Machine and began the onerous task of packing them in. What did we do whilst the cases were being packed..oh yes we supervised of course! We then wandered over to the bus stops in front of the Contemporary, where we had a very short wait for a Hollywood Studios bus.
On arrival at the Studios, Rea was despatched to get FPs for Toy Story Midway Mania while the rest of us headed to Rock n Roller Coaster. We were keen to get a Photopass picture taken outside and we all decided to ‘rock out’. Johnny provided a source of amusement due to the fact that, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t make his hands do the ‘rock out’ sign and instead ended up with something that resembled bunny ears. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the evidence…
We then left Rea and Daniel outside while we rode Tower of Terror – Matthew was very pleased to get a chance to ride it having missed out the other day.
Next, we went to Starring Rolls for some light refreshment in the form of pastries and muffins – yum!
Double yum
After breakfast, we had a while to wait for our FP time for Toy Story Mania so decided to head over to the Backlot Tour.
Nat and I amused ourselves by pretending to be falling asleep on the tram.
Small things and all that hehe
The Backlot Tour was great – Catastrophe Canyon never ceases to amaze me.
We had a quick look around the shop afterwards and bought some more Disney Raycers. Gary tried on a very fetching hat...
Toy Story Mania was next, which was brilliant as usual. Rea still managed to beat me – well, thrash me actually.
Since we’d achieved everything we really wanted to, we decided to have one more ride – Gary and Daniel chose Rock n Roller Coaster
while the rest of us opted for Tower of Terror (with the exception of Rea who waited outside and held bags!)
We then had a mooch around the shops before accepting our fate – time to head to the airport.
But not before a final stop at Friendly’s for a farewell dinner.
Lurve the Friendlys
Cheese sticks, chicken fingers and blue raspberry lemonades all round.
Then it really was time to head to the airport. We arrived in plenty of time and dropped the Mystery machine off, then hauled our luggage across to check in. There was a massive queue; the first downside to NOT checking in at Downtown Disney. Finally, we got called forward. We loaded our cases, one by one, on to the scales and, as always, I held my breath. Two of them were over (slightly) the 28kg limit but the guy gave them no more than a cursory glance before attaching the labels and sending them off down the conveyor belt. As he gave us our boarding cards, I realised we didn’t have our pre-booked seats. While I understood that they were requests only, I pointed out that we had deliberately pre-booked seats so we could be sat with the other party we were travelling with. He told us that all pre-booked seats were reset at the start of check-in and allocated as people checked in, which I thought seemed to make a mockery of the whole pre-booking seats thing. Still, he agreed to have another look. Meanwhile, Nat and John had also been called forward to the next desk to check in and the guy there had not managed to find seats for them together at all. The two check-in guys had a short ‘conflab’ and then ours returned to say that he had not been able to find any seats near to ours for the Longstaffs. The chap who was checking in Nat and John seemed to be getting quite irate and was obviously having some problems of his own and, since we just wanted to get checked in, there seemed little point trying to pursue it so Gary and I finished up and walked over to the main doors to wait for Nat and John. Meanwhile, we could see that they appeared to be having some problems with their cases. 5 minutes later they walked away, dragging their cases behind them. One of their cases was just over 2kgs overweight and so they had been told to ‘go away and repack’ before they could complete check in. It was fairly obvious that the irate chap had decided to wreak a little revenge for the fact that we’d dared to speak up. And obviously it was Nat and John’s fault that he couldn’t find four seats together and had to reshuffle things so they could sit as a family (sarcastic smiley)
Eventually, Nat managed to redistribute the contents of the cases to a satisfactory standard and we were finally all checked in.
Joh has really managed to convey the nightmare that we encountered at check-in, it took me a long time to get over! Who are you kidding, you're still not over it now
We made our way through security and waited for a short time to board. Gary took Daniel to the gents to change out of his shorts into something warmer for the flight and, fairly soon, we were on board and waiting to fly home.
Don't let the smile fool you - inside I was crying
The flight was uneventful. The kids actually got their dedicated meals this time, which was a bonus – and probably lucky for Virgin since Nat was in no mood to be messed about after the whole check-in debacle.
That is an under-statement!
All too soon (or not soon enough, as the case may be), we were disembarking at Gatwick and exiting to a dull, grey, rainy day – it doesn’t matter what time of year we return from Disney World, Gatwick always seems to be dreary. After a short wait for the bus to the car park, we had collected our cars and were on our way, having said our sad goodbyes to the Longstaffs.
I wish I could say that our journey home from Gatwick was uneventful too – but it wasn’t! Unfortunately, when we stopped at Chieveley Services to refuel, DH (in holiday/hire car mode) decided to fill the tank with Unleaded instead of Diesel and so we spent the rest of the day stuck in a dingy little garage in Newbury waiting to get the car fixed so we could head home. We eventually made it back around 4.30 – not bad considering we left Gatwick shortly after 10 (normally a 2 hour journey). Tired, fed up, cold and wet but having had the most amazing time. Roll on 2011!!!
Our journey was much less exciting, it was awful monsoon like weather though so we also had a slow trip home!
So, that's it folks, our adventure is over. I just wanted to share with you what an incredible time we had. Yes, there were lows (not many) but the highs and the sheer enjoyment of sharing our holiday with such good friends far outweighed any cross words/bad moods. As for the 'Great T-Rex Incident of 2009', well that is a dim and distant memory and something which we can look back on now and laugh about. I will post some of our favourite Photopass pics in a separate post (I will spare you all 273 of them
)but, for now, it's goodbye from me and it's goodbye from her
Coming soon to a DISboard near you – The Bad Mothers Return! Bring it on!
Well, this has taken a long time to write. I make no apologies for that, at least it's written - unlike some other reports I could mention (ahem...Here Come the Girls..ahem)
So, it was our last day. Normally, when I wake up on our last day, I feel sad. This morning, however, I didn’t – maybe that had something to do with the view outside my window…
Or the fact that we already knew we were coming back next year… (I'm sure it was that!! woop woop)
Or maybe just the fact that we were off to our favourite park again this morning, to finish the holiday in style.
Traditionally, we spend our last day at Downtown Disney, however in recent years we have found that, by early afternoon, we are bored and restless and – gasp – all shopped out! For that reason (and because Matthew hadn’t yet had a chance to ride Tower of Terror due to his shoe-throwing punishment) we had decided to head out to Hollywood Studios for some final thrills and spills.
Matt was really pleased that he had a chance to ride TOT as was I. I had felt so bad that he missed out the other day, he deserved it mind lol
We were all keen to get going and were showered, dressed and packed by 8.30. John and Gary, with some assistance from the children, took the numerous cases down to the Mystery Machine and began the onerous task of packing them in. What did we do whilst the cases were being packed..oh yes we supervised of course! We then wandered over to the bus stops in front of the Contemporary, where we had a very short wait for a Hollywood Studios bus.
On arrival at the Studios, Rea was despatched to get FPs for Toy Story Midway Mania while the rest of us headed to Rock n Roller Coaster. We were keen to get a Photopass picture taken outside and we all decided to ‘rock out’. Johnny provided a source of amusement due to the fact that, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t make his hands do the ‘rock out’ sign and instead ended up with something that resembled bunny ears. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the evidence…
We then left Rea and Daniel outside while we rode Tower of Terror – Matthew was very pleased to get a chance to ride it having missed out the other day.
Next, we went to Starring Rolls for some light refreshment in the form of pastries and muffins – yum!
Double yum
After breakfast, we had a while to wait for our FP time for Toy Story Mania so decided to head over to the Backlot Tour.
Nat and I amused ourselves by pretending to be falling asleep on the tram.
Small things and all that hehe
The Backlot Tour was great – Catastrophe Canyon never ceases to amaze me.
We had a quick look around the shop afterwards and bought some more Disney Raycers. Gary tried on a very fetching hat...
Toy Story Mania was next, which was brilliant as usual. Rea still managed to beat me – well, thrash me actually.
Since we’d achieved everything we really wanted to, we decided to have one more ride – Gary and Daniel chose Rock n Roller Coaster
while the rest of us opted for Tower of Terror (with the exception of Rea who waited outside and held bags!)
We then had a mooch around the shops before accepting our fate – time to head to the airport.
But not before a final stop at Friendly’s for a farewell dinner.
Lurve the Friendlys
Cheese sticks, chicken fingers and blue raspberry lemonades all round.
Then it really was time to head to the airport. We arrived in plenty of time and dropped the Mystery machine off, then hauled our luggage across to check in. There was a massive queue; the first downside to NOT checking in at Downtown Disney. Finally, we got called forward. We loaded our cases, one by one, on to the scales and, as always, I held my breath. Two of them were over (slightly) the 28kg limit but the guy gave them no more than a cursory glance before attaching the labels and sending them off down the conveyor belt. As he gave us our boarding cards, I realised we didn’t have our pre-booked seats. While I understood that they were requests only, I pointed out that we had deliberately pre-booked seats so we could be sat with the other party we were travelling with. He told us that all pre-booked seats were reset at the start of check-in and allocated as people checked in, which I thought seemed to make a mockery of the whole pre-booking seats thing. Still, he agreed to have another look. Meanwhile, Nat and John had also been called forward to the next desk to check in and the guy there had not managed to find seats for them together at all. The two check-in guys had a short ‘conflab’ and then ours returned to say that he had not been able to find any seats near to ours for the Longstaffs. The chap who was checking in Nat and John seemed to be getting quite irate and was obviously having some problems of his own and, since we just wanted to get checked in, there seemed little point trying to pursue it so Gary and I finished up and walked over to the main doors to wait for Nat and John. Meanwhile, we could see that they appeared to be having some problems with their cases. 5 minutes later they walked away, dragging their cases behind them. One of their cases was just over 2kgs overweight and so they had been told to ‘go away and repack’ before they could complete check in. It was fairly obvious that the irate chap had decided to wreak a little revenge for the fact that we’d dared to speak up. And obviously it was Nat and John’s fault that he couldn’t find four seats together and had to reshuffle things so they could sit as a family (sarcastic smiley)
Eventually, Nat managed to redistribute the contents of the cases to a satisfactory standard and we were finally all checked in.
Joh has really managed to convey the nightmare that we encountered at check-in, it took me a long time to get over! Who are you kidding, you're still not over it now
We made our way through security and waited for a short time to board. Gary took Daniel to the gents to change out of his shorts into something warmer for the flight and, fairly soon, we were on board and waiting to fly home.
Don't let the smile fool you - inside I was crying
The flight was uneventful. The kids actually got their dedicated meals this time, which was a bonus – and probably lucky for Virgin since Nat was in no mood to be messed about after the whole check-in debacle.
That is an under-statement!
All too soon (or not soon enough, as the case may be), we were disembarking at Gatwick and exiting to a dull, grey, rainy day – it doesn’t matter what time of year we return from Disney World, Gatwick always seems to be dreary. After a short wait for the bus to the car park, we had collected our cars and were on our way, having said our sad goodbyes to the Longstaffs.
I wish I could say that our journey home from Gatwick was uneventful too – but it wasn’t! Unfortunately, when we stopped at Chieveley Services to refuel, DH (in holiday/hire car mode) decided to fill the tank with Unleaded instead of Diesel and so we spent the rest of the day stuck in a dingy little garage in Newbury waiting to get the car fixed so we could head home. We eventually made it back around 4.30 – not bad considering we left Gatwick shortly after 10 (normally a 2 hour journey). Tired, fed up, cold and wet but having had the most amazing time. Roll on 2011!!!
Our journey was much less exciting, it was awful monsoon like weather though so we also had a slow trip home!
So, that's it folks, our adventure is over. I just wanted to share with you what an incredible time we had. Yes, there were lows (not many) but the highs and the sheer enjoyment of sharing our holiday with such good friends far outweighed any cross words/bad moods. As for the 'Great T-Rex Incident of 2009', well that is a dim and distant memory and something which we can look back on now and laugh about. I will post some of our favourite Photopass pics in a separate post (I will spare you all 273 of them
)but, for now, it's goodbye from me and it's goodbye from herComing soon to a DISboard near you – The Bad Mothers Return! Bring it on!
sorry i held up proceedings today by pretending to work 
our excuse is that our trip consisted of mainly drinking & shopping so until this months quiz is finished we can not go into details of our adventures....well that's my excuse & i'm sticking to it. 
