Day 1
Cast:
Me - mother and dutiful wife and biggest kid of them all!! 34
DH Affectionately known as Squirrel ageing punk rocker and tattoos to book 40
DD our princess Millie ..6, and turns 7 in WDW!
YAY the day had finally arrived and boy did I have butterflies I was paranoid about there being something wrong with our passports!
We had driven up from Plymouth the day before and had arrived at Gatwick for 4 pm parked up in the South terminal and trundled over to the Virgin Check in desk .passports checked (PHEW!!), luggage deposited and 3 seats by the window allocated. Virtually no queues .a breeze.
Mooched around the shops a bit and grabbed some dinner in Frankie & Bennies (picked this up from these wonderful boards, I had never heard of them before!). Back to the car and a quick drive over to the Holiday Inn. Nice early night.
I was awake by 5 am and Millie was not long in following showered, dressed and down for a nice big breakfast. Millie and DH busied themselves in the lounge area as I sorted the car out for the valet parking. Millie made sure that Kerry (her bear!) was dressed and ready for her trip whilst we waited for the shuttle bus to the terminal.
Before we knew it, we were in the departures lounge waiting for our plane Hot Lips. Millie had never flown before but she as OK on the flight pretty boring for us all really .9 hours is LONG but well worth it!! We kept ourselves occupied with the TV, colouring (yep, me too!), gameboy and reading. LOL, I was pretty impressed with the flight path, sat nav thingy ..yup, Im easily pleased! The flight was good, very smooth and a lovely landing.
Were off the plane and hubby was pretty confused by the 2 baggage retrieval thingy but again, thanks to these boards I was aware of this anyway, into immigration .lines were pretty long so we headed over to the right hand side near the US & Crew lines ..and they processed some of us aliens there too so it went pretty quickly until we got there and it was pointed out that we hadnt filled the forms in properly! TIP: make sure you fill in your particulars at the bottom of the form .I made the mistake of thinking that bit was for the officials .we werent the only ones to forget this! We also bumped into 2boysmum&dad I was keeping an eye out for her as I knew Zoe was on the same flight as us for her solo birthday trip .plus I had seen her pic on the disboards ..hope you had a fab trip Zoe!. So, back in line and we were processed very painlessly a very happy chap who was more than pleased to stamp Kerrys passport he chatted quite a while with Millie
Finally, out into the Florida sunshine and it was lovely and warm. We had decided (after much deliberation) not to hire a car and stick with Disney transportation .so we grabbed a cab for $38 to POR not bad!
Now, when we booked this holiday we had booked POFQ but when our tickets finally arrived 2 days (yes, thats TWO days!) before we left I noticed that they had booked us into Riverside Oh well, we could always ask for a transfer
Since arriving at POR we had seen so many Cruise line buses Millie was so excited at seeing them and she was so wishing we were going on one .but she followed this up by saying that we would have to save our pennies for this for out next holiday here!! Bless her, she had no idea that we would be going on the cruise! She had seen this on the planning DVD and fell in love with the idea! So we get out of the taxi (remembering the tip!) and there is another cruise bus!
Into the reception..Millie & DH waited by the colouring table/TV whilst I checked us all in ..I asked for Building 14, 15 or 18 as again, I had read on these boards that these were the better located buildings ..we were allocated 1820 in the Alligator Bayou Perfect The chap who dealt with me gave me a lovely yellow Mickey welcome pack (I am such a sucker for things like this!) and our all important room keys. Off to bell services and had a buggy take us to our room ..just in that short trip to our room, past the river I knew we were going to love it here! SOOOOO beautiful, relaxing and .well, heavenly!
Millie did the honours of opening the door to our room and bounced onto the bed grinning ear to ear Whilst Millie made herself at home DH & I quickly unpacked and got changed. Right ..5.30pm ..what do we do?! We were pretty tired but we couldnt not do anything so we decided to catch the boat to DTD. Walked up to the main building and round towards the marina. We love this place so pretty .ducks, rabbits, squirrels .grasshoppers (although I am convinced that sound is piped!). The boat had just pulled up and on we hopped. Stopped off at POFQ for more guests and then onto to DTD
Millie had got quite sleepy on the short boat ride and so needless to day we didnt last long in DTD .walked past Rainforest, into Poohs shop, the Christmas shop and Tails ..then headed back we were all very sleepy!
Millie crashed out as soon as her head hit the pillow DH headed over to the food court to get a Pizza .yum! I then popped over to Fultons (the shop) and bought Millie a Pal Mickey as an early birthday present , an authograph book and a fat pen..also made a detour via the food hall to buy each of us a refillable mug. Millie was away with the fairies by the time I got back so she would wake up to some early birthday goodies!
All tucked up and fast asleep by 9.15pm!
Tomorrow Early entry to MK and dinner at Chef Mickeys the day the magic truly begins!
Cast:
Me - mother and dutiful wife and biggest kid of them all!! 34
DH Affectionately known as Squirrel ageing punk rocker and tattoos to book 40
DD our princess Millie ..6, and turns 7 in WDW!
YAY the day had finally arrived and boy did I have butterflies I was paranoid about there being something wrong with our passports!
We had driven up from Plymouth the day before and had arrived at Gatwick for 4 pm parked up in the South terminal and trundled over to the Virgin Check in desk .passports checked (PHEW!!), luggage deposited and 3 seats by the window allocated. Virtually no queues .a breeze.
Mooched around the shops a bit and grabbed some dinner in Frankie & Bennies (picked this up from these wonderful boards, I had never heard of them before!). Back to the car and a quick drive over to the Holiday Inn. Nice early night.
I was awake by 5 am and Millie was not long in following showered, dressed and down for a nice big breakfast. Millie and DH busied themselves in the lounge area as I sorted the car out for the valet parking. Millie made sure that Kerry (her bear!) was dressed and ready for her trip whilst we waited for the shuttle bus to the terminal.

Before we knew it, we were in the departures lounge waiting for our plane Hot Lips. Millie had never flown before but she as OK on the flight pretty boring for us all really .9 hours is LONG but well worth it!! We kept ourselves occupied with the TV, colouring (yep, me too!), gameboy and reading. LOL, I was pretty impressed with the flight path, sat nav thingy ..yup, Im easily pleased! The flight was good, very smooth and a lovely landing.
Were off the plane and hubby was pretty confused by the 2 baggage retrieval thingy but again, thanks to these boards I was aware of this anyway, into immigration .lines were pretty long so we headed over to the right hand side near the US & Crew lines ..and they processed some of us aliens there too so it went pretty quickly until we got there and it was pointed out that we hadnt filled the forms in properly! TIP: make sure you fill in your particulars at the bottom of the form .I made the mistake of thinking that bit was for the officials .we werent the only ones to forget this! We also bumped into 2boysmum&dad I was keeping an eye out for her as I knew Zoe was on the same flight as us for her solo birthday trip .plus I had seen her pic on the disboards ..hope you had a fab trip Zoe!. So, back in line and we were processed very painlessly a very happy chap who was more than pleased to stamp Kerrys passport he chatted quite a while with Millie

Finally, out into the Florida sunshine and it was lovely and warm. We had decided (after much deliberation) not to hire a car and stick with Disney transportation .so we grabbed a cab for $38 to POR not bad!
Now, when we booked this holiday we had booked POFQ but when our tickets finally arrived 2 days (yes, thats TWO days!) before we left I noticed that they had booked us into Riverside Oh well, we could always ask for a transfer
Since arriving at POR we had seen so many Cruise line buses Millie was so excited at seeing them and she was so wishing we were going on one .but she followed this up by saying that we would have to save our pennies for this for out next holiday here!! Bless her, she had no idea that we would be going on the cruise! She had seen this on the planning DVD and fell in love with the idea! So we get out of the taxi (remembering the tip!) and there is another cruise bus!
Into the reception..Millie & DH waited by the colouring table/TV whilst I checked us all in ..I asked for Building 14, 15 or 18 as again, I had read on these boards that these were the better located buildings ..we were allocated 1820 in the Alligator Bayou Perfect The chap who dealt with me gave me a lovely yellow Mickey welcome pack (I am such a sucker for things like this!) and our all important room keys. Off to bell services and had a buggy take us to our room ..just in that short trip to our room, past the river I knew we were going to love it here! SOOOOO beautiful, relaxing and .well, heavenly!
Millie did the honours of opening the door to our room and bounced onto the bed grinning ear to ear Whilst Millie made herself at home DH & I quickly unpacked and got changed. Right ..5.30pm ..what do we do?! We were pretty tired but we couldnt not do anything so we decided to catch the boat to DTD. Walked up to the main building and round towards the marina. We love this place so pretty .ducks, rabbits, squirrels .grasshoppers (although I am convinced that sound is piped!). The boat had just pulled up and on we hopped. Stopped off at POFQ for more guests and then onto to DTD
Millie had got quite sleepy on the short boat ride and so needless to day we didnt last long in DTD .walked past Rainforest, into Poohs shop, the Christmas shop and Tails ..then headed back we were all very sleepy!
Millie crashed out as soon as her head hit the pillow DH headed over to the food court to get a Pizza .yum! I then popped over to Fultons (the shop) and bought Millie a Pal Mickey as an early birthday present , an authograph book and a fat pen..also made a detour via the food hall to buy each of us a refillable mug. Millie was away with the fairies by the time I got back so she would wake up to some early birthday goodies!

All tucked up and fast asleep by 9.15pm!
Tomorrow Early entry to MK and dinner at Chef Mickeys the day the magic truly begins!