Miffy2003
<font color=orange>I've got Saratoga Springs - mak
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2003
- Messages
- 12,175
Thursday 9th December
The alarm was definitely not required this morning as we are all awake and raring to go before it rings. We have had a very peaceful night and not once have I heard a plane, despite our proximity to the runways. Having selected Express Check out, we make our way over to Gatwick Village at about 8.15; a strenuous 4 minute walk. Nobody was particularly keen on a large sit down breakfast so we settled on Starbucks where I have a lovely coffee (my last lovely coffee I suspect for several weeks) and a toasted cheese and Marmite panini. You will be cringing or nodding in agreement at this point I am certain. Julie & Derek are rather shocked by Starbucks prices and decide that it must be because its in the terminal; I dont disillusion them, but its probably worth noting that the last time they had a coffee and snack out was sometime in the late seventies. The girls are bouncing around all over the place and I let them do this (better now than on the plane) in a quiet corner.
Retail temptation surrounds me on all sides but I bravely ignore most of whats on offer in the knowledge that soon I will be in shopping mecca. We decide to go through passport control and make our way to the departure area including the very sizeable Duty Free shop for which I have a £5 off voucher (when you spend £35 or more). Reader, it would have been financially foolish to not spend that £35, and I bought some Angel, my favourite perfume.
Soon our flight gate appears and we head off there. After many corridors, stairwells, aircraft hangars and a short bus ride we finally reached the gate. Bring back the monorail please!
The usual organised (?) chaos greeted us at the gate but we could see our plane, Pretty Woman outside on the tarmac. Who thinks up thsese names? The plane clearly looks like an Edna to me.
At this point breathing became somewhat difficult for me. I dont fly very well (never got the hang of the wings) and I find the boarding and take off quite difficult. Dont even mention the landing which is the worst part!. I looked around desperately for a bar to steady my nerves with a shot (or four) of Jack Daniels. I made do with biting my nails and breathing deeply. Its difficult as the last thing I want to do is for the girls to pick up on this (irrational!) fear so I have to give a semblance of normality. No rude jokes, thank you.
At long last we board and there is then a big delay as they put out a call for a particular customer to make himself known to the cabin crew. Whether he ever does, and whether he was the reason we left Gatwick 45 minutes late, I couldnt tell you but at long last we are on our way!
I would love to say that the next 9 hours passed in a flash but I would be lieing! Normally the journey out passes relatively quickly but for some reason this one dragged like never before. There were some good films on offer; Amber gave SharksTale a thumbs up (she watched it twice more to quality check it) and Jon enjoyed The Village. Erin spent a great deal of the journey in stitches at
The food was good(ish) by airline standards, and the cabin crew excellent, Kids Virgin bags were pretty much the same as last time but I never criticize a freebie
Erin fell asleep for a good 90 minutes but Amber refused. It was good to pass the time with Allie every so often who was by complete coincidence seated only a few rows in front of us. Jess gave the girls a lovely Disney pen each which they were thrilled with.
We landed at Orlando International Airport at about 4.00pm, only twenty minutes behind schedule. We pretty much sailed through immigration, having grimaced for the camera and had our fingerprints taken (how exciting!). I always get very paranoid at Immigration and think they are trying to trick me with their questions when actually all they are probably doing is making conversation. Bags collected for the first time, Jon, the girls and I went through customs with no trouble but Julie and Derek were pulled over to be searched (not a full body affair, thank goodness!) but this hardly delayed us at all. Bags dispatched a second time, off we went to the main terminal via the monorail.
I wanted to go and sort out the car and then collect the bags but this idea threw Julie & Derek into a panic, so we agreed to wait for the bags first. After all, we had over three weeks.
So we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally, the bags were all collected (I think this took a good twenty minutes to half an hour but I wasnt timing it!) and we headed off to the Dollar rental desk.
Now, do you remember back in Day One (you deserve a medal if you remember the last paragraph, never mind a different day) my list checking we had everything? We were interrupted at a crucial moment and the booster seat for Erin never did make it into the car. So this left us with a quandry; we would have to hire one or at least hire one for a few days and then buy one (cheaper in the long run). The Dollar queue moved quickly (after wed fought off the five advances by Virgin staff to get us to go to the Virgin queue for the car as they could see our labels said Virgin. We politely explained five times that we had arranged our own car hire. They never did ask me why but I would have been glad to explain that it saved us £450) and we were soon being served by Aaron who checked all our paperwork and announced that a booster seat for the hire duration would cost $130, but that he could upgrade us to a "bigger" car with a built in booster for only $80. Well of course we took him up on the latter and it was only when he said he could not take my credit card for this particular transaction, only cash, that I began to smell a
At this very point however Amber was lying on the floor and groaning about how tired she was in a pale sort of way (why didnt you sleep on the plane like I asked you?!) so I parted with the $80 in the hope of just getting out of there with Erin safely strapped into a seat! I thought, at least we have been upgraded to a slightly bigger vehicle this way (we had pre-paid for a 7 seater and I assumed he had upgraded us an 8 seater) and I didnt really want the hassle of hiring the booster for a few days and then buying one in WalMart and having to return the Dollar seat to them. So we took it, and Aaron took the money, no doubt thinking stupid Brits.
I think it was about ten past five by now, not bad going and still light outside, not to mention very balmy and pleasant. We then stood in a queue to pick up the car for twenty minutes; having got the keys we raced (in a very tired way) to the 7 seater to be on our way. Yes, I did say 7 seater. The more sharp eyed among you will have noticed there that we were done and Im still cross about that now. However this was the least of our worries for the time being as we could not find the booster / car seat in the car. No way, no how. Jon trailed back to the desk (had another ten minute wait first) and was told the seat was integral to the car. He came back to look again, and we still could not see it for looking. Very tired by now and getting rather irritable Jon went back again until a Dollar employee came to show us. It was very obvious when you knew it was there, really! However I must say we werent overwhelmed with Dollars customer service skills, irrespective of Aarons $80 upgrade to the car we had all along.
At long last we drive off, about six by this time. We make good time for the first two minutes and then from the back of the car there is that horrible noise that every parent dreads. The sound of vomiting. Amber has been sick everywhere in the lovely, just-valeted Grand Caravan. I feel much better now, Mummy she pipes up. I am thrilled for you, Amber. We decide to press on as even if we stop we have nothing to carry out a clean up exercise with and we probably need water (and lots of it!)
All goes well until we get to the exit by the Gaylord Palms hotel so nearly at WDW. We had carefully pre-selected our dollar bills for the tolls from the airport to WDW along the Central Florida Greeneway but had followed Dollars directions (different to my pre-planned ones) and not realised that there would be a 50c charge to leave the road. Now, this was a problem. Between the 4 adults we managed to scare up 37c and chuck that into the automated thingy. With 13c still to find and no more American coinage of any description we tried chucking some UK tender in (in case this fooled the machine if it was the same weight
) It may not surprise you that it did not! We tried a dollar bill (knowing this would not work either, but not wanting to rob the Orlando Road Consortium of a valuable 13c. We couldnt reverse back up a one way street so we had no option but to go on. Imagine my surprise when a bell started to ring and a flashlight went off! Julie and Derek were fairly hysterical by this point, with visions of the Florida Highway Patrol hauling us over and carting us off to jail but I figured the worst that could happen was a fine (have heard nothing yet!).
Moments later we arrive at All Star Movies.
Now this was not quite the magical and exuberant entrance to the world of onsite accommodation I had envisaged. We were exhausted, slightly stressed by the Dollar experience and the toll booth and had a car full of sick. Julie and I went off to check in, leaving Amber in the car with the others for obvious reasons (she was fast asleep by this point but I would not have wanted her seen out in public!).
We had an absolutely super lady who was training check us in and under any other circumstance I would have been delighted by her vanishing for ages to come back with balloons and stickers for the girls. It seemed to take ages for her to understand the charging privileges we wanted (one room with charging, for 2 adults, and one room without) and in total we took well over twenty minutes to check in. For those that are interested, there was no queue whatsoever at ASMo when we arrived. I was so keen to get to the room and sort out Amber that I didnt even care which section we were allocated (yes, I was that tired!) but we had rooms 4827 & 4828 in 101 Dalmations. More of the resort in a later report.
We sorted out the sick child (who is by now cracking jokes) and Jon & Derek sorted out the car. Bless them.
As we didnt want to take Amber out again we settled for pizza in the room which goes properly against my WDW dining principles, but any port in a storm
Well, Im sorry this day has proved so long. Believe me it took you less time to read it than it did me to live it though However, we are now here!!
The alarm was definitely not required this morning as we are all awake and raring to go before it rings. We have had a very peaceful night and not once have I heard a plane, despite our proximity to the runways. Having selected Express Check out, we make our way over to Gatwick Village at about 8.15; a strenuous 4 minute walk. Nobody was particularly keen on a large sit down breakfast so we settled on Starbucks where I have a lovely coffee (my last lovely coffee I suspect for several weeks) and a toasted cheese and Marmite panini. You will be cringing or nodding in agreement at this point I am certain. Julie & Derek are rather shocked by Starbucks prices and decide that it must be because its in the terminal; I dont disillusion them, but its probably worth noting that the last time they had a coffee and snack out was sometime in the late seventies. The girls are bouncing around all over the place and I let them do this (better now than on the plane) in a quiet corner.
Retail temptation surrounds me on all sides but I bravely ignore most of whats on offer in the knowledge that soon I will be in shopping mecca. We decide to go through passport control and make our way to the departure area including the very sizeable Duty Free shop for which I have a £5 off voucher (when you spend £35 or more). Reader, it would have been financially foolish to not spend that £35, and I bought some Angel, my favourite perfume.
Soon our flight gate appears and we head off there. After many corridors, stairwells, aircraft hangars and a short bus ride we finally reached the gate. Bring back the monorail please!
The usual organised (?) chaos greeted us at the gate but we could see our plane, Pretty Woman outside on the tarmac. Who thinks up thsese names? The plane clearly looks like an Edna to me.
At this point breathing became somewhat difficult for me. I dont fly very well (never got the hang of the wings) and I find the boarding and take off quite difficult. Dont even mention the landing which is the worst part!. I looked around desperately for a bar to steady my nerves with a shot (or four) of Jack Daniels. I made do with biting my nails and breathing deeply. Its difficult as the last thing I want to do is for the girls to pick up on this (irrational!) fear so I have to give a semblance of normality. No rude jokes, thank you.
At long last we board and there is then a big delay as they put out a call for a particular customer to make himself known to the cabin crew. Whether he ever does, and whether he was the reason we left Gatwick 45 minutes late, I couldnt tell you but at long last we are on our way!
I would love to say that the next 9 hours passed in a flash but I would be lieing! Normally the journey out passes relatively quickly but for some reason this one dragged like never before. There were some good films on offer; Amber gave SharksTale a thumbs up (she watched it twice more to quality check it) and Jon enjoyed The Village. Erin spent a great deal of the journey in stitches at
The food was good(ish) by airline standards, and the cabin crew excellent, Kids Virgin bags were pretty much the same as last time but I never criticize a freebie
Erin fell asleep for a good 90 minutes but Amber refused. It was good to pass the time with Allie every so often who was by complete coincidence seated only a few rows in front of us. Jess gave the girls a lovely Disney pen each which they were thrilled with. We landed at Orlando International Airport at about 4.00pm, only twenty minutes behind schedule. We pretty much sailed through immigration, having grimaced for the camera and had our fingerprints taken (how exciting!). I always get very paranoid at Immigration and think they are trying to trick me with their questions when actually all they are probably doing is making conversation. Bags collected for the first time, Jon, the girls and I went through customs with no trouble but Julie and Derek were pulled over to be searched (not a full body affair, thank goodness!) but this hardly delayed us at all. Bags dispatched a second time, off we went to the main terminal via the monorail.
I wanted to go and sort out the car and then collect the bags but this idea threw Julie & Derek into a panic, so we agreed to wait for the bags first. After all, we had over three weeks.
So we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally, the bags were all collected (I think this took a good twenty minutes to half an hour but I wasnt timing it!) and we headed off to the Dollar rental desk.
Now, do you remember back in Day One (you deserve a medal if you remember the last paragraph, never mind a different day) my list checking we had everything? We were interrupted at a crucial moment and the booster seat for Erin never did make it into the car. So this left us with a quandry; we would have to hire one or at least hire one for a few days and then buy one (cheaper in the long run). The Dollar queue moved quickly (after wed fought off the five advances by Virgin staff to get us to go to the Virgin queue for the car as they could see our labels said Virgin. We politely explained five times that we had arranged our own car hire. They never did ask me why but I would have been glad to explain that it saved us £450) and we were soon being served by Aaron who checked all our paperwork and announced that a booster seat for the hire duration would cost $130, but that he could upgrade us to a "bigger" car with a built in booster for only $80. Well of course we took him up on the latter and it was only when he said he could not take my credit card for this particular transaction, only cash, that I began to smell a
I think it was about ten past five by now, not bad going and still light outside, not to mention very balmy and pleasant. We then stood in a queue to pick up the car for twenty minutes; having got the keys we raced (in a very tired way) to the 7 seater to be on our way. Yes, I did say 7 seater. The more sharp eyed among you will have noticed there that we were done and Im still cross about that now. However this was the least of our worries for the time being as we could not find the booster / car seat in the car. No way, no how. Jon trailed back to the desk (had another ten minute wait first) and was told the seat was integral to the car. He came back to look again, and we still could not see it for looking. Very tired by now and getting rather irritable Jon went back again until a Dollar employee came to show us. It was very obvious when you knew it was there, really! However I must say we werent overwhelmed with Dollars customer service skills, irrespective of Aarons $80 upgrade to the car we had all along.
At long last we drive off, about six by this time. We make good time for the first two minutes and then from the back of the car there is that horrible noise that every parent dreads. The sound of vomiting. Amber has been sick everywhere in the lovely, just-valeted Grand Caravan. I feel much better now, Mummy she pipes up. I am thrilled for you, Amber. We decide to press on as even if we stop we have nothing to carry out a clean up exercise with and we probably need water (and lots of it!)
All goes well until we get to the exit by the Gaylord Palms hotel so nearly at WDW. We had carefully pre-selected our dollar bills for the tolls from the airport to WDW along the Central Florida Greeneway but had followed Dollars directions (different to my pre-planned ones) and not realised that there would be a 50c charge to leave the road. Now, this was a problem. Between the 4 adults we managed to scare up 37c and chuck that into the automated thingy. With 13c still to find and no more American coinage of any description we tried chucking some UK tender in (in case this fooled the machine if it was the same weight
) It may not surprise you that it did not! We tried a dollar bill (knowing this would not work either, but not wanting to rob the Orlando Road Consortium of a valuable 13c. We couldnt reverse back up a one way street so we had no option but to go on. Imagine my surprise when a bell started to ring and a flashlight went off! Julie and Derek were fairly hysterical by this point, with visions of the Florida Highway Patrol hauling us over and carting us off to jail but I figured the worst that could happen was a fine (have heard nothing yet!). Moments later we arrive at All Star Movies.
Now this was not quite the magical and exuberant entrance to the world of onsite accommodation I had envisaged. We were exhausted, slightly stressed by the Dollar experience and the toll booth and had a car full of sick. Julie and I went off to check in, leaving Amber in the car with the others for obvious reasons (she was fast asleep by this point but I would not have wanted her seen out in public!).
We had an absolutely super lady who was training check us in and under any other circumstance I would have been delighted by her vanishing for ages to come back with balloons and stickers for the girls. It seemed to take ages for her to understand the charging privileges we wanted (one room with charging, for 2 adults, and one room without) and in total we took well over twenty minutes to check in. For those that are interested, there was no queue whatsoever at ASMo when we arrived. I was so keen to get to the room and sort out Amber that I didnt even care which section we were allocated (yes, I was that tired!) but we had rooms 4827 & 4828 in 101 Dalmations. More of the resort in a later report.
We sorted out the sick child (who is by now cracking jokes) and Jon & Derek sorted out the car. Bless them.
As we didnt want to take Amber out again we settled for pizza in the room which goes properly against my WDW dining principles, but any port in a storm
Well, Im sorry this day has proved so long. Believe me it took you less time to read it than it did me to live it though
However, we are now here!!
Hope you took some piccies from ASMovies 
Hope things start to improve pretty soon!
