disney fun+ road trip - mini trip report

[bex7583]

hi everybody
first of all thank you to everybody who helped me with endless questions and all advice given before we set off on our once in a lifetime 3 week trip

well the day before departure we still hadn't agreed on where or what we were doing in our 3rd week so we just decided to roll with it once we arrived !

day 1
we got up early , well extra early as we wanted to go to the premier inn next to our house for all you can eat brekkie and kids eat free rather than eat at the airport we needed to be fed and watered and on the road by 7.30 am , luckily the kids didn't mess about and we were out and moving early

no traffic so arrived at airport early and dropped the car off at terminal 3 meet and greet still ahead of time totally not like us

went to klm check in desk ( who we booked with) wrong desk our flight was been operated by delta even though it had a klm flight code !! we were in the wrong terminal ! so we went back to get the car which took a while as other cars were now in the rows behind us , put all 3 kids back in the car seats and all the luggage back in got off the roundabout at the wrong exit and did more than 1 lap round trying to find the entrance to terminal 2 meet and greet . we were really thankful that we had got there so early now

park, unload childs, unload bags again and head to check in. there was no line at the check in desk so we went straight to the front only to be stopped by a man from US immigration who said he wanted to speak to us aside the the family behind couldn't hear us ( a few of you may remember we had decided to travel with only a esta despite dh having minor convictions as a teenager plus drink driving offences) lets just say i was nervous !anyway he wanted to check our estas so went to a computer and returned what felt like hours later with 5 passports with stickers on the back and said we were all good to go !! major sigh of relief we checked our 2 bags in and did the only thing to do at 9.30 am in a airport .. Hit the bar . dh took the sons to the toilet and came back mortified as he went in the ladies and hadn't realised until the kids told him .

The flight went really well, it did feel like it took forever but i think it was just because we were all so excited. all 3 kids were wonderful best behaviour ever thanks to having a television 8 inch from there face the whole way everything was going on time so i was feeling confident about our 1st every indirect flying experience.

 

[queendisney]

well that was an eventful start for you but at least you got there in the end

A premier Inn next to your house...that's way too convenient for breakfast! I'd be nipping in there all the time.

Have a great time

 

[wilma-bride]

Bex, for somebody who did so much planning, you didn't half cut it fine with your final week

Sounds like you were off to a great start

P.S. I moved this over to the Trip Reports board. While it is (kind of) accepted to have live reports on the UKTP board, we prefer to keep the post-holiday reports to the Trip Reports board.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

What a start, a bit hair raising but you seemed quite calm about it all

Looking forward to your next update.

 

[bex7583]

Our flight landed on time in Atlanta and everything went soo smoothly , before we left i had been worried that the 1 hr 50 min connecting time was too short and had visions/ nightmares of us all running dragging 3 small kids through the airport.

we had only checked 2 suitcases in and didn't have a long wait at baggage , the immigration line was max 30 min again i got a bit sweaty about the whole esta/ visa thing with dh and after they did his fingerprint they did seem to read the screen for ages but we all got in , passports stamped phew.

we decided to just make our way to our next departure gate but got distracted and popped in to tgi friday's for a quick cocktail. now i love the tgi cocktail menu here and had been looking forward to it been bigger and better but was disappointed i chose a fruity something bahama mama i think it was and dh had a strong jack daniels based drink. mine was nice and i probably would have enjoyed it more if i hadn't been sulking about no rasperetto ( my tgi fave here). the kids all had a slush drink and the bill was about $30 we remembered to leave a tip and i left wondering why i didn't get asked for a I.D when i struggle to even buy cigarettes here???

I had hoped i could keep everybody awake on this flight but the boys crashed out the moment we boarded it was about 7.15pm local time. Lucy (4) was still full of beans and sat with her face glued to the window looking for fireworks and princess school ( aka cinderellas castle) .

our flight experience went really well it was very simple and straight forward i didn't feel confused or flustered at any point when making the connection moving terminals or worried about been in the right place at the right time.

yey we have made it we are in Orlando the warmth is seeing in to my bones already i was one happy mama. the children were seriously shattered by now though and it may have just been us but that sure did feel like a long walk to magic express plus we were also sat onboard a good hour before it set off . my excitement wasn't enough to keep everybody awake and they all slept through the ride to port orleans riverside.

we were the 3rd stop and i nearly cried with relief when i saw there was no wait to check in , i just wanted my bed by now . we were given our map and room keys then swiftly got lost in the hotel grounds. some other guests stumbled upon us and walked us to our room block 24 room 25, they even helped carry our bags so myself and dp could carry the kids

I summoned up a last burst of energy unpacked and did a little happy dance before falling in to bed .... we are here at last

 

[wilma-bride]

Wow, sounds like a long journey Bex. At least you are there now. I know what you mean about that long walk through the airport - you just want to get there and it seems such a long way. I used to hate that wait on the shuttle when you just wanted to get going and get to your resort. I'm glad you didn't have to encounter a big line at check-in. I'll bet you all slept well that night - until the early hours of the morning (I'm usually awake every hour from about 2am on that first morning).

 

[bex7583]

** i have just found some notes i made during the first few days of the holiday so will make the following correction and then finish day 2 report using these notes **

our flight out of atlanta was actually delayed by 15 mins
last night it was 11.20pm when i got in bed

ok so our first proper day here and i wake up at 4am i laid in bad and shuffled until i woke dh up so i had somebody to talk to , so i talked at him for a hour and then decided to get up .... erm why am i still in last nights clothes i must have been way more tired than i thought last night.

By 6am dh and arron (5) are both showered and dressed so they went out to fill the refillable mugs , yes we must have also found time to pick those up last night too.

although our room block was along way to the food court etc we were close to the west bus stop. we were heading to magic kingdom for a breakfast reservation at crystal palace at 8am.

We slowly walked through a quiet magic kingdom getting loads of photos of the castle. Lucy saw some characters through the window and was so excited her face must have been aching she had such a huge smile. we all ate mickey waffles and she hugged piglet so tight i thought she was never going to let go. we did a toilet break before we left the crystal palace ( little did i know this was to be the 1st of many many toilet breaks 3 kids and unlimited drinks/ constant refils at meals )Lucy had a cheeky pull on Tiggers tail as we left crystal palace we left $16 tip .

After we had eaten i wanted to get our photopass+ so we set off back down main street and picked that up at the theater we also got 2 photo album autograph books for $20 plus tax with pens included bargain , dh had run out of cigarettes too so he wanted to grab some . After asking a cm who said try the store by the red indian we walked around tried a few shops asked another cm who said nowhere in the parks sell them go the petrol station ! . Dh wasn't happy and i didn't fancy spending the day with him moping about and as a ex smoker/social smoker i have still always been able to easily do without so i didn't really get his issue. We were in magic kingdom this smoking was bottom of my to do list . I got fed up of looking at his sulky face so went to find the smoking area to steal a cig of somebody to get him through the day.

With dh meltdown averted it was time to have some fun . we had some photopass pictures done in front of the castle then some more with Walts statue.

we then had a good few hours we rode the carousel , its a small world , haunted mansion, river boat ( this was possibly the day we lost both SONS when exiting the riverboat but its not in my notes ?? ) and splash mountain.

All the small people were too hot and tired so we went back for a swim. we filled the mugs up and got a couple of pizza meals in the food court using 2 counter credits and then bought some beers and smirnoff ice to make turbo shandys and dh stocked up on cigs in the hotel shop.
$13.85 for the beer and smirnoff
$34.99 for 40 cigs

swimming was fun and i was impressed by the kiddies life jackets by the pool as non of them can swim and i didn't pack any of ours as they are so bulky .