Hi everyone and thanks for your welcome home wishes, they cheered me up! Well, here goes:
Fri 4 April drove from Devon to Gatwick, stayed the night there.
Sat 5 , flight with Virgin PE. Worth every penny, so much easier all round. DS 4 fell asleep in the hire car on way to Contemporary resort, so when he woke next morning the first thing he saw was the Cinderella Castle changing colour from our tower window - priceless!!
Sun 6 In to magic Kingdom for 8 am, not a problem as we'd been up since 4am! As the food and fun center is open 24 hrs we were able to get coffee, danish etc. My DD 9 found that really exciting.
Quick swim lunchtime, then we met our Californian friends in Epcot for the afternoon.
Mon 7 Typhoon Lagoon am, Pointe Orlando afternoon,
Tue 8 Animal Kingdom with friends. They did not want to take advantage of Early Opening so all my plans went to waste!Dinner in Mexico, Epcot. I had PS for this. Really nice. We stayed on for fireworks and it was incredibly hot and humid.
Wed 9 MGM Studios. Swimming pm. Lauau at Polynesian evening. We all enjoyed this. Watched fireworks from our balcony with friends.
Thu 10. Decided we needed a break from friends so we could do things at our own pace. Magic Kingdom for couple of hours (8 am), then
Walmart and Florida Mall (YES!)
Fri 11Took the boat over to Wilderness Lodge, I love seeing other resorts, It was really cold though. Then on to Animal Kingdom to see the Lion King show as we missed it last visit, then lunch in the Rainforest Cafe. We loved this and the food was good. We popped in to Downtown Disney for an icecream at Girdellies (you know what I mean!)
Sat 12. My 40th Birthday!! PS for chef mickeys with friends. Felt the characters did not interact with us very much, have been to better character meals where the characters really played with the kids. I did get a little cake, which was nice though! Played golf at Winter Summerland. Swam in afternoon. Went into MK to see parade and fireworks. My DD really wanted to see Tinkerbell fly down from the castle so we had to move our spot specially. I thought this was so sweet as next time(whenever that is) she will probably be too grown up to really enjoy it. I also picked up a 'Birthday Badge' from the Town Hall to wear (you're only 40 once!) I read about this and many other great tips on this board, thanks PW. Said goodbye to our friends.
Sun 13. Another early forray into MK. Reluctantly left Contemporary, we love this hotel, it is so convienient. Drove to Naples. It's a long way 230 mls, took us around 5 hrs. Staying in Best Western Inn and Suites. A bit of a come down after Disney, but nice enough and the pools were lovely.
Mon 14 - Fri 18. Various trips to public park beaches, very expensive shopping areas and a small mall,not as nice as Florida Mall.
Fri 18 drove back up to Orlando, another long drive during which the kids drove us mad!! Checked into Royal Pacific Resort. Checked kids into Kids club and wound down with an excellent meal and a couple of coctails at Tchoup chop. They fitted us in without a reservation so we were really lucky.
Sat 19. Into Islands of Adventure. Used the hotel room cards as express entry to all rides - the best idea since sliced bread. we wizzed round all the rides without a wait then went back to the fantastic hotel pool for the afternoon. Then into florida Mall again, with the rest of Florida!
Sun 20 - Easter Sunday. The hotel laid on an Easter Egg Hunt round the pool which was fun, then we went into Universal Studios. We kept missing the boat and ended up walking most of the time. Swimming in afternoon then dinner in the Islands Diningroom. As it was Easter they laid on a buffet. We did not realise this when we were seated, but actually the kids really enjoyed the smoked salmon and huge prawns etc! We also had a visit from the Easter Bunny!
Mon 21. Islands of Adventure again then long swim. Kid in children's club for evening (they really enjoyed it last time) and we dashed into Universal Studios to do all the big rides together that we had done with baby swap last time. It was nice to see it with all the lights coming on.
Tue 22. Last quick trip into IOA to do Jimmy Neutron, I love that ride! Then on to the airport. Had lunch in Hyatt grill as recomended in Brits Guide, excellent lunch, but took a while so we were not able to spend our last dollars in the shops due to the HUGE ques to get through security. I was searched this time, due to a metal lipstick!!
Wed 23 arrived Gatwick. Had pre arranged an early checkin at Holiday Inn and we all crashed into bed for a bit.
Phew, sorry it's so long!! Anyway, we all had a really excellent time, did something for everyone and loads of swimming in the sun!
!! Sounds fantastic!!!
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