Florida's horrider than Whitley Bay - Updated 1/3

[pandv_2000]

This is my first TR for the DisBoards and a little late started as I got back in august but let's see how it goes.

Firstly I'd better explain the title for our US friends and those who are too young to remember. About 20 years ago there was an ad on the TV for a British beer which sang the following to the tune of "Nice legs, shame about the face" (Geordie accent mandatory).

"Florida's 'orrider than Whitley Bay,
There's no McKewan's export in the USA
The States, nice place, shame aboot the beer"

The horrid part refers to Fay of course.

Anyway on with the TR

The Cast

Me: Vicky, 29 - turned 30 in Disney - what a good way to celebrate
DH: Paul, 31
DS: Dylan, 5

We got up super early on 16th August to make our way to Newcastle airport for our flight to Sanford at 8:30 am. We flew with Monarch last year (as they were the only airline direct out of Newcastle at the time) and didn't have any problems so we went with them again.

We arrived nice and early and went to check in. When we got to the check in desk we went through the usual and then we were handed a letter by the clerk behind the desk with a friendly smile to say there had been technical problems with our plane and it hadn't been able to fly to Cancun the day before so they had brought in a new plane for us but there would be an hour delay (the Cancun people were still delayed and my Mum told me today she checked on the Monday and it was delayed indefinitely!). Ok an hours delay that's not too bad but they're giving us £4 worth of food vouchers each - hang on a minute while I read this letter.......

Most people weren't reading the note before they left check in but I noticed that the new plane was taking us to Gatwick to change crew and refuel before taking us to Gander (When I asked the check in people where Gander was they had no idea!) and then on to Sanford. So what time were we likely to land in Florida? We're told 6pm. It was meant to be 12:30 but I can cope with 6pm.

We get through to the departure lounge and it soon becomes apparent that it's going to be a longer delay than 1 hour but they herd us down to the departure gate and make us sit there for 1.5 hours with nothing to do but twiddle our thumbs. We finally board and it was so hot on that plane. We got an announcement to say the air con was broken as the plane could not start itself and required a ground unit to start it - uh oh I'm not liking the sound of this. We were told we would have air con once we were up in the air which we did!

Finally after 3.5 hours delay we're ready to leave but then we get an announcement to say that the ground unit has failed so we're waiting for another to get the engine back up and running. About 10 minutes later and we're finally in the air and on our way to Gatwick.

Once we got to Gatwick they wouldn't let us off the plane and we were sat on a cramped plane that wasn't meant to fly long haul (not much leg room on here) with broken air con in the blistering heat for 2 hours. We eventually got an announcement from the captain that we were off to Gander. It felt good to know we would be off English soil.

Gander, as I found out, is a small military airport in Newfoundland. It has 1 small shop which they opened for us and we were allowed off the plane here We got to stretch our legs for 1/2 an hour, use the toilets and buy a couple of drinks (everyone felt the need to buy drinks there - I heard someone mutter it says something about the in flight service).

We got back on the plane and sat there for ages again and we got an announcement to say that there were only 2 ground staff on duty who were re-fuelling, re-catering and providing us with that all important ground unit. When the flight took off there was a huge cheer as we were on the final leg of our journey.

We finally landed in Sanford, got through immigration and baggage claim and went to collect our rental car. By this time it was around 10:45. We used Thrifty this time. We didn't get a choice of car but the car we had was nice (Dodge Charger) and we went to collect it from the Dollar station.

DH kindly drove and we set off towards the AKL. We checked in ok and were given our room number - 2385. We went along to where the CM said it was but we couldn't find 2385 anywhere. I went back to the desk and the CM apologised - he'd made a mistake - it should have been 2365 - I would have thought I was just tired and crazy if I didn't have the piece of paper he'd given me with 2385 on it. Anyway I went back to DH and DS and we found our room. I was told by the CM we had a savannah view (we had booked standard) but it was now 11:45pm and we decided to check it out tomorrow. I set a wake up call for 7am and we went straight to bed, happy to be here.

 

[pandv_2000]

Our alarm call went at 7am and I we didn't need coaxing out of bed. We aren't usually morning people but had decided we were going to make the most of mornings this year before the parks fill up.

We went out to have a look at our Savannah view and were pleased with what we saw. You could see some construction in the background where nothing was going on because it was Sunday but it was fairly quiet for our entire stay.

We saw these guys wandering around outside

I was disappointed that we had missed our Jiko reservation the night before so I rang Disney Dining and shuffled some reservations around. I managed to get Jiko for this evening and moved the Biergarten to Friday when we had nothing planned.

DS's current obsession is Indiana Jones so we decided to go to DHS to watch the stunt show. We got to the park around 9:15 and went straight to go on Tower of Terror. I was too chicken to go on this last year as I am claustrophobic but I was determined this year. I managed to control my claustrophobia on other rides so why not this one? The line was short but DS soon decided he didn't want to ride so we left the queue. He enjoyed Star Tours last year so we rode that instead.

DS decided he would try ToT so we went back to collect fastpasses and then met some characters around the sorcerer's hat. By this time it was about time for the Indy show to start so we took our seats near the front. DS loved the show and the special "extra" was really funny this time. After Indy we went back to ToT but the small dark room you go in before riding scared DS so DS and I took the chicken exit whilst DH rode.

We were starting to get hungry by now so we decided to head out of the park for lunch. We went across to DTD to try Earl of Sandwich as we didn't try it last year and had read some good reports. DH had the Hawaiian sandwich, I had the jerk chicken and DS had the pizza sandwich. The sandwiches were very good. We decided to go for a wander around the shops. DS tried on this hat

After shopping we headed back to the hotel and cooled off in the pool before dinner at Jiko. DS decided he wanted to be Indy at dinner

He was asked to remove his hat as gentlemen cannot wear hats in Jiko!!

Jiko was excellent. DH had the ostrich to start (which I tasted and wished I'd got) and I got the samosas. For the main course DH had the ribs which were good and I had the scallops (which I really enjoyed but couldn't finish as I was still stuffed from my sandwich). DS had the mac n cheese which he had one mouthful of before promptly falling asleep at the table. We passed on desert due to DS being asleep, paid and headed back to the room. 9/10 for Jiko - service was good, food was good, shame I had to pass on desert - yum!

 

[bound2travel]

Your airplane story had me rolling. I can't imagine having to wait for the ground crew to start the plane! What a journey just to get over here. Can't wait to read more about your trip.

 

[pandv_2000]

Thank you - I can laugh about it now but it was not so funny at the time.

Hoping to get an update done later today.

 

[pandv_2000]

We didn't take advantage of any EMH last year and we intended to make full use of morning EMH and enjoy the relatively empty parks. The alarm woke us at 6:30 this morning and we had some cereal before heading to the AK. We arrived at around 8:20 and there were very few cars in the parking lot. When we entered we headed straight for EE to see if DS was tall enough to ride. The CM said that he was and we went through the queue. DS did not enjoy this ride at all. He was much more adventurous last year but had discovered fear since then. DH and I enjoyed it.

We headed across to the safari which was very good with it being so early on. The lion was even up and about and wandering around. After KS we saw the first showing of FoTLK which was really quiet but good fun. We were in the giraffe section.

The characters were just coming out at Camp Minnie Mickey after FoTLK finished so we hung around and met all 4 characters as well as Coda from Brother Bear who was dancing around outside.

As we were heading out of the park we decided to see if we could get a table at RFC for lunch. We were seated pretty quickly and we really enjoyed this atmosphere in here. We intended to go back for dinner one day but never made it.

Back at the AKL we checked the news for updates on Fay. We were meant to be going to the HRH the next day for our 2 days at US/IOA but we decided to pass as we were going to be rained out for a couple of days. I called and cancelled our room reservation so we didn't have to worry about leaving anywhere if the storm was bad. We were supposed to be dining at Tchoup Chop the following evening too so I called Disney Dining to see what was available close by. I managed to get a Jiko reservation for the Wednesday evening but nothing for the Tuesday - well there's always the Mara if we're tied to AKL.

We had a swim in the pool at AKL then went to get showered etc for dinner at Le Cellier. We were a bit early for our reservation so we rode SE which we really enjoyed and then wandered around WS for a while. We were still about 20mins early but decided to check in anyway. Le Cellier was extremely busy that evening and they were way behind with the reservations. Our ADR was for 7:40 and it was after 8:15 when we were seated. All credit to our server - the restaurant was extremely busy but we never felt rushed at all. DH had the mussels to start and I had the onion soup which was tasty and we both had the mushroom filet mignon. DS had the cheese soup which he didn't like but I had a taste and thought it was quite nice. I don't remember what he has as his main course.

It was nearly 10pm by the time we left Le Cellier so we had missed Illuminations. The good thing was the bus back to AKL was virtually empty and DS fell asleep on the bus.

We decided to have a lie in the next morning after 2 early mornings and with Fay coming we didn't think it would be worth going to a park. That was a bit of a mistake as we could have done a lot before the rain hit around lunch time (which was just as we decided to leave the hotel). DH's glasses had snapped (he only got them in March). They were half rim ones and the wire holding the lenses in place snapped. They are insured at home but DH couldn't last nearly 2 weeks without them so we went on a mission to find some glasses. A CM suggested we try Walgreens - they didn't do prescription glasses but suggested we try Walmart. The Walmart we tried didn't have an express service so he gave us directions to another Walmart - what a carry on lol! Anyway finally he managed to get some glasses in the second Walmart. They just used the prescription from his broken glasses and they put lenses into frames in 15 minutes. The cost of prescription lenses in the US is, as with most things, much cheaper than at home.

We decided to have a shopping day and went to the Premium Outlets. We stopped at Carraba's on the way back to the AKL for our dinner. A fairly quiet day apart from the glasses trek but it was needed after two very busy days.

 

[Beep]

Hiya,

Great TR so far. We had similar problems from Gatwick to Goa one year and ended up delayed overnight with a stop at the Hilton. It is worrying when they mention about the ground crew not being able to start the plane. Our captain told us we had a flat battery and had to be jump-started. Not sure why but this sounds really really bad when it is on a plane!

Keep us updated with the rest of the report

 

[iluvpluto27]

Hi, your trip report title caught my eye as I live in Whitley Bay!

Sorry about your delayed flight, exactly the same thing happened to a friend of mine last year when she flew with Monarch from Newcastle (including the Gander stop and everything!). Enjoying your trip report so far.

 

[bound2travel]

It's always nice when you can build in a quiet day while visiting the parks. Some friends and I did that years ago and it really helped up recoup energy to complete the week.