From Hell to Heaven - then back home again....Updated with photos

[disneyohana]

Hey, Tessa. Everything sounds great to me. I agree w/more World Showcase but you are right about using one of the lazy days. We kind of laze around there stopping at the shops and getting desserts or drinks.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Just a little bump to be sure you don't get lost!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Bump! Bump!

 

[tttessa]

Hiya all -

how prophetic my pre trip title seemed to turn out........

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1724425

First comes the JOURNEY FROM HELL (cue spooky music...doodeedoodaaa etc) so, you may just want to skip a few pages to get to the magic.......



We start out pleasantly - taxi to coach station - arrives on time - big enough for us all and luggage, WE are on HOLIDAY!!!!!!!!

Coach leaves 10 min late - no problems on the trip, straight to airport.....

Walk through to the Hilton for our first night - check in using Tesco vouchers - NO problems wooohooooo......
Room is a vast, cavernous, luxurious piece of heaven REALLY NICE!!!!

At 5pm we go through to twilight check in - in line for 25 minutes, check in - told there are "no problems" (remember that phrase!!). Go back, eat off to bed and we all sleep well.

Wake up - down for breakfast OMG it's SNOWING
not a little bit, but a lot - buckets full are descending -whitening out our whole world.

This won't affect us - Will it...........

Kids have great fun playing....

Anyhow - through to airport for 10.45 as instructed - through security quickly into departures for 11am - only one hour to wait till boarding HA!!!!

It's busy - snow has cancelled little flights - ours isn't showing yet, so go to desk - DELAYED till 18.45 - they knew last night!!!!! Security should have told us - HA! We didn't need to have been in this hell hole till 5pm!!!!
Still, make the best of it, they give us meal vouchers, sit on floor and eat, play nintendo, read etc for 5 hours!! Then delay is extra hour - noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo - then CANCELLED aaarrrggghhhhhh!!

Go to desk, back through immigration, get baggage then to Virgin desk - they cancelled twilight check in to deal with us - sorry if it affected you....... Staying at the Hilton - yippeeeee - in BRIGHTON arrgghhh they bus us out - takes an hour - lovely 2 adjoining rooms for us and the kids - eat - they put on a lovely buffet at short notice - WELL DONE HILTON!! Set alarm for 6, back to airport, more queues, our plane is an extra one, so keep same seats!! 33/34 a+b nice seats.anyhow all went smooth, took off on time this time and everyone cheered!!! They gave us 25000 airmiles per adult and 15000 per child - enough for a Europe trip -is it enough to compensate for 1 less Disney day - I don't think so..........

Journey's end will follow.......

Tessa

 

[tttessa]

OK, now we are there -in the US!!!!!

Well, nearly, just immigration to go.... there are loos in the immigration hall -yippeeee - don't have to wait then we line up... the folks at the front of our line ask if it is ok to take in their fruit pack ( importing fruit/meat/dairy from UK is a NO- we were told on the plane...), but luckily immigration know we have been delayed 24 hours and are REALLY nice to us all, I missed an address on one form, and he let me write it there and than, not go to the back..... got photoed and fingerprinted , luggage - no wait at all, then hire car - directions for villa place were good. Got a villa on Silver Springs - really nice on the US27.

WOW what a house- booked 3 bed, got 4!! - 4 of us in a house for 10 - luxury!!
Front View:

The estate:

The pool (we paid for heating) is FANTASTIC, we back on to a wilderness -trees and scrub and see vultures, eagles, raccoons, squirrels, egrets, herons, frogs, lizards and even real WILD stick insects!!! All OUTSIDE thankfully - except for one frog in the pool we had to fish it out - to the kids amusement.

Rear view:

That's the accommodation dealt with...... next DAY1: Animal Kingdom..... I promise we will get to the parks on the next update....

Tessa

 

[tttessa]

OK - no pretence - we were not going to make rope drop!!

Breakfast at Denny's is start of the day -must do the US pancakes thing - yummmmmmm $27 for all 4 of us to have a good breakfast including fruit.

Then we head up the 192 towards the parks -take the Black Lake Road, Sherbeth road shortcut (thanks to TGMike)and arrive at AK about 10:30 - parked in Peacock4 - less than 5 min walk to gate - had to exchange our voucher, so daddy took them to see Baloo and Chip and Dale whilst I got the tickets for the week....

We all walked over to the Kilamanjaro Safari for Fast passes (not waiting 50 min) return time was 1 - 1.30, walked back to It's tough to be a bug checking out the passages round the base of the tree of life - NO-ONE else was there, so got to look at all the carvings - here's the girls favourite:

ITTBAB had 5 min wait, then in - I loved this one -a bit more intense than I remembered - kids liked the fluffy bits, but hated the mist and real dark bits. Then head for Kali - see what wait is - 10 min!! Have brought a change of clothes - DH and DD5 get SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO wet!!!- go get changed! Went round and saw heaps of animals and birds - great time to see them as it is hot, but not tooo hot....

Head back for safari, getting peckish - so buy some pastries from a little hatch - NO WAIT, NO LINE - delicious pastries!!!!A lovely older US couple give us their shady seat as they are leaving - a welcome pit stop.

FP queue for safari sooooo short - saw LOTS of animals - elephants Rhinos and cheetahs were the most memorable

- kids LOVEd this ride.Decided to head for Dinoland via some drumming practice which the girls loved having a go at:

Got last FPs for Dinosaur -and had a go on primeval whirl which had no wait - a bit jerky for me - DD7 loved it!! Then Dinosaur - mmmmm I loved it +DH DD5 hated it too dark+ noisyand movement a bit much. So took her for an ice and DD7 went on primeval whirl again with daddy.

A slow walk out then back to villa via walmart on the 27 - kids swim whilst I make spaghetti bolognaise (or some approximation with ground beef and a jar of goop) then potted choc mousse for pud - kids to bed, laundry,dishes and bed to watch the news and fall asleep.....

A great day!


Teaser for another day - DAY2 - Epcot - starting with princess breakfast......

Tessa

 

[holcomb-mania]

Sounds great so far!

I've been reading about crazy weather in the UK, warm then cold. Were you caught up in the T5 problems?

 

[CRdisMom]

love that you're doing this tessa. Can't wait to read more

 

[Debbie6221]

Great TR so far... well not so great for you but the worst of it was over and AK looked great!! You're a trooper!!!!!!!!

 

[DebIreland]

I love this so far. Well done.

OMG that delay on your departure day was awful. And they knew the night before??!! that sucks. But sounds like you got through it ok.

Looking forward to more.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Tessa! What a shame your flight was cancelled - crazy weather. Looks like you had a great first day! Your trip is off to a great start - did you have any jet lag at all? Your girls are really beautiful! I can't wait for more!

 

[Debbie6221]

BTW Cute kids there!

 

[tttessa]

OK - I booked the first ADR possible for the princess breakfast -
a) we are still on UK time - so it feels like lunchtime.....
b) we want to ride soarin on Fast pass - I hate lines.....

So, up and out by 7:40 got to epcot easily via the Sherbeth road (a really good shortcut for those staying near the west end of the 192 or on the 27)- arrived at 7:50 and had to line up at the parking entrance - we were first in our line - about 10 other cars there..... They let us in at 8am and we parked in Amaze 30 - really close to the entrance - an easy short walk. Went through "our" special ADR entrance - made the kids feel good that they knew we were special cos we were breakfasting with princesses.......

Took the usual pics....

an empty park really does make a nice backdrop..... then we walked through to Norway. To get in, you let the CM on the door know you are there and they call you with a flourish when your table is ready. We went in and had photos with Belle and were taken to our table.

Server gave us juice and coffee then visited buffet -pastries( inc cinnamon rolls), fruit, yoghurt, salami/cheese/smoked salmon - very nice and could go back as often as you wanted. Hot food was delivered on a family plate to the table - potatoes in a creamy onion sauce (we didn't like these - but some rave over them) scrambled egg, sausage links and crispy streaky bacon - could have it topped up when you wanted too.

The princesses came out about 8:50 - so the kids had some food in them by then!! First was Sleeping Beauty - in the same dress as my DD5 - said they could be sisters (ahhhh) Then Jasmine who was really nice and chatty - asked lots of open questions so the kids couldn't but help talking with her (VERY good CM with the kids!!) Snow white next - dressed same as DD7 but with white collar not blue - asked DD7 if she had raided her wardrobe -did some lovely in-character twirls and lalalalala s then got the girls to kiss her cheeks, then Mulan - girls love the film and said so - so she made a big fuss of them. Left at 9.30 to get FP for soarin (return time already 11.50!!). Overall cost $90 inc tip - pricey for the food, but great for the character interaction. So worth it?? - YES!

Left at 9.30 and went straight to Soarin for a fast pass - Already the lines were 70 min and return FP time 11.50!!

So will leave it there and you'll have to keep watching for the next installment...


Tessa

 

[Camster0307]

Hi Tessa!

Enjoying your report - love all the pix! Your girls are soooo cute!

Sounds like you didn't deal with alot of crowds so far; minimal waits for rides - that's great!

The house looks pretty also. I'm glad it all worked out for you guys!

 

[karajeboo]

Tessa - I'm lovin it! Your girls are so pretty! Looks like you had some "good" princesses, too! Yea!!!! Anxiously awaiting the rest.....

 

[tttessa]

Hiya,

well, now for the rest of Epcot - we got our soarin fast passes and walked on to the Living with the land boat ride - what a great ride - kids loved it especially seeing the Mickey head pumpkins growing.

Then outside - getting hot!! so in to the Seas - Nemo and friends first
- another lovely ride - I'm starting to love Epcot - the kids loved seeing the animated characters inside a real aquarium - and trying to work it out how they did it.... Then we looked round the exhibits and walked into Turtle talk with crush - we are really being spoiled with the low crowd levels - it's great!!
Turtle talk was hilarious, kids were fascinated when they realised crush was REALLY talking to them.. It was fantastic - unlike anything I'd ever seen.

Spaceship earth was next - again we all really enjoyed it - there was a 10min wait - the girls complained - CAN you imagine!!!!!

But then, it was really just a time filler before the main reason for coming to Epcot (for me anyhow) SOARIN got there and thought we would FP again before riding - NO chance - 8pm return time ALREADY!!! And standby was 80 min now....So very glad we got the early FPs - WOW WOW WOW -Really felt like we were flying REALLY REALLY REALLY good best ride ever! I liked it did you guess... kids did too
Glad we saved lunch till after though..... just a few snacks we bought at Walmart..... then went on Ellen's energy Adventure to slow things down a bit..... Was great seeing the look on the kids faces when the theatre went for a drive.....they squealed with disgusted delight when the dino sprayed "snot" on them. Was really good for an air conditioned rest in the hot part of the day.

We then headed to World showcase - DD7 wanted to do the Viking ride - wait was 30min, but FP return time was only 30 min too, so got FP and went to the 3 Caballeros ride in Mexico next door - walked on - really fun for the kids - like IASWA on speed- strange.......

Had 20 min till FP so the kids went to get a mask at the Kidcot stop and do some colouring - they were getting tired :

Went to the maelstrom viking ride - was nice but too short and followed by a wait to even get through the theatre - would have felt cheated if I had waited 30 min in line.....- had fun in the shop, got their tag and decided to go and have a swim

Swim, food, bed.........

Next we go to the "dark side" Universal IOA.......

Tessa

 

[soontobewed07]

Tessa- I just love all of the pictures the girls are too cute. Did you like the house you stayed in we were thinking about that one year.

 

[tttessa]

Jillian - thank you - I think they are cute too.....

Anyhow - yes absolutely LOVED the house , it was a little piece of heaven - with the heated pool, we wished we could have stayed longer. Only downside was travelling to the parks - particularly Universal and Seaworld - the Disney parks, we had a map of the back routes and could be there within 20 min even when the roads were busy, but Universal took about 45/50 min.

Would definitely do it that way again though - I loved having separate bedrooms from the children, somewhere to cook - even a couple of nights - and a fridge freezer for food and drink storage, and my own laundry - being able to put washing on in the day when we went out and dry it at night was great. The pool was great fun - swimming under a moonlit sky with no noise, just you and the stars - was just sooooo dreamy. And the garage had a basketball hoop inside, so the kids could play in air conditioned comfort too. Can definitely recommend a house.
We were right on the edge of a quiet estate - it had noise restrictions - no noise after 10pm, so was my kind of holiday place.

Tessa

 

[ArmyWife3-4]

I'm joining in! Great photos and your girls are darling! Looks like you had a blast after the crazy flight drama was over!

 

[KristinAnne]

I'm in! Glad the flight didn't seem to dampen your time at Disney! Looks like fun so far!!