From Mickey Mouse to The Wildcats - Live Trip Report

[dixonsontour]

Seen the suite on matt's blog - looks great.

Have a lovely day.

 

[Wills Mom]

Excellent! After spending a few weeks living through the Disney blues after our May trip I bit the bullet and logged on today so I'm delighted to see a live trippie from you Wayne! Hope alls going well thus far, looking forward to your updates

 

[Chilly]

Hope you've had a fun day at MK.

 

[wilma-bride]

Just had a quick look at Matt's blog and am even more excited to stay at the Swan now

 

[joolz1910]

Just caught up. Can you provide a link to Matt's blog, Wayne?

 

[wilma-bride]

Just caught up. Can you provide a link to Matt's blog, Wayne?

Just google Matt Gillings blog

 

[joolz1910]

Just google Matt Gillings blog

Thanks

 

[Pootle]

I loved Matt's blog and am looking forward to following daily.

I did the Freedom Trail when I was in Boston. It's a nice city to 'walk' but I also enjoyed the city tour we coughed up for. It helped to familiarise us with the layout of the city before we homed in on parts that interested us. Especially good if your time in the city is limited.

Still, that's a long time off .... so much to do before then

 

[sjt22]

all caught up on matts blog.

The room looks amazing :good vibes:

 

[starrysky]

Just a quick update, will reply to posts later.

Long day yesterday, Aer Lingus no problems, very cold onboard at times but great friendly staff and good food for a change.

Collected car from Dollar using Express, name was on the board, 7 seater Dodge Caravan with only 8k on the clock. No hard sell again.

Suite at The Swan is excellent, better than we expected.

Shower and off to MK now, post later.

Haha DH and I have always said the food was pretty good and that was without paying for the fancier meal option.

Glad to hear you had a good flight

 

[Linda67]

Yay - another live TR !!

Really looking forward to reading along and I will be sure to check out Matt's blog

Have a wonderful trip

 

[wayneg]

How did you get on no issues with matts visa. I take it as you have not been online that it did

No problems, Just a quick look at it, stamped it and we were thru.

Really excited to be following your trip report this year as well as Matt's blog. Our son Adam is spending his second year of Uni at WCU in North Carolina and flys out on the 12th of August. Matt's blog has been a god-send with invaluable information all the way through the process from application through to attending his interview at the US Embassy. I wish him well in his "study abroad" year and I look forward to following him on his adventure.
Have a great holiday. I am just starting the planning for our next trip to Orlando to co-incide with Adam finishing his "study abroad" year in May next year. Reading your trip reports always gives me food for thought! Thanks for sharing.

Gill

We hope to visit Matt in Oct then plan a trip to Florida next May to end his study abroad. Glad his Blog is helping.

Just had a quick look at Matt's blog and am even more excited to stay at the Swan now

Lovely room, so much space(including 4 balconies), they left us 13 bottles of water this morning, starbucks coffee for the coffee maker, but I believe this suite should be over $500/nt so they need to provide something for your money. See a bit more below.

Back to arrival day, good experience with Aer Lingus, definitely an airline to consider. Dollar Express as good as ever, could have just driven off if I had been only driver but needed to add Paul to the policy, took about 3 mins and we were all set, no mention of any upgrade/add on, got reciept to say expected charges $0.
Swan, as said room is better than we expected but other things not as good like the size of the hotel, its a fair walk to get anywhere like the car park, pool etc. not used to such a huge hotel. Not a massive problem but after a hot day in the park I prefer to park near my room. Went to the pool this afternoon, busiest pool I have ever seen in Florida, it was packed.
MK this morning, used the bus which took about 11-12 mins, slightly longer coming back as we dropped at the Boardwalk first. Lunch at Columbia Harbor House was good as usual, I had tuna sandwich with lots of filling.
This evening we ate at Chilis, again really good, bill came to $108 incl 18% tip. They have changed the way the add the bill, includes 18% tip but gives a line to adjust up or down before paying. No hesitation leaving 18%, only $16 for 6 of us, we were pay over $30 on DDP last year. Another big difference offsite is cost of beer, we ordered beer tonight at $3.79/pt buy one get one free, so $1.90/pt
Epcot tomorrow, a few pics below(possibly similar to Matt's Blog, not had time to read what he has posted since we got here)

 

[Mummycat]

Following your trip and matts blog- and lovely to start the day, before my 12 hour shift, to a bit of Disney sparkle thanks for taking the time and it all looks great

 

[luke]

Have a great time Wayne

 

[dixonsontour]

Nice to see the food pics as usual

 

[Wills Mom]

Everything looks and sounds great! Nice deal on offsite beers

 

[Elise79]

We have just added Chillis to our list of restaurants to try - DH was sold on Matt's description of bottomless nachos!

Glad you are having a good time

 

[Linda67]

Never eaten at Chillis but it sounds great!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Great start, you're certainly staying in style this trip - the room looks lovely and nice to have the balconies

I suppose it's kind of sad knowing that Matt won't be coming back with you, but certainly exciting that he is studying in USA. Plenty of trips to look forward to

 

[wayneg]

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the CM at MK Guest services, one of the worst I have ever come across. We were renewing AP, not a "hello" or a "thank you" or anything from getting to the window to leaving all she said was "$1,650" I took the AP's and as I left said "thank you Happy" could not believe a CM served me without a smile or a word.

Just going out to Mimis Cafe now