Gems Pre Trippie for Jan 2010! ***Updated page 5***

[Alice28]

I am going to have to consider Universal for either Thursday or Friday for a few hours anyway. We'll see how it all plays out. Our Blizzard Beach day really depends on the weather. I don't want to go there if it's chilly. So we could do SeaWorld for about $80 (I just have to get a ticket for Molly & then parking).....or I guess I could shell out more $$ and get tickets for just the boys to go to Universal. They do have some sort of military deal, but I think it's a 5 day ticket - I just want a freebie one day ticket, or half price. I can dream!

 

[T16GEM]

Thursday 7th January

Sea World

Today we will be visiting Sea World, Harley's favourite are the Dolphins, so we will be taking a lot of time to watch the dolphins and the Blue Horizons show. This is also Lou's favourite park.

I am hoping that the Wild Arctic will be re done as The Polar Express again this year, last year they extended it until around the 10th January if I remember correctly and the kids loved it, but we had to do the walk through attraction as they were too small.
Here they are enjoying the ice wall just about to meet Santa Claus!

I don't think that you can get over to the Shamu Stadium before 10 am, if we can get on Manta we will try that first or if not we will probably amble around the waterfront and have a look at the mermaids for a while before going over to catch the first showing of Believe.

Shamu's Happy Harbour is fab too, the rides are great for the kids and adults alike, DH nearly got stuck in one of the net ladders here last year following Shelby, there is also a fantastic water floor here which Shelby adored.

The kids loved the Elmo show last year too, that will be on the list next to the Pets Ahoy show. We have always found Sea World to be very kid friendly, so plan on spending a lot of time here.

Take a slow walk through Shark Encounter ( which I still always want to call Terrors of the Deep!) and Penguin Encounter, end up by Kraken and Atlantis - don ponchos for my fave water flume ride (Splash Mountain is always in rehab at this time of the year so we never get to go on it)

I'm hoping that the kids will take a nap around now and then we can get another go on the coasters.

Amble through the Manatee section, hopefully see them eating their lettuce! Take Harley to see his favorites - the Dolphins at Dolphin Cove.

Maybe get a cupcake at the bakery - yum!!

 

[T16GEM]

Friday 8th January

Today I think we will take a trip to Epcot, now those of you who have been reading along will recall that my DH isn't really a fan of Epcot and dared to call it boring but I on the other hand really enjoy it and so I plan on us having at least 2 days here this trip! So there!

I guess we will start off with our usual trip through Spaceship Earth and then go over to the Seas with Nemo, as we all really like this one, the Turtle Talk is fantastic and last year DD was chosen to talk to Crush! it was

You will also recall that DD has a burning need to go on "Sawin" as she calls it, I am praying that she is big enough for it by then! She is doing pretty well though and is just shy of 40inches with her crocs on at the moment. However she is just over in her new school shoes - so they may be coming with us just for her to go on Soarin in!
While we are around this area I will drag everyone on Living with the Land, I know a few people who refer to this as "the lame" instead of the land - but I LOVE it!!

I expect that DH and I will do the single riders line at Test Track and he will go on Mission Space with Terry - I'm not a big fan of that one but will do it under duress!

Today I think we will take it easy and let the kids play at the water floor, I'd like to try and see Kim Possible as that's new since we last visited. Maybe when the kids fall asleep in their pushchairs we will take them around the World showcase, they enjoyed the mask making in Norway last year, even though Harley's stick on his mask lasted about 10 seconds and he was covered in Sharpie pen from colouring with the CM!

Maybe we will catch Reflections of Earth tonight too depending on how tired the kids are.

 

[T16GEM]

Saturday 9th January

Today will be a Sea World day again, so much the same as the day before yesterday. Lot's of Dolphin watching etc etc.

I am thinking about surprising everyone with a Dine With Shamu dinner, but this will depend on how the kids are with the Killer Whales this year, as last trip they had no interest in them at all. We'll see!

I'd like to do some shopping here today as well, I love the shop by the Wild Arctic and the one by the penguins so I will head for these at some point.

 

[T16GEM]

Sunday 10th January

Today is Animal Kingdom, as you know I am not really a huge fan of this place but DH thinks that the kids will love it - which I am sure they will but hey......

I have planned on AK today as I am thinking it will be a nice early finish as I think the park usually closes at around 5pm in January.

As soon as we get here I plan on going over to EE for fast passes, and then seeing It's Tough to be a Bug, the kids were ok with this last year, but needed a bit of encouragement! I think I will get them watching the DVD a few times before we go!

I'm sure we will spend a lot of time around the Dinoland USA part as the kids loved it here, there were also opportunitites to do character greeting too. Even though Shelby will be tall enough for Dinosaur I doubt that we will take her on that - waaaayyyyyy too intense I think! I always find it odd that such a jerky ride as Dinosaur has a low height restriction but others that I would consider to be pretty sedate have higher ones.

We don't tend to do any of the pay and play games here and prefer to watch other people trying to hook the bottle etc .

The kids enjoyed the musical of Nemo last time, apart from when DS fell off the chair backwards! So i guess we will do this again.

I'm hoping that we can catch the parade and then have a wander round the jungle trails, DD will also be big enough for Kali so we will be donning our ponchos for this one!! one of us will have to wait with Shorty Harley though as he is still too ickle!

Nice early night out of the park tonight as tomorrow is a long day as we are travelling to Tampa for our first day at Busch Gardens MY FAVORITE PARK!!!!

 

[T16GEM]

10th September 09
Harley appears to have had a growth spurt and has shot up to 36"!!!!

Shelby is just over 40" now to "Sawin" here we come!

 

[mandymouse]

Your plans and villa look great Gems, I hope you all have a fab time

 

[Pegasus928]

Someone looks excited to be going on the big kids rides.

Your plans look good and I am sure you will all have a fantastic time.

 

[T16GEM]

Bought our Sea World, Busch and Aquatica tickets yesterday!
£68 for unlimited entry to all three parks per person from ATD! What a bargain!

 

[Snowy-girls]

Bought our Sea World, Busch and Aquatica tickets yesterday!
£68 for unlimited entry to all three parks per person from ATD! What a bargain!

Great bargain .
Love the pics of the 'bigger' Harley+Shelby .x.

 

[T16GEM]

I can't believe that our flights have been changed, we booked with Netflights and now we have a 4 hour conection at Newark, 3 hours was ideal for us with the kids and now we are going to have another hour to kill unless we can get it changed.

DH is going to try and call them tomorrow and see what they can do, but their website says that they will charge for changes, but surely they can't charge us if they have made the ammendment???

I am a bit cross as there are many other flights on the day that are with a shorter connection.

AHHHHHHHH!

 

[Alice28]

crap- that totally sucks Gemma!!!!!

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

Grr how frustrating,Hope you can manage to sort something out.

 

[natalielongstaff]

Did you manage to get a better time hun ?

The kids are really shooting up

 

[wideeyes]

How rubbish about the flight times..

I know I have said it before but the kids are so cute.

 

[T16GEM]

crap- that totally sucks Gemma!!!!!

Grr how frustrating,Hope you can manage to sort something out.

Did you manage to get a better time hun ?

The kids are really shooting up

How rubbish about the flight times..

I know I have said it before but the kids are so cute.

Nope no luck, Matt rang Net Flights and they said that because we had bought our flights when the price was cheap they would charge us to "upgrade" to the flight that we were orginally on, basically they are selling tickets at a higher price so really (the way I see it) they can in effect keep moving us to later flights so that they can sell more tickets at the higher price.

They also told Matt that it was not possible to get through to a connection in 90 minutes, his reply was that we have manged it before and if that is the case why are they selling tickets with a 90 minute connection on their site if it's not possible!!??!!

Wide eyes - thank you for the compliment on the kids! I think they are pretty cute too!

 

[T16GEM]

We have paid our balance on the villa now too, it was due yesterday, we had send a cheque to the owner so I decided it would be best to email him and let him know that it may be delayed because of the postal strikes, he seemed fine with that and is going to let us know when it arrives!!!

Only 72 days to go now! I can't believe that it's getting close finally!

 

[Chilly]

Good news on getting the villa paid for but a bummer on the flights.

 

[florida sun]

Great pre trippie Gems, your kids are so cute

 

[T16GEM]

There have been a few developments since my last post........


I GOT MY ADR for Harley's birthday, we chose Chef Mickeys because CP is closed in January for a refurb. I know that everyone will love it here, I got 9.30 on the 16th Jan, which is his actual birthday. I was also pretty pleased with the time as it will give us some time to open pressies etc at the house before we leave.

We deffo cannot change out flights so it looks like we are stuck with a 4 hour connection, bit of a bummer, but I guess we will just have to make sure that we take some xtra bits and bobs for the kids to play with / entertain them while we wait. Immigration took 2 hours last time so hope fully we can just take a slow walk through and maybe enjoy the views from the lounge!

We have received our E Tickets and full address / alarm code etc for the villa so that has all been put into my florida book!

The time seems to by flying by now and I have started to pack a few bits and bobs in the suitcases, My husband thinks I am off my trolley though! I was wondering does anyone else take travel sizes toiletries and then buy larger sizes when they get there? I am thinking of doing this, just to save on the weight when we are going out.

We have booked out car with Alamo, but the price keeps going down so DH keeps cancelling and reooking as they don't charge a fee, I think we have got 3 weeks in a Compact for something like £342 all inclusive now!

I will try and take some updated height pictures this weekend too, as we haven;t had those for a while - we are on the homward straight now so I have been teaching Shelby that she needs to bump her head on the CM's height post! I think she gets it! After watching You Tube she has also decided that she wants to try Test Track! So lets hope it's working eh!