I want fabulous that is my simple request...I need a little fabulous is that so wrong

[2ScottishPrincesses]

Hi Folks well this is my first attempt at a TR, so please be kind and bear with me. The accommodation, dates and cast members have changed so many times during the two year planning for this trip that it would take be forever to give you all the background details but I’ll have a stab at give you the abridge version.

Let me firstly introduce the cast members who made the final cut:-
FULL TIME CAST
Me (Kirsteen) – mum, just turned 40, obsessive planner, madly in love with all things Disney and have a tendency to bore the knickers off anyone who is foolish enough to ask a passing question about said topic.

DH (Donny or Big D) – gorgeous hubby, easy going, loves his girls, loves his grub and loves Disney but doesn’t get obsessive (his word not mine!!).

DD13(Rebecca/Becci) – loving, sensitive, Twilight crazy and a bit of a Disney freak on the quiet (who knew that it’s not cool to advertise you’re love of Disney UNLESS of course it’s Tinkerbell). There was a tendency towards the moody teen characteristics this trip but hey ho I suppose that goes with the territory.

DD4(Niamh pronounced Neev) – described by her nursery teacher recently as a wee bit eccentric she loves any Disney movies, Disney channel programmes and is a complete diva. She will say or do anything to make people laugh.
PART TIME CAST
Boyd – Donny’s bro fiercy patriotic Scot who moved to Long Island over two years ago (I know, bit of a contradiction in terms eh?).

Jo – a South African who speaks using a lot of Scottish slang, Boyd’s wife and I have been friends since we started working in the same place over 20 years ago (typing that statement has scared me as I’m still in denial about my recent “big birthday”)

Dylan (5 nearly 6years) – is a sweetheart, he’s a real livewire who loves his Uncle Donny to bits and has decided that he’s going to marry Becci when he grows up.

Cayla (4years) – is so like Niamh it’s scary. Total Diva who’s cute as a button and will never let anyone stand on her toes.

PLANNING HISTORY

When we returned from our 2007 trip I immediately started planning for this trip. I decided that come hell or high water we were going back to our favourite place on the planet and I needed no better excuse than the fact that I was turning 40 in July’09 and required something extra special to get me through this most traumatic of events.

I was made redundant from my sixteen and a half years service with BA at the end of July’07 and as such was now considered retired airline staff, this on it’s own is of no significant interest to anyone BUT it did mean that I could access special retired airline staff rates at WDW so it got my planning mind all in a lather. Oh man the endless stream of options and possibilities drove DH nuts and to be honest he basically just tuned it all out after a while. My plan after a couple of months of plotting and planning was one week at BC and one week at Poly…heaven!!! We had also been discussing the possibility of one of Becci’s friends coming along as with us to keep her company. well when I discussed this with the girl’s mum she said that they’d been thinking of going to WDW for a while and could their family maybe tag along. Okay now another facet of my personality is that I’m not very good at saying no so I then had to break the news of the cast additions to Donny and lets just say he wasn’t too jazzed at the idea. Then it started, we had to take into consideration that they have three kids so they needed a room that would accommodate five as reasonably as possible (that would rule out POLY FOR SURE AND NO CHANCE OF CONCIERGE) and they expected a say in where we were EATING, VISITING, etc. You can just imagine the anxiety as my POSITION of Trip Dictator was slipping from my grasp. They then decided that they wanted to do a villa for one week as they thought "TWO WEEKS IN DISNEY WOULD BE WAY TO MUCH"… what, NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I put my foot down as diplomatically as I could and said that if they wanted to do that then great but we were staying on property for 2WEEKS end of story. After that was sorted we paid THE deposits FOR THE fly-drive packages and saved like crazy. Jo (Donny’s DS-in-law) emailed to say that they’d love to meet up with us in Orlando that summer and we thought “Great”, it was all shaping up nicely….or was it DADADAH!!!! We reached Aug’08, when it was just about time to book the accommodation, and things started to go pear shaped. The other family got bad news that the dad was probably going to be made redundant around the time that we were due to go on holiday and then the pound started to go into freefall against the dollar so the fabby retired staff rate was no where near so attractiveanymore. What to do? our spending money was not going to stretch very far at all and fancy resorts were out of the question but cancelling was just not an option…..change to POR and scale down the activities/dining ressies = sorted. The pound was getting worse and worse and come the end of October the situation was looking dire. That was when those evil geniuses at Disney UK pounced, I received an innocent looking email full of colour, magic aaaaaaand the promise of FREE DINING!!!!! Only one problem, we would have to move our dates from end of June to beginning of August…oh what to do???? I spoke to Donny who said that the dates were set, we would lose our deposit for the fly drive and we’d made too many arrangements involving other people, so we would just have to stick with the original dates….WHAT?!?!?! The innocent young thing didn’t quite understand, it was FREE DINING, for the love of God man are you insane you don’t knock back any free food far or less free Disney food. I took a deep breath and explained exactly what he was rejecting and the amount of money we would save if he gave the idea a second thought. Cha-ching….the penny dropped and he was on board. I then had to approach the other family about this change in plans. I had been going to say that if they wanted to stay with June then we would too but Donny was 100% SOLD on the new deal and said if they didn’t want to change dates then that was their tough cheese (oooh don’t you just love a masterful fellow). They hummed and hawed and eventually we booked and they stuck with June (yay). We got a deal on our flights which was so good that, even taking into account the fact that we’d lost the deposit for the fly-drive, we still came out on top RESULT!!! Jo and Boyd (yes, remember them from about 100years ago in this saga) got their villa booking changed and that was us all sorted, it even meant that we’d all be together in WDW for Cayla’s birthday (double YAYA). Our Trip dates were now set for Friday 31July to Saturday 15August, first two nights were to be at pop then we would move to OKW FOR FREE-DINING-A-GO-GO AND A 14DAY ULTIMATE TICKET.

Phew, bet you’re all glad that bit’s over. Once we were all booked up I went into planning overdrive and spent any free time I had plotting, planning and counting down as though the future of the planet depended on it.

The information on what plans were made and what actually came to pass will be revealed in due course but I have to pat you on the back for getting thus far in my tr and assure you it will get better (hopefully) so please don’t hit un-subscribe just yet folks.

SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:- I must warn you in advance that I blether for miles, have a tendancy to go off at tangent, use Scottish slang (though I will translate once I read over what I've written) and the photo service will be a tad intermittant. If you're still up for it, I'd love to share my wonderful trip with you.

 

[terri910]

I'm definitely "up for it"!

 

[2ScottishPrincesses]

I'm definitely "up for it"!

Yay Terri , welcome aboard and please bear with me and my rambeling.

 

[winkers]

I quite enjoy your blethering (was that a correct use)!

 

[2ScottishPrincesses]

I quite enjoy your blethering (was that a correct use)!

Cherie I love a good auld chinwag with you honey

 

[rentayenta]

Third! Bring it baybee!


And I need photos in every update!

 

[mickeystoontown]

To me there can never be too much "bleethering". My trip reports are always littered with lots of details and then we start chit chatting like old friends. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[rentayenta]

Oh and Scottish slang!

 

[DisneyJo]

Hey you, you need to pimp this out and let us know you've started!!!!

Can't wait to read all about your holiday

 

[cjackearl]

Can I tag along? Your trip sounds to be tons o' fun, and I'm a big supporter of tangents, "blethering" and Scottish slang!!

 

[glennbo123]

I'm here for the slang! Bring it on!

 

[ellajeansmom]

Couldn't pass up the title and I will definitely not be put off by tangents, blethering or Scottish slang

Looking forward to more!

 

[pooh'smate]

I am here!!!!! I am so excited you started your tr. I too love your blethering.

 

[vamassey1]

Yah!! Kristeen you started your report! I love it and I love details!!!

 

[winkers]

Did you wear your white trash shoes while you were there?

 

[jordanyosh]

I'm here!!!!!!

 

[2ScottishPrincesses]

Third! Bring it baybee!


And I need photos in every update!

FABBY you're here...there will be pictures BUT as stated in the disclaimer there may be times when they're on the sparse or random side

To me there can never be too much "bleethering". My trip reports are always littered with lots of details and then we start chit chatting like old friends. Looking forward to reading more.

thank you for joining in, I tend to write as I talkbut if you can put up with that hopefully you'll enjoy yourself

Hey you, you need to pimp this out and let us know you've started!!!!

Can't wait to read all about your holiday

Thanks for coming over Jo, I was a bit reticent about advertising this as I'm worried it's pants and my friends start avoiding it and making excuses like "I really wanted to read but I had to wash my hair/ take the dog for a walk/watch paint dry" your support is appreciated honey

Can I tag along? Your trip sounds to be tons o' fun, and I'm a big supporter of tangents, "blethering" and Scottish slang!!

I'm here for the slang! Bring it on!

Couldn't pass up the title and I will definitely not be put off by tangents, blethering or Scottish slang

Looking forward to more!

So glad you liked the title, we love Sharpay in our house and those two lines of lyrics are kind of my mantra for trip planning...definately high maintenance at Disney if no where else in life

I am here!!!!! I am so excited you started your tr. I too love your blethering.

WOW to all of you, who knew there was such a market out there sor tangents, blethering and Scottish slang LOVE IT

Yah!! Kristeen you started your report! I love it and I love details!!!

my virgin TR writing buddy I'l need to do some major typing to catch up with you miss lightining fingers

Did you wear your white trash shoes while you were there?

I wore my precious on the journey all the way there and they were FABULOUS. Didn't wear them after that though as they are built for posing not speed walking (also Donny wasn't so keen on the fact that when I wore them it made him look like a short-ar$e)

I'm here!!!!!!

YAASSSSSS Jordan's here, thanks for joining in mate

 

[2ScottishPrincesses]

Well Hello people, I never thought I’d have this many reader, thanks you all for dropping in.

As I said in my first post we were travelling out on Friday 31st August, flying from Glasgow via London Gatwick to Orlando International with BA, I checked us in online the day before and due to pre-assigned family seats we were all seated together on both flights. The seats on the Orlando flight were pretty far back in the cabin but we had one seat in front at the window and then the three seats behind that so it was all good. We were a tad worried about how Niamh would be on the flight as keeping a four year old entertained in the one place for any amount of time can be a total nightmare. I was prepared with enough Nintendo DS games, books, colouring in sheets etc to keep her busy for a month and had a few chats with her about flying and how we would be on two flights. The first flight went well and but when we arrived into Gatwick Niamh was getting a bit crabbit (adj. grumpy or miserable eg “see that Kirsteen she can be a right crabbit auld coo at times!!”) and we were starting to worry about the next flight. When we got on the flight we got to our seats and there was someone sitting in Becci’s seat (the window seat in front of ours). I then have a very forceful lady saying to me “Oh is that your seat? We were hoping that my son could sit there beside his sisters as he’s been assigned a window seat three rows in front of us!!” Is she serious, she wants my 13 year old to give up her seat in front of her family to sit alone in a seat that would be four rows away from us…eh, away and chase yourself doll, you’ve got no chance. In what I have to admit was a very nippy voice I said “I really don’t think so, my daughter wants to sit with her family.”. The boy moved and his mother had a rather loud conversation with someone on the mobile explaining how they had rubbish seats and, because her son had insisted he wanted a window seat, he was seated separately from the rest of them….well it was his own fault then wasn’t it?!?!?! I can’t believe that when she saw that the person that was sitting in the seat beside her daughters was a child she still asked that she move to accommodate her son who was around the same age, selfish or what.

Once we all got settled take off went smoothly, Niamh asked to colour in, she then had lunch (which surprise surprise she actually ate) and then she went to sleep. WOOHOO, RESULT!!! BA serve children’s meals before adults so that the parents can relax and enjoy their meal (as much as you can enjoy airline food). We ate, we had a wee drinkie-poo, we watched movies and I even read some of my book…it was THE best flight ever. Niamh slept for over four hours and when she woke she was in the best mood. When we arrived into Orlando there was an announcement that there was a sick child onboard and we’d have to wait for the paramedics to board the plane, this caused a bit of a delay but to be honest we were more concerned about the poor parents and the baby. No major problems with immigration, baggage reclaim or any of the airport processes. The weather was wet but very HOT and we love the heat…bliss.

We were all in pretty high spirits, if a wee bit knackered, when we saw it, choirs of angels sang and I’m sure there were fireworks going off….yes it was the check-in for the *~*Magical Express*~*. My wee heart swelled with the joy and we all went up to the desk with the biggest smiles on our faces. This is when a comment was made that was to be repeated though out our trip “Reservation is under DONALD McDonald…seriously? What a cool name, I love it!!!” Poor Donny, we all laughed at the amount of times this was said but honestly it’s not that unusual in Scotland and to be fair Donny was the fourth child for my in-laws and I think they’d run out of ideas so they named him after my mother-in-laws dad. She also claims that on the Isle of Skye, where she comes from, traditionally loads of ministers and doctors are called Donald Macdonald…(aye right Anna, whatever you say lmao).

Anyway here are a selection of happy but knackered mug shots from aboard our magical carriage

.
The Magical Express stopped first at CB and then we were dropped at Pop. We were checked in to the 50’s section, Jukebox, 2nd floor overlooking the pool, suited us fine. We had by that point been up for around 20hours and felt like we’d been battered senseless with a wet kipper so we went for a quick snack at POP food court but didn’t have the wherewithal to remember to take the camera with us for pictures. I think Donny had a burger and chips(fries), Niamh had a hot dog and Becci and I split some chilli/cheese fries…all incredibly yummy. Now Niamh was so knackered that she was bumping into things and crying at the least wee problem so it was time for bed but not before she asked about 100 times “When will be seeing Mickey Mummy?”.

How do you overcome the problem of a child who’s desperate to hug Mickey when you’re taking a pool day the next day and your park passes are part of a package you’ve booked to start on 02Aug….stay tuned and all will be revealed.

 

[rentayenta]

Wet kipper? Wet noodle?


Nice raggy woman wanting Bex to sit apart from her beloved family. Glad you stood your ground as if I had any doubt wahtsoever!

Love the Niamh slept on the plane. That's like a little gift from G-d!

Donald MacDonald! I had to say it aloud even!

Any photos?

Don't you love ME? It's official when you are sitting on the ME bus!

 

[JoJo1980]

Hope you've got room for another reader

I'm glad you had a good journey apart from that twit head of a mother, glad you stood you're ground

Can't wait to read more ... keep it coming