Im Back Home Trip Report *FULL REPORT COMPLETED*

[Jordanblackpool]

Well guys, ive arrived back in the UK after a nice 8 1/2 flight.....and Im sad to be back, ive had an absolutley amazing time in Orlando as per normal.....Heres what happened....

Brief Summary

Seeing as ive just got back and the jet lag has majorley kicked in, I thought I would just do a brief summary before over the next few days giving you guys a day by day report on this thread with some pics.......

The Good.....

The Highlight has to be my Night at Orlando Magic V Dallas Mavericks, What an incredible night that is!!! Great seats, great tour guide, the food and the atmopshere has left me wanting more!

Rip Ride N Rock It - Without a doubt the best ride ive ever been on. The feeling when your going upwards listening to I Will Survive....i actually got off that ride feeling taken aback!

The Food - As per usual it just gets better and better.....my favourite meal as always is House Of Blues and it didnt dissapoint again!

The People - Some of the people we have met on the holiday, I will never forget...You will find out more when i write my report but we have seen some of the best characters in life you will ever see that have had me in stitches, to the point where i actually thought i was on a hidden camera show one taxi ride!

The Not So Good......

Virgin Atlantic - I was very very very dissapointed with the whole Virgin experience, everything from the state of the planes to the food I just felt was of a very poor standard considering what we had paid, but my main gripe was the fact that on the outward journey they came round with 2 drinks in 9 hours.......one early on and then a water or juice when they brought a sandwhich near the end of the flight....

The Weather - Now i know what you guys are going to say....Its february! But it was bloomin cold! I have never been to florida and seen people walkin round in hat and gloves, it was frrrrreezzzin some days....

Walt Disney World - Now my two major gripes with WDW Are:-

1) How busy it was, ive never seen it that busy, 140 min wait for Toy Story and 120 for Rock N Rolla coasta, but as we found out it was mardi gras weekend and school holidays...so thats probably why....

BUT my major thing with WDW was I feel it needs updating! I love the place to bits, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I just feel that some of the parks need abit of a modernisation, we especially noticed this at Hollywood Studios theme park wise, but the area we felt abit let down by this time was downtown disney.

It really is a great place, but if you compare it to City Walk, it seems to have fallen behind, Pleasure Island & Westside just seem to be a walkthrough to Cirque De Soleil and The Market Place, they really do need to do something with Pleasure Island, because City Walk is just so much more appealing!

AND the worst thing....was the first Sundays hangover, ive never experienced this at Disney before and hopefully I never will again, ive learnt my lesson but I got carried away in a bar with some Americans...Not the start I was expecting!

BUT Thats my only gripes, Ive had an amazing time as always, and done alot of things that I havent done before in Disney, had plenty of beers and laughs...and I am looking forward to the prospect of writing a good report for you guys over the next week or so!

Cheers!

 

[jamjar84]

Sounts like you had a great trip Jordan, sorry to hear about the bad points.

I must admit, we've never had a problem with Virgin, what a shame that the service was so poor.

 

[mark&sue]

I have read this a lot about Virgin. We have not been to WDW for 3 years so have got used to easyjet and ryanair going to Spain. so hopefully we won't notice how bad they are when we fly with virgin in July!!!!!!

glad to hear you had a great time and looking forward to all the photos


susan

 

[Muscateer]

Sounds like you had a great trip and looking forward to reading your report.

 

[natalielongstaff]

Sounds like a great trip, i have to agree with you about Virgin though

 

[jockey]

Welcome home, think you have a point about VA lots of people are saying they are going downhill. We normally fly with them but are using Continental from BFS next time

 

[Natasha&Matt]

Sounds liek you had a great trip hun Can't wait to see the pics and hear some more

 

[Jordanblackpool]

The First Day......

I was on the 13:30 flight with Virgin, So it wasnt that early of a start for me. Excited I got up around 8am and with help of my parents set off the hour drive to Manchester in time for checking. After saying goodbye to the folks, I checked in and was happy to find out I had a window seat....Which became a bad thing later on!

After a stroll around Manchester Airport and an early morning budweiser, I headed for boarding. The flight itself seemed to last a while, but there wasnt that much happening. Unfortunatley for me, I was sat next to the window, next to a young couple that slept for the whole journey....and the one time I did nudge one of them to get up to go to the toilet, they didnt take too kindly to it!!! Typical for me to get next to the couple that never wake!

As ive mentioned I was quite dissapointed with the standard of virgin planes, the food was ok, although the coronation sandwhich didnt seem to go down too well with alot of people, I didnt mind it though. But too only get two small drinks in 9 hours.....I found that quite bad.

After we had landed, I passed through customs without a problem and luggage claim was a breeze. I then had to wait about 10 minutes for my shuttle to pick me up, but before I knew it I was in the COLD of Orlando and at my hotel!

I unpacked one or two shirts, but as I was moving hotels on the Monday I didnt really see much point in unpacking everything. I have to admit, i was VERY impressed with the room I Had at Comfort Inn, id heard some bad stories about it, but the room I had was excellent. The hotel was what It was, it wasnt spectacular, but it was nice enough.

I decided I would get some food, then have an early night, even though Sunday was gonna be a chilling day. I then had a walk down to the area of bars/restuarants on Palm Parkway and tried to get a table at the Crab House, but it was a long wait, so I decided to stroll across the road to Hooters, a favourite watering hole of mine!

While in Hooters, the only table I could get was at the bar. I had abit of food and watched some of the NBA All Star Weekend, while having some good banter with some locals....before I know it and many Jack Daniels & Sam Adams Later I crawled into my bed and ended a long first day.....

 

[Natasha&Matt]

Great start Shame about sitting next to the sleeping couple though mind you i wish i could sleep for the majority of a flight lol
room looks lovely.

 

[jamjar84]

Great start, the room looks really nice.

Shame about the flight.

 

[Jordanblackpool]

Day Two.......

Well...Day Two didnt get off to the best of starts, unfortunately my few drinks with the Americans the night before left with feeling slightly tender in the morning first thing, Sooo i decided to have a walk down to I Hop for abit of breakfast to perk me up abit. A stack of chocolate chip pancakes later, I was refreshed and ready for the day.

After I had been to I Hop, I took a walk back to the hotel to decide what to do with my day, as I only had a 5 day disney pass I didnt really want to waste it before I met up with my brother, so I decided to have a wonder around the Premium Outlets, so reception rang me a taxi, so I waited for 20 minutes and nothing turned up, so I decided to start walking....what a mistake this was in flip flops! Eventually I got to the crossroads and flagged a taxi down!

I had a good afternoon at Premium Outlets bought a few bits from Ralph Lauren, Nike & Tommy Hilfiger and headed back to the hotel with another HUGE taxi fare for a 1 mile journey, but its my own fault for not hiring a car. After dropping my stuff back at the hotel I went down too catch a couple of hours worth of sun and met some interesting people down by the pool!

At around 8pm I decided to walk down to House Of Blues, as the food is always good and thought it was a great way to spend valentines day, but when I got there it was shut for a private function! So I ended up at Planet Hollywood, eating at the bar, where I met a very funny Scouse couple who invited me to join them for dinner with them, but i thought i would leave them to it on there own! After a lovely pulled pork sandwich, I decided to start to wonder down to the hotel via downtown Disney and call it a night!

Only one picture today as The camera battery was dead and I didnt have the charger!

 

[jamjar84]

Shame that you woke up with a headache.

The weather looks like it was improving.

 

[Jordanblackpool]

DAY 3 - Where It Starts To Get Interesting!

Well I woke up on Day three with a very busy day ahead of me and still no theme park in site!!! I went down to the hotel restuarant and had some breakfast as it was free, I only had a bowl of cereal and some toast, but I thought it would fuel me until dinner....Boy was I wrong!!!

I went back to the room and although I didnt have to be out till 11, the maid banged on my door every ten minutes until about half nine, so I grabbed my case, did a double check and then checked out the hotel. I then decided to walk from the Comfort Inn to the Royal Plaza, which in hindsite sounded easy, but carrying a case and a bag......Wasnt as enjoyable as I thought, but it was still a decent morning!

I got to the Plaza and went to check in, but seein as the room was booked in my brothers name, they wouldnt let me, so I left my case with the bag boys and went off to Downtown Disney as I wasnt meeting my brother till 2!

While at Downtown Disney, my hunger really started to get the better of me, so i headed to Earl Of Sandwhich for my faaaaaaav sandwhich ever, the Hawaiian BBQ...Which was an absolute delight to took into!!! All fed and fuelded up, I had a walk down to Sosas Cigars to pick a few up for various family members and myself and then made my way back to the Royal Plaza, where my brother was sat there waiting for me!

We got checked in and unloaded are cases in quite a rush as we were going to the TNA wrestling at Universal Studios, and needed to be there for 4:30! Forutnatley we had a taxi booked, so we got to the lobby and he was there waiting for us...Which provided the funniest moment in recent memory for me....

We had not long left the hotel, when the taxi driver, who looked like Bob Marley....cranked the reggae music up and started singing along to Bob marleys 'easy skanking', which doesnt sound that funny, but I got a fit of the giggles and had uncontrollable laughter! Too add to the singing, which the song includes lines like 'take it easy...light it up and smoke a spliff'..he did his own sound effects for musical instruments, it was that funny I thought it was a set up and found myself lookin for hidden cameras in this taxi!

So with that out the way and tears streaming down my face as we walked through city walk, we got ready to watching the wrestling. Non of us are major fans of it, but we thought it would be fun to do for free. So we had VIP tickets, and waited in what was becoming a cold day for a good hour or so and then got let in to the soundstage.

We had an absolute ball at the wrestling, and especially if you have kids would recomened going to watch it, although be warned the tapings do go on for quite a while, but are really good fun and easy to get into even if you dont know any of the characters!

After the TNA had finished, we headed to the Nascar Bar & Grill where I had another Pulled Pork Sandwhich and a beer, before reading myself for some more Bob Marley and trumpet noises on the way home....only to find it was a different taxi driver....Imagine my dissapointment!!! Then it was off to bed to get some sleep before our first park day!

 

[Alibaba]

Sounds fab so far!!!
Love the pic of my Faaaav sandwich too, i love the hawaian, god i wish they earl's here.

Looking forward to reading more

Ali

 

[jamjar84]

Another great day.

 

[disney_princess_85]

Welcome home Jordan, glad you had a good trip! I agree with what you said about Pleasure Island/West Side- I find the whole area very unappealing. They really need to sort it out.

Great reporting so far, looking forward to more!

 

[darthtatty]

sounds like a good few days, nice and relaxing.xxx
I watched WWE raw live, i know what you mean about the tapings.
cant wait to read more

 

[jockey]

Great reports

 

[Pinky166]

A great start, looking forward to more.

I would have been crying with laughter at the Bob Marley impersonator too!

 

[fav_is_tink]

A great start to the holiday [well except for the hangover!!], looking forward to your next update