Zeebs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2007
- Messages
- 2,050
Cast and Crew
Me: Kirsten, New Zealander living in the UK
Hubby: Doug, The Brit I stay in the UK for.
Son 1: Cullen 2.5 at time of trip, Likes Mickey
Son 2: Seth 11 months at time of trip. Does not like Goofy
Grandma: Dougs Mum, from Scotland
Grandpa: Dougs Dad, also from Scotland, surprisingly.
So the day was here, all my research and preperation was about to be put to the test. Had I done enough to give us a smooth trip and a fantastic time.
Leading up to our trip I had been collecting little Disney items to surprise the kids with on the plane, making t-shirts for the Halloween Party, some special chocolate treats as thank yous and to leave with tips, luggage lables and a special package of things for Grandma and Grandpa from the kids to say how excited they were that they were able to join them on their first trip to WDW. Here are some pictures of the stuff that I managed to get done. The night before we left I was still trying to finish off luggage tags, never got any done for me but the rest of the family had them. I had one "happy" one for going out and a "sad" one for coming back. I designed the T-shirt design and the luggage tags, the rest of the stuff I got from the creative part of this board.
I dropped Cullen off at Nursery and then Seth off at a friends and came home to give the house a good clean and tidy up then changed the beds. I am tired of coming back from holiday to a messy house. We had packed the car the night before so everything was sorted. Finished everything I needed to do except wash the kitchen floor and set off to pick up Cullen and Seth before driving down to my Brother and Sister in laws for the night.
Doug caught the train out from London that evening. We had decided to stay near the airport the night before because we didn't really want to drive around the M25 during peak hour to catch our flight the morning off. Inlaws are only 30 mins from Gatwick Airport. So it was quite handy when they offered a room at their place.
After a very long night where we were all sleeping in the one bedroom, which totally validated my decision to rent a condo and give everyone their own room. The kids just tag teamed each other and one would start up and then the other it was a long night. Seth who has never been a very good sleeper picked up some very very bad habits on this trip, just for the sake of not waking everyone up, he now expects to be fed back to sleep every time he wakes up. We will soon be knocking that on the head.
We checked in our flight was running an hour late, we got three seats by the window and settled in, Cullen fell asleep about 3 mins after take off and stayed asleep for about an hour THEN THAT WAS IT FOR THE REST OF THE FLIGHT.....
I only had two really ANNOYED moments of the trip, the first was, despite the fact I had contacted Virgin before we left to ensure Seth would receive a meal and was ensured that he would when the kids meals were dished out they didn't have one for him. Apparently babes in arms don't get meals (although on the way back he did????) Now he doesn't like jarred food just refuses to eat it. Luckily the adult meal was chicken with mashed potato so I said I would share mine with him, but could they put it aside so that Doug could eat and then I would eat and he could hold Seth. Now why do they look at you like you are asking them to rob a bank???? We have three seats, and 4 people how are we all suppose to eat at once? Really I can't have been the first person to ask them to do this. While we were doing this someone else took the meal, they finally found me a meal but it was from premium economy which wasn't suitable for Seth so he ate a lot of fruit pots, also my meal came with just the meal and the dessert. No crackers, cheese, water, bread etc. How hard is it to ensure you have enough meals for everyone on the flight. I understand not getting your first choice but come on get it together. I was very glad I packed the portable DVD player for Cullen as the little TV on the back of the seat really didn't have anything much that interested him. We kept him entertained with this, a few toys etc out of his little pack of goodies, he was pretty good until the last hour when he really had had enough. Seth was pretty good spent a lot of time feeding off me and sleeping. They wouldn't let us use the sky cot as even though the base unit was within the weight range of Seth the basket they fix to it he was too heavy for. Which was a bit of a pain as if I had know that in advance I wouldn't have requested those seats. Nevermind you live and learn. 9 hours later we arrived.
We arrived, got thought customs, baggage etc and then came unstuck a bit. They transferred our bags after we collected them while we took the little train thing to the main terminal. Now Doug was convinced that they said we could pick up the bags from Terminal B even though I pointed out to him that the sign said Terminal A anyway after wandering over to B to discover our bags were not there, surprise, surprise, we decided as there was no line at the Dollar Car Rental Desk we decided to collect our car before I left the kids with Doug and went and got our bags, and collect the inlaws from Terminal A before heading back to Terminal B to get Doug and Kids and go and collect the car. (so if you happen to arrive at Terminal A to a massive line for a car and you haven't signed up for Dollars express card head over to terminal B not a person in site but still they have a manned desk, you pick the cars up from the same place anyway). We had rented a Dodge Caravan, man that thing is nice and big, 13 cupholders, we had brought the kids car seats from home so set them up on the back seat, put the inlaws in the middle and me and Doug in the front. I was navigating. I am rubbish at navigating as you will see through out the trip report.
We arrived at the condo about 9.00 pm which was 2 am our time, the kids were flaked here is a picture of Cullen, we just put him on the bed, we took his trousers off and he stayed in this position until morning.
The condo at Windsor Hills was fabulous, on the 3rd floor over looking the lake, didn't see any alligators but could hear them. Here are some pictures of the condo.
Self explainatory pic I guess, I just thought it was a cute thing to do.
The master suite had its own ensuite.
The kettle in the kitchen, there was a fabulous toaster as well that I didn't take a photo of. It played the Mouseketters song when the toast popped up. Cullen use to get very upset if it went off and he wasn't in the kitchen to dance to it. I did try to explain you don't have to be right beside it to dance to it but some things you just can't explain to a 2 year old.
2 calls recieved so at least I got to use it. 1 from the owner checking out that we got there fine and everything was ok and one for a wrong number.
The lounge
our room with the cot in the corner. We shared a bathroom with the other room but it was down a wee corridor so it worked out great for our set up.
Room that Cullen slept in, so very cool. Had a TV and playstation, toys in the cupboard. We didn't show Cullen the TV or we wouldn't have got him out of the room.
Another pic of the room.
Seth eating his breakfast at 3.30 am, well he was still on the UK time. He did eventually go back to sleep, but by that time Cullen was up so I didn't get to go back to bed.
After settling kids and inlaws into the condo Doug and I headed out to a Publix to get some bits and pieces, I was going to get a delivery in but decided against it, I wish I hadn't. I love supermarkets, so it took us longer than a normal person would to get all our stuff but we picked up bits we needed for the week and then headed back to the condo for some sleep.
I would recommend this condo the owners, Mike and Laura from Laza Properties were really really nice, helped with all sorts of odd questions I had, organised a fruit basket to be there when we arrived and were just generally nice. The condo was clean and had everything we needed in it.
Tomorrow EPCOT. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2131872
Me: Kirsten, New Zealander living in the UK
Hubby: Doug, The Brit I stay in the UK for.
Son 1: Cullen 2.5 at time of trip, Likes Mickey
Son 2: Seth 11 months at time of trip. Does not like Goofy
Grandma: Dougs Mum, from Scotland
Grandpa: Dougs Dad, also from Scotland, surprisingly.
So the day was here, all my research and preperation was about to be put to the test. Had I done enough to give us a smooth trip and a fantastic time.
Leading up to our trip I had been collecting little Disney items to surprise the kids with on the plane, making t-shirts for the Halloween Party, some special chocolate treats as thank yous and to leave with tips, luggage lables and a special package of things for Grandma and Grandpa from the kids to say how excited they were that they were able to join them on their first trip to WDW. Here are some pictures of the stuff that I managed to get done. The night before we left I was still trying to finish off luggage tags, never got any done for me but the rest of the family had them. I had one "happy" one for going out and a "sad" one for coming back. I designed the T-shirt design and the luggage tags, the rest of the stuff I got from the creative part of this board.
I dropped Cullen off at Nursery and then Seth off at a friends and came home to give the house a good clean and tidy up then changed the beds. I am tired of coming back from holiday to a messy house. We had packed the car the night before so everything was sorted. Finished everything I needed to do except wash the kitchen floor and set off to pick up Cullen and Seth before driving down to my Brother and Sister in laws for the night.
Doug caught the train out from London that evening. We had decided to stay near the airport the night before because we didn't really want to drive around the M25 during peak hour to catch our flight the morning off. Inlaws are only 30 mins from Gatwick Airport. So it was quite handy when they offered a room at their place.
After a very long night where we were all sleeping in the one bedroom, which totally validated my decision to rent a condo and give everyone their own room. The kids just tag teamed each other and one would start up and then the other it was a long night. Seth who has never been a very good sleeper picked up some very very bad habits on this trip, just for the sake of not waking everyone up, he now expects to be fed back to sleep every time he wakes up. We will soon be knocking that on the head.
We checked in our flight was running an hour late, we got three seats by the window and settled in, Cullen fell asleep about 3 mins after take off and stayed asleep for about an hour THEN THAT WAS IT FOR THE REST OF THE FLIGHT.....
I only had two really ANNOYED moments of the trip, the first was, despite the fact I had contacted Virgin before we left to ensure Seth would receive a meal and was ensured that he would when the kids meals were dished out they didn't have one for him. Apparently babes in arms don't get meals (although on the way back he did????) Now he doesn't like jarred food just refuses to eat it. Luckily the adult meal was chicken with mashed potato so I said I would share mine with him, but could they put it aside so that Doug could eat and then I would eat and he could hold Seth. Now why do they look at you like you are asking them to rob a bank???? We have three seats, and 4 people how are we all suppose to eat at once? Really I can't have been the first person to ask them to do this. While we were doing this someone else took the meal, they finally found me a meal but it was from premium economy which wasn't suitable for Seth so he ate a lot of fruit pots, also my meal came with just the meal and the dessert. No crackers, cheese, water, bread etc. How hard is it to ensure you have enough meals for everyone on the flight. I understand not getting your first choice but come on get it together. I was very glad I packed the portable DVD player for Cullen as the little TV on the back of the seat really didn't have anything much that interested him. We kept him entertained with this, a few toys etc out of his little pack of goodies, he was pretty good until the last hour when he really had had enough. Seth was pretty good spent a lot of time feeding off me and sleeping. They wouldn't let us use the sky cot as even though the base unit was within the weight range of Seth the basket they fix to it he was too heavy for. Which was a bit of a pain as if I had know that in advance I wouldn't have requested those seats. Nevermind you live and learn. 9 hours later we arrived.
We arrived, got thought customs, baggage etc and then came unstuck a bit. They transferred our bags after we collected them while we took the little train thing to the main terminal. Now Doug was convinced that they said we could pick up the bags from Terminal B even though I pointed out to him that the sign said Terminal A anyway after wandering over to B to discover our bags were not there, surprise, surprise, we decided as there was no line at the Dollar Car Rental Desk we decided to collect our car before I left the kids with Doug and went and got our bags, and collect the inlaws from Terminal A before heading back to Terminal B to get Doug and Kids and go and collect the car. (so if you happen to arrive at Terminal A to a massive line for a car and you haven't signed up for Dollars express card head over to terminal B not a person in site but still they have a manned desk, you pick the cars up from the same place anyway). We had rented a Dodge Caravan, man that thing is nice and big, 13 cupholders, we had brought the kids car seats from home so set them up on the back seat, put the inlaws in the middle and me and Doug in the front. I was navigating. I am rubbish at navigating as you will see through out the trip report.
We arrived at the condo about 9.00 pm which was 2 am our time, the kids were flaked here is a picture of Cullen, we just put him on the bed, we took his trousers off and he stayed in this position until morning.
The condo at Windsor Hills was fabulous, on the 3rd floor over looking the lake, didn't see any alligators but could hear them. Here are some pictures of the condo.
Self explainatory pic I guess, I just thought it was a cute thing to do.
The master suite had its own ensuite.
The kettle in the kitchen, there was a fabulous toaster as well that I didn't take a photo of. It played the Mouseketters song when the toast popped up. Cullen use to get very upset if it went off and he wasn't in the kitchen to dance to it. I did try to explain you don't have to be right beside it to dance to it but some things you just can't explain to a 2 year old.
The lounge
our room with the cot in the corner. We shared a bathroom with the other room but it was down a wee corridor so it worked out great for our set up.
Room that Cullen slept in, so very cool. Had a TV and playstation, toys in the cupboard. We didn't show Cullen the TV or we wouldn't have got him out of the room.
Another pic of the room.
Seth eating his breakfast at 3.30 am, well he was still on the UK time. He did eventually go back to sleep, but by that time Cullen was up so I didn't get to go back to bed.
After settling kids and inlaws into the condo Doug and I headed out to a Publix to get some bits and pieces, I was going to get a delivery in but decided against it, I wish I hadn't. I love supermarkets, so it took us longer than a normal person would to get all our stuff but we picked up bits we needed for the week and then headed back to the condo for some sleep.
I would recommend this condo the owners, Mike and Laura from Laza Properties were really really nice, helped with all sorts of odd questions I had, organised a fruit basket to be there when we arrived and were just generally nice. The condo was clean and had everything we needed in it.
Tomorrow EPCOT. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2131872
Great start to your trippie.
