Part 17 Day 14 Thursday 12th October
Up at 06.30 as I wanted to be first in queue at Free Time check in which I thought opened at 07.00 but it actually opened at 07.30 so we were there early but they let us in at 07.15 as they were ready.
Last year our cases hadn’t been weighed when we did Free Time check in and even though I knew this would have been because of a technical hitch I had my fingers crossed the scales would be broken again, no such look we were jointly 16 kilos over. The check in lady asked if we had paid for double baggage allowance, which we hadn’t and told us the fee was $14.00 per kilo which was $224.00 or go to the Travel City Direct office over the road and pay $29.00 each to increase our baggage allowance.
I refused to go to the Travel City Direct office as it didn’t open until 08.00 and I wanted to check in now. I said I was prepared to pay the fee at which Gavin went pale but my reasoning was I wanted to get to Epcot at opening or there was no point and any delay here was going to reduce the chances of that happening. I also offered to take some stuff out and buy a small carry on suitcase but Gavin said 16 Kilos was a lot of stuff. In the end the lady said she couldn’t take the $224.00 from us as we could only pay this by credit card and she couldn’t do that yet, unsure why. I refused to move so eventually she charged us $29.00 each in cash and let us go. I don’t care if she pocketed the money, we were checked in and on our way.
First stop was McDonalds for breakfast.
Sausage & Egg McMuffin meals X2 - $12.17
Tax - $0.79
Total - $12.96
We got to Epcot at about 08.30 and waited in the boiling sun for 15 mins before they let people through the turnstiles then Gavin went to wait for rope drop and to get Fastpasses for Soarin’ while I went to the Camera Centre to buy our Photopass cd.
Buying the cd took quite a while. The lady made me look at each photo individually even though I said I had looked at them all online. Also I had deleted loads from our online account, most that we didn’t want and three that were somebody else but all of these were still on the Photopass card and the lady didn’t know, nor did her colleague how to delete any unwanted. This wasn’t a massive problem as I was well below the 300 limit but had I had more than 300 taken I wouldn’t buy two cd’s when I didn’t want most of the photo’s anyway. It is a new system though so lot’s teething problems but our Photopass experience was overall very good. Cd was $106.45.
I met Gavin at the fountain as arranged and we headed over to Test Track and rode it twice before our Soarin’ time came up. Before Soarin’ we grabbed another Fastpass to ride again, the park was fairly quiet today and the second Fastpass time was only an hour away.
Our first ride on Soarin’ wasn’t a massive success. An American lady of around 50 took on her elderly father who clearly didn’t want to be there and sat him next to me. She yelled at him constantly throughout the ride (assume he was hard of hearing) ‘look dad a river’ ‘don’t worry dad, it’s just a movie screen’ ‘look dad it’s night’ and after that I couldn’t wait to get out of the theatre and I left our camera in the basket underneath. I went back to get it while Gavin got us a drink from Sunshine Seasons. When I went back to the exit a cm asked me what I wanted and I mentioned my camera was in the basket and…..she slammed the door in my face! I was fuming! I knew I wouldn’t be able to go in and get it but I did not for one second think a cm would actually slam a door in a guest’s face.
While I was waiting for the ride to be over so I could rescue my precious camera and possible kick the rude cm in the shins another American lady started talking to me, asking me what Soarin’ was like etc. I explained it was wonderful but when she asked me to convince her kids, perhaps five and seven to ride I refused. I explained my last ride had been ruined by someone who had been forced to ride and I wasn’t going to encourage her kids to go on if they didn’t want to. I don’t think that was the answer she was looking for. I’m not sure if her kids did ride but when her husband and youngest child came out they had loved it so perhaps they convinced the other two kids. I grabbed my camera and ran, didn’t see the horrible cm so no kicking involved.
Gavin said I was very nasty to the lady outside Soarin’ but I don’t care. My ride, and probably everyone’s as she was very loud, had been ruined by all the woman’s shouting so anybody who had waited 60 mins to ride should thank me those two kids weren’t forced on and screaming all the way through.
After all of this we only had 20 mins until our next ride time was here so we just had time to drink our drinks before heading back.
Hot Chocolate - $1.89
Coke - $2.09
Chips X2 - $3.29
Tax - $0.48
Total - $7.75
Second ride was much better, nobody forced to ride and I remembered to remove all of my luggage from the under seat storage facility.
Before we left we got another Fastpass as a souvenir.
A quick browse around Mousegear where I bought a pin $7.41 then we headed out. It started to rain as we left the park.
We had lunch at Wendy’s en-route to Sanford Airport but no receipt. It was a scary place though. Full of locals who looked very streetwise and the ladies loo had been flooded so having a pee was difficult.
Arrived at Sanford at 14.00 we dropped the car off and went through security.
We had several problems getting through security. First I had put away our boarding passes when I shouldn’t so got told to ‘stand still ma’am’ while my stuff came out the other side of the scanning machine and I could tell them where they were then I had liquid in my carryon, I knew this was allowed but you are supposed to tell them before they scan it, and it is supposed to be in a clear plastic bag. When my bag was searched she let me keep the little bottles of shampoo etc as they were in a plastic bag just not a clear one but she must have liked me because while we were then waiting for our laptop to be checked she wouldn’t let another lady take her lipstick through.
Security took about half an hour so I am glad we were early and it was quiet or we would have been even longer.
Straight to buy some magazines then into the guest house section. As soon as we were seated the display screen showed our flight delayed from 20.30 until 22.00. People who arrived at the airport later we told by the rep it was because of fog at Manchester which would prevent landing if we set of on time so the delay was tactical to try and stop us been diverted to Glasgow.
The delay didn’t bother us, we were nice and comfy at the guest house and settled down to watch the second half of the England match.
After a while we had some tea from the International Food Court
Bacon Cheesburger $5.75
Burger - $4.75
Fries X2 - $5.50
Tax - $1.12
Total - $17.12
Over the next few hours we watched tv, browsed the internet, read magazines and had our two free alcoholic drinks along with several non alcoholic ones and some cookies.
We boarded around 21.15 and had an ok flight home. The fella alongside me spent the whole flight digging his elbow in my ribs causing me to yell in pain when he leaned against me to move as I was sleeping but I didn’t get an apology. I managed to get a lot of sleep on the way back but Gavin didn’t get any at all. Before sleeping I watched X-Men 3 and we both ate Chicken for tea/midnight snack. They showed Cars on the way back aswell but I was long gone by then.
We landed at 11.00 and it was very traumatic! It was still very foggy in Manchester and we dropped the last 20 feet or so onto the runway and most of the Oxygen masks came down! Made everyone jump a bit.
On the way to immigration I nipped to the loo and Gavin said the captain walked past telling the crew that it was the smallest window he could have landed in and had he not been able to manage it we would have been on our way to Glasgow.
Luggage claim took forever but the courtesy bus for Bewleys came quickly. Gavin drove most of the way home then admitted he was shattered and we swopped. Home at 14.00 I let Gavin sleep until 16.30 while I unpacked then wake him up so he didn’t feel too bad tonight.
Jodie
PART 18 HERE
Up at 06.30 as I wanted to be first in queue at Free Time check in which I thought opened at 07.00 but it actually opened at 07.30 so we were there early but they let us in at 07.15 as they were ready.
Last year our cases hadn’t been weighed when we did Free Time check in and even though I knew this would have been because of a technical hitch I had my fingers crossed the scales would be broken again, no such look we were jointly 16 kilos over. The check in lady asked if we had paid for double baggage allowance, which we hadn’t and told us the fee was $14.00 per kilo which was $224.00 or go to the Travel City Direct office over the road and pay $29.00 each to increase our baggage allowance.
I refused to go to the Travel City Direct office as it didn’t open until 08.00 and I wanted to check in now. I said I was prepared to pay the fee at which Gavin went pale but my reasoning was I wanted to get to Epcot at opening or there was no point and any delay here was going to reduce the chances of that happening. I also offered to take some stuff out and buy a small carry on suitcase but Gavin said 16 Kilos was a lot of stuff. In the end the lady said she couldn’t take the $224.00 from us as we could only pay this by credit card and she couldn’t do that yet, unsure why. I refused to move so eventually she charged us $29.00 each in cash and let us go. I don’t care if she pocketed the money, we were checked in and on our way.
First stop was McDonalds for breakfast.
Sausage & Egg McMuffin meals X2 - $12.17
Tax - $0.79
Total - $12.96
We got to Epcot at about 08.30 and waited in the boiling sun for 15 mins before they let people through the turnstiles then Gavin went to wait for rope drop and to get Fastpasses for Soarin’ while I went to the Camera Centre to buy our Photopass cd.
Buying the cd took quite a while. The lady made me look at each photo individually even though I said I had looked at them all online. Also I had deleted loads from our online account, most that we didn’t want and three that were somebody else but all of these were still on the Photopass card and the lady didn’t know, nor did her colleague how to delete any unwanted. This wasn’t a massive problem as I was well below the 300 limit but had I had more than 300 taken I wouldn’t buy two cd’s when I didn’t want most of the photo’s anyway. It is a new system though so lot’s teething problems but our Photopass experience was overall very good. Cd was $106.45.
I met Gavin at the fountain as arranged and we headed over to Test Track and rode it twice before our Soarin’ time came up. Before Soarin’ we grabbed another Fastpass to ride again, the park was fairly quiet today and the second Fastpass time was only an hour away.
Our first ride on Soarin’ wasn’t a massive success. An American lady of around 50 took on her elderly father who clearly didn’t want to be there and sat him next to me. She yelled at him constantly throughout the ride (assume he was hard of hearing) ‘look dad a river’ ‘don’t worry dad, it’s just a movie screen’ ‘look dad it’s night’ and after that I couldn’t wait to get out of the theatre and I left our camera in the basket underneath. I went back to get it while Gavin got us a drink from Sunshine Seasons. When I went back to the exit a cm asked me what I wanted and I mentioned my camera was in the basket and…..she slammed the door in my face! I was fuming! I knew I wouldn’t be able to go in and get it but I did not for one second think a cm would actually slam a door in a guest’s face.
While I was waiting for the ride to be over so I could rescue my precious camera and possible kick the rude cm in the shins another American lady started talking to me, asking me what Soarin’ was like etc. I explained it was wonderful but when she asked me to convince her kids, perhaps five and seven to ride I refused. I explained my last ride had been ruined by someone who had been forced to ride and I wasn’t going to encourage her kids to go on if they didn’t want to. I don’t think that was the answer she was looking for. I’m not sure if her kids did ride but when her husband and youngest child came out they had loved it so perhaps they convinced the other two kids. I grabbed my camera and ran, didn’t see the horrible cm so no kicking involved.
Gavin said I was very nasty to the lady outside Soarin’ but I don’t care. My ride, and probably everyone’s as she was very loud, had been ruined by all the woman’s shouting so anybody who had waited 60 mins to ride should thank me those two kids weren’t forced on and screaming all the way through.
After all of this we only had 20 mins until our next ride time was here so we just had time to drink our drinks before heading back.
Hot Chocolate - $1.89
Coke - $2.09
Chips X2 - $3.29
Tax - $0.48
Total - $7.75
Second ride was much better, nobody forced to ride and I remembered to remove all of my luggage from the under seat storage facility.
Before we left we got another Fastpass as a souvenir.
A quick browse around Mousegear where I bought a pin $7.41 then we headed out. It started to rain as we left the park.
We had lunch at Wendy’s en-route to Sanford Airport but no receipt. It was a scary place though. Full of locals who looked very streetwise and the ladies loo had been flooded so having a pee was difficult.
Arrived at Sanford at 14.00 we dropped the car off and went through security.
We had several problems getting through security. First I had put away our boarding passes when I shouldn’t so got told to ‘stand still ma’am’ while my stuff came out the other side of the scanning machine and I could tell them where they were then I had liquid in my carryon, I knew this was allowed but you are supposed to tell them before they scan it, and it is supposed to be in a clear plastic bag. When my bag was searched she let me keep the little bottles of shampoo etc as they were in a plastic bag just not a clear one but she must have liked me because while we were then waiting for our laptop to be checked she wouldn’t let another lady take her lipstick through.
Security took about half an hour so I am glad we were early and it was quiet or we would have been even longer.
Straight to buy some magazines then into the guest house section. As soon as we were seated the display screen showed our flight delayed from 20.30 until 22.00. People who arrived at the airport later we told by the rep it was because of fog at Manchester which would prevent landing if we set of on time so the delay was tactical to try and stop us been diverted to Glasgow.
The delay didn’t bother us, we were nice and comfy at the guest house and settled down to watch the second half of the England match.
After a while we had some tea from the International Food Court
Bacon Cheesburger $5.75
Burger - $4.75
Fries X2 - $5.50
Tax - $1.12
Total - $17.12
Over the next few hours we watched tv, browsed the internet, read magazines and had our two free alcoholic drinks along with several non alcoholic ones and some cookies.
We boarded around 21.15 and had an ok flight home. The fella alongside me spent the whole flight digging his elbow in my ribs causing me to yell in pain when he leaned against me to move as I was sleeping but I didn’t get an apology. I managed to get a lot of sleep on the way back but Gavin didn’t get any at all. Before sleeping I watched X-Men 3 and we both ate Chicken for tea/midnight snack. They showed Cars on the way back aswell but I was long gone by then.
We landed at 11.00 and it was very traumatic! It was still very foggy in Manchester and we dropped the last 20 feet or so onto the runway and most of the Oxygen masks came down! Made everyone jump a bit.
On the way to immigration I nipped to the loo and Gavin said the captain walked past telling the crew that it was the smallest window he could have landed in and had he not been able to manage it we would have been on our way to Glasgow.
Luggage claim took forever but the courtesy bus for Bewleys came quickly. Gavin drove most of the way home then admitted he was shattered and we swopped. Home at 14.00 I let Gavin sleep until 16.30 while I unpacked then wake him up so he didn’t feel too bad tonight.
Jodie
PART 18 HERE
