Part 3 Day 0 Thursday 28th September
A great nights sleep overall but neither of us slept much past 07.00 so at 08.00 we put the telly on and made a cup of tea.
Our flight wasn’t until 13.30 so there wasn’t a rush but we were ready and waiting for the courtesy bus at 09.15.
We had to wait around 15 mins as the bus driver was very busy but we made it to T2 in plenty of time and check in was already open with a couple of people already queuing. Took about 15 mins to get our boarding passes and we got a warning about excess baggage as we were jointly 3 kilo’s over our 20 kilos each allowance.
Went straight through passport control to departures with a minimum sidetracking from a credit card salesman. No thank you. I should mention that a ridiculous amount of people had ignored all the warnings about liquids etc and this really slowed security down so I would leave extra time for this. Then we had breakfast at the food court.
Sausage & Egg sandwich X2 - £9.96
Tea X2 - £3.00
Orange Juice - £3.49
Milk - £0.69
Croissant - £1.69
Cinnamon Swirl - £1.79
Total - £20.62
All full up we had a little wonder then plonked ourselves down to wait.
I got bored after a bit and went to buy a bag from Accessorize that I had spied earlier (£29.78) and got a couple of magazines from WHSmiths. When I got back around 11.30 we had a drink from Starbucks. After my coffee I went to the loo to put on some of those flight socks. I was really hoping they worked as last year my ankles swelled up on the flight and remained uncomfortable all holiday. Also it was a 20 min struggle to get the damn things on!
When I got back to Gavin the gate we were sat near, Gate 212 was boarding for our flight. We heard many announcements to advertise this over the next 15 mins or so but it never once appeared on the screens.
As we were almost at the back we boarded early, about 50 mins before take off so by the time the flight set away 15 mins late because the USA were slow in giving clearance to go we were already feeling claustrophobic. The flight was completely uneventful there was a nice meal 2 hours in, I had Sausage & Mash and Gavin had Cajun Chicken and there was a snack 2 hours before landing of Tea & Scones. During the interim period I listened to my MP3 player and Gavin played his new F1 game on his PSP.
The only thing worth mentioning is all the crew were very friendly and helpful to everyone and drinks were readily available.
We landed dead on time at 17.30 and strolled into a packed immigration hall. We were literally our officers last check of the day and as such he was a very cheerful chap who waived us through in no time.
At baggage claim our cases were just coming out, they could have been circling for the last hour or so while we were still waiting for immigration, who knows but off we were to Dollar.
Gavin went to collect the SUV at 19.00 in the nice air-conditioned Dollar office while I waited outside in the Orlando humidity.
Gavin was ages collecting the car so despite separating the crowds at immigration they must have all been herded together again waiting at baggage collection.
I did two things while waiting for Gavin. The first was receive a phone call from one of Gavin’s friends. Keith was very upset not to be able to see Gavin get married and had threatened on more than one occasion to turn up (I gave him the same stare I gave my Mother) we hoped he was only joking about gate crashing but Gavin had been deliberately vague with all the details when talking to him. I had a nice chat with Keith and he wished us well.
The second thing I did was build up some hostility towards an SUV I was sat near, this vehicle was in my line of sight and I hated it. It was a horrible colour, horrible shape and I knew Gavin would return with keys for this car. When he did eventually turn up some 60 mins later I grabbed the keys and beep-beep, they worked on the SUV I hated. What did I do, what would any grown woman do? I refused to get in! The endless waiting was really getting to me now and I was in no mood to be messed with. Gavin returned to the Dollar office and the guy who had served him was free so Gavin told him ‘my girlfriend doesn’t like it’ with a sympathetic look he swooped the car in 5 mins flat.
The white Grand Jeep Cherokee was much better so luggage chucked in the back I drove us out of Sanford at 20.00. We decided to use the I4 as rush hour was well over now and found it easily enough.
We were both starving now and I convinced myself Everything Pop would only have leftovers available so once things started to look familiar we glanced around looking for somewhere to eat and settled on Burger King on International Drive at 21.00.
Whopper
Triple Whooper with cheese
Large Fries
Medium Fries
Large Coke
Medium Coke
Total - $12.76 (no individual prices on receipt)
Fed and therefore happy we re-joined the I4 for our final leg to Pop Century. Driving onto WDW property was fantastic, for about 3 mins until we realised we had passed signs for every WDW resort expect Pop! We ended up in Epcot’s car park where I nearly ran over a lady in a yellow t-shirt because she believed pedestrians don’t need to look where they are going! We backtracked our steps and once on the I4 again we tried a different WDW exit and after a few tense moments we saw the finishing line.
Parked up and ran to check-in, to say it was 22.00 check-in/out was still very busy but we only waited around 10 mins before we were seen. I asked if they had any king size rooms available but the CM apologised and said they hadn’t. Never mind. We got our lovely Keys to the Kingdom cards and went off to find our room which was 1451 50’s very close the car park, food court and had a quiet car park view and…… A king size bed!!!!! We are unsure whether the CM had deliberately done this so we would be surprised or (and this is the front runner) we had already been allocated this room but the CM was inexperienced and didn’t know king size rooms by number alone. Either way we were very happy.
Unpacked & showered then over to Everything Pop for refillable mugs, $11.99 each plus tax. I have wanted one of these for ages! Gavin got red and I chose orange. A little stroll around the shop then off the queue at check-in as we had a package to collect. I had ordered Gavin a gift basket ages ago and had managed to keep it a secret but as soon as we got the message on the phone saying something was here for us he knew it was for him from me. He was pleased with his Racer Mickey but even more so with the sweets!
Back to the room we put the drinks and sweets in the fridge (free with a king size accessible room) arranged a wake-up call for 07.30. Lights out at 00.17
Mug Refills - x1 each
Weather - Warm and a bit humid
Jodie
PART 4 HERE
A great nights sleep overall but neither of us slept much past 07.00 so at 08.00 we put the telly on and made a cup of tea.
Our flight wasn’t until 13.30 so there wasn’t a rush but we were ready and waiting for the courtesy bus at 09.15.
We had to wait around 15 mins as the bus driver was very busy but we made it to T2 in plenty of time and check in was already open with a couple of people already queuing. Took about 15 mins to get our boarding passes and we got a warning about excess baggage as we were jointly 3 kilo’s over our 20 kilos each allowance.
Went straight through passport control to departures with a minimum sidetracking from a credit card salesman. No thank you. I should mention that a ridiculous amount of people had ignored all the warnings about liquids etc and this really slowed security down so I would leave extra time for this. Then we had breakfast at the food court.
Sausage & Egg sandwich X2 - £9.96
Tea X2 - £3.00
Orange Juice - £3.49
Milk - £0.69
Croissant - £1.69
Cinnamon Swirl - £1.79
Total - £20.62
All full up we had a little wonder then plonked ourselves down to wait.
I got bored after a bit and went to buy a bag from Accessorize that I had spied earlier (£29.78) and got a couple of magazines from WHSmiths. When I got back around 11.30 we had a drink from Starbucks. After my coffee I went to the loo to put on some of those flight socks. I was really hoping they worked as last year my ankles swelled up on the flight and remained uncomfortable all holiday. Also it was a 20 min struggle to get the damn things on!
When I got back to Gavin the gate we were sat near, Gate 212 was boarding for our flight. We heard many announcements to advertise this over the next 15 mins or so but it never once appeared on the screens.
As we were almost at the back we boarded early, about 50 mins before take off so by the time the flight set away 15 mins late because the USA were slow in giving clearance to go we were already feeling claustrophobic. The flight was completely uneventful there was a nice meal 2 hours in, I had Sausage & Mash and Gavin had Cajun Chicken and there was a snack 2 hours before landing of Tea & Scones. During the interim period I listened to my MP3 player and Gavin played his new F1 game on his PSP.
The only thing worth mentioning is all the crew were very friendly and helpful to everyone and drinks were readily available.
We landed dead on time at 17.30 and strolled into a packed immigration hall. We were literally our officers last check of the day and as such he was a very cheerful chap who waived us through in no time.
At baggage claim our cases were just coming out, they could have been circling for the last hour or so while we were still waiting for immigration, who knows but off we were to Dollar.
Gavin went to collect the SUV at 19.00 in the nice air-conditioned Dollar office while I waited outside in the Orlando humidity.
Gavin was ages collecting the car so despite separating the crowds at immigration they must have all been herded together again waiting at baggage collection.
I did two things while waiting for Gavin. The first was receive a phone call from one of Gavin’s friends. Keith was very upset not to be able to see Gavin get married and had threatened on more than one occasion to turn up (I gave him the same stare I gave my Mother) we hoped he was only joking about gate crashing but Gavin had been deliberately vague with all the details when talking to him. I had a nice chat with Keith and he wished us well.
The second thing I did was build up some hostility towards an SUV I was sat near, this vehicle was in my line of sight and I hated it. It was a horrible colour, horrible shape and I knew Gavin would return with keys for this car. When he did eventually turn up some 60 mins later I grabbed the keys and beep-beep, they worked on the SUV I hated. What did I do, what would any grown woman do? I refused to get in! The endless waiting was really getting to me now and I was in no mood to be messed with. Gavin returned to the Dollar office and the guy who had served him was free so Gavin told him ‘my girlfriend doesn’t like it’ with a sympathetic look he swooped the car in 5 mins flat.
The white Grand Jeep Cherokee was much better so luggage chucked in the back I drove us out of Sanford at 20.00. We decided to use the I4 as rush hour was well over now and found it easily enough.
We were both starving now and I convinced myself Everything Pop would only have leftovers available so once things started to look familiar we glanced around looking for somewhere to eat and settled on Burger King on International Drive at 21.00.
Whopper
Triple Whooper with cheese
Large Fries
Medium Fries
Large Coke
Medium Coke
Total - $12.76 (no individual prices on receipt)
Fed and therefore happy we re-joined the I4 for our final leg to Pop Century. Driving onto WDW property was fantastic, for about 3 mins until we realised we had passed signs for every WDW resort expect Pop! We ended up in Epcot’s car park where I nearly ran over a lady in a yellow t-shirt because she believed pedestrians don’t need to look where they are going! We backtracked our steps and once on the I4 again we tried a different WDW exit and after a few tense moments we saw the finishing line.
Parked up and ran to check-in, to say it was 22.00 check-in/out was still very busy but we only waited around 10 mins before we were seen. I asked if they had any king size rooms available but the CM apologised and said they hadn’t. Never mind. We got our lovely Keys to the Kingdom cards and went off to find our room which was 1451 50’s very close the car park, food court and had a quiet car park view and…… A king size bed!!!!! We are unsure whether the CM had deliberately done this so we would be surprised or (and this is the front runner) we had already been allocated this room but the CM was inexperienced and didn’t know king size rooms by number alone. Either way we were very happy.
Unpacked & showered then over to Everything Pop for refillable mugs, $11.99 each plus tax. I have wanted one of these for ages! Gavin got red and I chose orange. A little stroll around the shop then off the queue at check-in as we had a package to collect. I had ordered Gavin a gift basket ages ago and had managed to keep it a secret but as soon as we got the message on the phone saying something was here for us he knew it was for him from me. He was pleased with his Racer Mickey but even more so with the sweets!
Back to the room we put the drinks and sweets in the fridge (free with a king size accessible room) arranged a wake-up call for 07.30. Lights out at 00.17
Mug Refills - x1 each
Weather - Warm and a bit humid
Jodie
PART 4 HERE
