Mandymouse's '5 Days to book a holiday !! .... You Must Be Kidding' Report

mandymouse

Bahama Mama Time !!
Joined
Mar 8, 2003
Castmembers

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Mandy (forever 39 ;)), Paul (never too old to wear Star Wars t-shirts)

Friday 27th April 2012

:yay: What an exciting day! Out of nowhere hubby announces that the two of us are off to Florida .... and within the next week :eek:

So over the next few days we book everything, as all we had were up-to-date ESTA's.

We book a cruise on the Disney Fantasy, a couple of nights at the Ron Jon Resort at Port Canaveral at the start of the holiday, and we finish off with 6 nights at the Pop Century

As you can imagine it was an exciting, but exhausting few days as we book everything, get washing done, pack, and I get my hair and nails done

So our itinerary looked like this

2nd ~ Night at Travelodge. Manchester Airport
3rd ~ Fly to MCO, Virgin VS075, check in at Ron Jon's Resort, Port Canaveral
4th ~ Kennedy Space Center
5th/12th ~ Disney Fantasy
12th/18th ~ Pop Century


Wednesday 2nd May

We didn't get away from home till 8.30pm, but the drive up to Manchester was a quiet one, and we arrived at the Travelodge at Manchester Airport at 10pm.

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We used the check-in machine (which found our booking but didn't issue our room card), once the receptionist gave us our key we found our room on the 2nd floor. The rooms looked very sparse, with white walls and a white duvet, and the TV was old too.

We decided to pop down to the bar for a drinky, and the restaurant looked tired and cheap too. Now we've stayed here several times and most of those times were £10 rooms, but we felt quite disappointed at paying nearly £40 for this stay. I wish I'd spent another tenner on a room at the Premier Inn next door

Anyway after our drinks we went to bed around midnight :)

 
Oh how cool to book a holiday that quick and then fly! I would love to be able to do that! Sorry to hear that the Travelodge was a disappointment, I hope it was the only one of the trip :)
 
What a great surprise trip Mandy. I am so excited to see what you thought of the Fantasy.
 
Thursday 3rd May

The alarm woke us up at 6.30am, after a very restless night (we were too excited - lol). After a quick shower we got changed and packed everything away, got in the car and headed for the airport. We parked at the short stay car park at Terminal 2, then headed over to departures. There wasn't a queue at Virgin check-in, so in no time we had handed over our luggage and were taking the escalator up to security

First stop (as always) was brekkie at Frankie & Benny's. I had an omelette and Paul had a full English, and we both had a cup of tea

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After our delish breakfast, I ordered a Bucks Fizz, but for some reason she was unable to get me one :sad1: so we paid the bill and had a glass of wine and pint of lager at the bar opposite

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After an hour of chilling and people watching we had a mooch around the duty free, and Paul treated himself to some aftershave and me to some J-Lo perfume

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The boarding gate opened around 10.15am, and we were all onboard and pulling away at 11am and on time. The pilot announced that our flight would only be 8 hours & 12 minutes (yay!!!)

Once the seat belt lights were switched off the cabin crew brought a menu round to us which told us what food and drinks we would expect during the flight. The drinks trolley came round and I tried their fruit cocktail with vodka (very nice) and Paul had a lager and we both had a mini bag of pretzels

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The movies started, so we both watched Contagion which was quite good. During the movie we had dinner. We both chose chicken in a creamy leek sauce, which also came with a salad and bread roll (also on the menu were sausage & mash, and a penne pasta dish). I had a bacardi & diet coke and Paul had a lager with our meals. Shortly after finishing our dinner and everything was cleared away a chocolate dessert was brought round

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Next I watched The Descendants (ok), then a couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory. I started to watch Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy but I nodded off to sleep and lost the plot (lol) only to wake up when a choccy skinny cow ice lolly was brought round

The flight went quite quick really and an hour or so before landing we had a sandwich and a scone with strawberry jam & clotted cream (Mmm)

We landed at 2.30pm, and immigration was quiet as our flight was the first to arrive. At the time it felt like it went slow, but once through, our bags were waiting for us in the carousel, and we were out of the terminal and driving away in our jeep by 3.30pm

After a little wrong turn, we were on the 528 and on our way to Port Canaveral. It was lovely and sunny and as we approached the port we could see the Disney Dream. We checked into the Ron Jon's resort, quickly dropped our luggage in our suite, got changed and caught the little tram down to the beach, and we arrived at the estuary just as the Dream approached. We took some photos, then headed back to the resort to chill by the pool

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After an hour we had a quick shower then drove down to the Ron Jon store in Cocoa Beach. We had a good look round but didn't buy anything, I think we were just so tired and we were trying to last out till at least 9pm (lol). On our way back to the resort we stopped off for a McDonalds, which wasn't very nice, and once back at the resort we had a couple of Rumrunners at the bar before calling it a night
 


Great start to your trip Mandy. I am looking forward to trying that cocktail in August :thumbsup2

How lovely that you were able to get into your shorts and onto the beach on arrival day. That room at Ron Jon's looks huge - we are thinking of staying at port the night before our cruise next year - would you recommend the resort? Do they do a shuttle to port?
 
ooooh Im so excited you have started, loving it so far.....more please:goodvibes:goodvibes:goodvibes
 
I thought you had disappeared for a while, Mandy, and then I saw a day or 2 ago you mention in another thread you had been away. Was hoping you'd share more details so I'll be subscribing :thumbsup2

Can't wait to hear more!
 


Oh how cool to book a holiday that quick and then fly! I would love to be able to do that! Sorry to hear that the Travelodge was a disappointment, I hope it was the only one of the trip :)

It was sad to see the Travelodge look so run down, but if I got £10 rooms, then I'd be there like a flash :)

What a great surprise trip Mandy. I am so excited to see what you thought of the Fantasy.

Joh, the Fantasy was A-MAZ-ING !!! ::yes::

Great start to your trip Mandy. I am looking forward to trying that cocktail in August :thumbsup2

How lovely that you were able to get into your shorts and onto the beach on arrival day. That room at Ron Jon's looks huge - we are thinking of staying at port the night before our cruise next year - would you recommend the resort? Do they do a shuttle to port?

We've stayed there 3 times now, in my September trippy we had an even bigger suite. It's a lovely resort, they said we could leave our car there for free and get a cab to the port, but we don't mind parking at the port :)

ooooh Im so excited you have started, loving it so far.....more please:goodvibes:goodvibes:goodvibes

Hopefully there will be more tomorrow :)

I thought you had disappeared for a while, Mandy, and then I saw a day or 2 ago you mention in another thread you had been away. Was hoping you'd share more details so I'll be subscribing :thumbsup2

Can't wait to hear more!

I know it's a bit daft, but I hate posting on here or on Facebook that I'm away if I'm leaving the girls at home, though I really didn't have time to announce anything this time, those 5 days were a bit of a blur :rotfl:
 
so glad to see your report - me and Kirsty are enjoying it very much x
 
Lovely start Mandy.

I used to love going on last minute trips..some of our best holidays were like this.

Looking forward to reading more.
 
Sounds like you had a great time.

Looking forward to further updates of your travels.

Agree with others Ron Jon Resort looks lovely :goodvibes
 
Friday 4th May

I think we both slept badly. I heard Paul get up around 5am, and when I got up a few minutes later he was taking photos of the Disney Magic from our balcony as she headed back to port. I caught up with my trip report and messaged the girls back home

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Around 7am we got showered and changed, then set off to find a Wal-Mart. After getting a few bits & bobs, and a large fruit cup to share (which we ate in the car park), we then called in again at the Ron Jon store, where this time I bought 3 tops (that's more like it, lol), and Paul bought a shirt and t-shirt

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This morning we were heading to the Kennedy Space Center, and we were going to do a tour which would take us out to the Vehicle Assembly Building. We arrived at KSC around 10am and our tour was at 10.30am. We reported to where we would be getting the bus, and we were given a brochure and lanyard. Our guide, Ray and our bus driver, Randy, were really good and joked along the way too. We were taken out to various areas of KSC, then to the VAB, where we could go in and take photos (shame there wasn't a Shuttle in there too). After our tour, we did the gantry and the SaturnV exhibition

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We really enjoyed this tour, especially as we love anything to do with the Shuttle, so for us it was really worth the extra $25 each on top of the normal KSC admission. After some lunch, we took the bus back to the Visitors Center, then left as it was very busy due to a rocket launch later in the afternoon

Cont'd ..
 
...

We just got back to the Resort when the rocket was launched, and we had quite a good view of it

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We then got changed and enjoyed an hour sunbathing by the pool

Around 4.30pm we drove up to Grill's where we enjoyed a couple of drinks and watched the Disney Magic leave the port

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We returned to the Resort, and had a nice meal at the Tiki bar and a few cocktails as it was Happy Hour, then called it a night

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Tomorrow ~ Boarding the Disney Fantasy :)


 
Looks like you enjoyed KSC. I always think I would be bored there, although Gary said he really enjoyed it when he went a few years ago.

Can't wait till the 'boarding the Fantasy' installment :hyper:
 
wow you've packed a lot in already, how exciting to go on a last minute trip. We loved KSC especially seeing a shuttle launch, we saw Endeavour a few years ago . Looking forward to reading more :goodvibes
 
Hi Mandy

Just caught up with your trippie.
Nice pics inside Kennedy :thumbsup2
Where is Grills?........anywhere near to Fish Lips bar
Looking forward to Fantasy report :)
 

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