Marie and Steve's 2007 Florida Holiday
- Thread starter Little Flower
- Start date
Little Flower
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2007
Good start Marie - did your dogs go to the kennels near the airport? I love Belfast International airport, it's so nice for a small airport
Looking forward to hearing more - and seeing more pics, of course
We use Bally Harvey Pet Country Club - the one on the road to Antrim. It's the only kennels that i feel comfortable in as it's quite swanky and the staff are great. I still hate leaving them though!!1
Minniespal
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- Joined
- Jan 14, 2003
Excellent start Marie ~ Looking forward to reading more
Little Flower
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2007
Day one began at the ungodly hour of 6.30am!!!!! Just so that you understand, there is nothing more painful to me than getting woken up early!! Anything before 10am turns me into "Evil Marie" - it's not a pretty sight!! Whilst the prospect of the loaming WDW arrival curbed the temper, it did not help me become any less useless whilst my body adjusted to the jet lag of being woken so early.
DH breezed out of bed, chirping happily as he got ready (see little birdies and pretty rainbows when you read this - he is a shift worker so not phased by rubbish hours!)
The hotel had a shuttle bus leaving at 7am which we made by the skin of our teeth. Joy of joys, We were off............ to the airport.
Gatwick airport never fails to leave me feeling like a child at Christmas. The exciting, butterflies in the stomach feeling of anticipation, coupled with the sheer size of the place is awesome.
I giggled my way into the airport, bouncing up and down and chatting excitedly with anyone in the vicinity and found the que............which wound round the entire airport.....twice.......and all the way into London City Centre............and back!!!!
As the title of this post suggests, i have never experience so many little lucky occurences as we did this day. Now was time for number one.
The cue we were in was for all Thomson passengers travelling 01/06/07. It wasn't split into destinations yet. That is, not until we arrived!! Just as we joined the cue, and the lovely elderly gentleman helped me figure out the very complicated (honest) luggage tags
"Is any one flying to Sanford Orlando??" was shouted over the din.
We were the only ones that shouted back!!!!!
Yippee straight to the front of the cue for us!!!!!
Within about 5 minutes of joining the original cue we were checked in!! and rid of the ridiculously heavy suitcase i was lugging around.
Security was very busy but, not too bad. My advice.... be prepared. Do all the things on the little notices and you'll get through in now time.
Now for the most important part of the day!!! Shopping!!!!
I don't get to go through Duty Free very often so i had been looking forward to this.
I was quite proud of my purchases today. 2 bottle of perfume. I had to rein in the spending a little otherwise all our spending money would have been gone before we had left London. We agonised over some beautiful sunglasses but, decided to wait until we got to America (which turned out to be a wise move)
The flight went really well. I had come prepared with tranquilisers, which i didn't need so i was really chuffed. And i didn't have any tantrums or panic attacks so DH was really chuffed to. It was pretty uneventful. We upgraded the entertainment package - which i would recommend. So there were loads of films and tv to watch.
I sat and watched Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Didn'[t help me get over my Hugh Grant crush at all but, it had one of the best lines i have heard in a film for ages;
"Just a little bit louder, because this song is intended for humans, okay?"
I won't even mention his dancing!!!
anyway..................................................
We finally laned after being on the place for 9.5 million hours (at least it felt like it)
We got through security and baggage claim fairly quickly and were off to collect the car.
Now this was something that was filling me with dread. I wasn't going to be able to relax into the holiday until this was sorted.
The problem is that i don't like credit cards, i would rather see the cash i'm spending. I got one last year specifically for going to USA but it only has a £200 limit. When went to pick up the hire car last year (a swanky silver convertable!!) it cost me $900 of the spending money we had brought and we only had $2600 that year. It was awful. This was after we had been told that our car was all inclusive!
This year i had it all checked before hand and was told i would only have to pay about £100 which i was fine with. I was still worried sick though.
Here comes lucky moment number two.
We rented a car from Alamo. Total cost $350
We had to pay roughly $150 normal charges but they upgraded our compact to a convertible for $200 for 2 weeks (we were planning to do this if it was not too expensive)
Look what we drove around in for 2 weeks;
I have wanted a beetle since i was about 4 yrs old. We had my dream car on holiday. My lovely husband picked this over the 4 x 4 he wanted as he knew how happy it would make me!!
Everyone say ahhhhh.........................
Next: I4, thunderstorms and "Can this hotel be any better?"
DH breezed out of bed, chirping happily as he got ready (see little birdies and pretty rainbows when you read this - he is a shift worker so not phased by rubbish hours!)
The hotel had a shuttle bus leaving at 7am which we made by the skin of our teeth. Joy of joys, We were off............ to the airport.
Gatwick airport never fails to leave me feeling like a child at Christmas. The exciting, butterflies in the stomach feeling of anticipation, coupled with the sheer size of the place is awesome.
I giggled my way into the airport, bouncing up and down and chatting excitedly with anyone in the vicinity and found the que............which wound round the entire airport.....twice.......and all the way into London City Centre............and back!!!!
As the title of this post suggests, i have never experience so many little lucky occurences as we did this day. Now was time for number one.
The cue we were in was for all Thomson passengers travelling 01/06/07. It wasn't split into destinations yet. That is, not until we arrived!! Just as we joined the cue, and the lovely elderly gentleman helped me figure out the very complicated (honest) luggage tags
"Is any one flying to Sanford Orlando??" was shouted over the din.
We were the only ones that shouted back!!!!!
Yippee straight to the front of the cue for us!!!!!
Within about 5 minutes of joining the original cue we were checked in!! and rid of the ridiculously heavy suitcase i was lugging around.
Security was very busy but, not too bad. My advice.... be prepared. Do all the things on the little notices and you'll get through in now time.
Now for the most important part of the day!!! Shopping!!!!
I don't get to go through Duty Free very often so i had been looking forward to this.
I was quite proud of my purchases today. 2 bottle of perfume. I had to rein in the spending a little otherwise all our spending money would have been gone before we had left London. We agonised over some beautiful sunglasses but, decided to wait until we got to America (which turned out to be a wise move)
The flight went really well. I had come prepared with tranquilisers, which i didn't need so i was really chuffed. And i didn't have any tantrums or panic attacks so DH was really chuffed to. It was pretty uneventful. We upgraded the entertainment package - which i would recommend. So there were loads of films and tv to watch.
I sat and watched Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Didn'[t help me get over my Hugh Grant crush at all but, it had one of the best lines i have heard in a film for ages;
"Just a little bit louder, because this song is intended for humans, okay?"
I won't even mention his dancing!!!
anyway..................................................
We finally laned after being on the place for 9.5 million hours (at least it felt like it)
We got through security and baggage claim fairly quickly and were off to collect the car.
Now this was something that was filling me with dread. I wasn't going to be able to relax into the holiday until this was sorted.
The problem is that i don't like credit cards, i would rather see the cash i'm spending. I got one last year specifically for going to USA but it only has a £200 limit. When went to pick up the hire car last year (a swanky silver convertable!!) it cost me $900 of the spending money we had brought and we only had $2600 that year. It was awful. This was after we had been told that our car was all inclusive!
This year i had it all checked before hand and was told i would only have to pay about £100 which i was fine with. I was still worried sick though.
Here comes lucky moment number two.
We rented a car from Alamo. Total cost $350
We had to pay roughly $150 normal charges but they upgraded our compact to a convertible for $200 for 2 weeks (we were planning to do this if it was not too expensive)
Look what we drove around in for 2 weeks;
I have wanted a beetle since i was about 4 yrs old. We had my dream car on holiday. My lovely husband picked this over the 4 x 4 he wanted as he knew how happy it would make me!!
Everyone say ahhhhh.........................
Next: I4, thunderstorms and "Can this hotel be any better?"
Little Flower
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2007
Little Flower
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2007
Lovely start to your holiday.
I feel the same, isn't it so sad to be home
I really can't get over the fact that last week i was staying in the most beautiful place without a care in the world
and now i'm back to reality. I think i will have to get over the slump by booking to go back
Little Flower
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2007
The drive to WDW is always relatively easy! We head for I4 then we have a straight drive down to the hotel. We arrive in bright shiny sunshine and float off to the room.
This is how it was all planned in my head!!! Silly me..........
DH took on the driving responsibilities for the fortnight, thankfully. We will gloss over last years me driving the wrong way up a three lane highway!!
Luckily for us we decided to keep the top up on the car!! The day that was a bit cloudy and overcast when we first arrived at the airport turned greyer and greyer the closer we got to Downtown Orlando. Then it started.....Rain. Lots and lots of rain!!!
Add to the rain Orlando rush hour and you can probably imagine the stress levels when we finally arrived at the hotel. I was completely frazzled. Even the drive under the welcome arches didn't help!!!
All the stress melted away once we arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge!!!!
We decided to valet park the car on arrival as we didn't know where we were going or what we were doing so we had to pull up by the front door. The car door was opened for me by a cast member and i was greeted by the wonderful sounds of African Music. We were under a very large and high thatched roof (kind of like an enormous porch!)
My DH isn't really one for getting excited. He really enjoys things very much but, when i am too excited to sleep he is snoring away. That all changed on entering this hotel.
We declined Bell Services as we just didn't have very much luggage and headed through the front doors. I nearly fell over with shock! I hadn't quite realised who beautiful this resort actually is!!! Both DH and I were jaw droppingly excited!! DH just kept grinning and saying "oh my god" under his breath over and over!!!
I have a video of the hotel rather than photos but i haven't figured out how to put them on the computer yet!!
We headed over to the check in desk to be met with a very sweet cast member who set about finding us the perfect room. My only request was that it was a quiet room that was away from any construction. The cast member found us an amazing room: Room 3232 on the Kudu trail. It was overlooking the smaller savana whose name escapes me but it was a great room
It's quite a dark picture but you can kind of see the layout
The vanity in the bathroom
We were overlooking a smaller part of the savanah and a kind of pen (it didn't have anything in when were were there but nevermind. Even though it wasn't the best location, we were never short of Giraffes, Ostriches, Cattle and the really cute River Hogs. The room was wonderful - no complaints at all
The view from the balcony
This is how it was all planned in my head!!! Silly me..........
DH took on the driving responsibilities for the fortnight, thankfully. We will gloss over last years me driving the wrong way up a three lane highway!!
Luckily for us we decided to keep the top up on the car!! The day that was a bit cloudy and overcast when we first arrived at the airport turned greyer and greyer the closer we got to Downtown Orlando. Then it started.....Rain. Lots and lots of rain!!!
Add to the rain Orlando rush hour and you can probably imagine the stress levels when we finally arrived at the hotel. I was completely frazzled. Even the drive under the welcome arches didn't help!!!
All the stress melted away once we arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge!!!!
We decided to valet park the car on arrival as we didn't know where we were going or what we were doing so we had to pull up by the front door. The car door was opened for me by a cast member and i was greeted by the wonderful sounds of African Music. We were under a very large and high thatched roof (kind of like an enormous porch!)
My DH isn't really one for getting excited. He really enjoys things very much but, when i am too excited to sleep he is snoring away. That all changed on entering this hotel.
We declined Bell Services as we just didn't have very much luggage and headed through the front doors. I nearly fell over with shock! I hadn't quite realised who beautiful this resort actually is!!! Both DH and I were jaw droppingly excited!! DH just kept grinning and saying "oh my god" under his breath over and over!!!
I have a video of the hotel rather than photos but i haven't figured out how to put them on the computer yet!!
We headed over to the check in desk to be met with a very sweet cast member who set about finding us the perfect room. My only request was that it was a quiet room that was away from any construction. The cast member found us an amazing room: Room 3232 on the Kudu trail. It was overlooking the smaller savana whose name escapes me but it was a great room
It's quite a dark picture but you can kind of see the layout
The vanity in the bathroom
We were overlooking a smaller part of the savanah and a kind of pen (it didn't have anything in when were were there but nevermind. Even though it wasn't the best location, we were never short of Giraffes, Ostriches, Cattle and the really cute River Hogs. The room was wonderful - no complaints at all
The view from the balcony
Little Flower
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2007
By the time we were finally into the room the lack of sleep had started to hit. The floor was literally bouncing under my feet i was so disorientated (Think back to my comments about sleep in earlier posts)
The original plan was to head to Epcot to World Showcase. This went out the window, not only for the being extremely tired reason but, also the second plan of exploring the lodge the next morning when we woke up early due to jetlag meant that i would have to be patient!!! Not going to happen............
We were both so excited by how beautiful the resort was that we didn't even wait to unpack. We ran straight back out of the door and set about finding out everything about our home for the next 2 weeks!!
To say this resort is amazing is an understatement. I am still reeling now by the fact that i was able to experience such an amazing place. The though and detail that must have gone into building AKL is overwhelming. The attention to detail is fantastic. I loved the fact that the resort is quite dark (although i have heard many complaints about this) I though it simply added to the ambiance of the whole area. I loved the sweeping stairs down to Boma and Jiko and the way that you have to walk over a little bridge over an indoor stream to be able to get down there.
After all the exploring, and dodging of the rain, we headed to bed (at about 9.30!!!) to prepare ourselves for our first full day
Next: Will it ever stop raining??? Lots of shopping. World Showcase. Illuminations
The original plan was to head to Epcot to World Showcase. This went out the window, not only for the being extremely tired reason but, also the second plan of exploring the lodge the next morning when we woke up early due to jetlag meant that i would have to be patient!!! Not going to happen............
We were both so excited by how beautiful the resort was that we didn't even wait to unpack. We ran straight back out of the door and set about finding out everything about our home for the next 2 weeks!!
To say this resort is amazing is an understatement. I am still reeling now by the fact that i was able to experience such an amazing place. The though and detail that must have gone into building AKL is overwhelming. The attention to detail is fantastic. I loved the fact that the resort is quite dark (although i have heard many complaints about this) I though it simply added to the ambiance of the whole area. I loved the sweeping stairs down to Boma and Jiko and the way that you have to walk over a little bridge over an indoor stream to be able to get down there.
After all the exploring, and dodging of the rain, we headed to bed (at about 9.30!!!) to prepare ourselves for our first full day
Next: Will it ever stop raining??? Lots of shopping. World Showcase. Illuminations
Minniespal
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- Joined
- Jan 14, 2003
Beautiful piccies ~ Looking forward to reading more
PoppyAnna
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2006
I really can't get over the fact that last week i was staying in the most beautiful place without a care in the world
Indeed, DH says 2012
I say 2009!
Little Flower
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2007
Indeed, DH says 2012
Mine is exactly the same except i am trying for 2008!!!!
Little Flower
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2007
Not Yet!!!!!! I am trying though. I was thinking about trying another resort but i don't think i could do without Animal Kingdom now!!
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
Really enjoying your report Marie - AKL looks lovely
Little Flower
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2007
Really enjoying your report Marie - AKL looks lovely
Thanks - once i get my photos all posted on photobucket( it takes ages!!! There's so many!!!) i will do my next post.
AKL is positively the most beautiful place. I feel really privileged to have stayed there. I am going to work on the DH for next year. I will just have to get a great job when we are posted so that he can't say no! Perhaps it can be a "Congratulations you have been posted" present to ourselves???????
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
You know, the (slightly cheaper) alternative might be to do it yourself and see if you can rent DVC points for a stay at AKV
Funniebunny
<font color=6666cc>She can't always be on holiday,
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2005
Great to see your back. Can't wait to read the rest of your trippie. Would you recommend AKL? What was the construction like? We have booked for Nov but I wasn't sure whether to move due to the building work.
You had a great view though and the hotel does look amazing!
You had a great view though and the hotel does look amazing!
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