raph_b
<font color="red">Proud Redhead</font>
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
- Messages
- 1,006
Hi Guys 
It's been a whirlwind here ever since we got back, so sorry about the delay but (finally!) here is the long overdue first installment of my surprise trip...........
The pre-trippy has all the background and can be found here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1850893
The big day had finally arrived, after 10 months of planning, drafting spreadsheets, booking restaurants and keeping secrets it was finally time to go!
We got up at 5.50am and I think this must have been the only time in my life that I haven't been tired after getting up so early, the excitement had definitely kicked in
I drove down to Bristol airport (as Em thought she would be driving ever day for the next 2 weeks!) and we parked up and finally got to check in about 8.30am. This is one of my favourite parts - I presumed that Em would find out our destination once we checked in, but the check in desk had 'MANCHESTER' as our destination!
(Because the plane was touching down in Manc to refuel) Em was extremely confused as Manchester wasn't a destination she had considered, but when as we were queuing we passed a giant poster advertising First Choice holidays to Florida and that's when the game was given away!
Our flight was delayed for about an hour but we were both so excited it didn't really matter, finally Em knew where we were going and finally I could talk about her about going to Disneyworld!!
The flight wasn't actually too bad, we read through our Brit's guide and the pack of information I made for her, listened to a few reviews of restaurants on the DIS podcast (plus a bit of sleeping), I watched Kung Fu Panda (which was extremely disappointing!) and before we knew it we were in Orlando!
We picked up the car- I love the fact we were allowed to choose any car from the selection - and drove off to the hotel, which we arrived at around 7pm ish.
On the way to the hotel I even got excited when we saw signs for Wendy's & Taco Bell! (The latter of which you will come to realise plays a recurring role in the trip!) We also saw the 'infamous' Bloody Mary billboards, which I have to say looked really cool.
We stayed at the International Plaza and once we arrived I was a bit concerned as to which room we would get, as reviews online say the rooms are either amazing or crappy. It was a lovely surprise to open the door and find this:
The room was amazing!
Check out the number of pillows!!!
We were knackered but needed to get some food, I had been hoping to go to Downtown Disney but didn't really feel up to driving in the dark (can you believe it - we deviated from the spreadsheet after mere hours! shame on us) so we headed to Tony Roma's on I drive, I had never been there but heard lots about how good the ribs were and OMG, easily the best ribs I've ever had in my life!
I had the St Louis Rib platter and Em went for a Salmon salad. We forget to take pics until after a few bites - and the one of me and the ribs has me with a big smile and sauce all over my face - I wouldn't want top put anyone off their dinner so I wont post it!
A great tip I picked up from these boards - I joined the Tony Roma online email club and they sent me a voucher for a free entree for my birthday
So the total bill without tip was $17.04.
I almost forgot - we tried to pay with our fairfx card and it wouldn't work - to say we panicked would be putting it mildly! Not sure what happened that night, as every time after that the card worked perfectly
We then picked up some essentials from the supermarket next door (grape Fanta, Cheetos & water) and headed back to our hotel to crash out for the night.
Next up - Adventures in Epcot..........
It's been a whirlwind here ever since we got back, so sorry about the delay but (finally!) here is the long overdue first installment of my surprise trip...........
The pre-trippy has all the background and can be found here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1850893
The big day had finally arrived, after 10 months of planning, drafting spreadsheets, booking restaurants and keeping secrets it was finally time to go!
We got up at 5.50am and I think this must have been the only time in my life that I haven't been tired after getting up so early, the excitement had definitely kicked in
I drove down to Bristol airport (as Em thought she would be driving ever day for the next 2 weeks!) and we parked up and finally got to check in about 8.30am. This is one of my favourite parts - I presumed that Em would find out our destination once we checked in, but the check in desk had 'MANCHESTER' as our destination!
(Because the plane was touching down in Manc to refuel) Em was extremely confused as Manchester wasn't a destination she had considered, but when as we were queuing we passed a giant poster advertising First Choice holidays to Florida and that's when the game was given away!Our flight was delayed for about an hour but we were both so excited it didn't really matter, finally Em knew where we were going and finally I could talk about her about going to Disneyworld!!
The flight wasn't actually too bad, we read through our Brit's guide and the pack of information I made for her, listened to a few reviews of restaurants on the DIS podcast (plus a bit of sleeping), I watched Kung Fu Panda (which was extremely disappointing!) and before we knew it we were in Orlando!
We picked up the car- I love the fact we were allowed to choose any car from the selection - and drove off to the hotel, which we arrived at around 7pm ish.
On the way to the hotel I even got excited when we saw signs for Wendy's & Taco Bell! (The latter of which you will come to realise plays a recurring role in the trip!) We also saw the 'infamous' Bloody Mary billboards, which I have to say looked really cool.
We stayed at the International Plaza and once we arrived I was a bit concerned as to which room we would get, as reviews online say the rooms are either amazing or crappy. It was a lovely surprise to open the door and find this:
The room was amazing!
Check out the number of pillows!!!We were knackered but needed to get some food, I had been hoping to go to Downtown Disney but didn't really feel up to driving in the dark (can you believe it - we deviated from the spreadsheet after mere hours! shame on us) so we headed to Tony Roma's on I drive, I had never been there but heard lots about how good the ribs were and OMG, easily the best ribs I've ever had in my life!
I had the St Louis Rib platter and Em went for a Salmon salad. We forget to take pics until after a few bites - and the one of me and the ribs has me with a big smile and sauce all over my face - I wouldn't want top put anyone off their dinner so I wont post it!
A great tip I picked up from these boards - I joined the Tony Roma online email club and they sent me a voucher for a free entree for my birthday
So the total bill without tip was $17.04.
I almost forgot - we tried to pay with our fairfx card and it wouldn't work - to say we panicked would be putting it mildly! Not sure what happened that night, as every time after that the card worked perfectly
We then picked up some essentials from the supermarket next door (grape Fanta, Cheetos & water) and headed back to our hotel to crash out for the night.
Next up - Adventures in Epcot..........
.
.x.
Waiting for more! 
