I am going to do Day 1 just now and then post bunch of other days to that post, however feel free to comment or ask questions as it will take me a few days to complete the full report.
Ok I am going to start off by saying I had a great time, everyone did. So please when you read a couple of little negative points I make, keep in mind I had the best holiday ever and these little things didnt actually upset or ruin the holiday however I could see some people coming to tears over dealing with the couple of issues I had LOL
- Travelling
Only brining this up as this is when your holiday starts, or at least it should be. We flew from Glasgow to Orlando via Reykjavik on Iceland Air. What was special about this trip is Iceland Air give people from Glasgow a free dip in the Blue Lagoon ( http://www.bluelagoon.com/ ). This was amazing, and sure bet the heck out of sitting in an airport for 4 hours My son loved it, but as his head was cold and his body warm I was thinking we should take him out, he went mental as he wanted to stay in he was loving it so much 
What a start to the holiday and the 3 girls (my sisters-in-law) 9, 12 and 13 loved this part also.
Back on the flight we rented 2 media player boxes from onboard the plane. They had 8 films, bunch of TV programs and music video and music on them, cost $15 for the trip but it made the 7 and half hours fly in, worth paying for.
Got to Orlando and because we forgot to dump the apple we had onboard for our son to eat, we where forced to get everything searched by customs, thankfully that just involved x-ray machines, but for goodness sake, an apple, we are not talking class 1 drugs!!!
Anyway once done that we got a whole new experience, at the Airport, they had a full metal detector and bag, shoe check, laptop and camera check for everyone leaving the airport, thats right leaving.. where on earth do they think we would have got bombs or drugs from at this point and to do what, I mean I am sure its easier to buy these things once your land side in the USA, anyway that part over we went to the baggage hall to collect our bags and meet our driver.
Now we normally get a town car but due to the size of the party we hired a 15 seat van, our normal driver Vincent was not at the Airport to meet us. However Mario picked us up and even called Vincent to say he got us and he had a quick word with me to wish us a happy holiday and apologise for not being able to meet us personally, but Mario was a good guy and got us to Animal Kingdom Lodge. By the way I know the forum has a Limo Sponsor but if you need an alternative I cant recommend Vincent and his team of drivers highly enough, used them the last 4 trips, so give me a shout if you need that type of service and I will send you the details.
- Disneys Animal Kingdom Lodge
So got to the hotel and wow is it impressive as you drive up and when you get in to the lobby wow again, its so nice. Time is now just after 11pm at night, I go to check in and the dude at the table says I need to be quick as all the computers shut down at 12. Nuts but hey cant take a whole hour to book you in, could it? Well yes it could if they got your details wrong
What happened was we booked with Walt Disney Travel Company here in the UK, mistakenly thinking booking direct will be the safest way to do it, well even with a official tickets saying all the stuff we booked on them, the system at Animal Kingdom Lodge was saying we didnt book 14 Day Ultimate Park Hopper Tickets and guy on the desk couldnt find them and couldnt add them, long story short he got us in to the room but I would have to visit concierge in the morning to sort the tickets out, I tell you about that in the next post.
- The Room
We had 2 rooms, both Deluxe Savannah View rooms. Here is the cool bits, had interconnecting door without me asking. 1 of the 2 rooms had bunk beds without asking. Each had a fridge in it without asking. AKL has Hi-Speed Internet access. We where 2 buildings away from the lobby, so pretty close to get in and out.
On the Negative side I paid for the full thing in my name, but they booked 2 rooms in different last names and stuck 5 people with same name in one room and 2 plus infant in the other. The issue here is that its causing problems in restaurants when we book a table of 8, will explain more later.
That night we told the Adults about the surprises booked, i.e. the Dinning Plan so all money they saved for dinners could be used as spending money, they clearly seen the room was better than a standard room, and the Savannah view they didnt expect as I said I could only afford car park views before the holiday Also that we where going to Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party and that I had the Wishes Cruise booked also
so was an exciting night.
Anyway this is the start of my trip report, I do more posting later. Hey it is just like a soap opera LOL
Ok I am going to start off by saying I had a great time, everyone did. So please when you read a couple of little negative points I make, keep in mind I had the best holiday ever and these little things didnt actually upset or ruin the holiday however I could see some people coming to tears over dealing with the couple of issues I had LOL
- Travelling
Only brining this up as this is when your holiday starts, or at least it should be. We flew from Glasgow to Orlando via Reykjavik on Iceland Air. What was special about this trip is Iceland Air give people from Glasgow a free dip in the Blue Lagoon ( http://www.bluelagoon.com/ ). This was amazing, and sure bet the heck out of sitting in an airport for 4 hours
My son loved it, but as his head was cold and his body warm I was thinking we should take him out, he went mental as he wanted to stay in he was loving it so much What a start to the holiday and the 3 girls (my sisters-in-law) 9, 12 and 13 loved this part also.Back on the flight we rented 2 media player boxes from onboard the plane. They had 8 films, bunch of TV programs and music video and music on them, cost $15 for the trip but it made the 7 and half hours fly in, worth paying for.
Got to Orlando and because we forgot to dump the apple we had onboard for our son to eat, we where forced to get everything searched by customs, thankfully that just involved x-ray machines, but for goodness sake, an apple, we are not talking class 1 drugs!!!
Anyway once done that we got a whole new experience, at the Airport, they had a full metal detector and bag, shoe check, laptop and camera check for everyone leaving the airport, thats right leaving.. where on earth do they think we would have got bombs or drugs from at this point and to do what, I mean I am sure its easier to buy these things once your land side in the USA, anyway that part over we went to the baggage hall to collect our bags and meet our driver.
Now we normally get a town car but due to the size of the party we hired a 15 seat van, our normal driver Vincent was not at the Airport to meet us. However Mario picked us up and even called Vincent to say he got us and he had a quick word with me to wish us a happy holiday and apologise for not being able to meet us personally, but Mario was a good guy and got us to Animal Kingdom Lodge. By the way I know the forum has a Limo Sponsor but if you need an alternative I cant recommend Vincent and his team of drivers highly enough, used them the last 4 trips, so give me a shout if you need that type of service and I will send you the details.
- Disneys Animal Kingdom Lodge
So got to the hotel and wow is it impressive as you drive up and when you get in to the lobby wow again, its so nice. Time is now just after 11pm at night, I go to check in and the dude at the table says I need to be quick as all the computers shut down at 12. Nuts but hey cant take a whole hour to book you in, could it? Well yes it could if they got your details wrong
What happened was we booked with Walt Disney Travel Company here in the UK, mistakenly thinking booking direct will be the safest way to do it, well even with a official tickets saying all the stuff we booked on them, the system at Animal Kingdom Lodge was saying we didnt book 14 Day Ultimate Park Hopper Tickets and guy on the desk couldnt find them and couldnt add them, long story short he got us in to the room but I would have to visit concierge in the morning to sort the tickets out, I tell you about that in the next post.
- The Room
We had 2 rooms, both Deluxe Savannah View rooms. Here is the cool bits, had interconnecting door without me asking. 1 of the 2 rooms had bunk beds without asking. Each had a fridge in it without asking. AKL has Hi-Speed Internet access. We where 2 buildings away from the lobby, so pretty close to get in and out.
On the Negative side I paid for the full thing in my name, but they booked 2 rooms in different last names and stuck 5 people with same name in one room and 2 plus infant in the other. The issue here is that its causing problems in restaurants when we book a table of 8, will explain more later.
That night we told the Adults about the surprises booked, i.e. the Dinning Plan so all money they saved for dinners could be used as spending money, they clearly seen the room was better than a standard room, and the Savannah view they didnt expect as I said I could only afford car park views before the holiday
Also that we where going to Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party and that I had the Wishes Cruise booked also
so was an exciting night.
Anyway this is the start of my trip report, I do more posting later. Hey it is just like a soap opera LOL
)))).
