JasonJackson
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2009
Hello
Let me introduce ourselves
I'm Jason 36 - 37 in Oct, work in IT, live in Reading with my wife of 7 years (we think) Joanne, and father of 2 daughters (we think) Emily 5 and Sophie 1.
(I'll work out how to add images soon - but trust me you're not missing much - at least as far as I'm concerned - my girls are gorgeous).
My wife and I both went to Orlando as kids and we went together about 10 years ago when we were living in sin.
Then last year we decided to go, predominantly because Emily was OCD about Disney Princesses and Sophie at 3 months when we booked and 5 months when we got there, was a very relaxed infant, happy to be wheeled around in her throne/pushchair with the occasional break for supper/changes/cuddles. As we were really keen to go we decided to press the button then on the basis that we wouldn't be able to go again until Sophie was 3 or so and by that time Emily would have grown out of Princesses.
In a possibly drunken haze I proposed to Jo that she should invite her Mum & Dad as they'd love to go and have gone a few times previously and love holidays in general and the US in particular. Unfortunately Jo's Mum was scheduled to take a 6 week trip to see family in Australia on the trip of a lifetime at the time we wanted to go to Orlando. Her Dad Phil was dead keen on going although he would rather have not gone just as his wife got back from Auz, however as we were using miles for upgrades with BA our dates were limited and he agreed to come for our dates in October 2008.
We spent lots of time trawling the internet for tips etc relying on DIS and the Unofficial Guide for help. I mentioned that we were using BA miles to upgrade to Club World and that limited our dates and indeed we moved our dates once at a cost of £250 between us so we could fly back on a Friday. Eventually we booked tickets (14 day ultimates plus Orlando Flex), a villa, a 7 seat van, £1800 dollars thru Travel Money Services, BBB in the castle, ADR at Akershus, and a Shark Dive in Seaworld.
As I'm not writing that trip report I'll just give you a summary.
The flight from LGW to MCO was lovely - we're lucky enough to fly BA CW and appreciate it - although it was mildly amusing to go and see FIL in economy - to be fair he was fine, we had a decent outbound flight where Sophie was restless for a few hours but ultimately settled down into her bassinet seat and on the return leg was asleep pretty much the whole way. CW is the way to travel if you can.
The villa was brilliant and we would have gone back this year but it was booked. The car through uscarhire and Thrifty was also excellent as were the park tickets
We had a great holiday although with hindsight, I guess like so many people we tried to do too much in too little time.
our agenda last time
29th Oct land MCO 17.25
30th Oct MK MNSSHP
31st Oct Epcot - Lunch Akershus
1st Nov BB
2nd Nov AK
3rd Nov Seaworld - Shark Dive
4th Nov Aquatica
5th Nov MK - BBB
6th Nov US
7th Nov Aquatica
8th Nov DHS
9th Nov IOA
10th Nov MK Christmas Party
11th Nov Epcot
12th Nov Home/sleep/rob bank
so...we loved all the parks although we got to DHS at lunchtime and didn't do that much there so it was our least favourite Disney Park although we still managed ToT, RRR, Fantasia, B&B and Little Mermaid. Had lunch at Sci-fi which we love and particularly enjoyed RRR. Little Mermaid was OK and Emily was too young for ToT although she went on it she was terrified bless her.
MK was great and even after 3 days we still didn't do so many things. It's the atmosphere in this park that sets it apart - it really has magic, although I am not a great fan of many of its rides - I mean Peter Pan - c'mon. I loved the Christmas night, the cookies, the stage show, the castle show, the hot chocolate and the parade. My wife preferred Halloween though - particularly the parade - I have to say for both evenings it was really busy and not great for doing rides and seeing the parades however I am used to Sept/Oct crowds
Epcot is my joint 2nd favourite and we had a top time and loved loved loved the Princess lunch at Akershus - I thoroughly recommend this particularly if you're lucky enough to get Alice as one of the Princesses and your daughter has a Bunny as her favourite toy...
AK we love as well - we got soaked, and I do mean soaked - as in I went swimming in my clothes soaked - on Kali.
We were quite disappointed with US but to be fair it had some rides that I really loved including Simpsons, Terminator and Mummy - it just doesn't have the organisation or magic of Disney.
I lost my cherry at IOA this year....c'mon not my y'know "real" cherry - I'm a father of 2 remember (note to self don't include millions of innuendo's) - but it was my first time at IOA as it was being built last time we were here. We didn't like the Seuss bit but we're not fans anyway, loved the water rides and somehow - defying the laws of physics we actually got wetter than we did at AK, Hulk was shaky, duelling dragons had slow queues but Spidey was the best ride in the whole world FACT!
Seaworld was a bit weird as the last time we went this was our favourite park but this year we were really non-plussed. I enjoyed Kraken and Atlantis but didn't really care for the shows (although we didn't see Seymore and Clyde which, having read up on I think we'd like). My shark dive was awesome though - really fantastic and I'd thoroughly recommend it even if I was physically shaking at the beginning, by the end I wanted them to feed the sharks in front of us (they don't do this - you'd probably have to break in or something - drop into a cage and feed them yourselves ((not your actual selves obviously)) - NOTE - I do not recommend this - and if you do it and lose an arm or something you can't sue me, ok, Cletus I'm talking to you ok?
We didn't love BB but did like Aquatica - it seemed quieter and more suited to toddlers although we're really looking forward to TL this time.
The food was great although because we pushed everyone quite hard we didn't get to eat out as much as we planned to as we often left the parks with 2+ members of the team asleep in van. So we got takeouts a few times especially from Bob Evans on H27 which does a mean meatloaf, mash and gravy if that's your thing. Our favourite Breakfast was Golden Corral on 192. Favourite meals - Akershus, Tony Roma's and Cheesecake Factory!
My daughter loved BBB and after I'd read and told her that people would treat her like a real Princess after the makeover she complained loudly and on camera that people weren't bowing to her.
We didn't do much shopping although I got the obligatory trainers and some polo shirts.
Finally what's it like going away with the FIL I hear you cry - or maybe you're just crying it's hard to tell on t'internet y'know? Well I'm lucky and we get on well and he's very high energy and amazing with his Grandchildren. Maybe I should've listened to his other 2 children though who hyperventilated with laughter when I said he was coming with us and his wife who did that sucking in through her teeth thing that builders do just before they tell you it'll cost £600 to change a washer. Essentially he can be a bit of a maverick - even at 64, a bit of a rebel, stubborn, thick skinned, cloth earred, sharp tongued...
Well 70% of the time he was fine, good fun, a laugh, a helping pair of hands, good fun (did I say that already?). Some of the other times, well, were interesting. For example his insistence on going to cheap and tacky gift shops on virtually every trip even though they pretty much all stock the same s*** and he only had 4 people to buy for, oh God we must have wasted nearly a day in these godforesaken places. Did I mention I drove everywhere and navigated everywhere as well? hmm did I? Well I did and bloody well I did so too - I studied the maps before I left and before every trip and didn't get lost once. Not only that but I don't think I missed a single turn which I'm proud of expecially considering at home I rely on satnav and have the natural directional ability of a deaf bat. But FIL. Well FIL knew best, I mean sometimes it was comical (that's the beauty of hindsight), "are we on the right road?", yes, "are you sure?", yes, " I think we needed to turn left back there.....J, i think we needed to turn left back there....J, J, we should've turned left back there!" No we shouldn't, "We're on the wrong road J, we should've turned left....J.....J....Oh you were right here we are", etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. However the real highlight came when we went to Bubba Gumps. FIL is a meat and tatas kinda guy - nothing wrong with that, it is what it is, but Jo and I really wanted to go to Bubba Gumps and we'd looked at the menu online and seen that they still did meat dishes so off we went. I'm not going into details but FIL made it clear he didn't want to be there, the waitress was fishing for tips, the theming was stupid and he wasn't grateful for me paying....well I let him know what I thought and said some things I regret and which I apologised for, but I wish he hadn't made his discomfort so obvious during the meal and had told us afterwards rather than spoiling everyone's meal.
He also had a habit of pointing out other peoples "differences" within their earshot IE "woah look at the size of her - I bet she has planets orbiting her butt" - I mean you shouldn't say that stuff out loud even if you're thinking it, but it's just naughty to say it within earshot of people. We told him off lot's for doing this but he didn't seem to care.
Any way you may have noticed that he's not coming this year.
So we're off to a different but very nice looking Villa in late Sept for a couple of weeks, we're flying BA LHR to Miami in CW again and have upgraded to a 7 seat SUV. We've got 10 day Magic your way plus tickets, BBB booked again, plus dinner at Akershus and the Castle. We're only doing Disney this time as we want to make the trip more leisurely and we know/hope we'll go again in a couple of years and have the Universal/Busch parks to look forward to.
We hope to go to Beaches and Cream, do the food festival at Epcot, go to the Cheesecake Factory at least twice plus have a mooch around some the onsite hotels including WL and AKL.
I'm banned from having an agenda this time but imagine if you will that one existed in this little universe we call home and it may or may not (your honour) look like this
Day 1 Arrive - travel from miami
Day 2 rest/shop/swim
Day 3 MK
Day 4 AK
Day 5 Gatorland or BB
Day 6 DHS or MK
Day 7 Epcot
Day 8 Shopping/TL
Day 9 MK
Day 10 DHS/AK
Day 11 Shop/TL
Day 12 Epcot
Day 13 MNSSHP
Day 14 ???
Day 15 travel
Wish us luck
Let me introduce ourselves
I'm Jason 36 - 37 in Oct, work in IT, live in Reading with my wife of 7 years (we think) Joanne, and father of 2 daughters (we think) Emily 5 and Sophie 1.
(I'll work out how to add images soon - but trust me you're not missing much - at least as far as I'm concerned - my girls are gorgeous).
My wife and I both went to Orlando as kids and we went together about 10 years ago when we were living in sin.
Then last year we decided to go, predominantly because Emily was OCD about Disney Princesses and Sophie at 3 months when we booked and 5 months when we got there, was a very relaxed infant, happy to be wheeled around in her throne/pushchair with the occasional break for supper/changes/cuddles. As we were really keen to go we decided to press the button then on the basis that we wouldn't be able to go again until Sophie was 3 or so and by that time Emily would have grown out of Princesses.
In a possibly drunken haze I proposed to Jo that she should invite her Mum & Dad as they'd love to go and have gone a few times previously and love holidays in general and the US in particular. Unfortunately Jo's Mum was scheduled to take a 6 week trip to see family in Australia on the trip of a lifetime at the time we wanted to go to Orlando. Her Dad Phil was dead keen on going although he would rather have not gone just as his wife got back from Auz, however as we were using miles for upgrades with BA our dates were limited and he agreed to come for our dates in October 2008.
We spent lots of time trawling the internet for tips etc relying on DIS and the Unofficial Guide for help. I mentioned that we were using BA miles to upgrade to Club World and that limited our dates and indeed we moved our dates once at a cost of £250 between us so we could fly back on a Friday. Eventually we booked tickets (14 day ultimates plus Orlando Flex), a villa, a 7 seat van, £1800 dollars thru Travel Money Services, BBB in the castle, ADR at Akershus, and a Shark Dive in Seaworld.
As I'm not writing that trip report I'll just give you a summary.
The flight from LGW to MCO was lovely - we're lucky enough to fly BA CW and appreciate it - although it was mildly amusing to go and see FIL in economy - to be fair he was fine, we had a decent outbound flight where Sophie was restless for a few hours but ultimately settled down into her bassinet seat and on the return leg was asleep pretty much the whole way. CW is the way to travel if you can.
The villa was brilliant and we would have gone back this year but it was booked. The car through uscarhire and Thrifty was also excellent as were the park tickets
We had a great holiday although with hindsight, I guess like so many people we tried to do too much in too little time.
our agenda last time
29th Oct land MCO 17.25
30th Oct MK MNSSHP
31st Oct Epcot - Lunch Akershus
1st Nov BB
2nd Nov AK
3rd Nov Seaworld - Shark Dive
4th Nov Aquatica
5th Nov MK - BBB
6th Nov US
7th Nov Aquatica
8th Nov DHS
9th Nov IOA
10th Nov MK Christmas Party
11th Nov Epcot
12th Nov Home/sleep/rob bank
so...we loved all the parks although we got to DHS at lunchtime and didn't do that much there so it was our least favourite Disney Park although we still managed ToT, RRR, Fantasia, B&B and Little Mermaid. Had lunch at Sci-fi which we love and particularly enjoyed RRR. Little Mermaid was OK and Emily was too young for ToT although she went on it she was terrified bless her.
MK was great and even after 3 days we still didn't do so many things. It's the atmosphere in this park that sets it apart - it really has magic, although I am not a great fan of many of its rides - I mean Peter Pan - c'mon. I loved the Christmas night, the cookies, the stage show, the castle show, the hot chocolate and the parade. My wife preferred Halloween though - particularly the parade - I have to say for both evenings it was really busy and not great for doing rides and seeing the parades however I am used to Sept/Oct crowds
Epcot is my joint 2nd favourite and we had a top time and loved loved loved the Princess lunch at Akershus - I thoroughly recommend this particularly if you're lucky enough to get Alice as one of the Princesses and your daughter has a Bunny as her favourite toy...
AK we love as well - we got soaked, and I do mean soaked - as in I went swimming in my clothes soaked - on Kali.
We were quite disappointed with US but to be fair it had some rides that I really loved including Simpsons, Terminator and Mummy - it just doesn't have the organisation or magic of Disney.
I lost my cherry at IOA this year....c'mon not my y'know "real" cherry - I'm a father of 2 remember (note to self don't include millions of innuendo's) - but it was my first time at IOA as it was being built last time we were here. We didn't like the Seuss bit but we're not fans anyway, loved the water rides and somehow - defying the laws of physics we actually got wetter than we did at AK, Hulk was shaky, duelling dragons had slow queues but Spidey was the best ride in the whole world FACT!
Seaworld was a bit weird as the last time we went this was our favourite park but this year we were really non-plussed. I enjoyed Kraken and Atlantis but didn't really care for the shows (although we didn't see Seymore and Clyde which, having read up on I think we'd like). My shark dive was awesome though - really fantastic and I'd thoroughly recommend it even if I was physically shaking at the beginning, by the end I wanted them to feed the sharks in front of us (they don't do this - you'd probably have to break in or something - drop into a cage and feed them yourselves ((not your actual selves obviously)) - NOTE - I do not recommend this - and if you do it and lose an arm or something you can't sue me, ok, Cletus I'm talking to you ok?
We didn't love BB but did like Aquatica - it seemed quieter and more suited to toddlers although we're really looking forward to TL this time.
The food was great although because we pushed everyone quite hard we didn't get to eat out as much as we planned to as we often left the parks with 2+ members of the team asleep in van. So we got takeouts a few times especially from Bob Evans on H27 which does a mean meatloaf, mash and gravy if that's your thing. Our favourite Breakfast was Golden Corral on 192. Favourite meals - Akershus, Tony Roma's and Cheesecake Factory!
My daughter loved BBB and after I'd read and told her that people would treat her like a real Princess after the makeover she complained loudly and on camera that people weren't bowing to her.
We didn't do much shopping although I got the obligatory trainers and some polo shirts.
Finally what's it like going away with the FIL I hear you cry - or maybe you're just crying it's hard to tell on t'internet y'know? Well I'm lucky and we get on well and he's very high energy and amazing with his Grandchildren. Maybe I should've listened to his other 2 children though who hyperventilated with laughter when I said he was coming with us and his wife who did that sucking in through her teeth thing that builders do just before they tell you it'll cost £600 to change a washer. Essentially he can be a bit of a maverick - even at 64, a bit of a rebel, stubborn, thick skinned, cloth earred, sharp tongued...
Well 70% of the time he was fine, good fun, a laugh, a helping pair of hands, good fun (did I say that already?). Some of the other times, well, were interesting. For example his insistence on going to cheap and tacky gift shops on virtually every trip even though they pretty much all stock the same s*** and he only had 4 people to buy for, oh God we must have wasted nearly a day in these godforesaken places. Did I mention I drove everywhere and navigated everywhere as well? hmm did I? Well I did and bloody well I did so too - I studied the maps before I left and before every trip and didn't get lost once. Not only that but I don't think I missed a single turn which I'm proud of expecially considering at home I rely on satnav and have the natural directional ability of a deaf bat. But FIL. Well FIL knew best, I mean sometimes it was comical (that's the beauty of hindsight), "are we on the right road?", yes, "are you sure?", yes, " I think we needed to turn left back there.....J, i think we needed to turn left back there....J, J, we should've turned left back there!" No we shouldn't, "We're on the wrong road J, we should've turned left....J.....J....Oh you were right here we are", etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. However the real highlight came when we went to Bubba Gumps. FIL is a meat and tatas kinda guy - nothing wrong with that, it is what it is, but Jo and I really wanted to go to Bubba Gumps and we'd looked at the menu online and seen that they still did meat dishes so off we went. I'm not going into details but FIL made it clear he didn't want to be there, the waitress was fishing for tips, the theming was stupid and he wasn't grateful for me paying....well I let him know what I thought and said some things I regret and which I apologised for, but I wish he hadn't made his discomfort so obvious during the meal and had told us afterwards rather than spoiling everyone's meal.
He also had a habit of pointing out other peoples "differences" within their earshot IE "woah look at the size of her - I bet she has planets orbiting her butt" - I mean you shouldn't say that stuff out loud even if you're thinking it, but it's just naughty to say it within earshot of people. We told him off lot's for doing this but he didn't seem to care.
Any way you may have noticed that he's not coming this year.
So we're off to a different but very nice looking Villa in late Sept for a couple of weeks, we're flying BA LHR to Miami in CW again and have upgraded to a 7 seat SUV. We've got 10 day Magic your way plus tickets, BBB booked again, plus dinner at Akershus and the Castle. We're only doing Disney this time as we want to make the trip more leisurely and we know/hope we'll go again in a couple of years and have the Universal/Busch parks to look forward to.
We hope to go to Beaches and Cream, do the food festival at Epcot, go to the Cheesecake Factory at least twice plus have a mooch around some the onsite hotels including WL and AKL.
I'm banned from having an agenda this time but imagine if you will that one existed in this little universe we call home and it may or may not (your honour) look like this
Day 1 Arrive - travel from miami
Day 2 rest/shop/swim
Day 3 MK
Day 4 AK
Day 5 Gatorland or BB
Day 6 DHS or MK
Day 7 Epcot
Day 8 Shopping/TL
Day 9 MK
Day 10 DHS/AK
Day 11 Shop/TL
Day 12 Epcot
Day 13 MNSSHP
Day 14 ???
Day 15 travel
Wish us luck
- you're certainly braver than I would be!!
