As I said before the hotel room wasnt conducive to sleep so I was awake from 4am, after tossing and turning for a couple of hours DH2b woke up too. Having agreed the night before to eat airport at the breakfast we had to change our plans as by 7am we were both starving (Doh! Oh course I mean breakfast at the airport
). So having washed and dressed already we headed downstairs for an extremely expensive breakfast, £12 for 8 slices of toast and a cup of tea!
By 8am we were all checked out and waiting for our taxi (you have to pay for the return trip to the airport on the shuttle bus and as there were 6 of us it was cheaper to order a cab).
Back at the airport by 8.15 DH2b and I went to check in to wait for my brothers girlfriend Emma, while the others followed the original plan and went through to departures for breakfast.
Emma had checked in online the day before and only needed to drop her suitcases off, good job too as the queue for check in was doing the Disney shuffle and looked quite long. We smiled smugly hooray for twilight check in!
Then we were through security and off to the departure lounge for breakfast take two. Well it had been at least two hours since our toast and we have a long flight ahead of us :0) Bacon and egg Mcmuffins all round.
The wait in departures wasnt too bad we had a look around the shops, Victoria had forgotten her hair straighteners so she had to buy some more. It was quite traumatic for her when she realised shed left them at home, and even more so for Ian when she couldnt remember if shed actually unplugged them!
We got called to our gate only to be told that the flight was delayed, cant remember why but it was only for half an hour or so. We were all getting a bit bored by this stage though and wanted to get onboard. Judging by the amount of people queuing at the flight entrance we werent the only ones
why do people do that by the way?? If everyone stayed seated until their row number was called wed all get on the plane a bit quicker! <rant over thats a pet hate of mine>
So before too long were all in our seats and belted in and the holiday begins
The flight was good, we played a few games, watched some movies, read some books. The individual seat back screens are great as you can choose what to watch, although Ian Victoria and Dad all had broken ones! The steward brought them each a portable dvd player from first class so they could still watch a movie.
The flight landed at about 4.30pm (US time) and we headed to immigration. I remembered the tip about heading to the line next to the one for US citizens but the queues at that end were shorter anyway. Most of us passed through without a problem, although the finger print machine was a bit temperamental. Emma had a bit of trouble though, wed all just written Villas of Somerset on our cards, but the guy Emma went to wanted the full address including street! Luckily Id written it down in the guidebook when pulling directions from map quest so we were able to find it for him
phew!
We went over to the luggage carousel and found all of our suitcases (except Emmas) on the premium economy/first class carousel. Theres anther bonus for twilight check in you get premium economy luggage service for free i.e. your luggage comes off the plane first and is not on the carousel surrounded by hordes of people!
The collected bags were then scanned and then we put them back on the conveyor belt and jumped on the monorail to the main terminal. Orlando International is a great airport, and even has a hotel inside it! It is so much nicer than Gatwick
Back at the main terminal we split up, the boys went off to pick up the cars and the girls went to get the luggage. Seemed like a good plan until we realised we had too many cases and not enough hands!! Luckily a friendly chap appeared with a big trolley in our hour of need and rescued us. He took the cases all the way to the Dollar desk and left very happily when I tipped him ten bucks. Not sure what the going rate is but it was worth ten bucks not to have to lug all those cases ourselves :0)
We were expecting a long queue at the Dollar desk (as we had in 2003) but there was no one there and Virgin now has its own Dollar desk which is much better. The boys had the keys as we turned up with the cases.
DH2b gave me a pack from the Virgin rep an appointment to meet with the Wedding co-coordinator the following morning, and directions to the Villas of Somerset.
I have to say here that the service from the Virgin reps at the airport was pretty awful. I asked DH2b if wed been told to go to the Holiday Villas office to collect the keys (as we did last time we stayed there) he wasnt sure so I went off to find a rep. After finally flagging one down I asked her and she was very abrupt telling me the instructions were on the hand out and I should just follow them, why on earth wouldnt the keys be at the onsite office at Somerset?? Hmm I wasnt sure but agreed to listen to her
Out to the garage then to collect the cars an 8-seater passenger van (instantly christened the A-team truck) which incidentally had a lot of boot space for luggage if anyone is worried about that kind of thing and a Dodge Neon (E4) for DH2b and me. We had two cars between eight of us in case anyone wanted to go off and do their own thing and so that Dh2b and I would have our own car when we moved out of the villa.
Id already printed the driving directions off from mapquest.com so we headed out onto the road. Dad drove the truck and DH2b the car both have driven in the states before so there werent any first time traumas.
The directions were spot on and we only made one detour when the signpost for the 192W appeared as wed gone past the filter lane why do Americans hang their road signs in such silly places??
We arrived at the villas and headed into the office the clubhouse really where the woman behind the counter said oh no all keys are held at the Holiday Villas office!!! I knew I should have listened to me!! And we drove past the office on the way here too :0( So we jump back in the truck and go and collect the keys.
We had booked a 2-bed and a 3-bed villa (there were meant to be 10 of us originally) so it was decided that DH2b and I would share the 2-bed with my parents leaving the kids in the 3-bed. I opened the door to our villa, and wasnt too impressed
no air conditioning and it all looked very tatty, paper missing off the walls and holes in the sofa. My heart sank. Id picked the villas (wed stayed here 10 years ago) and I didnt want to ruin everyones holiday by making us sleep somewhere horrible. I messed around with the aircon but nothing seemed to be happening. Dad put a call into the office and they said theyd send someone to look at it. So we lugged our cases up the stairs, dumped them in the lounge and headed out to dinner. The other villa by the way was lovely we just got a duff one.
As we were all extremely tired from the travelling we went to the Perkins on the corner of Poinciana Boulevard and the 192. It was lovely, the food was nice and the waitress friendly. Nobody could manage desert though :0)
Oh and I seem to remember the fries rated a 9 out of 10 DH2b started a scoring system for the fries and the waitresses!
Back at the villa there was no sign of life and still no working aircon so we called the office again. They sent a bloke round with a key for the villa downstairs
result a 3-bed villa for the price of a 2 and this one was lovely. Only downside was we had to lug the cases back down the stairs!
We managed a bit of unpacking before falling exhausted into bed :0)
ETA: I forgot to mention before that when we first pulled up in the villa complex there were about 6 sheriff cars parked up at various angles and a guy spread-eagled on the floor look like hed been stunned
by the time we got back the second time the guy was gone and only a couple of cop cars were left. We meant to read the local paper the next day to see what it was all about but completely forgot!
And I absolutely love it when you say things like spot on , lifts and a duff one. 
at one of the hotels just outside Downtown Disney
and I cant remember what its called must look that one up!
