Tony Bush
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2001
- Messages
- 677
Friday 3rd
Only one day to go
Jobs for the day whilst DW (Paulet) and DS (Jack) are both at work : Drop the mad dog (Stanley Spoodle) off to the kennels in Handcross. Paulet is always sad dropping him off, hence why I'm doing it on my own, however Stanley absolutely loves his time in the kennels. He gets to play all day with the other dogs and the staff are lovely and really spoil him!
Once back home its down to the yukky jobs of tidying, cleaning etc etc - All of which Paulet has left detailed instructions for, which of course I follow to the letter
The packing is all done so I just double check and triple check all the paperwork is in its correct folders so I can easily find anything when needed. This is my own little obsession - especially this time round due to the huge increase in planning demands of ADR's FP+ and all the other techy changes Disney have made. On-line check in done as well for Virgin Atlantic.
I decided not to do on-line check in for SSR as I had e-mailed the Virgin Concierge with our room request and I thought that maybe doing on-line check in with it's limited request fields may overwrite the original!
Paulet and Jack arrive home and we decide to order Pizza Hut takeaway to save on dishes etc. Bed early in eager anticipation!!
Sat 4th - Travel Day
Up at 6.30 am - which is positively a lie in for a Florida travel day (Thanks Virgin for cancelling the early flight and putting us on the 13.00 one!!) Jump on the train for the short 20 min ride to Gatwick Airport. All three of us are bouncing off the walls!! Bag drop line at Virgin is very short and we are done in 5 minutes. Bye Bye Minions!!! ( our cases are bight yellow
)
Off in search of the V-Room and me being the efficient, i know everything, type guy confidently lead us into the lounge! Paulet is very very impressed, as am I, until a very kind lady in red informs us that we shouldn't really be in the Upper Class Lounge
Well, we find the V-Room and this is very nice too ! Help ourselves to hot brekkies
Paulet and I both had these - they were yummy - freshly cooked and served up by the chef.
Jack went for the bacon butty, croissant, cupcake and millionaire shortbread combo
Paulet and I leave Jack to his strange breakfast habits and head for a quick retail break. Accessorize, Boots and Kurt Geiger (purse for DD).
Head off towards the departure gate about 12.15 then had to run all the way back to the V-room to retrieve Paulet's forgotten hat !!!
Virgin Atlantic 'Hot Lips' is our lady of choice for this trip (same as 2004). We leave bang on 13.00
About 2 hours in - and interrupting my 'X-Men Days of Future Past' viewing pleasure, food was served :
We had one of each dinner off the main menu. This was Paulet's highlight of the flight (she is strangely excited by airline food!!!) I must say that it was very nice food, very tasty for an airline meal
Oh and a very large Gin and Tonic (Bombay Sapphire) for Paulet
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful with about 1 hour of turbulence requiring seat belts on. I managed to get through the rest of 'X-Men' then '22 Jump St.' 'Robocop' and a few episodes of 'Game Of Thrones' .Whilst flying down the coast of USA we hit an air pocket which caught everyone by surprise. The plane did a huge belly flop - accompanied by the odd exclamation! It wasn't pleasant!
We landed at 17.00 to lovely sunshine. Off the plane by 17.10 and had explained to Paulet and Jack that the worst was about to happen and we would be greeted by huge queues at immigration!. HA !!!!! We were choosing our hire car at 18.20 !!!! not bad at all!!!!
We hunted for our intermediate SUV but the section was filled with mini-vans. I went to the Alamo desk and asked where the int. SUV's were and was told that if they didn't have any they filled the lot with vans. 'Did I want a mini-van?' - Hell no !! So I picked a full size SUV and snuck out with that It was a Dodge Journey - very nice and comfy.
Pulled into SSR at 19.15 after a leisurely journey via the SR 417. First impressions are that it is stunning. Beautiful grounds, gorgeous lakes and fountains. The Carriage House (reception) is wonderful. Checked in and got our Magic Bands (they are fab and worked superbly all holiday) and then the kind lady said ' This is where you are - Paddock room 4536. Errr No !
Remember I had not checked in on-line so as to not overwrite my original request. I had requested Springs section, Bldg 5, 2nd or 3rd floor, Water view (that's a bit exact but you gotta try!) Now I know that its only a request and can not be guaranteed but...... They didn't have any request on file (thanks Virgin Concierge! black mark for you) What I now have is none of my four preferences ! I'm in Paddock, ground floor and a view of a road, so close that my patio is practically a passing lane (slight exaggeration!)
We check out the room, and yes its clean and nice but, please, just one of my requests would've been nice. We trek back to reception to complain and find a much more helpful CM. She says they are at 100% occupancy but will get us moved to Springs tomorrow. We agree to a move tomorrow and pop over to the Artist's Palette to get our refillable mugs and a bite to eat. We are on the free dining package and decide to plough straight in and use a QS credit.
Paulet has a cheeseburger flatbread (to die for!), I have a pepperoni flatbread and Jack has Nuggets and crisps. Choc cake, fruit cup and a cheesecake for desserts.
As you might tell, we are fairly new to foody pics and quite often our pics will be of food that has a bite out of it as we forget to take it!!!
We don't eat desserts and take them back and deposit them in the fridge. In bed by 21.30 with hot chocolates all round in our lovely mugs!
No unpacking done due to the room change tomorrow but very excited to be here and looking forward to Magic Kingdom and our breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace.
Spend vs. Dining Plan - Day 1
Arstist Palette - $50.04 - Used 3 QS credits,
Spend $0
Only one day to go
Jobs for the day whilst DW (Paulet) and DS (Jack) are both at work : Drop the mad dog (Stanley Spoodle) off to the kennels in Handcross. Paulet is always sad dropping him off, hence why I'm doing it on my own, however Stanley absolutely loves his time in the kennels. He gets to play all day with the other dogs and the staff are lovely and really spoil him!
Once back home its down to the yukky jobs of tidying, cleaning etc etc - All of which Paulet has left detailed instructions for, which of course I follow to the letter
The packing is all done so I just double check and triple check all the paperwork is in its correct folders so I can easily find anything when needed. This is my own little obsession - especially this time round due to the huge increase in planning demands of ADR's FP+ and all the other techy changes Disney have made. On-line check in done as well for Virgin Atlantic.I decided not to do on-line check in for SSR as I had e-mailed the Virgin Concierge with our room request and I thought that maybe doing on-line check in with it's limited request fields may overwrite the original!
Paulet and Jack arrive home and we decide to order Pizza Hut takeaway to save on dishes etc. Bed early in eager anticipation!!
Sat 4th - Travel Day
Up at 6.30 am - which is positively a lie in for a Florida travel day (Thanks Virgin for cancelling the early flight and putting us on the 13.00 one!!) Jump on the train for the short 20 min ride to Gatwick Airport. All three of us are bouncing off the walls!! Bag drop line at Virgin is very short and we are done in 5 minutes. Bye Bye Minions!!! ( our cases are bight yellow
)Off in search of the V-Room and me being the efficient, i know everything, type guy confidently lead us into the lounge! Paulet is very very impressed, as am I, until a very kind lady in red informs us that we shouldn't really be in the Upper Class Lounge
Well, we find the V-Room and this is very nice too ! Help ourselves to hot brekkies
Paulet and I both had these - they were yummy - freshly cooked and served up by the chef.
Jack went for the bacon butty, croissant, cupcake and millionaire shortbread combo
Paulet and I leave Jack to his strange breakfast habits and head for a quick retail break. Accessorize, Boots and Kurt Geiger (purse for DD).
Head off towards the departure gate about 12.15 then had to run all the way back to the V-room to retrieve Paulet's forgotten hat !!!
Virgin Atlantic 'Hot Lips' is our lady of choice for this trip (same as 2004). We leave bang on 13.00
About 2 hours in - and interrupting my 'X-Men Days of Future Past' viewing pleasure, food was served :
We had one of each dinner off the main menu. This was Paulet's highlight of the flight (she is strangely excited by airline food!!!) I must say that it was very nice food, very tasty for an airline meal
Oh and a very large Gin and Tonic (Bombay Sapphire) for Paulet
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful with about 1 hour of turbulence requiring seat belts on. I managed to get through the rest of 'X-Men' then '22 Jump St.' 'Robocop' and a few episodes of 'Game Of Thrones' .Whilst flying down the coast of USA we hit an air pocket which caught everyone by surprise. The plane did a huge belly flop - accompanied by the odd exclamation! It wasn't pleasant!
We landed at 17.00 to lovely sunshine. Off the plane by 17.10 and had explained to Paulet and Jack that the worst was about to happen and we would be greeted by huge queues at immigration!. HA !!!!! We were choosing our hire car at 18.20 !!!! not bad at all!!!!
We hunted for our intermediate SUV but the section was filled with mini-vans. I went to the Alamo desk and asked where the int. SUV's were and was told that if they didn't have any they filled the lot with vans. 'Did I want a mini-van?' - Hell no !! So I picked a full size SUV and snuck out with that
It was a Dodge Journey - very nice and comfy.Pulled into SSR at 19.15 after a leisurely journey via the SR 417. First impressions are that it is stunning. Beautiful grounds, gorgeous lakes and fountains. The Carriage House (reception) is wonderful. Checked in and got our Magic Bands (they are fab and worked superbly all holiday) and then the kind lady said ' This is where you are - Paddock room 4536. Errr No !
Remember I had not checked in on-line so as to not overwrite my original request. I had requested Springs section, Bldg 5, 2nd or 3rd floor, Water view (that's a bit exact but you gotta try!) Now I know that its only a request and can not be guaranteed but...... They didn't have any request on file (thanks Virgin Concierge! black mark for you) What I now have is none of my four preferences ! I'm in Paddock, ground floor and a view of a road, so close that my patio is practically a passing lane (slight exaggeration!)
We check out the room, and yes its clean and nice but, please, just one of my requests would've been nice. We trek back to reception to complain and find a much more helpful CM. She says they are at 100% occupancy but will get us moved to Springs tomorrow. We agree to a move tomorrow and pop over to the Artist's Palette to get our refillable mugs and a bite to eat. We are on the free dining package and decide to plough straight in and use a QS credit.
Paulet has a cheeseburger flatbread (to die for!), I have a pepperoni flatbread and Jack has Nuggets and crisps. Choc cake, fruit cup and a cheesecake for desserts.
As you might tell, we are fairly new to foody pics and quite often our pics will be of food that has a bite out of it as we forget to take it!!!
We don't eat desserts and take them back and deposit them in the fridge. In bed by 21.30 with hot chocolates all round in our lovely mugs!
No unpacking done due to the room change tomorrow but very excited to be here and looking forward to Magic Kingdom and our breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace.
Spend vs. Dining Plan - Day 1
Arstist Palette - $50.04 - Used 3 QS credits,
Spend $0
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