Sue: Chief organiser and planner
Jorge: (DH) Happy as long as he's in Orlando
Rebecca: (DD 8) Happy as long as she gets her own way!
ay 11
The last day: DTD and Orlando Magic.
Our last full day and we decide against a park day as we have tickets to see Orlando Magic play Utah Jazz tonight. Instead we decide on DTD as we have promised some personalized Christmas Decs to a friend back home. After a leisurely breakfast finishing up whats left in the fridge and a couple of hours doing laundry and packing, we arrive at DTD around 11am and window shop for a while, Rebecca wants a scrapbook for all her bits and bobs so we splash out $25 for one from the Disney Store along with some stickers etc. Should keep her amused when we get home. After wandering around the stores and playing with the Lego lunchtime comes quickly and we book in for Rainforest Café. The 20 minute wait is filled by buying our Christmas baubles. Unfortunately it takes two days for them to write a date on a bauble! And we are going home tomorrow. Luckily we can have them shipped so we pay the $8.95 kicking ourselves for leaving it this late in the holiday! RFC is ok, a tad chilly with the Air Con but the food is good, We are seated in the Gorilla section and the rainstorm and animals keep Rebecca amused. Its not cheap though and lunch comes to $60 for the three of us with only soft drinks and no dessert while the service is forgettable. After lunch we do a bit more window-shopping and buy some more pins from the pin traders, how many does that make Becky? 13?! Poor kid is walking with a stoop now, her lanyard is that heavy.
Orlando Magic is due to start at 7 and amid concerns of traffic on the I4 and finding the will call office we leave DTD at 5pm. We have arranged to meet our friends Richard and Wendy and their two sons at the box office at 6pm so we dont want to be late. As it turns out there is no traffic and we find everything quickly so we arrive with 30 minutes to spare. Luckily there is a free bouncy castle for Rebecca to play on and we have a lovely chat with another British couple while we wait. After meeting up with the others we head into the Waterhouse Centre, which is impressive to say the least. That is to say, Jorge and Richard are impressed with the cheerleaders in their skimpy tops who greet you as you go through the doors! Now I am in no way a sports fan, in fact I hate football etc with a passion so I am not exactly looking forward to this evenings trip. I am quite surprised that by the second quarter I am really enjoying myself. The game moves at a fast pace and whenever theres a break something is always happening to entertain you. They have the cheerleaders of course, and also t-shirts being fired into the audience and a competition with two audience members to see who can score most baskets. All in all it is a good evening out, the children have a fantastic time and we emerge happily at around 9pm. We all agree that we wouldnt do this every holiday but would definitely come again in the future. That is until we try to get back to the I4. Us and 10,000 other people and it takes us two hours to get home, with a stop for Pizza hut on the way.
Tomorrow we find out our flight is cancelled and have our second last day
Day 12
Our second last day.
First thing we are up and have the suitcases in the car ready for DTD checkin, the plan is then to do Epcot before the airport. There is hardly any queue at DTD and we are next in line when we overhear the people in front being told of a two hour delay on the Manchester flight. Not too bad, we can just go to the airport a bit later. We check in and are just taking our boarding cards and she says no, sorry the flight is cancelled!! Oh dear, this is not good!! We have to un-check our luggage and wait for further instruction. 20 minutes later we are told that there is a problem with the flight and we will be put up in a Hotel for the night and flown out tomorrow. We explain that we have our own accommodation and they give us a 1800 number to ring this evening to confirm the arrangements. It dawns on us that we have an extra days holiday. Yay!!! Things need to be sorted out though and we spend an hour on the phone back at the villa rearranging work, airport collection and extending our car hire. By this time its getting too late to bother with Epcot, besides, we can do it tomorrow now!! After a lunch at McDonalds the sun breaks through and we make the most of the afternoon by lazing around the pool. The warm sun makes a welcome change from the cold weather we have had this holiday.
Deciding to try something new we head up to I-Drive and Midway Madness to do some go-karting. $6 buys quite a long ride and the ricketyness of the tracks makes it seem a little more dangerous than usual (maybe this is intentional, or maybe the tracks are just about to collapse, who knows!?!) Rebecca and I have a go on Spaceshot, which is a bit like Dr.Dooms at IoA. $5 each but its over a bit quickly for my liking, with barely enough time to look around at the view before they bring you down again.
By now its 7.30 and we are hungry. Jorge wants to go to Bahama Breeze on I-Drive but its packed and there is a 90-minute wait. No matter, we can try the one at LBV. By the time we get there, after getting a bit lost, they too have a 70 minute wait and we are seriously starving. The closest thing is Pizza Uno at Crossroads so we dine there with only a 15-minute wait time. Onion Petals to start along with basil and garlic bread, followed by pasta for all three of us. Soft drinks for Jorge and Becky and a couple of glasses of wine for me the bill comes to a reasonable $70 including tip. Back at the villa we phone Virgin for an update only to be told that we are now not going until Saturday. This is very bad news as we both need to be in work on Saturday, and its now 3am in the UK, too late to phone anyone. Jorge sets the alarm for 3am to try and catch our colleagues as early as possible to sort things out. We are getting another extra days holiday but we cannot help feeling guilty now as this is seriously inconveniencing people at home.
Oh, well, nothing can be done so tomorrow we will do Epcot.
Day 13
Our third last day
Getting up at 8am I phoned Virgin again just to verify that we are indeed delayed until Saturday. Amazingly I am told that this information is wrong and that they have us in their system as flying tonight and that we should check in today as normal. Muttering expletives we haul the cases into the car and head back to DTD. When we arrive they ask why we are there, as the flight isnt going until Saturday!! Argggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!
(This is what we get for not staying in the Hotel with the other passengers!)
After hauling the cases back to the villa (again!) and extending the car hire (again!) and apologizing to work (again!) we finally head over to Epcot arriving at a respectable 10am. The ticket machine refuses to read Rebeccas ticket so we have to wait 10 minutes for a replacement while she worries about having to wait for us in the car. Once inside I make a beeline for Mission Space and get FP as this is the only real reason we have come. Earliest FP is 12.55-1.55 so I grab two. Innoventions is busy and we wander around for a bit before going into World Showcase at 11am. As this area is just opening its deserted and we do a walk on at Maelstrom in Norway, neatly avoiding the boring film at the end. Rebecca loves this ride but I find it a bit odd, especially the area with an oil rig surely they could have found something better to advertise Norway?! We continue our journey around the world and just wander in and out of the countries, browsing in the shops. Jorge wants to have lunch here so we book at PS for Teppanyaki in Japan at 1.45pm. This should fit in nicely with our FP. A quick coffee and delicious pastries in France fortify us in the meantime. It takes us 90 minutes to travel the world and we reach MS just in time for a quick photo with Spaceman Mickey before our FP. Jorge sits this one out as he doesnt do simulators and Rebecca and I head inside. The themeing is great but I did think they went a bit overboard with the sickness warnings I counted at least 8 before we got on the ride, along with sick bags inside just in case you needed them! The ride was FANTASTIC, and I wont spoil it for you if you havent been yet. Suffice to say both Rebecca and I carried out our jobs impeccably. And neither of us felt in the slightest bit sick. Must be our cast iron stomachs LOL. We catch the boat back to Morocco and watch the drum show in Japan before our PS at Teppanyaki. We are seated immediately and are sharing our table with a family from New Jersey whos kids are energetic, to put it mildly. They spend the entire meal shouting at them to sit down and mom tries to eat her meal with her son literally climbing over her head! The chef is great though and the food delicious while the bill comes to $70 for the three of us including tip and a couple of beers for Jorge. After another call at Innoventions we decide to go back for a siesta at the villa and return later for the fireworks.
Jorge would prefer to do Wishes than Illuminations so, suitably refreshed after a dip in the pool, we arrive at MK at around 7.00pm. After waiting for 3 monorails to pass so that Rebecca can sit with the driver, it is 7.20 by the time we get into the MK and Spectro is just making its way up Main Street. Its a lot busier tonight than it was when we came last week, maybe because its a Friday? Becky wants to do Space Mountain before Wishes so we run over only to find that there is a 25 minute standby queue. Pacifying her with crisps and a drink we take up our seats in the Plaza Café Terrace, just managing to get the last couple of chairs at the rail. Wishes is as good as last time and even Tinkerbell puts in an appearance, flying gracefully just over our heads. We all agree that this is the best way to end our holiday and wearily we join the queues at the monorail. With a lump in our throats we wave a last goodbye to Mickey as he waves back from the train platform.
Back at the villa we channel surf for a while before bed. Tomorrow really is our last day.
Day 14
Our last last day.
We have been told that all the passengers for our flight are being collected from their Hotel at 11am so we leave early in order to avoid the queues. Taking no chances we leave the car in the short term parking lot until we are safely checked in. There are only a few people waiting and check in is a breeze. Virgin are also offering FREE return flights to all passengers as compensation so we are happy bunnies as we take back the car. We get stung for $180 extra hire charges for the two days but hopefully Virgin will refund this. Heading back up to the terminal we notice the Virgin queue now has about 100 people in it and we are glad we came early. As we pass, the family leaving the check in area seems familiar and it turns out to be a school friend of Rebeccas, what a coincidence! They give us the low down on their two days delay: they have been accommodated at the Omni Rosen Centre on I-Drive which is a 5* Hotel with all meals included (almost made us wish we had taken this option instead of staying at the villa)
The flight is scheduled for 4pm so we have a wait ahead of us. Check in gave us a voucher for $8 each to spend in the food court but we decide to splash out and have lunch at McCoys in the Hyatt Hotel. We have lovely, leisurely lunch, which takes up a lot of our waiting time. I have BBQ Chicken pizza which is delicious, Jorge has Lemon Chicken and Rebecca, surprise, surprise has Mac N Cheese. $56 including drinks and tip, not bad at all.
The $8 vouchers come in handy for buying drinks for the flight and after browsing the shops and getting through security we are just in time for boarding.
The flight goes well, despite the crew being London based and having to be reminded a few times that we are flying to Manchester, not Gatwick. Quite a few people got alarmed when we were told that there was a great view of CRAWLEY on the left hand side as we landed !?!
We finally arrive home at 5am on Sunday 46 hours late, with two extra days holiday and free flights for next time. Not too shabby!!
Thank you for taking the time to read these reports. I am now off to start planning the next trip ..
Jorge: (DH) Happy as long as he's in Orlando
Rebecca: (DD 8) Happy as long as she gets her own way!
ay 11
The last day: DTD and Orlando Magic.
Our last full day and we decide against a park day as we have tickets to see Orlando Magic play Utah Jazz tonight. Instead we decide on DTD as we have promised some personalized Christmas Decs to a friend back home. After a leisurely breakfast finishing up whats left in the fridge and a couple of hours doing laundry and packing, we arrive at DTD around 11am and window shop for a while, Rebecca wants a scrapbook for all her bits and bobs so we splash out $25 for one from the Disney Store along with some stickers etc. Should keep her amused when we get home. After wandering around the stores and playing with the Lego lunchtime comes quickly and we book in for Rainforest Café. The 20 minute wait is filled by buying our Christmas baubles. Unfortunately it takes two days for them to write a date on a bauble! And we are going home tomorrow. Luckily we can have them shipped so we pay the $8.95 kicking ourselves for leaving it this late in the holiday! RFC is ok, a tad chilly with the Air Con but the food is good, We are seated in the Gorilla section and the rainstorm and animals keep Rebecca amused. Its not cheap though and lunch comes to $60 for the three of us with only soft drinks and no dessert while the service is forgettable. After lunch we do a bit more window-shopping and buy some more pins from the pin traders, how many does that make Becky? 13?! Poor kid is walking with a stoop now, her lanyard is that heavy.
Orlando Magic is due to start at 7 and amid concerns of traffic on the I4 and finding the will call office we leave DTD at 5pm. We have arranged to meet our friends Richard and Wendy and their two sons at the box office at 6pm so we dont want to be late. As it turns out there is no traffic and we find everything quickly so we arrive with 30 minutes to spare. Luckily there is a free bouncy castle for Rebecca to play on and we have a lovely chat with another British couple while we wait. After meeting up with the others we head into the Waterhouse Centre, which is impressive to say the least. That is to say, Jorge and Richard are impressed with the cheerleaders in their skimpy tops who greet you as you go through the doors! Now I am in no way a sports fan, in fact I hate football etc with a passion so I am not exactly looking forward to this evenings trip. I am quite surprised that by the second quarter I am really enjoying myself. The game moves at a fast pace and whenever theres a break something is always happening to entertain you. They have the cheerleaders of course, and also t-shirts being fired into the audience and a competition with two audience members to see who can score most baskets. All in all it is a good evening out, the children have a fantastic time and we emerge happily at around 9pm. We all agree that we wouldnt do this every holiday but would definitely come again in the future. That is until we try to get back to the I4. Us and 10,000 other people and it takes us two hours to get home, with a stop for Pizza hut on the way.
Tomorrow we find out our flight is cancelled and have our second last day
Day 12
Our second last day.
First thing we are up and have the suitcases in the car ready for DTD checkin, the plan is then to do Epcot before the airport. There is hardly any queue at DTD and we are next in line when we overhear the people in front being told of a two hour delay on the Manchester flight. Not too bad, we can just go to the airport a bit later. We check in and are just taking our boarding cards and she says no, sorry the flight is cancelled!! Oh dear, this is not good!! We have to un-check our luggage and wait for further instruction. 20 minutes later we are told that there is a problem with the flight and we will be put up in a Hotel for the night and flown out tomorrow. We explain that we have our own accommodation and they give us a 1800 number to ring this evening to confirm the arrangements. It dawns on us that we have an extra days holiday. Yay!!! Things need to be sorted out though and we spend an hour on the phone back at the villa rearranging work, airport collection and extending our car hire. By this time its getting too late to bother with Epcot, besides, we can do it tomorrow now!! After a lunch at McDonalds the sun breaks through and we make the most of the afternoon by lazing around the pool. The warm sun makes a welcome change from the cold weather we have had this holiday.
Deciding to try something new we head up to I-Drive and Midway Madness to do some go-karting. $6 buys quite a long ride and the ricketyness of the tracks makes it seem a little more dangerous than usual (maybe this is intentional, or maybe the tracks are just about to collapse, who knows!?!) Rebecca and I have a go on Spaceshot, which is a bit like Dr.Dooms at IoA. $5 each but its over a bit quickly for my liking, with barely enough time to look around at the view before they bring you down again.
By now its 7.30 and we are hungry. Jorge wants to go to Bahama Breeze on I-Drive but its packed and there is a 90-minute wait. No matter, we can try the one at LBV. By the time we get there, after getting a bit lost, they too have a 70 minute wait and we are seriously starving. The closest thing is Pizza Uno at Crossroads so we dine there with only a 15-minute wait time. Onion Petals to start along with basil and garlic bread, followed by pasta for all three of us. Soft drinks for Jorge and Becky and a couple of glasses of wine for me the bill comes to a reasonable $70 including tip. Back at the villa we phone Virgin for an update only to be told that we are now not going until Saturday. This is very bad news as we both need to be in work on Saturday, and its now 3am in the UK, too late to phone anyone. Jorge sets the alarm for 3am to try and catch our colleagues as early as possible to sort things out. We are getting another extra days holiday but we cannot help feeling guilty now as this is seriously inconveniencing people at home.
Oh, well, nothing can be done so tomorrow we will do Epcot.
Day 13
Our third last day
Getting up at 8am I phoned Virgin again just to verify that we are indeed delayed until Saturday. Amazingly I am told that this information is wrong and that they have us in their system as flying tonight and that we should check in today as normal. Muttering expletives we haul the cases into the car and head back to DTD. When we arrive they ask why we are there, as the flight isnt going until Saturday!! Argggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!
(This is what we get for not staying in the Hotel with the other passengers!)
After hauling the cases back to the villa (again!) and extending the car hire (again!) and apologizing to work (again!) we finally head over to Epcot arriving at a respectable 10am. The ticket machine refuses to read Rebeccas ticket so we have to wait 10 minutes for a replacement while she worries about having to wait for us in the car. Once inside I make a beeline for Mission Space and get FP as this is the only real reason we have come. Earliest FP is 12.55-1.55 so I grab two. Innoventions is busy and we wander around for a bit before going into World Showcase at 11am. As this area is just opening its deserted and we do a walk on at Maelstrom in Norway, neatly avoiding the boring film at the end. Rebecca loves this ride but I find it a bit odd, especially the area with an oil rig surely they could have found something better to advertise Norway?! We continue our journey around the world and just wander in and out of the countries, browsing in the shops. Jorge wants to have lunch here so we book at PS for Teppanyaki in Japan at 1.45pm. This should fit in nicely with our FP. A quick coffee and delicious pastries in France fortify us in the meantime. It takes us 90 minutes to travel the world and we reach MS just in time for a quick photo with Spaceman Mickey before our FP. Jorge sits this one out as he doesnt do simulators and Rebecca and I head inside. The themeing is great but I did think they went a bit overboard with the sickness warnings I counted at least 8 before we got on the ride, along with sick bags inside just in case you needed them! The ride was FANTASTIC, and I wont spoil it for you if you havent been yet. Suffice to say both Rebecca and I carried out our jobs impeccably. And neither of us felt in the slightest bit sick. Must be our cast iron stomachs LOL. We catch the boat back to Morocco and watch the drum show in Japan before our PS at Teppanyaki. We are seated immediately and are sharing our table with a family from New Jersey whos kids are energetic, to put it mildly. They spend the entire meal shouting at them to sit down and mom tries to eat her meal with her son literally climbing over her head! The chef is great though and the food delicious while the bill comes to $70 for the three of us including tip and a couple of beers for Jorge. After another call at Innoventions we decide to go back for a siesta at the villa and return later for the fireworks.
Jorge would prefer to do Wishes than Illuminations so, suitably refreshed after a dip in the pool, we arrive at MK at around 7.00pm. After waiting for 3 monorails to pass so that Rebecca can sit with the driver, it is 7.20 by the time we get into the MK and Spectro is just making its way up Main Street. Its a lot busier tonight than it was when we came last week, maybe because its a Friday? Becky wants to do Space Mountain before Wishes so we run over only to find that there is a 25 minute standby queue. Pacifying her with crisps and a drink we take up our seats in the Plaza Café Terrace, just managing to get the last couple of chairs at the rail. Wishes is as good as last time and even Tinkerbell puts in an appearance, flying gracefully just over our heads. We all agree that this is the best way to end our holiday and wearily we join the queues at the monorail. With a lump in our throats we wave a last goodbye to Mickey as he waves back from the train platform.
Back at the villa we channel surf for a while before bed. Tomorrow really is our last day.
Day 14
Our last last day.
We have been told that all the passengers for our flight are being collected from their Hotel at 11am so we leave early in order to avoid the queues. Taking no chances we leave the car in the short term parking lot until we are safely checked in. There are only a few people waiting and check in is a breeze. Virgin are also offering FREE return flights to all passengers as compensation so we are happy bunnies as we take back the car. We get stung for $180 extra hire charges for the two days but hopefully Virgin will refund this. Heading back up to the terminal we notice the Virgin queue now has about 100 people in it and we are glad we came early. As we pass, the family leaving the check in area seems familiar and it turns out to be a school friend of Rebeccas, what a coincidence! They give us the low down on their two days delay: they have been accommodated at the Omni Rosen Centre on I-Drive which is a 5* Hotel with all meals included (almost made us wish we had taken this option instead of staying at the villa)
The flight is scheduled for 4pm so we have a wait ahead of us. Check in gave us a voucher for $8 each to spend in the food court but we decide to splash out and have lunch at McCoys in the Hyatt Hotel. We have lovely, leisurely lunch, which takes up a lot of our waiting time. I have BBQ Chicken pizza which is delicious, Jorge has Lemon Chicken and Rebecca, surprise, surprise has Mac N Cheese. $56 including drinks and tip, not bad at all.
The $8 vouchers come in handy for buying drinks for the flight and after browsing the shops and getting through security we are just in time for boarding.
The flight goes well, despite the crew being London based and having to be reminded a few times that we are flying to Manchester, not Gatwick. Quite a few people got alarmed when we were told that there was a great view of CRAWLEY on the left hand side as we landed !?!
We finally arrive home at 5am on Sunday 46 hours late, with two extra days holiday and free flights for next time. Not too shabby!!
Thank you for taking the time to read these reports. I am now off to start planning the next trip ..
