BONZO
<font color=660066>Has been known to go off topic!
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2001
- Messages
- 2,100
Cast list
Shaun - 40 something If its high fat, high sugar Ill eat it
Alison - 30 something 'If its not Atkins I wont eat it
Alexandra - 10 Can we play mini-golf? Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we?
Laura - 8 'If Im tall enough Ill ride it'
OK - Eyes down and look in for the latest batch of trip reports from us - these may be a bit lengthy for some but youll get warts and all from us. This is a joint effort - I kept pretty brief notes each night and Alison kept very comprehensive notes - so these reports should be pretty detailed. Also we kept most of our receipts so will be able to put prices in the reports (for those that are interested).
We travelled with another family who are friends of ours. Youll find that they crop up fairly often in the reports so take a note of their names now - otherwise youll get very confused! Especially as their girls are the same ages as ours! They are the Hunt family - Julie and Bob (the parents - who have just separated but decided to go ahead with the holiday for the sake of the children), Rebecca (age 11, Alexandras best friend) and Jennifer (age 8, Lauras best friend). They made some classic howlers - but more of these as the trip reports go on (but just a taster - Bob got barred from the Rose and Crown!!)
This was Alisons 7th trip to WDW, my 6th, and the girls 4th. The last time we did a 3 week holiday we stayed in one hotel for most of the trip, and ended up looking forward to going home. We were not going to make that mistake again!! Just wait and see how much hopping we did! Also, this was to be our first time spending some time in a villa .interesting, especially as we love hotels and all the amenities they provide.
As we went only last August, we already had annual passes for Universal and Disney, so before we went we just needed to get tickets for Busch Gardens and Sea World. Ordered those on the internet and we were all set!
OK - on with the show .
Saturday 27th March 2004
So - after what seemed like a eternity in the planning stage the time had come - well at least to do Twilight Check-in. We (OK then - Alison) spent most of Saturday completing the packing and finally at about 4pm we left for Gatwick. This is it - the holiday oops, I mean vacation ..was finally beginning! We were travelling fairly light just 2 cases, one with a holdall in for the way home, so managed to get those in the boot fairly easily for a change!
Arrived at Gatwick and headed over to Zone A for the Virgin desks. We hadnt done twilight check in before so all this was a bit new for us! We were relieved to see just a few families ahead of us, so joined the queue. About half way round a security man stopped us and checked our passports, asked the usual questions (has anyone else had access to your luggage, blah, blah, blah) to which we seemed to give the correct answers as we were allowed forward! I think we were in the queue for around 20 minutes in total. When we got to the desk we were told we had the seats we had reserved 180 days earlier (phew!) - the 4 seats in the middle of row 61. So all was going very smoothly! We headed off to have a wander around the airport, check out the shops and restaurants etc while we waited for the Hunt family. They were also doing twilight check in, but were arriving a bit later than us. Wed decided to meet up for a meal to get the holiday off to a good start. We did the usual trip on the monorail over to the North Terminal (just for the fun of it, you understand - didnt want to see anything over there! LOL) only to get a text message from Julie as soon as we got there to say that theyd just joined the check in queue and it was huge!
After a while we headed back to Zone A in the South Terminal and waited for the Hunts to finish their checking in. By this stage theyd managed their first howler of the holiday! Rebecca asked the security man what hed do if she had a bomb in her bag!! Aaarggh!!! Julie and Bob were distraught - they could almost hear the snap of latex .would she/they all be carted off to prison? Luckily no the security guard said that so many people still made jokes like that you wouldnt believe it! Julie spent the next few hours telling Rebecca that when they arrived at Orlando airport she was not to speak one word until they were through immigration!
So, with the girls all in a fever pitch of excitement we had to decide where to go for something to eat ..well, I hope this wasnt the sign of things to come - it took forever to choose! Finally it was decided (Ive no idea who had the final say) that wed go to Frankie and Bennys. It turned out to be a fairly average meal, but it was good fun - we were all pretty excited and we did lots of last minute planning. Following the meal we all headed back to the car park (HOW MUCH!!!! - we only parked for a couple of hours and it cost about £7!!) Lots of hugs goodbye and arrangements made to meet up the following day and home we headed.
After we got home, we changed all the clocks as the UK was moving to BST that night (an hours sleep to lose!) and headed to bed.
Tomorrow - were off!!!
Shaun - 40 something If its high fat, high sugar Ill eat it
Alison - 30 something 'If its not Atkins I wont eat it
Alexandra - 10 Can we play mini-golf? Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we?
Laura - 8 'If Im tall enough Ill ride it'
OK - Eyes down and look in for the latest batch of trip reports from us - these may be a bit lengthy for some but youll get warts and all from us. This is a joint effort - I kept pretty brief notes each night and Alison kept very comprehensive notes - so these reports should be pretty detailed. Also we kept most of our receipts so will be able to put prices in the reports (for those that are interested).
We travelled with another family who are friends of ours. Youll find that they crop up fairly often in the reports so take a note of their names now - otherwise youll get very confused! Especially as their girls are the same ages as ours! They are the Hunt family - Julie and Bob (the parents - who have just separated but decided to go ahead with the holiday for the sake of the children), Rebecca (age 11, Alexandras best friend) and Jennifer (age 8, Lauras best friend). They made some classic howlers - but more of these as the trip reports go on (but just a taster - Bob got barred from the Rose and Crown!!)
This was Alisons 7th trip to WDW, my 6th, and the girls 4th. The last time we did a 3 week holiday we stayed in one hotel for most of the trip, and ended up looking forward to going home. We were not going to make that mistake again!! Just wait and see how much hopping we did! Also, this was to be our first time spending some time in a villa .interesting, especially as we love hotels and all the amenities they provide.
As we went only last August, we already had annual passes for Universal and Disney, so before we went we just needed to get tickets for Busch Gardens and Sea World. Ordered those on the internet and we were all set!
OK - on with the show .
Saturday 27th March 2004
So - after what seemed like a eternity in the planning stage the time had come - well at least to do Twilight Check-in. We (OK then - Alison) spent most of Saturday completing the packing and finally at about 4pm we left for Gatwick. This is it - the holiday oops, I mean vacation ..was finally beginning! We were travelling fairly light just 2 cases, one with a holdall in for the way home, so managed to get those in the boot fairly easily for a change!
Arrived at Gatwick and headed over to Zone A for the Virgin desks. We hadnt done twilight check in before so all this was a bit new for us! We were relieved to see just a few families ahead of us, so joined the queue. About half way round a security man stopped us and checked our passports, asked the usual questions (has anyone else had access to your luggage, blah, blah, blah) to which we seemed to give the correct answers as we were allowed forward! I think we were in the queue for around 20 minutes in total. When we got to the desk we were told we had the seats we had reserved 180 days earlier (phew!) - the 4 seats in the middle of row 61. So all was going very smoothly! We headed off to have a wander around the airport, check out the shops and restaurants etc while we waited for the Hunt family. They were also doing twilight check in, but were arriving a bit later than us. Wed decided to meet up for a meal to get the holiday off to a good start. We did the usual trip on the monorail over to the North Terminal (just for the fun of it, you understand - didnt want to see anything over there! LOL) only to get a text message from Julie as soon as we got there to say that theyd just joined the check in queue and it was huge!
After a while we headed back to Zone A in the South Terminal and waited for the Hunts to finish their checking in. By this stage theyd managed their first howler of the holiday! Rebecca asked the security man what hed do if she had a bomb in her bag!! Aaarggh!!! Julie and Bob were distraught - they could almost hear the snap of latex .would she/they all be carted off to prison? Luckily no the security guard said that so many people still made jokes like that you wouldnt believe it! Julie spent the next few hours telling Rebecca that when they arrived at Orlando airport she was not to speak one word until they were through immigration!
So, with the girls all in a fever pitch of excitement we had to decide where to go for something to eat ..well, I hope this wasnt the sign of things to come - it took forever to choose! Finally it was decided (Ive no idea who had the final say) that wed go to Frankie and Bennys. It turned out to be a fairly average meal, but it was good fun - we were all pretty excited and we did lots of last minute planning. Following the meal we all headed back to the car park (HOW MUCH!!!! - we only parked for a couple of hours and it cost about £7!!) Lots of hugs goodbye and arrangements made to meet up the following day and home we headed.
After we got home, we changed all the clocks as the UK was moving to BST that night (an hours sleep to lose!) and headed to bed.
Tomorrow - were off!!!
Oh goodness, whatever did he do?? 
