BONZO
<font color=660066>Has been known to go off topic!
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2001
- Messages
- 2,100
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'
28th March 2004
We woke up quite early (with excitement no doubt!) and showered and dressed. While we waited for Gil (Alisons Dad) who was taking us to the airport, we made sure wed packed all the hand luggage essentials - beer, crisps oops! I meant tickets, passports, travellers cheques etc. We were on the 12.30 flight and as wed checked in already there was no great hurry to get to Gatwick luckily.
We left home about 9.15ish and got to Gatwick just before 10. Its a bit of a ritual now that Gil buys us breakfast before we go away so off we went, back to Frankie and Bennys - and very nice it was too! Not sure what the cost was cos I wasnt paying! Thanks Gil!
We headed down to Passport Control (or security or whatever its called now!) and said goodbye to Gil and through we went. Only short queues - so it was all looking good!
BUT as soon as we were through we saw on the screen - Flight (VS015) delayed by 90 mins! Never mind - gave us a chance to do a bit of shopping - Whisky etc. After a bit the girls were bored so I volunteered to take them for a look round while Alison read her book for a bit and looked after 4 fleecy jackets, 4 rucksacks, one bag with lots of booze in, one bag of food for Laura cos she doesnt eat plane food, one bag containing a Sunday paper and 2 large bottles of water. (This is all relevant to the next part of the story, for which Alison will take over.) So I thought Id take the girls upstairs - oh dear, the bars here. What a shame Shall we stop for a while girls??
Alison here - so off Shaun goes and I settle down with my book. After a few minutes I glance up at the screen to see that the delay against our flight has disappeared - its back on schedule and its boarding now! Its about 11.15 by this point - and we have quite a walk to one of the furthest departure gates at Gatwick. Hmmmm .what should I do? Ill wait a while - theyll be back in a minute. Ermmm .no I dont think so! Time ticked on - still no Shaun! And with all the bags I couldnt even go and look for them! Eventually I take all the bags and coats with me over to the enquiry desk and ask them to put out a call for Shaun. But no - theyre not allowed to once the departure gate has been put up on the screen because it might confuse people! I tried to argue my point that Shaun wouldnt go to the gate because I had the tickets/passports/bag AND all his booze (hed not be going anywhere without that!) but to no avail. My choice was to stay put or to go to the gate alone and hope he realised. I stood there for a while and eventually (About 12ish) saw Shaun heading towards me. I threw the bags/coats at him - shrieked a bit and headed off at a run for the departure gate. (I always panic a bit at the Gate closes 30 mins before departure signs on the boarding cards!) Well, we got to the gate - masses of people all milling around! Theyd not started boarding yet!! Panic over!
Back to Shaun now - We sat down at the back of the queue and eventually when they boarded, we were one of the last families to get on! We only saw the Hunts properly once we were on the plane (which was Barberella) as they were in the row in front of us.
We eventually took off about 90 mins late but the actual flight went very quickly even though they only came round once with the drink trolley {grrrrr!} - but on the whole a much better flight than our last Virgin trip, probably because the plane was newer.
A little bit into the flight they hold a kids drawing competition - both girls were pleased when their names were announced and they won a bar of Toblerone chocolate each.
Overall the kids food was good were the best weve ever seen: Pizza fingers, curly fries, Cadburys Flake desert and a bag of Rowntrees Bursting Bugs even though Laura ate nothing! - luckily wed bought her a sandwich from Boots at the airport for this very purpose.
The adults food was ok - Choice of Beef Cobbler, Sausage and mash or Veggie Curry followed by Cadburys Flake desert. All washed down with one glass of wine poured from a bottle - no individual bottles at all {grrrrr}
Part way through the flight the Cabin Manager (or chief stewardess, or whatever posh name they call them nowadays!) made an announcement about the time difference - saying that the US were 5 hours behind us. Well, I knew that they were 6 hours behind as our clocks had changed but the US clocks hadnt, so I mentioned it to a passing stewardess who told the head honcho. It ended up with the Captain apparently radioing ahead to find out the correct time!
The rest of the flight seemed to be over in a flash probably due to the Hunt girls keeping ours amused, Alison talking to Julie and me reading FHM Our two also had little pressies through the flight to keep them amused.
Tea was served comprising of Chicken or Cheese sandwich and choc chunk muffin - Think Atkins darling! (Alison here - I didnt eat it!)
Film selection wasnt bad - we all watched School of Rock again, amongst others.
Landed at about 4:15 local time thus catching up on the delayed start - total flight time was 8hrs 20 mins. As we were at the back of the plane we had a very long wait to get off the plane but the queue for immigration was really short and only took about 5 mins.
A funny Hunt moment here - after Rebecca had made the crack about a bomb in the queue at Gatwick and her Mum and Dad and told her not to speak at Orlando, the Immigration officer asked her what her name was - and she refused to speak LOL! Her Mum had to prompt her in the end and tell her it was OK to answer!!
Right then - commandos at the ready and GO!
Grab cases - bypass customs checks - drop cases off - sprint to Dollar desk .Could we beat our record of 1 hour from landing to resort? NO.
The Dollar queue was MASSIVE! - Drop and give me 20 press-ups, well have no more slacking this trip!
It took about 40 mins in the queue but this was due to the fact the computers were down and everything was being done manually - what a pain! - Picture Bob Cratchet from A Christmas Carol and youll get the idea. I ended up going back up to get the luggage while Alison was in the queue - so no further waits there.
So we got to the front and I thought Id share some of the pain How much to upgrade mate? - after some nibble finger work on the pocket calculator it cost $10 per day to upgrade to a Dodge Grand Caravan for 3 weeks - a third of the cost if wed upgraded via Virgin! Hmm .now where does it say that its always cheaper to upgrade in the UK - I dont think so!
Bob and Julie were behind us in the queue and told us that they had a free upgrade to a CV!! After we picked ourselves up off the floor laughing, we explained that we thought they meant an SUV! - some fancy macho Jeep thing .Turned out to be All fur coat and no knickers but more of this later
Grabbed the keys and went - turned back and collected DW and DDs! - LOL Headed out of the airport and even remembered to have some coins ready for the automatic toll booths this time - no driving straight through setting the alarms off!
As we drove onto Disney property we though - aaaaah, were home! Finally arrived at Pop Century at about 6:20 and the initial thought was a jaw dropping WOW! and look at that! as we saw the massive icons.
We parked up to encounter queue number 2 - about 20 mins at check-in but this was due to the sheer number of people checking in at once.
We told them what we wanted - Quiet room, top floor, not overlooking pool area and they did us proud - Top floor, 70s building, overlooking the Hourglass lake and Generation Gap Bridge (Room 6458). Absolutely perfect! Even in our preferred decade!
We dropped our bags off with Luggage Services before going to our room so that they would deliver them for us. They arrived in the room about 3 mins after we did - hows that for service?
Feeling the need for food we swung by the food court for eats and refillable mugs -
Individual Cheese Pizza, Chicken strips and fries, Chilli Hot Dog and fries with cheese sauce and a bowl of Chilli for a total of $22 all in. The food court was great - big, colourful, fun, loads of seating and very efficient.
By this time Id flopped and Alison took the girls off for a quick swim. After a quick shower the girls were in bed by 9.30 and us by 10:30 after some unpacking.
Plan for tomorrow: Magic Kingdom and Crystal Palace for lunch
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'
28th March 2004
We woke up quite early (with excitement no doubt!) and showered and dressed. While we waited for Gil (Alisons Dad) who was taking us to the airport, we made sure wed packed all the hand luggage essentials - beer, crisps oops! I meant tickets, passports, travellers cheques etc. We were on the 12.30 flight and as wed checked in already there was no great hurry to get to Gatwick luckily.
We left home about 9.15ish and got to Gatwick just before 10. Its a bit of a ritual now that Gil buys us breakfast before we go away so off we went, back to Frankie and Bennys - and very nice it was too! Not sure what the cost was cos I wasnt paying! Thanks Gil!
We headed down to Passport Control (or security or whatever its called now!) and said goodbye to Gil and through we went. Only short queues - so it was all looking good!
BUT as soon as we were through we saw on the screen - Flight (VS015) delayed by 90 mins! Never mind - gave us a chance to do a bit of shopping - Whisky etc. After a bit the girls were bored so I volunteered to take them for a look round while Alison read her book for a bit and looked after 4 fleecy jackets, 4 rucksacks, one bag with lots of booze in, one bag of food for Laura cos she doesnt eat plane food, one bag containing a Sunday paper and 2 large bottles of water. (This is all relevant to the next part of the story, for which Alison will take over.) So I thought Id take the girls upstairs - oh dear, the bars here. What a shame Shall we stop for a while girls??
Alison here - so off Shaun goes and I settle down with my book. After a few minutes I glance up at the screen to see that the delay against our flight has disappeared - its back on schedule and its boarding now! Its about 11.15 by this point - and we have quite a walk to one of the furthest departure gates at Gatwick. Hmmmm .what should I do? Ill wait a while - theyll be back in a minute. Ermmm .no I dont think so! Time ticked on - still no Shaun! And with all the bags I couldnt even go and look for them! Eventually I take all the bags and coats with me over to the enquiry desk and ask them to put out a call for Shaun. But no - theyre not allowed to once the departure gate has been put up on the screen because it might confuse people! I tried to argue my point that Shaun wouldnt go to the gate because I had the tickets/passports/bag AND all his booze (hed not be going anywhere without that!) but to no avail. My choice was to stay put or to go to the gate alone and hope he realised. I stood there for a while and eventually (About 12ish) saw Shaun heading towards me. I threw the bags/coats at him - shrieked a bit and headed off at a run for the departure gate. (I always panic a bit at the Gate closes 30 mins before departure signs on the boarding cards!) Well, we got to the gate - masses of people all milling around! Theyd not started boarding yet!! Panic over!
Back to Shaun now - We sat down at the back of the queue and eventually when they boarded, we were one of the last families to get on! We only saw the Hunts properly once we were on the plane (which was Barberella) as they were in the row in front of us.
We eventually took off about 90 mins late but the actual flight went very quickly even though they only came round once with the drink trolley {grrrrr!} - but on the whole a much better flight than our last Virgin trip, probably because the plane was newer.
A little bit into the flight they hold a kids drawing competition - both girls were pleased when their names were announced and they won a bar of Toblerone chocolate each.
Overall the kids food was good were the best weve ever seen: Pizza fingers, curly fries, Cadburys Flake desert and a bag of Rowntrees Bursting Bugs even though Laura ate nothing! - luckily wed bought her a sandwich from Boots at the airport for this very purpose.
The adults food was ok - Choice of Beef Cobbler, Sausage and mash or Veggie Curry followed by Cadburys Flake desert. All washed down with one glass of wine poured from a bottle - no individual bottles at all {grrrrr}
Part way through the flight the Cabin Manager (or chief stewardess, or whatever posh name they call them nowadays!) made an announcement about the time difference - saying that the US were 5 hours behind us. Well, I knew that they were 6 hours behind as our clocks had changed but the US clocks hadnt, so I mentioned it to a passing stewardess who told the head honcho. It ended up with the Captain apparently radioing ahead to find out the correct time!
The rest of the flight seemed to be over in a flash probably due to the Hunt girls keeping ours amused, Alison talking to Julie and me reading FHM Our two also had little pressies through the flight to keep them amused.
Tea was served comprising of Chicken or Cheese sandwich and choc chunk muffin - Think Atkins darling! (Alison here - I didnt eat it!)
Film selection wasnt bad - we all watched School of Rock again, amongst others.
Landed at about 4:15 local time thus catching up on the delayed start - total flight time was 8hrs 20 mins. As we were at the back of the plane we had a very long wait to get off the plane but the queue for immigration was really short and only took about 5 mins.
A funny Hunt moment here - after Rebecca had made the crack about a bomb in the queue at Gatwick and her Mum and Dad and told her not to speak at Orlando, the Immigration officer asked her what her name was - and she refused to speak LOL! Her Mum had to prompt her in the end and tell her it was OK to answer!!
Right then - commandos at the ready and GO!
Grab cases - bypass customs checks - drop cases off - sprint to Dollar desk .Could we beat our record of 1 hour from landing to resort? NO.
The Dollar queue was MASSIVE! - Drop and give me 20 press-ups, well have no more slacking this trip!
It took about 40 mins in the queue but this was due to the fact the computers were down and everything was being done manually - what a pain! - Picture Bob Cratchet from A Christmas Carol and youll get the idea. I ended up going back up to get the luggage while Alison was in the queue - so no further waits there.
So we got to the front and I thought Id share some of the pain How much to upgrade mate? - after some nibble finger work on the pocket calculator it cost $10 per day to upgrade to a Dodge Grand Caravan for 3 weeks - a third of the cost if wed upgraded via Virgin! Hmm .now where does it say that its always cheaper to upgrade in the UK - I dont think so!
Bob and Julie were behind us in the queue and told us that they had a free upgrade to a CV!! After we picked ourselves up off the floor laughing, we explained that we thought they meant an SUV! - some fancy macho Jeep thing .Turned out to be All fur coat and no knickers but more of this later
Grabbed the keys and went - turned back and collected DW and DDs! - LOL Headed out of the airport and even remembered to have some coins ready for the automatic toll booths this time - no driving straight through setting the alarms off!
As we drove onto Disney property we though - aaaaah, were home! Finally arrived at Pop Century at about 6:20 and the initial thought was a jaw dropping WOW! and look at that! as we saw the massive icons.
We parked up to encounter queue number 2 - about 20 mins at check-in but this was due to the sheer number of people checking in at once.
We told them what we wanted - Quiet room, top floor, not overlooking pool area and they did us proud - Top floor, 70s building, overlooking the Hourglass lake and Generation Gap Bridge (Room 6458). Absolutely perfect! Even in our preferred decade!
We dropped our bags off with Luggage Services before going to our room so that they would deliver them for us. They arrived in the room about 3 mins after we did - hows that for service?
Feeling the need for food we swung by the food court for eats and refillable mugs -
Individual Cheese Pizza, Chicken strips and fries, Chilli Hot Dog and fries with cheese sauce and a bowl of Chilli for a total of $22 all in. The food court was great - big, colourful, fun, loads of seating and very efficient.
By this time Id flopped and Alison took the girls off for a quick swim. After a quick shower the girls were in bed by 9.30 and us by 10:30 after some unpacking.
Plan for tomorrow: Magic Kingdom and Crystal Palace for lunch
I love Pop Century, can't wait to stay there again in December. Sounds like a great start to your holiday so far, keep them coming!
Naughty Shaun!
