The Most Action - Packed Trip Ever!

[Neeny17]

Hello and welcome to the most action packed trip ever taken! We had the most fantastic time and did some really cool things...But I'm getting ahead of myself, first things first: introductions! I did do a pre trip report, but you don't have to read it to understand this trip, though of course, feel free to:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2659648

Ok, this is us:

From L-R is: DM Marion, me, Nina, DB Callum and DD Michael. Some additional info:

Where we stayed: Southern Dunes Golf and Country Club, Haines City

The Dates: 19th August - 3rd September

Mode of Travel: My godmother Liz gave us a lif to Gatwick and we flew (9 and a half hours) to Sanford.

Day 1 - Travelling

So, my mum woke me up at about 3.30am and I went from extremely sleepy to extremely excited. We all did. In fact, we were so excited that we ended up waking up our neighbours. Who were super pleased as you can imagine...

Liz came to pick us up at about half four (I honestly think the woman is a saint) and drove us the 2ish hours to Gatwick. While waiting in the looong check in line, there were a few Thomas Cook reps doing things like singing Disney songs with a travel twist, picking people at random to babble to. I truly think it would have worked had most of the queue not been up for a good few hours already. Oh well, we went through unnoticed and got all the way up the boarding pass scanner, only to find that they had only given us three boarding passes. Thats right, they forgot to print my boarding pass . We went all the way back and luckily it was sorted in no time. So back up we went and got up to security. As always, dad was told to step aside at the scanner and was searched. Maybe he has that kind of face? He was soon deemed innocent and we were through to the boring bit. Waiting.

Breakfast was the next thing on the agenda and we chose a small coffee shop called 'Apostrophe' and ate our fill of bacon rolls and (in Callum's case) a chocolate twist. We had a look around the shops and Callum and dad bought a few dvds in HMV.

After what seemed like a few million years we boarded and take off was at 9:45 as planned. The flight was uneventful, we watched 'Kung fu Panda 2' and read our new books and magazines. Lunch was chicken in a spicyish sauce with potatoes, crackers and cheese, grapes and melon and a small chocolate and caramel pudding. There was tea and coffee but it tasted gross. We took some pictures while flying:

She caught me with a mouthful.

Yes that is 6 HOURS and forty five minutes left.

And the standard, out of the window shot.

Afternoon teea arrived a couple of hours before landing. It was a scone with jam and clotted cream and sandwiches - very British. We finally landed at about 1:45 Florida time. It was a relief to get off. Spending nine and a half hours in one place can get a bit claustrophobic. We got through security with no problems and then went to get our car:

We struggled with the satnav for a bit, but got it to work eventually and we were off! We got lost a few times, mostly by turning off at the wrong exit. but we eventually made it to our home for the next two weeks at about twenty past five. We dumped our stuff and went to Walmart to get some dinner and stuff for the next day. We spent the evening eating pizza and watching TV, then I had to go to bed at about half eight. This was a decision that would definitely haunt me the next day. Stay tuned for day 2!

 

[Neeny17]

I'm afraid that this isn't the most interesting day of the trip; we didn't want to overdo it on the first day, so didn't do all that much. Anyway, on with the show!

Day 2 - Orientation

Because of the time difference and the fact that we went to bed at around 8 the night before I woke up at the eyewateringly early time of 3.30am. Possibly the only part of going to Florida that I don't like. I couldn't get back to sleep, so spent a while reading and listening to my iPod, then Callum came in, having seen my light was on to tell me that mum was awake too. So, us three sat in his room and watched 'Phineas and Ferb' and ate toast. My dad was the only one who wasn't affected by the time difference in the mornings, so slept blissfully until about 7.30.
Whilst waiting for mum and callum, me and dad sat in the pool area and watched the squirrels (there were loads) jumping off the top of the screen roof into the trees. Mum came out and took a couple of pictures:

Once everyone was ready, we went and registered the villa, which took no time at all. After that, it was time for breakfast! We went off to the Golden Corral, which was our favourite place for breakfast last time. We were not disappointed. I ate a pancake, some bacon, this hash brown type thing, some tomatoes and a piece of watermelom. This is a lot for me. However, it was nothing compared to what Callum ate. The boy may look like he's starved, but he can eat. It was like man vs food every day. This is what he ate: a big lump of fried chicken, fries, beans, bacon, a donut, three pancakes, a cinnamon whirl and a banana. And my parents had to stop him going up for more. Mum took a picture of his first plate:

Mum had heard that Old Town Kissimee was a good place to visit, so we entered it into the satnav and off we went! After missing the turning, we got there and parked and it was not what mum expected. It seemed quite shabby and not what she wanted, so we got back in the car and headed to Main Street. It was kind of quaint, pretty nice place, but still not quite what was expected by us. We wandered around a bit, took a few pictures:

My mum loves the fat grass! We don't have any in England.

We walked down to try and see the lake, but it was gone midday by then, so boiling hot and we were flagging a bit now. So, we admitted defeat and went back to the villa, stopping at Walmart for dinner supplies. Once we were back, it was straight into the pool. Of course it started raining as soon as we got in, but seeing as there was no thunder or lightening, we swam in the rain:

We ate baked potatoes with ham and salad and then I fell asleep on the sofa until mum woke me up to tell me to go to bed.

Up next! Another horrendously early morning and Downtown Disney.

 

[Neeny17]

Day 3 - Downtown Disney

I woke up at the slightly less intense, but still drastically early time of 4.30am. It turns out that Callum was awake too and he ended up coming into my room and watching Phineas and Ferb. He sneakily woke my parents up by using their bathroom and we had breakfast at about 6.30am. We left for Downtown Disney as early as we could and arrived there at about 9 after getting lost because we couldn't find it on the Satnav. However, after looking again, ity turned out that it was on the list and we had missed it. Once we got there our first stop was The Lego Imagination Centre - no actually it was this topiary:

Then it was to the lego store, where Callum spent a small fortune on lego. He bought Hogwarts to start with and decided to come back for more later on in the day.

Eventually, me and mum decided to leave Callum with dad (who was absolutely thrilled with us) and look in the World of Disney store.

When we all met up again we went to Goofy's Candy Co. I got a candy apple

Callum got a huge cupcake

and mum got a pretzel rod with dark and milk chocolate on it

Dad didn't see anything he fancied, but got a pretzel from a stand a little later.

Next up was Design a Tee, where I made a shirt that was blue with Jiminy Cricket on it and the message 'The Best Things Come In Small Packages'. There'll be a picture of it later on.

Then it was Days of Christmas

Then Once Upon a Toy and back to the lego shop where Callum bought a Geonosion Starfighter and a keyring. Our stomachs were grumbling quite loudly by then, so we went to the Earl of Sandwich. Me and mum shared a BLT and Callum and Dad shared a Meatball one. We also tried the chocolate and banana and triple berry smoothies. The banana one was divine but the berry one, not so much. We looked in the Art of Disney, where I bought a Jessie vinylmation and then went back to the lego store where Callum bought the Jedi Shuttle and a ninjago keyring for his mate Aaron.

We left for Premier Outlets (by this point dad had about reached his limit Disney wise) and after getting lost (maybe that should be the title of this TR?) we found it. Dad got leather converse boots in the sales and some Oakleys t shirts. We came home and swam, then had pasta parcels and bread for tea.

Up next: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Edit: Ok, so for some reason I can't add new posts to this thread, so I've started a new one, whic starts on the next day. If you've been reading along, then that is where you will find the rest.