We are back!

[bex7583]

Wow is all I can say ! After the trip been delayed, cancelled and re booked we finally made it.

We flew out less than 2 week after 3rd operation on my broken leg, Thomas Cook were fantastic the flight was quiet so they blocked out the seats next to me and I had a row of 4 to myself. Service I received from customer care after my accident and then my son's (yes he broke his foot in 3places while I was in a wheelchair with external fixator on my own broken leg) from Thomas Cook was fantastic , they were super helpful with us changing the dates and didn't charge us any admin fees.

I did find the drink service on board lacking the trolley hardly came out and they seemed annoyed if you asked for additional drinks during the flight ( talking cans of soft drink not even booze)

We added a carnival cruise on to the holiday at last minute to give me more time to relax and have some child free time before we drove up to orlando. Apart from north sea ferry this was our first cruise experience and we loved it. We did a 5 day itinerary, half moon cay was stunning the bluest sea I ever seen. We had some rough rainy weather and our sea day was a washout all deck area and activities Closed!!

We had no plans and no hurry on this trip and it took a while to get used to but soon settled in to a lazy routine, we hung round our hotel in Orlando a lot , everybody else must have been enjoying the parks as we would always gave the pool to ourselves all day. We only had 3 park seaworld tickets so did a few visits to seaworld and aquatica.

No regrets about delaying the trip as the parks were empty no que!! This was amazing and made just moving round the parks feel easy. I had been open to idea of getting a wheelchair but never needed it .

Mnsshp was awesome but I found it the hardest day of the holiday which made me a bit sad . The combination of it been so dark, scooters and soo many prams plus the tracks I was very anxious moving around and haunted mansion triggered a panic attack came from nowhere only thing I can thing was skeletons =xray trauma . Getting a good spot and sitting for the last couple of hours to watch castle show, hocus pocus , parade and fireworks was magic and made the entire evening worthwhile.

We also visited on this trip
Clearwater
St Petes
Cocoa beach (new place for us )
Miami
John's pass and madeira beach
Busch gardens
clearwater marina aquarium
And rode the gulf trolley all day

Spent the last full week based at pelican pointe clearwater beach was a good location and clean good size apartment.

Just to finish off with some more leg related injury dh got bitten quite badly on 2 toes by a makrell!!

Was an amazing 25 night and a whole other experience to our previous military planned disney attack.

 

[pinklotusflower]

I'm glad to hear that after all your traumas you had a lovely holiday, we love MNSSHP too it's our favourite event

 

[disneyholic family]

glad to hear you had a nice holiday despite the difficulties!!!
as for MNSSHP, last time i went was a few years ago when i found it to be sooooooooooo crowded it was just not very enjoyable..
that same trip i went twice...on the tuesday night i went with a friend, there was barely anyone there and it was really nice...
we didn't even have advance tickets - we walked up and were able to buy tickets on the spot..

but on thursday night, there were already signs all over WDW in the morning that the party for that night was sold out..
so i should have known..
but we already had tickets - on this night i took my mom and sister, who both have mobility issues..
the crowds were so massive, we could barely move...
and with their mobility issues it was next to impossible..
it's unfortunate because it's a really nice party if not for the excessive crowds...

 

[adisneyaunt]

Sounds like an amazing trip after all your traumas. Wonderful!

 

[disneyholic family]

i forgot to ask, which carnival ship were you on?

 

[bex7583]

Our mnsshp was Tuesday too, ordinarily I probably would not have felt it was busy, we walked on all rides I was just very aware of pushchairs etc right by my ankles when walking round and the darkness didn't help. The kid's loved it and we are still making our way through the huge trick or treat haul.

We were on carnival sensation , we had nothing to compare it to but other people on board said it was rubbish compared to the other ships in carnival fleet. We really enjoyed it , plus we never have a baby sitter so me and dh went for a child free meal then out in casino and nightclub on our own for first time in 11 year we paid extra for the kids to stay at the late night mardi gras party best $50 we spent all trip

 

[disneyholic family]

Our mnsshp was Tuesday too, ordinarily I probably would not have felt it was busy, we walked on all rides I was just very aware of pushchairs etc right by my ankles when walking round and the darkness didn't help. The kid's loved it and we are still making our way through the huge trick or treat haul.

We were on carnival sensation , we had nothing to compare it to but other people on board said it was rubbish compared to the other ships in carnival fleet. We really enjoyed it , plus we never have a baby sitter so me and dh went for a child free meal then out in casino and nightclub on our own for first time in 11 year we paid extra for the kids to stay at the late night mardi gras party best $50 we spent all trip

the night it wasn't crowded, the party was wonderful...my friend and i very much enjoyed it..
but on the night it was sold out, it was sooooooooooooooooo crowded i couldn't believe it..
after all, it's a hard ticket event...they've sold those tickets just for the party, so they know exactly how many people they're letting in..
it was a nightmare..
wall to wall people..
and interestingly...in the trick or treat lines, the "haul" was much less..
while on tuesday, each person gave us a handful of candy, on the sold out night, they handed each person exactly one little candy...not even two or three...but one tiny little candy..and still several of the positions ran out of candy before the end of the night...
i was very surprised after the experience we'd had two nights earlier..

i guess the bottom line, don't ever go on a thursday

as for cruises - i really do think they are the best vacation....you just can be...without thinking...everything is taken care of..
you don't have to worry about ADRs or anything...just get yourself to the dining room and you'll be fed....
and there are activities during the day...and there's stuff for kids to do....what more could you ask for?
oh...and you're on the water...my favorite place to be....pretty perfect, regardless of the ship...

 

[bex7583]

Yes was very good I'm already looking for our next cruise !!

Kids loved that they could just go to the lido deck buffet for a snack or ice cream whenever they wanted.

They had a noodle bar on board that was brilliant really fresh and such a lovely lunch .We could defo feel the sea moving but coupled with the bad weather (we were less than a week after hurricane matthew) and been on a smaller ship it still wasn't that bad , however compared to going over north sea every xmas eve it felt pretty smooth to us. Next time we want to make more use of the on board entertainment apart from the pools , water slide and eating we did very little

Norweigan cruise line now let u price up cabins for 5 people online so considering going with them next time ,got a quote for 7000 on a 14 day Panama canal in a 2 bed suite with free premier dining , free booze and wifi

I would love to do a disney cruise but just can't justify paying the price. They were more than double what we paid with carnival.

 

[disneyholic family]

Yes was very good I'm already looking for our next cruise !!

Kids loved that they could just go to the lido deck buffet for a snack or ice cream whenever they wanted.

They had a noodle bar on board that was brilliant really fresh and such a lovely lunch .We could defo feel the sea moving but coupled with the bad weather (we were less than a week after hurricane matthew) and been on a smaller ship it still wasn't that bad , however compared to going over north sea every xmas eve it felt pretty smooth to us. Next time we want to make more use of the on board entertainment apart from the pools , water slide and eating we did very little

Norweigan cruise line now let u price up cabins for 5 people online so considering going with them next time ,got a quote for 7000 on a 14 day Panama canal in a 2 bed suite with free premier dining , free booze and wifi

I would love to do a disney cruise but just can't justify paying the price. They were more than double what we paid with carnival.

did you check the disney panama canal cruise? the panama canal cruise is usually much cheaper than their regular cruises...
also their transatlantic is usually quite well priced...
but they're not the only cruise line in the sea...
they all have good things (and bad things) about them..

it's good to try different cruise lines to see which one you like best..

we love disney and we also very much enjoy royal caribbean....you can often get some good deals on royal..
and they have very good programming for kids as well....

i don't know much about norwegian other than they do have good pricing..

as for activities, we very much enjoy all the adult and family games...trivia, finish the lyrics, if you know it dance it, marriage game, quest, scavenger hunt, etc..
and also line dancing classes and things like that...

most cruise lines that cater to families have some variation of these sorts of things.....

if money were no object, i would pick disney cruise lines every time, as i do like them the best of all...
but i'm also very happy with royal...and in certain cases i prefer royal - for example, in alaska, where i wanted a one way itinerary...

anyway, you probably can't go wrong with any cruise line as long as you make sure they're kid friendly (if you have kids that is) ..

 

[Nicnic]

Hi. I'm so glad you had a great trip. I was thinking of you and how you were getting on as we should have been away too! How did your son get along. A whole row to yourself on the flight, wow!
The trip sounds fantastic. I would love to explore more but will wait a few years till DD5 is a bit older. We were looking forward to going to Clearwater but don't think we can fit it in next year.

On a plus note, DH went back to work last week, 2 months ahead of what we thought. He has worked really hard at the gym the last month, he's been sensible and just worked on the cycle machines to build muscles and swimming and it's paid off. He is in pain when he comes home but i think this will be for life.

So I'm busy panning my ADR'S again now for May.

Glad your trip went as smoothly as it could for you all. X

 

[bex7583]

Hi. I'm so glad you had a great trip. I was thinking of you and how you were getting on as we should have been away too! How did your son get along. A whole row to yourself on the flight, wow!
The trip sounds fantastic. I would love to explore more but will wait a few years till DD5 is a bit older. We were looking forward to going to Clearwater but don't think we can fit it in next year.

On a plus note, DH went back to work last week, 2 months ahead of what we thought. He has worked really hard at the gym the last month, he's been sensible and just worked on the cycle machines to build muscles and swimming and it's paid off. He is in pain when he comes home but i think this will be for life.

So I'm busy panning my ADR'S again now for May.

Glad your trip went as smoothly as it could for you all. X

thats great news hes back at work , im still off but not going to pretend im sad about that, i am still at weekly physio but waiting for 2 more operations so its really hard work , my ankle has very little movement and all one side of my leg is sunk in then got nerve damage on other side of my ankle !!. my son was totally fine you would never even knew he broke it . i only got the external frame off 10 days before we flew so at one point it was looking like i would be going with it on!

the flight hurt way more than i expected it felt like i had elastic bands wrapped round my leg getting tighter and tighter , the way there was bareable has i had so much space but flight home was full

what adrs have you made you must be so excited , i was devestated to change our dates but halloween was amazing plus seaworld and busch were empty it was fantastic so delaying did have its benefits ( not been told off by school yet so that,s a bonus) think i got a sympathy vote on that one .

on our 2013 trip we did about 3000 miles with 6, 5 and just 4 year old it was great , they remember it more than disney . i would try squeeze in a visit to clearwater if you can

xx

 

[bex7583]

did you check the disney panama canal cruise? the panama canal cruise is usually much cheaper than their regular cruises...
also their transatlantic is usually quite well priced...
but they're not the only cruise line in the sea...
they all have good things (and bad things) about them..

it's good to try different cruise lines to see which one you like best..

we love disney and we also very much enjoy royal caribbean....you can often get some good deals on royal..
and they have very good programming for kids as well....

i don't know much about norwegian other than they do have good pricing..

as for activities, we very much enjoy all the adult and family games...trivia, finish the lyrics, if you know it dance it, marriage game, quest, scavenger hunt, etc..
and also line dancing classes and things like that...

most cruise lines that cater to families have some variation of these sorts of things.....

if money were no object, i would pick disney cruise lines every time, as i do like them the best of all...
but i'm also very happy with royal...and in certain cases i prefer royal - for example, in alaska, where i wanted a one way itinerary...

anyway, you probably can't go wrong with any cruise line as long as you make sure they're kid friendly (if you have kids that is) ..

yes i am always checking the panama one but must always miss the cabins that fit 5 in as never any availibilty, europe ones would be great as we would save a fortune on flights , however the 32k quote i just got back made me dies of shock for several moments !!

 

[disneyholic family]

yes i am always checking the panama one but must always miss the cabins that fit 5 in as never any availibilty, europe ones would be great as we would save a fortune on flights , however the 32k quote i just got back made me dies of shock for several moments !!

the european ones are VERY pricey...
unless you can cruise in september, when the prices drop significantly...
or do the transatlantic - which is really cheap for the number of days..

i'm waiting to see the prices for 2018...

we'd really like to do a cruise in 2018 as we just won't be able to afford to go to WDW again after the trip in 2017....it's just too much money for all of us..

 

[Nicnic]

thats great news hes back at work , im still off but not going to pretend im sad about that, i am still at weekly physio but waiting for 2 more operations so its really hard work , my ankle has very little movement and all one side of my leg is sunk in then got nerve damage on other side of my ankle !!. my son was totally fine you would never even knew he broke it . i only got the external frame off 10 days before we flew so at one point it was looking like i would be going with it on!

the flight hurt way more than i expected it felt like i had elastic bands wrapped round my leg getting tighter and tighter , the way there was bareable has i had so much space but flight home was full

what adrs have you made you must be so excited , i was devestated to change our dates but halloween was amazing plus seaworld and busch were empty it was fantastic so delaying did have its benefits ( not been told off by school yet so that,s a bonus) think i got a sympathy vote on that one .

on our 2013 trip we did about 3000 miles with 6, 5 and just 4 year old it was great , they remember it more than disney . i would try squeeze in a visit to clearwater if you can

xx

Oh your leg sounds so painful, I can only imagine as I saw how much pain DH was in and he experienced the swelling and it feeling like it was going to explode!

Will maybe took to see if we can squeeze Clearwater in, if not then that's always an excuse to go back but really any excuse will do.lol.

I've made lots of ADR's. we're doing Minnies Cape May breakfast our first morning as tradition. Then from that we've got, 'Ohana breakfast and dinner. Norway princess breakfast and chef mickey and tusker house . Dinners we have rose and crown, coral reef, Teppan Edo, garden grill, BOG, boathouse, rainforest cafe, mama Melrose, beaches and cream and lunch at wilderness lodge. Phew!!!! Sure I've missed some- oh and the best part is we've booked the Illuminations cruise at Epcot which the kids are going to love, we're going the same time as friends so we're sharing it with them and their kids.

Just need to get this year over and fingers crossed we make it in May!

Xx

 

[scoobydooby2016]

Glad you got there in the end and had a great trip!