Well l wasn't expecting that! A Sept 2011 trip report:Day 6 completed.

[Antigua08]

Hi and welcome to my first ever trip report.

My family and l, (including my in-laws!) visited the world 15th to 29th Sept. We’d been planning this trip for 2yrs and by we l mean me, as for some reason l got left to do it all! Which was great in a way but not so good once people try and input things once it’s all been booked and a bit too late! A lot of my planning was done using this site, and in particular from reading other peoples trip reports, so thought it only right that l should have a go at doing one in return.

Straight on to the introductions then, starting with my family.

This is my dh Dave 29, and me, Liz 32. We’ve been together for over 10yrs now, and married for 3. We got married in Antigua in 2008, hence my name! He is a sign writer and l’m a driving instructor, although have taken a break from that since having our little girl, will return to it one day!

We’ve been to Disney once before back in 2006 with a group of friends and had such a great time have been wanting to go back every since. Also been to Euro Disney but once you’ve done the proper one, it really doesn’t compare.

And the complete star of the report, well in my eyes anyway! Our dd Lily, 2yrs 1mth at the time of the trip. Now l’m obviously a biased mummy but she is a complete joy, and we are both very blessed to have her.

This tr will mainly focus on us, but will also include dh’s family that came along with us. We have my mil Mary, and fil Pete. Along with dh’s brother Chris and his family, dw Karen and their kids Molly 9, and Harry 5. Chris and Karen have also been once before but over 10yrs ago.


Would we all still get along at the end of the 2wks?

Would dd love or be terrified by the characters?

Would we fit in everything l’d planned?

Will l work out how to resize my photo's?

And what would the big surprise be that would make the trip so very extra special?


Up next Travel Day: How would dd cope with a 9hr flight?

 

[kokotg]

I'm in!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Joining in! Loving the photos and your DD is absolutely adorable

We also had to endure the 9 hour flight and were at the World the same time as you.

 

[keholman15]

YAY! Your daughter are so adorable!

I love her very much, Hope I have one too,hahaha,enjoy your trip.wait for more share.

 

[WDWRids]

I'm in, too!! Can't wait to hear the TR and how it ends.

 

[WDWRids]

Oh, and forgot to include - we were there the last week of your trip! I was also w/ inlaws. We did great - can't wait to hear how you all did!!!

 

[Antigua08]

I'm in!

Yay! My first reader! Thanks for joining in.

Joining in! Loving the photos and your DD is absolutely adorable

We also had to endure the 9 hour flight and were at the World the same time as you.

Thanks, l kinda think she is too! I ended up taking nearly 1500 pictures, plus over 400 on the photopass so there'll be lots in this report. I'm a little camera happy!
The 9 hour flight is a killer isn't it? We were really not looking forward to it, especially with a toddler.

YAY! Your daughter are so adorable!

I love her very much, Hope I have one too,hahaha,enjoy your trip.wait for more share.

Thank you, and thanks for joining in. Will hopefully have the next part up either tonight or tomorrow.

I'm in, too!! Can't wait to hear the TR and how it ends.

Oh, and forgot to include - we were there the last week of your trip! I was also w/ inlaws. We did great - can't wait to hear how you all did!!!

Hello, and thanks for reading
Glad your trip went well with your in-laws. I'll just say for now that we've been on holiday before with mil and fil, and said then that we'd never do it again!

 

[Antigua08]

Day 1: Travel day.

The day that we had been waiting for had finally arrived! I was so excited that even dd was a little too. She was too young to know what was going on but could definitely tell from her over excited mummy that something was happening! Unfortunately this was not the case with dh. He was far too worried about the flight ahead to be even happy, let alone excited!

Dh just hates to fly, and was really concerned about how dd would be. He had convinced himself she would be a nightmare, misbehave and cry the whole flight! I however had much more faith in my child, and was sure she’d be fine....And if not had lots of snacks and toys to keep her occupied!
So at 6am, off we headed to bil’s house where we would all be picked up by the taxi to take us to the airport.

2 excited children!

Now our flight wasn’t until 1pm and it should take no more than 2 ½ hrs to get to the airport, so we were pretty happy that leaving bil’s house at 6:45 would get us there in plenty of time, even allowing for rush hour traffic. We didn’t however allow for motorway closures! Of all the days for that to happen, you don’t want it when you’ve got a plane to catch! So with our new detour, we literally got to airport, checked in, had the quickest breakfast then headed straight for the gate! This actually worked out really well, although l had wasted my time the night before checking out online which shops l was going to go in!

The flight itself went pretty well. Left on time, landed a little early, and dd did brilliantly.

This is how she was for much of the flight!

Does he look nervous?

Dn Harry(5) and dn Molly(9) both did really well too. And possibly best of all, dh finally cheered up as soon as the plane touched the ground. It was time to relax and start to enjoy the holiday! Well almost.....

Alamo car hire. Now there are 2 desks for Alamo, one for Virgin Atlantic customers like ourselves, and one for everyone else. After being directed to the Virgin desk and myself, fil, and bil get in the queue (being the only ones happy to drive), 2 of the staff finish their shifts leaving just 1 person serving. There was already quite a queue ahead of us, but being that we landed ahead of time didn’t think it would hold us up too much. Well it did! I didn’t keep track of how long it took to get the car, (well l did for an hour then decided to stop looking at the clock!) but it did change our plans for the evening.

The van, so big l named it The Beast!

Original plan: based on plane landing at 5pm.

Fil drive the 15 seater van with myself navigating as l decided we wouldn’t need a sat-nav, much to dh’s horror!

Head straight to the supermarket 5mins away from our villa, stock up on the essentials for the 2wks, and pick up dinner for the evening.

Quick dip in the pool for the kids then bed.

Unpack, then off to bed for the adults


What actually happened:

Fil now too stressed to drive and bil doesn’t want to, so l end up having to drive with dh attempting to navigate. I enjoy driving and was happy to on this trip, but just wasn’t expecting to straight away and it really made me nervous for some reason. Also dh is just terrible at navigating, so l end up having to do this as well.

It’s now dark so we somehow miss a sign and go the wrong way (l’m sticking with that excuse!) making us even later. And not helped by my dh singing sat-nav, sat-nav at me!

We finally head the right way and find the villa in no time, about a 40min drive away. Not sure what the time was but it was just too late to stop for shopping and food, so straight to the villa we went.

Kids straight to bed, dd had already nodded off in the van.

Adults quickly admire how lovely the villa is then off to bed right behind the kids, all too tired to unpack and didn’t want to be shattered for the first day.


So it didn’t go quite as planned, but dh and l were both so happy to finally be in Florida again and couldn’t wait for the next day and for the holiday to really start.

Some quick villa pics, taken throughout holiday

2255 Wyndham Palms Ways, Windsor Palms. Our home for the 2wks

The boys enjoying the pool!

Next up: Day 2, Typhoon Lagoon and Ohana’s.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Joining in! Who could resist a face like your DD's?

 

[kokotg]

I hate flying, too, so I feel for your DH.

That's a very big van!

Hope the next day was less stress and more fun!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Aaw your DH looks so nervous on the flight.

I'm sorry to hear about the stressful drive to the villa but am glad you made it and your 'new home' looks amazing!

 

[Antigua08]

Joining in! Who could resist a face like your DD's?

Aw thankyou, lots more pictures of her coming up. She became quite a pro at posing for the camera on this trip!

I hate flying, too, so I feel for your DH.

That's a very big van!

Hope the next day was less stress and more fun!

I guess l should be glad he's still willing to fly considering how much he hates it! And yep the van was huge, meant to take a picture of dd stood next to it to show just how big it was but never got around to it.
Thankfully the rest of the holiday went much smoother after the initial blip.

 

[Antigua08]

Aaw your DH looks so nervous on the flight.

I'm sorry to hear about the stressful drive to the villa but am glad you made it and your 'new home' looks amazing!

And that's his "I'm not nervous, honest!" face
The villa was lovely, if we stay off site again we will probably try to book the same one again. It was a lovely home for the 2wks.

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!!

 

[heaven2dc]

I definitely am joining in for the fun! The house you rented is beautiful - I think if our family were to get together for a large gathering at WDW, it would be great to stay there. The pool looks so inviting!

 

[Antigua08]

Count me in!!!

Thanks for joining in!

I definitely am joining in for the fun! The house you rented is beautiful - I think if our family were to get together for a large gathering at WDW, it would be great to stay there. The pool looks so inviting!

Thanks for reading The pool was lovely, it was a bit of a job getting the kids out of it of an evening but lovely to have and not overlooked which was a bonus

Will hopefully have an update up tomorrow.

 

[WDWRids]

Wonderful pics!! The house looks fantasic and just the right size for everyone to enjoy and have space.

 

[Antigua08]

Sorry for the delay in this post, was hoping to have all of my photos from the day ready but my scanner has decided to pack up! So will go ahead with the ones l’ve got but will have to add those from the underwater camera to the next part.

Day 2 part 1: Typhoon Lagoon

When planning this trip, we all decided a water park was definitely the way to go for our first day. We all agreed it would be a good way to get over the flight and relax a bit before the early mornings and lots of walking started. So TL was picked, mainly down to the wave pool that those of us that had been before absolutely loved.

So we all woke that first morning around 7, not too bad l thought as l’ve read many times on here of people waking really early which l wasn’t looking forward to. I’m really not a morning person, but l do try to be less grumpy while on holiday!

As the park didn’t open till 9 and we weren’t too worried about getting there for opening, a few of us wondered down to the store that’s on the resort to pick up some bits for breakfast. For me this involved my first bit of American chocolate of the trip, a 3 Musketeer bar! They are yummy!

So with everyone fed and ready to go we all loaded into the van and headed off to Disney, just a little after 9. With Fil at the wheel and me navigating we got to the park in no time, only to discover l had got the opening time wrong...It didn’t open until 10! So although quite unplanned, we made our first rope drop!

There was a lovely cm chatting to everyone waiting, and trying to guess where everyone was from. Well turns out TL was to be overtaken by the English on this day as pretty much everyone waiting at that time, apart from an American couple next to us, was from England. Think we all found it quite amusing to have all travelled so far, to be stood with about 20/30 other Brits!

With opening time approaching, 2 lifeguards approached and said they needed a little help opening the park that day. Well much to our surprise, dn Harry got picked and given the title of Big Kahuna for the day! Lovely way to start our first day. Harry and his parents and sister were given a tour of the park, and then shown to a lovely shaded area with loungers, right in front of the wave pool. By this time we came over to meet them, and Harry was so excited to show us the wave control box he had been put in charge of! Now obviously we don’t think it actually did anything, but the kids thought it was just the best thing ever! They had so much fun playing with it throughout the day. A lovely Disney touch l thought.

Rope drop!

Our little spot, and the wave control box!

With the kid’s life jackets on, we started exploring the park starting with the wave pool, the lazy river and the family raft ride. At this point the family split, with dh and I taking the 3 kids to the ketchakiddee creek area, while the others explored the shark reef. (Which they all loved)
Dd and Harry loved this area, a big favourite being the mini tube slide. Dn Molly(9) was a little old for it, but is so good with dd, think she just enjoyed having fun and playing with her in the water. Next up we all met back up and headed for Crush n Gusher. Dh, myself and Molly went on first whilst everyone else relaxed in the water with dd. I reminded Molly to make sure she lifted her bottom up (as l remembered from last trip it can be a bit rough if you don’t!) and off on the slide we went. All 3 of us loved it, with dn laughing the whole ride. We then swapped so the others could do it, and then decided to break for an early lunch. We had our first ADR to look forward to early evening, and wanted to make sure we’d all have room to eat.

Grandad shouldn't leave his fries so near Lily!

So for the rest of the day we all pretty much did our own thing. Bil and his family explored all the slides, mil and fill spent literally hours in the lazy river, and we spent our time between the wave pool and just relaxing at the loungers so dd could have a play in the sand and rest.

We’ll finish up our day at TL in the next part, which will include our first trip to the first aid room, and dinner at Ohana’s.

 

[Antigua08]

Wonderful pics!! The house looks fantasic and just the right size for everyone to enjoy and have space.

Thank you! We did wonder if all 9 of us would be comfortable together in the house for 2 wks but with so much space it wasn't an issue. It had a games room too so when the kids weren't in the pool they were usually in there.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Typhoon Lagoon is a great way to start a trip! I agree with you, when you have a busy travel day to start, it's nice to start the trip on a relaxing note.