The Moretons Magical Memories 2012 - Travel Day

[LLKJDisney]

The Entourage
Me – Kerry, 34 yr old Disney nutcase, head driver and Narrator. 9th visit
Lee – 33 yr old Florida Lover, 10th Visit, Reserve driver and map man
Jacob – 3 turning 4 (on this trip) yr old going on 40 yr old! 3rd visit (lucky boy) loves collecting autographs
Lucas – 5 month old – smiley in the day – grumpy at night (just like his Daddy)
Dick – 58 yr old – Grandad and Jacob’s best mate – loves the Sun and some roller coasters
Sue 57 yr old – Grandma – Chief tea maker – loves Sprite no Ice.

The Plan
Arrive 7th May – 4 Nights at Bahama Bay Resort
11th May move to Sunset Lakes – Shamu Sanctuary Villa
24th May come home

Travel Day – Monday 7th May

We both had an awful nights sleep (around 2 hours), think this was due to a mixture of excitement, worry and the boys not sleeping too well.

Alarm sounded at 5am and ironically this is when Jacob and Lucas slept the best – typical. At least it gave Lee and me a chance to have a shower. We were all ready for 6am but breakfast didn’t start till 6.30am, so we moved all our cases to reception.


Look at his excitement!

On arriving at the restaurant, we were informed that as it was a bank holiday breakfast didn’t start until 7am! I told the waitress that we had not been told this on check in and she let us into the restaurant but explained that hot food wasn’t available but she could muster up everything for a continental if we were happy with that? SOLD, we were fine with that, in fact as it happened the chef came out of the kitchen and cooked the men whatever they wanted – Sue, Jacob and I were happy with fruit, toast and cereal - Well Done Marriott!

Mini bus arrived bang on time so we were in the check in queue at 7.30am as planned. Check in went smoothly and we were all sat together with the bulkhead seats and told I had the sky cot as pre booked. The only minor issue was that Lee managed to cut his finger open when putting the cases on the belt. He was bleeding everywhere. The lady from Virgin was very nice and gave him a plaster from her handbag! She seemed very concerned, although to be fair there was blood going all over everything! Car seats and pushchair went to oversized check in, for some reason we checked our pushchair in rather than waiting until we got to the gate (as asked to by the nice Virgin check in lady). This meant that Lucas would have to be carried until the flight, not a problem for him but he is a big boy so gets quite heavy. Later after arriving at the gate I noticed all other families with their pushchairs checking them in at the gate!

We went through security straight away, no problems here at all and no need to even show our liquids. I had packed a bottle of water for Lucas that they just made me taste and then we were on our way.

First port of call for me was to go to Boots to collect the SMA milk I had pre-ordered for Lucas (tip from the Dibb). Really easy process and no problems.

Dick mooched around the bookshop for a new book but couldn’t find one he liked, whilst we waited for Lee to sort his finger out in the toilets.

Having read about it on the Dibb we were aware that there was a small play area for children within Manchester airport so this is where we headed. Jacob and Lucas loved the little play area and although it was quite far away from our gate it was worth it as it kept Jacob entertained for ages.

See we all had fun!

He made friends with other kids that were coming in and out and generally passed the time nicely.
Dick got his holiday started with a 10am pint of Guinness.

We gathered at the gate shortly after 10am and were boarding by 10.20am. VS075 took off at 11.15am after a short wait on the runway. We were in the new airbus and early opinions were that it was very nice. It was announced that the flight was full with 311 passengers plus crew. I was certainly glad we had the bulkhead seats as it gave us that bit of extra room. Although once the sky cots go on it does get quite cramped.

Jacob right on cue and without any kind of prompting made all the cabin laugh when after he asked (quite loudly) “are we there yet?” It really could not have been timed any better, we were literally just up and crew were unbolting!

Lucas settled well into his 1st flight and liked the new bassinettes


Lee said he wished they did adult ones! These in my opinion are so much better than the old style “box” that used to rest on the table in front of you. They are like an actual car seat and fix to the wall. You don’t even need to remove your child if there is any turbulence either they are perfectly safe to stay with the bassinette so long as they are strapped in. Just to note that you do need to ask for the sky cot before they fit it as it is not fitted automatically once airborne. I sat for a while waiting for someone to fit it before a lady next to me told me that I need to ask them if I wanted it.

It was soon time for lunch and after being given a menu we made the following choices
Lee – Sausage & Mash x2 as he ate Sue’s
Jacob – Pasta Bolognaise – Lee ate this as well
Me – Chicken in a sauce with Spinach & rice
Dick – Sausage & Mash

Food was ok and did the job. I then tried to watch Footloose and even though I had to pause it about 30 times to do different things for the boys I got through it. It was nowhere near as good as the original, but it never was as it’s one of my favourite films. Dick watched The Grey and Machine Gun Preacher; he said both were good and well worth a watch. Lee played the games and watched a documentary on Facebook. Sue managed to watch I bought a Zoo and the Vow and she enjoyed both. Jacob watched and played everything for about a minute before getting bored and gave up – he has the attention span of a goldfish.



We were all served afternoon tea and ice lollies (which were nice). During the journey there were a couple of patches of turbulence, great that I didn’t have to disturb Lucas when he was asleep.
Overall the flight went well, Lucas did great, sleeping for a few hours and generally happy and smily the rest of the time. Jacob loved the IFE and loved looking at the Sky Map all the time. I sat next to a really lovely lady who had a 3 month old daughter with her on her lap and across the aisle she also had a 3 year old boy sat with her husband. We chatted mostly about our children and our plans for the next few weeks, I never caught her name but if you are a Dibber and are reading I hope you had a great holiday.

We touched down at MCO at 14.40 local time, which was 45 mins ahead of schedule. It was hot but cloudy but definitely better than the weather we had left behind, and that warm fuzzy feeling I get in tummy was there, it felt like home!

At immigration we were sent to the special assistance line as we were travelling with a baby. However Sue and Dick had to go to the normal line as they live at a different address. It was no quicker and seeing people get through that were only just in front of me was really frustrating. We only got through about a minute before Sue and Dick so it didn’t really help us that much. Baggage collection went very smoothly considering we had 6 cases, 2 car seats and a pushchair to collect.

Then at the section where you go through the body scanners were we were asked what kind of food we were carrying and I had stopped to answer the mans questions while Lee continued to come through and rammed the whole trolley into me! The car seats fell of the trolley and hit me on the back of my legs (although as normal he said it wasn’t his fault), I was soo annoyed as it really hurt the result was a sore leg and this nasty bruise which stayed with me for the 1st week of the holiday

Really attractive! - IDIOT :angry:

Really attractive looking when you’re about to get your legs out and put your shorts on for your hols! The bruise enlarged from this picture and got a lot of discussion about how it was looking it went from a sad face to a butterfly and then once it was going a dead moth!

Sent cases off on the conveyer belt and got on monorail to get over to main part of the airport. Jacob was getting confused as he said when are we going to Florida? Bless him.

We were told bags would be 20mins, so Lee and I went to sort the car out at Dollar. We are members of Dollar Express so didn’t have to wait in the normal line and were sent straight over the hut where the cars are to sort it out. As we were a little bit earlier than anticipated the lady said we would have to bring the car back earlier to avoid being charged $114 dollars for an extra day. This wouldn’t be a problem.

After collecting the cases we made our way to the car lot to pick our car. Jacob chose the car it was a beige/grey Kia Sedona, 7 seater. Cases fitted in very easily which is a first for us and by 15.45 we were on our way to Bahama Bay Resort.



The journey was fine and took us a round 40mins, on the way the skies gradually got darker and darker. Check in at Bahama Bay was smooth and we paid our $72 cleaning fee (which we knew about before hand). Our apartment was very near the entrance to the resort.

The apartment was excellent and great value for money. Originally we were looking at hotels for the first 4 days of the holiday but when I found this apartment on the Dibb and saw the apartment had all the facilities we needed (kitchen & 3 rooms) and was a great price it was a no brainer. Its in a great resort with lots to do in the resort, we would recommend it.

Jacob was desperate to go for a swim he had been asking since Manchester airport but the threat of the storm that seemed to be building meant he would have to wait. Lee and Dick went to get some food as we were all peckish. When they got back Jacob was still asking to go in the pool. So at 6pm Lee gave in and took him to the swimming pool. He said as soon as the got in it started to rain, he did say the pool was lovely and like a bath. After 10 mins in the pool, Lee did a deal with Jacob and they got out and went to find the arcade room. Unfortunately the arcade room was quite far away from the room so they had a long walk in the heavy rain that had finally arrived. While they were gone I settled Lucas down. As we were only staying here for 4 nights I didn’t want to unpack everything from the cases so we basically lived out of the suitcases for the next few days. Not ideal but it was best thing to do.

Apartment was really lovely and ideal for our needs for those few nights. I shared the double bedroom with Lucas whilst Lee slept in the twin bedroom with Jacob. Sue and Dick had the master. I was going to post some photos here but I havent really got any BahamabayLisa is on the Dibb though so if you are interested, check it out.

After a hectic day we were all very tired and called it a day at 8.30pm. We knew that we would be up early but decided to try and get as much sleep as possible. I also didn’t know how Lucas was going to sleep so thought I should sleep whilst he was!

Tomorrow – the holiday begins at SEAWORLD

[Tartan Tigger]

Good travel day.

[mickeysgirls]

Oh my goodness, that bruise looks awful! We think it look like angry eyes!
Looks like [apart from that] you had a lovely non eventful travel day! And Lucas looks so comfy in the sky cot!

Tracey xx

[jocat]

Ouch to the bruises! It's amazing how things are never the man's fault.

[anniebee65]

Great travel day! Ouch though. That bruise looks painful

[Guest]

Travel day went well, apart from the bruised leg (ouch!)
Looking forward to reading more

[BahamaBayLisa]

Ouch your poor leg! Hope those bruises healed quickly.

I'm so glad you were pleased with the apartment and that Jacob managed a short swim on your first night, even if it was cut short by the rain!

Look forward to reading about the rest of your trip in the coming days.

Lisa

[Guest]

Ouch! Your poor leg!

Other than that and Lee's bleeding finger, it seems like your travel day went smoothly! Little Lucas certainly looked comfy in his travel cot, I wish I could fly like that!

Kate

[scotsprincess]

Great travel day

Wow that's some bruise

[RachelM]

what a bruise to get for your holidays! Sounds like a good travel day though.