Another failed trip report? Day 1

[clubhouse]

Checking in to OKW, Car swopping, Epcot and Via Napoli

Day 1 – 24 June 2016

So despite a long day yesterday and a fairly late night, DH and I were awake super early. Well before 6am, so technically still night time – we wasted a bit of time reading about the referendum goings on and resigned ourselves to Brexit. There were no signs of movement from the kids until about 7am when they came through to see what we had planned for the day and to tell us they needed breakfast. Quick showers all round and we were dressed and out by 7.30am. The hotel deal we’d gone for included a free breakfast so we went to see what was on offer, to be honest it wouldn’t have mattered as our kids like to stick to holiday traditions and one of the most important is first day breakfast at Denny’s! Anyway, back to the free breakfast, the breakfast room was pleasant enough and there was a good selection of cereals, pasties and fruit. Lots of coffee and juice as well as cooked items, we even managed to find pancakes – none of this was convincing the kids, they still wanted Denny’s so we set off to walk along. It was a beautiful day, and this early in the morning it was already warm, in fact I think if it could stay at this temperature all day, it would be perfect!

As we were walking along DH and I were chatting about the car we’d picked up last night although it was brand new and lovely, it seemed smaller than we were expecting as I’d accidentally booked a slightly larger car than we needed. A short walk later and we arrived at Denny’s at Crossroads and were quickly seated.

No pics of this mornings breakfast, but I had a FitFare Veggie Omelette, DS had the Kids Slam, DD had Choc Chip pancakes and DH had his usual Moons Over My Hammy with coffee for the grownups and apple juice for the kids. Suitably full we settled our bill and strolled back.

I made a start on packing up our overnight things, made easier by packing our first days things in packing cubes. I was doubtful about these before I got them, but I have to stay they definitely helped when we were moving from one hotel to the other and didn’t want to completely unpack. While I was doing the packing, DH called AVIS about the car. There was a bit of arguing about it as the US and UK websites weren’t aligned on the categories of SUV, in the end DH decided we’d try an AVIS rental desk. We checked out of Staybridge Suites and all agreed the room was great value with loads of space. The only drawback was that the pool didn’t look too great, but I’d say for DH and I it would be fine, the kids look for a bit more theming mind you. Sorry I forgot to take any photos as we were wandering!

Excitement was building by now as we were off to check in at Old Key West, we’ve not stayed here before but were looking forward to having lots of space in a one bed unit there. Soon we were at the gates and being welcomed home.

I’d done online check in a few weeks earlier and requested a high floor and dual bathroom access, so that if the kids needed to go in the night they didn’t have to come via the bedroom. Check in was quick and we were given some cooling towels while we waited,very refreshing! The kids also got some balloon animals, but quickly lost interest and went to watch cartoons in the lobby.


We were soon in possession of magic bands, DD was delighted as instead of her name, hers had “nightfury” on the back, she is a total Dragons of Berk fan. Our room wasn’t ready but we didn’t mind as we knew we were too early, so left our luggage with Bell Services and headed off to have a look around the resort.
The resort looked lovely and the kids were very impressed with the pool. We were soon feeling the heat, so headed into the shop to get our resort mugs. We all had a drink and enjoyed some rays.

DS had already burst his balloon by now.

DH wasn’t too happy with the room we’d been allocated so I headed back in reception to see if there was any chance of moving. By sacrificing the high floor we were able to move to building 63, which was much nearer the Hospitality House. The concierge told me they’d send a text when the room was ready.

DH had decided we should visit an AVIS desk on Hotel Boulevard and got a really helpful manager who agreed we’d been given a car that was too small and that he’d change it for us, only thing was the one he was going to give us wasn’t back. He agreed that he’d hold it for us and we could change over later that day, he’d text us when it came in. Next we headed to Walmart for some essentials, just water and suncream, not very exciting! I’m sure there was probably beer in the trolley too!

From there we decided to head to Epcot as we had a reservation later on, the kids have been looking forward to a giant pizza at Via Napoli for months! Before long we were were greeted by one of my favourite sights.

We managed to get parked up and walked over to bag check then on to the tapstiles and we were in!
As we walked towards Spaceship Earth, DH got a text to day the car was ready. The kids were disappointed that we’d have to leave so we decided to split up and packed DH off to sort out the car. The kids and I went on Spaceship Earth.

This was a walk on – I think it was about 1pm by now. The kids rode together and I was on my own, it felt strange being by myself on this ride!

Then we went over to Guest Services to claim our gift card (as we’d been instructed by the checkin staff at OKW). There was a long queue in here and the kids were very impatient. When we got to the front, I was told that the instructions I’d been given were wrong and I’d have to go to Disney Springs to collect the gift card. I was disappointed with the castmembers attitude given it was a colleague of hers who’d sent me here, but hey ho, I was in Disney and wasn’t going to let it annoy me.
The kids wanted to ride Test Track, we didn’t have fastpass but we decided to go and see how long the single rider line was. I was a bit nervous about letting DD on single rider as she is only 7, but she was very keen to get on. Only once I was in the queue did it dawn on me that they might get off well before me, due to the way the ride was being loaded. I managed to attract their attention and tell them to wait for me just after they get off.

As it turns out DD and DS were put in the same car, we all loved it and felt a bit bad that DH had missed it.

Next we went over to Figment as I was feeling a bit guilty about TestTrack and I know DH hates Figment, so knew he wouldn’t mind missing out on this one. The kids LOVE this ride for some reason. Halfway round DH texted to let me know he was back in the park and he met up with us in the interactive area. He’d managed to get a bigger car and was really pleased with it. The face to face service at AVIS was definitely much better than over the phone. We had a browse round the shop, DS wanted to buy a Figment hoodie – bad parents that we are, we said no.

Then he tried to get us to buy it for his gran. Don't think she would have liked it though.

Next we decided to have a walk around the world show case, stopping to watch the acrobats in France, do an Agent P mission in Japan,get silly pictures in Canada, play the drums etc. (most of this seems to escape my notes, but the pictures tell the story).

Then we went on to America and stopped to listen to the Voices of Liberty – fantastic, we were really impressed. We were feeling the heat so we stayed for a while to watch the next show. I really like that sort of thing, DH and the kids, not so much.

With tummies starting to rumble it was time to head for our dinner reservation at Via Napoli. We decided we’d pay out of pocket for this as we didn’t fancy any of the desserts and only really wanted the giant pizza that we’d promised the kids. We went for spicy sausage and pepperoni as the topping, kids had apple juice, DH had a beer and I had grape juice, ahem, wine (and a diet coke).

The kids were surprised at the size of the pizza! We were near the pizza ovens and the kids enjoyed watching the comings and goings around the kitchen area.

The service was good and we all enjoyed the food. We decided against dessert as we wanted to use of of our vast amount snack credits for ice cream so we settled the bill. We'd managed to get fastpasses for the new Frozen ride, so we headed here next. We were surprised to see it was only a 5 minute wait to meet Anna and Elsa so decided to hop in here before our fastpass. DS was all talk that he was going to ask Anna for a "warm hug", he turned to jelly when he got in, we think he has a soft spot for Anna, it used to be Tiana, then Belle that he went all gooey over!

The queues for the Frozen ride were still very long at this point and although we enjoyed it, we would never have waited in a long queue for it (I think they queueing for around 3 hours today!).

We were impressed with the loading area and general theming for the ride.

We couldn't leave Norway without some nonsense in the shop, including some Photopass pics beside the troll:

After that we made our way towards future world. We tried to find ice cream, but didn’t manage – we should have headed back to Italy for some gelato I think. Nevermind it didn’t do my waist line any harm to miss out on dessert.

By now we were all feeling tired after our early start so headed back to the newly upgraded car and on to OKW. We quickly found our room (6311) and were really pleased with the location, I was a bit disappointed it was on ground level, but in the grand scheme of things, it was far better for us to be so close to the Hospitality House. We called over to Bell Services for our bags and they quickly brought them over. The kids agreed that DS would take the sleeper chair and DD would take the sofa bed, I was just glad they weren’t fighting over it. Just as I was starting to unpack DH said he could hear a dripping noise. It sounded like it was in the laundry area but we couldn’t see any leaks or anything. DH thought it would keep him awake so called housekeeping, they said they’d send someone over. The kids were getting really tired by now so I got them showered and ready for bed. Someone from maintenance came over and had a look for the leak, it was something to do with the air conditioning, he said the only way to fix it would be to open up the wall but he’d adjusted it so it shouldn’t be so bad and if it was still annoying us we should see about moving rooms!

By now I was so tired I didn’t care. DH and I agreed not to unpack, but wait and see if we hear it through the night. We got ready for bed, DH conked out, I could still hear the dripping, but before long I was in the land of nod too!

Step count for today: 17398, which was much more respectable than yesterdays 7369.

Tomorrow – Magic Kingdom, Be Our Guest & Hoop De Doo

[KarenG]

Is it your first time at OKW? The one beds are huge aren't they? Bit like the pizza!

Fab first day

[clubhouse]

Yes, we'd been in a one bed at SSR, but found putting the sofa abed away each day a pain! We had so much space at OKW that we left the beds out.

[collybird]

That pizza looks awesome!

The kids looked like they were having a fab time.

I didn't know there was a Denny's at Crossroads, thanks for the tip!

[mouselover22]

You certainly crammed a lot in today

Thumbs up for Avis changing the car over, always had great service from them

5 minute wait for Anna & Elsa someone pinch me

[Loopylooloo]

Glad to find someone else who loves Epcot like I do!
OKW looks beautiful hope the dripping sound stopped? Or you might be playing musical rooms?!
Looks like a great day, thanks for sharing.

[debsym62]

Glad to have found a new trip report to read, good luck with getting it all done.

[clubhouse]

Originally Posted by debsym62

Glad to have found a new trip report to read, good luck with getting it all done.

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Getting there, slowly but surely, another day added. I must be the slowest trip report writer ever!

[Guest]

The pizza looks great - was it Half half different toppings? Is that a large or the half metre?

[clubhouse]

Originally Posted by Loobie22

The pizza looks great - was it Half half different toppings? Is that a large or the half metre?

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Half/half it was. One side pepperoni with the other side Italian sausage. Think it was the half metre as it was squarish rather than round.