Our (1st! ) holiday of a lifetime to Disney Day 3

[col2501]

I woke up earlier than anyone else today - 6am and the alarm was set for 7.30am. I spent some time on the internet(in the dark so I didn't wake anyone!)

When Chris and the kids got up we went for breakfast - Brandon was very impressed with the vast array of donuts,muffins and pastries to choose from - me. I stuck to toast!

The receptionist advised that the Hampton Inn will pick up our luggage during the day and we can just go off to the parks and not worry...great right...? ermm..

All the research I had done getting to the parks was from the Hampton so I had no clue what we should do from the Fairfield. I asked the receptionist about the I trolley and Lynx buses but she dismissed them both, said the buses where rubbish and our best option was to get a taxi, I felt we had no choice really and agreed to her calling a taxi for us.

A taxi ride and $46 dollars later (I know...! ) we arrived at Hollywood Studios
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we decided to hire a stroller for Jess as she hated all the walking yesterday and as we'd arrived at 10.15 we'd missed the opportunity to go on toy story - the wait was over an hour and fastpasses were for after 7pm - no way we'd make it til then!

We got a photopass photo togther (will post these later once they are sorted)
and the boys did Star Tours - here;s one of the photo's Chris took inside...
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Jessica had a full on fit when the boys went on this - something that was to occur fairly often during this trip (damn those rides with a height restriction!)

I know what you're thinking..why not try and occupy Jess with another ride whilst the boys do something else...hhmmmm tried this, numerous times and failed...!

On this occassion I'd got FP's for the little mermaid show(something I wanted to see myself and was sure Jess would love it too)

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doesn't she just look like butter wouldn't melt here...!

Unfortunately she was busy screaming about not going on Star tours that she absolutely did not want to see the little mermaid. Didn't I just look like the the model Mum (not) dragging a puce (with screaming) 3 year old on a ride that she clearly did not want to experience!

Funnily enough - once we were in there she LOVED it! esp the bubbles and feeling like we were under the sea... I knew I wasn't that bad a Mum after all!

We also met Buzz and Woody - Jess wouldn't entertain them again, the photo's were all photopass but this was as we queuing:

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Chris with Bill!

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And me with Oprah!
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We had lunch at the ABC comissionary :
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Burgers and chips all round today - about $45.00 with drinks I think...

After lunch we took the kids to the honey I shrunk the kids play area - and they both LOVED it here! had trouble making them leave, her's a few of my fav pics..
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Chris wanted a photo of him here...
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about to exceed my photo allowance again so cont'd in the next post...

[col2501]

continued...

Chris went and got Fast passes for the Rock n Roller Coaster for him and Brandon later and we wandered through some shops.

I should explain here that we have borrowed a fellow dibbers pal Mickey on this holiday and Jess adores him - he has a sorcerors outfit on and has been dubbed - Magic Mickey.

Jess adores him and wants to take him everywhere, which I am trying to avoid as I want him to remain in the pristine condition we recieved him in.

So we let her buy a 'Magic Mickey' cap which she proceeded to wear every single day of the rest of the holiday. Chris bought himself a star wars t-shirt and we let Jess have a cuddly Stitch too.

Brandon picked various cars and figures instead!

we headed to the Backlot tour and it was lovely to wander through the air conditioned warehouse, it had been ridiculousy hot today..
we boarded the train and the heavens opened. This was our first real taste of a Florida Thunderstorm.

They kept the ride going despite the rain and we all got drenched! but once the lightening started it was game over and they suspended the ride and herded us all inside so we wandered around the exhibition that had a few star wars costumes etc so the boys were happy!

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We went through to the shop (bought ponchos) and Brandon hd one of those photos were his face was morphed into a star wars character (anakin) - it;s a fab photo and If I ever work out how to scan it successfully i will share it with you all - he looks really grown up!

The rain went off slightly but most of the attractions were still shut and the boys had no chance of getting on the coaster so we wandered towards the entrance and bought popcorn and beer...

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we had realised early on that we had no clue how to get back to the Hampton from here so went over to guest services to enquire.

we travelled to the ticket centre via disney then picked up a lynx bus til Seaworld (a nice brit couple helped us out and made sure we didn;t get off when we shouldn't - which we almost did!)

Then we picked up the I trolley to I drive and thats where the fun began...

I'd asked the driver about the stop for the hampton and he'd mentioned stop 13 as had the lovely couple that had helped us out so thats what we looked for. At stop 13 we wandered round trying to find the hotel to no avail - eventually we did (or so we thought) but turns out it was the wrong hotel - which we had realised once we'd entered the lobby. This was 2 hours after we'd left th park so as you can imagine we were wet, tired and moody, well me and Jess certainly where anyway!

The bloke at the wrong hampton told us to get back on the trolley and go south which we did and it turns out we'd been faffing about so long that it was the same driver that we'd spoke to earlier so he took pity on us and didn;t make me pay again!

This time we got off at stop 24 (pointe orlando) but guess what... still couldn't find the hotel...doh! we wandered round some more smiping at each other and snapping at the kids when a man pulled up on a bike with a carriage on the back.

This was the first time we'd seen one of these but he pulled up and said, I'll take you folks anywhere you wanna go...I swear I almost collapsed in his arms and cried tears of happiness!

When I enquired on the price to be told, there is none , you just tip what you think is fair, Chris was practically ready to sell me...!
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Here's Brandon on said bike with Kent as our driver... what a novel way to cross international drive is all I'll say! But hey he got us there!

We walked into the Hampton nearing collapse and I gave my name and said please tell me you have my reservation.

Cue a very very long silence (you know when you can imagine tumbleweed rolling down the desk - yep exactly like that...) and I thought Chris may leap over the desk and strangle the poor woman...
try as she might she couldn't find our reservation...she was soooo nervous, perhaps she could sense that we were not in the best mood!

turns out they had me down as Mrs Colette and not Mrs Poole - THANK GOD WE HAVE A ROOM!

Chris asked if we had a fridge in the room and the receptionist advised that a fridge is $10 per night to rent, however due to all our trouble so far she let us have a fridge for free(and a microwave) thank god for that!

We had a welcome basket in our room with apologies for us (Mrs Colette and Family) having to move...

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After such a long day we were exhausted but hungry and not in the mood to go searching for somewhere to eat, we went to sizzlers and Chris and i had the Chicken Club

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and the kids had hotdogs and blue slush...

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how delightful - not!

no idea what time w ewent to bed tonight but i was sooooo looking forward to tomorrow - Magic Kingdom! Yay!

[hel1304]

Poor you, a very long and eventful day for you with the transport & hotel! We have managed to use the public transport fine, so I hope you manage to enjoy it over the next few days.

Great pics again (especially the one with the blue slush!)

[summersun]

a great long day and glad they had a room for you.fab pics too

[JudyC]

Glad you managed in the end, but this sounds like a god advert for hiring a car in Orlando

[lausan]

well you all have had some adventure great pics

[Juliemack]

crikey, you must have all been exhausted after that trek, sounds like a great day otherwise...

btw - are you still suffering with jet lag? , you were up very late posting this...

[Karma]

OMG. I think you need to hire a car and a villa next time

Love the poncho photos!

[M M]

Woo, what a day, if that was us EVERYTHING would have been my fault

[Bartswife]

Thank goodness you are finally settled and can unpack, what a nightmare for you but the children are still smiling at the end of the day with their blue slush.