It's Supposed to be the Budget Trip April 2015 - Day 1: Travel Day

[moosha]

It's Supposed to be the Budget Trip Day 1: Friday 10th April 2015

First of all a quick apology for how long it's taken me to put this report together. I've been having copy and paste issues with Flickr since they updated their website recently so adding the photos in has been a right pain. Anyone who has read my previous reports will know that I do like to ramble on and include every detail in my reports so somehow even travel day has ended up being 12 pages long .

Staying in an airport hotel the night before travel day has a few major benefits in my eyes. The holiday begins earlier and so the relaxing and unwinding can commence the day before getting on the plane. There's also no fear of missing the flight due to traffic on the M25, and once we've left home, I can ignore the nagging thoughts of 'have I forgotten to do / pack something?' as by this point it's probably too late to do anything about it.

However, the downside of staying in a hotel the night before flying is that, for our family at least, we always get less sleep than we would at home. This is party down to not being in our own beds and the excitement of the impending holiday, but mostly down to Freya never settling properly on the first night away from home. She has always been a little monkey whenever we've stayed in hotels and always messes around when she gets into bed. Last night she was being a pickle until 9.45, about two hours after she would go to sleep at home. She kept Seren and Mat (who was keen on an early night) awake for a while too.

I woke up at 4 am due to the excitement and unfamiliar surroundings but managed to get back to sleep until 5.45, which was 15 minutes before the alarm was due to go off. I got straight out of bed, reasoning that the extra 15 minutes gave me more time to faff, which I seem to love to do on holiday. I had to pack everything from our night here at the Hampton back into the cases (our wash bags were spread across all three cases, so each of them needed attention.)

Seren woke up at 6 am and Freya at 6.40, feeling very tired already. By that point I was showered and mostly ready, but was very much involved in fiddling with the cases. By the time I felt ready to walk away from them to go to breakfast, it was about 7.45 am. The last countdown jellybeans were consumed:



When we got to the lifts on our floor (I think it was the third or fourth floor), they appeared to be out of order and people were instead taking the stairs down. We were a bit concerned about the idea of carrying three heavy suitcases down three flights of stairs, and hoped the elevator problems would be fixed by the time we checked out.

The complimentary breakfast at the Hampton was located around the back of the reception desk, next to the bar. There was no one checking room numbers or even greeting guests at all. It was a bit of a free-for-all; find a table and get stuck in. We were a bit surprised that literally anyone could walk in and help themselves to a free breakfast.

Mat always suffers with a nervous tummy when we fly out - although not when he flies by himself for work which happens more often - so he wasn't up for much to eat. I too wasn't feeling all that hungry but we all dutifully hit the buffet and had the following:

Mat: bagel with slice of cheese, grapefruit juice
Me: 2 x mini Yeo Valley peach and apricot yoghurt, mini croissant with Nutella, orange juice
Seren: Frosties, 2 x mini croissants with honey, apple juice
Freya: Frosties, mini blueberry muffin, mini croissant with Nutella, water.



The fact that I captured Mat mid-plate-filling here tickles me, I don't know why:



It was all ok but to me it felt very 'budget' in there (as it's a budget hotel I really can't be surprised) and it felt a bit grotty in there with tables not being cleaned, dirty plates, and cutlery running out in some of the cutlery 'holes' under the buffet. Still, it's 'free' so can't complain. The buffet pictured behind two children who obviously really didn't want to pose for this photo:



This lady must have thought she was still at home. Sorry if she's a Dibber but I don't get it. The place wasn't the cleanest:



I did like some of the decor in the public areas of the hotel:





Mat checked at reception about the lifts and they confirmed that they weren't working but that staff were around to help with luggage.

We went back upstairs and I had one last fight with the cases to get the toothbrushes back in. I also looked out of the window to be greeted by this slightly unsettling sight with a couple of officers getting out of one of the cars :



One final check of the room and then we walked round to the lifts with the luggage. As the receptionist had said there would be, there were a couple of staff hanging around on our floor and one of them took two of our (approximately 20kg each) cases and carried them both down the three flights of stairs at the same time. He was quite possibly a super-hero. Mat took the other one and the girls and I carried the hand luggage. We were so grateful of the guy's help but with the lifts out of order, using the stairs was still a bit of a pain as there were lots of people going up and down the narrow staircase at the same time.

We checked out with a very nice receptionist who had the following conversation with Seren:

Receptionist: 'Where are you going on holiday then?'
Seren: 'Florida'
R: 'Do you know what Florida is most famous for?'
S: 'Disney World!'
R: It's actually oranges...'

We walked over to the BA bag drop desks and there was a huge queue. There were only three desks open. There was a guy moving people out of the bag drop queue into the quieter check-in queue and we were among the ones moved across to balance things out. In the end we waited about 10 minutes to drop our cases off. I have no idea why we didn't use the dedicated priority line for Avios card holders (Mat is a silver card holder, and we were eligible.) We did however use the premium security lane, which again we were eligible for with Mat's silver card. Security took about five minutes and was nice and stress-free.

By now it was just coming up to about 9 am and next up was to try and get into the BA Executive Lounge. Mat is entitled to bring one guest into the lounge, and as tempting as it would have been to ditch the girls and chill out in the lounge by ourselves (I'm kidding of course), he had asked both by email in advance and the previous night at the lounge entrance whether it would be possible to bring us all in. He has seen families in BA lounges before (including Noel Gallagher with his wife and child) but the answer had been that technically as a Silver cardholder, he could only bring one of us in, although it would come down to the staff member's discretion based on how busy the lounge was at the time. The night before, he'd been told that it was still the Easter holidays and the lounge was expected to be busier because of the air traffic control strike in France that weekend. So our odds weren't great but we're not fans of Gatwick airport and its departure lounges so were keeping our fingers crossed.

When we got to the reception desk, there was a bit of a queue which didn't fill us with optimism. Mat asked the lady if he could please bring all of us in and she said 'it should really be only one guest... it is still the Easter holidays so we're pretty busy.' I was just about ready to slink off sadly to the departure lounge when Mat replied 'is there any chance you could please let us all in?' She must have taken pity on him because she unexpectedly said that the lounge was actually quite quiet and we could all sneak in.' I resisted the urge to jump up and down excitedly and we told her we'd be discreet.





We actually thought the lounge was quite busy when we got in but we found a sofa and table close to the drinks station.





Mat got us both a much needed coffee and we all had some water. The girls read their books, I caught up with my notes, and Mat and I used the (slightly dodgy) wifi in the lounge to go on Facebook, which was frustratingly messing around. Hello, I'm trying to gloat here (not really... much .) I also uploaded my photos thus far to Flickr ready for the trip report. I had a second coffee and about ten glasses of water (I always drink a lot of water but especially find I get dehydrated on flights so I was stocking up in advance) and the girls had some fruit (Seren: apple, Freya: banana.) Seren also took her travel sickness pill. We noticed the family next to us were leaving and taking bags of crisps with them so Mat and Freya went to get a couple of bags of Kettle Chips to take on the plane with us. I had Sweet Chilli and the girls had Lightly Salted (these were the only two flavours available by the way.) We then left the lounge about 10 am.

After using the nice toilets in the lounge on the way out, we went to Boots to get the girls some sandwiches for the plane. We always order them the vegetarian meal on the plane but they generally won't eat the hot meal as it's usually something spicy or with way too much flavour for our unadventurous daughters. They'll sometimes have a nibble of the salad, roll and dessert though so we still order it (it's not like we have to pay for it.) They both chose a cheese sandwich and a KitKat each, and we bought a bottle of water for each of us too.

We also popped into WH Smith to get some magazines. The girls both got one of those ones with a 'free' gift on the front which cost about a fiver each :angry: and I treated myself to Heat and Good Housekeeping. I never buy magazines anymore as I seldom get a chance to read them so a nine hour flight seemed like a good opportunity. I also got myself a Wispa which was very much necessary . While we were paying, Mat bumped into someone he works with which happens more on holiday than you'd expect. He bumped into someone from work last year in Magic Kingdom and would also bump into someone else he used to work with later on this trip at Epcot.

By the time we came out of WH Smith, our departure gate had been announced. We had a quick faff with putting the magazines and food into the relevant bags and hand luggage and then walked what seemed like a mile towards gate 111.



We had another toilet stop on the way and the flight was already boarding by the time we got to the gate. All our previous flights with Virgin have involved quite a queue to board when we've reached the gate, but today there was no queue at all. This is at least partly due to our BA plane being smaller than the Virgin ones and also the flight wasn't full. Anyway, the lady who checked our boarding passes was very nice and we boarded about 10.50 am. So far I was happy with British Airways.



I was even happier when we reached our seats and I realised there was no seat in front of mine. The girls and I were in the second row of economy by the window, where there are two seats in the row in front of ours, but three in our row so my aisle seat had unlimited legroom :



Mat was across the aisle from me and had no one sitting next to him plus the added bonus of not having to look after either of the girls, so we were both pretty happy with our lot. The girls got comfy with their Primarni neck pillows:



The cabin crew member standing in front of me for the safety demonstration complimented me on my nails and we had a quick chat about where we were staying in Orlando when we arrived and where she had stayed while on holiday there the year before.

The seat-back screens wouldn't work for the safety video so the crew had to do a manual demonstration. The girls and I were slightly alarmed that there were problems with the inflight entertainment but I hoped this was just temporary for the safety demo.

In the end we took off about 11.30 (flight time was 11.20) and an announcement was made that they were going to do a system reset on the IFE as a lot of the screens weren't working. The girls and I (and other passengers around us) were frantically pressing buttons in the hope it would magically work. The idea of a nine hour flight without films was not pleasant. Mat wasn't bothered as he is a bit of a snob about the IFE and instead loads films he wants to catch up with onto his iPad. After the reset, it still didn't work so an announcement was made that they would do another reset. The girls got on with some colouring and I read my Heat magazine.

The second system reset didn't work either and at that point Freya started to cry because she couldn't watch a film. Great. No in-flight entertainment, a crying child and a husband on the other side of the aisle obliviously (hmm) watching a film with earphones in. Another announcement was made that because the resets hadn't worked, they were going to need to do a full system reboot which would take a little while. I kept my fingers crossed and started to regret booking with BA, telling myself this wouldn't happen on my beloved Virgin Atlantic (which I know is irrational .)

About 45 minutes after take off, the reboot had worked and the girls and I settled down to watch films. The girls both started with Paddington even though we'd only watched it at home a week before. I felt there was a smaller choice of films on BA than on Virgin as I usually fancy more films than I have time for across both flights. I settled on 'Cake' to start with as I love Jennifer Aniston but about 15 minutes in I decided it was too depressing for holiday. (It's about chronic pain and suicide.) So I switched to Horrible Bosses 2 which was quite funny. Cabin crew brought round the beverages and I had a nice Bacardi and full fat Coke, telling the nice lady I'd need the sugar today, which she agreed with.



Seren had an apple juice and Freya had a water. We weren't given any pretzels or other snacks which surprised me.

Not long after the drinks trolley, our vegetarian meals were delivered.



It was a chickpea and spinach curry with brown rice and it was very tasty (I really like plane food so my review here may be a bit biased.) There was too much rice for the curry though. There was also a yummy roasted vegetable salad (courgettes, red pepper, asparagus and cherry tomatoes) which I polished off too. Also on the tray was a bottle of water, bread roll and fruit salad. The girls would only eat the fruit salad and drink the water, so after my curry and vegetables, I ate some of Freya's curry plus Seren's vegetables. I didn't want it to go to waste .

The girls had their sandwiches, crisps and four finger KitKats which disturbingly they didn't break into fingers and so got in a right mess with. I also had a red wine with my meal, and once I'd finished the curry, I polished off this:



...and settled down with my glass of wine



to watch 'Wild' with Reese Witherspoon which was brilliant. I loved it and can't wait to watch it again on a proper TV that isn't as temperamental as the BA inflight which got stuck a few times when I paused it and even went back to the beginning once when I briefly paused it to speak to the girls .

It took flipping ages for them to clear away the trays from the meal. When my film finished I tried to watch a bit of TV but couldn't concentrate on anything. There were only a couple more films available that I fancied watching and I wanted to save them for the return flight. In the long boring stretch after the meal, cabin crew brought round cups of orange juice and water twice on a tray. The first time, I took a juice for myself and before I could take a cup for Seren, the woman had moved on to the the next row which annoyed me. To be fair, we still had quite a lot of water left between us but she should have offered a drink to all of us, not just me. The second time they came round, when she got to me (second row in economy remember), there were three drinks left on the tray; two waters and a juice. Freya and I took the waters and she offered Seren the juice. I said 'she doesn't like orange juice' and so she walked off to offer it to the next person. How professional to be offered a tray of one drink. She really should have gone back and re-stocked when Seren didn't want the juice, so that she and everyone after her would have a choice. So both times Seren didn't get a drink at all. I know I could have called her over or gone up and requested a drink, but as I said we didn't actually need any more drinks. I just didn't think it was very good service at all.

About two hours before landing, I was getting really hungry. I did see a couple of people go and request snacks from the back of the plane, but I assumed tea was about to be served as there wasn't much time left so didn't bother to get up and ask for anything. I read my Good Housekeeping magazine to fill the time but had to give up on that when I reached the recipes as it was making me hungrier. Finally, an hour and 20 minutes before landing, a crew member brought our vegetarian tea over, just before serving everyone else the standard tea.

Ours was a soggy cheese and salad sandwich and a Jaffa Cake bar. I don't like hard cheese so the sandwich was most definitely not happening for me, despite how hungry I was. I'm embarrassed to admit I got a bit upset and went into a sulk, telling Mat I would never fly BA again. I ate the Jaffa Cake bar (I also don't particularly like them but it was that or nothing.) And then I ate one of the girls' Jaffa Cake bars too. Seren had nothing. She gets a bit travel sick on planes and takes a tablet for it which leaves her a bit drowsy. She is usually ok for the first half of the flight but then gets pretty grumpy and won't eat towards the end (when she's been sick in the past it's been on landing so I think it's psychological.) Freya ate half the sandwich. Mat ate all of his while trying to ignore me moaning about BA. In my defence I have a bit of history with BA and their inflight meals / cheese sandwiches. The first time we flew to New York, the day after I found out I was pregnant with Seren, we flew with BA and it was back in 2005 when there was some sort of strike by the inflight catering staff which meant all they were able to provide on the flights were sandwiches rather than hot meals. I was suffering with morning sickness and pregnancy hormones and again was presented with a manky cheese sandwich which I would never eat. So I think today I had some sort of psychological flashback to that experience with the hungriness and the cheese sandwich on today's flight.

They also brought round tea / coffee, juice and water and the girls and I all had some water.

I mentioned how disappointed I was with BA in my highs and lows and how I would not fly with them again after this experience. When we booked these flights, they were a couple of hundred pounds cheaper than Virgin and this being the 'budget trip' we had to go with BA. I do feel that this difference in price is partly explained by the cheaper service i.e. the smaller, pretty pathetic tea and the fact that you don't get the ice cream that Virgin give you. I really didn't feel that the quality overall (staff friendliness, inflight entertainment, cleanliness of the plane etc.) was up to par with Virgin at all, and this was the same on the return flight when we flew premium economy. However, my 'I'll never fly BA again' rant was short-lived as we already had flights with BA booked for September for our New York trip, and this week I have booked with BA again for our next Florida holiday despite the fact we could have gone with Virgin for a couple of hundred pounds more. The benefits we get from Mat's silver Avios status (priority check-in / security / baggage, choosing our seats for free immediately after booking the flight, better flight times and the fact that the BA flights are still cheaper) outweigh the Virgin perks for me right now. I am not going to approach future BA flights expecting Virgin quality / service so I won't be as disappointed. And I am most definitely going to take plenty of food on the flights and will ask for a snack if I still get hungry.

We landed at 3.10 pm which was 10 minutes early. We got off the plane quickly because we were near the front, although Freya was at the front of our party and she stopped when we reached the front of the cabin to let the people from the far aisle go ahead of us. About ten people did so, and Mat and I were saying to her 'you're just going to have to go' but she wouldn't cut in front of these cheeky people. In the end, one of the pilots who was standing across the galley from us to say goodbye to the passengers stopped the flow of people from the far aisle to let us go. So he was in my good books even if the rest of BA was not.

We were apprehensive as we entered the immigration hall as our previous experience here in 2012 had involved a queue of two hours or so (last year we flew into Orlando from New York so went through domestic arrivals.) We got in line at 3.25 and were pleased that the place was pretty empty and we were among the first off the plane. I said to Mat that we should use the self serve / fast track kiosks as we were eligible because we'd visited the country in the past few years, but as the main line for for desks was short, we stuck with that queue. The line may have been short but there were only three desks open, so the queue wasn't moving as quick as we might have expected. The fast track kiosks were very quiet and a guy came over to the main line, which had started to fill up, to move people across to the kiosks. Unfortunately by this time we were only a few parties from the front and he was taking people from the back of the line, asking them when they had last visited the States. I think if it's 2010 or later you are eligible to use the self serve machines. He was of course a very authoritative, no nonsense guy, so it made me laugh when he asked a couple when they last visited and they said '2008.' He told them to stay in the main line and 'visit this country more often .'

The man at the front of the main line directing people to the next available desk asked the couple in front why they hadn't gone to the fast track kiosks and the lady told him that they were sent into this line. She was a bit agitated and stroppy and I thought that was quite a brave move at the point where the border officials make a decision as to whether you can enter the country. I will say that this time, the immigration hall and staff seemed much more keen to get everyone processed quickly than they had three years ago. A live announcement was made over the tannoy system and at the end, the lady said 'welcome to sunny Orlando!' which I thought was a nice touch.

Half an hour after we had entered the immigration hall, we had been processed and walked across to the luggage carousel. Our cases were already on the carousel because of priority baggage so at this point we were feeling pretty pleased with how quick we were getting through the airport. We collected the cases, turned around to exit the immigration hall and saw the very long queue for customs. We had experienced a long line at this point in New York last year too, and trying to get in any sort of queue with everyone's suitcases but no queueing ropes or switchbacks, and people trying to join the line from the various carousels is a bit of a pain. We joined the back of the line and within one minute, an official called Maddox walked over to me and said 'Ma'am, follow me please.' He took us over to an empty desk to process us. Amazingly exactly the same thing had happened to me at JFK last year, I really don't know why the US Border Agency are so keen to let me into their country so quickly rather than making me wait in a line (maybe they know how much money I like to spend on souvenirs and cocktails ) but I am very grateful none the less. Maddox was very much 'babe of the day', an award that I dished out...ooh...once on this holiday. When we handed over our passports and customs form, he took them and said 'I only need to see Matthew's passport' (as his name was on the customs form.) The first passport he opened wasn't Mat's and we all joked it would be the last one he opened, which it was. Bless him. What a star.

So we were still making good progress and I told Mat we were most definitely not dropping off the cases again and would be taking them up the escalator ourselves. Dropping them off again in 2012 had led to a massive long wait for them to reappear at the other end and I was not having any of that today...we had plans for the evening. Somehow, we managed to get three heavy suitcases and four hand luggage bags up the escalators without incident.

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We only had to wait a moment for the shuttle to the terminal and once we were out the other side, it was time for our first 'restroom' stop. There would be many, many more throughout the holiday. We seemed to spend half our time in public conveniences while in the parks and it kept reminding me of Craig's (mkingdon's) trip report that was actually titled '...tour of Florida restrooms.' That's definitely what this holiday was too. We even decided on our favourite and least favourite park restrooms. Anyway, these restrooms would not rank particularly highly as there weren't enough cubicles and we had to queue. I was imagining all those people on our flight who had been 'behind us' so far but were now happily skipping through the Alamo lot picking OUR CAR before we could get there.

All restroomed, we took the lift down to the car hire garage, feeling happy that having done the same thing last year, we knew exactly where the elevators were and how to get to the Alamo lot, whereas in 2012 we wandered about a bit not knowing where to go. We stepped through those sliding doors to the pedestrian crossing and felt the 30 degree heat hit us. As a child, I used to love that part of the holiday when you first step out of the airport, feel the Florida heat and smell the Florida 'smell.' That really hasn't changed. Last year it had been a bit chilly when we'd arrived so we were pleased that this year we'd had a proper Florida welcome. Having watched the weather for a week or so before our arrival, today was the day the temperature had been forecast to jump up with no consideration for the four pasty Brits that that were arriving the same day.

We entered the Alamo garage where a member of staff was standing. Mat explained that we'd done Save Time or online check in (I can't remember which we'd done, but the other one wasn't going through properly so he explained that too.) The guy didn't seem bothered by that and said 'Do you want a van?' To which Mat replied 'No' without any sort of discussion. I think he was a bit concerned about parking anything bigger than the standard SUV we had booked. The guy directed us to the SUVs but we ended up among the vans and full-size / premium SUVs. We were looking for a Dodge Journey having loved the one we had last year, and we found one there. Another Alamo guy was passing us at this point so Mat checked with him whether we were in the right place. He sent us further down on the opposite side of the aisle. There were mostly Hyundai Santa Fes which we have at home and love, but we wanted the Dodge / something different for the holiday. And they were all red or orange anyway which I wasn't happy with.

A bit further down we found a black Dodge Journey and immediately started loading it up with our luggage. This is the point every year that Mat gets stressed as he contemplates getting used to driving in America again, so he was a bit snappy. We inflated the Bubble Bum seats for the girls, got everyone set up with sunglasses for the journey, climbed in and popped the first of our new Florididdypop CDs on. Mat drove to the exit kiosks and in true fashion for our family, picked the longer of the two lines. We were on our way out of the garage about 4.15 pm which we thought was pretty good going seeing as we'd only landed just over an hour before.

Our sat nav, Jane, told us it would be a 30 minute drive to Super Target at Millennia, our supermarket of choice. I've only learnt that there is a Super Target closer to Disney since we've been home, but we do love the one at Millennia so we didn't mind going out of our way for it. Being Friday afternoon we thought it would be rammed but it was fine. We love Target, but this was a flying visit as we still had a lot to cram in before bed. We bought a cheap beach towel for covering our luggage in the back of the car since I had forgotten the cheap black fleece blanket we'd used last year (a tip I picked up from the Dibb.) We got Seren some Cherokee brand sandals as these are the only ones we can find that seem to fit her properly, and they're nice and cheap We also got bottles of water for the parks, our beloved Banana Boat spray sunscreens and after sun, liquid soap as I can't bear the bars of soap in hotels that dry my hands out, Raisin Bran for quick cheap breakfasts in the room plus milk, juice, paper bowls, plastic cups and plastic spoons. Somehow this all came to $117 .

We left Target at 5.45 pm and hit traffic getting onto the I4 and again as we passed Sea World. When we reached the magical archway we all whooped and cheered (does everyone do this?)

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We arrived at Art of Animation at about 6.15...







and parked in the check-in area of the car park.



We walked into Animation Hall to find a bunch of Cast Members doing the Cha-Cha Slide with some children which I liked. I like things like that. The girls didn't want to join in so came with us to the reception desk.



I should point out here that we had visited Art of Animation for a couple of hours last year so had done all our 'oohing' and 'aahing' over how beautiful Animation Hall and the whole resort in general are then. So it was lovely to be back but we didn't have that 'wow' first impression this time as we'd already had it. Our two nights at AoA had been added on to the beginning of our holiday to secure free Magic Bands and FastPass+es at 60 days out and while I loved staying there, it felt like such a flying visit that we really didn't get a lot of time to appreciate how nice the resort is which was a shame. Even when we came into the hotel to check in, we were rushing to get into our room to then get out again as I had planned for us to go to Hollywood Studios that night. We did have time to spot a Hidden Mickey on one of the bench seats in reception though:



The long desk is divided into three sections: registration, online check-in and concierge. There were only a couple of people waiting for each desk and we only waited a moment or two in the online check-in queue before we were called over by a lovely CM. She went to get our bands which are now presented on a black cardboard tube rather than the very nice but very difficult to transport home Incredibles box. (We threw away the card tube.)



When the CM was just about to hand out the bands, she asked Seren what her favourite colour is, to which she replied 'blue.' Blue has always been her favourite colour and last year her band had been blue, but this year we all decided to swap the colours round. When Seren said blue, the CM went 'hmmmm...it's another good colour!' and handed her the green Magic Band. I had pink, Freya had yellow and Mat had blue. We had the same four colours as last year, just in a different order.

Part of the reason we had planned to go to a park tonight was to collect our tickets which I had bought from Expedia. I had doubted whether that was necessary as they would be attached to our bands. The CM confirmed that the tickets were definitely all there on our bands and I asked her whether it was still necessary to physically collect them from Guest Relations in a park. She wasn't sure so told me to ask at concierge. We walked to the concierge line where there was no one else waiting and another friendly CM came over to collect us and bring us to the desk. We'd had a lot of bad experiences last year with grumpy and rude Cast Members and so far this year, both CMs we'd spoken to had been fab. I have to say pretty much all of the CMs we encountered this year were very good, so maybe we were just unlucky last year.

I explained the situation to the CM. She scanned my band and replied 'It looks like you're all set!' We told her we had travelled from the UK today and couldn't decide between a park or sleep. The girls and I were very much in the 'park' camp, but Mat wasn't so keen. The CM was on our side and let's be fair, Daddy was over-ruled. The idea of going to a park on arrival night had only been added in once we'd bought those Expedia tickets because I didn't want to have to queue at Guest Relations on our first morning in the parks. I wasn't sure whether it was a good idea because of how tired we would be. Having sorted the tickets, the other reason we had planned to visit Hollywood Studios above the other parks was because we all wanted to see Cinderella's carriage from the film. It was scheduled to be taken away after 11th April (the following day) and I knew we couldn't fit it into our Magic Kingdom day the next day. I hadn't been able to get confirmation that it was being extended although it was showing on the Disney website times listings for the following week. (It's still there now so we needn't have rushed to see it that night.)

I'd booked us some FastPass+es for the evening too (including Toy Story) and we were all feeling ok so we decided to press ahead and go for it. I will say now that we had a great time at DHS that evening, but never again would I visit a park on arrival night. I blame going there that night for the fact that we pretty much didn't have any jetlag so struggled to get up in the mornings straight away, and the fact that a week later we were pretty much on our knees with tiredness, much more so than previous years. Even in 2014 when we'd been on the go for more than three weeks, we were less tired than we were this time. You live and learn.

We drove round to the Little Mermaid area and parked close to our building, number nine which was King Triton. We couldn't see the elevators to start with as they're in the centre of the buildings away from the parking lot so had a mini panic about dragging the cases up the stairs. We took our hand luggage up the stairs to check out the room first. It was about 6.50 pm by now. We were in room 9637 which was on the end of a row on the second floor, the end nearest the car park which I liked because it was quieter than being in the middle of the buildings. I really liked the room.









I know some people say the theming at AoA is a bit much but the girls and I love The Little Mermaid and we loved it all, especially the shower curtain and curtain partition between the sleeping area and vanity area (which I don't really have photos of.) The room was small though (the beds were tiny) and there was only one sink. There's no way that we would have been able to stay here for two weeks as a family of four, especially with only one sink and those tiny beds, but it was great for a couple of nights.

Mat went down to get the luggage and we had a discussion about dinner. The plan had been to try out Landscape of Flavors, the hotel's food court which we all fancied, but with Hollywood Studios closing at 9.30 pm tonight, we knew we'd be cutting it fine to eat there and still get to the park once we'd freshened up and got changed. We decided to grab something quick in the park instead. Because we were pressed for time, I randomly opened one suitcase and pulled a load of clothes out onto the bed. I grabbed something that each of us could wear and we quickly got ready and headed back out, 30 minutes after we'd entered the room for the first time.

continued below...

[moosha]

...continued

We drove to the Studios which was only about five minutes away. The parking kiosks were unattended as it was now about two hours before park close. We parked up towards the front of Stage as there were quite a few empty spaces this late in the day and walked to the entrance. After a quick bag check we approached the Mickey tapstiles which turned green for us when we scanned our bands. So no need to visit Guest Relations for our tickets.

It felt great to walk back into a Disney park and I tried to take it all in rather than rushing up Hollywood Boulevard towards Toy Story like we would at rope drop. The Crossroads area and Hollywood Boulevard were quite busy. I guess a lot of people were leaving at this time and there was also a marching band procession about to take place so they were keeping people on the sidewalk and off the street. There were two major differences at the front of the park compared to last year: the Sorcerer's Hat was gone and the new Trolley Car Cafe Starbucks had opened. There were construction walls around where the Sorcerer's Hat had been as they were building a stage for Star Wars Weekends. It was a shame as it meant we didn't get to see the original unspoilt view of the Chinese Theater that I remember from my childhood now that the hat is no more.

Our first two FastPasses had already expired which was fine as I hadn't really expected us to be in the park in time to use them anyway. It was 7.52 pm by the time we got to Toy Story Midway Mania, two minutes into our FP+... perfect timing!

We waited about five minutes to get on the ride. Freya was given one of those cards to take through the queue for the CMs to time the actual wait, and on our first ride of the holiday too. We seem to be given an awful lot of these, I don't know whether we get more than most people or whether they are just constantly checking wait times.

I rode with Freya and my score was 109,000. When I was playing, I could really feel that I'd been up 19 hours as my head felt fuzzy and my arm wasn't working as quick as I wanted it to. That's my excuse for the mediocre score anyway. I still beat everyone else though; Freya got 40,400, Seren scored 51,500 and Mat got 102,000. I love this ride.



When we came out it was getting dark. We planned to get something to eat next as we were all hungry. We checked on the map to see what was open this late. The answer was not a lot. We were aiming for ABC Commissary and Mat took us all round the houses to get there as he thought ABC Commissary was where Backlot Express actually is. The Studios can be a pain to navigate your way around especially when you're tired and hungry. We often feel like we're right close to where we want to be but we have to go the long way round to get there because there's a building right between us and our destination. It does seem quite poorly laid out in places.

Anyway, we ended up doing a big loop of the park for no reason but came across the Cinderella Carriage on the Streets of America while on our travels. We got in the (fairly long) line but after a few minutes of it not moving I suggested that we get something to eat and come back, because ABC Commissary was due to close at 9 pm and with this line moving at a snail's pace the restaurant might be closed by the time we finally got to the front. I was hoping the line may have died down a bit after we'd eaten.

We managed to get lost again on the way to ABC Commissary (I blame the tiredness.) It was nice and quiet when we got there. This was our first meal at Disney World not using the Dining Plan since 2001 and I tried not to be too alarmed by the prices. The girls shared a plate of fried shrimp and fries, I had the same and Mat wanted the quinoa salad. Because we'd been up for almost 20 hours at this point, I made him have a side of fries as I thought he might collapse on salad alone. It was all really tasty. The girls really enjoyed watching the clips of 'America's Funniest Videos' on the TVs in the restaurant while we ate.







Now when I look at that photo I can just see how very tired the girls are.

2 x shrimp & fries = £15.38
1 x side of fries = £2.99
1 x quinoa salad = £7.69
2 x bottles of water = £5.00
1 x regular diet coke = £2.99

Total = £35.94 including tax

We left the restaurant and went straight back to the carriage.



It was now 9 pm and the line was shorter than when we had left it. It was still moving slowly though.



The CMs were taking their time with each group and of course were allowing as many different configurations of guest photos as each party wanted. There was a group of five teenage girls a few parties in front of us who wanted individual photos and then one all together so that slowed things down even more :angry:. In front of us was a girl of around Seren's age who was in line on her own. When she got to the front of the queue, her parents and baby brother appeared out of nowhere and they also did multiple configurations of photos which I was of course over the moon about .

I decided that because we had been waiting in line nearly 20 minutes, we would have a photo all together and one of just the girls as well. The carriage was beautiful and having just seen the film before we came away, it felt really special to see it in real life. I also liked the little touch of the girls holding a glass slipper on a pillow.



We were all finished by 9.20 pm and decided to squeeze in a very quick ride on Star Tours before the park closed at 9.30. There was no line and our vehicle (sorry, I don't know anything about Star Wars so I don't know what they're actually called ) was half empty. I do love a bit of Star Tours since the refurb, it's a great little simulator ride and several times this holiday, people in our ride vehicle clapped in appreciation at the end. Tonight I'm pretty sure we had at least one section that we'd experienced before, possibly the 'snow' scene but it was still lots of fun.

We were back out of the ride at 9.32 and couldn't believe we were in a park after it closed on travel day. There was still a great atmosphere in the Studios as people headed towards the exit. We walked back to the car and drove in completely the wrong direction for Art of Animation, driving about five minutes out of our way before finally arriving back at the resort. The girls had, of course, fallen asleep in the back of the car so we had to wake them and get them upstairs and into bed. When I'd strewn clothes all over the bed out of one of the cases before we'd gone out, I had made sure I'd kept the girls' bed clear so they could go straight to sleep when we got back. As our bed was covered in clothes we had to do some sort of unpacking and reorganising before we could go to sleep which is what we reluctantly did before finally crashing at about 11.30 pm.

Day 2 is here.

[lovedisney89]

Yay! Glad to see you have started this report Michelle.

Great travel day, you did well getting to a park too

[Tinkermom]

Wow what a full day, so impressed!

[EllieP]

Excellent start and you managed to get loads done on arrival day!

[collybird]

The flight really doesn't sound great . Bit dull that the vegetarian pud is a fruit salad though, no yummy Lily O'Brien pud!?

I was pleasantly surprised to see you landed just after 3. We're booked on the 11.45 Gatwick flight and our confirmation says we land at 5.30, I thought that sounded a bit long!

I was inwardly screaming 'noooooo' when you were all ganging up against poor sensible Mat over whether or not to go to a park.

Glad there was no hassle with tickets. I always feel silly when I fret about something for months and months and then it all comes to nothing. I'm very much glass is half empty.

I hate the layout in the Studios I can never find anything; the theatre for the Frozen show and Mama Melrose are particular nightmares!

Also I'm VERY excited to hear you're going back to NYC. I've got it into my head that I want to do a little trip to DLR so New York is pushed aside once again.

[Mrs_Taz]

Wow I am impressed how much you did on your first day! Really enjoying your report so far

Louise

[mrsdjh]

If it makes you feel any better about your flight, we flew with Virgin at Easter and the entertainment system also needed a full reboot and we didn't get any ice creams/lollies on the flights.

Looking forward to rest of your report.

Diane

[Piratecol]

Thanks for sharing Brill Photos, In 2005 on our 4th visit DS was 6, when we got out of the terminal his first words were " Ah smell the smell " so I know what you mean by the Florida Smell.

[KittyBlackDog]

Fantastic start...not that I was expecting anything less . I love your reports. Can't wait to read more