Ok so this is my first time doing a trip report so hope I can do it right, so here it goes and please go easy on me:
Lets introduce us all:
Me: Becca - 39 and chief
planner and lover of all things Disney, in fact it's a total obsession with Disney !
Also a lover of yummy food, cake and treats, hence the starvation diet in the run up to the holiday, so I could smash any amount of food down my neck for 2 weeks straight.
I do like rides but not upside down rollercoasters, I'm a big baby
I unfortunately have some food allergies (tomatoes and some citrus fruits) so queue the major embarrassment of having to speak to a chef every time I order food, more on that later in the report
Most looking forward to cake, food and cocktails now its included on DDP, it's a brucie bonus
Hubby: David - turned the big 40 earlier in the year
Seriously obsessed with Star wars and rugby
Also on the starvation diet in the lead up to the holiday to become BFF "Buff for Florida"
Most looking forward to beer in the parks with a meal as too tight to pay previously lol
DS1 - Finn, 12
Obsessed with rugby and Harry Potter
Also on the starvation diet ready for the holiday and did really well. Finn is my drill sergeant when going out for our runs, while I cough up a lung !
Looking forward to rollercoasters and simulator rides
Finn is the family class clown with a great sense of humour and can obviously speak Whale like Dory can. More on this later !
DD2 - Mia, 10
Obsessed with all things makeup and currently going through a Disney isn't very cool stage. Especially frozen, which is "so last year", this is from watching about 2 million times when it came out.
The only 1 not on a diet before the hol as she doesn't eat anyway, she decided to become a pescatarian in August last year due to her obsession with how cute pigs are... don't ask. She is the fussiest ever and now she doesn't eat meat, its even harder.
Most looking forward to trying new rides and being brave for big ones and lots of ice cream. We last went when Mia was 7 so a big difference for rides.
25th April Pre Travel day - Travel down to Manchester airport.
Well lets start with the nightmare evening we had the night before. Mia decided she wasn't well and threw up literally everywhere, every 20 mins until about 3.am on the Wed morning. Obviously both kids were due to go to school on Wed and plan was to travel to Premier Inn Runger Lane North after school. So plans changed and poor mia stayed in bed until we set off to the airport at around 3.30pm, with a pillow, cover and sick bowl in tow.
Travel to the airport took far longer than we thought, traffic was horrendous and we didn't arrive until 7.30pm, so just your 4 hour journey that should have took approx. 2.5 hours. Kid were well and truly fed up at this point and Mia decided she didn't like Manchester as everywhere she looked, she could see dirty windows ! , yes you heard me right
So here's where we stayed for the night, which is have to say, our hotel looked much nicer than the other side of the car park, the south version. And as Mia said, much cleaner windows
So we did self check in at the kiosk (super easy, even for a technophobe like me), we dragged all 4 cases and 4 hand luggage's up into our room up to the 5th floor, where, we could see the planes taking off and landing from our window, which the kids absolutely loved, then went down for tea.
Booked hotel ages ago when deal on so paid £39 for the hotel and pre booked their meal deal at £25 per adult. This got us a 2 course meal plus drink each and then breaky the next day for all 4 of us, as kids eat free for breaky. We then just paid for kids meals and drinks.
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Mia's fish and chips, which she hardly ate anything of and was still feeling unwell, but we got in case she was starving by this point. What she did eat she said was yummy and I had a bite and it was really good
My Rib eye steak, cooked medium and I was very surprised to see it was actually cooked medium. Paid a £2 supplement as part of the meal deal to have this but was worth it, very yummy with a side of coleslaw
Finn's Gammon, egg and chips which he also said was really yummy
David's pizza of chicken breast, jalapenos, red onion and red peppers. It looked yummy and he said it was really good.
So far we were really impressed with the food and the service. I had a strawberry and lime Rekorderlig and hubby had a pint.
On to dessert, so we got 2 desserts in with the meal deal, hubby isn't ever bothered about dessert. There's something wrong with him I'm sure of it and Mia wasn't well enough so that just left me and Finn to power through.
A very berry sundae for me and this was really good
A chocolate brownie with Caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream for Finn. He said this was also very good
In total meal was £89 and this included our £50 pre payment for the meal deal, then drinks and meals for the kids. We didn't think this was bad and honestly we were really surprised at just how nice it was. We can really recommend this place for a pre travel meal the night before.
Off to the room we went, watched a bit of TV and watched the planes taking off, then went off to the land of nod, ready for the plane journey tomorrow.
Total cost for the day £128 for food and hotel
I'll get the rest of the holiday done as soon as possible, however being an IT numpty this took me far longer than I imagined, so please bare with me and i'll do it as quick as I can