[Lisa29]

Continued from previous post

As I said earlier, we needed to be at the Captain's Shipyard at the GF at 9pm and I was worried at the time by now. We quickly left MK and made our way to the boat dock, to get the boat over to the GF. We could see a full boat there and lots of people waiting so we went to get the monorail. There was a big line here and we missed the monorail that was there.

A few minutes later the gold monorail arrived and we got on. We pulled away and promptly stopped in between MK and the Contemporary. Ryan sent a whatsapp saying we may be a few minutes late and we got this reply

Now, I was inwardly, and slightly outwardly, massively stressing by this point. I hate being late and felt so bad as it was for something so important. So the next chain of events helped immensely, NOT!

After sitting for what felt like hours, we started moving and arrived at the CR. Then stopped again for an age!

We started moving….and stopped again in between here and the TTC. Finally moving again and we stop at the TTC. We leave there at 9.01 as shown in the above whatsapp. Of course, we stop again between here and the Poly!

We are all worrying now. Phil is all doom and gloom, saying we're too late and the yacht will go without us. I want to cry. Ryan and Bethany are so quiet. Even the kids aren't saying anything. Phil asks if we will still stay there if we miss it and I say no way, we will just go home.

After what seems like forever, we are moving again to the Poly. None of us are talking any more, we just cannot believe how long this journey is taking.

We pull into the Poly and it isn't too long (though still seems like hours!) before we are on our way to the GF, and for the first time on this tortuous, stressful, horrible journey, we don't stop in between stations, hurrah, and we have a plan of action.

As we start slowing down and pulling into the GF station our plan starts….

I pick up Kaley.

Bethany picks up Piper.

I grab Madison's hand.

Phil gets our pushchair.

Ryan gets their pushchair.

We pull into the station and the doors open. What do we do, you ask?

We RUN off the monorail and down the platform.

We RUN through the gate toward the entrance.

We RUN into the Grand Floridian, round the right hand side past the shops.

The grand staircase has two stairways that go into one. We are going so fast we run past the first one so run down the second one.

Phil and Ryan don't bother with the lift. No, no, no, they pick up the pushchairs and run down the stairs.

We run through the lobby, in between all the tables and sofas and people enjoying the live music being played in the lobby.

Oh, who am I kidding, we weren't running, we were SPRINTING. WE WERE SPRINTING THROUGH THE WHOLE GRAND FLORIDIAN INCLUDING THEIR BEAUTIFUL LOBBY!

We sprinted past the Grand Floridian Café and out the doors at the end.

We sprinted round to the left of the building, where we had been WALKING and enjoying ourselves earlier in the day.

The marina was in our sights, we carried on sprinting, all the way to the dock of the Grand One Yacht.

Finally, huffing, puffing and completely out of breath, we arrived just as Dave was sending a whatsapp asking if we were close.

Apologising profusely to the Captain's Tom and Ray, they let us on board and we went inside and collapsed on the sofas.

There were lots of sorry's from the four of us, to which the response was, "it's ok, we've only been on here a couple of minutes"! What?! Seriously, what?! We have just sprinted through the poshest hotel we have ever been in, had a nightmare 20 minutes or so and they weren't waiting for us all this time?! We did the only thing we could do under the circumstances and just laughed!

After catching our breaths and drinking lots of water, we recounted our tale, which of course amused everyone massively. We couldn't stop imagining what the people in the GF at the time must have thought, seeing these people all dressed up really fancy and racing through the hotel!

(This lobby! We ran through this beautiful, elegant lobby, !)

Obviously, this story kept us all amused the rest of the holiday and still does now.

(Sorry for the long section of just text, but this was such a funny story that I had to tell it and try to set the scene! )

Soon after we got on the yacht, it pulled away and started sailing around the Seven Seas Lagoon. Now a bit less stressed out, I started to appreciate how amazing this yacht was! Seriously, it is absolutely stunning. We were hoping to be able to buy one like it when we won the £1billion Powerball, but alas it was not to be! As a side note, apparently Disney were only one or two payments away from paying off this yacht and owning it outright.

Bedroom 2

Master bedroom

Third bedroom

Seating area

This was a raised table with comfy bench seating (and to the left in the second photo)

The kitchen area

More of the seating area

There were seats outside and there was plenty of room for all of us out there. You could also go upstairs and I there was either 2 or 4 seats up there, along with the Captain's. There was also 3 bathrooms but I don't seem to have photos of them. They had ordered some chocolate covered strawberries and there was lots of water and lagers too

The kids all absolutely loved being on this yacht. They had so much fun and were choosing which were their bedrooms! We did have to tell them to stop going from the inside to the outside and vice versa, as the doors being open affected the air-con.

I was collapsed inside on the sofa for most of the time before the fireworks started so I'm not entirely sure where the yacht went. We did see and hear the Electrical Water Pageant go by which was good fun

Another favourite picture of mine

A little before 10pm, we got in place to moor up to watch Wishes. We all went outside to wait for them to start. Soon, it was 10pm and Wishes started

This was such an amazing view, I don't want to see the fireworks from anywhere else now!

Unfortunately, there was a problem and the music wasn't piped in. We were all gutted, especially Dan, but we tried not to let it get us down and just enjoyed watching the always incredible Wishes.

Firework photo overload

As always, these were amazing. It would have been even better if the music was played but it was out of the Captain's hands and there was nothing he could do to pick up the signal. He apologised profusely to all of us and even more so to Dan and Dave and told them that this had unfortunately happened a few times over the last two weeks. He said he had radioed in to have someone meet them when we got back so that they could complain, and he encouraged them to do this as he was not happy himself and felt awful that he hadn't been able to pick up the signal.

We sailed around the lagoon for a while longer and were docking at 10.37pm, so we had the yacht for just over an hour and a half, which was more than any of us had been expecting.

We had one last photo of Dan and Dave before we got off the yacht

As promised there was someone waiting when we got off. I could hear the Captain (I think it was Ray) speaking to the staff and he was so polite but you could tell he was fuming. It cannot be nice for him having to apologise for something that is not his fault and that he has brought to the relevant peoples attention. We all left Dan and Dave and made our way into the Grand Floridian to wait for them to come back.

They weren't too long and they had some news that went some way to making up for the disappointment that we hadn't had the music. They had automatically been told that they would not have to pay for the cruise and could book another, for next Tuesday or Wednesday, for all 19 of us again, for free! Yay, we would get to have this amazing experience again!

It was almost 11pm now, and Dan and Dave had ordered and paid for cars to take us all back to OKW and CBR so we went to wait near the entrance. Just after 11pm they arrived so we said our goodbyes to Dan and Dave, and were on our way back to OKW by 11.05pm. We tipped our driver $10 when we got back, I have no idea of what the cost of the car was and if this was too much, or if Dan and Dave had already paid for this too, but he had got us home safely so we were more than happy to pay.

We pretty much went straight to bed as soon as we all got in. It had been an amazing, wonderful, incredible, fantastic, special and long day, and we all went to bed very tired and very happy. I have to say, I am so proud of the six kids. They were all so good all day and looked so beautiful, and handsome in Saxon's case, and they loved being a part of their Auntie Dan and Uncle Dave's day.

Thank you to anyone who manages to read all of this and who has read my previous days and commented. I know this is long and there are so many pictures, but I absolutely loved this day (thanks again for inviting us all Dan and Dave ) and I hope you enjoyed sharing with us by reading along.

The next day is HERE, Day 5 - Typhoon Lagoon, Epcot and Akershus Royal Banquet Hall


DINING PLAN ROUND UP - 20/48 Table Service used, 8/48 Counter Service used and 1/48 Snack Credits used