First time Floribobs (The Irma Remix) - September 2017 - Travel Day

[Cazzius]

The index is here

The cast...

Chris - the BF
Age - 32
Unconvinced about Disney magic.

Caz (me)
Age 30-mumble
Full on Disney Dreamer


After a good night’s sleep at the Marriott we wake up with our alarms and get ready for the day.

I had already decided what I was going to wear, and went for a low key Cinderella DisneyBound. After our rescheduling, I thought “you shall go to the ball” was exactly the right vibe for the day

We figure out what we need to pack in the hand luggage (emergency in case our luggage goes walkies) bag and what can go in the regular suitcase. Due to the rules around liquids this is a bit trickier than it sounds and seems to involve as much brain power as one of those logic puzzles where you have to get a fox, a chicken and some corn across a river.

All packed and zipped up, Chris makes us a couple of room coffees for the journey in the paper cups supplied with the room.

We head downstairs and have a short wait for the bus to the terminal, which stops at the South Terminal before heading to the North Terminal. It costs £3 for the short journey but is hassle free and easy – plus the journey isn’t walkable!

We head up to the desks to drop our bags. There are people at all the desks so we start to queue behind a couple with no children as we figured they’d be quick. BIG mistake.
There’s some issue with their tickets and the desk agent leaves the desk to go and talk to the Virgin Holidays desk.
This is frustrating but we already checked in online and paid for our seats so we aren’t too stressed.

At the end of the section, there are about 4 desks reserved for ‘Super Fam 2017’. I don’t know what a Super Fam is, but I know I don’t qualify when one of the lovely Virgin ladies beckons us over, and tells us we can drop our bags there. I tell her that we aren’t in the Super Fam but she laughs and says it’s fine.

Both bags are ok, nothing is said about our hand luggage (I did check in advance that a handbag and a holdall was ok), and we head to security.

Given the time in the morning it is pretty busy. Chris and I are both pulled over for extra screening. I ALWAYS am because my hip replacement sets off the gates. Chris is wearing a hoodie with metal eyelets where the laces are and that seems to be the problem.

As I am pulled over I remember I’ve left the note my Doctor wrote confirming I had a hip replacement at home. I didn’t think it would be necessary but didn’t want to be pulled over for special screening every time we park hopped… SPOILER, it wasn’t a problem, but I was still annoyed I’d forgotten it.

We can never remember which is the ‘good’ terminal at Gatwick. Turns out it is North.

We mooch through Duty Free, sampling a Ciroc Vodka (me) and a Tanqueray 10 (him) as we pass the desk. We don’t buy any though as I was informed by my Aunt that it is cheaper to buy at the liquor store in the US than duty free.

Chris heads off to see if they have the Hugo Boss perfume (aftershave? Man smell?) that he wants and I head to the Benefit make up as I would like to replace an eyeliner which is wearing out.
The woman at Benefit is incredibly unhelpful, almost to the point of being rude. I decide I don’t want her to get any commission because of me and head to Mac instead where a lovely smiley lady helps me to choose a shimmery brown eyeliner (colour = Teddy). HAH! Benefit Misery Woman, no commission for you!

From here we head into the terminal… and as we pass the Fat face store I remember that while I packed Chris’ swimmers, I totally forgot my own! Gah!

The terminal is pretty busy and we are both teetering on the edge of being hangry, so head towards the Virgin Holidays Lounge.

I’ve never been to a Lounge before so am not sure what to expect, but the Virgin Holidays Lounge is lovely with a really nice chilled out vibe. There are a few other people in there but it’s not too busy. There a really cool mural on the wall with drawings of all the places that Virgin go to.

We head to the bar and chat up the barman, who is full of personality and we have a bit of a joke with him while he prepares our drinks.
A Brewdog Punk IPA for Chris and a white wine and soda for me. The bar man didn’t have any soda but was really sweet and got some from the buffet, brought it back and added it to my wine. I didn’t want to tell him that we were heading over to sit by the buffet and I could have done that myself!


Yum, breakfast wine!

We both have the Virgin breakfast, and it is really tasty and hot. The lounge was a bit of a luxury for us, but I figured we would have spent £20 each on breakfast, coffee and drinks in the terminal so justified it to myself.

Over breakfast I appraised Chris of the plans for the next few days and made sure he had MDE downloaded. He hadn’t really involved himself in the planning but I didn’t want to come across as a bossy boots who had planned everything to the Nth degree (even though I had – it has to be done, right fellow Dibbers?!)

While in the lounge we noticed a young couple sat next to each other, he was wearing a tshirt proclaiming that he was the ‘Hubby’ and she had on a matching tshirt announcing her to be the ‘Wifey’. I assumed they were on honeymoon. They both spent the entire time in the lounge on their phones and not speaking to each other. Maybe they’d had enough of each other already?!

Finally it was announced that we should go to the gate so off we went. It was right over the other side of the terminal.

I wanted to get a bottle of water for the flight (I get really dehydrated) but Chris was stressing to get to the gate. He said there would be a shop on the way. I knew there wasn’t but he wouldn’t have it. I’m afraid to say we had a small tiff here. All my fault as I was stressed with organisation, the holiday finally happening, rushing to get to the gate etc.
Chris spied a vending machine once we were in the holding pen by the gate, but it was Out Of Order. I grumped about this for a bit… but then remembered we were on our way to Florida and cheered up!

We were flying on Hot Lips and sat in Extra Legroom seats. We always have a bit of a compromise on planes as I like the aisle and Chris likes the window. Apart from a fabulous flight to/from Washington DC which had a 2-4-2 formation, one of us always had to go in the middle. We take it in turns, so he sat where he prefers on the way out and I did it on the way back.

I seem to have no neck in this photo, and my face looks a bit beachball like, but it was the best of a bad bunch!

We had a nice chap next to us who seemed to have escaped sitting with his family and never minded getting up for us – perfect seat neighbour

The flight was uneventful, which is a good thing. I do love the variety of entertainment on Virgin flights. I watched Baywatch, the new live action Beauty & The Beast, Sing! And Why Him?

I really wanted to like Beauty & The Beast as I love the cartoon, but Belle seemed really snobby in the live action and I wasn’t surprised the villagers didn’t like her very much.

Chris watched The Fate of the Furious, Assassins Creed, dozed a bit and played games on his iPad.

Disclaimer – I really like plane food. I just find it exciting to be eating food while zooming through the sky.
Virgin don’t seem to hand out menus any more but I had Chicken Penne Pasta with salad and a lemon GU pud, which was really tasty and tangy. Chris had sausage and mash, salad and the the same pudding.
Now, here’s a thing. The cheese and biscuits is Boursin. Now I like Boursin, but is is really a good idea to give garlicky cheese to a few hundred people all sitting in close proximity of each other?
I also had an issue when opening the little packet, it had a foil lid that you peel back and as I peeled it back, white liquid spurted out and onto me! So now I had a garlicky white stain on my dress.

I truly am the muckiest pup. Who manages to make a mess with cheese?! Me. That’s who.

I went to the loo and managed to sponge most of it out so it was so longer visible (or sniffable).

They also brought round Fab ice lollies and afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea was a cheese and tomato chutney sandwich, I was happy with this after reading previous offerings had included raw onion or cream cheese and cold grilled veg/. However, the sandwich was a bit of a problem for Chris as there was no choice and he doesn’t really eat strong cheesy cheese and this was cheddar. Thankfully, I had the snacks I’d bought at the garage the day before (in case the hotel kitchen was shut) so passed them over to him. Swapping a cheese sandwich for 2 Ginsters sausage rolls seemed like a very good trade to him!
The mini chocolate bar in the afternoon tea was yum too – good work Virgin.

Before I knew it, we were coming in to land and I could see palm trees out the window.

SO EXCITED!

We were quick off the plane and one of the first through immigration… hurrah! We had quite a nice agent at the desk we used and were soon waiting at the carousel for our bags.

And waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

Honestly, everyone from our flight was through and people from the flight after us were coming through before the bags started to trundle round.
Our bags took a while to appear and a mild panic that they had gone on a holiday of their own was starting to build when they finally appeared. Hurrah!

Skipping the second bag drop like pros, we headed onto the monorail to the other terminal. There was a bit of chaos on the platform as it wasn’t clear which way we needed to be going, but we spotted other people from our flight and jumped on the same train as them. First ride of the holiday

In the main terminal I spied the EarPort shop and headed inside. The lovely ladies at the desk directed us towards the Magic Bands and we took some time deciding which we wanted.
Our original plan involved staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and would have included free magic bands, but they aren’t included at the Swan & Dolphin, so we bought our own.

I chose a jazzy purple 2017 design, and Chris went for Boba Fett. The choice at the EarPort Shop wasn’t great, and although we both liked our bands (I loved mine), I think Chris was a bit disappointed later in the holiday when he saw some of the other Star Wars designs. Still, something for next time!

From here we headed out to the car rental by following the signs. On the way I sped some Virgin reps who were waiting for the Super Fam 2017 but directed us to the special Virgin Alamo desk in the parking garage.

There was a bit of confusion here as I had checked in online, and our dates had changed and Virgin had shifted things for us, but not everything matched up. Luckily the girls in the Virgin cabin were absolute pros and sorted us out lickety split. They also had 2 fridges of icey cold water which they encourages us to help ourselves to. Excellent!

Here, I remembered I’d forgotten the photocopies of our passports to use as ID around the parks… so they printed us off copies each. Thanks Alamo!

Off we went to select our car. We went for a dark sparkly green Kia Soul. It was super comfy and I was SO happy to get that air con flowing! It looked like this but the roof was the same colour as the car.

Rookie error here – I thought the car would have a sat nav built in… but it didn’t.

Not to worry! I activated roaming on my phone (tried not to think about the cost) and set it to take us to The Dolphin.

On the way out the garage, a man in a booth checked us out and tried to sell us the option to return the car empty of petrol. I thought I had already signed up for this and paid. He said not, but we declined his offer and hit the road.

I think 7pm on a Sunday must be a perfect time to arrive as there was almost nothing on the roads. This could be a result of Irma, but for 2 people who had never been before and hadn’t driven in the US… it was perfect conditions!

One slight sticky moment when we came to an unmanned tollbooth and I didn’t have the right money and there was no option to pay by card. We fretted a bit but there was nothing to do so we continued. The next toll booth we came across had a lovely lady staffing it, who waved us through. The governor had suspended all tolls due to the hurricane. Good for us and a small thing to be thankful for.

We drove into Disney and WOW. I was 11 the only other time I had been and hadn’t appreciated the maze of roads and signs to follow. Due to some roadworks, Google Maps got a bit confused but we managed to turn around and follow the signs to the Dolphin – bonus of that huge building is we could spot it and head towards it!

Quick tour of the car park as we weren’t sure where we could park, we pulled up and unloaded.

The Dolphin lobby is really lovely, with a fountain, bar area and a kind of calm ambiance that we both appreciated following our travel day. Photo from the internet as it was full of Cracker Barrel managers (more on that later)

We checked in at the desk with a young guy who tried to have us upgrade to a room with a balcony, but we declined as didn’t think we would use it. We were also informed there was a delivery for us with the concierge.

By the way, I didn't see this anywhere else, but on the name badges that the staff at the Dolphin wore, it had their name and "My Passion is..." underneath. His passion was Tacos (excellent choice).

There was a bell services guy lurking, but not wanting the awkwardness/faff of tipping and feeling we would be ok, we popped over to the concierge.

The lady at the concierge asked us if we had children, we said that we didn’t (and apologised for it – hey, we ARE British), while feeling a little confused. She offered us her son, but we politely declined!
She then handed us 2 huge gift baskets!

I had ordered a basket with some snacks, drinks and water bottles from Fairytale Personal Shopper before the trip and she really outdid herself. Chris was so impressed!

Apologies for the terrible dark photo – the baskets were filled with goodies!

We now took our baskets, 2 x suitcases, 1 x holdall, my handbag and Chris manbag to the room, where we dropped everything the moment we stepped inside.
The room was really nice, a bit like the picture below, but bigger, with a desk where the sofa is, and the sofa against the other wall. Great size too, though the sofa did just become a storage area for shopping bags .

Looking out the window, we could see the Tower of Terror, and I saw a couple of fireworks go up, which I think was Fantasmic.

I had a brainwave.

While Chris had a quick shower and got changed, I set up our magic bands with MDE.

I then hopped in the shower and changed, and told Chris my plan.

Shoes on and back out the room, we swung by reception and got directions.

Getting a bit of a speedwalk on despite the heat we headed over the bridge to Crescent Lake, and could see Spaceship Earth in the distance. Took a bit of a wrong turn here as went left around past yacht & back Club, but I think right past Boardwalk would have been quicker – however… may well have lost Chris to the ESPN bar!

We trotted around the lake and reached the bridge between The Boardwalk & Yacht Club just as the first fireworks from IllumiNations shot into the sky!

We kept walking, past the boat dock, tapped out magic bands for the very first time and we were in! Grabbed a spot on the bridge between UK and France and enjoyed IllumiNations for the first time of the trip. I love fireworks and these were just as good as I remembered from years ago.

We wandered down into the UK with the thought of getting a drink from the pub – typical, we go all the way to the USA and head to the English pub! – but they were closing up. We both joked how remarkable it was that they had even got the pub to smell like a proper old boozer.

We headed back via The Boardwalk, as Chris was keen to check out the ESPN bar (I KNEW IT!), but it was pretty busy. As we weren’t planning on eating we could only sit up at the bar and there was no room, so we moved on.

I suggested an ice cream from Ample Hills Creamery, but Chris wanted a beer. We’d been given tokens for a free drink each from the hotel as I am a Starwood member, so thought we’d use those, but then came across the Abracadabar, so in we went.

We perched up at a tall table and had a look around at the décor. The theming of the bar area is pretty low key, but if you look around there are magic props and tricks on the walls. We took a look at the menu, decided what we wanted and then glanced around to see if it was table service. We couldn’t tell so Chris popped up to the bar and ordered a couple of beers.

Oh my gosh. That cold beer after a day on a plane and then romping through the humid night to see the fireworks was perfection. We were both enjoying the ambiance (and air con) of the bar, so when Tim the waiter came round we ordered another drink each and chatted about the plan for the next day. We stayed until closing time – not too shabby since we’d been up since around 8am!

While we were drinking up we got chatting to the barmaid, who was called Gail and from Scotland! She had been working during Irma and said that it had been fine at the Boardwalk as they have internal corridors and guests were in drinking and having fun. She was really lovely and bid us goodnight and to come in and see her again during our stay.

We wandered back along The Boardwalk to The Dolphin, resisting the call of the duelling pianos in JellyRolls on our way past.

Back at the room we got ready for bed, set alarms for the next morning and fell asleep the moment our heads touched the pillows.

[Lydsabug]

Brilliant start to the holibob

We never seem to manage to get too far on our arrival day as we are always so tired, but you did well to do the walk for the fireworks.

Soooo looking forward to the rest of your trippie, thanks for sharing xxx

[Goldia]

Wow what a great travel day. Yes a pain that you forgot the letter about your hip replacement, but the rest is perfect.

I absolutely approve of the large glass of wine even though it is breakfast...airports absolutely operate on a different time zone to everywhere else.

You like plane food What planet are you from? Oh dear, and then you go and make a mess with cheese, deary me, what are we going to do with you?

I'm glad your bags made other off the plane, Phew! The magic bands look super cute, purple is my favourite colour.

The dolphin looks like a lovely resort. And then you manage to catch illuminations on your travel day! Wow ! I bet that was awesome. A quick stop off on the Boardwalk on the way back, I agree the ice cream is great and I hope you made it there at some point, but, I think it was the right choice to go to the abracadabra bar instead for a night cap.

Ooh, I'm excited for the next update now!

[Pussycat Doll]

You've got more stamina than me on travel day! I'm ready for bed as soon as we get to the villa!

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by Lydsabug

Brilliant start to the holibob

We never seem to manage to get too far on our arrival day as we are always so tired, but you did well to do the walk for the fireworks.

Soooo looking forward to the rest of your trippie, thanks for sharing xxx

See more...

Thanks Lydsabug
I think by this point we'd gone past being tired and were just running on adrenaline and pixie dust

It was fab though, as we were well and truly "there" standing on the bridge between UK and France watching Illuminations.

Chris was gobsmacked that the lightshow and fireworks happens every night, with a variation at each park. He thought I was hustling us there because it was weekly or something.

Thanks for joining us.

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Wow what a great travel day. Yes a pain that you forgot the letter about your hip replacement, but the rest is perfect.

I absolutely approve of the large glass of wine even though it is breakfast...airports absolutely operate on a different time zone to everywhere else.

You like plane food What planet are you from? Oh dear, and then you go and make a mess with cheese, deary me, what are we going to do with you?

I'm glad your bags made other off the plane, Phew! The magic bands look super cute, purple is my favourite colour.

The dolphin looks like a lovely resort. And then you manage to catch illuminations on your travel day! Wow ! I bet that was awesome. A quick stop off on the Boardwalk on the way back, I agree the ice cream is great and I hope you made it there at some point, but, I think it was the right choice to go to the abracadabra bar instead for a night cap.

Ooh, I'm excited for the next update now!

See more...

I also figured that wine is grapes, and fruit is totally acceptable at breakfast!
In the past we have discussed how airports are a bit like international waters as you have officially left the country, you can pick the timezone that you like... and in the words of Jimmy Buffett... it's 5 o'clock somewhere

Yes, bags arriving was a big relief, especially as people start taking theirs and wheeling away and you are still waiting for yours to appear!

I love my purple magic band, I think I still would have chosen that design even if there was more choice.

The Dolphin was lovely. We adored that we could wander/sail to Epcot and DHS or stroll along the Boardwalk of an evening. Although they don't have all the Disney perks (no Magical Express, DDP or theming), the location for the price was excellent and it was so nice to have a bit of a haven at the end of the day.

Really recommend the Abracadabar. It almost has a bit of a speakeasy vibe, we found it very chilled out and a lovely spot for an air-conditioned break when walking back from Epcot.

Thanks for joining us!

[Cazzius]

Day 1 is now up - here

[DisneyDreamer81]

I really wanted that 2017 magic band but never actually bought it. I'm still kicking myself. My husband got the same Boba Fett one

I'm so impressed that you managed to go and see Illuminations AND go for drinks on your first night! We managed a quick walk around YC/BC and then collapsed into bed with snacks. Which is basically my favourite place to be anyway so...

I really enjoyed that chicken pasta on the plane too. You are not alone in liking plane food!

[Guest]

A "Super Fam" is a trip organised by Disney, Universal & Seaworld where they take a bunch of travel agents over to Orlando to experience their parks I used to work in the Travel industry ("fam" is short for "familiarization").

One of my old colleagues went on a Super Fam in September actually, so you must have flew out on the same day!

Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

[Cazzius]

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

You've got more stamina than me on travel day! I'm ready for bed as soon as we get to the villa!

See more...

I think we were running on pixie dust by that point!
So excited to finally be there and so close to the magic, we kept going.

I'm pretty sure if we'd arrived at a lovely villa off site we would have collapsed on the sofa.