Split Stay Get Away - Day 1: "Today we had a very long day…"

[Stewboy]

The Index

Friday 25th May 2018

Yesterday had been an odd day. Both Jo and I commented a few times that, even though we’d been looking forward to this holiday and definitely needed it, it didn’t really feel like it was happening; doing twilight check-in, eating in the airport, and staying at the Bloc certainly added to the slightly surreal feeling.

But today is different. Today is travel day; stuff is going to get real! As with all travel days, it was going to be a long day - hence the title, which has been lifted from Isabella’s own mini-trip report (see the end of the day for the photo of her day) - but we were excited, we’d been going to sleep tonight in Port Orleans French Quarter in Walt Disney World!

So let’s start at the beginning. Jo and I were awake at about 6:30am - too excited to sleep any longer obviously . The bed was comfortable, the room was nice and cool - we’d had a really good night’s sleep, just what we need before flying across the Atlantic.

I jumped out of bed, got ready, and headed out to get coffee. Unfortunately I was a little too eager and almost walked out the door without any shoes! Although it doesn’t sound that funny, we both laughed a lot - not too loudly though, Isabella was still asleep - Jo was actually in tears!


Jo in tears


Wearing these is probably a good idea

After she’d composed herself, and I’d put on my shoes, I made the short trip to Caffe Nero to get coffee; it’s not my favourite high street coffee chain, but it did the job.

I returned with a latte for Jo, a cappuccino for me, and some milk for Isabella. Jo and I drank ours, then woke Isabella so that she could have her milk - and a cuddle .


Hunter gatherer

We weren’t hanging about this morning; 20 minutes later we were ready to check out. Even a slight hiccup with the (non-functioning) in-room tablet couldn’t slow us down - we just dropped the key off at the front desk on the way out.

Opinions of the Bloc? We loved it. So convenient, and modern, and comfy - a great place to stay overnight. And coming out the front of the hotel, it’s literally a few feet to either the family security entrance to the right, or the normal security entrance to the left; we would definitely stay there again.


The bin probably could've been bigger


Striking a pose

As we qualified for the family security entrance, we turned right… oh, that reminds me of something that happened when I went to get coffee first thing, or maybe it was last night… I can’t actually remember. Anyway, a middle aged couple were heading towards the family entrance when a man (who worked for Gatwick) called to them (in that unique British way): “Can I help you?”. Now obviously we know what he meant. But these two were oblivious, and just replied, “No, we’re fine…”. I suppose they’re a family…. I’m presuming they weren’t allowed through!

Anyway, back to now. We made our way through with no issues, and even though bag check was slightly chaotic - there were a lot of young kids trying to make a run for it as soon as their parents were distracted by having to take off shoes, remove devices from their bags etc. - but we got through pretty quickly.

It was time to go and get some breakfast, but as we had to go through duty free to get to the good stuff, Jo sent me off into the ‘secret’ cigarette section - no kids allowed - to get cigarettes for her dad and aunt.

It’s pretty horrendous in the cigarette room. Jo and I are non-smokers (for the last eight and a half years), and I know these hideous photos probably don’t put any smokers off (although the price should do!), but I’m certainly glad those days are long gone for us.


Smokers paradise

Once I’d found the right brands (easier said than done, none of the packets have branding on them) I just needed to remember the PIN for one of the three credit cards I had in my wallet - I failed and ended up paying by debit card.

Now we could go and eat. We entered the departure lounge and, after a brief debate, decided to head for Nando’s for breakfast. Yes, that’s right. Nando’s. For breakfast! I didn’t appreciate this at the time, but this is the only Nando’s in the country that has a breakfast menu. That’s the truth. It’s actual….

We arrived at Nando’s and were seated immediately. Just like the Giraffe we ate at last night, the decor was really nice - if it hadn’t been for the planes taking off and landing out of the window, you wouldn’t have known you were at an airport.




Nando's

As we were hungry we took no time in making our choices, and I went off to the counter to order the following:

• Jo: Nando’s breakfast (Flame-grilled chicken sausage, scrambled eggs, portobello mushroom, saucy fiery beans, grilled tomato and crispy corny browns) / Pressed apple juice
• Me: Sausage and Fried Egg Roll (Flame-grilled chicken sausage and fried egg) / Mango quencher
• Isabella: Poached eggs on Toast / Water

Our stay at the Bloc had also entitled us to some free toast which we shared.


Nando’s breakfast (with minging scrambled eggs)


Sausage and Fried Egg Roll


Poached eggs on (the side of the) Toast




The Nando’s breakfast was (mostly) nice - Jo did say that her scrambled eggs were minging though, and she wasn’t convinced the sausage was cooked all the way through either. I was pretty happy with mine though, and at least we were all sated and ready to get going.

Jo had decided that she might need to change her top (due to sweaty pits - her words not mine), and as she didn’t have one with her we went into Next where she found something appropriate.

It was getting on for 9am now, so we made one last stop at Boots to get some water, and a chicken and mayonnaise sandwich for Isabella, and then we were ready to head down to our gate. When we arrived, we boarded almost straight away, and by 9:15am we were on board our BA flight to Tampa International.

As we settled into our seats, we noticed immediately that Isabella’s seat back entertainment wasn’t working - I had visions of my experience on our last trip - so we spoke to one of the flight attendants who said that she would get someone to restart it after take off. Just like last time…


Plane Selfie - No. 1


(No) Seat Back Entertainment

[Stewboy]

Once we were in the air Isabella and I visited the restroom (I know, we’re not in America yet, but might as well get used to calling it that again), and when we returned to our seats Jo said a different flight attendant had come over and said that she was going to move us to the other side of the plane. Apparently there was a lady sitting over there with a broken leg, and a row to herself, who presumably needed to be facing the opposite way to how she was currently seated. Obviously we were more than happy to swap, not only because of the faulty seat back screen (I’m not sure if they ever actually tried to get it working again) but also because we had a little girl behind us who was already kicking Isabella’s seat, and was making quite a lot of noise - the mum was having a hard time controlling her.

Once we’d made the switch we settled into our new seats, and decided we preferred this side of the plane - Jo was on the left by the window, I was on the right next to the aisle; for some reason this felt more comfortable.


Plane Selfie - No. 2

There were no more issues with the seat back entertainment, and Isabella immediately started watching The Greatest Showman; she’d been looking forward to seeing it - I think some of her school friends had seen it and had said how good it was.

Before I made my film choice (probably Black Panther) I needed to do my notes, I was determined to keep up to date with comprehensive notes on this trip; and if you’re wondering whether I did - I did.


Settling down to watch The Greatest Showman


I'll be watching Black Panther later

About an hour after take off the drinks and pretzels came round. We felt it was a bit early for anything stronger than a soft drink - it was 10:45am (I know some might consider that late for holiday drinking: who am I to judge!) - so I got a coke, and Jo had a sparkling water. Isabella had an apple juice.

Isabella doesn’t like the pretzels, but was getting hungry so she ate her Boots chicken mayonnaise sandwich while she watched The Greatest Showman. Her lunch (children’s meal) actually arrived about half an hour later, but having just eaten, she wasn’t tempted by the chicken nuggets and mashed potato - Jo said it looked horrible, I declined to look! She liked the look of the yoghurt, which she ate, and the Ribena which she saved for later.


Notes, pretzels & coke


Isabella's lunch

Our lunch came about half an hour later, at about 11:45am. As it was almost lunch time, that was an acceptable time to drink so we had some red wine each. The food choices were pasta and butter chicken curry - except there was no pasta left. Jo really didn’t want the chicken so asked the attendant if anyone else had any pasta left. Fortunately one of the other trolleys had a pasta on it, so Jo got lucky.

As far as airplane food goes, our meals were actually ok; the salted caramel cheesecake dessert in particular was really good.


Jo's lunch


My lunch

While we waited for our after dinner cup of tea, we were messing around with our cups; I can’t really remember why but Jo found something about it so hilarious that she ended up in tears for the second time today!


More tears

We finished messing about, got our tea, and Isabella finished watching The Greatest Showman - she loved it by the way. She was feeling tired now so once our tea was done and our trays were away she settled down for a nap; it was now our turn to watch some films.

A couple of hours later, and our films were finished and Isabella was awake. She decided she wanted to read, and so did I, so we did that for a bit, and then a bit later we did some of the activities from the ‘Skyflyers’ kids book that she was given when we boarded.


Reading




Origami pigeon


Portraits

At some point we had some snacks; some sour cream and onion flavoured ‘lentil curls’ from Asda, a mini-magnum ice cream from the flight attendant, and sandwiches - chicken and mayonnaise sandwich for Jo and I; cheese sandwich for Isabella - also from the flight attendant. Those sandwiches were also really nice; good work BA.


Ice cream!


Sandwich

After the sandwiches we only had another hour until we landed at Tampa International Airport. Excited to have arrived, getting off the plane was quick; unfortunately getting through passport control was not, despite what we’d heard about it being quick to get through.

An hour of queuing and trying to get the kiosk to recognise Jo’s face (it wouldn’t!), and we we eventually got through via a TSA agent; she only had 3 months left on her passport, and the kiosk had an issue with that (but the TSA agent didn’t).

Baggage reclaim was our next destination, when we got there our bags were already off of the carousel and waiting to be collected. At Tampa, all the gates are connected to the main terminal via a shuttle, and then there is another shuttle to take passengers out to parking and rental garages; it sounds like hassle but it was actually really easy to navigate our way to where we needed to be, and it felt easier than getting around MCO.










Tampa International Airport

We were with Avis again, and made our way to their garage. As a recurrent user of Avis (this was the third time) I’d finally made it on their Preferred Customer board! I was so excited I made Jo take a photo of me!


Sear, S J39

Parking space J39 was our next stop: a Nissan Altima. We loaded the bags into the massive boot, set up Isabella’s DVD, installed her car seat, and we were finally ready to head to World Disney World!

Like any good British driver in an American rental car, I checked my mirrors, worked out where the indicators/wipers/lights were, and adjusted my seat…. well tried to - I found what I thought was the control for adjusting the seat, but could only make it go up and down, and not backward and forward.

Eventually I found a random Avis employee hanging about in the garage, and got him to show me. Turns out I just needed to hold the seat adjustment button down a bit longer! I didn’t feel stupid at all.

OK, now we could go to Walt Disney World - an hour and a half after we’d landed. We exited the garage at 3:40pm (local time), and headed out onto the roads, under ominous looking skies.


All loaded and ready to go

Just like the airport immigration hall, the drive to Orlando also took much longer than expected due to awful traffic, not helped by the occasional downpour! Two and half hours to make what should have been an hour and a quarter drive.

Finally we arrived at Port Orleans French Quarter. The time was just gone 6pm and we were so pleased to have arrived. We parked up and headed straight into lobby for check in.


Traffic




Rain


Walt Disney World!


Almost there!


We've arrived!

[Stewboy]

Check in time

Our first impressions of Port Orleans French Quarter were very favourable; the theming inside the lobby looked great. At check in we got our magic bands - pink for Jo, purple for me, yellow for Isabella - and a package (to be opened later) that Jo had ordered and was worried wasn’t going to arrive on time.

As you enter the lobby there is a fountain just inside the doors, and at check in Isabella was given three colourful Mardi Gras coins to throw into the fountain and make a wish - I don’t know whether they only give the coins to kids, but she got three so I assume that was one for each of us? Regardless, she was excited to be making a wish so once check in was complete that’s what she did.




Wishes

We had a little look around the lobby, before making use of the restrooms and then going into Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory - Port Orleans French Quarter’s quick service restaurant - for some much needed dinner.

Unlike The Artist's Palette quick service at Saratoga Springs, Sassagoula Floatworks has a number of different counters to order from - think Sunshine Seasons at Epcot - with a variety of food choices.














Port Orleans French Quarter lobby

After some deliberation we opted for the following; you’ll notice that Jo and I decided to take advantage of the new addition to the dining plan allowance by having a beer with our meals.

• Jo - Crispy Fried Chicken on a Biscuit with Voodoo Sauce with French Fries and Coleslaw / Purple Haze Raspberry Lager
• Me - Catfish Po’Boy with French Fries / Miller Lite
• Isabella - Macaroni and Cheese with Grapes

Aswell us our food, we also picked up our refillable resort mugs, and got Isabella a milk for the morning.


Po'boy


Isabella, Mac and cheese


Chicken on a biscuit


Purple Haze

Isabella and I tucked into our meals straightaway, but unfortunately Jo had to wait to get hers. By the time hers arrived 15 minutes later, I was already finished - the po’boy was good.

Isabella however was less impressed with her mac and cheese, finding it too rich; Jo tried it and confirmed it was a little on the rich side, so let Isabella have some of her chips.

Once we’d finished up, we decided to go for a wander to see a bit more of the resort - we’d seen so many lovely photos on other trip reports and were excited to be here to see it for ourselves. Heading out of the main building, we walked down to the pool area past the gator jazz band and the horse-drawn carriage ride trotting up the main street. We had a 10 minute look around and then decided it was time to go and find our room.




Horse!












See ya later...








We are here

Before booking we had seen that the rooms at Port Orleans French Quarter would be undergoing a “Soft Goods” refurbishment - so furnishings, rather than furniture. The schedule suggested that all seven buildings would be complete by the middle of May so we hoped we’d get a refurbished room. However, it looked like they were a little behind schedule as they appeared to have only reached Building Six, so when we discovered that our room was in Building Seven we knew we weren’t getting a refurbished room.

Obviously that was a little disappointing, but when we opened the door to our 3rd floor room an hour and a half after checking in, and discovered that not only was it not refurbished, but that it hadn’t been cleaned properly, and the walls and furniture were marked and dirty, we were really annoyed.

Jo immediately rang guest services to see if any other rooms were available, the person she spoke to sounded like they wanted to help and put her through to the front desk. Unfortunately whoever she spoke to on the front desk did not want to help, insisting that the resort was full and no other rooms were available. We could move resorts - if we wanted to pay! Not quite the response we were after. The one thing that they did offer was to send someone up to do a deep clean of the upholstery the following day - it was something at least.

By now the time was about 7:40pm, we were all tired and a bit disappointed about the state of room. We decided to sleep it on it, and decide what to do about it (if anything) in the morning. In the meantime I took a few photos of the offending dirt and scratches, before getting Isabella bathed and ready for bed.

Meanwhile, Jo unpacked a few bits and when Isabella was asleep, we both showered and were in bed by 10pm.

So there we are, as Isabella so eloquently put it: “Today we had a very long day and a disappointing day”.

Obviously, it wasn’t the entire day that was disappointing; we were in Walt Disney World at a beautiful resort, but the traffic and the room had definitely put a downer on the day. Regardless of that, we were excited about tomorrow’s plans: spending the morning in Magic Kingdom and a Be Our Guest breakfast reservation.

Thanks for reading.


Isabella's Trip Report

[stupet11]

Ah boo POFQ! Lets hope the redeem themselves.

Lovely report - such a lovely happy smiley family - looking forward to your report, to tide me me over until we make it to POR in August…we will pop over to POFQ - let me know if I need to sort anyone out for you!

Thanks for sharing.

(I am still mind blown over Nando's doing breakfast..did you photo shop that?!)

[Clamshell]

That’s a shame about the room - we have always been very pleased with our POFQ room. Hopefully things improve!

[princess allie]

Shame about the room, hope you get sorted

[Unexpectedpenny]

Nooo we loved our room at POFQ, I hope they redeem themselves!

[collybird]

French Quarter looks lovely, very tranquil.

Hmm, I am very sceptical over the claim that all of the rooms at the resort were full. I hope tomorrow brings better news regarding the room.

[Gwilspeed]

Originally Posted by Stewboy

Jo had decided that she might need to change her top (due to sweaty pits - her words not mine), and as she didn’t have one with her we went into Next where she found something appropriate.

See more...

You didn’t fall for the old sweaty pits need a nice new top one did you? I’ve been caught out by that before.

Hope things pick up but good travel day.

[Dizzny Momma]

Looking forward to next instalment and isn't Isabella growing so fast enjoy your time with her while she's still young she will be off to university before you can blink
Margaret