Travel Day + universal - If you can dream it, you can do it - May 2017

[Elsa42]

The day before

The day before was nothing too interesting really, we made sure we were all packed up before heading out at 3:30pm. We were making the drive up to manchester and staying in a hotel for the night so we were there and ready.

The journey was uneventful and we arrived in 2 hours, the hotel was easy to find and the car park was big enough. We got a space easily enough and took our bags inside. We were staying at the premier inn south. We checked in which was easy enough, when we booked the hotel the parking for the night here was £5 but when we arrived it had gone up to £10 they recognised this with our booking and they only charged us the £5.

We paid for the night while checking in which meant in the morning we could just had the key in and be on our way.

We had brought food with us as we had decided to have a hotel picnic in the room, We pretty much ate and sealed down watching tv for the evening. Ready for our big adventure tomorrow!

Today was the day! We woke up at 5:30am quite early and way before out alarm but once your up and know your going to disney theres no going back to sleep! Mum got up and made a cup of tea and we watched tv in bed before deciding at 6am to start getting ready!

We packed up and left the hotel at 7.07am the only reason was because we were bored and wanted to get on our way. Check out was easy and we enjoyed our stay here.

We had to move the car from the hotel car park to the long stay car park, this was literally 5 minutes around the corner on the same road so it was easy enough to get there. We used the jet car park 1 and would recommend it to anyone good price and easy access. I started to get a little panicked as i couldn't find a car parking space and people hadn't pared very well, meaning if they had all moved up there would probably have been another couple of spaces in each row, we drove around twice before some people at the bus stop waved us over and showed us another part of the car park with loads of spaces. Thank godness, he could see we looked worried but actually the space we got was one of the better ones as it was away from all the other cars and actually on pavement rather than gravel.

Once we parked up we got the free shuttle bus to terminal 1 which took 5 minutes and arrived after about 2 minutes of waiting.

We arrived at the airport at 7:45am and went to thomas cook premium check in our bags were weighing in at 17kg and 19kg.

Once the bags were dropped we went over to security to find out we had fastback so we were all done and through by 8:10am.

We looked for a place to eat and stopped off at Giraffe after being told it was a nice place to eat by someone at home. I had maple syrup pancakes with bacon and mum had egg and bacon with sausage on the side. The bill came to £19 which wasn't too bad for airport food.

We finished at 8:40am s we went to look around the shops for a while.

I rang my boyfriend ryan at 9:30am before seeing what gate we were at, this was the longest we had been away and he's never been to disney so we did a lot of face timing so i could show him what it was all about.

The gate opened at 10:05am and we were at gate 26. We boarded first with being in premium and was offered a glass of bubbly or orange when we sat down.

It took us a while to get off but we eventually left at 11:20am. The flight took 8 hours 12 minutes. Nothing really happened during our flight and there was no eventful things happen unlike our last flight.

I watched why him, i did put other films on but kept falling asleep, i did manage to watch this the whole way through though.

We got the normal sour cream and cave pretzels which are just yummy! its not a holiday until you've had these!

Food was chicken veg and potatoes with a bread roll, cheese and crackers and banana and coffee tart which i didn't eat.

Pot of ice cream came around while we were watching films.

We had afternoon tea which included sandwiches, scones and carrot cake, Nice enough and got us through the rest of the flight.

We landed at 2:50pm local time and we arrived just before any other planes so customs was empty! we got through and sorted within 20 minutes which was a bit different from last time!

Once we had our bags we keep them and go up and onto the monorail with our bags as it saves time!

We couldn't decide how to get to the hotel i was going to get a uber and realised you cant get them at the airport, bad research on my part and we ended up getting a taxi outside and being robbed of $45 but what can you do!
We were heading to the hard rock hotel and we were very excited to try somewhere new and to start within universal.

We arrived just before 4pm check in was very easy and the staff were great! Our room wasn't ready just yet which we expected it to be but that wasn't too bad. It worked in our favour as they decided to give us a free upgrade to a garden vie and gave us a 2 free drinks voucher to use by the pool.

We got our FOLP and then headed to the pool for some drinks, no sooner were we there was our room ready so the upgrade wasn't needed but we were thankful for it! We finished the drinks pretty quickly headed up to the room which was just beautiful!

We changed pretty quickly and went straight out go to universal, yes on travel day but we couldn't waste any time!

We decided to walk around, we knew it wasn't far and we wanted to explore, the walk took 5-10 minutes and arrived!

First ride of the holiday was despicable me the standby line was 15 minutes but with the FOLP it was 5 minutes. I do think this ride could be better but fun none the less and a great start to the holiday!

Shark 4d was next, me and mum love this ride! stand by was 10 minutes but we got on in 5 with the passes. We think this ride is super funny and i could honestly ride it multiple times per holiday!

Transformers was next and something id really been looking forward to. I love this ride i dont know why it makes me laugh so much but i alway come off with the biggest smile on my face. Standby was 10 minutes but we were on in 5.

We wondered around to WWOHP. I kew exactly what we had to do next, Gringotts. I love this ride so much. I would go as far as to say its one of if not my favourite ride!The standby was 15 minutes but it took us 35 minutes. No big deal but gosh i do love this ride and I'm glad this is something mum can ride too!

We decided at this point that we had done enough for today. We did well getting into the park on travel day but it had well and truly caught up with us. We started to make our way out of the park. Stopping off at starbucks on the way out, having a classic sandwich and apple fritter $8 each.

We made the walk back to the hotel eating as we walked. We had been in the park 2 1/2 hours so not too bad. We arrived back at the hotel and was asleep by 8.

Steps today 11.000 even though we had been sat on a plane most of the day! Tomorrow Island of adventure.


Tomorrow - Universal and hard rock hotel

[joolsleeds]

Hi, great report thanks! Do you mean you can't get Ubers from MCO?

Thanks!

[Elsa42]

Originally Posted by joolsleeds

Hi, great report thanks! Do you mean you can't get Ubers from MCO?

Thanks!

See more...

Thanks for reading. Oh silly me yes i did! however much you proof read these there are still typo's.

Yes you cant get ubers from the airport although an uber driver did tell us that he thinks this will be changing at some point soon in the future!

[Pussycat Doll]

Great stamina! I'm fit for nothing on travel day! Your bedroom picnic looks very much like mine always does!

[Elsa42]

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Great stamina! I'm fit for nothing on travel day! Your bedroom picnic looks very much like mine always does!

See more...

We tried! We just couldn’t wait to get out there! No time was wasted! I think it’s the best way really isn’t it! Love a bedroom picnic!

[Goldia]

Wow you made it into the park on your travel day, that is good going. We're normally dead in bed as soon as we arrive.

I'm not sure if we travelled after you? But you can get an uber at mco now...we ordered one at the end of July using the airport WiFi. Also used uber as our return back to the airport, so this is fine now.

[Elsa42]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Wow you made it into the park on your travel day, that is good going. We're normally dead in bed as soon as we arrive.

I'm not sure if we travelled after you? But you can get an uber at mco now...we ordered one at the end of July using the airport WiFi. Also used uber as our return back to the airport, so this is fine now.

See more...

Yes! We had it in our minds we were going to do it so we had to make it happen! I find if you carry on for a little you have less chance of waking in the night!

Oh really?! That’s interesting to know thank you, I know when we asked they said they couldn’t do it must have changed soon after! Glad I know this then as we will most definitely use uber next year from the airport!

Thank you and thanks for reading

[jothp]

Well done for getting to a park on travel day. We've been far too tired on both our trips.

[yellowrose78]

Great you got a room upgrade! Great stamina, I'd be too tired, but at least you made the most of travel day

[stecee]

Great travel day. I've never managed to get to a park on travel day, always too tired, so we'll done you.