Off-site, Disney and back Off-site again Apr/May 22 - NOW COMPLETE!

[lcm23]

Pre-Travel Day

So pre travel day started around 6am for hubby who got up and put the bedding in the washer that we'd stripped off last night then when that was done he put the remainder of the stuff from the wash bin in the washer so we have no washing to return home to! He's a good egg.

I got up about 7.15am, logged onto work then. Got set up for our DocHQ test appointment at 8am. Had a little glitch as the laptop mic didn't appear to be working so we had to rejoin from my phone but all went fine after that and we got our negative certificate...yey! Sister also text to say she also had her negative cert so all 3 of us cleared to go.

It was too early to check in and do fly ready so just hung the washing out to dry then continued working. At 11.30 fly ready and check in opened. Both me and hubby got the green tick so went to check us in and nightmare... would only let me check hubby in and I got a message saying I couldn't check in and needed to check in at the airport as it was likely I'd been selected for extra security checks... for crying out loud. I though the stress was over after the tests this morning!

Hubby cleaned the bunnies out at lunchtime whilst did some errands. We both had a boring tuna and beetroot sandwich and an apple for lunch so no pics then back to work til 4pm when the out of office went on for 2.5 weeks! Yipeeee!

Set off to Premier Inn at Manchester Airport arriving around 6.40pm and was sat in The Airport pub at 7pm. The pub is literally at the end of the runway and it was a pretty busy night for flights taking off. We saw loads and we really started to believe that we really are going tomorrow (well providing I get thru check in ok! )

So this is what you're all really here for... the food. The menu here is pretty American i.e. burgers, loaded fries, pizzas, grills etc. We all opted for burgers cos were probably not gonna get enough of these over the next couple of weeks!

I opted for The Classic Chicken Burger and upgraded my fries to 'Dirty Fries' topped with salt and chilli chicken. The fries were delicious and quite spicy. They were hot and crisp and the sauces on the were really tasty. The burger was also great with a good peppery crumb coating, the bun was a good burger bun, really fresh and soft. This was a great meal and I'd rate my meal 9/10. It would have been a 10/10 of the burger was slightly crispier.

Hubby opted for The Katsu Burger which was a crispy chicken burger with a decent amount of Katsu sauce. He went for standard fries. I didn't try this but it looked good although with the sauce it was a bit messy to eat and hubby ended up using his knife and fork to eat it. He enjoyed at and gave the meal an overall 7/10 as he said the fries let it down as they weren't hot enough and he's not a huge fan of skinny fries.

Finally sister opted for the ATC Tower burger with standard fries. This looked massive and really delicious and I did have a bit of food envy when it arrived but she said it was lacking sauce (she doused it ketchup) and the Mexican cheese was much spicier than she expected. She also commented that the fries were not hot enough. She gave her meal 6.5/10.

To drink I had an Old Mout berries and cherries, hubby had a diet coke, sister had a G&T and a diet coke.

Bill came to £54.50 which I thought was good value.

Back at hotel now for a coffee and shared a bag of Bournville giant buttons with hubby that I bought from B&M earlier for the bargain price of 49p before jumping in the shower and bed!

I still cannot believe we are actually going tomorrow! Eeeeeeeeek!

[lcm23]

Travel Day - Pret Brekkie, Virgin Flight Food, Walmart Sub Roll

We were all awake at 5.30am but I laid in til 6am whilst hubby pottered above faffing with the cases. We had agreed to meet sister outside her room at 6.30am and we were there on the dot. The original plan was to have brekkie at the Premier Inn but we didn't realise it didn't start til 6.30am and we needed to be leaving then so we cancelled the breakfast and headed off to APH parking and onto the airport. Check in and security we're fine even though I had been selected for extra security checks, we were thru both check in and security in an hour. We headed to Pret for some brekkie. We all got similar, Yogurt and Granola, a pastry and a hot drink. We all enjoyed the yogurts but the pastries didn't seem to be freshly baked that morning which was a bit disappointing.

We just sat and chilled for a bit whilst the gate was called. It was all on time which was good. We pushed back 4 mins after schedule and were airborne 15 mins after schedule.

First service of the flight was drinks and mini pretzels. I didn't want alcohol as I'm the driver but I got a gin anyhow and put it in my bag to take to the villa! 😁 Hubby just got a lemonade and sister a G&T and a water.

A short while later they came around with the hot meal service. Now the stewardess service our side of the plane said the options were chicken lasagne or pea and mint pasta much to hubby's dismay as he doesn't like pasta... I know... who on earth doesn't like pasta. He asked the stewardess if there was anything other than pasta and bless her, she offered him one of the left over meals from premium. The options were salmon and veg or paneer curry. He was happy with either of these so just told her any. He ended up with curry which looked and smelled really good. He said it was pretty decent. I opted for the chicken lasagne only it turns out it's wasn't chicken lasagne at all, it was chicken and bacon in white wine sauce with veg and cheesy mash so hubby could have had it after all. Now this didn't look great at all but it was actually quite tasty. The mash was very soft but I was surprised that it tasted quite good. Both meals came with a small ciabatta roll which was quite tough, the butter was rock hard frozen so impossible to spread. There was also a little salted caramel chocolate pot which I didn't love as I'm not a huge fan of caramel chocolate but hubby enjoyed it. Sister got same as me and also enjoyed it. Sister had red wine with her meal, my and hubby had diet coke.

Next up was a pip smoothie ice lolly. Whilst nice to have something cold, it was pretty tasteless.

There was also a other drink service where I spotted they had Amarula so me and hubby both got this and the lovely crew member gave us two each. I put mine in my bag to bring back to the villa!

About an hour before landing it was on to afternoon tea which consisted of two finder sandwiches with cream cheese with dill and a mozzarella, pesto and sun-dried tomato. These tasted pretty fresh and were nice. Also in the box was a square of lemon and elderflower cake. This was nice and lemony with a pretty strong elderflower icing topping. Flavour wise it was good but it was a little dry. Of course you can't have afternoon tea without the scone with jam and cream. Now if the scone wasn't freezing cold from the fridge, this would have been better but it was still pretty decent. We all enjoyed this and all commented how we were pleasantly surprised with the food onboard and we pretty much enjoyed it all. Now none of us are particularly fussy and don't mind plane food, this was some of the better plane food we've eaten.

The flight was fine and passed by fine but we landed not too long after the earlier virgin flight as well as the aer Lingus flight to queues to get through security we're massive. Our bags were on the carousel by the the we cleared that so we quickly picked them up the. There was a massive queue to get out of the baggage claim area. It turns out the escalator after the courtesy transfer bag drop was out of order so they were making everyone queue to use the one lift. It was chaos. Anyhow they eventually got the escalator working but the time we got towards the front of the queue so we headed up and to the monorail then I headed to pick up the visitors toll pass leaving hubby and sister with cases. We then collected our hire car and finally we were on out way to the villa. It took us around 2hrs from landing to get out of Orlando airport but we're here and that's what counts. Been waiting for this view for toooo long!

After dropping bags we headed to Walmart just down the road from us to pick up some water and snacks and grad some food. The original plan today was to head to Hooters for dinner but we were all too tired to be bothered so all got sub rolls from Walmart. These tasted better than they looked! I warmed mine which is why it looks a melty mess but it actually tasted pretty nice!

As the weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday is showing quite a bit of rain and thunder both afternoons, we've already decided to swap around some of our plans so the days will now all be a but jumbled from our original plans?

[lcm23]

Aw gawd... pre pre travel day is finally here and here I am finishing packing our cases with a belly full of anxiety about our DocHQ test in the morning. I didn't get to sleep til 3.30am this morning thinking about them. Hoping I sleep a bit better tonight.

Also the worst thing about pre holiday prep has just happened... hubby has shaved off his beard! 😫😫😫😫

Pre travel day will be updated at the end of tomorrow so keep fingers crossed for that negative result!

[Sparksy72]

Good luck for your tests and I hope you manage to get some sleep. Xx

[TigerLily8]

Woohoo I love a food report! Following ☺️

[SuziQz]

Good luck with the tests. Have a great trip, looking forward to following along x

[4holibobs]

Wow looks like you have a fabulous trip planned!

Huge well done on your weight loss - bet you look and feel incredible!

Fingers crossed for negative tests… looking forward to following along… have a fantastic trip 😊

[lcm23]

Day 1 – IHOP brekkie, Hooters for late lunch/early dinner, Kilwins at celebration for a gigantic ice-cream!

Day 1 and we’ve changed our original plan already as the weather today was forecast to be sun and clouds but the next couple of days its forecasted quite a bit or rain and thunder and that’s when we had more pool time originally planned. Therefore rather than spend today in the shops, we decided on a mainly pool day.
We’d originally planned Panera Bread for brekkie but IHOP is pretty close to the villa so we went there instead. It looked quite busy but then I realised there was a whole room at the back also. We were seated in a nice booth seat and our server was super friendly. We were undecided on food but ordered drinks. Coffee for sister and hot tea for me and hubby only when the drinks arrived, there was just 1 coffee and nothing else. Our server apologised profusely that they have somehow run out of tea bags. No probs, me and hubby were happy with coffee also and that was promptly brought over.

We eventually decided on food with hubby and sister opting for the strawberry New York cheesecake pancakes and I ordered the pancake combo which consisted of a hash brown, two eggs which I asked for over medium and they were cooked perfectly - firm whites and a runny yolk! It also came with either bacon or sausage and I opted for bacon. For pancakes I opted for the Mexican tres leches which was 2 buttermilk pancakes with vanilla and dulce de leches sauce and whipped cream. The actual pancakes were amazing, so light and fluffy. The sauces were delicious and suited my sweet tooth well. 10/10. The cooked element was fine but I can’t get on board with hash browns in America. I prefer the ones we have in the UK albeit they are probably not authentic! 7/10.

Sister always orders the same pancakes as she loves them but when they arrived they were lacking strawberries and sauce so she asked for extra and a bowl was promptly delivered without fuss. She of course gave these 10/10 once the extra sauce had arrived!

Hubby didn’t realise they came with whipped cream and sister didn’t remember he dislikes cream with a passion so before eating his, he had to scrape all visible evidence of cream off. He enjoyed them alot and gave them 8.5/10. Total came to $42.57 inc tax and left $8 tip.

Had a quick stop in CVS for M&Ms then headed back to the villa for a chilled day around the pool. Just ate some snacks throughout the day but nothing picture worthy. Im talking a shortbread finger or 2 and some crisps that we had left over from the flight snacks yesterday.

For evening meal we decided on Hooters as we were going to head there yesterday on the original plan but after the long wait in the airport mentioned in yesterday’s report we just couldn’t be bothered eating out. We got there just before 5pm and it was quiet. Again our server was really lovely and patient as we were undecided. For drinks me and hubby got diet pepsi and sister got a mango hooterade from the cocktail happy hour menu. To eat we just shared 3 appetisers which were decent portions. We ordered the chicken sliders (bbq sauce), lotsa tots and the pretzel bread and cheese. Oddly when they arrived, we were brought a plastic pack each with a plastic knife, fork and spoon and told they were out of forks but a proper fork would.be brought over once washed. We found this pretty odd given the place was quiet with only around 6 tables occupied. 😂. Of course it didn't matter as most of our food didn't require a fork anyhow and we were never brought proper cutlery.

The chicken in the sliders was fabulous but the BBQ sauce was a little too sweet and made my teeth tingle. The curly fries were good as were the lotsa tots. I tried the pretzel bread and cheese but want keen on the cheese as it reminded me of squeeze cheese which is just wrong on all levels. The pretzel bread was delicious though without the cheese. Everyone enjoyed the food and would give a solid 7.5/10. Bill came to $44.50 inc tax and we left an $8 cash tip. We thought this was well worth it.

After hooters we headed to old down to see the muscle car cruise. We didn't actually stay for the cruise but had a wonder about and had a look at all of the cars. Me and hubby have never been to old town before and enjoyed it. On the way back to the villa we fancied something sweet to stopped by Kilwins at Celebration. Hubby got a tub with choc chip cookie dough and praline pecan. This was MASSIVE but the choc chip cookie dough which was the bottom scoop was really soft do as hubby was scooping at the top flavour, it was squashing into the bottom scoop and spilling all over the place. It ended up a real mess and I never got a photo of his as it was just a bit of a nightmare. Me and sister both got the same - a waffle cone with chocolate peanut butter and toasted coconut. Strangely when the gut was doing the cones, he asked if we wanted two full scoops like hubby or two half scoops. We opted for two half scoops as we would never have gotten thru the amount hubby had in his tub. I'm not sure why we weren't asked if we wanted two half scoops for hubby as that would have been a better size. These came to just under $24 which is crazy for 3 ice creams but it was delicious and I'll pay it again likely when we go to Clearwater for the day! Sorry about the half eaten pic but it was melting by the time I started it after of tried sorting hubby and his drippy ice cream mess!

[Disneycraft]

You’re making me want tata tots . Those pancakes look delicious

[4holibobs]

Greta start! Can’t wait to read more 😊