The Best Made Plans of a Mouse and Her Men - Travel Day

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Travel Day – Thursday 23rd Feb 17
The Wind (Doris) Beneath Our Wings

The Pre-Trippie is Here
The Index is Here

Our Travel Day started with a 4:45am alarm call, but we allowed ourselves an extra 15 minutes of snoozing before we were up and getting ourselves sorted at 5am.

A relatively straightforward hour was spent packing the last few essentials, mainly my makeup, plus a little something that we’d bought for lunch on the plane (contents to be revealed later on ), making the beds, turning off any unnecessary plugs and sorting out the timers for the lamps.

Unfortunately, Rich caught his toe on one of the cases whilst bringing them downstairs, so there was a bit of hopping about and a few choice words (we later found that his nail was pretty much ripped off – owch ).

This didn’t delay us though, and we were all ready and setting off on time at 5:50am, with “Holiday Road” playing as we drove up our street…



Quick stop off at the shop for some drinks (2 each, so that we'd have one for the drive home - £6), and then another quick stop for petrol and we were officially on our way at 6:05pm (with Holiday Road playing again).

Our early start meant that we had plenty of time to get to Manchester, and the roads were clear most of the way. Tom went back to sleep…

We stopped off at Keele Services for a stretch (and a smoke for Rich). We did hit a bit of traffic at Junction 16, and again as we were approaching our Junction 19 exit (well it was 8am on the M6, so it was to be expected).

Once we were almost at the Junction, I searched for Maccy Ds on the Sat Nav, as this had been voted as our breakfast of choice, there were a couple of options to choose from, but we went for Wythenshaw as it was just a couple of minutes away from the airport.

We arrived at Maccy’s at 8:30am – it was quite windy and wet walking in from the car (it was the day that Storm Doris hit the UK).

I had a Double Sausage & Egg McMuffin Meal with a Cappuccino, Rich had 2 Sausage & Egg McMuffins, and Tom had a Bacon Roll (good value at £10.16)…

The boys were still a bit peckish, so Tom went back up to get another Bacon Roll and a 3rd Sausage & Egg McMuffin for Rich (£4.15).

If you’ve made it to the end of my pre-trippie, you’ll know that I’d had a bit of trouble doing Online Check In the day before – I used the Maccy’s WiFi to try again, and managed to get it sorted, but had to screenshot the Boarding Cards...

We are quite fast eaters, and there is only so much time you can waste in Maccy’s, so we were on our way to the airport by 9:15. We had to drive around the T2 Multistorey a couple of times, before eventually finding a space, but we were still all checked in by 9:45am (our bags were 23kg, 17.7kg and 17.4kg). They didn’t weigh our carry-on bags and we were given “proper” Boarding Cards.

We all used the loos in the Arrivals Hall, and gave DMIL (hereafter known as Mom) a quick ring to let her know that we had arrived safe and well.

Security was straightforward, and thankfully our "special" packed lunch made it through without being questioned. I had to go through the full body-scanner, whilst they boys both went through the normal scanner.

We had a mooch in Duty Free – Tom had some £s that he’s been given by Nannie and “Aunty” Wynn, and as he already had plenty of $s decided he’d like to treat himself to a watch. He was pondering over a couple of different ones, so Rich went off for his first visit to the smoking cage, and we agreed to meet back up outside of Zoodle.

After a bit of deliberating, Tom decided on this reasonably priced Swatch for £38.99…

Next we nipped into the Tobacco area to pick up 400 B&H for Rich (£68.56).

We were back by Zoodle by 10:35am, where Tom and I posted the first of many Instagram selfies…

NB – A Disclaimer. The majority of the photos in this report will feature me and Tom. Rich is a bit camera-shy, but he did make an effort to join in on a couple

I also had a final quick check of my work phone before I switched it off, replying to one final work e-mail, and to a colleague who is off for her first Floziday in August and had asked me to pick up some Park maps for her to give to her kids when they surprise them at the airport.

We went back through to the main part of the terminal at around 10:50am – the boys sat down whilst I checked out the prices at the Cloudspa nail bar. The lady there had spotted my Mickey jacket and asked if I was interested in having some Disney nails. I had been pondering this before the trip, so when she said it would be £30 for the Gel manicure and only £3 for the artwork I took her up on the offer. This was the first time I’ve ever had my nails done, and I quite enjoyed the experience (and the Orlando / airport stories chat), and was really pleased with the results (even on my stubby little nails)…

It only took 20 minutes, which was a good way to fill some time, and IMO it was reasonable at £36 (which included a £3 tip). I think I’d consider doing this again on future trips (plus it’s one less thing to worry about on the pre-holiday checklist).

We wandered up to our gate (208) and found a couple of seats, grabbing 3 Newspapers (with the usual free waters, £1.20 each) at WHSmiths. Rich visited the Smoking Cage a couple of times, and I started reading Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption (one of my favourites).

It was announced that we’d be about 20 minutes late boarding, so Rich paid a final visit to the Smoking Cage and Tom and I checked out what our plane was called – it was Pretty Woman…

We boarded at 12:45pm (our flight was due to leave at 1:10pm), and at 1:25pm the Captain apologised for the further delay, explaining that a couple of planes had been unable to land due to the high wind (Storm Doris), but that it had improved slightly over the last 30 minutes. He explained that the wind speed was currently 30 knotts, and that it needs to be 25 or less to take off.

The Inflight Entertainment was switched on whilst we were waiting, and I queued up a couple of films, had a quick go at Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and played with the Seat Chat function for about 2 minutes...

At 1:40pm the Captain announced for the Ground Crew to leave the plane and for the Cabin Crew to set the doors to locked. He told us that there were 411 passengers on-board, including 5 infants. Then he said that we won’t push back just yet, but will play the safety video (which was a very bizarre mix of various types of transport – something different to the usual typical video I suppose).

At 1:48pm the Captain announced that it was good news, the wind had dropped over the last 15 minutes, so we’d be attempting to taxi and take off.

At 2:22pm we were still on the ground, the Captain told us that we were being held at the holding point as the wind had picked up again, but that it shouldn’t be much longer. He explained that when we did eventually take off he would be “holding the brakes on the runway” which is standard procedure in these conditions.

Finally, at 2:30pm the engines started to roar (it was a weird feeling being still with all that noise) and then we set off FAST! Our ascent was a bit wobbly and there was some turbulence, but we were finally up in the air!

Our Flight Manager Rachel introduced herself, and instructed the Crew to begin inflight duties.

Skymap said that our ETA in Orlando was 6:22pm, so not too bad considering we’d taken off an hour and 20 mins late.

We were all quite peckish by now, so as soon as the seatbelt signs were switched off I retrieved the Pringles and Cookie Bites that were packed in my carry-on bag. I visited the loo, before the post-drinks queue built up, and we were soon being served with our traditional mini cans of Coke and tiny bags of Pretzels.

I put Finding Dory on and watched about 20 mins before I had to get up to let Tom out for the loo (I was in the aisle seat) – unfortunately I managed to snap the connector of my earbuds in the socket as I stood up, so there was no more Inflight Entertainment for me for the next 8+ hours. Luckily, I had my book and a Puzzler Collection book to help to fill some of the time.

We had a bit of turbulence on and off throughout the flight, but nothing too bad. It was nice to be able to fully recline without worrying about anyone behind us (good old row 47) – we do like these seats, although you do get to hear quite a bit of the Crew’s life dramas as they’d congregate by the Galley and have a good old natter / moan at various points during the flight.

Lunch was served at about 3:45pm (still on UK time). I’d booked a Kids Meal for Tom as he really hadn’t enjoyed any of the food last year. He wasn’t impressed with his Cheesy Tomato Pasta, but Rich quite liked it so polished it off whilst we were waiting for our meals (I tried a bit and it had a pizza taste to it).

Out of all of this, he only ate the Oddities and the Chocolate Caramel Pudding.

Rich chose the Meatballs, which he quite enjoyed (except the peas)…

I went for the Vegetarian option of Sundried Tomato and Olive Pasta…

It was surprisingly very tasty, and I ate everything (except my GU pot which I gave to Tom) – even the salad was nice for once, so I ate Rich’s salad too, as well as both of our Crackers and Boursin cheese.

For drinks, I had juice and the boys had water.

Kids meal aside, we were pleasantly surprised with lunch, so didn’t need to crack into our packed lunch just yet, deciding to leave it until afternoon tea (we weren’t holding out much hope for the sandwiches).

We all had a post-lunch loo break and the boys both got their heads down for a snooze. At 4:30pm hot drinks were served. As usual I had 2 cups of tea (as Rich never wants one). I made a start on my trippie notes whilst drinking my teas, and then settled down with my book.

Water / Squash was offered at 6:00pm, quickly followed by the teeny-tiny Fab lollys at 6:20pm (ish), by which point I had just finished The Shawshank Redemption...

Rich managed to get about an hours sleep (which was good as he hadn’t been feeling 100%, with a touch of a cold) and Tom had about 30 mins.

Skymap showed that we were almost over Canada, and that we had 4 hours and 50 mins to go.

Tom asked me for the Virgin headphones at this point as he’d also managed to catch the plug pin of his Beats in the socket, and it was looking a bit wobbly so he didn’t want to risk carrying on using them .

(I do think that it’s a bit of a design flaw having the socket in the arm rest, with all the standing up and down and adjusting when the food comes. Surely it would be better to have the socket by the USB port next to the IFE screen?)

I tried to rest for a bit, wrapped up in the Virgin blanket, but there was to be no sleep for me on this flight . After trying (and failing) to sleep, we all got up for a 30-minute leg stretch, and enjoyed the lovely snowy view of somewhere between Canada and Boston below us…

Tom and I had a quick game of Uno and I did a few more Puzzles. It was now 9:11pm (or 4:11pm US), and our ETA was showing as 6:17pm as we were flying over New York.

Tom was keen to crack into our "special" packed lunch by now, so at 4:30pm we tucked into our lovely chilled... KFC…

Yes, we did take a KFC on a plane

NB – We’d pondered over doing this for quite a few weeks, as we’d anticipated that the food might not be great. Rich had finally decided to give it a go, so the night before we’d got a 14-piece Family Bucket for tea, and we had kept back half of the chicken and chilled it overnight, before putting it into my cool bag, which was then put in Rich’s carry on, along with a fresh empty bucket that he’d asked for when he picked it up.

The chicken had kept nice and cool and along with some Pringles, made for a much nicer in-flight Afternoon Tea than the very bizarre cream cheese and pepper sandwiches which were served a few minutes later (it was like bland Dairylea with a peppery kick). I don’t understand a) why they serve such bizarre combinations, b) why there isn’t a choice and c) why they give this same sandwich to the Kids?...

I quite enjoyed the Plane Crisps and Choccie Biscuit Bar with another 2 cuppas though

Once Tea had been cleared up, there was still 90 minutes to go, so I got back under my blanket and closed my eyes for a while. I didn’t sleep, but it was quite nice to just rest until a Steward announced at 45 mins to go that we’d soon be beginning our descent and explained about Bag Drop and Customs etc. This announcement was quickly followed by the Captain, who confirmed that our ETA would be 6:20pm.

Just enough time for a final loo stop, and to pack up our bags and put our shoes on before the seatbelt sign came on at 5:53pm. We landed at 6:20pm – the boys tried to start the usual traditional applause, but it seemed that this wasn’t a clapping plane .

We were in the Immigration queue by 6:45pm, but as we’d landed later than schedule, the Gatwick flight had got in before us, so we had a bit of a wait ahead of us. Tom realised as we were walking down to the queue that he’d left his favourite Jordan cap on the plane, but there was no way that we were going back and being even further behind in this queue lesson learnt for Tom to be more careful with his things, we had asked him on the plane to make sure he had everything).

We were directed to the Self-Scan queue, but as expected my passport (which expires in June) was rejected, so we had to join Queue 2 instead of the faster moving Queue 1, so that I could be fingerprinted and eye-scanned by a human. By now Rich was feeling the effects of his next nicotine fix being so near yet so far :angry:, so we had a good old grumble with some fellow passengers about how ridiculous the queue was (even though I know that for many a Dibber it has been much much worse – I really don’t know what we’d do if we were faced with a 3-hour queue).

We finally made it through and quickly collected our bags, only to be faced with another long queue for Customs. Luckily this one was much faster moving, and we were waved through without any mention that I’d ticked on our form that I had some food (Cereal, Belvita, Tea Bags and Crisps).

As usual, we skipped the 2nd Bag Drop and we were on the Monorail by 8pm (so 1 hour 15 to get through in total).

Once we were off the Monorail, Rich made a dash for the nearest exit, whilst Tom and I took our time walking through the familiar sights of MCO Airside…

We met up with Rich just as he was walking back into the terminal. I suggested he have another nicotine fix before we headed for the Magical Express, so we all popped outside – where it was a nice and mild evening.

Down the lifts and all the way down to check in for our first ever ride on the Magical Express. I had our paperwork ready, but it still took the Cast Member a couple of minutes to find us on the system. Once we were sorted she sent us to line 5, where we were the 2nd family in the queue, so it looked like we had just missed a bus. I took the opportunity to don my Minnie ears...

We didn't have too long to wait though and by 8:20pm we were giving our bags to the Driver to load. Unfortunately, it was a Mears coach . Our Driver Ryan was fab though – definitely a Magical service, if not a magical paint job on the bus .

Tom wanted to sit on the back row, but Rich was quick to point out that we didn't want to be at the back of lots of other guests making their way to check in, so we chose some seats a bit closer to the front (about 1/3 down the coach)...

Once all the Guests were on board, Ryan introduced himself and it was clear that he was full of Disney energy. He told us that it would take 25-75 minutes to get to our various resorts , then quickly said that he was only kidding, and that it would be 25-50 minutes (there was a collective sigh of relief). He then told us that our first stop would be Caribbean Beach Resort (most of the bus cheered ), followed by Boardwalk, Beach Club and Yacht Club.

We left MCO at 8:37pm and the journey went quickly – Ryan was soon counting down to us driving under the Welcome To Disneyworld sign, and as we did we could see fireworks in the background – what a perfect way to begin our Disney experience (sorry no photos of this though, I tried but they were very blurry).

Our plan was for Rich and Tom to sort out the bags and Ryan's tip ($10) whilst I made a dash to get in the queue for check in. As I stepped off the bus at Custom House, I got a fabulous view of Illuminations – what a perfect welcome!

The plan worked perfectly and I was first in the queue, and was being checked in by Elizabeth in no time at all. She told us that we were in Aruba, block 56, room 5658, and showed us on the map that our block was close to the Aruba Bus Stop (which turned out to be perfect). Elizabeth also told us all the usual info about Old Port Royale and Pool opening times, and brought out our Magic Bands (which turned out to be the original style ones)...

Once we were all sorted (by about 9:15pm) I asked Elizabeth if there was a path to walk through the carparks to Aruba, but she said we’d have to walk around the lake path or get on the Internal Shuttle. We don’t mind a walk, so we cut through Barbados towards Barefoot Bay...

The wooden bridge-type paths were a bit confusing in the dark, but we soon got our bearings...

It took about 15 minutes to get to our block, and by the time we were there, Tom told us that he’d had a bit of trouble with his case, and it turned out that 2 of the wheels had broken. Our room was on the 2nd floor, but it’s quite handy now that Tom is big enough to carry his own case .

The room was lovely – no Murphey Bed this time, so a slightly different layout of the TV Table / Drawers. I didn't take many room pics, but did grab the obligatory Toiletries shot...

As we’d arrived later than we’d hoped, we’d already agreed that we were too tired to go to Disney Springs for food, so instead we just sorted out the safe, and took a walk over to Old Port Royale as we were in desperate need for a full-fat Coke sugar rush.

It was a lovely walk over the bridge and past Castaway Cay...

Tom had a quick swing in one of the Beach Hammocks on the way...

We picked up our Resort Mugs - purple for me, blue for Rich and (after a bit of deliberation over the pink one) red for Tom. Mine had a purple handle, but Rich and Tom’s both had white handles.

We decided that we could all eat a small meal, so split 2 Counter Credits between the 3 of us – getting a Jumbo Pepperoni Pizza slice for Tom, which was actually 2 good sized slices and came with a Breadstick. He swapped his drink for a Cookie ($9.99 + $2.99 + Tax). We chose an Angus Bacon & Cheeseburger and a side of Fries for me and Rich to share, (again swapping the drink for a Cookie Fries ($12.99 + $2.99 + $2.99 + Tax). Sorry, no food pics tonight, I did have my phone with me, but don't seem to have taken any .

It was more than enough food and really tasty. Tom was really tired by now (well it was nearly 10pm, so 3am UK time) – so he only ate one slice of his Pizza (you know Tom is really tired when he leaves food). Rich and I picked at the other slice and it was nice.

Tom was convinced that he’d put his little Nike bag down somewhere in Old Port Royale and went to have a look, even asking the Cast Member on the till who went to check if anything had been handed in. However, Rich was certain that Tom hadn’t brought a bag with him, and when we got back to the room he was right, but after losing his hat earlier, it was another lesson for Tom to be more vigilant about his belongings, and as a result we decided that his phone was a no-go for taking to the parks (Tom agreed with this as he didn’t want to risk losing it).

The boys got straight into bed and were soon asleep, but I was aching and really fancied a bath to help me to unwind. It’s only a little bath, but I managed to have an ok-ish soak. Once I got out I was quite awake again, so I used the coffee machine to make myself a decaf cuppa and unpacked, Dibb-Style…

I eventually sat down on the bed to turn on my phone at 11:20pm (4:40am UK time, so I’d been up for 24 hours!). I had a quick look at the telly, but couldn’t find the Top 10 Stacey channel, so instead I sat in bed writing up a couple of notes, but was drifting off to sleep as I got to this point in the day – I looked at my phone and it was 1:12am (6:12am UK time), definitely time to tuck down .

Today's Totals...

Step Count: Not counting today, as the phone was switched off for most of the day
Spending (UK): £104.56
Tom Spending (UK): £38.99
Spending (US): $10
OOP Food / Drinks (UK): £19.71
Dining Plan: 3 x Resort Mugs (would have been $53.97 + Tax) / 2 Counter Credits / Snack Credit (approx. $33)
QSDP Credits Left: 52 QS / 54 Snack

Day 1 is Here

[tsheep23]

Just finished your pre Trip report so I was pleased to see this was ready to read.

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Originally Posted by tsheep23

Just finished your pre Trip report so I was pleased to see this was ready to read.

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Thanks

Just a couple of pics left to fix, and I realised that I hadn't ended with my step count / spending / QSDP that I was keeping track of. Should have it all sorted in the next half an hour or so

[mick]

A great travel day

Joan

[HelenJNT]

Hurrah! Glad you've kicked this one off. Looking forward to reading more!

Sorry it took you so long to take off. The headphone thing would really annoy me, I've stood up and forgotten I was plugged in soooo many times. Thumbs up to the KFC too, haha!

Nice to see CBR again, we really loved it there.

[DisneyPunk]

How did you get the KFC through security? :-)

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Originally Posted by mick

A great travel day

Joan

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Thanks Joan

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Originally Posted by HelenJNT

Hurrah! Glad you've kicked this one off. Looking forward to reading more!

Sorry it took you so long to take off. The headphone thing would really annoy me, I've stood up and forgotten I was plugged in soooo many times. Thumbs up to the KFC too, haha!

Nice to see CBR again, we really loved it there.

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Ah, thanks Helen

We are currently just in next year's DDP pricing mode - we'd go back to CBR (even with the construction) as we love it too, but it's still had quite a price hike, so we may end up fully offsite next year

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Originally Posted by DisneyPunk

How did you get the KFC through security? :-)

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Haha - we did have visions of being pulled over by security when they saw a lunch bag full of chicken bones in our hand luggage, but as it's food it is allowed.

I had some mayo sachets in my little clear bag of liquids under 100ml too - but no one said anything.

[Jessika]

What a long travel day! Love the shoe and tshirt wardrobe hangers where are they from? A great read, thank you for sharing.