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Old 24 Feb 20, 12:22 PM  
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RachaelC
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The Ultimate Star Wars Experience - Day 0 - Punch it Chewie

Thursday 13th February

After being up in the night DD(2) who was sick, I spent most of the day worrying.

I worried about whether she would be ok for the flight, I worried about whether Storm Dennis was going to disrupt our planned 1pm flight and I worried about how I was going to get through all of my work "to do" list when I could only work for half the day due to the sick child and then I just had general pre-holiday worries that I get every time on top of that too!

One of my anxieties was alleviated by a phone call from Virgin Holidays that afternoon telling me that our flight was being brought forward to 10:05 am which was a massive relief and also worked loads better for us when travelling with children. I then called the taxi firm and brought forward our booking which slightly annoyingly cost an extra £5, but hey, we had to get to the airport somehow!

Friday 14th February

Thankfully no more sickness and none of the rest of us seemed to have caught anything either so all good. I had the day off work with DD and somehow managed to pack the suitcases despite her taking one thing out for every two to three things that I put in!

We went to bed at about 10:30pm with our alarm set for 5:30am.

Saturday 15th February

We didn't need the alarm. DD woke up at 4:50am so I was awake from then onwards! We had ages before our taxi was arriving at 6:30am, so was an unusually leisurely start for a travel day.

Our taxi arrived on time and 15 mins later we were at Gatwick walking up to check-in (I love living so close!).

As we walked into the check-in area we could see some Star Wars backdrops and a fairly long queue where we found out we would get our lanyards and goody bags. We decided to get rid of the cases first, so headed over to the desks. As we were in a (short) queue to check in a troop of Stormtroopers marched through behind us over to where the back drops were. Our Star Wars experience had officially begun!

Check-in was quick and we headed back to pick up our goody bags. The Stormtroopers were still there and were milling around with us. They were quite happy to pose for photos, give high fives etc.



Once we'd got the bags and lanyards we could see a string quartet setting up by the backdrops! They started playing the Star Wars theme and the goosebumps arrived - I couldn't quite believe that it was actually all happening.

Once we'd had a listen to them we decided to head through security to the departure lounge which was fairly quick and stress-free despite having the pushchair and what felt like a ton of baggage with us!

The downside of our flight being brought forwards was that they had to cancel our Vroom booking as they were at capacity at the new time. They did say that they would be having a party at the gate to compensate for this (we did also get a refund), but unfortunately we didn't find out which gate we were going to until it came up on the board at 9am so we missed most of the activities there.

We headed to Sonoma for breakfast which was good and to check out the contents of our goody bags, the only annoying thing was that they weren't doing the "pay online" option there any more so we had to wait to pay our bill, but we had plenty of time. We also swung by WH Smiths for some bottled water and some sweets for the plane for DS.

Here's the goody bag contents if you are interested to see:


By this point it was 8:55am and we hung around the screens to see which gate we would be leaving from.

Once we knew this info, we started off towards the gate and I hadn't realised how close it would be to the departure lounge. Walking forwards, through the glass ahead we could see the distinctive livery of The Falcon right ahead of us. Cue more goosebumps!



We headed downstairs where the gate area was already very crowded (not sure how everyone else found out which one it was before 9am, but hey!). They were giving out cupcakes which I couldn't bear the thought of eating at that time in the morning, but they did look cool.



We then waited to board. Now, by booking row 32 I had ensured that we would be off the plane quickly in Orlando, but we didn't half have a long wait to board!

When we got to the plane we were greeted by the cabin crew, complete with Star Wars Mickey ears, Chewie hats with Mickey ears and R2D2 ones too. You could see that they were excited to be working on this special flight for us too. The flight crew introduced themselves to us as Captain Solo, Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian which got a chuckle, but they were also clearly enjoying their roles on board.

We also had special in-flight pillows for the occasion. One of them may have made it into a goody bag to keep as a souvenir...



I had been a little bit anxious about how DD would be on the flight and she was a little bit whingey about the fact that she had to keep her seatbelt on at the beginning, but soon settled down (this was her first flight with her own seat).

Before we knew it we were taxiing to the runway, we had a short wait and then we were in position to go.

At the end of the runway as we came to a halt the words of the captain came through the PA system "Punch it Chewie!" then the engines started roaring and we were hurtling off down the runway with the Star Wars theme music playing out in the cabin.

I mentioned in my Highs and Highs post that my grandfather played in the LSO and was featured on the soundtrack to Star Wars so at this point the goosebumps came back along with my eyes filling with tears. I always get emotional listening to music that he's playing on as I love the fact that a part of him still remains to this day even though he's no longer with us.

The take off felt a little bumpy (no doubt thanks to Storm Dennis who was on his way), but nothing too bad even for a nervous flyer like myself.

The rest of the flight went well - DD was happy enough watching the TV, our iPad and playing with stickers. She even decided that she was tired at one point so lay down on the seat and just fell asleep which was a miracle as she's usually a bit of a tinker for napping!

There were some other nice Star Wars touches on the plane. The menu was full of themed food, we were given a recipe card for one of the dishes and the cabin crew ran a Star Wars quiz. The highlight though was the fact that Warwick Davis was on board. He gave a talk about his experiences working on Star Wars over the PA system and then, amazingly, he proceeded to make his way down the plane to speak to all 400 passengers on board. He was such a lovely guy and we felt so pleased to have a little chat with him and get his autograph.





8 hours 45 mins later we arrived into Orlando and were off the plane quickly. The queue at immigration was short, we were the only plane in there, so the only people ahead of us were those who we had travelled with. Bags also came out quickly and the only hitch was that the willful toddler didn't want to get into her pushchair!

Once we had tackled the monorail there were plenty of Virgin/Disney staff directing us down to our buses to make our way to the resort. They provided water and crisps for the journey and we did well by being the last party onto a bus so we got moving very quickly.

Around 30 mins later we were pulling into the Caribbean Beach Resort - we were all staying in the same block (Aruba 56) and they had all our Magic Bands (exclusive branded ones no less) ready for us in a room they were using for hospitality on the ground floor.

My only regret with the room is that I didn't request a ground floor room for ourselves - lugging the pushchair up and down the stairs was a little bit annoying, but, as DD likes to walk everywhere at the moment anyway, it wasn't too much of a bother.

After ditching our cases in the room we headed down to have a little explore of the hotel and down to Old Port Royale for something to eat (and to get our heads around the QSDP). On the way down we met another family who were also on our trip and whose children were a similar age to DS. The mum in the party told me that she had set up a Facebook group for people on our trip so I promptly joined and it turned out to be a great way to get to know some people who were on our trip too.



After eating it was back to the room to unpack and also try and keep our eyes open until a reasonable time to go to sleep. Unfortunately we also found that DD was able to climb out of the cot there, so we had to change our sleeping plans. The cot was placed in the middle of the beds so it would work as a kind of bed guard while I had the "lucky" duty of sharing a bed with her for the week. I'm not sure how, but 2 year olds really do know how to take up a lot of room when sleeping!

We made it to about 8:30 before we were all just too tired to carry on, so we collapsed into our beds and thankfully all fell asleep quickly.

Edited at 12:34 PM.
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Old 24 Feb 20, 12:30 PM  
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smithlane
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Despite the uncertainty of sickness and a storm you had a fantastic travel day! I’ve got goosebumps reading it x
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Old 24 Feb 20, 12:39 PM  
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RachaelC
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Originally Posted by smithlane View Post
Despite the uncertainty of sickness and a storm you had a fantastic travel day! I’ve got goosebumps reading it x
It was amazing from start to finish (although I could have done without the pre-5am start).
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Old 24 Feb 20, 01:58 PM  
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This looks amazing already.
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Old 24 Feb 20, 02:39 PM  
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What a fantastic flight day, looking forward to reading along.
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Old 24 Feb 20, 03:10 PM  
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This sounds like an amazing start to a great holiday (except the sickness at the beginning). How exciting.

Thank you for sharing and I look forward to reading the next instalment!
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Old 24 Feb 20, 06:41 PM  
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Sounds brilliant so far
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Old 24 Feb 20, 06:51 PM  
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Originally Posted by RachaelC View Post
At the end of the runway as we came to a halt the words of the captain came through the PA system "Punch it Chewie!" then the engines started roaring and we were hurtling off down the runway with the Star Wars theme music playing out in the cabin.
That must have been awesome. I'd have had a grin from ear to ear
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Old 24 Feb 20, 07:13 PM  
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Great start
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Old 24 Feb 20, 08:05 PM  
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I have goosebumps and leaky eyes reading about your flight experience. Just fabulous.
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