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Old 1 Jul 19, 07:42 PM  
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Redrach1903
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Cool He did a thing! June 2019 - Travel Day

Pre-travel day is here

Monday 10th June

Orlando time! Woohoooo!



I woke up first at 2.15am. The room was so stuffy. Yuck. I went for my shower and quickly realised that I had left my travel sachet of hair conditioner in the old room. I had to make do with the hotel provided one, so I was not amused with myself! It was actually ok in the end though and my hair wasn’t too tuggy! This isn’t the only item I left in the old room by the way. More on that in a sec….

Chris got up at 2.45 and got showered and by 3.40am we were both ready to head downstairs. Our taxi wasn’t coming until 4am, but we are one of those couples that are always early. I make no apologies for this by the way. Lateness is rude. There, I said it! Anyway, it was at this point that I realised that I had left my hoody in the old room too! Ahhhhh! We still had the key for the old room, so I zipped off to see if it would still work. It did, but no hoody to be found. I did find my conditioner though…..

When we got down to reception I went to ask if my hoody had been found. As I looked at the receptionist I realised it was an old colleague of mine from our Edinburgh office. How random! Anyway, we had a news and she located my hoody! Hurrah!

The taxi arrived early at 3.50am and the woman was none too helpful with our luggage. Chris was in the toilet when she arrived, so I started taking out all the luggage and she just stood and watched me! No tip for you lady! Chris came along soon after though and took over! She was also a crazy driver, we couldn’t wait to get out of that taxi! Soon enough we arrived in one piece.



We went to grab a trolley which of course was the squeakiest one in existence!

As we were walking to the terminal I saw this group of young lads who were obviously off on their first holiday without the rentals. What a worry! Unsupervised teenage boys!



We squeaked our way through to the BA desk and waited until it opened at 4.35am. Once open Chris asked how much a last minute upgrade to Business Class would be. He was quoted £1,400. Firm no! We'd slum it

With our luggage sent on its way, we went straight to security which was chaotic, but fast and we were through by 5am. We settled on All Bar One for breakfast. They do this weird thing where they give you a shot glass full of smarties, but it's never too early for chocolate when you're on holiday, is it?



I wasn't that hungry yet, so I just had a croissant with a cup of tea. Chris asked for poached eggs on toast, even though it wasn’t on the menu. They were totally cool with doing it for him

Everything was really tasty and fresh. It was around £12, which isn’t bad for airport prices!





After breakfast I nipped to the loo where I encountered the scariest hand dryers ever.



After that it was time to head to our gate So excited for the journey to begin!

But wait, first a meltdown! I turned and asked Chris "did you pack the adapter thing?" and he goes "erm, no". Sorry what? He had ONE job. I was like "are you sure? " and he said "yes, I didn't know where it was". My reply was perhaps a little dramatic "And you are just telling me this NOW?". I then march us into Dixons to buy a few adapters. I had only packed one or two and I knew we'd need more for chargers, hair straighteners etc. It wasn’t until we were outside the shop, new adapters in hand, that I realised our wires were crossed. He had packed the thing I was asking about, which is a multi-point USB thing. He thought I was on about his 3 way adapter. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we didn’t need to buy the extra adapters at all and Chris found it most amusing that I had a meltdown over it.

Moving swiftly on………..



We boarded at 6.15am. It was a busy flight which wasn’t surprising given it was the first flight to London on a Monday morning. We took off 25 minutes late at 7am. Do London flights ever take off on time?! Anyway, I listened to my new favourite podcast. This is a great one if you are interested in the history of Walt Disney and the parks.



We landed at a very rainy Gatwick at 8.15, which was actually our original arrival time, so we had made up the time well. However, there was some sort of fault with the stairs and we had to wait for a replacement set before we could get off the plane. We were then rammed into a bus. I hate these bus transfers so much. They are so slow and they let too many people on. Space invaders ahoy! There was also a guy loudly snorting behind me and a toddler having an epic meltdown. I cannot express how badly I wanted off that thing!

We headed straight for security which, as per usual, had its fair share of idiots who can't understand simple instructions

I had booked the new "My Lounge" for us as a wee treat, so we went off to check in. My confirmation said No.1 Lounge though, so we went to the wrong one first – doh!

Once in the correct lounge we found it was only ok. Not amazing, but not terrible. Oh and for anyone that way inclined, there is a smoking terrace here.







The best thing about it was the pancake machine!







Chris had his first beer of the holiday here too.



We did find it a little chaotic and busy. A lot of folk do seem to lose all manners when they travel, don't they? I have it in my notes that people were testing our patience and we don’t have much of that anyway! Haha! Also why can’t people put their phones on silent in public spaces? Nobody wants to hear your 7000 notifications. Thanks.



We only stayed for an hour or so and then headed to the gate. We had a seat and waited for our group to be called. I was enjoying lugging into a conversation some folk were having about the news that Bradley Cooper and his bird had split up. So, they were obviously speculating about him and Lady GaGa becoming an item. I definitely expect them to step out together soon

We boarded at 10.35am. We were on an older plane, so there were no USB charge points. Bah! We did have the middle chair free for junk / snacks though! Hurrah!





I fell asleep pretty much as soon as I sat down, but when I woke up at 11.25 I realised we hadn’t taken off yet (scheduled time was 11.15). We finally took off at 11.53. I was unhappy as I was worried this would eat into our evening plans! Forever a worrier! Haha!

I decided to ditch the in-flight entertainment and start watching "What If" which I had downloaded onto my Kindle. It’s very bizarre. Chris was watching Sherlock Holmes, but was soon falling asleep.

Drinks came round at 12.35pm.



Followed by lunch at 1.30pm, which I had to wake Chris up for. It was chicken with mashed tatties and it was actually very tasty! The mash was lovely!





We both then decided to watch Green Book. I soon felt sleepy though and lay down on Chris's lap for a proper snooze (gotta love that middle chair). However, turbulence woke me up a short time later and we had to put our seat belts back on, so I went back to finish Green Book. It was really good, but quite hard to watch in parts! I think more snoozing happened and then we were dished out some mini Magnums.

I then settled down to watch a documentary about Walt Disney that I had downloaded (Walt: The man behind the myth). I loved it and I may or may not have sobbed at the end of it. Embarrassing? Me? So yeah, give it a watch. It's on Netflix!

Progress check – 2 hours to go!



At 7pm (still working on UK time) our sandwiches were served and I was delighted that they weren't cheese! I love banana loaf too, so happy days!



Chris had been sleeping on and off and at one point I watched him fall dead asleep in 3 seconds flat. Like conscious one second, then ZONKED! I don’t know how he does it

At about 8pm we started our decent into Orlando! Woo! We were told there were storms in the area and it might be a bumpy landing, but thankfully it wasn’t! The clouds were very funky looking though!



We landed at 3.30pm local time, so we had made up the time we lost thankfully! We were off the plane by 3.45pm and waiting at Immigration. It didn’t look too bad, but it was quite slow. I think it took about 45 minutes. We then went to get our luggage and decided that we would humph it all on the monorail rather than doing the bag drop. That wasn’t an easy task. We had 2 full-size cases, 2 cabin cases and a set of golf clubs! We managed though! Well, Chris managed the bulk!



Familiar sights! Is the flag smaller than usual, or is it just me?



We weren’t collecting a car at the airport this year, so it was a nice change to not have to deal with that. We headed straight outside and requested an Uber. We had both received a text from Vodafone saying that no roaming charges apply in the US and we could use our UK data. What a boost. This came in so handy for ubers etc when we weren’t on WiFi. Who am I kidding? It came in handy for keeping my Instagram stories up to date



Anyway, back to outside and it was HUMID, but nothing beats that feeling when the warm air hits you as you walk out of the airport

By 5.17pm (precise I know), we were in the Uber! We got a lovely lady called Theresa who chatted away.

Before we knew it, we were heading under this thing of beauty! Squeal!



[continued in next post]

Edited at 07:30 AM.
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Old 1 Jul 19, 07:46 PM  
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[continued from previous post]

We arrived at The Dolphin at 5.50pm which I was delighted with. In my head I imagined we'd arrive around 6pm



A lovely bellhop dude sorted our luggage onto a trolley for us and gave us a wee ticket so that we could get it delivered once we were checked in. First impressions when we stepped in were very positive! It was lovely and it felt so exciting to be somewhere new!





We then went to check in which was a quick and easy process. The guy also took our bellhop ticket and said he'd send the luggage up straight away for us, meaning we didn’t have to bother going over to Bell Services. Oh, we did think we had gotten away with paying the resort fees, but turns out they use your credit card to "hold" funds on your account until you check out and then pay the fees due. Bummer! Haha!

We got room number 8084, which was on the 8th floor of the east side and we LOVED it I will admit now that, as a rule, we are not hotel people. We like the space of an apartment or a villa, but this room was so spacious and bright. It never felt like we were in each other's way or claustrophobic at any point. It really was lovely.







Starbucks coffee and bottled water were replenished daily.



We then stepped onto the balcony and……



Now is that a view or is that a view? We were pretty chuffed!

The luggage arrived within 5 minutes of us entering the room, so we unpacked and then freshened up before heading off to Epcot. By foot. The actual dream

Lift selfie!



This is the exit which takes you out towards The Boardwalk. On the bottom on the left is Todd English's Bluezoo Lounge and on the right is The Fountain.



Front of the hotel. So pretty!







Walkway towards The Boardwalk.





We walked the Yacht & Beach Club way. It is so beautiful down here.







Soon enough we were approaching International Gateway! I can't convey enough how excellent the location of our hotel was. Just perfect. I think it took 12 minutes to walk to Epcot. I did time it one day, but I forgot to write it down!

I gotta tell ya, it was amazing not having to enter Epcot from the main entrance. It is legit my least favourite entrance of all the Disney parks. It's always rammed.



The IG entrance is under construction due to the Skyliner station. We saw these running A LOT during our stay. They must be about ready to open now!



And we're in! Hello Epcot





As you can see from above, it was a beautiful evening. Any sign of the earlier storms were long gone.

The park seemed fairly quiet, which pleased us greatly. We had a nice stroll to China.







We of course stopped to look at the trains in Germany. Chris's fave







Snow White…..



Some rare Scottish merch was also spotted along the way.



Destination reached.



Time for food! We had never eaten here before, or in fact been this far into the China pavilion, so were looking forward to it!



I ordered Orange Chicken and a cheeky portion of egg rolls, Chris got the Sichuan Spicy Chicken plus a diet coke and a beer!



We were very impressed with the food here. It was all so tasty and fresh, but far too much. We could have easily shared!



It was now time for our one and only FastPass of the evening and that was Frozen Ever After!









We literally walked straight on



It's a cute wee ride. I always forgot about the drop too! Fun!





[continued in next post]

Edited at 11:30 AM.
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Old 1 Jul 19, 07:49 PM  
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[continued from previous post]

Even though I was still full from our Chinese grub, there was a snack I realllllly wanted from the bakery in Norway. I present to you the Rainbow Cheesecake



It tasted every bit as good as it looked. It was lemon flavoured and I LOVE lemon things.

Chris then spied the Margarita Hut and went to get us one. I chose strawberry and he went for a fiesta.







Hmmm these were good!



We decided we'd walk the full loop round back to the beginning of World Showcase in time for the fireworks starting. The sun was starting to set and it was just beautiful. I really do love an evening in Epcot





Even though the Flower & Garden Festival was over, there were still a handful of topiaries kicking about.





Gotta love a Disney duck.



We settled on the corner of the bridge between the UK and France to watch Illuminations. I am sad that these are being replaced as I do love them, especially the music, but I get why they need to shake things up!















After that we headed back out via International Gateway and walked the other way around the Boardwalk.





As we were passing the Boardwalk Inn we noticed there was an open viewing for one of the DVC units, so we popped our heads in! It looked lovely. I do like the idea of DVC, but I think I'd rather own a villa. Less restrictive! One day!







We also watched a street entertainer dude for a while. I thought I had a video of this, but apparently not!

And we were back "home" by 10pm The hotel was so pretty all lit up.





What a lovely first evening in Florida! We wouldn’t normally entertain a park on our first night, but being so close meant it was super easy and chilled We really didn’t feel too tired given our extremely long day.

Steps today – 17,796

Thank you for reading. Tomorrow we have breakfast with Rapunzel & co, which is kinda awkward, and then visit Magic Kingdom It's here

Edited at 09:02 PM.
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Old 1 Jul 19, 07:52 PM  
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Great travel day
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Old 1 Jul 19, 08:08 PM  
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Great travel day I’m loving all the pictures of the Dolphin, we will be there on Saturday & your pictures are making me really excited I’m looking forward to being able to walk to HS & Epcot, much to the disgust of my DD:
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Old 1 Jul 19, 08:21 PM  
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Your hotel looks lovely and that is a top notch view! Great to spend your first evening in Epcot watching Illuminations. We used to see them towards the end of our holidays, so you can imagine how that went

Looking forward to more x
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Old 1 Jul 19, 08:21 PM  
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Originally Posted by sophiepop View Post
Great travel day
Thank you x

Originally Posted by Cutiepie View Post
Great travel day I’m loving all the pictures of the Dolphin, we will be there on Saturday & your pictures are making me really excited I’m looking forward to being able to walk to HS & Epcot, much to the disgust of my DD:
Ahhh so jealous! You’ll love it! I’ll try and post another day before you go x
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Old 1 Jul 19, 08:22 PM  
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Originally Posted by JoJo88 View Post
Your hotel looks lovely and that is a top notch view! Great to spend your first evening in Epcot watching Illuminations. We used to see them towards the end of our holidays, so you can imagine how that went

Looking forward to more x
Thanks Jo

Loved our view SO much! X
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Old 1 Jul 19, 08:39 PM  
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Great first day. Not being a hotel person I cannot fault the dolphin. I don’t quite think you elaborated enough about your 4 year old airport adaptor melt down though (for all readers it was bad).
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Old 1 Jul 19, 08:45 PM  
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Originally Posted by RedRachsHubby View Post
Great first day. Not being a hotel person I cannot fault the dolphin. I don’t quite think you elaborated enough about your 4 year old airport adaptor melt down though (for all readers it was bad).
was just a wee flap! X
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