~ Pre-Travel Day ~ Are We Going To Mickey Mouse World Mummy? ~ 26th Oct 18

[caitlinsmummy]

Welcome to our trip report! I'll start off by introducing the family and a little about the name of the report in case you haven't read the pre-trippie.

We are a family of five and it was the children (or animals as they're more commonly known as) first trip. I went with my parents when I was 15 years old and my husband went with his family aged 7 years.

The name of the report came from the youngest child. He was only 3 when we booked the holiday. We told the kid's straight away and said we would be going next year. Obviously 3 year old's have no sense of time and he started asking daily

'Are we going to Mickey Mouse World tomorrow Mummy?'



Find the Index HERE

So this trip consisted of:

Myself (Kelly) - Chief planner and organiser ... none of the trip would have happened without me

Husband (Chris) - The laid back photographer one ... I guess it wouldn't have happened without him paying for it so I have to give him some recognition there

Caitlin (Turned 12 when we were out there) - total drama llama and pre teen one.

Thomas (9) - the cheeky brain box one.

Noah (5) - the cute one (He was recently diagnosed as autistic, so it was a big challenge for us all to ensure we kept meltdowns to a minimum)[/COLOR]



Pre Travel Day

Today started with Mr Grump and I getting up at 8am. The kid’s had stayed at Grandma’s last night and we weren’t picking them up until we were on the way to the airport so we could get everything packed and sorted without three hyper kids!

All the last bits and bobs were put in the case and weighed, all under weight

I emptied the fridge and cupboards of perishables and popped them in a bag for a friend who said she’d take them. At 10am two friend’s popped in for a cuppa, I got snuggles with the lovely Daisy whilst Chris prepped the car for our journey. After lots of laughs and a few tears we said our goodbyes and Chris and I took one last check around the house before getting in the car.

We left our home at about 12pm and picked the kid’s up from Grandma’s along the way. Chris then decided he needed some oil before we left so we had to pop to a town 20 minutes away. We’d only been in the car for 20 minutes when Noah threw up

Luckily I’d anticipated this happening so I had spare clothes and vomit bags in the car! Top mum points, as soon as he was cleaned up and sorted he asked for some crisps haha. We got set off around 1.20pm from Darlington. Our estimated time of arrival was 3.50pm so we were still on track.

The journey down was pretty uneventful until we came off the M1 on the M62, the sat nav kept changing the route due to traffic, we were redirected to back roads and all sorts. Noah decided to tell us on the motorway that he needed a wee. We told him to wait a few minutes till we could exit and find a services or a bush Because he’d been playing on his tablet in the car he’d conveniently left it till last minute to decide to tell us and proceeded to wet himself.

We managed to pull over and change him into a spare pair of shorts and pants out of the case and sit on a towel in the seat. In the end we didn’t get to TGI’s until 4.45pm, we were tired hungry and fed up. We popped the dirty clothes into a carrier bag and binned them.

I was struggling to get into trippie mode and I forgot to take photos here, but trust me it’s best I didn’t. We really didn’t enjoy the food at all and it was so over priced. Our total bill came to just short of £70 for 1 appetiser, 2 adults meals, 3 kid’s meals, 4 soft drinks and one cocktail.

I’ve took these pics from the internet of our meals.

Starter
Loaded skins – potato skins filled with melted cheese and bacon – to share

Mains

I opted for:
Cheeseburger Deluxe – beef burger simply grilled and smothered in cheese and Fridays mayo.

Chris wanted the surf and turf burger but they didn’t have any so he opted for:

The Warrior Burger – Don’t fight it … bite it! Souble stacked beef burgers, mozzarella dippers, Colby cheese, American cheese, caramelised onions and Fridays mayo.

I CAN CONFIRM THE BURGER DID NOT LOOK ANYTHING LIKE THIS!

Caitlin:

Kid’s Hamburger with no fries – Beef burger with fresh tomato, server on a seeded bun with crispy fries and baked beans.


Thomas and Noah each had:

Kid’s Fish Fingers – Omega 3 fish fingers with crispy fries and baked beans

Chris and the kid's had soft drinks and I had a much deserved Bubblegum Daquiri ... it's the only photo I actually have from today I promise I do get better with the photos!

The service in here was very slow, it took almost 45 minutes for food to come out and that was just the starter and kid’s meals Luckily, we’d asked for the kid’s meals with the starters or the kid’s may have been trying to eat the table! Our starters were cleared, and it was another 30 minutes before our meals came out. When it came out it was luke warm and crusty, as though it had been left under the hot plate for a while. By now we were just so hungry we just ate it. I ordered the kid’s dessert when they brought our meals in the hope that whilst we were eating, they would appear and we could hopefully still make the cinema.

We finished after 20 minutes, 10 minutes later the kid’s desserts still weren’t out. By now it was 6.25pm and I knew we wouldn’t make it to the cinema in time. We asked for the bill, paid up and left.
We drove to Tesco where we bought snacks for the plane and some new jeans for Noah after earlier accident. Kid’s were well hyper, running round Tesco’s like zoo animals, jumping out and scaring each other …



I walked away and left them with Chris They guy on the till was fascinated with my accent and said he goes to Newcastle purely for the accent … shame I’m not from Newcastle haha. We’re about an hour south but we still get called ‘Geordies’.

We then headed to the hotel. I'd bought 1001 and disposable disposable cloths in Tesco, so I could cleaned the car seat. We got checked in at 7.30pm.

We had 2 family rooms and decided Chris would have the boys in one room and I’d have Caitlin in the other. We unpacked what we needed and tried to settle them down for bed …

In the end I took Caitlin and Thomas in the other room with me and we had hot chocolates. We decided to send Thomas back once Noah was asleep … 9.30pm Noah was finally asleep … sadly so was Thomas in the bed next to me The rooms were across from each other so we did a quick change, I held Chris’s door open whilst he grabbed Thomas and took him to his room then I went back to mine. Alarms were all set for 7.30am 😊 I was asleep by 10.30pm xx

[Pussycat Doll]

Ooh that was a stressful start! Shame about Fridays as well, hopefully travel day is nice and smooth for you.

[Palm trees]

Ahh, the trials of parenting... I remember pre-children travel days, I really didn't appreciate them at the time! It sounds like you were very well organised and managed it all brilliantly 😊

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Ooh that was a stressful start! Shame about Fridays as well, hopefully travel day is nice and smooth for you.

See more...

Nothings ever plain sailing with our family, you'll soon find out!

Originally Posted by Palm trees

Ahh, the trials of parenting... I remember pre-children travel days, I really didn't appreciate them at the time! It sounds like you were very well organised and managed it all brilliantly 😊

See more...

You don't appreciate pre-children travel days ... until you have children then again it's just as stressful with just the husband, he's like a fourth child.

Just realised looking at my notes for travel day we didn't send Thomas to the other room, we sent Caitlin. Chris moved Thomas from my bed to Caitlin's bed then Chris and Caitlin went to the other room see this is why I need notes x

[Goldia]

You've started already! This is fab. A few snags along the way, sick and then pee to deal with, still you're in the airport hotel. Not long now!

[mick]

A few mishaps and a not so good meal but your there and tomorrow is another day

Joan

[Milpston]

You've got to love travelling with kids!

I have to say years ago I used to love TGI Fridays but as per your experience I think they have gone really downhill and are now seriously overpriced.

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Goldia

You've started already! This is fab. A few snags along the way, sick and then pee to deal with, still you're in the airport hotel. Not long now!

See more...

To be honest it wouldn't be a family holiday without the sick and things not going to plan!

Originally Posted by mick

A few mishaps and a not so good meal but your there and tomorrow is another day

Joan

See more...

Thanks Joan, I was really disappointed with the meal, I really wanted to enjoy it but I think the wait time also tainted the food sadly. Tomorrow gets better ... even airplane food trumps TGI's thanks for reading x

Originally Posted by Milpston

You've got to love travelling with kids!

I have to say years ago I used to love TGI Fridays but as per your experience I think they have gone really downhill and are now seriously overpriced.

See more...

Travelling with kids ... why do we do it I much preferred our flight to Cuba in 2016 - no kids xx

[collybird]

Poor Noah, and poor you, not a great start to the trip!

It's a real pity you weren't wild about TGI's, we've only been once before and I also wasn't blown away, the potato skins look really yummy though. I'd have been annoyed about missing the cinema, it was such a lovely plan. I bet you didn't anticipate having to clean the car when you should have been relaxing!

[caitlinsmummy]

It wasn't but we were going to Disney so it didn't dampen it too much

We've tried TGI's several times at home and there's only once we were happy and that was my friend and I with the endless appetizers offer I honestly don't think we'd try it again. We went purely as hubby had vouchers from survey's he'd done so we didn't technically have to pay.

No I certainly didn't anticipate that good thing I love the little monkey!

Thanks for reading xx