It's all about the mouse - 30th July 2018 pre travel day

[Goldia]

Welcome to the It’s all about the mouse trip report. We are a family of four and this is our 4th trip to Orlando. This trip is all WDW and we stay inside the Disney bubble for the entirety of our holiday.

There is a long pre trip report which you can read here.

For those who want to skip the pre trip then I will do some introductions. I’m Abby, 41, and this is my 5th trip to a Disney Park. The first park I ever went to was when I was 16 and it was Disneyland in California. In the year 2000 my grandmother celebrated her 80th birthday by taking all her children and grandchildren to Disneyland Paris for a weekend. Then in 2014 myself, my husband Dave and our two children Max (then 9) and Kate (then 7) went on our once in a lifetime trip.

It was the most amazing trip ever and none of us expected to ever repeat it (I suppose all first trips start out this way).

Anyway, the bug had bitten, we returned in 2016 and just did WDW.

Then last summer we did 4 nights in NYC and 10 in Orlando. We didn’t do Disney at all that trip, instead we had a hotel on I drive and did Universal, Seaworld, Discovery Cove and had our fill of all those parks.

So this year we could happily focus on WDW and not feel like we were missing out on everything else. I can't wait to share all the fun we had with you all and I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures.

Pre travel day dawns pretty early for me. Those of you who have read my previous trip reports will recall that I don’t sleep well before we fly out (hands up if you remember the chair in the airport hotel bathroom from the NYC and Orlando report ).

I had hoped that I would sleep well going in to pre travel day as I didn’t hold out too much hope for sleeping well in the airport hotel. I got up at 4.46 am oh dear. I had been awake since about 3.30 and in the end I gave up trying to sleep and went downstairs to have a cup of tea. I had vague hopes that perhaps the early start would be good in the end and I would then sleep better tonight. It’s not nerves exactly, it’s more excitement and anticipation and lots of stuff going round in my head. I’m not an anxious flyer and the plane journey doesn’t bother me, but I am a worrier and I want it all to be perfect and run like clockwork so I won’t really settle until we are sitting on the seats on the plane.

Yesterday we did all the packing. When I say we I mean I told everyone else to put everything they wanted to take on their beds and then I would do the packing as I am complete and utter control freak and I HAVE to do it all myself.

The kids did pretty well. Kate had already made a clothing itinerary (I don’t know where she got this idea from ). She had already decided what outfits she was wearing each day and matched this up with our parks itinerary so that she would be wearing the right dresses on the right day. It’s no good if you’re not wearing your Anna and Elsa t-shirt when you’re meeting them .

Max was very speedy at sorting his clothes out as he just had to empty this drawers. This is every pair of pants, socks and shorts that he owns plus nearly all his t shirts.

Dave on the other hand was more tricky. He will always over pack given the opportunity and would like to be able to bring the whole wardrobe if possible so that he is prepared for any eventuality. Prior to the trip he had not been sure he had the enough trainer socks and so had got every pair out and counted them up, we discovered he had 35 pairs, no I don't think you need to buy anymore darling!

This kept me and the kids laughing for a pretty long time. Apparently some of them are not good as they keep sliding off his heel…why not just throw them away then? And some of them are invisible socks that can be worn with boat shoes. Anyway, spoiler alert, would you believe that he managed to run out of the right type of socks while we were away as he didn’t take the right combination for his footwear.

This is my selection of clothes.

Eventually everything was packed into the packing cubes. I am a total convert to these and have watched way too many packing you tube videos than I should have.

During the packing I managed 17,000 steps and 35 flights of stairs which I thought was pretty good training for WDW.

Back to pre-travel day…Dave got up around 6am and the kids were up by 7.30am. Me and Kate had a cuddle in bed together before she got up. She told me that if I wake up early again I should wake her up so that I’m not lonely which is very sweet. We all lazed around on tablets, PS4, tv for a little while.

Kate watched the live action Alice in Wonderland, while I decided I should sweep the kitchen floor, hallway floor and utility room floor (as you do). Just trying to keep busy really as the waiting around is painful.

There wasn’t much left to do in the morning of pre-travel day as the packing had been completed the day before. You know the sorts of stuff, empty the fridge, take the bins out, run around checking the carry on bags, double and triple checking I’ve got the passports, checking we have pulled all the plugs out of the sockets, checking again for passports, putting the cases in the boot of the car, realising the case inside the case is not going to fit in the boot on the return trip as we've only just squeezed this lot in and knowing but not caring that it will have to be stuffed in the back with the kids and then checking again we’ve still got the passports and they haven’t disappeared from inside my handbag. Phew, it's a relief to be on the road and driving to the airport hotel.

We left home around 3.15pm to drive to the Premier Inn at the north terminal at Gatwick. Even though our flights were from the south terminal I thought it would be nice to be able to leave the car and then not have to drive to a car park in the morning. Unfortunately while on the motorway I realised that I had forgotten my kindle which is a real pain .

We arrived at 5.15pm. I'd forgotten all the instructions about which car park and which floor of which car park to take the car to. So, I jumped out leaving the other three in the car and raced up to the check in area. The lady there was really helpful and explained that we would have to drive back around the block and then had to repeat at least 3 times the car park number and the floor! I was a bit excited!

Back in the car we made the trip around the block, found the right car park and drove up to the valet parking area. We emptied everything out of the car and I told the attendant the date and time we would be returning. Because the trip was extended to 16 days and the booking for Premier Inn is for 15 days I knew we'd have to pay extra for the last day of parking. I wanted to pay this at the start of the holiday but I was told we should do it when we collect the keys on our return. Anyway, I confirmed the date and time of our return flight and then that was it we were off to the hotel.

I have to say the whole experience of the valet parking was really great. We usually use one of the Premier Inns nearby and then drive to the long stay car park and get on the bus to the airport, but this was much nicer.

We made it to the hotel and up to the room. The kids then proceeded to have a fight about who gets the better bed. Kate was clinging on to having the bed under the window as this was bigger and nicer.

Dave said Max should have the bigger one as he is now quite tall and he would end up with his feet hanging off the bed, but she didn’t like this idea as apparently he had the better bed last time. So, Dave then tried the tactic that being in the little bed meant she would be nearer to us, but this wasn’t persuading her either and she still wasn’t keen, she gave in eventually.

Standard PI bathroom.

And now with Kate.

We went down and booked a table for dinner at 6.30pm and then caught the shuttle train to the south terminal as I wanted to see how long the journey would take. This was really speedy, we waited for 5 minutes and then the journey was only a couple of minutes. We had a quick look around the terminal, found the Aer Lingus check in desk. This was tiny in comparison to the huge long lines of desks for other airlines. I asked if they do twilight check in which they don’t. We headed back to the hotel.

I had decided to try out the voice recorder on my phone to do trip report memos for myself. This is the first time I have used this on my phone and for previous trips I’ve had a tiny little notebook for my hand bag for jotting down things while out and then also an A5 notebook for journals in the hotel room. Yes, I do love planners, but the beauty of a WDW holiday is that we don’t have to carry large bags as we rely on the magic bands for everything so I wanted to try out a tiny park bag that basically was just big enough for my phone, Kate’s autograph book (we had tested at home with her old ones), sunglasses and a copy of both mine and Dave’s passport plus our driving licence as ID. BIG SPOILER ALERT we were never asked for ID once during the trip and boy oh boy did we drink some cocktails so we certainly had plenty of opportunity to be carded.

Now, technically this isn't my handbag as Kate got it for her birthday but she very kindly let me carry her autograph book around for her.

Anyway, the reason I am telling you about the recordings is because I'm just listening to the 4th one that I made on the pre travel day telling me about our trip over to the south terminal. It’s only 48 seconds long (they were all fairly short). Personally, I liked this method of trip reporting as it was much speedier than making notes, but Dave hated it, there was much eye rolling on his part. In this recording he thought I was talking to him and so came out of the bathroom and asked what I’d been saying and then realised I hadn’t been talking to him and was talking to my phone. Me and the kids found this hilarious and it's so funny to listen to us all laughing in the hotel room.

If he didn't like me making recordings in private then I'm sure you can imagine how much he didn’t like me doing it in public even though I said that it just looked like I was talking on the phone and even if it didn’t no one would care what I was doing. He never got used to it and he hated the recordings throughout the trip.

When I was sorting out the wash bags for the bathroom I got a bit excited as I thought I’d found my kindle, but it was Kate’s, we both have the same kindle pouch, except mine is purple and hers is pink. She offered for me to read her kindle if I woke up in the middle of the night, but actually I didn't sleep that badly at all.

Before dinner I had a can of gin and tonic in the room and DH had a glass of red wine.

We had the meal deal so for both adults it was 2 courses a drink and then free breakfast.

The kids both ordered large cokes. A whole pint of coke each and they did manage to drink it all...no wonder they were hyper at bedtime!

DH ordered a glass of red and I had a glass of white.

I also asked for a jug of water, which didn't appear, eventually when the waiter came back I reminded him and he brought it and offered a free glass of wine that I refused! I know this is incredibly unlike me but I wanted what little sleep I was going to get to be quality sleep. Dave was somewhat perturbed at my refusal of a drink and luckily for him the waiter brought him a top up for his wine.

I gave the kids the choice of ordering from the main adult menu and then no pudding or ordering from the kids menu and then having pudding.

Max decided on a kids meal so he could get pudding. Kate wanted a curry. Our waiter explained it would be a very long wait for the food about an hour. It was a long wait.

Dave asked what we were most looking forward to for the holiday. Kate said she was mostly looking forward to the food, I said Flight of Passage (we've never riden this as it wasn't open back in 2016), Max wasn’t talking to us at this point so we don’t know what he thought (I can’t remember what this little strop was about, perhaps me making him choose between an adult meal and no pudding or a kids meal plus a pudding). Dave agreed with Kate and said he was mostly excited about the food.

Eventually the food arrived. Max decided to go for the kids burger and chips with no beans, but the beans did get included so Kate ate them as a kind of starter.

DH had battered fish and chips with mushy peas. He was asked if he wanted white or brown bread. He asked for Brown I thought this would be nice crusty bread but no just plain sliced. He made a chip butty out of it though.

Kate had curry with rice, naan bread and poppadoms. She enjoyed this.

I had lamb shank and green beans in a tomato sauce. It was only ok. The lamb was nice enough and cooked well as it fell off the bone but still wasn't great.

Dave then surprised us all by asking what our first day plans were! What on earth was he thinking? He doesn’t normally want to know what we’re doing for the day until the morning when we’re walking to the bus stop, perhaps the night before he will consider finding out about the next day during dinner. This kind of advance planning was unheard of! 48 hours in advance he wanted to know the plans! He did say afterwards that he would probably forget it all anyway so not to worry he wouldn't know what was going on by the time day 1 dawned.

Then came puddings. I offered Max to have my pudding if he ordered me ice cream with raspberry sauce from the kids menu. He happily accepted this offer and went for the chocolate brownie sundae.

I'd been doing really well of remembering to take photos but these are my first fails! I only remembered part way through dessert that I hadn't got the photos. So Max had already eaten the chocolate off the top of the sundae.

Here is the remains of my 2 scoops.

DH ordered the triple dessert. A strawberry cheesecake, which he split in half so Kate could have a taste, Apple crumble and chocolate brownie.

This is Kate's portion...

This is what he kept for himself...

We asked for the bill and it came out wrong as we had been charged for the puddings! The waiter sorted it out fairly quickly for us though.

Then we went up to the room, I grabbed some ice from Costa for my remaining G&Ts.

They went down rather well!

We enjoyed a couple of games of cards, Max cheered right up as he beat us all! Kate was second. I was rubbish and came last. We turned in to bed around 10.30pm and told the kids off for being excited and talking as by this point I was really tired. It didn’t take us long to drop off though (well it didn’t take me long!). I actually managed to sleep a fairly solid 6 hours.

Steps: 11,735

[Dizzny Momma]

Sorry that after all that preparations you managed to forget your Kindle but at least you didn't disappoint anyone else enjoying reading so far Margaret

[Cinderella]

Great start 👍

[Rescuer]

Great start.

I love that Kate has a clothing plan so do I and ds is partial to a t-shirt that matches his park or ride of choice for the day. Dh rolls his eyes and just grabs stuff for me to pack.
I love those packing cubes. I wonder if I should get some.
I like the idea of you using voice recordings for notes, I can only imagine how my Dh would react to that...although he has been paying some attention to our Christmas plans already 😮

I was laughing at your comment about Max and his strop, joe is just the same. Boys exasperating isn’t it!

[Floridaagogo]

I remember your chair in the bathroom 😁

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Dizzny Momma

Sorry that after all that preparations you managed to forget your Kindle but at least you didn't disappoint anyone else enjoying reading so far Margaret

See more...

On a Disney holiday there isn't too much opportunity to read really, so the kindle wasn't missed too much. I would have liked it on the plane though.

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Great start 👍

See more...

Thanks, I hope you enjoy the rest too.

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Great start.

I love that Kate has a clothing plan so do I and ds is partial to a t-shirt that matches his park or ride of choice for the day. Dh rolls his eyes and just grabs stuff for me to pack.
I love those packing cubes. I wonder if I should get some.
I like the idea of you using voice recordings for notes, I can only imagine how my Dh would react to that...although he has been paying some attention to our Christmas plans already 😮

I was laughing at your comment about Max and his strop, joe is just the same. Boys exasperating isn’t it!

See more...

Kate wrote out her clothing plan around Easter, in those days between booking ADRs and making FP selections where there isn't much to do. I tend to make a plan but I'm more fluid with mine and don't always stick to it. But she wore every item on the allotted day!

You should get packing cubes! I couldn't do without them now. I got them before our NYC and Orlando trip last summer and they were really useful as we had all our NYC stuff together and only had to open 1 of the cases. Dave did find that very difficult during the packing as he didn't know what he would want to wear each day! Anyway, even when we don't have a split stay I use them as it means I can keep everyone's clothes together in the cases, it makes the unpacking easy too as I can just pass them their packing cubes.

Max soon cheered up when he started beating us at cards! He can definitely sulk. We still refer to the day back in 2016 when we went to Tusker House breakfast as Max's epic strop day. Even Donald Duck couldn't pull him out of it. I'll try to remember to post a photo of that day when we get round to Tusker this trip.

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

I remember your chair in the bathroom 😁

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I think that because I had been sleeping so poorly in the run up to pre travel day, I'd been averaging 4 hours, I was so shattered that I didn't need the chair in the bathroom.

[Rescuer]

Adding packing cubes to my list now. Did you get yours from Amazon?

[mick]

Great pre trippie shame about the kindle
Also such a long wait for your meals we usually stay at PI and never had to wait that long

Joan

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Adding packing cubes to my list now. Did you get yours from Amazon?

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Yes, Amazon. The ones I bought aren't available now, but there are loads to choose from. I got a pack of 5 with different sizes. Then because I thought there would not be enough I bought 2 more packs in different colours, which, it turns out is way too many. But I do like that girls clothes are in the purple cubes and boys in the turquoise.

Originally Posted by mick

Great pre trippie shame about the kindle
Also such a long wait for your meals we usually stay at PI and never had to wait that long

Joan

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I don't think we've ever had to wait so long in a PI before either, usually they are super speedy and turn tables almost as quickly as 'Ohana!

[Palm trees]

Great pre -travel day, admirable planning, you sound just like me. My husband feigns exasperation at my planning to the nth degree but never seems to mind a whole holiday without him having to think ahead, or much at all really!