14 Night Yacht Club Adventure With Baby Rex Aug/Sep 2017 Pre and Travel Day

[Eggnboby]

I have been meaning to get this report up for ages but between working shifts and an active toddler it has become quite difficult. I'm glad I discovered the app as this makes it easier.

I will try and do them as fast as I can and want them all on by the time we go on our next one (3 weeks!).

So we are a "party of 4" as Cast Members would say. Myself Mike, my lovely wife San, our 8 year old son Ethan and our 7 month old baby Rex. We go every year pretty much. We had our honeymoom here in 2003 and I've been going since 1988.

Our previous trip was August 2016 when San was pregnant. It was a simple, relaxed affair. We did 2 weeks in a lovely villa (reviewed it on this site somewhere) bought Universal and Sea World 14 day tickets and to get our Disney fix made sure we got MNSSHP tickets. It was hard not going to Epcot, HS and AK during a trip. Visiting Disney Springs and doing the Halloween party certainly helped cope and ease the pain of missing Disney. Well, that and the fact we had already booked the 2017 trip which was to be a Disney-tastic 14 night on property vacation.

We opted to leave Universal etc in 2017. We basically find doing Universal every other year works for us. We wanted the dining plan and knowing there would be a new member of the family, location would be very important.

So, we chose Yacht Club, getting a good deal on the official site with the dining plan for 14 nights and $200 gift card when the free dining was announced in the April...

We normally stay in French Quarter when on property so this was a nice step up. Looked at the location having the baby and we love the Boardwalk area anyway. Food and Wine festival was a big draw also, being able to have a drink and walk back to the room.

The zero entry best pool on property was also appealing!

We chose to hire a car also. Getting the Magical Express was considered but we like to go to Walmart/Target quite a bit, especially on the way to the resort.

Another reason was getting around Disney for ADRs etc. Don't know about you guys but I've found the buses have become very unreliable and the time it was taking us to get from one place to another, especially water parks and Disney Springs, was a nightmare. With baby Rex in tow also, the car just gives us greater flexibility. I booked a Standard SUV and ended up with a 7 seater Chevy Traverse. Lovely!...

So, pre-travel day 24th August. Live in Liverpool so always travel from Manchester. Booked flights with Virgin and secured the infamous Dibber's Row seats going out (missed them coming back but still in the Bubble at least!). Had a room in Premier Inn Runger Lane. Again we do this every year so we dont have to worry about the M62 in the morning!

Left home about 15:00 and were having dinner in the hotel so needed a little something on the way.

Out of the blue we decided to stop at Ikea in Warrington. Its about half way to Manchester and ticked all the boxes. It has cheap food, unlimited coffee and theres a play area for the kids to use up some energy!...

We were in the room about 17:00 for a chill. TV was on, looking at menus for dinner and excitement beginning to build for the big trip! Baby Rex seemed happy too. Had 2 double beds plus an extra single in the room. Great rooms for the price. Only concern with Premier Inn for us is the noise level but more on that later...

At this age Rex was able to sit up, roll over onto his tummy, stand with help but not walk or crawl yet (he did his first crawl near the end of the holiday!).

One thing we like about driving and parking at the airport is that we can re-arrange things in the cases and hand luggage last minute, have separate outfits for Premier Inn and we can just leave things in the car we dont need. I also love getting in my own car after the plane lands for some reason and not having to speak to taxi drivers after that flight when I'm knackered! Its only a 40 min drive home also so not too bad.

Rex all clean after his bath and dressed, we went down for dinner...

We had the meal deal with the room. Can't remember what we all got now as I didn't take pics but they were mainly ok. This in the picture however was a little poor. San had little in the way of Veggie/Vegan choices. They basically threw tons of leaves on her dish to fill it out ha ha! Looked like something they give the animals at the zoo. Anyway, Rex was great in the high chair and ate something so we were pleased...

Think we were in bed by 10. We got the later Virgin 13:45 flight so there would be no mad rush in the morning and I wouldn't be so tired on arrival. I'm always shattered arriving at the hotel. I thought it was because we were up so early on travel day so was keen to try the later flight.

Regretted this decision in the end as you'll discover on Travel Day.

Was looking forward to breakfast in the hotel, not getting up early and a relaxed airport experience (if one exists!).

The good night's sleep didn't go according to plan however and for once it wasn't Rex's fault we were kept awake! 😀. Travel day didn't start well. It got much better with the airport experience and the flight but then became a bit of a disaster and our worst arrival experience in years

To be continued...

Travel Day Fri 25th August

So my plan to take the later Virgin flight so we could enjoy a good night sleep and relaxed morning didnt get off to a great start. Rex slept ok for a change. At this point he was having a combination of breast and bottle. We figured keeping him breastfed would help on the flight (and it really did). He was still waking up for feed a couple of times a night but it wasn't for long and was manageable.

He slept great though at the Premier Inn! Me? Terrible. I first woke up around 4am and was wide awake. We have been woken up by motorway traffic in previous stays but not tonight. It was people obviously getting up for their "stupid o'clock" Ryanair flights that did it.

I could hear doors opening and closing all over the show. San is a light sleeper (I'm not normally) and also woke. Sure there was a bit of excitement but it was mainly noise, and heat. The room was quite warm. So a combination of being too hot, thinking too much about sleep and noisy Ryanair passengers on their 4am flights (to some dodgy out of town airports no doubt). Then I could hear the M62 traffic and that was it.

In the end we were just lying awake for the next 2 hours talking and laughing. We did eventually fall asleep but the damage was done for me. Travel day would now be knackered day. So, tip for this hotel is definitely EAR PLUGS! Probably go back to Radisson next time. More expensive but better soundproofing!..

We had a nice breakfast and dumped the car with VIP meet and greet at the departure drop off. It was a good service and would definitely use them again if there was no space in the T2 Multi Storey...

Checked in around 09:30. No upgrades offered although we were more than happy with Dibber's Row. Security was ok, going through the fast track although juggling the baby while all putting shoes and belts back on wasn't easy!

Wasn't too bothered about the lounge this time. I get 6 annual visits through the Priority Pass card but booking/paying customers take priority so if its full you get turned away. We were keen to use the play area and do a bit of shopping so did that for a bit.

It was Rex's nap time though so tried for the Aspire lounge and they allowed us in. Rex had a snooze and we had some snacks and wine!

Boarding went smoothly. Settled in our lovely bubble seats and took off all very excited!

The flight I have to say was amazing. More often than not we have gone Premium but have done Dibber's row before and always enjoyed it. Was worried about Rex but he was an angel. He sat and played on the shelf for hours. We had so much space for economy seats. The food was standard for Virgin flights. We brought plenty of snacks for Ethan as he hates the food amd even brought a Pot Noodle which the attendants kindly filled up for him. At the back upstairs you dont disturb anybody coming and going to storage cupboards either. The toilets are much cleaner too. Also, when I did pop downstairs for a walk I became aware of more noise, litter and smell but then again you do come down the stairs near some toilets.

Ethan always feels sick when he smells the food being heated up so we had to bring Easy Breather wipes from Home and Bargain so he can cope. Worked a treat. He needs travel sickness tablets too, poor thing! One year on Virgin again I took him to the bathroom and he threw up all over my socks 🤢. That was fun with all that space in the toilet!

Rex was as good as gold on this flight. He completely exceeded all my expectations and I had no reason to worry. The people around us who have us that (Oh no there's a ghastly baby near me for 9 hours!) look when boarding must have felt pretty stupid by the end!

Everything was going great until we landed. We earlier got a message saying the immigration hall was reduced to something like 50% of its capacity so were expecting a delay. This message though said that a Glasgow flight landed minutes before us and was now first to get off.

1 hour 15 later we were still on the plane with dodgy air con trying to keep us all cool. Now I regretted being upstairs! Rex was amazing again whereas adults around us were struggling.

When we got through there was another 2 hours wait in immigration. Rex was in the forward facing sling and enjoyed passing the same faces in the windy queue for 120 mins. Nightmare.

Got through to baggage claim and it got worse.
3 of the 4 cases, the car seat and buggy came out quick. 40 mins later we were the last family around the lonely conveyer belt. Ethan's Marvel themed case had gone missing. All that appeared at the end was a case with the same design but a much smaller size. It was pretty obvious then that someone thought their case had expanded massively in mid air, that their names had changed over the Atlantic and now had taken our case.

The US Virgin staff were great, took our details and started enquiries with the other family. We were told to leave and they would be in touch. Ethan was gutted.

We kept getting a strong fragrant smell following us around that we recognised but couldn't put our fingers on all the way to the car... It was a Lush smell and we thought it a coincidence another passenger smelled strongly of one of our favourite shower gels "Dirty".

Picked the car up and were now driving in the dark (should have been light) to Disney. I was gutted as we were going to walk to Epcot to get some Food and Wine snacks and enjoy the last few hours.

Epcot shut ages ago 😭

Arrived at the beautiful Yacht Club at around 3am UK time. We could have paid for cheap indirect flights and got here quicker!

We were shattered and starving. The Ale and Compass was getting renovated so quick service options were now limited (think they only had sandwiches) in the temporary food store. In the end we ordered a pizza to the room and paid out of pocket.

Got a lovely room though with a water view when we paid for a garden view. Had to call reception for a crib which came quite quickly and shoved that between the two beds. Too tired to unpack or do anything productive so packed tomorrow's park bag (MK in the morning) and crashed in bed.

Lady luck had just one more nice surpise for us to top Travel Day off. That nice Lush smell earlier? Burst shower gel in one of our remaining cases and one we never put in a plastic sealed bag. Thank you very much! However, because we organised Rex's clothes into each day in large sealed and labelled sandwich bags, they were protected and we got away with it. 😎

So, no sleep in Premier Inn, held back on plane on landing, immigration queue massive, first night plans ruined not sure if we would see Ethan's case ever again, leaked shower gel in case...

What a day. I'm exhausted even thinking about it now. Thankfully the worst of the holiday was over 😊

Tomorrow was to be early MK, Walmart/Target, Be Our Guest Dinner. To be continued...

[Floridaagogo]

Great start... post more...I want to know what happened !

[Cinderella]

Oh no! Looking forward to the next!

[app]

New Photo Added by Eggnboby - 26 Aug 18 12:16 AM.

[Eggnboby]

Just realized I have merged 2 days in the same post by mistake! I'll get a grip of this at some point!

[Dan_S]

I'm with Ethan, the smell of plane food being heated up makes me feel sick

[sophiepop]

Originally Posted by Dan_S

I'm with Ethan, the smell of plane food being heated up makes me feel sick

See more...

It makes my Daughter so sick too! I am interested to see what these Easy Breather wipes are

[sophiepop]

Could you post a picture of these Easy Breathers for me please?

[sweetchunks]

I’m interested in the wipes too. My son normal sits with his jacket zipped up covering his nose whilst the food is around!

[sophiepop]

Originally Posted by sweetchunks

I’m interested in the wipes too. My son normal sits with his jacket zipped up covering his nose whilst the food is around!

See more...

I'm going to Home Bargains today to see if I can find them