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Old 22 Oct 17, 12:06 AM  
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nanasamboy
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Luceboy and Samboy - The halloweenies - Days 1+2 - pre-travel day, travel day and Disney Springs

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As seems to be normal for every holiday now, I woke up at stupid o’clock, with my heart racing. At 5.17 am, to be precise. I tried really hard not to get overexcited and dozed until my alarm went off at 6.

I got up and got ready, woke Alice up and we left the house at 7.15, arriving in work at 8.15. I told Alice to give me a big cuddle and when I said “see you in two weeks!” the nursery manager remembered I was going away and started getting all excited. Then as I tried to leave, she told Alice to say “love you mummy, have a nice time!” and then I got a bit teary. Damn it Claire, I was fine! She gets all watery eyed at stuff like this and always makes me want to cry too!

Work was relatively uneventful but I had a team meeting and I had to deliver training, so didn't have chance to have a quiet morning making sure my tasks were completed or handed over. I'd planned to leave around 1, but with all the jobs I had to do I ended up leaving just before 2. Byeeeee work!

I headed up to Luce’s, which took just over an hour and a half. I had a lovely drive, blasting the Hamilton original cast recording and having a little sing (I have a ticket to see it when it opens in London later in the year and I am SO EXCITED! I'm probably going to cry with excitement the whole time!). When I arrived, I grabbed some of my bags and went in. I'd brought some little gifts - some dog chews for Luce’s pug Chucky, a box of nice biscuits for Luce’s mum and dad and a pretty Minnie bow necklace that my sister made for Luce. Then Luce’s mum was an absolute gem and fixed a seam on one of my playsuits for me, where my chubby little tummy had split the seam the first time I wore it. She's a good egg


First selfie of the trip!

After cuddles and goodbyes, we left at about 4.30 and headed for Crawley with an ETA of 7pm. We were lucky with the traffic as it was pretty quiet and we had a natter, ate some of the ridiculous amount of car snacks I brought and sang along to cheesy songs on the radio. It got dark really quickly and when we arrived at our hotel at 7.20ish it was pretty dark. I'd booked the Russ Hill Hotel in Crawley on Holiday Extras when I booked my flight and it was £100 including parking for the two weeks. When we arrived, we couldn't really see what to do with regards to parking. We debated parking somewhere and going in to check, but decided to just find a space and hope for the best. The carpark was rammed and not really a carpark at all. It was just a large gravel space with big potholes and hilly sections, with cars crammed into every possible bit of free space. We drove around for a few minutes before spotting somewhere to park. We unloaded and then had the fun of trying to drag wheeled cases across gravel. Not that easy, it turns out!

It was too dark to see what the hotel looked like from the outside, but it wasn't anything special inside. Lots of wood panelling and old English signs - it looked like it was probably pretty fancy a few decades ago but was now a bit shabby. We checked in, booked a taxi for 9 am and headed to our room, which was on the ground floor. I can never seem to open hotel room doors properly (just me?) and after fumbling with the door and blocking the corridor with all our cases, we opened the door to a smell that can only be described as “vaguely swedey”. The room was nice enough, with twin beds and a little bathroom, but as we were so close to the carvery it definitely had that swedey/cabbagey smell that you get in a school/work canteen on roast dinner day. We dumped our bags and I had to head back out to the car to display a parking ticket on the dashboard. When I got back we debated going back out for food, but as it was such a pain finding a parking space and neither of us could really be bothered, we decided to stay and eat our copious amount of snacks and venture to the hotel bar if we got hungry.


Who left the seat up?!


Bert and Ernie beds

Ok, there's the kettle. Where's the cups?!

The fanciest art I ever did see

Oh ok, so there's the cups. Because of course there's a tea drawer!

Loungin'

We put the tv on, despite not really paying any attention to it, and had a catch-up. Just before 10pm the fire alarm went off and just as we stood up to head out, it stopped. We figured this meant we didn't have to evacuate, but I stuck my head outside the door just in case, to see what everyone else was up to. We never bothered to go for food and about 11pm we decided we should probably try and get some sleep, even though both of us were really too excited to sleep. But we ended up doing that thing that kids at slumber parties do, where you turn the lights off, say goodnight and end up chattering away for another half hour.


Have extension lead, will travel

I woke up for the first time at 3.15. Yuck. I fell back asleep and then woke up again at 4.27. Double yuck. I laid there trying to get back to sleep, but at 4.57 I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to get back to sleep and popped my glasses on and wrote up some notes. Luce woke up briefly at about 5.15, said she was too excited to sleep and then fell back asleep haha. About half 5 I tried to sleep again and then tossed and turned until 6.50 when I gave up again. It wasn't too noisy where we were but you could hear the planes pretty loudly when they went over and wheely cases are the devil. I wrote up some more notes, lamented the fact our room was out of the wifi range and hoped I'd be able to get some sleep on the plane. Although on my last two Disney trips, I've ended up awake for about 24 hours with no sleep. I can do this! *tough guy muscly pose*

Luce woke up just before 8am and I jumped in the shower before nipping out to the car to leave my overnight bag in the boot. We mooched around and did some last minute rejigging of stuff in cases and headed to reception to wait for our taxi (prebooked for a fixed price of £9). We didn't wait long before our taxi arrived and we were off. It only took about 10 minutes to get to the north terminal and after a really short check in line (I'm always too scared to check in online!), we headed through security. As always, I set the alarm off so had to go to one side, send my shoes through the scanner and go into the full body scanner. I always get a bit miffed that your luggage gets left unattended while they do this. Ok great, make sure I'm not dangerous but don't leave my stuff lying around where someone could pinch it

Security over and done with, we headed for a wander around the terminal. We had a look at the Urban Decay stand and headed to Boots to get some last minute bits. I always forget something and this time it was my toothbrush. Yay me. We had a while until boarding so had a look at the Skinny Dip stall and Cath Kidston, where I was very tempted by a ridiculous bag with a ridiculous guinea pig print. But they didn't have the print on the style I wanted. So after looking for ages, I walked out empty handed. I'm so annoying to shop with!

We then wandered up to the Virgin V Room for some breakfast as we were so hungry. It was pretty busy, but we found a little table for two to squeeze onto. I scurried off for the loo and a much welcomed brushing of my teeth (smearing toothpaste round your mouth and then chewing some gum really doesn't cut it!) and then Luce went up to get some food. She returned with a really yummy looking bacon eggs benedict and I headed up to see what was on offer. I'd emailed ahead to mention I was vegan (as recommended on the website) and they said they'd be able to accommodate me. When I went up, the only hot food on offer was beans, mushrooms and toast. No hash browns! :O but beans on toast is always nice




Beeeeeeeans!

All fancypants, with two beverages!

I also had a soya latte and a Pepsi max, followed by a little bowl of fruit. I started to feel a bit grim by this point - so far I'd eaten all the things that make my tummy rubbish. Fun times. Time passed really quickly in the lounge and before long our boarding was called. We were flying on Ladybird - cute!



Oooh sparkly!


The gate was hectic as usual, so we sat down and waited for most people to board before joining the end of the queue. We picked the fastest moving of the two queues and were on the plane and up in the bubble (a first for me!) in no time. We got a freebie Orlando coke bottle too. Woo! For some reason, my little handluggage case that I always take with me, wouldn't fit in the overhead bin :/ So someone in the seats opposite us pointed out a cupboard that we managed to squeeze our cases in. It was super warm in our seats and poor Luce had the sun on her arm. We didn't start on down the runway until 1.15, fifteen minutes later than scheduled. My seat mate fell asleep before we even started taxi-sing and stayed asleep for the entire takeoff. I hoped he wasn't going to sleep for the whole flight as I didn't fancy waking him up to go to the loo.




The takeoff was pretty smooth (thankfully!) and soon I was checking out the inflight entertainment. I'd already looked ahead online to see what I wanted to watch, but when I looked I spotted a film called The Belko Experiment. It sounded really good so I watched the trailer and decided to watch that first. What better film to watch than a tense horror/thriller, when you're already not feeling 100%. Luce was more sensible and picked the new Pirates of the Caribbean film.


Mandatory cloud photo


As the food came around, I got mine first. Always a nice perk but as the steward handed my tray over; she knocked over my next door neighbours tomato juice. Most went over the little table, but some splashed over my leggings and chair. Grahhhh, tomatoey. The steward brought some wipes, so I hoped I wouldn't smell like a tomato. My food was really good, I had a roast aubergine with chickpea and harissa dish, a beany salad, apple crisps and a tasty raspberry jelly. Luce had sausage and mash, coleslaw salad, crackers and Boursin and a lemon Gu pudding.




After our trays were cleared, I took the opportunity to nip to the loo while my neighbour was awake. The film finished a few minutes later. It was good, a tense hour and a half but a good film. I wouldn't recommend it if you get stressed easily or are squeamish though! After that, I picked Spider-Man Homecoming as that seemed like a jollier option After a minute or so of it starting, I decided to attempt a little sleep as I was starting to flag. I was comfy with my Minnie travel pillow, but just couldn't drop off. After about 45 minutes I gave up. I may have dropped in and out of sleep but it didn't last for long. Instead I ate a few squares of bournville for some much needed sugar. At this point it was 4.30 and I'd been awake almost 12 hours. Urgh. Today was going to be a long day!

I played a bit of Magic Kingdoms on my phone and at 4.39 the captain put the seat belts sign on. I bloody well hoped we wouldn't actually hit turbulence. I hate turbulence, it scares the crap out of me Luce chose this point to try and have a little sleep. How she could sleep when it's all scary and the plane is bumpy, is beyond me!

About two minutes later a steward came about with the Fab lollies so I poked Luce because I knew she wouldn't want to miss out on a lolly. She gave up on sleeping and watched the Coming Soon video to see what was available. Apparently nothing was coming soon, as Luce turned the screen off to have a sleep again. A few minutes later, the seatbelt signs went back off and I could calm my tits and go back to enjoying Spider-Man No sooner had I written a note about the seat belts and put my phone down, the seatbelt sign went on again. Wahhhhhhh. 25 minutes later, the signs went off again and we hadn't had any turbulence. Yay.

At 6.20, I paused the last bit of Spider-Man to get up and stretch my legs and go to the loo. Florida mom mode kicked in and I made Luce get up too as she hadn't moved around since we sat down. I told her to go to the loo too and she did her first ever plane wee! How she's done 9 hour flights without peeing, I have no idea! She said she was scared she'd get sucked out of the toilet hahahahahaha! But she was very brave My neighbour also then got up and had a stretch, so I'm obviously a good holiday mom, looking after everyone

I really enjoyed Spider-Man it was super fun and I liked seeing how it fit into the Marvel universe. I checked the Sky Map to see how long we had left (3hrs 37) and decided to try and have a sleep again. I tried to listen to some quiet music but that was too distracting so turned it back off again. I didn't sleep again, but I did have a quiet 40 mins with my eyes closed. Hopefully that will have recharged my batteries enough!




I chose Cars 3 to watch next. I really enjoyed it in the cinema and as we'll be able to meet Cruz while we are there, I wanted to watch it again. I was starting to get really hungry and wished the food would come soon. I had Pringles in my wheely case but I couldn't be bothered to wake up next door and go get them. Bring me fooooood please! I ended up turning Cars off after about 10 minutes as it felt so recently I saw it. So switched to Baywatch instead, which G had refused to come see in the cinema with me haha.

We hit more turbulence with two hours to go and it was the bumpiest bit yet. Luckily I had Zac Efron to take my mind off it! Luce was watching Alien Covenant and is such a badass that she didn't look at all phased by the bumps and drops.

With an hour and a half left to go, our afternoon tea was served. Luce had a cheese and tomato chutney sandwich with crisps and chocolate and I had a roasted veg and houmous wrap, which was lovely, and some pineapple and a paleo bar. I didn't like the bar, but I enjoyed everything else well done Virgin!



I really enjoyed Baywatch. It was a completely stupid and predictable film, but it knew it was stupid and predictable and had fun with it. As we only had about 45 minutes left of our flight, I watched some of the Big Bang Theory. But they were episodes from a series I hadn't seen yet, so have missed a big chunk of the storyline. Oh well, I've caught up quickly now!

Our landing was lovely and smooth (THANK YOU pilot!) and we were told there was a bit of a queue to taxi, as vice-president, Mike Pence, hadrecently landed and terminal A had been closed for arrivals. We touched down at 5.15 and we got to arrivals by 5.45. It took us an hour to get through - they didn't have the automatic kiosks open for visitors this time I'm not sure if it was something to do with extra security, but at least we were off the plane first! I was exhausted and my eyes were all strained and tired. We shuffled along in the queue and I noticed a guy on his phone, despite the numerous signs up saying not to use your phone. I commented to Luce that there's always some jerk who's better than everyone else and I know why he thought he was - he was off of Eastenders. He was probably keeping his face down so he wouldn't be recognised. Not that anybody bar me seemed to notice or bat an eyelid!

Once we got through, our bags were already on the carousel so we grabbed them quickly and headed towards the monorail. Yay! Monorail! We were lucky as it was quiet and a train had just arrived as we got there. We hopped on, made the traditional “first ride of the holiday!” comments and headed to the main terminal.


Sleeping standing up


We needed to remember to make sure we picked up Luce’s Disney gift card from Virgin, so when we saw a Virgin rep in the main foyer (could you call it a foyer? What's that big bit in the middle called?! I'm tired as I write this!) we scurried over and asked where we could collect it. She explained that they'd be stationed at the Alamo desk and radioed ahead to let them know we were on our way. We headed over to the WDW wall to take some photos and then went towards the lifts to pick up the gift card. An incredibly loud and rude woman barged out of the lifts and shouted at everyone. People had left space for her she she shouted really loudly “leave us some *cough* room to get out!” And then huffed and shouted a word that rhymes with duck, really loudly. The guy in front of us shouted “we left you room!” and his partner told him to drop it. Luce said “I bet she voted for trump” about the shouty lady haha.




We headed over to see Dawn at the Alamo desk, as instructed, and had a nice chat to her and another Virgin staff member about HHN and the disruption Pence caused. After that, we carried on down to the end of the room to where the Magical Express check in desk was. For some reason, it took ages for the cast member to check us in and she had to go get help. After about 5 minutes, it was sorted. The wait was worth it though as a different cast member gave us both a princess Minnie sticker. Once it was all sorted, we joined the queue for POFQ and a bus was ready and waiting. Michael was our lovely driver and he was delightful. POFQ was the third stop, after Saratoga Springs and Old Key West. I did feel a tiny pang of sadness as we stopped at OKW (my home!) but I was super excited to see a new resort it was so hot when we got off the bus but the resort was so pretty Michael spotted a tube of Pringles under my arm and said "oh hey, is that some kind of exciting foreign flavour?" I told him they were texas bbq from the UK and asked if he wanted some. He gladly took a small stack, had a munch and agreed that they are the best flavour


Yay! First sticker of the holiday!

Check in was pretty fast and I picked up a bunch of packages I'd had sent to the resort. There's now a $5 charge to collect packages and as I had 4 waiting for me, I baulked a little! Note to self, maybe don't do that next time! The reception area smelled so amazing and I made a point of checking whether Maple and Whiskey make a French Quarter candle!

Our room wasn't far from the front of the resort, which was nice as I am used to OKW and having to walk for ages or get the bus to get to the front desk. A short walk and an elevator ride later, we were in our room. I'd ordered Luce a Halloween present package and it was waiting on the table as we arrived It was nice that it was already in the room, as it's a bit pants when you have to ask for it to be delivered cos they forgot.






[CENTER]Aww, cute flannels!



Yaaaaay! Disney tv!

Snack bucket

I made an ear shelf

One of my packages - buttons from Parkbound

Second package - new shirts from Cakeworthy

Despite being tired, we'd planned to head to Disney Springs when we arrived. So we quickly unpacked some of our things, hung up some clothes, freshened up a bit and headed to the bus stop. We arrived just before 10 and a bus was along a few minutes later. As most things in Disney Springs closed at 11, we'd have to be quick!

When we pulled up, I didn't recognise anything as it was all new! As we got off the bus, there were some young whippersnappers rapping about about chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, and pasta - they were hilarious and so good. We looked in Kate Spade - the stuff was lovely, but sooo expensive. Like, how?! We looked in Sephora (to get it over and done with! ), and I picked up some Kat Von D make up. I was very restrained and only bought a travel size bottle of Saint perfume, a super sparkly orange lipstick and a pretty pink lipstick.



Next, we went to World of Disney as I wanted to get some Pandora charms. My mum gave me my birthday and Christmas money early to get some charms, so I picked a Cinderella castle charm and a purple Mickey glass bead that reminded me a little of the Haunted Mansion wallpaper.



After that, we split up to get food as it was 10.50 and we both wanted different things. Luce went to The Daily Poutine as she really wanted to try the poutine (I didn't get a photo, but she said it was good - just really salty!). I went to BB Wolf's and got an italian dog that came with pickles (and is vegan as is - yay!) It was messy, but sooooo good!



We found a little table to sit at near The Daily Poutine and both finished our food. Well, I finished mine because I'm a piglet. Luce couldn't manage hers as it was HUGE and way too salty.

We got the bus back to our room, had quick showers, got our bags ready for the morning and then jumped into the ridiculously comfy beds. I mean, like crazy comfy. It was like sleeping on a cloud, with marshmallow pillows It was almost 12 when we got into bed - it had been an incredibly long day and we wanted to be up early(ish!) for an exciting morning in Magic Kingdom.

Thanks for reading x

Edited at 12:15 AM.
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Old 22 Oct 17, 10:47 AM  
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Smilesonfaces
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Wow what a super busy first day ! I love the sparkly bag. That will be my daughter Sephora at the first possible opportunity.
Have a great time !
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Old 22 Oct 17, 02:38 PM  
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nanasamboy
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Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces View Post
Wow what a super busy first day ! I love the sparkly bag. That will be my daughter Sephora at the first possible opportunity.
Have a great time !
I was exhausted! Thanks, Primark - good ole Primark!

Sephora is dangerous - glad we don't have them over here haha

Thanks for reading!
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Old 1 Nov 17, 01:46 PM  
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Great report Sam, enjoying reading along so far .

Thanks again for the vegan WDW advice you gave me on here a few weeks ago...just got back from my first vegan holiday (to New York, so pretty easy to stick with veganism).

The BA vegan meals were pretty good, but your Virgin ones sound better . Also I just noticed from your pics that Virgin give you the ingredients on the wrapper which BA don’t; random I know .

You did really well on so little sleep, I had the same thing happen at Heathrow: three hours sleep and then an extra long day with travelling to the US. Why do I always think the airport hotel will mean I get a better night’s sleep when that never actually happens?

Glad to hear the Italian dog at BB Wolf’s is vegan as I enjoyed that on our last trip when I was vegetarian .

Looking forward to more.
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Old 1 Nov 17, 11:13 PM  
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nanasamboy
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Originally Posted by moosha View Post
Great report Sam, enjoying reading along so far .

Thanks again for the vegan WDW advice you gave me on here a few weeks ago...just got back from my first vegan holiday (to New York, so pretty easy to stick with veganism).

The BA vegan meals were pretty good, but your Virgin ones sound better . Also I just noticed from your pics that Virgin give you the ingredients on the wrapper which BA don’t; random I know .

You did really well on so little sleep, I had the same thing happen at Heathrow: three hours sleep and then an extra long day with travelling to the US. Why do I always think the airport hotel will mean I get a better night’s sleep when that never actually happens?

Glad to hear the Italian dog at BB Wolf’s is vegan as I enjoyed that on our last trip when I was vegetarian .

Looking forward to more.
Hey! No problem Happy to answer any questions you may have - send me a message if you want. Talking about Disney food is my favourite!

That's a very good point! This happens to me every time and I should just save my money haha!

Thanks for reading
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Old 2 Nov 17, 11:36 AM  
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A great travel day well done for going out to Disney Springs on your first night

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Old 2 Nov 17, 11:50 AM  
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Originally Posted by nanasamboy View Post
Hey! No problem Happy to answer any questions you may have - send me a message if you want. Talking about Disney food is my favourite!

That's a very good point! This happens to me every time and I should just save my money haha!

Thanks for reading
Thank you Sam, I’m sure I’ll be in touch with food questions when it comes to planning our restaurants in a few months .
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Old 13 Nov 17, 02:27 PM  
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Great travel day Sam. Going to Disney Springs on the day you arrive at 10pm is hardcore! Good work

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Old 14 Nov 17, 09:28 AM  
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nanasamboy
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Originally Posted by Stewboy View Post
Great travel day Sam. Going to Disney Springs on the day you arrive at 10pm is hardcore! Good work

TFS
Thanks I often think I'll just chill at the resort, then excitement takes over and I'm off!

Thanks for reading
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Old 28 Nov 17, 03:01 PM  
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Hi Sam!

I'm finally getting stuck in! A decidedly stess-free travel day - good work! And good on you two for heading over to Disney Springs at 10pm on the first night. Heroes.

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