Highs and Lows of Our Recent Trip

[clanmacbeath]

So a little overview of our recent trip to Orlando;

Covid tests carried out by dochq. Very easy to do and thankfully all negative!

Stayed at the clayton hotel Manchester Airport the night before we flew. No issues there. Room was clean and comfortable. Had a pizza in the lounge bar which was nice. Transfers to the airport run every few mins.

Manchester Airport Tui check in was long and not well managed. Not enough check in desks open. Lots of people hadnt got the correct docs ready either. Security line was long but moved well. Hardly anywhere to grab any food. Really annoyed that our lounge was cancelled but we got a glass of wine and a burrito.

Tui flight was delayed by 2 hours. But isnt every flight right now! Food on the plane was dreadful. Lol Staff were good though.

Arrived at Melbourne and our cases were last off and we were last through security. Typical.

Car hire through Andy at dfch with Budget. No hard sell and got a honda suv with 14000 on the clock. This was an intermediate suv. Highly recommend Andy!

Drive to the villa in the dark was long and boring after an already long day.

Stayed at a dibb villa, thank you Donna, it was great. We have stayed there before so it was like going home.

Went to the parks every day! We did Disney, universal, seaworld and Busch gardens. We all decided that we probably wont rush back to seaworld or busch gardens. The rides are good, but the animals are kept in very small areas and they all looked so sad. Both parks seem to have invested in new decor etc.

We didnt purchase genie + and managed to do every ride we wanted to. Ride times in disney were normally about 10 minutes shorter than advertised. Apart from remys and fop which were 10 minutes longer. So not too bad. The crowds were a bit higher than we are used to and the first week there I was feeling like I didnt want to return. However we did get used to it and by the time we flew home we were talking about returning! 🤣

Best rides were rotr, hagrids, velocicoaster and mickey and minnies train. Fireworks at magic kingdom lacked something for me this time, dont get me wrong they are amazing I just prefered the previous ones. Harmonious at Epcot was breath taking and made me cry.

We used mobile order at Disney and have to say we are converted. Loved it.

Ate out at Dennys, longhorn, chillis, millers, olive garden and, rock and brews. All were great, there is a distinct shortage of staff so patient pants need to be worn.

Overall we had a great time. We just took a while to get into the swing of it. It is getting very expensive so it may be a couple of years before we return, but return we will!

Any questions please feel free to ask.

[4holibobs]

Sounds like you had a wonderful time! Thanks for the round up!

[JudeB]

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Was the traffic bad getting to SeaWorld etc (assuming you used the I4)?

[Feebee2]

Thanks for that. Patient pants! Lol, will use that

[simon]

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this .🤓

[Tinkerbell 1]

I’m here now and sadly this is now what I’m experiencing with wait times. Both yesterday at AK and today HS the we have waited up to 50% longer than advertised for every ride. Right now I’m ready to hand back my DVC 😢

[clanmacbeath]

Originally Posted by JudeB

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Was the traffic bad getting to SeaWorld etc (assuming you used the I4)?

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The I4 was very busy and we saw a number of accidents whilst on it. Thankfully we only needed to use it going to seaworld, universal and busch gardens. DH aviods it when he can!

[Disney Planning]

Thanks for the round up. Staff shortages seem to be affecting a lot of things.

[clanmacbeath]

Originally Posted by Disney Planning

Thanks for the round up. Staff shortages seem to be affecting a lot of things.

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It was very noticable whilst we were there. Service was very slow in most restaurants, so I would get there before you start to feel hungry. I think its just the times we are living in and tbh we were on holiday so there was no rush, although DH does get a wee bit hangry especially when waiting for steak! 🤣

[Princess Ariel]

We also noticed the staff shortages at universal, everywhere, in the parks, hotels and restaurants, however there did seem to be loads of staff training happening so hopefully they are beginning to rectruit again. I agree we just have to be patient at the moment.