The Bad Luck Diaries - Flight day!

[Imagineer2802]

[Trip Report Index]

Thursday 21st August - flight day.

3am. That’s the time I woke up. THREE AY EM. Can you believe it? THREE IN THE MORNING! As you may have been able to tell, I woke up slightly earlier than I would have otherwise liked. I know I always wake up early on flight day, but I was predicting it would be between 4 and 4:30, but 3am! I put all my effort into trying to fall asleep again, but alas, it was not to be. It was a mission I could not complete. At about 3:30 I accepted that I probably wasn’t going to fall asleep again so just sort of snoozed in that state you’re in between being asleep and being fully awake. It’s a very disorientating state to be in, especially for someone as uncoordinated as me (you may recall many falling-over incidents in previous trip reports). The others, however, were all still fast asleep – lucky them! At 5am, I decided I just had to get up, and I was going to slip quietly out of bed and slink over to the bathroom to do what manly men do in bathrooms (wash... just thought I’d clarify that before your mind wondered... ) and I was going to be all dressed and ready to welcome everybody into the world at 5:30 with the wake up call, complete with huge dazzling Disney smile. Well, my efforts were wasted. I tried a little too hard to slip out of bed quietly. My foot got caught in the blanket that was still tucked tightly into the mattress, and I fell out. Not only did I fall out, but it was instinctive to grab something to stop me falling. That something was a lamp. I know, I know. Stupid. The lamp, of course, came crashing down, swiping everything off the bedside table with it, and during my “air time” I’d tried to avoid landing on my cabin bag which was next to my bed, whilst trying to make sure everything stayed within the rather baggy boxers I was wearing. I may have been with family, but Jason Jr. is still better off concealed, trust me. In the process of trying to do these two things airborne, I whacked my head on the bed opposite, and automatically yelled “oww!”. In the few seconds it took for all that to happen, everybody else had woken up. I’m not sure how they’d woken up, but I’m convinced it wasn’t me. I was slipping out of bed quietly and unnoticed after all...

I did eventually make it to the bathroom, and washed and dried and did everything else one should do in the morning. I also made sure I drank a whole bottle of water, as I’d woken up with a bit of a scratchy throat, and I didn’t want it getting any worse on the plane. At 5:30am, our in-room phone rang, and although we were expecting it, it still made us all jump out of our skin. As I always do, I picked up the phone, and ‘hello?’d’ politely into the receiver, despite knowing full well it was going to be a machine on the other end. At least the machine must’ve thought I was polite.

We were all downstairs with our cases checking out by 6:30, ready for our 6:45 transfer to the airport. The driver was already there, and he delighted in trying to carry all our suitcases outside at once. As was our assumed duty, we followed him, assuming that once he’d put our cases in the van we would be able to get in the van ourselves. Nope! We had to wait outside until everyone else that was booked onto the shuttle was there too so he could seat us according to who was getting out first. That makes sense I guess, but it was 6:30am and I was dressed for Florida weather in flip flops and shorts, so I wasn’t best pleased. What made it even more annoying was that the driver was really nice and chatty. It’s always harder to be annoyed with someone if they’re really nice. Stupid nice man. Ugh. I was glad to see that this year our Arora International minivan actually had a back windscreen, and, unlike last year, our cases were not being separated from the outside by a piece of cellophane. Always a good sign!

At 7:05am, we were walking towards the Virgin Check-In desk, and started to worry a little, as there were no people milling around as there normally are. In fact, there were a few travellers dotted among the check in agents at the desk, and that was it. I was convinced that it wasn’t open yet, and others in the family started to panic that we’d somehow completely messed up and turned up on the wrong day and there wouldn’t be any Virgin flights at all today, let alone to Orlando. Are you getting a feel for what we’re like yet?! Luckily, the lack of people was just luck – we walked straight up to a check in agent at the desk, checked in, had our luggage weighed and sorted (all underweight!) and were told our flight was currently on time – all by 7:15. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a smooth check in. Not even so much as a mention of the word “seats” or “move” – so far, we still had our bubble seats and an on time flight, so we were happy! The check in lady was also really chatty, and said how excited we must be visiting Orlando (if only she knew the extent of it! )

The family at the check in desk next door weren’t happy though. One of their cases weighed a whopping 29kg – that’s 6kg over the maximum allowance – and they were arguing with the check in lady, and weren’t happy when they were told their case wasn’t going to be accepted. The poor woman was trying her best to run through all their options, but the family didn’t seem to have full comprehension of English, so were getting more and more angry. Some of their other cases were underweight, so they were told they could rearrange some of their cases and take some things out of the heavy case, or they could pay £40 as an overweight baggage fee. The foreign woman said quite nastily “oh, well we’ll just have to pay that then, but these are silly silly rules!”. The check in lady did try to explain to them that they wouldn’t have to pay if they rearranged their cases, and she would accept it at 25kg, which is the maximum Virgin would allow at the staffs discretion. The Virgin lady really couldn’t have been more helpful. I didn’t get to see how it ended as our check in process was so quick, but I did feel sorry for the poor Virgin lady!

Next stop was security, and the lines were short so we didn’t even try and use the express lane that our V-Room voucher entitled us to. They’ve started a whole new system since I was there last year, where each person has their own little area next to the security belt, so there’s 6 – 8 people putting their stuff on the belt at once, and it’s then whisked through whilst the people go through the vertical scanner. It’s a very nifty system and definitely made the security process faster than it used to be. For most people anyway...not me...of course! There I stood at the other side of the security belt, in my bare feet excitedly awaiting the return of my belongings, and I see my bag in it’s tray peeping out of the scanner. It moves towards me a little bit further, and then the whole thing stops. The machine lifted my tray/bag up, moved into another baggage “chute” and then carried on. The chute it had moved to was the manual inspection chute. I was praying they weren’t going to open my case, as it’d be rather embarrassing to have everyone watch as my Aladdin costume, Disney pins, holiday itinerary etc were hoisted out and spread all over the desk! Luckily that didn’t happen. I did have to wait absolutely ages for my bag to be seen to though – at least ten minutes. They only had one security guy doing the manual inspections and the guy being inspected in front of me had a pen knife he refused to give up. After another few minutes he eventually decided he’d go back landside and post it to himself, so of course, the security man had to escort him back that way, making me wait even longer. Thankfully, whilst he was off gallivanting with pen knife man, another security lady appeared to sort out the now building line of bags to be inspected. ‘Ah finally someone who knows how important I am! How disgraceful to keep someone like me waiting!’...It was probably just me that thought that, but hey ho. (That’s HEY ho by the way, not HEIGH ho, as in the dwarfs song... just to be clear, although singing “Heigh Ho” at security would probably have got me seen to quicker!). Back to the point at hand... this security lady was the grumpiest security officer you could ever lay eyes on. She picked up my bag and yelled over the din “WHO’S BAG IS THIS?” making me feel like a convict. It was a very small, very crowded area and I’m quite a short, tiny quiet person (shut it!) so I had to jump up and down with my hand in the air to make it known that it was actually my bag, as she was staring through the crowd blankly, apparently looking right through me and my flailing arms. For a moment, I thought she might turn around and dump my bag in the bin and move on to the next person, but my rather un-Britishlike yelling of “IT’S MINE!” caught her attention just in time. Only day one, and I’m a hero already, saving my bag from certain death... () She came over and did something on the computer that made her look important, and then told me that my bag hadn’t been photographed so would have to go through the scanner again. As soon as she said that, she walked off to put it through again... was I supposed to follow? Was I supposed to stay where I was? I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing so I just sort of drifted up and down the security belt until I saw my bag again. It appeared, and just as before, it was lifted up and put into the manual inspection queue, where the lady picked it up and put it through again, only for the same thing to happen...again. I was getting quite ancy at this point because – and I’m sure I’m not the only one this happens to – at airport security, no matter how innocent you are, the more you try to look innocent, the less innocent you look. With the effort I was putting into trying to look calm and collected, I’m pretty sure I must’ve looked like an axe murderer that had several human body parts in his hand luggage. Eventually, the woman decided it was the plastic tray I’d [been forced to] put my bag in, so she changed the tray and put it through the scanner again. This time it went straight through and down the normal side – hooray! She gave me a half hearted thumbs up, and I scurried off, after spending 20 minutes at security!

Nevertheless, we were still pretty proud that we’d got from the hotel to standing in Duty Free at the airport in 45 minutes, 20 of which were at security! I’m not a fan of the new airport layout either. I wasn’t a fan last year, I’m not a fan this year, and I won’t be a fan next year [insert a ‘being fanny’ joke here]. I hate the way everybody is funnelled through Duty Free. If you don’t want to look in there, you’ve got to fight your way through to the other side, and if you DO want to look around in there, you’ve got to fight your way through the stream of people trying to find their way out. It’s a lose-lose situation. We had a quick whizz around the shops, which seem to be getting fewer and fewer by the minute, and had our annual retching session as we walked past the sushi bar at 7:45am. Who eats sushi at that time in the morning? People were gulping down the free samples of alcohol in duty free too... I mean seriously?! At 7:45am? I can’t believe they’re allowed to offer alcoholic samples that early!

At about 8am, we made our way over to the V-Room, fully expecting to be sent away again like we were last year, as we arrived ten minutes early. I am relieved to tell you that, despite arriving early, we were allowed in straight away! Good thing really, as I was starving and might’ve actually had a tantrum at the podium if they had refused us entry! The V-Room is wonderful, and is well worth the money for us. Unlimited food and drink, a fantastic view of the runway, free wifi, and it’s so peaceful compared to the main terminal. I actually don’t think I could sit in the main terminal four several hours now, it’s just so noisy! I realise I sound like a snob, but I am basically a god after all, as you well know. We were greeted by a small Indian man who practically (but politely) ushered us behind a room partition to some comfy chairs. I thought for a moment that my extreme importance had been recognised and I was being ushered into a VIP area so I wasn’t rushed by fans in the public area. Unfortunately, I think he just wanted to feel like he was doing something. The chairs did indeed look comfy, but the view of the runway was a bit naff, so we thanked the man, then circled back round to the slightly less comfy seats by the window. Goodness knows what he thought! I’m sure you’ll all be relieved to know that it’s finally time for some photos!


Please excuse the lady with a sausage in her mouth. I do hope she enjoyed it, but is something she should do behind closed doors...

Here’s a picture of the comfier seats we were originally ushered to, behind the room partition. Please forgive the rubbish photo, I was trying to take it without falling off my somewhat wobbly chair, and without making it look like I was trying to photograph the lady in orange, which I most definitely wasn’t, I promise!



I love watching the planes coming and going, and could happily stare at the view all day!





For some inexplicable reason, I didn’t take a photo of my food this year, but it was very good! You can have full cooked breakfasts, pastries, cereal, smoothies, fruit, chocolate muffins... it’s all there! I had a course of pastries and fruit, followed by a cooked breakfast. Just like the lady in a previous photo, I do love a good sausage in the morning. We spent the next couple of hours staring at the view, making use of the free Wifi, and stuffing our faces with food. I also paid a visit to the toilets. I realise that that may be a little too much information for some of you, but I find the V-Room toilets fascinating. The cubicles have wall length mirrors on one side, and for the life of me, I cannot fathom why these would be needed. Why would anybody want to be able to watch themselves doing whatever they’re doing with the toilet? It’s beyond me! I did of course take the opportunity to admire my stunning physique again, and I spent a moment wondering why a famous artist hasn’t yet asked to paint a portrait of me. It would definitely make a lot of money, I’m sure of it! Sadly, I didn’t take a photo of myself and the toilet in the mirror... sorry ladies.

At 10am, our gate was announced – gate 13. We all looked at each other dubiously - you could say we are slightly superstitious, so we hoped that the ’13’ didn’t mean anything sinister (spoiler: it didn’t!). We waited a couple of minutes to have a boarding cards checked, and much to my disappointment, we weren’t upgraded to Premium Economy this year. What a letdown. I’m used to free upgrades after last year, so I expected nothing less than premium. Unfortunately, I was stuck in cattle class – not somewhere someone like me belongs – we did still have our bubble seats though, which we were absolutely delighted with! We were only sat for about ten minutes before our row was called, and we were the second family up the stairs and settling in. It felt so odd walking upstairs on an aeroplane. On the way down to the plane, we were handed bottles of water. This has never happened to us before in economy, so I don’t know if it’s a new thing, or if they thought we were premium passengers as we were the first up into the bubble. Or more likely, they would have just looked at me and assumed I’m upper class material.

First things first – we are proud members of the “love the bubble!” club. My bag just about fit in the overhead locker, but had to be squashed. I was trying to do it carefully and slowly, and the steward came by and asked if there was anything fragile in there. I said no, and he reached up and slammed it shut. It fit, but I’m surprised he did ram the whole locker through the roof of the plane! Most people upstairs had to put their bags in the wardrobe at the back. I’mglad I didn’t have to though, as it contained most of my money and all my electricals!

With luggage stowed, we settled in and took the obligatory “window view” photo:


I am a BIG fan of the little cubby holes next to the window. They are surprisingly large, and it was so nice to be able to store items in there and have completely free space on the floor in front of you, meaning legs could be stretched! It was also very handy at mealtimes when I wanted to put my table away but still had rubbish to be collected. Here, have some crappy photos of the cupboard:





I did take a photo of the bubble as a whole, but the flash went off just as the steward looked up and he rushed over and demanded to see the photo (nicely, I hasten to add!). I showed him, and he said “Oh my gosh I look terrible in that, please delete it now! I’ll stand here until you do!”. I deleted it, and was too mortified to take another so you’ll have to do without I’m afraid. As people continued to arrive upstairs, I had a little chuckle to myself as those in row 80 quite audibly said “so, this is DIBBers row! I hope it’s as good as they say!”. I was safely seatbelted into my chair at that point, so didn’t get up to go and say hello.

Our plane was Jersey Girl, and I’ve had many a pleasant experience inside her (steady!). Our flight time was 8 hours and 36 minutes, and we actually pushed back early! A MIRACLE! As we pushed back, they started the safety video, which has changed since last year. It’s now Wild West themed, and none of it takes place in an actual aircraft. It all takes place in thinks like a saloon, and each scene is in a different accent. It’s most bizarre, and I think I prefer the old one! Sadly, we only got to see the first minute or two, as they shut it off, announcing that it wasn’t working in the downstairs cabin, so we’d have to have a manual demonstration either. A very sassy female member of the cabin crew came upstairs to do ours, and she had great fun telling everybody how lucky they were to be watching her instead of a screen. Sounds like we’d make a good couple. She also told us that our primary exit should we land on water was downstairs. I thought that rather odd, and am sure that in the event of an emergency water landing, everyone would be heading straight for the nearest exit, rather than forming an orderly queue and squeezing down the stairs.

By 11:30am we were at altitude, cruising along at 32000 feet, sipping drinks and generally having a good time. It must be some sort of record. I don’t think we’ve ever pushed back on time before, let alone early. During takeoff, there were a few “oohs” and “aahs” and the odd shriek, as there was a rather loud rumbling and the lights kept flickering on and off, which was slightly nerve wracking, but we managed to reach the US without any issue so it can’t have been a problem! One tip for the bubble: don’t put anything on top of the cupboards during or before takeoff. Several people ignored the stewards requests, and lost their things as when the plane tilted when taking off, anything on top of the cupboards rolled backwards down the length of the plane! That’s what happens when you don’t listen!

I chose the first film I was going to watch, and whacked it up on the screen. I got two minutes into it when the cabin crew announced the IFE still wasn’t working for the downstairs cabin, so the whole lot would have to go through a manual re-start, which would take half an hour. Bummer. I was all for letting them go the whole flight without IFE because they clearly weren’t online at 8am 60 days in advance to get seats upstairs Unfortunately, the person sat in front of me wasn’t the most polite person, and clearly wasn’t aware of etiquette suitable for being in a public space. Thankfully he didn’t recline, but within two minutes of the seatbelt sign going off, he’d spread out several packets of sweets and two tubes of rather stinky Pringles on the cubby hole cupboards. We’d also been given drinks by this point, and he flicked his cup backwards, spraying coke everywhere. I did lean forward and ask him if he could be more careful, which I thought was quite brave as he was at least double the size of me. See, brave hero. That’s me. I only got a grunt in response, but I retreated to my seat, satisfied that I’d dealt with the situation

Over the course of the flight, I watched The Love Punch, which was rather better than I was expecting (got to love Emma Thompson!), Muppets Most Wanted, part of the Lego Movie (what in gods name is that all about?! Couldn’t watch more than 20 minutes of it!) Mr Peabody and Sherman, The Other Woman (which I never got to see the end of) and episode of American Dad, and an episode of something starring Matt Lucas that was supposed to be hilarious but was actually atrocious. Still, I thought the range of IFE available was great this year, so no complaints.

About an hour or so into the flight, we were handed moist washcloths (again, something I’m not used to in economy!) and menus for lunch. The choices were a chicken thing, a beef thing and a pasta thing. We all went for the chicken, as the beef and pasta didn’t sound very appetising.



As you can see, it looks a bit manky, but I have to say, it was absolutely delicious – probably the best Virgin meal I’ve ever had. They have really improved the food. The chicken breast was very succulent, and wasn’t dry at all. I never turn my nose up at a moist breast. Delicious. The salad wasn’t so nice, but the rest was good. A year or so ago, Virgin decided to split their meals into courses, meaning we now have to wait absolutely ages for our rubbish to be cleared away and our tiny GU pudding to be delivered. There was some confusion about whether we needed to keep our main course spoons for the pudding . I insisted we’d get new, but others disagreed, so there we were, sat holding our spoons looking like total plonkers. Especially when pudding was delivered with new cutlery. I was right. As usual. The GU pudding was alright – it tasted a bit like Fromage Frais – it was nice, but I do miss their chocolate desserts!

Dinner has perhaps had the biggest improvement. Gone are the tiny finger sandwiches filled with some sort of goo that not even the cabin crew could identify. They now give you quite expensive looking wraps, and they are delicious! The choice was a chicken Caesar wrap or a cheese wrap, both of which came with unsalted crisps, shortbread, and two mints (which I thought was a tad odd, but there you go). We got some of each wrap, and divided them up so we each got to try both.





Unfortunately, I only took a photo of the cheese wrap because if I’d been a second longer, I wouldn’t have had my share of chicken wrap, and then the holiday would have been off to a terrible start The chicken wrap was nicer than the cheese wrap, and is the one I would choose if I were offered the same choices again. Both were delicious though, and SUCH an improvement on what they used to offer for dinner. The cabin was a bit chilly at this point, and I was huddled under the blanket with a jumper on and flight socks. I don’t know if it was just unusually chilly this year, of it the bubble is generally colder than the main deck, but I definitely felt a noticeable difference compared to previous years. We didn’t fly straight across the Atlantic this year either, instead flying down the East coast of the US. Here, have some pictures of North Carolina:








Outstanding quality, I’m sure you’ll agree.

The flight didn’t seem overly long compared to previous years, but it didn’t feel as short has it has done before either. Either way, before we knew it the crew were being asked to take their seats for landing. The sassy crew member I mentioned earlier was positioned by the door closest to us, and we could hear her discussing the new uniforms that would soon be implemented with the people in the exit row seats. She was explaining what they were going to look like, and put added emphasis on the fact that the mens uniform had very tight trousers. Her exact words were, and I quote (I wrote it down there and then so I wouldn’t forget!) “The men are getting tight fit trousers. They’re so tight that the straight men hate them but all the gays love them!”. I couldn’t help but giggle!

As our descent began, and the pilot was giving us local time and weather updates, he also told us that a member of the cabin crew was leaving, and this was to be his last flight after 22 years with the company. Moving to another airline perhaps? No. Retiring? No. A different plane related job? No. He was leaving to join the cast of Riverdance! Talk about a career change mate! We were told to cheer and applaud as he made his way through the cabin in his kilt, although he was downstairs and we, obviously, weren’t so we never did see him. Probably a good thing – whenever I see a kilt I always have an overwhelming urge to lift it up and see what people really do wear underneath them. I’m not a pervert, I promise...just curious! That would’ve made a great selfie though wouldn’t it? Two sets of cheeks in the same picture... !

I love the eery excited silence that descends over the cabin as we begin to land, and it’s always a great opportunity to snap some more rubbish pictures of the view.









The sky map is certainly more detailed than it used to be!



We landed early, at about 3:10pm to a temperature of 95 degrees, and being in the bubble, we were the first economy passengers to leave the plane. We only waited about five minutes before being called over to the self service kiosks. I was a little nervous about these, as I had a fear of doing something wrong and ending up in jail (not over dramatic at all), but they were surprisingly easy to use. I think even the most technologically-disabled (is that a thing?) could do it without issue. You select a few options on the screen such as “have you visited in the last five years” “What is the reason for your visit?”, before being prompted to insert your passport to have the picture page scanned, then having your fingerprints scanned, and finally, your photo taken. The machine then prints out the receipt (including the photo!) for you to take to the next customs officer after collecting your bags. We didn’t get to keep the receipt, which I was a bit miffed about as the photo of me was actually really good! It’s not often I get a good photo of myself from a machine! Wait...no...I ALWAYS get a good photo of me... no photo of me is EVER bad, so forget I said that.

They announced the carousel at which our bags would be arriving, so whilst I nipped to the restroom to revel in the joy of self-flushing toilets, the others took up position at the end of the carousel. When I came out of the restroom, I couldn’t see the others. I immediately had a small moment of panic, thinking they’d collected the cases, somehow forgotten I wasn’t with them and proceeded through to the main terminal... along with my passport. I’d gone from merrily using a self-flushing toilet, to being stranded in the universe between airside and landslide at Orlando International airport!

Of course this wasn’t the case at all, and as it turned out, they’d announced the wrong carousel, so the others had simply moved to the correct carousel. I suppose I can let them off. As always, all but one of our cases appeared in quick succession, but we had to wait a good five minutes for the last one. When they all get checked in together, I find it bizarre how they can get so split up! Still, five minutes isn’t long compared to waits we’ve had before. We walked smugly past all those fools that were dropping their luggage off at the second carousel, caught the tram and headed over to the main terminal. We realised that the little white form that Virgin had told us we ABSOLUTELY MUST fill in and give to customs hadn’t been taken, and so was a complete waste of time. We headed straight to the Virgin desk to collect our $200 gift card and early entry vouchers for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. There was a small amount of confusion about the line we were supposed to join, as one was for transfers and one was for car hire. There was no other line. Seeing as we were not getting a hire car or a transfer, we were a tad confused. We joined the transfer line, and they were able to quickly issue us with our envelope, so all was well. We had a very chatty English lady serve us, who was talking all about how much we were going to enjoy ourselves. I do have to admit to wishing she’d shut up and give us our envelope. She was being very nice indeed, but I just wanted to get on my way.

Envelope in hand, we caught the lift back up to the main concourse, crossed the airport, and then caught the lift back down to the Magic Express welcome centre to catch our Magical Express to Port Orleans. Whilst in line for our motorcoach, we realised we’d got from standing on the plane to standing at the Magical Express Welcome Centre in less than 45 minutes – a definite record!







When our bus to Port Orleans arrived, we boarded, and were a little disappointed to see that the front row on both sides had “reserved” signs on them. Just before we left, the driver took them away and of course, no-one was sat in them. I don’t know why he didn’t want anyone sat there, but I thought it was a bit mean! I thought for a moment Virgin had called ahead and told him my arrival was imminent, so he reserved the best seats for me, but no, he wouldn’t let me sit there. Meany! We waited on the bus for nearly fifteen minutes with the driver just stood outside. We assumed that he was waiting for other guests, but there no other guests had appeared for at least the past ten minutes. Eventually, the driver decided to board and off we went. I didn’t know whether to be pleased that we were on our way or annoyed that we’d sat there for ages and then left without any additional passengers!

One major thing we noticed about the Magical Express was that they’ve changed that charming little video of all the characters welcoming you to Walt Disney World! I loved that!


Now it’s basically a promotional video advertising the Disney Parks Blog. Very disappointing! Before we knew it, those all too familiar arches were making an appearance. Not being allowed to sit in the front seat meant I wasn’t able to get a photo, but we all know what they look like! We stopped at Saratoga Springs first, followed by Port Orleans French Quarter and then our stop – Port Orleans Riverside. There was no line at all at check in, and we were absolutely delighted to find out we’d been upgraded to a Royal Room yet again. In fact, it was exactly the same room we stayed in last year! We were absolutely over the moon about this, as it’s our favourite room at Port Orleans. Also at check in, we were presented with our Magic Bands in a presentation box. Being the anonymous fellows that we are, we elected to have character names put onto ours, rather than our real names.



Although it looks like we haven’t chosen colours, we did. We just all liked the grey best! We took stick on Magic Band covers with us, which looked fantastic and were much better than anything Disney offers. Mine was a monorail:



It looks really good on, but I don’t seem to have a photo of it! I might try and take one at some point and add it in later. Sorry about that... (deal with it). The check in agent also presented me with a package that had been left by a cast member friend of mine, full of cast member exclusive goodies, which was a great start to the trip!

When we arrived at our room, we thought it a fantastic novelty being able to open the doors with a magic band! The room was just as nice as we remembered, although the bed covers have been replaced with plain white ones, with only a decorated runner, which is odd. The room was still great though. For some inexplicable reason, I only seem to have three random photos of the room – I could’ve sworn I took more!







The headboards have built in fibre-optic fireworks displays, but the taps are my personal favourite – they are shaped like Aladdin lamps! We unpacked, and then went to the food court to collect our refillable mugs and share a counter service meal of chicken nuggets and fries, along with an ice cream sundae – oh how I had missed those delicious ice cream sundaes! We couldn’t resist a quick look in the gift shop before heading back to the room, showering and watching a bit of trashy TV. It was whilst using the bathroom that I noticed my tickly throat had got slightly worse – there were one or two white spots on my throat now. Tonsillitis. I’d never had tonsillitis before, so assumed it would be alright with some pain killers and a good nights sleep, so that’s what happened next!
We flopped into bed at about 9pm, ready for an early start the next day.

Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom!

(p.s. once again, this is taking absolutely ages to write, so I’m not re-reading it. I apologise for any glaring typos or spelling errors!)

[Disneycraft]

I love all the detail you go into .feel like i'm there !

[Helen0705]

Fantastic travel day - brilliantly written

[MrsBC]

Great travel day. Very hassle free

[ely3857]

Toooo funny!

[scotsprincess]

Love it. Plenty of LOL moments. Keep them coming😀😀

[Guest]

Tears rolling down my cheeks with laughter - very Clark Griswold. brilliant!

[Beaker's Fluff]

Fantastic reading. Can't wait for the next day.

[Rob & Jan]

Very entertaining tavel day-looking forward to the rest of the report.

[Guest]

Brilliant report so far!