The Mad Hatters in Florida May/June 2018 - Pre-Travel Day

[Mad Hatters]

Hello and welcome to my very first trip report

So we are the Hatfield’s: Adam (Me), Grace (Wife), Joshua (Oldest Son), Trayvon (Youngest Son), Mick (My Dad) and Sue (My Mum).
We flew with Thomas cook from Manchester to Orlando. Our flight out was the 17th May 2018.

We stayed for 7 nights at Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside and 14 nights at Homewood Suites on International Drive.
Just as a little note, around 3 weeks before we were due to go on holiday, I had an accident at work which resulted in a fully severed tendon, a partially severed tendon, severed artery and severed nerves in my index finger on my right hand. Luckily I managed to sort travel insurance that would cover me. So you will probably notice my rather attractive splint in the pictures .

Index

Wednesday 16th May: Pre-Travel Day.

Finally, today was the day we were going on holiday.



For us, the holiday starts on the day that we travel to the hotel at the airport. Grace was working this morning, Joshua was at school and Trayvon was at Nursery. I had finished work the day before . This morning after a standard breakfast of eggs and toast, i put the camera and camcorder on charge. I then went for a haircut at 10am.

When I got back from the hairdressers, I locked up all the windows and set the timer for the lamp, closed the curtains etc, the usual pre holiday checks. I made sure everything was sorted and then settled in to watch The Soprano’s. I could relax until it was time to load up the car, as we had got everything we could get sorted at the weekend. Grace also had her nails done that weekend. She decided on a Toy story theme eventually.



Grace finished work just before 1pm and picked Trayvon up from nursery on her way home. He was super excited for going on holiday. We got him changed andready to go and at around 2:25pm we started loading my car up with the suitcases, hand luggage and overnight bags. We couldn't fit it all in my car, which we already knew, so had given what we couldn't get in, which was the pushchair and 1 suitcase, to my parents at the weekend.



With the car all loaded up, we set off to get Joshua from school at 2:45pm. Grace and Trayvon waited in the car while I went to get Joshua, taking a selfie while I wasn’t there haha.



His teacher gave him a hug and wished us all a great holiday . We were on our way to the Premier Inn at Runger lane North at 3:15pm. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to drive, due to my hand, so grace had to drive, which she hated lol. I’m not a great passenger when in my own car. Or any car according to her !





Someone needed a little nap along the way haha.



We arrived at 4:05pm after a straight forward drive across the M62 (much better than 2015, when it took us 6 1/2 hours). My parents arrived about 5 to 10 minutes after us.

We all got checked in and paid the parking charge, which is now £10, and headed up to our rooms to get sorted out, kids bathed etc. The boys decided to mess up their beds while playing and generally make a mess of the room. Clearly pleased with themselves haha.



We went down for dinner at 5pm. We had decided to purchase the meal deal, which was a drink, 2 course meal and a breakfast. We had a really good server who was very chatty and friendly. The boys had fun doodling and colouring in.



I had a ribeye steak (served with half a grilled tomato, mushrooms, rocket and skin on chips), which I asked to be cooked medium but came out well, and a side of onion rings.



Yummy onion rings.



For desert, I had a chocolate orange crownie (A chocolate chip cookie filled with Belgian chocolate orange brownie and chocolate sauce and finished with a sprinkle of orange zest. Served with vanilla ice cream).



My included drink was a Boddingtons as the lager option was carling, which I hate. Me and my dad also shared a bottle of red wine with the meal. The main course was a little meh. The desert however was splendid.

Grace had a chicken Katsu curry (A tender chicken breast coated in crispy golden breadcrumbs and covered in a creamy and mildly spiced katsu curry sauce. Served on a bed of fluffy basmati rice and crisp mixed salad).



For desert she had a ultimate chocolate brownie (served with dairy vanilla ice cream and drizzled with salted caramel sauce), as did my mum.



She had a diet coke but also had some prosecco. She found this nice enough, but not like authentic katsu. She enjoyed the desert a lot.
Mum had BBQ Chicken and bacon melt (A succulent chicken breast topped with streaky bacon, cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce. Served with skin on chips, a crisp mixed salad and coleslaw).



She also had a diet coke. She enjoyed this.
Dad had a starter of sticky chicken wings (Piri Piri glazed wings, served with a blue cheese dip and a side of red chilli slaw). I managed to remember a picture pretty much as he had finished this. Whoops.



Then he had the skewer platter (Lightly spiced and succulent lamb koftas, chicken and chorizo skewers, hand-rolled flatbread and rice served with a Greek salad and cool tzatziki and smooth hummus dips), with a side portion of onion rings.


He had the carling with the meal deal. Yuck. He enjoyed his meal a lot, and to be honest I wish I had gone for it.
Joshua had a pizza followed by pancakes with fruit and chocolate sauce.


Trayvon had sausage, chips and beans. He had ice cream for desert.



I forgot the boys main course pictures, I promise I get better with the pictures.

Both the boys enjoyed their meals. I believe they had diet coke to drink but didn’t make note of this. During the meal we gave a gift to my parents of some stickers to customise their magic bands and my mum, a couple of pairs of ears that grace had made.



Picture of me and my dad. Spot the cool hand splint .



After dinner, we went into the bar area and had another drink and chatted about the day ahead.




Grace took the boys back to the room and got them into bed, my mum also went back to the room to prepare things for tomorrow. Me and my dad decided to stay downstairs and have a couple of beers and a chat about the upcoming holiday. I took some snaps of him without him knowing haha.
Guiness for me, Stella for my dad.




And that was it, at around 10pm we went back to our rooms. I went to bed, Grace was still awake but the boys were asleep. Hopefully i would sleep better than i did in 2016 when i hardly got a wink.

That is the end of our pre-travel day. Not too bad i don't think after only being back 4 days lol.

Thanks for reading .

Adam

[juless77]

cant wait for travel day thanks for sharing

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by juless77

cant wait for travel day thanks for sharing

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Thanks for reading. I’ll be starting writing that up over the coming days.

[mousefan]

Love the Disney themed nails and your mum's 'ears'! Great start to your trip report.

[stupet11]

Looking forward to this! Good start... can't beat Premier Inn start...! COYG!

[prettymiarose]

Looking forward to reading

Lucky your injury didn’t require cancelling but I’d hate not to be able to swim on any holiday!

I’ll be choosing Premier Inn for my next stay just to try the choccy puds! Loved the toy story nails!

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by mousefan

Love the Disney themed nails and your mum's 'ears'! Great start to your trip report.

See more...

Thank you very much.

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by stupet11

Looking forward to this! Good start... can't beat Premier Inn start...! COYG!

See more...

Haha a fellow gooner!

Thank you.

[Palm trees]

Looking forward to reading how you all get on. Also fab toy story nails.

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by prettymiarose

Looking forward to reading

Lucky your injury didn’t require cancelling but I’d hate not to be able to swim on any holiday!

I’ll be choosing Premier Inn for my next stay just to try the choccy puds! Loved the toy story nails!

See more...

Thank you.

Yes I got away very lucky as I could have lost my finger. Thankfully it had healed and I had the stitches removed so I could at least go in the pool.

I did develop a decent one handed swim there haha.