My Feet Are Sore! A week in Disney Sept 2018. Pre-travel & Travel Day

[sha9]

A little introduction if you don't want to read the whole pre-trip report which is here. My sister Marie and I have been going to Disney together for years. This year was to be a year out for several reasons but as we always do, we managed to wangle a week. A week only due to annual leave constraints and it literally had to be Saturday to Saturday.

We booked Aer Lingus flights (first time with them) and booked Caribbean Beach Hotel. I then had second thoughts about CBR and changed to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Then the announcement that the pool was going to be closed and we changed to Boardwalk Inn. The plan was only to do Disney since we only had a week. It would be a full 7 days though as the flight home was 9.10pm.

Pre travel & travel day

The dining report for travel day is https://DIBB.in/13517505.

I’ll do both together as pre travel day was pretty uneventful. Marie was working and didn’t finish until 4.30pm. The plan therefore was to have tea at Mum & Dads before Dad drove us to the airport hotel. I spent the day getting my pedicure & wax, changing the beds and finishing cleaning the house. I’ll did a lot of washing and tried to get as much dried before the rain came on as possible.

We left for the Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport just after 7pm and got there around 8ish. We didn’t do very much and tried to go to sleep relatively early.

I woke at 3.38am and lay for about an hour trying to get back to sleep. Eventually I did and woke about 10 minutes before the alarm was due to go off at 5.45am. We started getting ready and had a quick breakfast of a belvita biscuit (I only had a couple of bites) and a coffee.

Because the hair straighteners seemed to take ages to cool down didn’t get to bag check until about 6.45am for an 8.20am flight. We had paid the £4.99 for fast track security which often isn’t needed at Glasgow but I’m glad we had as security was quite busy. Bag check didn’t take too long though, about 20 minutes. We were through security in plenty of time to have a quick look in the duty free shop. I bought a couple of things and did the shop and collect thing since we’d have to go through security again in Dublin.

The flight to Dublin was fine. It’s a small plane and I was worried about travel sickness but it was very smooth. We had planned on getting some food on the plane but they had no hot food so Marie got a muffin and I ate the rest of my breakfast biscuit. We both got Kenco Latte’s which were actually quite nice.

We considered going to The Loop to have something proper to eat but decided just to get through pre clearance. There was an enormous queue and although we had 5 ½ hours we thought it best just to get through now. It took us nearly an hour to get through security and pre clearance. The immigration officer asked us a few questions about what we did for a living and how long we were going for. It was a bit more intense than anything I’ve experienced in the states!

By now it was time to check in to the 51st & Green lounge.

We were looking forward to some comfy seats and hot food but unfortunately we had just missed the hot breakfast. We picked up a few things and then when lunch came out had some mac and cheese.

The fridge had soft drinks and there was a bar we didn’t use.

The lounge was nice and comfy but the food wasn't great. Overall I'm glad we booked it and it was worth the money for somewhere comfortable to sit. We were also able to charge our phones and tables next to our seat.

We left just around the time we expected to board rather than wait for the announcement but we ended up boarding late. We then sat on the runway for a while as not all the luggage had been loaded and some had went astray. I was happy to wait rather than get to Orlando with no luggage! We ended up taking off about 40 minutes late. So much for arriving early!

The flight was long and uncomfortable. The inflight magazine promised Avengers: Infinity War which wasn’t there. I ended up watching The Shape of Water which was alright. I mostly read the most recent Jack Reacher book and got annoyed every time they mentioned his appearance and thought about Tom Cruise in the movies . We both tried to sleep a bit but it just wasn’t comfortable enough. I had the C seat which had what I assume was the entertainment box at my feet restricting the leg room.

The food was ok. I normally quite like plane food but this wasn't great.

We landed around 8ish and were fairly quick off the plane but had a bit of a wait on the bags. I logged on to the airport wifi to check my email and had the email from Hertz telling me what kind of car we had and what bay it was in. We had been given an Infiniti QX60 which I was happy with. We spent a bit of time in the car while I tried to figure out which of the many buttons allowed me to move the seat forward! In the end Marie had to google it!

The journey took a bit longer than normal as I took the wrong lane in the dark and we ended up on the I-4 almost at Universal. Iphone maps to the rescue and we were quickly back on the road. You’d never think we’d been many times before!

By the time we got to Boardwalk and checked in it was around 10ish. The room was lovely and in a great location. We had room 4295, close to the lift but not right next to it. Our view was of the front of the hotel so the potential to be noisy but we didn’t really notice much. We also hoped to have a good view of the fireworks. The room also had a plug point and USB slot on the bedside table which was handy.

Lovely wee alcove near the lifts that we noticed had a private function a few days later.

Dinner was a Dairylea Lunchable from the shop as the To Go window was closed and the pizza window busy. We were too tired to care at this point.

We were totally exhausted and discussed cancelling our early breakfast ADR but decided to go with the original plan of up and out early. We unpacked and finally went to bed about 11pm.

[mick]

A long travel day and shame about the comfort and lack of films

Joan

[Juliemack]

Not a bad travel day at all made all the better for pulling in at the Boardwalk at the end 😍

I'm currently reading The Midnight Line... having read all of the books in sequence as they came out, I'm another one outraged at the idea of Tom Thumb ... I mean, Cruise... as Jack Reacher

[sha9]

Originally Posted by mick

A long travel day and shame about the comfort and lack of films

Joan

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I think maybe we’re too used to Premium Economy .

Originally Posted by Juliemack

Not a bad travel day at all made all the better for pulling in at the Boardwalk at the end 😍

I'm currently reading The Midnight Line... having read all of the books in sequence as they came out, I'm another one outraged at the idea of Tom Thumb ... I mean, Cruise... as Jack Reacher

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Yes both the car and the Boardwalk made up for it!

And don’t get me started on Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher . I mean height and build are all part of the character!

[mick]

Originally Posted by sha9

And don’t get me started on Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher . I mean height and build are all part of the character!

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What do you mean?

5' 2" and 12 stone Tom Cruise playing 6' 8" and 18 stone Jack Reacher.

Mick

[Floridaagogo]

Great start x

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Great start x

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Thanks!

[Palm trees]

I do enjoy reading travel day reports ... more than doing them myself (until I turn the key at wherever we're staying that is!). Looking forwards to reading more.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

I do enjoy reading travel day reports ... more than doing them myself (until I turn the key at wherever we're staying that is!). Looking forwards to reading more.

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I know it’s weird! I love reading travel days too!

[Goldia]

The room at Boardwalk looks lovely. I chuckled at you not finding the button to move your seat in the car and Marie having to Google it!