To Disney World and Beyond (with a toddler) - Day 0 - Pre-Travel Day

[miked1e]

Day 0 - 05/04/2019 - Radisson Blu, Manchester Airport

So today was the day we had been waiting for, for over a year. We actually booked this trip back in March 2018 as pre-register with VH before Disney Dining came out. In fact though, we had been waiting for this trip for many years... our first one with a child, DS.

Bobby has just turned 22 months in March, and is all about Thomas the Tank and Fireman Sam etc. Wouldn't really entertain much Disney until last November when we took him to DLP for the weekend. Well during and after this trip it is all Disney and especially Woody and Buzz... hence the new title for the trip report!

So I had been in Germany the last 2 days, arriving back into Manchester Airport the early hours of the Friday (5th) morning, and will be back there later today.

I had slept in the spare room when I got back as to not wake up DW and DS, managed to get to sleep by just after 0300hrs, and Holly comes into the spare room to wake me up about 0530hrs as she was too excited to sleep ... thanks for that!

But Holly still had a morning in work to get through and DS and I had to get a few things done ready for the travel to the airport.

DW leaves for work at 0730hrs, and with the cases already packed except for a few little things to put in the case, all I had to do was get the house tidy and drop the cat off at the cattery for 2.5 weeks.

Thankfully my Dad had just come back from holiday and was able to come down to look after Bobby for an hour or so, whilst I dropped off the cat around 1040hrs, and I was back just after 1100hrs.

Someone was quite excited...

Ordered some lunch from the local cafe and had a little walk down in the pram as I could tell Bobby was getting a little tired. He managed to fall asleep on the way back from the cafe at around 1145hrs and slept through to just after 1. Gave me a bit of time to have lunch, clean up a little and get the cases in the car ready for when Holly gets back from work. She lands back about 1400hrs and we went through the house giving one final clean before leaving about 1530hrs. House all closed and we are off on our first WDW trip... just the 3 of us!

We love staying in the Radisson the night before for a nice chilled evening / morning before the flight, and we land at the hotel about 1615hrs. Park up and take most of the luggage in. Well the luggage which we will be checking in.

We had paid a members rate of GB£ 230 for premium runway view with 15 nights parking! We were on a high floor and had a great view of the airport... Bobby and I both love planes so really nice way to start the holiday! Room was very spacious and looked like they had recently been refurbed in the last few years. Much better than our room last August!

Thankfully we had heard about the new twilight check in trial for VA at Manchester Airport. We had used this 3 years ago with TC when we stayed in the Hilton and loved getting shut of the cases the night before, so did the same again this time. We had mentioned it to the person who checked us in, and they said that we best go quick as they only allow a certain % of the plane to use this service and on a first come first serve basis! Note that the lady checking us in, said this was not the case!

Anyhow, we walked over to T2... 5 mins walk although probably took us a bit longer with the luggage (3 cases) and Bobby loving going on the moving walkway! Anyway the check-in lady mentioned that it had been very quiet the last couple of nights with only around 10-20 people checking in each night... really hope this picks up and they keep the service. Nice easy check-in with no-one else there, and we had to wait about 10 minutes whilst the cases went to where they needed to be just in case anything else was needed for us.

It was now about 1730hrs and we strolled back to the hotel. Plan was to get a drink and then maybe go swimming, then room service before an early-ish night. But we decided against this on the way back and decided to go the hotel restaurant for a nice meal and a bottle of wine

We shared some bread and olives for starters and then Bobby had chicken nuggets and chips (not his only ones of the holiday), and Holly and I had steak and chips, with bobby getting ice cream as part of the meal deal for desert.

Food and drink were lovely and we just chilled contemplating on what the next 2 weeks was going to bring. We were finally here and ready to get on our 9 hour flight , but then be in the most magical place on earth!

Lovely meal and we took ourselves up to the room (with an after dinner drink, of course) around 1900hrs. We bathed Bobby, watched the planes for a little bit. It was great, as we were able to push up the padded 'table' up to the window were he could climb on and stand looking out of the window! It wasn't too long and we then put him to bed in-between us... he was asleep by about 2030hrs and we were not long after! We thought as only staying the 1 night he could just sleep in-between us instead of setting up a cot etc.

Our alarm was set for 0500hrs in the morning. It was going to be an early start... but a very exciting start to what we know will be an amazing holiday full of memories!

Sorry, but not many pictures for today, but very rarely got the camera out... Mainly because we were carrying a lot of luggage around for most of it!

End of Day 0.

Day 1 - Travel Day

Index

[Jules32]

great Blog, Bobby is a little cutie, hope you had a lovely holiday

[Taffy1959]

Good pre travel day with everything going smoothly.
I love your suitcases too.

[juless77]

thanks for sharing a great start !

[miked1e]

Thank you all...

Our suitcases were great. We just had a standard black Masonite bag as the 3rd, but love these American Tourister cases. Got loads of comments about them over the 2 weeks, and they made it back in good condition too!

Was quite a straight forward day, and all went as smoothly as it could!

[joanna23]

Looking forward to this DS2 will be the same age this Summer so I’m excited to see your adventures.

[legallyblonde]

Great pre-travel day! Can you let me know how you booked the radisson with parking through the rewards system? I can only see how to book rooms and not the parking?

[miked1e]

Originally Posted by joanna23

Looking forward to this DS2 will be the same age this Summer so I’m excited to see your adventures.

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I think it is a great age... I am sure even better as they get older as well, but the amount DS took in... he had us laughing and crying constantly!

Day 1 - Travel Day should be going on tonight.

[miked1e]

Originally Posted by legallyblonde

Great pre-travel day! Can you let me know how you booked the radisson with parking through the rewards system? I can only see how to book rooms and not the parking?

See more...

Thank you.

When checking the availability on the official site, it gives the option 'Parking 15 days - Members only' as you scroll down the various available rates. You just need to then sign in then from there to get the rate. Think its a small % discount!

[Tink 45]

Bet you’re still tired!
Great pre travel day, looking forward to reading more! Hope the flight goes well, enjoy! X