Went to WDW.

Had fun.

Came home.

:D

(Only joking - full trip report to follow shortly!!)

very funny! I got excited to read this and then dissapointed when I saw the outcome :crying:

Went to WDW.

Had fun.

Came home.

:D

(Only joking - full trip report to follow shortly!!)

HA HA HA HA !!!!:rolleyes:

Thanks for the laugh! Thank goodness no one was around my desk!!!

15 days til Disney for me!!! WooHoo!!

TRIP REPORT

TO WALT DISNEY WORLD FROM THE UK!

WHO :
Carolyn – Trip Planner, 8th trip to WDW
DB – Partner of above, 2nd trip to WDW
DS – sister of Carolyn, 5th trip to WDW
Mum – mother of Carolyn, 4th trip to WDW
Dad – father of Carolyn, 4th trip to WDW

WHEN :
Saturday 29 September – Saturday 20 October 2007

TRAVEL METHOD :
Minibus / aeroplane / rental car(s)

ACCOMMODATION :
Villa offsite

PLANNING :
This trip had been planned since April 2006, when I suggested it would be nice if we all went to WDW. I had been doing some research on the internet, and had discovered an amazing 2 storey villa with 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, for the same price I normally paid for a much smaller property. As there were originally other family members interested in going as well, it made sense to have a larger property, although eventually the numbers dropped down to just the 5 of us.

We booked flights from Manchester airport to Orlando, booked a minibus (and a friend to drive it for us!) through a local rental company, and two hire cars from Budget (a people carrier and a compact), all online, and all at very reasonable prices.

DAY ONE – SATURDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2007
PLAN – Drive to airport, fly to Orlando, pick up rental cars, drive to villa, go food shopping, return to villa, unpack, collapse into bed!

ACTUAL – having stayed at my parents’ house the night before, we got up at 3.00 a.m. Our friend arrived with the minibus at 4.00, and we piled all the luggage in and set off for Manchester (from the Midlands) at 4.30 a.m. Ugh.

Fortunately, Manchester airport is only about 1˝ hours away, so we were there nice and early. We had attempted, the night before, to check-in online, but for some reason only a couple of us had been able to do this and the rest had been rejected, so we still had to queue up and check-in. This didn’t take long, however.

Checked in, luggage gone, now all feeling like breakfast. So we go to the rather nice food court, and order horribly expensive and extremely small plates of bacon, fried eggs, sausages and toast – yum. Just what we need before a 9 hour flight – plates of grease!

Breakfast consumed, off we go to customs which goes really smoothly, and then we go down to the gate to wait for an hour or so before boarding.

The flight was dull, boring and lengthy, but eventually we begin the descent – and I can finally see Florida. I have waited 6 years to come back here, and have been planning this trip for the last 18 months with my family, so I acted in a really adult and mature way and burst into tears as we landed. Sorry, family, if I embarrassed you all! I was just so excited and emotional to be back in the land I love more than my homeland.

We collected the luggage with only a few bickers (by now we had been up for many hours, and were tired, hot and somewhat fractious!), and headed for Budget to collect the cars. There was a slight snag when they insisted that the second named driver (DB) show his credit card, and he doesn’t have one, so we had to leave a small cash deposit on the second vehicle. They also did the usual thing of trying to sell us extra insurance that we didn’t want or need, but because I was ready for this he didn’t manage to bamboozle us poor, tired souls into parting with even more money! I only ever got stung with this once, and it cost me several hundred pounds on my credit card many years ago – ever since then I have been more savvy, and always pre-purchase all compulsory insurance and don’t give in to pressure from the rental car guys on the day!

Anyway, we picked up the cars (a 7-seater and an HRR), and following the directions we had to the villa. It was based on an estate called Villa Sol, about 7 miles from the airport. The directions were fantastically easy to follow, basically we drove out of the airport, followed the road for about 3 miles, turned right at a junction by a gas station, and then a couple of miles later turned left onto the estate – easy! The villa was gorgeous, we ran from room to room in our excitement, trying to decide who was going to have which bedroom!

We quickly established ownership of the rooms, then just dumped our luggage and set off for the nearest supermarket (a Publix, about 10 mins away). After shopping for some basics (bread, milk, water, butter, corn dogs, chocolate, etc!), we returned to the villa to unpack, eat the hot chicken we got at Publix, and collapse into bed around 10.00 p.m. (now bear in mind that UK time at that point was 3.00 a.m. so we had been awake for 24 hours!).

NEXT SECTION : COMING SOON - Day 1!

Great so far! Can't wait to read more! We leave Tues at 630am for Disney and are meeting my cousins from England there! They live near London in Surrey and two of them are coming for the first time! We are so excited to be their tour guides around the kingdom! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

Wonderful, terrific start! I'm exhausted just reading about your lengthy trip over....Yikes! LOVE that the basics list includes corn and chocolate. :)

Looking forward to the next day's installment!

DAY TWO – SUNDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2007

PLAN – Epcot – Food & Wine Festival

ACTUAL – Originally, we had planned to go to Epcot on our first day, as we usually did on visits to WDW. However, a week or two before we left I had read on the ‘net that Big Thunder Mountain was going to be closed for refurb from 1 October for about a month. This is one of our favourite rides, so the family decision was made to switch days and do Magic Kingdom today and Epcot tomorrow. Another factor in making this decision was that it will be Epcot’s 25th birthday tomorrow, and whilst we probably wouldn’t get there in time for the rededication ceremony, it would be nice to be there on the Park’s birthday!

We had all expected to be wide awake and raring to go at 4.00 a.m. today, as we normally are on our first day in the US! However, we must have been completely exhausted as we all slept until around 6.30 or 7. Once everyone was up and dressed, we decided to head to Denny’s for breakfast. We all love having breakfast there, we just don’t have anything like this in the UK (or IHOP, or Waffle House, or Golden Corrall – you people are just SO lucky!!). We all had variations on the Slams (yum - tasty strips of bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese, sausages, PANCAKES!!), coffee, orange juice etc.

Fully fed, we crammed ourselves back into the people-carrier and headed for the Magic Kingdom. As we sailed happily under the colourful archway that welcomed us to Walt Disney World, we all got a bit emotional again! It is just such a lovely feeling, knowing you are there.

The park was closing at 7 pm as it was a Not So Scary Halloween Party night (this was a recurring theme of the holiday and, to be honest, was somewhat annoying as it meant we were unable to spend as much time in the parks as we wanted to), so we knew we had to get a move on and get across to the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness as soon as we could. So that’s just what we did – with a posted wait of 40 mins, it actually was more like 20 mins before we were on there and having a fantastic time!

We then spent the rest of the day exploring the Kingdom, taking in as much as we could – the Wedway, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Carousel of Progress, Small World, Pirates (three times!! – the new Captain Jack Sparrow is just yummy!), Haunted Mansion (love the new additions, the stairs at the beginning are really good), before finally ending up back at Big Thunder. This time the wait was much more like the 40 mins advertised, but as we left I was able to find the hidden Tinkerbell in the rocks (as previously mentioned somewhere on the internet), which was quite exciting!

With the park closing time of 7.00 p.m. looming, we thought it was probably time we left. We had eaten at Cosmic Rays late afternoon (salads, burgers etc), so decided to just pig out on stuff at the villa that we had picked up the day before at Publix and spend a restful evening getting ready for an early start at Epcot tomorrow.

Weather today was cloudy and a bit rainy, but very warm. This is always a problem for us at WDW, as if we purchase the rain ponchos we stay rainless, but end up rather condensation-y and damp under them from the humidity! Hmm. Will think about that another day.

Back to the villa, quick swim in the pool / Jacuzzi, showers, slump in front of the television (mostly the weather channel – thanks, dad!!) with large bags of Cheetos (again, not available in the UK and just delicious!), peanut butter M & Ms, and Oreo cookies.

Bed – exhausted but happy.

COMING SOON : Day 3 - Epcot here we come! :D

DAY THREE – MONDAY 1 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Magic Kingdom

ACTUAL – Well, this was supposed to be our first Magic Kingdom day, but after swapping that with yesterday’s plan, we decided to go to Epcot. (We tended to decide the night before what we were doing the next day – according to the weather reports, a lot of the time!) Unfortunately, we didn’t get there in time for the re-dedication ceremony, which would have been lovely, and the rain was pretty heavy today too, which made for a slightly tense family day.

I should explain – we haven’t been away as a family for a number of years, and my DB hadn’t been away with my family at all before. We are a very close family, but all have quite strong personalities, and my mother is still very much ‘in charge’ of the family unit. Unfortunately, due to relatively recent and joint marital problems, my DS and I are now both rebelling against anyone being in control of us, and this did lead to some occasional conflict. Not enough to spoil the holiday, but enough to ensure some bickering, out and out rows, lots of teeth gritting, and generally people feeling ‘put out’ and misunderstood at times. DB and I also found things difficult because mum and dad seemed to plan their days around what the weather was going to be like, rather than plan the day and then just deal with the weather as it happened, which was the way we would have dealt with it. This made it a bit stressful occasionally, as there were times we seemed to be missing out on a lot of rides, shows etc just because it was raining!

Additionally, we had originally agreed to hire two vehicles so that we could use the larger one when we all went out together, but had the option of the smaller one being available in case any members of the party wanted any time apart on their own. In reality, this didn’t happen, as anyone who expressed an interest in spending some time alone was immediately accused of not wanting to be with the others, and was therefore made to feel guilty. With hindsight (a wonderful thing!), I think DB and I really should have been firmer about wanting to spend time some time on our own occasionally. But, there you go. It didn’t happen, and we therefore had to make the most of the time that we had.

Anyway, we got to Epcot and the rain was thundering down. We ran into the park, and purchased ponchos. I was a bit disappointed with these to be honest, as they used to be WDW specific, but I presume as a cost cutting exercise they now just have a generic ‘Disney’ parks print on the back. They are also really awful value for money, considering they cost $7 each and are very flimsy (my mum’s ripped the first time she wore it!). Later in the week I picked up a bright pink Disney Princesses one from Walmart for $4.

As Spaceship Earth was closed (*sob*), we decided to head for Soarin’. This was a new ride to us, and we were really keen to give it a go, having read such good things about it on the ‘net. It was showing a wait time of 50 mins, so we got in line. (Dad sat this one out as he had read all the warnings and was worried he would suffer from motion sickness; however, after we came off the ride we convinced him he would be okay, and he went on it later on in the holiday). What can I say about this ride that hasn’t already been said? It was FANTASTIC!!! We all loved it. We were in the first row, and as the lights went down I was a bit worried as to what was going to happen, but before I had chance to gasp for breath we were up in the air and swooping down over California! Wow! Amazing. The smells at various points were great, and I think the only thing they could do to improve this would be a light misting of water over your feet as you sweep along the river, or over the sea; although I suppose the risk there is of the people sitting below you being misted in the face, so maybe this one wouldn’t work!

After this, we picked up fastpasses for Test Track, and then headed for World Showcase in order to participate in the Food & Wine Festival. We stopped at each booth, examined what was on offer, and then made our choices. Our first selection came from Mexico, where we each had a Chilaquile, which was really, really tasty! Next we moved onto Ireland, where we sampled the Irish Cheese plate with brown bread and apple chutney. This was very nice, but we felt rather poor value for money, as it was basically just a bit of bread and cheese with a spoonful of chutney. Nice, but a touch disappointing. And that was where we ground to a halt! Having been looking forward to doing this Festival for a long, long time, we were by this point battling crowds and humidity, plus bursts of rain, and just couldn’t seem to agree on what to try next. We ended up wandering all the way around World Showcase without trying anything else or looking at any of the countries in any detail.

Eventually, we left mum and dad sitting by Canada while the three of us went back to Test Track, as we were within our fastpass time. We had a great ride (as usual!), but as we approached the exit doors (having lingered around the GM exhibition for a little while) we noticed the weather – it was absolutely POURING down! We hung around the exit doors for a while, just in case it was going to let up slightly, then gave up and, donning ponchos, made a run for it. By the time we got to the parents, the rain had lifted slightly, but they were soaked! Despite the threatening downpours all day, and the dark skies, they had been completely unprepared for the heavens to open so suddenly, and hadn’t had time to put their ponchos on. They had had to shelter under a tiny umbrella between them, so were very wet indeed!

It was 7.00 p.m. by this time, and so we decided to go into the Electric Umbrella to get some food, and discuss our options. I had really wanted to stay for the anniversary fireworks, which was supposed to be a special, one-off show, but we really weren’t sure whether it was going to happen or not, given the weather. After much discussion, with no-one really wanting to say what they wanted to do in case anyone else was offended, we finally decided to leave the park, convincing ourselves that the fireworks probably wouldn’t go ahead anyway. (Anyone know if they did? I hope not, as we missed them in that case!).

We drove back to the villa in squelchy silence, cold and damp and disappointed with our day. We all had hot showers to warm up, nice cups of tea, and went to bed, hoping for a better day tomorrow.

DAY FOUR – TUESDAY 2 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Flea market, Walmart

ACTUAL – So today we decided to have a rest from the parks. I personally loathe the flea markets, having been dragged around them many times by my ex-husband over the years, but everyone else was keen to visit one and DB hadn’t been to one in America so we decided to go.

We drove to one that we had been to before, but it had changed tremendously in the years since we last visited. It was awful! Please bear in mind this is just my opinion, and I’m sure there are people who really like them, but it just seemed to be full of cheap tat, aimed at British tourists (which the place was full of!), and almost every stall seemed to be selling the same stuff. Anyway, after an hour of that, we gave up and went to the big Walmart on International Drive.

That was fun, we don’t have supermarkets as big as American ones over here in the UK, so it is always great to have a good look around these, especially as you have loads of nice goodies that we can’t get here! We picked up a couple of nice Disney t-shirts, and my pink Princess poncho, plus a really lovely grey sweatshirt for my daughter, who couldn’t get the time off work to come to Florida with us this time.

After that, we drove over to Publix to get another bucket of chicken to take back to the villa with us. Because we were all still a bit tired due to the jetlag, we all stayed in the car and sent my dad in to pick it up, with a handful of dollars and instructions to get a 12-piece bucket of crispy chicken. He was gone for ages, apparently they had to cook it fresh for him, but he was so busy talking to the woman behind the counter that he ended up with a 20-piece bucket without realising it! We teased him for ages about this, as we had enough chicken now to last for the next 3 days!!

Anyway, back to the villa, changed into swimsuits, and into the pool for an hour or two before attempting to make a dent in all that chicken!

The weather was a bit better today, more sun, less rain, some cloud, but again very humid. I don’t remember it being this humid at this time of year here before, and this is my 8th visit to WDW. Still, I’m sure we’ll get used to it …..

Less family arguments today as well, I think we are all still a bit wary after yesterday. There was more compromise, and no bickering!

COMING SOON : ANIMAL KINGDOM, AND MORE RAIN!! :crying:

Did you bring all of the wet weather from the UK with you:p? J/K

Thanks for the update; good to hear that not every minute of every day was 100% great. That always sounds too good to be true. You guys sound so "real!" Looking forward to the next installment!

DAY FIVE – WEDNESDAY 3 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Animal Kingdom

ACTUAL – Today we got up quite early, and headed out for the Animal Kingdom. The weather forecast was for more showers, and the humidity was very high again.

We got to AK and headed for the safari, to see how long the standby time was. It was posted as 20 mins, so we got in line and were soon on the truck. Myself and my DB hadn’t done this ride before, and we really enjoyed it. There weren’t many animals out, but we did see a lioness, a giraffe, a couple of elephants, some ostriches, and lots of deer and cattle. It was a really good ride, and we made a mental note to do this one again, thinking (correctly, as it turned out) that it would be different each time we did it.

After that we did the Pangani trail, seeing lots of sleeping tigers and bats, and not much in the way of gorillas! Next we went over to Conservation Station to have a look round there. That was really nice, and outside we had a close encounter with a huge snake who was on display for people to stroke. She was lovely, all smooth and soft, and even my dad, who is terrified of snakes, gave her a stroke! I really like this part of AK, it is very interesting, I like learning more about how sick animals are treated, how they give them vitamins, etc. We went inside a rainforest sound booth and put on headphones, then sat quietly in the dark and listened to the sounds of the rainforest – lovely.

After we had finished there, everyone was starving hungry, so we went on the hunt for chicken strips. But the park was very crowded, so after much searching we had only found one place doing them, and that was a takeaway stand with very little seating (all of which was full!), so we ended up back in Dinoland at the Restaurantosaurus, which was packed! There was nowhere to sit inside in the nice air conditioning, so in the end we had to wipe down some wet seats and sit outside. We got some chicken nuggets, which were as close to chicken strips as we were going to get today, and thereby satisfied our hunger.

There were several more things I wanted to do here today, such as the Birds of Wonder show (which I hadn’t done before), the Lion King show, and the new Finding Nemo show, but by this time it was back to showery again, it was fairly close to the park’s closing time, and everyone else seemed tired of walking and ready to leave. Knowing we would be back again at some point, we agreed to call it a day and headed back to the villa for some much needed rest and dryness!

DAY SIX – THURSDAY 4 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Downtown Disney, Planet Hollywood

ACTUAL – Today was a bit brighter and less damp to start with, so we headed to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping and check out what was new since we were here last.

We parked near Planet Hollywood, as we planned to eat there later, and turned left towards Westside. There is a fantastic shop there selling all sorts of movie memorabilia, and we spent quite a lot of time in there just browsing. We then slowly made our way down towards DisneyQuest, taking in the magnet shop (where my DB bought me a lovely Cruiser magnet with a surfboard on the top of it!), the Candy Cauldron (my life – the fudge!! DB and I got some peanut butter fudge, and couldn’t resist eating it almost immediately!) etc., before ending up in the Virgin Megastore. There was a fantastic boxed set of Disney songs in there, which one of us may pick up later in the holiday. I bought a Kenny Rogers CD, which was very similar to an old tape I used to keep in the car years ago, and only cost $6.

After this we looped around and headed for Pleasure Island. It was interesting to see all the changes that had been made over the last 5 years, but I was very disappointed at the demise of the Merriweather family legend, this was something I felt had drawn the whole Island together previously, and it is a shame they have dispensed with it. I also missed Reel Finds, which used to be a fantastic (if tiny!) movie memorabilia shop, on a different scale completely to the one in Westside. I remember them having a large framed photo of Marilyn Monroe for sale last time I was here, with a cheque that she had signed, which was lovely (and a bit unaffordable!!). We had a look round the new Harley Davidson shop, which was great, (it rained while we were in there!), and I was impressed by the look of Raglan Road, although we didn’t get chance to go in there at any time this holiday.

On past the Lego store, which was packed with over-excited children, and onto The World of Disney. We spent quite a while in there, sussing out things to buy for ourselves and as gifts, but decided not to pick up anything much today as we didn’t particularly want to carry things around with us. I did get a set of magnetic note holders for my daughter, all shaped like Mickey’s clothes, and a lovely 3D postcard to send to her.

Next was Ghiradellis for our free chocolate square (caramel – yum!), and to have a look around. But the call of the chocolate was too much, and we couldn’t help ourselves – we bought huge tubs of chocolate buttons for each of us! I also checked out the bags of squares, and the different bars too for picking up to take back home at some point.

We then explored the rest of the Island, taking in the Pin Trading store (I was SO determined not to get suckered into this pin purchasing lark – watch this space …….), the kitchen shop, and walking around to the Rainforest Café and the Earl of Sandwich, just for a look at them. These restaurants made us realise we were ready to eat, so we turned around and headed back to Planet Hollywood at this point. As the car was nearby, we dropped off our packages in the boot before going into PH.

PH was being refurbished externally, and looked a bit untidy, although I suppose that can’t be helped! There were big blue tarpaulins draped over the exterior, and lots of scaffolding around. We were seated really quickly, the place was very quiet and our server was, if anything, a little over-attentive. She did say that it was nice for her to have someone to serve, as they had been quiet all day, but this meant that she kept coming over and asking us if we were alright – which is nice, occasionally! DS and I shared a turkey club sandwich, mum and dad shared a grilled Tuscan chicken sandwich, and DB had his own Tuscan chicken sandwich! We all had soft drinks (apart from DB, who had a beer in a souvenir glass) – I had pink lemonade, which I really love, and again is something we can’t get in the UK. I like the fact that as soon as you are two thirds of the way through your drink, the server immediately gives you another full glass, although that always makes me feel like I have to finish each glass out of politeness, which can leave you feeling a bit floaty inside!

When we were all done in there, and had had a good look around at the movie props, we went outside to discover yet more rain. A family discussion therefore ensued, resulting in mutual agreement to go to the cinema to watch Ratatouille, a film that was not yet out in the UK. What a fantastic film! We all really enjoyed this, and will definitely get it on DVD when it is released. It is lots of fun, and kept us all entertained throughout.

After the film we were all quite tired, and decided it was time to return to the villa, exhausted but with the prospect of Ghiradelli chocolate buttons to sustain us!!

COMING SOON : MELTDOWN DAY! :(

DAY SEVEN – FRIDAY 5 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Drop mum & dad at airport, Epcot for fireworks

ACTUAL – This was the day that mum and dad were flying over to Dallas to visit my brother and his family for the weekend, so we knew whatever we did today would have to be planned around dropping them off at the airport around 6.00 p.m. We then planned for the 3 of us remaining to go to Epcot to watch the fireworks tonight.

We got up reasonably early, and decided to go to Denny’s for breakfast. This was only our second trip so far, and we had been here for a week! We had a lovely time, again doing the Slam variation thing, which was as tasty as usual. I love this place.

This was one of the rare occasions when we had taken both vehicles, as DB and I had planned to go and get him some new trainers from one of the Nike outlet stores after breakfast. Therefore, when we were finished eating, we told everyone else that we were off shopping, and I said we probably wouldn’t be more than a couple of hours. DB said that whatever we did, we would be back at the villa by 5.00 p.m. at the latest, as we were due to leave for the airport at about 5.30 p.m.

DS had been given the option of coming with us, but decided she wanted to stay with mum instead, as mum was a bit nervous about flying up to Dallas. So they went off home, and we set off for the Nike Clearance store nearby. In typical man style, DB bought the first two pairs of trainers he saw, so we were done in there fairly quickly! I mentioned I quite fancied visiting the Osh Kosh store, as I have been in there about 8 years before to pick up some dungarees (overalls? Coveralls??), which I loved and was still wearing after all this time. I wanted to see what else they had. However, when we got there, we discovered that this particular branch only sells children’s clothing now, so that was a bit of a waste of time.

We went back outside so DB could have a cigarette and we could discuss our next move. By this point, it was only 11.00 a.m. and neither of us particularly felt ready to go back to the villa. We also felt slightly frustrated that we had been in Florida for a week already and had hardly been to the Disney parks at all, unlike the last time we were here when we been ‘commando’ and had done everything in just the one week we were here for! So we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom for a couple of hours or so. Unfortunately, we had no way of communicating this to the folks, but then we had said we would be back by 5, so we reckoned that would be okay.

We headed over there, parked up, caught the tram, and were soon wallowing in the glorious Halloween atmosphere! We decided to do a couple of things that only we wanted to do while we were on our own, as we felt bad about making the rest of the family hang around for us while we did these things at some point. Therefore, we went to the barbers for DB to get his first Disney haircut. They did a great job, styling it in a way he hasn’t had it before, and it looked really lovely! He turned down the offer of glitter sprinkles and coloured gel though, which I thought was a bit of a shame.

Next we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain, as this was something no-one else in the family wanted to do. It was showing a wait time of 30 mins, but we were through in a very short time. It was really good fun, although maybe a bit more jolty than I remember! I really hope they never change this to be in line with other SMs, i.e. turning upside down and with loud music, as I wouldn’t be able to ride it if it was any faster or scarier. After that we decided to give Buzz Lightyear a go, and bought our ride photo as it showed both of us looking intensely serious and concentrating really hard on scoring points, and was quite funny. We skipped Monsters Inc as we knew the rest of the family wanted to do this, and instead went on the Wedway/People Mover/TTA, which we both really love. Then we went over to Fantasyland as I had a sudden attack of Small World-itus, which we had to do something about! Whilst on this ride, we spotted Pinocchio’s Village Haus, which was looking good, and thought we would see what time it was when we got off the ride.

However, by this time it was around 3.30 and even though we were hungry, we realised we didn’t have time to stop and eat as we knew it would take us about an hour and a half to get back through MK, to the car, and back to the villa, so we left. Unfortunately, the parade was on and Main Street was almost at a complete standstill! We battled our way through, and got the monorail back to the car park.

We arrived back at the villa at 5 minutes to 5, and this is where it all went wrong. As we walked through the door, my dad’s first words to me were “we were just about to ring for a taxi!”. I asked why, and was promptly assaulted with “where have you been? We thought you were dead in a ditch! You said you wouldn’t be long, we thought we would be spending the rest of the holiday visiting you in hospital!” and words to that effect. After a good 10 minutes of being solidly told off by my parents as though I was 5 years old (bear in mind I have two grown-up children!), and not being given chance to explain where we had been and why, we offered to immediately take them to the airport (even though we would have been very early for their flight!). They insisted they weren’t going until 5.30. Honestly, it was just awful – we had had a good day out, but were made to feel really guilty for doing so. We tried to remind them that we had told them we would be back by 5, but no-one seemed to be able to remember us saying this, and besides which they were more interested in just yelling at us.

Anyway, we left for the airport shortly after that, again with no-one talking to each other, and when we got there we went for (silent) coffee. Still stonily, mum and dad departed through customs to get their flight, and we drove in silence to Epcot. When we got there, my DS snarled that she would meet us back at the entranceway at 9, and stomped off into the distance. To top it all, it was flaming raining again. And we were STARVING, having not eaten since breakfast.

We spent a fruitless hour looking for her, (during which time she was riding Soarin’ and having a great time – grrrr!!), and then gave up and went to the Electric Umbrella for chicken strips, fries and coffee. We walked up towards the lagoon to watch the fireworks, but as we got there DB said he was going back to the entrance to meet DS as she had said she would be there at 9. I told him she wouldn’t be there, that she would be watching the fireworks somewhere, but he was insistent on going back for her. Well, needless to say, she wasn’t there, she was watching the fireworks, and I had to watch them on my own while he looked for her (again!). He finally got back to me just as they were finishing, and that was the point at which WE fell out, having been ‘us against them’ all day. Great. So now no-one at all is talking to me. This just gets better and better.

We went back to the entrance, bickering all the way, and she eventually turned up and we began the drive home in silence. We stopped at a 7-11 on the way back so DB could get some cigarettes, at which point they began talking to each other and made up – so now it was just me no-one was talking to! Aargh!! Anyway, we finally sorted out our differences and made friends again, but this was by no means the end of the family rows ……

COMING SOON : Day 8 - MGM & Fantasmic :D

Sorry about the bummer day. It's so hard to meet everyone's expectations without your own holiday suffering...especially when dealing with the adults!!

Hope the next installment is a happy one!

(Hi Tina, thanks for reading and glad you are enjoying this! I love writing it, it brings it all back to me.)

DAY EIGHT – SATURDAY 6 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – None, yet!

ACTUAL – So now we were three. We got up and over morning coffee discussed what to do today. DS said she fancied MGM, which we were both happy to do, although I did point out that mum and dad would want to go there at some point and might be upset that we had gone without them. DS said that it would be okay, as we would all go together at some point (note : as I predicted, mum pulled a bit of a face afterwards when we told her we had been to MGM without them, and we never did have the courage to tell them we also saw Fantasmic that night!!). So, off we set.

We got there, parked the car, and caught the tram to the front gate. It was a nice day, and we were excited to be there! We walked slowly down towards the Great Movie Ride, having decided to go on that first, and just enjoyed being there and soaking up the atmosphere. There were groups of street performers around, which is always fun to watch. GMR was really great, although we never seem to get anything other than the gangster ride now; however, we still had fun, and we love the movie clips at the end.

This was a very relaxing and fun day, with more time taken just looking around than actually doing rides and shows. We did take in Muppets 3D, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, the Backlot Tour, and Star Tours (which my DS had never done before, and really loved). We didn’t do Tower of Terror or the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, as we were all a bit wary of these two rides and didn’t feel brave enough to do them today. We also ‘saved’ some stuff, such as Lights, Motors, Action, and the Animation Tour, for when the whole family was together.

We also stopped a couple of times for quite lengthy breaks at the Backlot Express, where we had coffee and cold drinks. We spent an inordinate amount of time at one point making little bride and groom figures from an empty water bottle, a Styrofoam coffee cup, some napkins and a couple of straws – for no reason other than that it was fun! We took a photo of our creation, then left it sitting on the table for someone else to discover (although to be honest, it was probably just thrown away without anyone else knowing what a delightful work of art it was …..).

One thing we did notice today was that the Osborne Family Lights had begun to be put up in earnest around the park. I hate to sound like a killjoy, as I have seen these things lit before and they are amazing, but to see them plastered all over the buildings and towering into the skies at this time, without the benefit of them being lit at night, was dreadful – I found them unsightly, and thought that they detracted extremely from the splendour and atmosphere of the buildings. I know they take a long time to put up, and therefore probably need to be done from the beginning of October, but I really didn’t like them at all. The ones on the buildings were a mass of criss-crossing wires all over the fascias, and the displays on top of buildings were huge steel structures, which we found really off-putting.

Eventually, at about 7.15 p.m. we made our way over to the Fantasmic theatre, and quite easily found seats. We left my sister guarding our spot, and DB and I went off in search of refreshments. At the food stalls at the top of the theatre, we bought hot dogs (which were really tasty!), coffee, and bottles of soda.

Footnote : on our first day in Florida, we bought a pack of 24 small bottles of water, and then each night we would put some in the freezer and some in the fridge, so that the next morning each person had a choice of frozen or cold water to take out with them. We would then top these up from the water fountains as we went round each park, and this saved us an absolute fortune in not having to buy drinks all the time. The only exception was at lunchtimes, when we would buy coffee, tea or chocolate milk (for me – yummy!). After a couple of days of this, we got bored with plain water so started adding some little packets of flavourings to the water – pink lemonade, ordinary lemonade, cherry, etc. We would carry these bottles around the park in a coolbag, which we would put on the back of the wheelchair my mum was having each day (she has had a knee replacement, and it was giving her a bit of trouble with all the walking we were doing). HOWEVER – on the weekend that we were effectively ‘parent-less’, we couldn’t be bothered to carry them around with us, and were also heartily fed up with the taste of just water, so we spent loads of money buying bottles of soda as we went! Bad, I know, but we knew we would go back to the water once mum and dad were back with us.

Anyway, we settled down to watch Fantasmic, and it was wonderful. DB had only seen this once before, in 2001, and it was raining at the time – he wears glasses, and therefore couldn’t see anything through his misted up and rained on lenses! Therefore, he really enjoyed it this time, as he was able to see the whole thing. The music is lovely, and really helps to build up the storyline.

Once this was over, we went back to the villa to get some much needed sleep!

COMING SOON : Magic Kingdom without the parents!

Great report so far! Isn't it funny that no matter how old you are, your parents will always be your parents. They feel they need to control our lives even when they don't mean to. But we still love them just the same! I am anxious to hear about the rest of the trip and if the weather got any better. I am feeling guilty as we just came back a few days ago and never saw a raindrop. We were so lucky.

Looking forward to reading more!!!

Ah, Silvercat, much better day, no? I love Fantasmic. It's my favorite night show in all WDW!

First of all, please accept my apologies for the length of time it is taking me to post this report - I am doing this at work, wrong I know, but am having to do it all in between bits of work so it will take a while! Thanks for your patience, and I hope it is worth the wait.

DAY NINE – SUNDAY 7 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Magic Kingdom

ACTUAL – Aside : yesterday, having sworn not to get sucked into the whole pin buying / trading scenario, I succumbed and bought a gorgeous pink lanyard whilst at MGM. I didn’t want to trade, but thought I should maybe start buying one or two pins of parks we had been to, rides I loved, etc. I also got my first pin, an MGM Studios one, and a pink Mickey ears pin with a golden sparkly crown on it. Additionally, I bought a Sorcerer Mickey lanyard medal, which is really nice. I decided to look for pins generally as we visited places, not become obsessed but just to take a small interest. Hmm. Well, that resolve didn’t last long, and before I knew it I was obsessively searching every shop and pin station we walked past, in parks, Downtown, everywhere we went!! Eventually I ended up with a whole lanyard full of pins, from the special Epcot 25 Anniversary one (with Tinkerbelle on it – cute!), Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom 2007, MGM, two Pirates of the Caribbean (by accident – forgot I had one, and bought another!!), the pink Mickey ears one, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Sea World, and a NASA one from Kennedy Space Centre. There are probably one or two others that I can’t remember right now! I looked for but didn’t manage to find one for DisneyQuest, and Downtown Disney – don’t know if they even do them, but I really don’t want to get into the realms of searching e-bay and paying lots of money for them, so will just be happy with what I’ve got.

So today we were heading for the Magic Kingdom, again without the parents. This made for a totally different day than we had been having, as both my DS and my DB seemed quite happy just to follow my leadership and go where I thought we should go all day!

We began the day in our newly traditional way, with Mickey ears rice krispie bars for breakfast, and ate them sitting on a bench slightly off Main Street, while we talked about our plans for the day. The weather by now had become glorious, with no rain at all either yesterday or today, which made a difference to our mood.

The decision was made just to wander around the park from land to land, taking in whatever rides we fancied along the way. We began in Tomorrowland and did the usual things we had done before – TTA, Buzz, etc., then circled round the park. The only different thing we did today was to have a Dole Whip when we got to Adventureland – yum!

We really wanted to see both Wishes and the Spectromagic parade; the parade was advertised as being on at 8.00 p.m. and 10.00 p.m., with Wishes in between at 9.00 p.m. We pottered about having fun until about 8.40 p.m., when we made our way to what we thought would be a good viewing spot for Wishes (the smoking area just off Main Street by the Plaza Ice Cream Parlour and Restaurant). Unfortunately, this was not the best place to stand, we discovered, as there were a couple of trees blocking the view, but nevertheless we really enjoyed the fireworks and watched Tink fly over our heads!

At the end of Wishes, most people appeared to be leaving the park. We slowly walked down Main Street through the shops, taking our time and having a good look at stuff, and by the time we emerged at the bottom end of Main Street there was hardly anyone around! We were able to actually stand at the curb opposite the train station with no-one in front of or behind us! This has never happened to me before, I have always been either behind at least one row of people in front of me or with loads of people behind me, pushing to see past me. The parade music started up, and we expected to be there for ages, thinking that it started somewhere else and would finish near us so we would have to wait for it to go around the whole park before it got to us. However, we had a pleasant surprise when the floats and dancers emerged from near the fire station and came towards us first! This was so good, because it meant that once everything had passed us, we could leave ahead of what was left of the crowds still lining Main Street. I had forgotten how stirring the parade music was, and our favourite bit is when the float lights all turn white together, and the music reaches its peak. Lovely!

We finally got back to the car about 11 p.m., very tired but having had a really great day, and headed home to fall into bed. The villa is on a gated community, and every time we drive through late at night the security guard says “welcome home”, which is so nice, and makes us feel really welcome!

DAY TEN – MONDAY 8 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – DisneyQuest, collect parents from airport

ACTUAL – We got up earlier than expected this morning, considering what a late night we had had yesterday. We were all quite hungry, so headed for Dennys for breakfast, which was really great, as usual.

After breakfast, we drove to Downtown Disney, parking as near to the far end as we could so that we wouldn’t have far to walk to get to DisneyQuest. My DS had never been in here, and I had raved about the place for so long that she was quite excited about our visit.

However – what a disappointment! I hadn’t been there for 6 years, admittedly, but I was sure it was more exciting than this last time! There weren’t many people in there, but the few that were there seemed to be hogging the only good things to do, and it was difficult to get onto some of the games. The Buzz Lightyear game was farcical – our car picked up balls but wouldn’t fire them, someone else complained their car wouldn’t move around, another person couldn’t even pick up the balls, it was a total waste of time. The cast members seemed at a loss to know what to do about it, and just kept wandering around prodding at the cars.

We had fun on a racing motorbikes game, but were unable to get onto the pinball games – people had set themselves up on each machine and wouldn’t move off them. We also had a slight issue with the air hockey – a young lad (unsupervised!) was gathering up all the pucks and heaping them onto one machine. I don’t know why he was doing this, but we had to almost insist that we be allowed to take a puck back and use a machine.

I remember there being more arcade machines than this last time, I couldn’t seem to find ones I had played on before, and the whole place just seemed really tacky and underused. I can understand why it will be closed down in the New Year.

We had a go on Cyberspace Mountain, but found it a little boring, and then decided it was time for coffee and cheesecake, which was nice (although the cheesecake was a bit too sweet, and too large a portion really). We sent cyber postcards to a couple of people whilst doing this, then discussed what to do next. We were bored of the place by then, so decided to give up and leave. None of us fancied tackling the queues for any of the VR stuff, and the noise and bustle of the place was beginning to get too much, so we had a quick look around the store at the end, and left. I didn’t find a DisneyQuest pin there (although the cast members assured me that they did make them!).

We walked over to the marketplace, sampling Ghirardelli’s on the way, and had a look at the pin station to see what was there, but didn’t buy anything. After that we just kind of hung around there until it was time to head out for the airport to collect mum and dad.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, so decided to have a look around the shops there too. In the UK we have lots of branches of a store called Lush, which sells soap, bath products, etc., and is one of my favourite stores. Imagine my surprise at finding a branch at Orlando International Airport! I had to go in and have a look around, to compare with the UK shops and to see if there was anything in there that I hadn’t seen in the UK. There wasn’t, but one difference I did notice (and this sounds rather stupid) was that all the products were paler in colour than in the UK – how odd. Prices were comparable, and the product range was much the same. I had my photo taken outside to prove we had been there!

Next we had a mooch around the Kennedy Space Centre shop. This place was amazing, I was really excited to be there, as I am a space nut and was desperately looking forward to visiting the Centre itself while we were in Florida. I found a fantastic leather bomber jacket with space shuttle patches on it for an incredibly cheap price – I was expecting it to be 3 or 4 hundred dollars, but it was marked up at $69. I asked the assistant if that was the right price, as it seemed way too cheap, and she confirmed it was! Before we came on holiday my daughter had given me some money for my birthday, and my DB had also promised me he would buy me a late birthday present from Kennedy, so I couldn’t pass this jacket up, especially when I tried one on and it fitted perfectly and looked sooooooo cool!! I didn’t want to leave it until we actually went to Kennedy to get one, just in case they didn’t have one there (in the end, they did!), so I decided to buy it. I also saw a gorgeous Apollo patch for sale, which was a very large general Apollo patch surrounded by all the mission patches, which were attached to the large one. However, I said I would think about getting this from Kennedy, as I had already made one impulse buy of the day!

We then made our way to the flight information board to check the status of mum and dad’s flight, and it was now showing it was going to be delayed by over an hour (due to bad weather in Dallas, although we didn’t know that at the time). So we just hung around the lounge, chatting and watching the world go by, until the flight finally arrived.

Mum and dad had had a really good time with my brother and his family, and they told us all about their short break as we drove back to the villa. We stopped on the way and picked up KFC (Taco Bell again for me – I love these and, once again, not available in the UK!), getting back to the villa around 9.00 p.m.

DAY ELEVEN – TUESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – MGM

ACTUAL – Our first day at MGM with the whole family present, we began the day with nice, cold fruit from the food area on Sunset Boulevard.

The first thing we did after breakfast was to watch the Beauty & the Beast show (which was so sweet, and, as usual, made us girlies cry!). We got to the theatre whilst an acapella group of four guys were singing, and they were fun. I thought they were probably “Four for a Dollar”, whom I had read about on the ‘net, and that turned out to be right. We enjoyed them, but wished we had caught their set from the beginning, as it looked as though they had come on pretending to be technicians or something.

We covered the same things we had done on our day there alone (Great Movie Ride, Backlot Tour, Muppets, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Star Tours etc), and also saw the new Lights, Motors, Action show. Myself and my DB had already seen this in Disneyland Paris, but the rest of the family hadn’t, and we all really enjoyed it – it is a great show, really exciting and fast paced. I would recommend this to anyone. After this we went into the Animation Tour to have a look round. I hadn’t been in here for a really long time, not since it was a working studio, and it had changed a lot. There really isn’t much to see or do in here any more, it used to be much more interesting than this.

One highlight of this place though – as we walked in, Emile from Ratatouille was doing a meet and greet thing! Unbelievably, dad pushed myself and my DS toward the queue, saying “go on girls, get your photo taken with Emile!” as though we were five years old. However, more unbelievably, we both shrieked with delight and ran towards the queue for the rat!! When it was our turn to meet him, my DS was a bit reticent as she was a bit embarrassed to be doing this, but I was really excited and ran towards him like a small child with my arms out to give him a hug! He gave me a huge hug back, and kept kissing the top of my head (making little kissy noises every time he did!). He was really, really cute, fluffy and furry and fat! We played around with him for a while, while dad and DB took photos, and I told him that he was my favourite in the film, far better than Remy, for which he kissed me again! This was loads of fun, made really special by an excellent rat character. As my DS and I walked back towards my family, though, an odd thing happened – the character went over to his cast member ‘minder/photographer’ and talked to him, gesturing towards us as he did so. The cast member nodded, and gave him a thumbs up. I have no idea what this was about!

I really wanted to have a look at the Narnia exhibit, which we hadn’t seen, and One Man’s Dream, but by this time we were overtaken by the heat and crowds, so made the decision to leave the park. It was not far from closing time by now, anyway.

One last cast around of the pin station near the entrance, and back home for rest and relaxation!

COMING SOON : Kennedy Space Centre!!

DAY TWELVE – WEDNESDAY 10 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Kennedy Space Centre

ACTUAL – This was a day I had been particularly looking forward to, as I had never visited the Space Centre before. The day dawned hot and sunny, and we got up particularly early, picked up the packed lunch we had made the night before, and set off for the east coast.

In less than an hour, we pulled up in the car park. I could see rockets and a space shuttle! We hadn’t bought tickets in advance for this day, as I had checked out the ticket prices on the ‘net and it wouldn’t have saved us any money by doing this; however, we did have some coupons from a booklet we had picked up from Publix that saved us $3 per person, which basically took care of the tax. We then discovered that the tickets would entitle us to a free revisit within 7 days, so once we saw how much there was to do there, we were very keen to go back again, since we knew we couldn’t possibly cover everything in just one day.

We went towards the bus stop to get the bus tour, and an official-looking woman told us to stand still, stand together, and remove all glasses or sunglasses. We were all slightly panicked by this, as we assumed it was some sort of security thing, but it turns out we were posing for a souvenir photo! I was a bit cross at this, as she didn’t make this clear at all, and the resulting photo showed us all squinting in the sun and trying not to smile. I know we didn’t HAVE to buy the photo, but we did anyway, as it was the only one we had of us all together. I just wish she had told us what it was for, then we would all have smiled at the very least!

Anyway, onto the bus we got, and we were soon on our way to the first stop. I can’t remember what order we saw things in, but I do know that we saw some amazing sights. The space shuttle STS-120 was on one of the launch pads, which was exciting to see; we saw a flock of vultures at one point (the bus driver told us all to “look alive!”); we watched a 3D film narrated by Tom Hanks about missions to the moon; we saw a Saturn 5 rocket (used to launch some of the Apollo missions), and were completely speechless at the sight – you just cannot imagine the sheer size of this rocket, it defies description. We stopped for our picnic at some point, enjoying sandwiches filled with a variety of tasty fillings picked up from Publix, plus boiled eggs, tiny tomatoes, crisps etc. We did buy hot drinks, so I didn’t feel quite so guilty about taking our own food!

Because we spent so much time on the bus trip, there were still lots of things left to see and do at the main base, and there was also the Astronaut Hall of Fame 6 miles away, so by the time we arrived back at the base it was only about 1 hour away from closing time. We wandered around the Rocket Garden a bit, getting very excited at seeing the actual walkway that the Apollo 11 team had walked across to get into their capsule, and being able to walk on it ourselves (pretending to be Neil and Buzz and Michael!). We also had a quick look around the shop, which is 2 stories high and filled with loads of exciting stuff to buy! I got a pair of oven mitts shaped like astronaut gloves, a space food ice cream cookie for my daughter, a NASA pin (surprise, surprise!!), a gorgeous pink sweatshirt for me and a navy blue one for DB, a t-shirt for him that talks about rocket science and is very funny, and a shot glass for the friend that drove us to the airport originally.

We left as the Centre was closing, and agreed that we would all come back again within the next 7 days.

We began the drive home, and I reached for the emergency packet of Cheetos I had left in the car – I had been looking forward to these all day. As I opened the packet, mum said “you can’t eat those now!” I wondered what was wrong with them, so asked why. I was then told that if I ate those now, I wouldn’t eat my tea! Now bear in mind I have grown up children, so am hardly a ‘spring chicken’ any longer, surely that would qualify me for being able to make up my own mind about a) when I could eat a packet of Cheetos, and b) whether or not I wanted any tea that night!! I had to laugh at the time, although it did make me a bit cross. Mothers!!

I dropped off to sleep in the car after a while, as it had been a long, exciting day, and we had been up early. Suddenly I awoke to the sound of my dad (who was driving) laughing and

Anyway, we got back to the villa, and yes, I did eat my tea! What a lovely day we had had though, I enjoyed it so much. Kennedy had lived up to my expectations and then some.

COMING SOON : Water Park arguments!

Sorry, forgot to finish the line about my dad laughing. I woke up to discover that we had inadvertantly shot through a toll booth without paying! Apparently, the sun was really low and in his eyes, and he didn't see which lane he was in at the time, but it turned out he was in the Sunpass lane (or something like that), so we just belted through, setting off an alarm! We felt really guilty about it, but there was nothing we could do. We just made sure we didn't do it again - sorry, America!! :rolleyes:

Again, great report, I look forward to reading about your water park adventures!

DAY THIRTEEN – THURSDAY 11 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Water Park

ACTUAL – Today we had planned to go to one of the water parks. However, during the night I hadn’t felt well at all, and kept waking up feeling nauseous. When we finally got up at around 7.00 a.m. I felt as if I hadn’t slept all night, so I went downstairs to tell the rest of the family to carry on without us, as DB wanted to stay home too to be with me. Unfortunately, although mum was very sympathetic at first, she didn’t tell DS that I wasn’t well, just that we weren’t going to the water park with them. I did say that if I felt better later, we would drive over and join them, but DB wasn’t overly keen on going anyway as he is not a big fan of water and sand, or sitting around pools in the sun all day. (Although having said that, he had never been to a water park, so didn’t really know what else there was to do there, or how much fun the pools could be).

Anyway, they left, a bit huffily, and after a couple of hours resting I finally felt better enough to go out. DB decided to give it a go, so we changed into swimsuits and loose clothing, and headed for Typhoon Lagoon, where the rest of the family were. We parked really easily, so reckoned the park probably wasn’t too busy, but once we got in there I remembered just how big these places are! Mum and dad could have been ANYWHERE! We walked around for about half an hour, looking for them, but couldn’t see them at all, so decided to just dump our stuff somewhere in the shade and go into the wave pool. We spent about an hour in there, having a great time, then decided to have a drift around the lazy river.

As we queued by one of the jetties for a rubber ring, my dad came strolling towards us! We saw him, and chatted for a couple of minutes, then mum got out of the river just by us so we chatted to her too. They seemed fine, I explained I was feeling better, and said we would see them later. Off we floated for another hour or so, really enjoying ourselves (we saw two snakes – one swimming by the side and trying desperately to get out of the water, and one just sunning itself on the concrete border by the river!).

We were feeling a bit hungry at this point, so got out to go and have some of the picnic lunch we had taken with us. After we’d eaten, DS just happened to be walking past us and I beckoned to her, as I hadn’t seen her to say hello to yet. I went over to her and smilingly said hello. She yelled at me. A lot. Apparently, mum was now feeling that we obviously didn’t want to spend any time with them because we had arrived late and not sat by them. She had ranted on at length about this to DS, who was by now feeling very cheesed off with us. Pardon?? What just happened here? After standing there in shock for a few minutes while she got this out of her system, I left DB sitting on his own looking bewildered for a bit, and stomped off (as best you can on sand!) round to where mum and dad were sitting to sort this out with them.

Typical. It was all a complete misunderstanding. Even though I had told mum I wasn’t well and might not even go out today, but that if I did feel better we would come and find them, even though if we had wanted to be on our own today we could have gone ANYWHERE else, including Blizzard Beach, even if we had wanted to be on our own and had actually told them this, despite all that – they had still come to the conclusion that we didn’t want to be with them. *sigh* What can you do.

Anyway, once that was sorted out we all went into the wave pool again for some splashy fun. Mum and I sat on the wall for a bit with just our feet in the water, and were taken totally by surprise when the wave washed over our feet, smacked the wall underneath us, and shot up our backs and over our heads!! Once we were all speaking to each other again, we had a really good time. A couple more laps around the lazy river, and then it was time to rinse off and head home for a good shower, as we were eating out tonight.

On the way home, we saw a huge Golden Eagle sitting in a field at the side of the road! He was magnificent, and not something you see every day!

We had decided to eat at Golden Corrall tonight, as we really liked their buffet last time we were here, and DB had never been so he was quite keen to try it. They had changed it slightly, there wasn’t any fried scampi, and there seemed to be less choices than before, but despite that we really enjoyed the food and had a great time.

By the time we got back to the villa again we were completely shattered! A day at the water park will do that to you, even though you think you are having a relaxing time it can be quite wearing. We fell into bed and were soon asleep.

DAY FOURTEEN – FRIDAY 12 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Epcot

ACTUAL – another Epcot day dawned bright, hot, and sunny. This was to be the day we all tried Soarin, and myself and DB went on Mission Space for the first time! We had planned this to be a fairly laid-back day today, as we knew we were coming back to Epcot in the next few days to catch David Cassidy in one of the ‘Eat to the Beat’ concerts.

We had managed to finally persuade dad to come on Soarin with us, although it was a very lengthy wait this time (advertised at 50 mins, increased to 75 while we were waiting). He absolutely loved it! (I knew he would!!). He couldn’t get over the just fantastic sights, sounds and scents as we swooped over California. He especially liked the snowy mountain bits, and the bit towards the end when you go over Disneyland. It was even more fun this time, because dad was able to share it with us.

We did the usual – picked up fastpasses for Test Track for myself, DB and mum, went on Ellen’s Energy Adventure, Living with the Land, the Living Seas with Nemo (which was actually rather a boring ride, and not worth the 20 minute wait to go on), then began our walk around the World. We saw some amazing acrobats in China, generally pottered about, ate chicken strips in the Electric Umbrella, and finally went to do Test Track – horrors, it was down! We waited for about 10 mins but then the CM told us to come back later, and they would honour the fast passes. So then – dum, dum, dum : MISSION SPACE!! (Just the two of us). I was terrified. I had read so much stuff on the ‘net about how scary this could be, and bearing in mind I suffer from motion sickness and really hate anything fast and scary, I was a nervous wreck! I kept telling myself that Uncle Walt wouldn’t do anything to hurt me (hmm – Tower of Terror, anyone?), and that if it was that bad it was only going to last a few minutes, but once we had got through all the warnings and instructions and were actually standing on our ‘spots’ waiting to board, I was like a frightened rabbit and ready to bolt at the slightest opportunity. We had opted for the Green side, and once we got into the simulator I began to calm down a little. I am so glad I didn’t chicken out of this ride, because I LOVED it! It was really fantastic! So exciting, and amazing, and so much fun! We immediately fell in love with this ride, and vowed to get DS on it, because if she could do Star Tours then she could do Mission Space. We actually thought it was less bumpy than Star Tours, and way, way more fun!

We skipped back towards where we were meeting the folks, deciding to pick up an ice-cream on the way. We had been here for two weeks and hadn’t had an ice-cream cookie sandwich yet! I was quite excited at the idea of one of these, so when I got to the front of the queue, bouncing up and down in a Tigger-like fashion, I asked for two cookie sandwiches in the manner of an animated 5 year old. The cast member serving said he had never seen anyone quite so excited at the prospect of a cookie sandwich, and therefore he was making me a VIP Guest and giving me a Magical Moment. I politely said thank you, wondering what one of these was. It turns out I got a free ice-cream! I only had to pay for one sandwich, and he gave me a certificate too that he signed to say I got a Magical Moment! What a sweetie he was, that was a lovely thing to do! (Although DS was less than pleased, as I had previously promised to share a funnel cake with her but had forgotten this when I got the ice-cream – oops!).

Eventually, we went back to Test Track (although mum was tired by now and didn’t want to go back again), and we got on with no problems at all; it was great fun, as usual.

Looking back on this day now, I am disappointed that we didn’t do more – I would have liked to have gone on Journey into Your Imagination, played with the dancing waters, and we still hadn’t been into Club Cool yet. I was keen to see the changes from when it was Ice Station Cool. Once again we hadn’t tried any of the food or drink from the Festival, we’d just done the usual thing of eating in the Electric Umbrella, which is lovely, but nothing new.

We didn’t stay for Illuminations, as mum and dad were tired by around 7.00 p.m., so we left and went back to the villa for a reasonably early night.

COMING SOON : Another Magic Kingdom day & Captain Jack Sparrow!

Glad you were feeling better so you could enjoy the water park later in the day. Families are funny sometimes. Communication is always the key to getting along and for some reason, families sometimes lack this skill. I'm glad you all can talk it out and make up and move on! Very important in a long vacation far away from home! Can't wait to read more!

DAY FIFTEEN – SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Magic Kingdom

ACTUAL – Today was a really fun day. The family all got on well, we had a laugh, and were very flexible about what everyone wanted to do. The weather was glorious, hot and sunny, with no clouds in the sky and a slight breeze to cool us a little.

This was also the day that we were going to watch the parades, fireworks etc., so we fitted in slightly less rides and were a bit more relaxed about our walk around the park.

We did the usual thing of beginning in Tomorrowland, packing mum and dad off to the Carousel of Progress while we three did Buzz, then the TTA with all of us. We then went to Toontown for a quick look around, and caught the WDW Railroad for a circular route around the park (which was very pretty!). Next was Fantasyland, where we picked up fastpasses for Peter Pan, then did Small World and Mickey’s Philharmagic (which was new to us and we really loved! Loads of fun!). Peter Pan time rolled around, so we did this, then went to Winnie the Pooh’s ride. Unfortunately, while we were on this, DB’s sunburn (picked up at the water park two days ago, despite it being mostly cloudy and him being covered in suncream) began to prickle and itch, because he was sweating in today’s humidity and heat. We toyed with the idea of his going back to the villa, but then he would have had to come back again to fetch us later, and he was in too much discomfort to concentrate on driving. Then dad came up with the suggestion of visiting the First Aid Centre to see if they could help – brilliant idea!

I went with DB back over to the hub, then just round the corner from Casey’s to the First Aid Centre. They were lovely – they gave DB a gel to gently smooth over his shoulders and back, and a couple of painkillers, plus put us in a small, private room so that we could treat his skin. After a couple of minutes, he was feeling loads better. They gave us a second set of painkillers and gel for later, we signed a form, thanked them profusely, and headed back out to the park. We decided to go to the smoking area near the Plaza Ice Cream Parlour so he could have a cigarette, and while we were there I called up the folks on the walkie talkies. They were just round the corner from us, so came over to meet us. We then decided to stay there and get some lunch. DB was feeling a bit embarrassed by the fuss he had made, but everyone was really understanding – he had been in pain, and extremely uncomfortable!

I walked over to Casey’s with dad, as everyone fancied hot-dogs. I was the only one to have something different, and I opted for the corn dog bites, which were gorgeous – I wish I had had these before, I love corn dogs and these were just tiny, bite-size pieces. Yummy!

After this, we went over to Pirates to sail the seven seas again (via a pineapple Dole Whip!), and as we approached the ride building, we saw loads of people clustered around to the side. They were watching some children participating in a mock sword fight with – wait for it – CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW himself!! The actor was incredible, he had got the accent and mannerisms absolutely spot on! There were a lot of drooling adult (ladies!) watching the show, and the Captain and his Mate were very funny and entertaining. They were encouraging each child to distract Captain Jack by shouting “Look! It’s the Governor’s daughter!” and then they were supposed to stab at him and run away. One small child managed to stab Captain Jack in rather a sensitive area, and as he groaned theatrically and doubled over, his Mate said “Ooh, he nearly turned you INTO the Governor’s daughter, then!”, to which Jack replied “Are we allowed to say that in Disney?”. Much laughter ensued from cast and audience alike!

We eventually ended up at the Haunted Mansion, and sent mum and dad off to ride the Liberty Belle while us three kids went on the Mansion. After that, it was time for the afternoon parade, so we got some cold drinks and lined up near in Liberty Square to watch. It was a lovely parade, although the sun was beating down on us ferociously by this time, and we were glad when it was over and we could head for some shade.

After a bit of shopping in the Christmas Store (and a quick cigarette behind there!), we decided to go into the Liberty Tree Tavern for something to eat. We hadn’t eaten there before, and thought the menu looked really good. We all had different things to eat, soup etc., and I had a gorgeous tuna sandwich, which I really enjoyed.

It was about 7.45 p.m. by the time we finished in there, so we hot-footed it over to the hub to watch Wishes, which was really lovely, and we were able to stand a lot more central this time, so didn’t miss anything.

Then we wandered down Main Street, browsing in the shops as we went, till we got to the bottom by the railway station, where we did exactly the same as we had done before and watched the late showing of Spectromagic with hardly anyone around us! As I was sitting on the kerb waiting for the show to start, I got chatting to a lovely lady sitting next to me who was from Idaho. She was really friendly, and it was good fun to pass the time by exchanging chat about our families, Disney, weather, the state of our respective countries, etc.! That’s one of the many things I really love about going to Disney, talking to other people who are there – they are always, without fail (in my experience), friendly, chatty, and interesting.

So the parade went by, and we loved it as usual. When we got back to the TTC, just as we were exiting the gates, I looked back towards the monorail and saw what looked at first like birds flitting about. However, it was dark, so after I alerted everyone else, we established that they were in fact bats! What a lovely end to yet another lovely Disney day.

COMING SOON : Epcot, David Cassidy, and yet MORE misunderstandings! :(

DAY SIXTEEN – SUNDAY 14 OCTOBER 2007

PLAN – Epcot, David Cassidy concert

ACTUAL – We planned to visit Epcot today specifically to catch one of the Eat to the Beat concerts that David Cassidy was performing (he was doing three shows a day for 3 days!). We also planned to do some other stuff that we hadn’t done yet – for example, we wanted to take DS on Mission Space, and I wanted to go on Imagination; mum and dad were keen to do Living Seas again, and we all wanted to visit Club Cool.

We got to the park quite late in the morning, and after all going on Soarin again (with the longest wait we had had so far!), we split up, with mum and dad heading for the Living Seas, and us picking up fastpasses for Test Track and then going straight to Mission Space. It was showing a 10 minute wait time for the green side, so we went in. DS loved it! I was so thrilled with this ride, I had to buy a pin (surprise, surprise!). When we came out, the wait time had increased slightly to 20 mins but we really wanted to go on again, so we ran straight back into the entrance and rode again. When we came out again, the wait time had increased to 240 minutes! I presume this was an error, as we couldn’t see a queue forming around the park!!

One note – DS seemed to think that a 50-60 minute wait for a ride was okay, and that if we went on it there and then, it was ‘out of the way’ then. I thought this was a ridiculous amount of time to wait for a ride, and would have much preferred to get fastpasses and come back later, but she kept saying that she didn’t want to have to come all the way back every time. In the interests of peace, I gave in and we would then waste inordinate amounts of time in queues. This, I feel, was why we didn’t actually go on many rides most days.

Our fastpass time for Test Track was now open, so we rode that. This is DB’s favourite ride out of all the rides at all the parks, he really loves this one. We then headed towards Mexico to take in the newly improved boat ride in there – hmm. We really don’t like this much, it is incredibly boring and lame, in our opinion. Even the new additions of the Three Caballeros couldn’t do much to jazz this up!

Next was Norway, where we battled the trolls on the Maelstrom, and after that we called dad on the walkie talkies to meet up with them again. We quite fancied doing the American Adventure, but noticed that people were already seated for the first David Cassidy show, so we told mum and dad to meet us in there, and went to get seats. It was already quite full, and we spotted disabled seating at the very back, so we assumed that was where mum and dad would go. Therefore, we got some seats towards the back, settled down, and awaited the arrival of the rest of the family. Three or four people sat next to us, before the family arrived and they then sat in the same row as us. We leaned around and said that we had assumed they would sit at the back, but they were a bit cross that we hadn’t saved them seats! Here we go again, I thought!

I was very disappointed with David Cassidy, myself. At the start he said he was going to do some Partridge Family stuff, which got me very excited as I love that stuff, but then he proceeded to do a rather bad ‘lounge singer’ show, setting all the songs to either jazzy or bluesy backings, chatting individually to all the people at the front (which was hardly interesting to the rest of us!), and basically acting as if he was ashamed of the songs he was doing. Before each song, he would talk about how bad this song was, and how he regretted having done it in the 70s. He seemed shambling and disorientated, couldn’t remember the lyrics to half the songs, and just seemed to basically ‘wing’ it all the way through. For example, he sang one particular song I used to love called “Summer Days”, and I could remember far more of the words than he could! He sang the first verse, then the chorus, forgot the rest, so just kept repeating the chorus over and over! Such a shame, as he was obviously a popular choice for the concert series – the theatre was full, and as we left people were starting to queue for the next show. There was also a lot of screaming from the women at the front of the theatre, and they seemed to be enjoying it, so maybe it was just me.

Anyway, as we left the theatre, mum said that dad wanted to leave fairly soon as, unbeknownst to us, he had fallen down a couple of stairs first thing this morning and had banged his hip, and it was hurting him a bit now. I said okay, and suggested that they continue round WS to visit Canada, as there was a new film in there now, and I thought they might like to see it. Meanwhile, we wanted to do a bit of shopping in Mouse Gear. After that, we could leave, if he still wanted to. DS snapped “okay!” at me, and turned and stomped off! I was left standing there bewildered, not knowing what had gone wrong. So myself and DB went over to do our shopping (although couldn’t find anything we were looking for in the end!), and met them again after about an hour. At which point mum beckoned me over to her, then clipped me up the back of the head and said “That’s for rolling your eyes when I told you your dad wanted to leave!”. WHAT?? I protested my innocence, I mean this is my DAD for heaven’s sake, I worship the ground he walks on, and if he was in pain I would have left immediately, if that was what he wanted to do! It then turns out that DS had thought she saw me rolling my eyes, and that was why she snapped at me. When I told her that I hadn’t, and that I was actually quite offended that she would think that of me, she couldn’t apologise enough (although it was too late by this point and I was feeling all hard done by!).

Anyway, ultimately we decided to stay and see Illuminations together, so we found a nice disabled viewing spot between the UK and Canada, and really enjoyed the show. I love this show, it is so moving, I love the music and the way the fireworks and lights are exactly in time with it.

We left the park at the end of Illuminations and headed back to the villa, with everyone being extra nice to each other in order to attempt to make up for the communication breakdown and perceived slights – again.

COMING SOON : Busch Gardens

More great installments! We love the hot dogs at Casey's also!

Can't wait to see what you thought of Busch Gardens, we love it there too!