Disney Feb 14 - Family Trip! Part 1

Intro and travel day

Some of you might remember that our most recent trip (Dec 13) was taken with Rob’s parents (Paul and Tracey). This time we were taking his brother (Kevin), his girlfriend (Sharna) and their 3 children (Blake 9, Leona 6 and Charlie 1.5) along with us as well!

We had booked a villa out on the US 27 – just next to the Tuscan Hills development. We were a little concerned about us all staying under one roof so had booked 2 cars to enable us to split up when we wanted.

Our flight was leaving from Gatwick on Saturday morning (1^st Feb) and we were flying with Virgin. We had booked one of the Premier Inn’s so that we could sleep in a little in the morning.

We all headed off and had an uneventful drive to the airport on Friday evening. We dropped the cars in the long stay car park and got the bus to the terminal.

We went to do twilight check-in and managed to get the seats moved around so that Kevin and Sharna got a skycot seat (although not the sky cot cos Charlie is too heavy) with the rest of us behind/across from them.

Bags all dropped off and we took the shuttle across to the North Terminal. Unfortunately by this time it had started (or restarted) raining heavily and we had to walk to the Premier Inn that is further away from the terminal :( We all got absolutely soaked in the few minutes we were outside :(

We were quickly checked in and all headed to our rooms for the night.

The next morning we got up and met for breakfast. Luckily the kids eat free (as they don’t eat much anyway) – and we paid £50 in total for the 9 of us.

Thankfully it wasn’t raining this morning so after breakfast we walked back across to the North Terminal before shuttling across to South for our flight.

We headed to security and went through the family lane – it is way quicker than normal security....! Who knew there was an advantage to having small people??

Through to the departure lounge we headed to the little play area that they have for kids. It kept Leona and Charlie entertained whilst Blake played games on his tablet. The adults took turns watching the kids whilst some small shopping was done. We were really trying to keep Charlie awake in the hope that he would sleep for a while on the plane.

Our gate was announced and by the time we got there they were already boarding families with small children so we headed on and got sorted out. We took off fairly promptly and the flight was jam packed full. The flight seemed to take forever though! Flight time was around 9 and a half hours – the kids were fairly good for the flight.

Charlie went to sleep and we made him a makeshift bed from pillows and blankets on the floor. He was asleep there for ages and then one of the cabin crew said he wasn’t allowed on the floor due to health & safety rules :( I guess they were concerned about someone standing on him but he was out of the way and comfy and once he was picked up he never really settled after that.

We finally arrived in Orlando and luckily were close to the front of the plane. Paul, Tracey, Rob and I used the new kiosks whilst the rest waited in the line. We got through really quickly and gathered up the luggage. Once the others got through we were ready to move on. The customs line was quite long but moved fast.

Onto the escalators which was fun with all the luggage but we were not doing the 2^nd bag drop! Down to the car hire collection and somehow we changed from minivans to 7 seater SUVs...! This is what happens when you send father and son to pick up the cars on their own!

Out to the cars, sat nav set up and off we went. We pretty much knew the way but just needed a little route guidance to get out of the airport.

About 50 mins later we arrived at the villa. We dropped everyone off and then Kev, Sharna, Rob and I headed straight to Wal-mart to get supplies. Once we were done we went back to the villa and off to bed!

Day 1 (2^nd Feb)

As expected this morning the kids woke up at around 5am. I had told everyone that if that happened they should get up and start getting ready (I wanted them to see the opening show at the Magic Kingdom). Rob and I were disturbed by all the noises but managed to stay in bed until 6...!

So the kids had breakfast and went swimming and finally everyone was dressed....takes so long! I told them all that we needed to be out of the villa by 8am but somehow despite the early start we weren’t out of the villa until at least 8.10 :(

By the time we got to the parking lot it was clear that we would miss the show, and we did in fact arrive at about 9.02 :(

We had encountered some issues on our last trip and had been offered some paper fast passes (3 per day) which I needed to collect from guest services (this became a regular errand at every park). So, I sent the rest on their way down Main Street whilst I got them.

Somehow they got distracted by the shops....Rob and I caught them up and we all had a photo on Main Street (unfortunately the crane features) before I directed them towards Fantasyland.

 

As we had stayed on-site in December some of us had Magicbands so I had prebooked fast passes. I sent the others on It's a Small World whilst I went to the kiosk to try and match up our picks. I did manage this and selected Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain and Tomorrowland Speedway for later.

Whilst we were in Fantasyland I decided to try and pick off a few of the smaller rides early. Although by now I think it was almost 10am. Peter Pan already had a crazy line (around 40 mins I think) so we used one of our paper fast passes - which they forgot to collect (and we didn't realise until we were off the ride).

We headed down towards Storybook Circus and hopped onto Pooh’s ride on the way past.

We got to Storybook circus and decided to split into 2 groups (as our fast passes were in groups of 5). Tracey, Kev, Sharna, Blake and Leona went on the Barnstormer whilst the rest of us took Charlie onto Dumbo.

We then decided to meet Goofy and Donald as they had about a 15 minute wait. Only 4 of us went in (Leona is afraid of characters) and the rest took a rest on the seats outside.

 

 

Once we got out we grabbed some frozen drinks and I think some people also had hot dogs before we headed towards Tomorrowland.

We arrive and took a quick spin on the Peoplemover – I know it’s not exciting but it is a nice little ride around the area :)

Afterward 5 of us went over to Buzz with another of our paper fast passes – and they forgot to take it off us again – I think the cast members are out of practice with the paper ones.

We were originally expecting the other to take a lunchtime break and head back to the villa. By now though I think it was about 12.30 and we had booked fast passes for 4ish so they decided to stay.

We walked across to Frontierland and got lunch in Pecos Bills. It was mega busy and it took ages to find a table but we eventually found 2 and grabbed our food.

 

Once we were done we decided to take a ride on the Jungle Cruise. I think we re-used some of our fast passes here because I’m sure we only waited a few minutes.

Whilst we were in the area we took a quick wander around the Treehouse whilst Tracey and Leona queued for the Magic Carpets.

It was pretty warm so we got in the line for soft serve ice cream where we had the most un-Disney experience. We were waiting patiently in line and were about 2 from the front and then the cashier/server disappeared. She said she would be back in a minute and then vanished...!

About 10 minutes later she reappeared – picked up something and then went out the back again. We were all completely puzzled at this point. I joked that maybe it was a test of how long we would stay in line waiting for nothing....!

Eventually she reappeared and started serving again without an apology or explanation and not even a smile..! Had it not been so hot we would have given up and gone away!

We sat and ate our long awaited ice creams and then headed back toward Frontierland. We had FP+ for Big Thunder Mountain at around 4pm. We arrived a few minutes early and parked Paul, Tracey and Charlie in the play area near Splash to wait. We were quickly on the ride and then sent Paul and Tracey back to ride.

Our next fast passes were in Tomorrowland so we walked back that way. We stopped to look in a few shops along the way.

We got across to Tomorrowland and Stitch’s Great Escape had a short line so the 6 of us (not Paul, Tracey or Charlie) went in. Rob and I had never been in here before – what a very weird attraction this is...! Leona didn’t like it cos it got so dark but I just couldn’t work out what the point was!

Our next FP+ was Space Mountain so we left Paul, Tracey and Charlie again. We weren’t sure what Leona would think of the ride but she liked it!

 

We had a little while till our next ride and so we went to take a look at the dance party. Leona is still not keen on the characters but she ended up dancing with Frozone :)

 

Our final FP+ was the Tomorrow land Speedway – we really wanted Charlie to ride as he loves cars but he wouldn’t stand up straight so they wouldn’t let him ride. We let Blake ride in his own car which made him pretty happy – he had wanted to ride the cars all day long!

All of the rides over and we headed off to look for a spot to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade. We ended up in Frontierland as Main Street was busy – we stood a little way back but up a few steps so the kids had a nice view. By now they were getting pretty tired so we headed over to Main Street to watch Wishes – Charlie fell asleep in his pushchair and part of the way through Wishes Leona fell asleep on Kevin!

Once the fireworks had finished we turned around and headed for the ferry. We managed to get on the first one :) Across to the TTC and Rob and I pushed Charlie back to the car whilst the others took the tram. We made it back before they did!

Back to the villa and I think we got a takeaway pizza before bed!

 

(FP+ 16.10 – 17.10 BTMR, 17.10 – 18.10 Space Mt, 18.10 – 19.10 Speedway)