Month: June 2023

The Generation Game Tour 2023 – Day Four Friday 19th May 

by mkingdon, posted in The Generation Game Tour 2023

What do you mean we are creatures of habit and we nearly always do the parks in the order in which they were built? Surely everyone does that? As law dictates then, it would be Epcot today, but first, we had to wake up early and prepare some fine dining options for breakfast in the form of bagels, cereal and toast, as suited to everyone’s desires.

Yes, technically, yesterday we went to Hollywood Studios, but that was a tactical insertion just to see Fantasmic and does not count as a proper theme park day!

At 7am, I went to work on the app and secured Genie+, a LL for Ratatouille and a boarding group for Guardians. I regularly have less productive 8-hour days at work.

Tom drove again and got us safely to the Rocket area of Epcot’s car park, which was a new one to me. It left us with a long walk in and both Mum and Freddie got ambulatory aides today in the form of an ECV and a stroller.

We were headed for Soarin’ first and it was a walk-on, once we had parked up all our vehicles and decided on a sitter for Dougie, which this time was Louise.

Mum rode this one as it is her absolute favourite ride in WDW. Once we had collected all the vehicles and Louise and Dougie, we moved on to Journey Into Imagination.

It’s an odd day when you queue longer for this than Soarin’. Everybody rode.

It was 11.30 now and as Rebecca and Tom hadn’t had time for breakfast whilst getting the boys up and ready, they were in need of food now, so we opted for an early lunch. We decided to head to the new Creations place.

Epcot was looking very nice…

I found Mum a decent spot to park up her ride and waited whilst she did. It was up against one of the large windows of Creations, and the souls of the family eating on the other side of it almost left their bodies as Mum hit that window at full speed. She was still getting used to it, it is fair to say. Once inside, we found and dragged together a couple of tables and mobile ordered. It was burgers, chicken sandwiches and pizza for most and a salad for the odd folks.

Dougie, looking ready for a nap, had some milk.

I was one of the odd folks, with this “salad”.

It all came to about $120.

After lunch, Rebecca and Tom got a Joffreys coffee and a doughnut.

It was now time for our LL for Ratatouille so we had a long old walk up to France. It was incredibly hot which helped.

Once we finally arrived, Louise stayed off with Dougie whilst we rode. It was a first ride for Rebecca, Tom and Freddie and my second. A clever ride and a great addition to World Showcase. I just wish it had been closer to Future World today as we now had to walk all the way back down there.

At a kiosk along the way, Louise and Tom got themselves an alcoholic drink, which was strong enough to put us all in bed.

Mainly to benefit from the AC, we made a stop in the Creations shop, which, I’m afraid will never be as iconic as Mousegear. Still, it has some good stuff in it, and Freddie was treated to some awesomely expensive plastic tat.

Mum bought some Crocs and on the way to the till, almost killed a small child who crossed the path of her death machine at the wrong moment.

Enough shopping now and time for Mission Space and some idiot let Freddie choose which side to go for. It was of course Orange, whereas, after my salad, my vomit would be green.

Louise once again chose the sun over the ride and sat out with Mum, who still hasn’t forgiven me for getting her on Mission Space about a decade ago. She still feels queasy she says.

We had a LL but there was no standby queue to speak of.

As we emerged, with me feeling surprisingly OK, we found Dougie in the splash pad. Louise and Mum were there too. He had not been abandoned.

As you can see, he loved it. Freddie joined him for a bit.

Due to the incredible heat and being burned, amazingly from being exposed to the sun at every opportunity, Louise had stolen my cap. As a man with little protection in that area, I cannot afford to be capless for long so I wandered off to get myself a new one and whilst I was there I got Freddie a pair of Crocs to replace his now very wet trainers.

Next over to the Seas. Another walk-on for the Nemo ride.

We started to have a look around the Manatees and the various tanks…

I was fending off typical Freddie questions like “Why are there Manatees?”…he meant in the world, not so much the tank in front of us, when I was relieved to get a notification that our Guardians boarding group was called.

Another crossing of the park was made all the harder by the continued work in the middle of the park and we encountered about a half an hour wait to ride.

It is still awesome and I would say, this is the best ride on property. Again, a first for Rebecca, Tom and Freddie and they were all blown away by it. Our music this time was Tears for Fears.

Checking in on Mum and Dougie as we passed, we went straight onto Test Track for which I had secured a LL earlier.

This was Freddie’s car.

Louise and I did not manage to build one as our screen froze as my design skills clearly blew its mind. A ride enjoyed by all but especially Freddie and of course on the way out we stood beside some cars.

Dougie had fallen asleep whilst we rode, so we decided against doing Spaceship Earth on the way out of the park, which was where we were headed now. We dropped off the stroller and ECV and endured the long walk back to the car.

For tea tonight we were taking everyone to Ford’s Garage as Louise, Emily and I had enjoyed it on our last trip in January. We were seated immediately out on the patio. Freddie had some time with the camera.

Louise and Mum, not being overly hungry, just ordered the kettle chips.

Tom had a Chipotle Chicken Sandwich and Freddie a Cheeseburger with Tots

I, eventually, had Nachos. I think they forgot them to be honest and I had to wait a good ten minutes after everyone else got their food. They were worth the wait. Yes, they were large but I did only have that “light salad” for lunch remember.

Rebecca had an un-photographed Chicken Nachos.

Freddie went back to the camera.

The bill was….

On the way home we called in at Publix to get some pool toys and some “bits” that we needed. On one of these trips, at some point, we may be able to go a full day without the need for medial supplies or supermarket bits. We were back at the villa and in bed before 10pm.

Till the next time….

The Generation Game Tour 2023 – Day Three Thursday 18th May

by mkingdon, posted in The Generation Game Tour 2023

Many years ago, we adopted a strategy of always having some rest planned for this day during a trip. After the mammoth effort of getting across the Atlantic, an early start the next day due to the time difference and a full-ish theme park day, by about now, it’s all catching up and attempting another theme park day can lead to unpleasantness.

Oh, yes, and I remembered after posting Day Two that I left out a celeb-spotting event. As we were leaving Big Thunder on one of the times we rode it, as we walked down the hill back past the entrance, walking up towards the exit I noticed a young girl and thought, “She looked a bit like Millie Bobby Brown”. Once we had all got back to Louise and Mum who had been waiting for us, Rebecca said “Did you see Millie Bobby Brown just then?”. Look, I know nothing will ever surpass my Mum and Dad chatting to Kevin Webster in Epcot but I thought it noteworthy.

There was nothing on her social media to confirm she was in Disney that day, but we did see Jon Bon Jovi on Instagram, posing in front of the Universal ball a few days later, so we assumed some sort of Bon Jovi family outing was going on. For those who don’t know or care, his son is engaged to Millie Bobby Brown, and for those who don’t have a clue who she is, her dad was married to Whitney Houston.

So without the pressure of having to be up to book anything I had a long lie-in, till about 5.45am. We breakfasted and then like Hobbits, went out for a second breakfast once Rebecca had suggested we go somewhere around 7.30. Freddie and Tom had been in the pool since about 6am, so they had that post-swimming hunger that only a vending machine kit kat and hot chocolate could satisfy when I was a kid.

Once we were all fit to venture outside, a momentous thing happened. I handed Tom the keys to the Kia and told him he’d be driving us this morning. This would be his first time. I thought it best he got used to it before having to drive back from Daytona later in the trip.

Here he is about to reverse off the drive, secretly thinking why is this idiot taking photos of me.

I had selected First Watch as our destination, as we had never done it and it often gets favourable mentions for breakfasts. The sat nav was set and it took us off down some back country roads that I had never seen in 40+ years of visiting Orlando. To his credit, Tom managed the wrong side of the road plus the twisty-turny nature of the journey very well. It was surprisingly rural being so close to lots of villa communities and there were many incredibly large houses.

We arrived safely….

There was no wait to be seated and we chose –

Me & Rebecca – Floridian French Toast

Louise & Mum – Bananas Fosters French Toast

Tom – Some skillet thing off the specials board

Freddie & Dougie – Grilled Cheese (un-photographed)

It was all very delicious and much better than the first breakfast I had that day. With juices and coffees all round, it was $125 including a good tip.

It had been many hours since we had seen the inside of a pharmacy so off we went across the road, with Tom still piloting, to get whatever it was we apparently needed. Another $75 CVS have had off me.

On the drive home, I captured some of the country road I was talking about earlier.

Yes, Tom was driving, don’t worry.

Back at the villa we had some pool time for a few hours.

We all swam, read, relaxed and just chilled out a bit until about 2.30. Yes, there were plans to be adhered to. You don’t think I would allow a full rest day, do you??

I had booked a Fantasmic Dinner Package at the 50’s Prime Time. We were out by 3.15 with Tom navigating us to a park for the first time. Parking in Mickey 305, it did hurt a little to still have to pay $25 at 3.30 in the afternoon.

It was a scorcher today so we slowly walked in from the car park and then used the shops to have a cooler walk up to the restaurant. We checked in and were immediately called.

Many of the “old school classic” Disney experiences such as here and Whispering Canyon have been a bit watered down during and since Covid. Today, there were definite signs that Prime Time was returning to form. Much of this was down to our server, who despite being older than Yoda was hilarious. All around us, we could the servers really interacting with their guests as we all remember it, and it was great to see. Really good fun.

Our FDP gave us two courses and a soda each in the price, however, Tom and I ordered an extra “dessert” in the form of a milkshake which was worth every penny.

Not the best photo I have ever taken.

Luckily we hadn’t eaten much today so we had plenty of room for what was some surprisingly tasty fare.

Me & Mum – The sampler

Louise – Chicken Pot Pie

Tom – Fried Chicken

Freddie – Tenders

Rebecca – Chicken Caesar Salad

Dougie had Salmon from the kid’s menu which you can just make out in the photo above.

Most of us joined the club.

Having paid for one, we were all forced to have a dessert. Rebecca had something I can’t remember the name of.

Lemon Meringue Pie for the rest of us. My word it was sweet.

This was an excellent meal and experience, but the bill was an eye-watering £392, including an already-added 18% tip. Still, at least we had reserved seating for Fantasmic. What could go wrong?

As we left, Rise was showing just a 35-minute wait so we headed over there.

Louise, Mum and Dougie sat out whilst the rest of us joined the queue. As the wait crept up to the hour mark, I suspected it had been down and we caught it just after re-opening and of course, most of the park joined the queue at that point, plus all the LLs returned too. Still, it was good to ride it for “free”.

We reunited with the others somewhere around the Frozen sing-a-long and walked down to Tower of Terror which only had a twenty-minute wait posted.

We emerged to the rain we’d been expecting for a while. Hey, when we book a Fantasmic Dinner Package, rain is guaranteed. It was pretty heavy so we loitered in a restroom entrance, George Michael-like, for a while. When it slowed a bit we dashed to the shops to find Mum and Louise. We left them there again to go and do Star Tours which had no wait at all.

As we were walking back, announcements were being made about the weather and Fantasmic being delayed. We all knew what was coming, but as soon as we heard thunder and saw some lightning we knew it was game over and we left, once again having wasted a FDP. This was very upsetting indeed.

We endured a moist drive home and were all in bed by 10pm.

Till the next time…..

The Generation Game Tour 2023 – Day Two Wednesday 17th May

by mkingdon, posted in The Generation Game Tour 2023

There’s a saying or cliche about being a Grandparent, something along the lines of it being great that you can play with the kids but then get to hand them back for all the hard stuff. This of course is true to some extent but the real joy of having grandkids is hearing them being up and about around 3.30am and knowing you can roll over and go back to sleep as that is Rebecca and Tom’s problem!

With the time difference and their age this was to be expected of course and Louise and I only managed to sleep on for another couple of hours or so. Everyone was up and pottering around once 5.30am rolled around. There was breakfasting, showering and playing with toys.

Whilst everyone else had fun I was chained to the Disney app come 7am trying to get a virtual boarding group for Tron, as today, of course, would be spent at Magic Kingdom.

I got group 68 and celebrated, with no clue as to how long we may have to wait for that to roll around. With gritted teeth, I also bought us all Genie+. There would be very limited time in the parks this trip for Louise, Mum and I, so we could take no chances. $115 later, I felt somehow much less happy about the happiest place on earth.

Once preparations were complete…

We left the house around 7.40am. Dougie was, understandably, a bit all over the place and was a tad grumpy. He was no doubt very tired from yesterday and his body clock very broken.

At this time of day of course we parked very close to the entrance…

in Jafar 309. This of course meant a walk-in and no tram.

There’s never time to mess about with the ferry on a first morning, so we headed up the ramp.

I went live on Facebook to record the monorail journey in. Having been so often, it’s nice to capture the moments not seen as the big ones, such as seeing the castle for the first time….

Gratefully, and with a bit of faff for a couple in the party who didn’t have Magic Bands, we were in. Naturally, two people needed the loo, so the rest of us went into the Emporium to resolve the Magic Band issue.

We wandered about, asked three different cast members but still could not find any. All we had seen were the new interactive ones which we didn’t need or want, but after giving up on finding the other kind Tom and my Mum shelled out for a fandangled new one.

It takes something special to stop me dragging everyone to a ride the second we enter the park, and that special thing today was Dougie getting his long-awaited first haircut in Magic Kingdom. Everyone met back up outside the shop just before 9am, waiting for it to open.

Dougie wasn’t really in the mood for the experience. Jet lag and tiredness were kicking his ass, as they say, but he did well considering and got it done.

You will notice me in the mirror expertly undertaking a dual phone recording with both mine and Louise’s phone. I appreciate that isn’t the focus of this video, but I thought I should point it out.

Once he was done, we were privileged to have the Dapper Dans come into the shop and sing a couple of songs to Dougie and the other youngster having their first haircut. It was lovely, although Dougie cried through a good chunk of it.

We left the choice of first ride of the day/holiday to Freddie and he chose the “Buzz shooting one” so we headed there. I had a LL secured for Big Thunder from 10.35 so I allowed it as it slotted in with the plan.

Standby was only five minutes and everyone rode apart from Mum and Dougie who was now asleep. I rode alone and cannot explain why I chose to sit on the left-hand side of the car, meaning I was shooting with my weaker left hand. My score reflected this bad decision. We shall not dwell upon it.

We were making our way in the general direction of Big Thunder but stopped off at the Indy Speedway. I cannot remember the last time I rode this, although now I write that I suspect I did so with Freddie on one of his two trips to date. As we queued (Tom, Rebecca, Freddie and I) I suggested Tom ride with Freddie and I would, like I last did about twenty years ago, ride with Rebecca. At some point in the waiting process, Freddie decided that wasn’t a good idea and he would ride with me. He didn’t want to drive though so I did.

I can report the smell is still as it ever was…..

As we left the ride and glanced at the app, I saw that Big Thunder had been down and as that had happened after our window to ride had opened we now had a “free hit” LL for any ride we liked during the day. I booked another LL for it starting at 11.30.

You can see with the ease of booking that second LL that crowds were not heavy today and we could have probably done without Genie+, but with limited park time and a one year old with jet lag, it did a decent job today of making things very easy. I of course still resent, with every bone in my body, having to pay for it.

As it was now shortly after 10.30, clearly, it was lunchtime. Blame our body clocks, but we were starving.

As it involved no further onward travel we decided upon Cosmic Rays and we all ordered on the app before going in and finding a couple of tables.

Dougie had sensed incoming food and roused himself.

Louise and Mum had a chicken salad thing and the rest of us were normal and had burgers and tenders.

There was poor photography and it cost $115.00.

With calories topped up we walked up to Big Thunder, and as you can see crowds were light.

Because I am superb at the whole planning and LL thing (not) I had somehow got us one for Haunted Mansion at some point during the morning so we all rode that.

We had a good chuckle at Freddie in the buggy ahead of us when the hitchhiker appeared. He was genuinely looking around to see where it was. It’s lovely when the “magic” is real.

As we finally got up close to Big Thunder, I captured the current state of Splash, as was.

Our LL allowed to us bypass a very hot 30-minute standby line.

Freddie and Rebecca were in the front row and Freddie absolutely loved it.

We regrouped with Mum and Louise who did not ride and headed to the recently booked Pirates. We all rode this one.

Freddie persuaded his parents into a sword purchase in the gift shop. We were all shocked to see it was only $10. I know it’s plastic tat, but in Magic Kingdom, I would have predicted a price closer to $20+ for that.

Our time to Tron was approaching so we made our way to the other side of the park, stopping at the castle to take some pictures.

Is it now that I’m supposed to ask if someone can remove the people from the background?

And if someone can remove my paunch too that would be lovely…..

With perfect timing, as we got to the Lunching Pad, the app told us to make our way to Tron. We left Mum and Dougie in the shade and we did the fairly long walk to the queue and waited about 30 minutes.

I have little memory of the ride as it is quite short, but very fast and a great addition to the Magic Kingdom.

We had a handy LL for Space Mountain next door so we rode that, with Louise opting out as she is smarter than I. The ride was pure pain an endless clenching. I will never learn.

Back with the others we found a table and had a bit of rest time. During which, I walked all the way to Columbia House to get a strawberry yoghurt thing that was pretty much the only suitable food item available for Dougie in the park.

With Dougie fed and watered, we moved on to Pooh. With a large group, it is helpful if you can coordinate your restroom breaks!

In the gift shop, Mum bought Dougie an outfit as his birthday gift and his Mum and Dad got him a soft toy just because.

As Freddie had declared it his favourite ride, he Tom and I walked up to Big Thunder again for another ride. Everyone else strolled down to Main Street as we were about ready to head over to Whispering Canyon for our ADR.

We all met up again on some benches by City Hall and had a welcome ten-minute sit down before heading out to find the boat. We were very early for our reservation, but we were all very tired now and decided just to head over and relax there for a bit.

We found some couches in the lobby and I booked in, explaining how early we were but after ten minutes our thing buzzed and we were seated.

We all had the skillet apart from Louise who opted to have the Nachos appetiser as her main. The server was OK, but too rushed and didn’t listen really, as you can hear in this video.

The experience here is still not close to its heyday, pre-pandemic, but it is slowly getting there. The fun and interaction that used to happen just isn’t there now/yet.

Tom was devastated to learn that they couldn’t do milkshakes, but the food was delicious.

It seems I failed to capture the skillet.

The bill, with an already added 18% gratuity due to our party size was $217.00.

We left and walked back to catch the boat and timed it perfectly with just a little last-minute pacey walk to get on one just before it left. The tentative and ambitious plan to go back into MK and watch the fireworks was abandoned as expected due to tiredness.

We monorailed and then walked back to the car, calling, as tradition dictates at a pharmacy for something or other before crashing into bed just after 8pm. That’s a first day for you.

Till the next time……

The Generation Game Tour 2023 – Day One Tuesday 16th May

by mkingdon, posted in The Generation Game Tour 2023

Here we go again. I’m not sure if being locked into a perpetual cycle of writing trip reports is some form of heaven or hell, but here we are. The title of this trip was obviously derived from our touring party covering an age span of one to eighty-four. In fact, Dougie had his first birthday the day before we set off.

This day started like most travel days, with an early start. I never learn. I always set my alarm for the time needed to catch the plane, but Louise is up and about before that by some hours. It was 3.30 when I first looked at my phone. Not to worry though, we got to bed nice and early around midnight. It’s not as if these travel days are gruelling or anything and I’m sure this one will go very smoothly. Right?

I got up to sort the dogs out. They were giving me very confused looks as we stood outside waiting for them to pee. Even they thought it was early.

I emptied the kitchen bin, as I’m sure you all do when going on holiday, made my Mum a brew (she had stayed over at ours to make the getaway as simple as possible) and then showered and dressed. For reasons that do not need explaining I also took a little helper to get me moving in the bowel department. Look, I know that’s not the detail you need but I need to say it to explain how many times I go to the loo during this day.

I loaded the car and we were away at 6.10am after saying our goodbyes and don’t burn the house down to Emily. I was already feeling tired and the drive to the airport was a subdued one, with an undercurrent of excitement that accompanies any Flortida trip.

Even at this hour, the traffic was bobbins, and the infamous concrete tunnels where the M61/A666 meets the M60 presented the usual delays (one for the locals) but we pulled into the car park at 6.40. We were forced to use a meet and greet option as our usual T2 West car park was full. I don’t like the faff of leaving my keys etc and the last time we used this service it was a bit chaotic.

Today, it was much better. A smooth dropoff and no crowds waiting to drop off their keys.

Whilst we waited for the rest of the gang, Rebecca, Tom, Freddie and Dougie to arrive we got a Starbucks and Louise went to test the toilets. As she returned I felt the same urge and to cut a long story short by the time I had returned, everyone had arrived.

There was no queue at check-in and we were relieved and surprised to see us come in underweight. Our luggage that is. I can make no such claim for my BMI.

We had to walk down to the oversized desk, which I thought was harsh. I had lost a few pounds in the run-up to the trip. Turns out that was to deposit the huge bag containing the boys’ car seats.

Security as ever was bobbins. The queue was long, every traveller incompetent and the staff were surly and disinterested.

My Mum’s bag got pulled so we had to wait for her to be examined before we could proceed through to the terminal and some much-needed breakfast.

Taking the queue for breakfast as some sort of post-Covid recovery marker, things are looking up. We only waited a few minutes and even managed to get a table for all seven of us. By now, I am pretty familiar with it, but we looked anyway.

We ordered –

(Disclaimer – there are seven folks on this trip and often times I did not capture the exact names of everyone’s dishes. I have photos for most stuff, but sometimes due to being at the other end of the table, they aren’t great. What do you want from me??)

Juices and coffees

Me and Louise – The Full Works Sandwich

Mum – Scrambled Egg on Toast

Rebecca and Tom – Full English thing

Dougie’s pancakes are also visible in the above shot.

Freddie had this.

We gave Dougie some of his birthday presents for yesterday, the ones which were small enough to carry and might occupy him for a few minutes on the flight.

Freddie took some photos.

Dougie, you may notice, was waiting to get his first haircut on Main Street.

I made light work of my breakfast and the bill was £105.

Off I went to the loo again, but, you’ll be glad to hear, I felt much better for it. You? Not so much. All I’ll say is that I may never look at Stick Toffee Pudding in the same way ever again.

I met the others and we wandered duty-free for a bit. Sadly Louise could not find the perfume she craved. I wept for some considerable time. Tom got some aftershave and Freddie some Jellybeans. I’m not sure who did best out of the two.

WH Smith next for our flight essentials and I picked up a Marvel card game that Freddie had been admiring. It is my duty to spoil them!

It was already time to head to gate 204, which was a long old walk. When we got there Rebecca changed Dougie (his nappy, not for another child) and we boarded what would turn out to be a half-full (or half-empty) plane. Louise was looking forward to her flight time treat of peanut M&Ms. That was until it was announced that someone onboard had a serious nut allergy. She was gutted.

Rebecca noticed that her seat was broken and it would not stop reclining. They were moved to another empty section further down the plane. My Mum stayed with us. This meant everyone had more room and it worked out really well.

We pushed back at 11, taxied for about a week and took off at 11.25.

Drinks were served. On Aer Lingus, soft drinks are free, but alcohol is not. Complementary popcorn was soon demolished and not too long after that, our meals were served. Louise and I chose the peppercorn chicken. I am convinced whatever you choose it tastes the same. It was edible and filled a gap.

Freddie came to visit for a bit so we played with him enduring his never-ending query about our arrival time. He was excited.

I then popped down to see how Rebecca and Tom were doing and ate my ice cream whilst there. I then managed to get Dougie to sleep and returned, the conquering hero to my seat with four and a half hours to go.

I found a golf game on the TV so played that for a long time. The final snack arrived just in time to be eaten before we started our descent. I had a potato, spinach and cheese pastry. It would challenge any amount of Rennies to a duel and probably win.

We had a slow bumpy descent (great name for a band) and Louise embarrassed herself by screaming out a couple of times at some of the bumps. She’s better at flying these days but not totally comfortable.

We landed at 3.15 local time into Terminal C. Again, we spent about an hour taxi-ing to the gate and once released we walked up many ramps to the baggage claim area. If you didn’t know, in the new Terminal C you get your bags before immigration. A big improvement for those with strollers.

We had our cases in ten minutes and joined the queue to be immigrated. It took an age.

Now we had to make the long arduous journey over to Terminal A as that is the only place to pick up the Toll Pass thingy. Elevators, monorails and walking were experienced. We went to get the car sorted first and found the Dollar desk. Of course, out of all the hire companies on offer, only Dollar had any form of queue. Here started the worst car pick-up experience in my 40+ years of going to Florida.

There were three people serving and the queue contained about 15 parties, although nobody was celebrating. You have to question the processes and systems used to give someone a hire car when each one takes about 15 minutes minimum. It took over an hour to get served. Tom and I had left everyone else up near the Toll Pass booth thinking we’d just be a few minutes. We were visited by Louise to enquire what the hell was going on.

We were finally told which space to go to. We did not get the Toyota Sienna we had booked, but it was an 8-seater Kia. We always knew it was going to be tight but this was a nightmare.

To start, one of the middle seats had been removed from the car and left in the trunk. So we had to drag that out before we could try to get everything in. It took about 20 minutes to work out where to put the car seats, luggage and everyone else and then discovered that the car seat from the trunk was still sitting outside the car. I tried to ask men in High Viz vests what to do but few spoke English and none of them cared.

So I walked back to the Dollar booth at the top of the garage to ask for advice. I explained the situation and asked if we could leave that extra seat with them until we returned. The guy I spoke with reacted as if I had spat on his mother.

He literally called me stupid and said that was just not possible. I asked what we could do then. He didn’t really care. He said we could go and get a bigger car, to which I was open, but that meant another hour in the Dollar queue so I wasn’t doing that with everyone feeling exhausted and stressed. It ended in a shouting match in the middle of the Dollar garage. I don’t often lose my temper but I did here. I understood the problem was mine, but as this guy shouted over me, I was just saying, “Well help me then. What can I do?” I was tired.

He offered no suggestions and walked away from me. He has featured heavily in the review I submitted to Dollar when they emailed me asking for a review of my experience.

Somehow, we reconfigured things and got the seat in too. It was uncomfortable and maybe unsafe but it is hard to express the exhaustion and heat at this time and we all just needed to get to the villa. Tempers were frayed.

Then, as we waited at the gate to exit the garage, there was another delay of seemingly endless minutes as the staff member doing whatever they need to do was doing it at a snail’s pace.

Safe to say I would rather set myself on fire than use Dollar again.

At this point Dougie was inconsolable. He cried non-stop and around Lake Buena Vista we had to take a detour to find him some milk. We did so at the shop opposite Olive Garden at LBV. I nipped in picked up a bottle and went back to the car.

It was a few minutes later that I realised that the US have different colours to denote which milk it is. Blue, which is full-fat in the UK is some 2% nonsense and Dougie couldn’t have it. He had calmed down a bit by now and I stopped again at the 7-11 close to our villa to get him the correct stuff/colour.

A little traumatised by recent events we got to the villa at 7.30. It was lovely.

I nipped out to Publix to stock up and brought some pizza back for anyone who was still awake. It’s a shame that you are always so tired during these first shops as they are quite a significant and exciting milestone. You have done all the hard stuff and now comes the fun. Both the boys were asleep so the grown-ups ate too much pizza and then went to bed, glad to have today behind them.

Till the next time…..