Month: February 2025

Only Orlando?

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Another week of crazy from over the pond and I have seriously started to look into what alternative options we might have for our summer trip that didn’t involve the lottery of US airspace.

A “quick” web chat with Virgin (nope, there was a huge wait of course) and it seems whatever we do, it’ll cost us £250 each to amend our flights, plus any fare difference so it’s not something to do lightly.

Ignoring the cost for a second (and I really never will), we face the challenge of the limited options that Virgin offers for flying from Manchester. If we stick with our original dates, and we really have to due to the enormous amount of time it took to identify a suitable window for Louise and me plus Emily as our house and pet sitter and then get Louise’s time off approved, then there is almost nothing they can do directly.

Caribbean options would seem to make the most sense, but to get to somewhere like Barbados or Jamaica on our dates, flights are indirect and a lot more expensive so it becomes prohibitive. We can’t go to Dubai in July as we will melt in the 40-degree-plus temperatures and I really don’t fancy Mumbai or Johannesburg, as lovely as they may be.

Cancun would be somewhere we’d consider but again on our dates that is indirect via Atlanta, although at a similar cost, so in effect that looked like our most likely or only option.

Then we would get into the doom loop of scrolling through endless hotels and their reviews trying to overcome my aversion to unfamiliarity to try and find somewhere affordable, clean, and maybe even impressive to stay for the same budget as Drury Plaza.

However when taking that option a little further, for some reason the return flights have two changes, so that is blown out of the water too.

Again, indirect, but Toronto is within the same price range that we paid for Orlando (plus the £500 admin fee of course) but that’s a very different holiday and I know zero about Canada, other than having friends who know a lot about it. Perhaps one to explore further as a plan B but I’d be starting from scratch with no idea where to stay, what to do and how to do it. Maybe some people find that fun? 🙂

Sigh. I’ve written some first-world problem blog posts in my time, but this one takes the biscuit, dunks it into my tea and then drops it down my shirt.

So we may be “stuck” with flying into Orlando. That is a sentence I could never have predicted typing. Maybe I am being very stupid anyway as I would imagine flying to any of the other destinations involves US airspace so it does little to remove that risk however real or not it may be.

Then we only have to worry about things like hyperinflation, civil unrest and white supremacists.

On the bright side, at the rate at which the US is collapsing into chaos the orange turd may be flushed by July. You can live in hope.

For now, we sit in suck-and-see mode I suppose as swallowing the loss of the monies paid to Virgin already is not an option I’d like to consider.

If anyone who has perhaps changed their Virgin flights similarly in the past has any ideas I’m open to them of course, as well as any tips and info on Canada or other alternatives?

I suspect the most likely outcome is we stick with the plan as is, have a problem free lovely holiday and you can all shake your heads in disbelief at the nonsense I spouted in this post. Of course, none of this solves the real problem that Jellyrolls is closing/moving from the Boardwalk which is an issue much larger than the US descending into a fascist dictatorship.

In other news and in an attempt to end on a lighter, less ridiculously overreacting type way, when I inflicted one of my musical projects on you recently in the form of the video of the Pink tribute band I’m in I hinted that there may be another project in the works. Well, it has arrived!

Alongside the Pink tribute and Mustard (our main function/wedding type band), we have just launched an 80s tribute too. I of course am far too young to remember any of the songs from that era (honest) but thanks to YouTube I was able to learn them.

So I will leave you with the brand-new, Neon Vortex and the video we recorded live on one of the coldest days in January in one of the coldest rehearsal studios on the planet.

Till the next time……

Silly Second Thoughts

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Well done to all of you for tolerating what felt like a marathon trip report, certainly to write it. As the saying goes though, be careful what you wish for, as now, without the structure and (patchy) notes of a holiday to write about I’m sitting here with just a keyboard and my “creativity” trying to dream up something to write about.

Sure, I could just stop these blogs but if you have any sense of who I am, as tempting as that can be at times, I’ve been at this since 2009 now and being a slave to routine, process and stability is a cross I’ve carried all my life and I don’t see that changing any time soon no matter the impact or cost.

So on we go.

As all the “good” TV shows say……. still to come, news of any future holiday plans where I reveal if we have anything booked for this tear yet. So stay tuned for that.

I’m not going to mention work as it doesn’t deserve to be called to mind on a Sunday right now. Instead, with it fresh in my mind and my aching, ageing body, I was out gigging last night. Yes, I still do that stuff and I continue to play in bands. Last night was a wedding in exotic Clitheroe at a lovely venue called Eaves Hall.

If you’ve been around for any length of time you will know that I’ve played in Mustard (that’s the name) for a lot of years now and in recent years we’ve expanded our horizons by getting into the tribute band market. In a blatant attempt to boost the views of our brand new showreel video, with our new Pink, after a recent personnel change, I’ll post it here.

Stupid Girl (Pink Tribute) is the name of our tribute venture, available for all kinds of events and stuff, should you randomly have a need for a Pink.

This was filmed live at a recent gig in the famous Blackpool Tower.

We’re looking into adding to our portfolio of bands further right now so you never know, I may inflict another video on you in weeks to come, depending on how much I am struggling for content.

Anyway, on to the stuff that if anyone has any interest in what is written here, it’ll be this. Do we have holiday plans?

We sure do.

It was back in early December that Louise and I had a fairly brief conversation about options which is unusual. Looking back on the many trips we’ve been lucky enough to go on in recent years, we have enjoyed them all, but one that stood for us was the trip we did in November 2023. This, despite the weather being absolute bobbins for most of it.

For those not keeping a detailed log of all our trips this was the one at The Drury Plaza near Disney Springs. It was so good that despite only originally booking ten days, as we neared the end of the trip we extended it to fourteen. Granted that was mainly as the weather in the first week was rotten and we felt a bit robbed, but all in all, it was just a lovely time.

So with that in mind and as we came to the end of our last trip, spending a few hours at Disney Springs, and realising how much we loved spending our evenings there choosing between the almost endless eateries and bars, it seemed a simple choice when discussing what to do next.

We saved ourselves the charade of me spending hours and often days looking around the world for other options that we could never be sure of the quality of and with us both being busy, we just booked it.

We are flying with Virgin on July 1st (we are taking no chances with the November weather this time) and staying at the Drury Plaza. We briefly looked at on-site Disney accommodation options, especially those around the Boardwalk but the exponential increase in costs just couldn’t be justified over the Drury Plaza despite the Yacht and Beach being one of my favourite places on the planet.

Whilst I baulk at the daily parking fees at the Drury (I couldn’t find a site to book through that offered them free as I did last time), the free breakfast every day more than covers that alongside other perks like late afternoon snacks and free drinks (that we didn’t partake in once last time), and overall it’s a cracking deal for a nice, clean, new hotel in a perfect location.

We have no plans to do any parks but of course, we do have a car and we will very likely be doing some “day trips” out to places and things to break up the arduous task of lying by the pool.

So that all seems simple enough right? Yeah, then the elections happened in the US and this may well be an overreaction, but with how things are shaping up over there in these first few weeks of the administration we have both expressed doubts and concerns about going to the US right now.

Why? Well, July is a little while off and if the shit show of the first few weeks plays out in a similar fashion until then anything is possible. Obvious concerns such as planes falling out of their skies on the regular are front of mind, alongside rising costs and tensions and it’s all a bit off-putting right now.

I’m sure it’s an overreaction as my dislike for the politics of the majority of Florida specifically has never put us off before and as ever, much of what is blasted out as propaganda is not followed through on or is backed down from, but I’d be lying if I said we hadn’t thought about a change of plans.

The sticking point (and I’ve not had time to look into it or talk to Virgin) is the flight which I assume is not easily changed to another destination without significant cost so we are in suck-it-and-see mode right now. By July, he might have invaded Canada, Greenland and Panama, given the Ukraine to Putin and imposed tariffs that mean an Espresso Martini is $65 a go.

Cost-wise, the risk is mitigated by our flight being paid for, as well as the hotel and car being locked in at the prices we booked at so it’s only really food and drink that could hurt us too badly. Assuming of course the US isn’t at war on multiple fronts and maybe internally too.

Maybe the solution to these concerns is to stop engaging with the news of it all and just go and have the holiday but the lunatics are in charge so ignorance doesn’t feel the way to go.

Stay tuned for updates as the weeks progress to see how geo-political events affect the more important matter of our thoughts on a holiday. This blog wouldn’t have it any other way.

Till the next time……

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Fourteen Monday 28th October

by mkingdon, posted in The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024

OK, change of plan. Not only did I make zero notes for today, but when I came to the photos I also remembered that on about the third photo of the day, the little red battery thing was flashing and the thing died just after lunch. I took this as a sign from above that I really shouldn’t bother. It was not of course just a sign that I’m an idiot and had forgotten to charge the battery for about a week.

So I’ll share the photos I did take and just summarise today.

It was Magic Kingdom of course. I had bought Multi-Pass and I think this was the day it worked out the best. We literally walked from attraction to attraction without delay or with time to kill in between. The park wasn’t that busy which of course helped and we got pretty much everything done.

My excellent memory did recall that we definitely took Monorail Lime….

OK, I lie…

It was about this time that I saw the battery flashing thing.

After a morning of rides, we had lunch in Cosmic Rays. Still one of our favourites.

Once nice and full, sensibly we rode Space Mountain, which is more endurance test than attraction for me these days.

I don’t know who those are behind me but they learnt a few new words during that ride.

I got to ride Buzz with Dougie again, ensuring another victory. They all count.

And we took a lap around the park….

Before being foolish mortals.

And then the camera died….

I know we did Philharmagic, Small World and Big Thunder, ate at Liberty Tree followed by Tron and fireworks.

And we were done.

Thinking about the trip as a whole, we did a lot, which knackered out the oldies and pleased the ride-obsessed youngsters. I went into the trip hating Multi-Pass and left feeling pretty much the same way.

Don’t get me wrong, at times it really made a difference to our day with two youngsters not high on patience, and it saved us from long queues or upset kids. However, I still absolutely object to the obscene expense involved in using the theme parks. Parking and ticket prices are bad enough, but this addition of an expensive chargeable multi-pass adds up to a LOT of cash to splash for what is still an excellent experience, but the value for money question is much more debatable now.

Overall, Florida is a much more expensive trip these days. There are global/economic things at play with inflation etc, but supermarket prices are super high and eating out is no longer the “cheaper than the UK” experience it used to be. None of that is really anyone’s fault, but it all adds up to food for thought (pardon the pun) when considering returning.

I’m glad we got to take the boys at these lovely ages. I hope they always remember it and, maybe, in the future, read this drivel and look back fondly on it. I will.

With apologies for the less-than-perfect ending, I give my thanks to those loyally reading along. Your perseverance is a marvel!

What’s next? An update next week, of course, but I’m not too sure full detailed trip reports will feature as they have in the past. If the process is beginning to feel like a chore to me then it’s probably time for a rest of this exact format and look to do something else to capture the events of our holidays, should we have any. 🙂

I’ve done a lot in recent years, so maybe it’s just a bit of trippie fatigue. We shall see.

Till the next time…..

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Thirteen Sunday 27th October

by mkingdon, posted in The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024

We are nearing the end folks and it’s not going to be too pretty as I had at this point decided I wouldn’t be writing this trip up. That had meant that my notes for the last few days had been poor and today’s notes were especially so, but they still beat tomorrow’s as I made none! I’m regretting that now of course, tasked with remembering anything that far back and my change of heart once home was driven by not wanting this trip with the boys to be just a bunch of photos stored somewhere. I realised that I did want to capture everything after all.

Anyway, we shall do our best armed with some photos and my fading memory.

I can make a very good guess that we didn’t get up early enough to make rope drop or anywhere close. Why break the habit of a holiday? It was around 9.20 when we got to the gates, got in and encountered DeVine again. Yes, it was DAK today.

I’d done some LL booking at the villa but due to our later than planned arrival I moved our first one back as it was due to end at 9.45 and now it would start at 10.10. Of course, that first ride would be Everest,

Louise’s feet issues peaked so she was in an ECV today, so we convoyed our way over there and set up rider swap. I stayed out with Dougie, bought him some Chip & Dale snacks and we watched the world go by.

I then rode with Freddie.

After that, despite the adrenaline now being pumped through our veins I could sense low energy and tiredness in everyone so we stopped for some breakfast to refuel.

We ordered from here. The odds of everyone getting what they wanted when you have to order at such a window for six people are low, but I think we cracked it today.

We found a table in the courtyard area close to Tusker House and we all had this kind of thing (see, no notes).

As we were eating Rebecca suddenly jumped up and screamed. She’d been bitten by the largest ant I have ever seen and it hurt so much she was brought to tears. Various creams and portions from various bags were applied.

By the time we had eaten, our LL for the safari was due.

My selfie game is not strong.

Another very good guide and lots to see.

Now, we had about twenty minutes to kill before the next Lion King Show, so the boys’ faces were painted. Dougie was happier about it than he looked.

Freddie just played it cool….

As we walked over to the Lion King Freddie decided he’d rather do a “fast ride” so having just had his face painted he of course chose the Rapids, so Tom took him off to do that whilst the rest of us did the show.

Anyone who has read any of my reports knows my thoughts on this show, so I won’t repeat them, much. It was as excellent as ever.

We walked over to the rapids to meet Tom and Freddie. They had ridden once so now everyone apart from Rebecca and Louise rode, thankfully avoiding too much of a drenching.

As we exited the ride, the app was telling me that Flights Of Passage was just 35 minutes, so we headed quickly in that direction. It was a long old walk. Rider swap was set up again so Louise and I sat out with Dougie and had a beer and a decent-sized pretzel.

It took them the best part of an hour to ride, then Freddie and I rode using the LL/rider swap and it took us fifteen minutes. I did some fiddling with our LLs to bring our Navi River slot forward to 4.45 from 6.50 to avoid more cross-park trekking as we had Dinsoaur at 5.45.

After Navi we walked over to Dinosaur, bumping into Donald, and Louise took Dougie on Triceratops Spin whilst the rest of us rode.

We walked over to meet Louise and Dougie and the boys had a couple of games.

A prize was secured.

We saw Everest was a walk on so we headed that way and it was….

Everyone rode apart from Louise and Dougie.

It was time to be leaving now, always a sad time to leave a park for the final time on a trip.

So I took pointless photos to commemorate the moment.

We took our time walking to the exit, looking at some animals and enjoying the sunset.

It would be just me and Louise for dinner tonight as Rebecca wanted the boys to get an early night as they were knackered. So they had a McDonalds and after showers Louise and I headed out for the Outback which is now in a new location further up the 192.

With no notes now to guide me, it looks like I had a steak of some kind.

As did Louise.

No desserts for us and were home in bed shortly afterwards, I’m sure.

Till the next time…….