It’s been two years since I had a WDW trip report to write and about ten years since I wrote a good one so let’s see if I can remember how this stuff works.
As ever the final days before the trip are a challenge. There’s all the work stuff to tie up and hand off as well as the increasingly difficult logistical struggles to rehome pets and settle in house sitters. I am led to believe that packing also needs to happen and for some reason the house has to be cleaned like it’s been a murder scene too but I try to stay out of both of those.
Anyway, somehow we found ourselves waking up today full of excitement and in my case the usual “what have I forgotten to do/bring” anxiety.
I set an alarm as I always do for these travel days but they are often redundant as Louise is always up and about well before that goes off assimilating brass band noise levels, so I was awake “nice” and early around 4.30am. Sure we weren’t flying until lunchtime but when you have to navigate the M60 to get to an airport we were already late.
The final bits were shoved into cases and then I hauled them into the back of the car and we were only a few minutes behind our “we can’t leave any later than” time when Louise announced she had to release a chocolate hostage. This led to ten minutes of tutting from me but I suspect our fellow passengers would thank us later.
As we were getting into the car and I was locking up I noticed our Ring camera had gone off line. This was less than ideal. Whilst we had a house sitter asleep upstairs, not having that online for the next two weeks was unacceptable. I fiddled with it for a few minutes, failed to fix it of course and got in the car a little more stressed than I was before.
How I laughed when a few minutes down the road Louise’s phone made that familiar Ring noise to denote someone was walking on our drive and that it had fixed itself.
Knowing how unawesome the M60 is at this time of day, based on many decades of having to battle it to get to offices I did not want to go to, I decided to take the M6 instead. This was more miles but less crawling and I patted myself on the back for this decision. As a sign of how stressed I was, mainly as work has been a maelstrom of shite for ages, my over active mind convinced me that the wash bag I had put at the side of my bed this morning never made it into the case. You know when you try to replay in your mind whether you did something or not? Well, I could not.
Once we’d pulled up at the relevant parking thing at the airport I got the cases out, opened one and immediately saw that I had indeed packed it. I was on a roll.
There was no wait at check in, mainly as nobody else was so stupid to be here this early. Louise and I availed ourselves of the Premium desk whilst Mikey and Emily used the self-serve kiosk as the economy peasants should.
We then tried to go through to security but the barrier refused us as we were just too damn early. That was indeed the exact error that flashed up on the screen. The ladies took the chance to restroom whilst Mikey and I found the Starbucks and got us all a coffee.
We tried security again at 8.45 and this time we were allowed through. It was pretty quiet and we were through quickly without any drama. I did need my brand new trainers swabbed for some reason though.
We chose to give our usual breakfastery a miss and try what looked to be a relatively new Giraffe a go instead.
We were immediately seated at a lovely window table.
Reflecting the adult nature of this trip, alcohol was involved.
Overall there were two mimosas for Emily, two margaritas for Louise and a beer for Mikey. I would be having to drive in about eleven hours so I stuck to the soft stuff.
Food wise we had –
Me and Emily – Avocado on toast with two eggs
Mikey – Eggs Royale
Louise – Eggs Benedict
That was £118 including a UK style tip.
We then set off to wander the shops and there was nothing that I could do to stop Louise buying a pair of Crocs. I do not object to Crocs, indeed a own a pair, but I do mildly object to acquiring things to wear when Louise had spent the previous month shopping.
After more unnecessary shops we set off towards the gate and got first sight of our plane, naturally at the furthest gate possible.
We Facetimed Rebecca and Willow for a chat before we set off.
Willow didn’t have too much to say but we said our goodbyes anyway.
For some reason the area around gate A12 was chaos. Every seat was taken there and at every gate nearby so we hovered until our boarding groups were called. Naturally us Premium lot were on early and I assume Mikey and Emily also got on as they were there when we landed.
As ever boarding was late and we didn’t push back on time. It was 12.40 rather than the advertised 12.05. Yes, we have been awake since 4.30am for a 12.40 flight!
Getting on the plane brings to an end one of my favourite bits of a trip like this. The morning at the airport represents the excitement and anticipation of what may lie ahead. It also means no work, although the invention of the Teams app on my phone reduces that slightly. So although I am always happy to get on our way, this phase being over is also slightly regrettable for me.
Drinks and nibbles were served. I assume economy got doused in water and thrown some scraps at some point too. This was my view for the next nine hours or so as I haven’t been allowed a window seat or an opinion for thirty years.
I don’t know why I took this one.
The meal we pre-ordered a few days prior came soon enough. It was chicken pie and absolutely edible. Spookily our house seems to have two sets of salt and pepper shakers that look exactly like that since we got home.
I felt incredibly tired at this point, due to the early start and having to work for a living since I was seventeen. I tried to fall asleep but only dozed really. I admitted defeat and watched a few episodes of The Middle which I had either never seen or I am aging more quickly than I feared.
We did have WiFi on the flight which helped. It mainly helped work pester me at 35,000 feet to be honest but it also allowed Emily to update us on the horrors of economy and how some child called Jayden, Josh or Jamarco was terrorising everyone whilst its Mum gently whispered “don’t do that” for nine hours.
As we started our descent I watched the cockpit view, which wasn’t a film, as that kind of content is frowned upon on a flight, but instead was this….
We landed eventually and for whatever reason the flight like a long one. We were off first as our elevated standing dictated and we saw a sign saying it was an eleven minute walk to baggage reclaim. Much to Louise’s displeasure we did it in nine.
I established a position at the relevant carousel and was delighted to see cases coming out almost immediately for Louise and I. Mikey and Emily weren’t even in the hall yet and it took all my self control not to leave them to it whilst we beat the crowds through immigration.
We did wait. And wait. And wait. Long after they arrived in the baggage reclaim hall there was still no sign of their bags. Eventually a barely audible tannoy announcement apologised that some bags from our flight had gone to another carousel and sure enough they were lined up next to the incorrect carousel no doubt having been there for ages.
A strike against Terminal C.
We all used the MPC app to avoid the very long immigration queue. Another Virgin flight from Heathrow had landed at the same time as us which was leading to carnage in that queue. We all took our photos and joined a seperate, albeit marginally shorter queue.
We were through in ten minutes and now we were tantalisingly close to being free and on our way. We did seem to get asked a few more questions at the immigration desk this time, but I kept my opinions on the state of the US to myself in the interests of not having to do another nine hour flight that day.
We found an elevator down to the relevant level and having done all the prep needed we headed straight out to the Alamo garage to find our car. As a surprise, I had cancelled our minivan booking some months ago and changed it to a Jeep Wrangler, knowing this had long been Emily’s dream car. As were stood near the Jeeps, Emily jokingly said shall we take one of these. Her face was a picture as I said yes and started to load the boot/trunk. She would be giving driving in the US a go for the first time this trip. This was already giving me flashbacks to the horrors of taking both girls out driving when they were learning. I still have PTSD.
It took a good few minutes at the exit barrier to process stuff but we were soon released and headed for the villa. The Waze maps thing on my phone was taking some time to start working via the Carplay but I managed to guess correctly to go right at the lights and between us all and all our phones we managed to get a working map up and running soon enough.
This journey felt simple and quick and we had a rare dry drive from the airport although there was lightning and dark clouds all around. Once we started to see the familiar WDW signage we turned off the sat nav as we were home. We’ve stayed at this villa a lot so this was now auto pilot to find our way there.
We checked in at the gatehouse and then, with only one wrong turn within the development itself parked up and went inside.
We quickly unpacked/made a mess. Look, there’s that wash bag I remembered to pack!
At this time on previous trips when we have had the small kids with us, going out to eat is always unlikely as they are understandably ready for bed. Being an all adult trip I had planned a meal at Sickies for us and we headed there now.
We started with the Spare Parts appetiser to share.
I had a Chicken Tortilla Salad as my body is a temple.
It only had about 1500 calories in it!!
Louise weirdly ordered another appetiser for her Entrée. I forget the name but it was some kind of bacon wrap thing with jalapenos.
Emily had Chicken Tenders.
Mikey had a Chicken Parm burger.
The excitement and adrenaline of having finally arrived can tend to make you slightly over rate this first meal, but it was all genuinely lovely.
Four cokes and two beers between us and the bill was $150 including a good tip. That’s around £27 per person which, despite the horror stories coming out of the US around the cost of living can’t be complained about really.
We picked up a case of waters from a gas station on the way home and collapsed into bed at 10pm, which was of course 3am UK time. As ever these travel days are brutally long. That’s a 22.5 hour day. Worth it though and writing this up now having been back at work for a week, how I yearn for this day again with all its excitement, promise and what was in store.
Till the next time…….
