Category: Walt Disney World

I Predict A Diet

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

When it comes to Disney, especially with a trip on the cards, there is little I like to do more than to think about scenarios that may or may not happen that will have hardly any impact on my life in the long term. Things like not getting specific ADRs or the parks being too busy or that those FOMO perks that Disney gives to on-site guests will make our off-site trip a disaster. It’s all part of the fun. For example, it seems off-site scum can only start to book their Genie+ Lightning Lanes from park opening, not 7am like the honoured on-site types. A bit petty Disney if you ask me. If you’re going to do this, then you need to come up with some affordable accommodation options for larger parties.

The only thing I enjoy more is whinging about Genie+ but I guess I’m not alone there.

Another fun part of this countdown process is to make completely unsubstantiated guesses based on zero knowledge about what Disney may or may not do in the future.

Take for example….

Soon, in Summer 2024, the new version of Splash Mountain will open. Tiana’s ride (not the official title) will be welcome for a couple of reasons.

  1. Having such a major ride down for so long just means there are fewer things to spread the people around and all the other attractions get busier. (This is the entire issue with Hollywood Studios right now. Not enough things for too many people to do, but that’s a whole other blog post.)
  2. It may draw some folks away from the likes of Seven Dwarves at rope drop and give other folks a fairer chance to ride it without paying extra or waiting for 90 minutes.

Emily and I were pondering if Tiana’s ride would be added to the list of individual lightning lane attractions in Magic Kingdom. There is much to think about.

It seems that MK is currently the only park with more than one such attraction…

Epcot – Guardians

Hollywood Studios – Rise of the Resistance

Animal Kingdom – Flights of Passage

Magic Kingdom – Tron and Seven Dwarves

So adding a third would be bordering on a piss take in my view. The options seem to be to take that piss and add a third which would be punitive and very unpopular, leave Tiana’s ride as Splash was, as part of the (still paid for and shite) Genie+ service, or add it to the Individual LL list and drop one of the others.

Personally, I think they will leave Tiana as Splash was. If they were to make it one of the two, then which of the existing ones would they drop?

Tron is too new surely and Seven Dwarves is one of the most popular and slowest loading rides on property, so that could just be carnage.

As ever, this thought process will be a complete waste of time because the last time I correctly predicted what Disney would do next I had a fringe.

I’d be interested in your views of course.

Speaking of change and new rides. Due to some clickbait-style headline writing by some other Disney-related blog (not that you read any others of course), there were a couple of minutes late last week when it seemed like Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin was going to be replaced by a Wreck-It Ralph attraction. A quick scan of the article once they had my very valuable click, confirmed that this was in Tokyo. Let’s hope that nonsense idea never darkens Florida’s door.

The other thing I have done in the last few days is begin to firm up some dining plans. We are months from ADR booking but I did try out the new system where you can put in a range of dates for a restaurant and see all the ADRs available. That is excellent!

My strategy for our eating on this trip is to focus on off-site places as much as possible with just a smattering of on-site ADRs. Sure, cost is a consideration. Feeding six folks multiple times a day on property is a pricey hobby, but we also love a lot of off-site places.

So I am adding an eatery of choice for each day and if it so happens that on one of those days we don’t want to leave the parks or that doesn’t fit with our plans, we will just try to find somewhere there and then via the app. We do want to try and get ADRs for a few such as Garden Grill, Rodeo Roundup, Space 220 (yeah right) and probably one character meal.

On that note, has anyone done BR77 Steakhouse on the 192. It’s a Brazillian Steakhouse type place it seems and I was thinking of giving it a try. Other than that, our list is the usual suspects.

All of this theme park talk ignores the fact that we are now just four weeks away from our absolutely no theme park trip at the end of May, to Delray Beach. When we called in to see my Mum last week she asked if we had the cases out yet. Even for me, five weeks out was a bit early, but it won’t be long.

The only prep required now for that one is to get some bloody weight off. My “Fat Elvis” period has been dragging on for a while now and it seems these days the only thing that can motivate me to get some lard off is a trip overseas. Let’s see how that goes over the coming weeks. The hardest part for me is starting. Once I begin to see any sort of result, I can stick at it, but as the years go by, it just becomes harder and harder to get the ball rolling.

If only everything in life were as easy as getting fat.

Till the next time…..

A Swift Change?

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

One of the criticisms of holidaying in the same place for a few decades, both spoken and probably mainly unspoken by folks I know, is “How can you keep going to the same place and doing the same things”.

Sure, I get that and there is some part of a trip to WDW specifically where that familiarity is part of the comfort and magical feelings that a certain type of traveller craves. A great deal of the joy and satisfaction I get is from showing this stuff to new people whether that be parents, kids or now grandkids.

My answer to that question is always the same. We do something different every time, mixed in with the warm glow of the familiar. We’ve done on-site, off-site, Vero, Naples, The Keys, Siesta Key and a load of other stuff I have no doubt forgotten. I guess the best answer is, that I’ve been going since 1980 and still haven’t come close to “doing everything” and never will.

Also of course things change regularly whether we may want it to or not. Parks get new stuff and indeed new parks happen too. We still, for example, haven’t done Aquatica, Volcano Bay or Legoland.

Anyway, flying that flag of trying something for the first time this week is Emily, who despite her very real fear of the whole event, has booked Halloween Horror Nights for her trip in September. There had been much debate, pondering and a little dithering, but my advice was you’d be daft not to. You never know if you’ll get the chance again and all things (within reason) should be tried once.

So good on Emily for giving it a shot. Technically we could also do it on our October trip but with a six-year-old and two-year-old with us that really isn’t practical and nobody is ready for the huge amount of screaming that would ensue from Louise for sure, but also me.

I have been to a Halloween event at DLP some years ago, which had some of the same elements I think, but from the vlogs I have seen of HHN, it was nowhere near as intense.

If the houses prove to be too terrifying I suggested there is always the option of taking the chance to do some rides whilst the queues are (I assume) short, so what is not to like.

For those with experience of this event, your comments, advice and feedback are welcome.

Having said that we always do something new, eateries aside, it feels like our October trip may not see that happen. This trip is a good old-fashioned WDW-only (probably) event and will be all about doing all the stuff we love with the boys.

Sure Tiana’s ride may be open by then so that will be a first and perhaps just once I will be one of those folks who return from WDW and say “I actually lost weight with all that walking”!

Really, who are these people and what are they (not) eating!?

But it feels right that this is how it may turn out. I know in reality it hasn’t been that long since we did the parks but it feels that way, and this trip, as is always the case when you take kids with you, will inevitably involve a load of firsts for them and I can’t wait.

Freddie is very much looking forward to being able to ride pretty much anything, certainly on Disney property. He is very tall for his age and the one in his sights is Rock n Rollercoaster as it is the only thing at WDW that goes upside down. Right now it is closed for refurbishment but it does seem to be promising to re-open in Summer 2024 so hopefully, we’ll be OK.

Rumours abound about whether the theming will change from Aerosmith to something else. I get that Aerosmith aren’t exactly relevant to anyone born in the last few decades so a change makes sense. I don’t know if they will move away from the band idea, but one rumour doing the rounds is that Queen will replace them.

For me, this makes no sense. They are no longer a band, mainly as the main man has been dead for decades and they are barely any more relevant to younger folks than Aerosmith. I do struggle to think of a band big enough to resonate with the older generations yet still be relevant to today’s music scene.

If anyone suggests Coldplay I will burn the ride down.

If any act makes any kind of sense it would be Taylor Swift. She is, love her or hate her, the biggest act on the planet right now, is young enough to have some career longevity to come and she already has a relationship with Disney, with her Eras tour thing showing on Disney+.

I’m not sure her music would have the same adrenaline-fueled effect that Walk This Way has as you are catapulted forward to start the ride, but it would permanently make the queues for the ride three hours as the Swifties descended upon it. Could they still call it Rock n Rollercoaster with a Swift theme? I don’t think so.

What say you? Can anyone see a B*Witched-themed ride working? I’d be interested in your suggestions so that I can let Bob Iger know. He’s a loyal reader as you know.

Till the next time…..

Weather To Plan

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

If ever there was a week to undermine any activity from the UK Tourist Board, then this must have been it. I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but the weather here was beyond atrocious and only increased my desire and anticipation to be somewhere warm. Insult was added to injury as we supposed to entering the time of year when you may feel justified in believing that the worst of the bleak winter is over.

What feels like 412th named storm of recent times battered us with sideways rain and annoyingly strong winds meaning that I was outside at the back of the house on multiple occasions, tethering down garden furniture that we’ve had for three years and hardly used because the weather here is always so shit.

There is a part of me that is beginning to think I have personally angered the weather gods, as even when we have managed to escape to Florida in recent times, we have enjoyed less than stellar conditions there too.

I am sure that is all about to change when we land in Melbourne at the end of May. It’s been some time since we were in Florida in their summer time, so I am very much up for a bit of sunburn and moaning about it being too hot.

Having had that whinge, as I write this I am sat with the conservatory door open with dry conditions outside. However, this is very much the exception.

You might point out that we have moved to the edge of the Lancashire moors and we need to expect biblical weather more often than not, but I don’t think we are alone in experiencing this nonsense. Speaking of which it is now over three years since we moved to this house. I’m sure for anyone who cares and/or remembers, it feels like time has whizzed by since my weekly posts were mainly moaning about solicitors and the snail-like progress of our move.

Anyway, the UK’s insistence on having bobbins weather is certainly increasing our desire not to be here and it is heightening our anticipation for our sun, sea and sand holiday in about six weeks time.

Looking ahead to that next trip in May, you may sympathise that it feels odd not to have anything of note to plan. What sort of holiday is that right? The uplifting effect of having a holiday booked is increased when there is pleasant stuff to plan and arrange. I think we all know that.

Well, with some determination, some planning activities can be found. I don’t know if anyone else uses this feature or whether I am just the last person on the planet to do so, but I’ve been using the Want To Go thing on Google maps to identify potential eateries (what else) around Delray Beach.

Highlighted on the below is our accommodation, and all the little red pins are restaurants that look of interest that I have added to my “want to go” list.

We probably won’t get to them all but it doesn’t hurt to have options right?

I am very encouraged that many of those places on this eatery-filled boulevard have great reviews and for foodies (fatties) like us, this is a utopian situation. Selecting our restaurant of choice shall be the main activity of our inactive days on the beach or by the pool.

I have invested in a small Amazon Fire tablet to feed my holiday time need to read. In November, we had to do several shopping trips as I kept running out of reading material, so now with my little electronic friend, I shall have an endless supply of holiday page-turners.

Before we do leave I think I’ll also have a look for some places of interest within driving distance, mainly as I don’t want to have paid for a hire car to not use it! The area is new to use so it would be good to explore the likes of West Palm Beach and maybe even as far afield as Miami could be worth a day trip. I quite fancy going to visit Hollywood (not the one in California) as that is where we stayed on our very first trip to the States in 1980. I haven’t changed a bit since then so I am sure it hasn’t either.

See, no planning to be done at all.

Till the next time….

More Questions Than Answers.

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Another week gone and another week of seemingly endless posts on Facebook WDW groups of crowds that look biblical in proportion. Sure, it’s Spring Break, and for balance, there were some posts and blog posts about a really quiet week in the parks last month but overall, I have to say I am very trepidacious about our trip in October.

Nothing ruins a trip like overly busy parks and not being able to get on anything.

Having been out of the loop park-wise for some time, or at least it feels like I have, what is going on?

Is it social media over-egging the issue? Are we still in some kind of post-pandemic bounce back or have we reached a point where the existing parks just cannot accommodate the number of guests attending? Are there actually more guests and Genie+ (or some other factor) is playing a part in creating longer lines from that same number?

A minute’s worth of research suggests that the latter or something like it may be the case.

Thanks to queue-times.com for the graph.

Pre-pandemic attendance at MK was higher and this is replicated at all four parks, with only DHS almost back to pre-Covid attendance. Of course, we don’t yet have 2023 or 2024 data so that may show a sudden spike?

Are there still shortages of CMs? Are there other factors I am not considering (there definitely will be!).

So what is going so wrong in the parks that wait times of over an hour for most rides are the norm? Do Disney care? Is that bad for business or not?

I recognise I am asking lots of questions and not many answers. My opinion is tainted by my hatred of Genie+ I guess. Sure, I really resent the extra money it requires but it just doesn’t look to be working as well as the old system. We’ve had good days using it, with an afternoon/evening stacked with ride after ride despite the park being busy but is that causing a lot of pain in the standby lines? Why aren’t Disney offering virtual queues for all rides and attractions so guests can be free to roam the park spending money?

There has been a clamour for a fifth gate for almost as long as I can remember and with Universal taking the bull by the horns and opening new stuff, are we at a point where Disney need to or will respond?

Will they be reluctant to do so when seemingly at war with the state governor who seems to be intent on biting the hand that feeds him?

If overall attendance is still not back to 2019 levels will they want to create a fifth park or just continue to expand what they have? There has been talk of a significant MK expansion recently.

As well as offering more capacity it would also deliver a draw to get guests to return. Nothing mobilises the Disney faithful like a new thing. There are four-hour queues for a popcorn bucket. Add to that the benefit to guests of spreading themselves out over five parks and not four, and the whole experience may improve and return visits would increase perhaps.

If nothing else, the Disney vlogging community would definitely thank them!

Of course, that new park brings a lot of investment and cost to build and run it but I suspect Disney are not short of a few bob.

As we are now some 30 years since WDW opened a new park it feels like time to do so, and as ever the healthy competition of Universal being in Florida and doing just that may be the catalyst for Disney to finally announce this.

As you know, I have a direct line to Bob Iger, so I will be passing on my thoughts to him via this post. He is always the first to read them as you know.

Ultimately, I am looking to be reassured that we won’t be pissing away thousands of quid in October to stare at the app and not see a wait time under 90 minutes. If Bob could pull his finger out and announce and build that fifth gate by then that would be lovely.

Till the next time….

First Laid Plans.

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

March is often a month that we end with a sigh of relief. It is crammed full of family birthdays, often Easter and a Mother’s Day, that make it expensive and busy.

We’ve survived another and with my niece heavily pregnant there was a brief time when her booked cesarian on the 28th of March would add another birthday to the huge list, but at least the delay of her new daughter’s arrival until next week sees us enjoy a respite by a week for the years to come.

We were out for tea last night with Rebecca, Tom and the boys and as often seems to be the case when the weather brightens a bit and we all (nurses aside) get a long weekend off, thoughts and chat turned to plans for our holiday in October.

For the first time we chatted about preferences, parks and plans. Having done Volcano Bay without us when we went to Daytona Beach and they stayed in Orlando, in May 23 there was a request from Rebecca to do that again this time as they were very impressed.

Food wise, Teak Neighbourhood Grill may get a place on the plan having been skipped the last couple of times. We’d been a heck of a lot and our last visit to eat there, when Louise stayed home to look after her Mum, was, let’s not beat about the bush, a bit poor.

It was still in the lingering grip and aftermath of Covid, the place was dead and our server hopeless. It very much deserves another chance as it has blown our socks off on so many previous trips.

Sickies is already on the plan. It is the eatery of the moment it seems and Louise and I have loved it on both occasions and very much would like Rebecca, Tom and the boys to experience it.

I’d like to get us into Beaches & Cream if I can. We haven’t been since it was extended and hopefully that will make an ADR easier to come by. Tom, Freddie and now Dougie are the biggest ice cream fanactics in the world so a Kitchen Sink has to be on the cards.

Credit to Disney Food Blog for this pic…..

The ADR that seems to be most elusive these days is Space 220. I’m under no illusions that you go for the theming and experience and pay heftily for it, but the boys would love it and so if by any chance we can get in, we’ll try to do that too.

In a vain attempt to keep costs down I am trying to limit on-site sit down meals. There will probably be a Fantasmic Dinner Package to be done, but other than that, oh and maybe a character meal of some sort, hopefully we can eat off site more often than not.

It never seems to work out that way, but hey, we come this way but once, so I’m not going to sweat it.

I say that having attended a family funeral last week where we said goodbye to a lovely chap who was taken by cancer at just 55. The injustice and cruelty of that is indescribable and if something like that doesn’t tell you to not worry so much about saving money I don’t know what does. Who knows how long we’ve got to spend whatever we have/can earn.

Dining plans cannot be finalised for many months yet of course, until I think mid-August. Am I right in thinking you can now see all available slots for eateries on My Disney Experience rather than have to speculatively plug in endless different dates and times in the vain hope of striking lucky? That will be a massive help if that is the case.

For our May trip there is little to plan beyond what is already done of course. I paid for the car hire this week, thinking as I did, would we really *need* a car but it’s safer to have one and of course essential from and to the airport so we may as well have one in case we fancy a ride up or down the coast to see what is there.

Everything is paid up apart from the remaining 50% balance on the accomodation which we pay at check in, so all we have to do is wait for the next few weeks to hurtle by whilst at the same time trying in vain to shed a few pounds. I can’t tell you much harder that is at this time of life.

It feels like I haven’t planned a theme park trip for ages. I am rusty and out of practice and a little anxious at the prospect if I am honest. With a party the size of ours, with two small kids, we are not built for commando style early arrival and late leavings so we shall have to swallow the bitter pill of Genie+ and just take what we can achieve on a day by day basis.

I have a good amount of time to get back into the swing, do some research and watch some vlogs so we’ll probably be OK.

Hopefully you lot can help me along the way too!

Till the next time…….

A Bog Standard Blog

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Hello all. It’s been some time since I was not writing up a trip, the latest taking from our return in late November till mid-March. It feels like a long time, but I suppose 14 days means 14 weeks unless I start doing multiple posts a week and I haven’t got the time for that, in the same way you haven’t got the tolerance.

As ever, after finishing up a trip report I feel like I have forgotten how to do a bog standard blog like what I used to, with life updates and goings on so I’m not sure where to start.

I’ll just say that everyone is OK and like everyone else we’ve been through our fair share of stress, worry and trauma since we last “spoke” alongside some good fortune and positive stuff.

Louise returned to work, in January, following a break of a couple of years which included looking after her Mum full-time and then getting over Mary’s and my Dad’s passing. Neither of us has fully “dealt with” those events and I’m not sure you ever do. She’s back nursing in the community and seems to have got back into the swing of things really well. I’m not saying she’d carry on post-lottery win, but she enjoys that area of nursing the most.

Emily (now 28!) has a WDW trip booked with her boyfriend in September. It will be his first experience with anything Disney park-related, but she is undertaking rigorous training via endless vlogs. They are staying in the All-Stars and doing Disney and hopefully Universal. He has the best guide ever to take him for the first time.

Rebecca (now 26!) and Tom are all good or as good as you can be when parenting two kids of almost 2 and 6. Over the past few months, Freddie has had some worrying health issues, but he seems to be coming out of them now, with a diagnosis at least and hopefully a plan that will see all that behind him shortly. It’s been a very worrying time. Dougie is adorable and a terror all at once. He needs 24/7 supervision to ensure he does not kill himself and those around him. Imagine Baby Jack Jack from The Incredibles, but cuter.

We looked after him yesterday whilst Freddie went karting, a hobby he is really getting into. It was Freddie’s first time on an outside track and he did brilliantly.

Dougie and I undertook a more sedate outdoor activity.

How am I? Well, I am my usual debonair, svelte, hirsute self, thanks for asking. These days, I spend most of my time working, attending to things that have gone wrong with the house, looking after animals and recycling (it seems). Our current animal count is 2 dogs, 3 cats and 2 rats.

One new thing I have done since we last “spoke”…

You may have noticed over the years that I enjoy a pithy/witty T-shirt and have bought them from all sorts of places to wear on my holidays. I had been looking for some shirts that carried certain themes etc recently and failed, so despite having no clue what I am doing, I have opened an Etsy Store, with a few shirts and things I designed myself, perfect for the discerning Disney fan/visitor.

This is my favourite so far –

I bought one myself, to make sure the quality wasn’t awful and it seems OK to be fair. Whatever you do, don’t buy so many that I have to give up work and do that full-time as that would be awful. If anyone is silly enough to buy anything I would love to see a photo of it out in the parks etc in due course.

Normally, certainly in recent times, as I finish writing up one trip, many of you might suspect that I will announce our next one. We have been very fortunate in recent years to have had many holidays, almost back-to-back and it is safe to say that our trips overseas are very important to us. We both work long and hard and choose to spend much of our earnings on such. It seems inevitable though that this run would need to come to an end at some point.

That point is not now.

We do have travel plans in May, but I assure you they do not involve Orlando. We wanted a beach holiday for resting and relaxing for Louise and me, and have decided to go somewhere completely different this time.

Having gone through the usual routine of scouring the planet (literally) for a suitable beachfront destination, with ample eateries and bars and good weather, as ever we struggled. I know that sounds ridiculous, but all the usual issues came up.

Anyway, after much research I have found us a lovely little boutique hotel in the resort of Delray. Where is Delray I hear you ask?

OK, yes it’s in Florida, but it isn’t Orlando!

It’s been a while since we booked it so I forget the detailed “journey” to choosing that destination, but having exhausted and discarded every other place on the planet, I think it was kicked off by looking at flights with Tui, going into Melbourne and realising that puts us in the middle of the East coast of Florida, opening up all the coastal resorts in that neck of the woods. Vero (the original reason to look into a Florida trip) was not available of course. I’m not sure we’ll ever get to stay there again unless we plan a whole trip around it and get it booked as soon as it is possible with the DVC rules etc.

More by luck than skill I think (and hope) I have stumbled across a perfect little gem for us in Delray Beach. It appears to have a lovely beach and then, in Atlantic Avenue, a long street filled with bars, nightlife and restaurants, to allow us to indulge in another trip like the one you just read about.

So yes we are flying with Tui for the first time into Melbourne on May 28th.

We are staying at Crane’s Beach House.

It’s about a 2-minute walk from the beach and it is situated close to all the nighttime action. I write that as if we will be partaking in any action of a night time. Typically, we will eat, have a drink or two and then go to bed.

This video is a walk along Atlantic Avenue if anyone is as sad as I am and wants to watch that.

We’ve hired a car via Discount Florida for the duration, which I think is about 10 nights, flying home on the 7th of June. It’ll be interesting to see how that airport is for things like immigration and picking up the car etc. Who says we don’t do anything different on our holidays?

So this will be another of our, med-style holidays but in the familiarity and comfort of Florida. But I have to get originality points for Delray Beach right?

I can already hear the murmurs of excitement amongst you at the prospect of reading about another beach holiday!

I hear you and with that in mind, if you can get through that one, in October we are returning to our roots with a full-blown, bring as many family members as we can, theme park bonanza!

Yep, myself, Louise, Rebecca, Tom and the boys will be in WDW from mid-October (Emily will have just got back from her own trip and so won’t have enough holidays or money to join us).

This is an old-school WDW trip with none of this beach and bars nonsense. It’s for the purists and those who love the parks, which is us.

As I said above, it will be interesting to see how Melbourne is in May as that is where we are flying into again in October. Aer Lingus were sold out on crucial dates that we needed (getting so many folks on one trip is like threading a needle blindfolded) and Virgin were, as they often tend to be, just ridiculously expensive, being some 30-50% higher than Aer Lingus at best.

So I looked at Tui, despite that 90-minute drive from the airport to Orlando not being ideal. They had availability and prices that were just about tolerable.

Again, we’ve booked our mini-van from Discount Florida and I am so happy to say that our favourite ever villa was available. It is absolutely stunning and we can’t wait to return.

For now, we are just planning on doing Disney, but we may, nearer the time, add a night at Universal if we can justify the expense. With Dougie being just two at that point, the Universal parks may not offer him too much to do so we’ll see. I have booked our 14-day passes from Floridatix with a deposit. It is so nice not to have to stump up all the ticket money this far out to make park reservations.

I must admit to some trepidation about tackling the parks. All I seem to see online is how busy they are these days regardless of the time of year and I know we’re going to have to shell out for the increasingly more expensive Genie+ more often than not. The plan, as it stands in its early phases, allows for a good many rest days, which will be needed and we’ll just take it as it comes I suppose.

So there we have the content for the next few weeks laid out as I share with you our plans, hopes and dreams for these two trips. I know it is indulgent, I know we are lucky, but we just choose to spend our disposable cash on these trips. As the saying goes, we are not rich, (we might be if we didn’t do as many holidays!) just really irresponsible.

Hopefully, there is something in there for both of my readers and we can look forward to a holiday-packed 2024 together.

Till the next time…..

Ryan’s Ready

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Sure, another Florida trip could easily be seen as decadence or financial stupidity. It wouldn’t be the first or last time that’s the case but as if to cement the glorious correctness of our decision, this week it has rained 99.99999% of the time.

I do not play well with bad weather and cold dark nights, so the thought of getting away to some sun and warmth has sat well with me this week, as each day crawled endlessly by at a glacial speed, inching me towards a welcome break, and I don’t mean the motorway services. Work really did outdo itself on the shitshow front as a finale week.

My usual prep started late but is pretty much complete now. With no park plans, the prep is easier, but Ryan has been readied, essential items procured and the passports checked.

Huge sums have been spent on pet food to arm Emily with the tools she will need to keep our zoo alive and kitchen fitters have been tempted back to our house to also give her a kitchen that works fully. I guess it is now 99% complete with just a few snags to sort out next Tuesday.

Here are some before and after pics. Our new dining table isn’t ready yet. It is being hewn from precious metals and the rarest woods known to man by blind Tibetan monks, using diamond-tipped chisels of pure gold. I don’t know if any of that is true, I’m just guessing it must be based on the price. Clearly, I was not involved in that buying decision.

There isn’t a huge difference between the two, and these were taken immediately after the workmen left so there’s still some cleaning, tidying, and “settling in” to do but you get the idea. We have extra cupboards, a different colour of units, new worktops, a new sink, and a fancy Quooker tap. We also took out the monolithic extractor fan thing above the island which somehow immediately made the room seem bigger. Indeed, the main aim was to make the room lighter as it can get a bit gloomy in there, with it being encased in two-foot thick stone walls and in the North of England!

Anyway, we are off tomorrow. I haven’t been able to check in online and will have to do it the old-fashioned way at the airport. This is because when I was adding the Advanced Passenger Info a few weeks ago, an error happened and it turns out that some idiot put Louise’s date of birth in wrong at the time of booking. It’s not that I don’t know it, there was just some issue with the scrolling picker thing and it landed on the 27th and not the 28th.

So Aer Lingus had to manually update that and warned me it would mean I would need to check in at the airport. Sigh.

As the main focus of the trip is going to be food (which is not very different from any previous trip tbh) here’s a summary of the places we plan to eat at.

  • Sanaa
  • The Boathouse
  • Il Mulino
  • Hard Rock Cafe
  • Romanos
  • Cheesecake Factory
  • Antojitos
  • The Edison

I am hoping to fit in one or two other new places if possible.

I have struggled endlessly to carve off a few pounds over the last few weeks, as I do before most trips and of course, I will have added those back on by the time we land in Orlando. This may be just me, but isn’t travel day the most calorific day outside of December 25th? With multiple meals across two time zones, plus snacks, fancy coffees, and the relaxing of pre-holiday restrictions, it is a gut-busting bonanza. My body’s ability to put on weight really is a thing of wonder.

Anyway, lots to do today so I must be off. As ever, I will post sporadically on the Mkingdon Facebook page whilst we are away so give that a follow if you don’t already should you care enough.

Till the next time…..

Tale Of The Century

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on social media this week about the 100th anniversary of Disney. As ever, I like to be at the forefront of these online trends and post about it many days after the event. It is this cutting-edge nature that sees my blog surge in popularity week after week.

Many of these posts seemed to be trying to summarise what Disney means to people, and the effect it has had on their lives. I’m genuinely at a loss as to where to start with that. But of course that will not stop me now from spending the rest of this post trying to do exactly that.

My first ten years on this planet were lived in a normal way, in terms of Disney. I’d watch the films and every bank holiday I would watch the Disney special that was inevitably on the telly, showing clips from all the classic films.

Our holidays were, I am lucky enough to say, regular and wonderful, with the destinations usually being somewhere Balearic.

Then one fateful day in the first half of 1980, our family went into Bolton town centre (when there was one) to go and book our next holiday.

For those under 30, this involved sitting in a shop and watching someone who worked there tap away at some pre-historic-looking green screen VDU if you were lucky. I genuinely can’t remember if by 1980 AT Mays in Bolton had those, but via whatever method our travel agent was looking at stuff, the phrase that would change my life forever was uttered.

“You know, for the same price as Mallorca, I can do you Miami.”

This was mainly due to a dollar rate of 2.20 to the pound. Now, this working-class Bolton family had barely heard of Miami, never mind ever dreamt of going there and I don’t think it took long for that decision to be made.

Of course, zero planning was done. I was nine. I do vividly remember the flight, and that all drinks were free, and I think my Mum probably had one too many Miami Whammies (I’ve no idea either but they were easy to drink it looked like).

Somewhere we still have photos of all the stewardesses on that flight, who to me, at nine and from a northern mill town (whippets optional) they all looked like film stars and I don’t mean Danny DeVito. Obviously, I’ve shared all this previously as I discovered a load of 1980 photos buried deep in a post from years ago.

The holiday itself was mostly like the others. We stayed in a hotel on Miami Beach, and I swam a lot and discovered American food and portion sizes and I have been fat ever since.

Then in the middle of the trip, we drove up to Orlando, stayed in a Howard Johnson (a hotel, not a person), and did Disney.

Now, at that time, Disney was just Magic Kingdom and a very small embryo of Disney Springs called The Disney Village.

Obviously, I fell in love. I turned 10 in America and I remember us going to a mall called Omni that had a merry-go-round in it which blew my mind and my Mum and Dad bought me a birthday cake there.

For years afterward, at family parties and get-togethers, my Dad would tell the same stories over and over about the size of a pizza we got and the number of slices of turkey he got on one particular sandwich, as well as phrases about people not being able to appreciate the scale of the park (there was just one as Epcot would open soon after).

“You get to the entrance and you’re still bloody miles from the turnstiles! You park up, get a tram and a monorail, and only then are you in”. They probably thought us all a bit weird.

I’ve carried on this tradition by regurgitating the same stories here for over a decade.

We even brought home a menu from a restaurant called Pumpernickels in Miami as nobody would believe us when we got home. I remember us being absolutely floored by there being two huge bowls on every table when you were seated, one full of coleslaw and one full of bread.

I have very limited but very vivid memories of this trip as it was a long, long time ago now, to the extent that I question whether they are accurate memories or just some sort of assumed thinking of something we did.

Now, clearly, all of this bred a love for Florida more generally, but the Northern Star in all this, and the tractor beam that has kept pulling us back there was WDW.

We went back several times during my childhood. I’m sad and sorry to say I cannot remember how many times. It’s a long time ago now and no notes were made, and all the photos were analogue.

Once I had my own family, it was my Dad again who re-ignited my passion for the place. He was about to retire and had an endowment policy burning a hole in his pocket. He declared he would be taking us all to Disney. That was him and my Mum, my brother, his wife and their two kids and us four.

I think he booked it over the phone with Travel City Direct, after scrolling through Teletext for hours, but I may be confusing that with other trips. It was £199 each for fly-drive and we had a huge, beautiful villa on Highlands Reserve. Our hire car was more of a bus, and we spent a lot of time one night being lost in Celebration I remember. It was Halloween and the place looked amazing.

Again, no planning was really done but we of course loved it.

The rest as they say is history with our own trips as a four, starting in 2001. An un-reported stay at the All Stars. From then on, pretty much every year we have been back in one way or another. Looking back now I really cannot fathom how we afforded it. Well, sometimes, we didn’t, but I don’t regret any of the trips, memories, experiences, and lovely times we had.

Some time around the time these trips of our own started I discovered the Disboards and then of course The Dibb. These were cutting-edge tools of their day and I learned so much from them and made some good friends too who we met many times over the years.

It is very hard to sum up what Disney has meant to us as I just do not have the writing ability to capture that. I suppose with recent events my Dad is in my thoughts. He loved the place and what he really got a thrill out of on the odd occasion it happened, was, during my Dibb days, we would get approached in a park by fellow Dibbers who recognised us. I think he was quite proud of that tiny bit of recognition, and he certainly enjoyed being in and reading the trip reports.

Now of course, we have started the next generation of trips with Freddie and Dougie, and I doubt they will be as obsessed as I am, and probably will not go as often, but I think, for those who get it, my girls have both summed up what I’m trying to say in different ways.


Firstly, here are the photos Emily posted on her Disney Instagram account last week (go follow her) showing how she feels Disney has touched her life. I think they do it perfectly.

Secondly, I’ll go back to our first trip with Freddie in 2019. It was our first morning and we were of course in Magic Kingdom. We had just entered the park and were standing at the hub looking up at the castle. There was a trolley show on, and I think one of the performers gave Freddie some attention whilst he watched from his stroller. I turned to see Rebecca in floods of tears, and she said…

“I get it now!”.

Of course, she had loved WDW before, but it hits differently as a parent and to see that realisation on her face and her reaction to seeing Freddie in that place, will probably tell you all I want to about 100 years of Disney without me trying to get the words out.

Cynics may say this is all manufactured schmaltz and others may say I should stop regurgitating the same content and photos and they are probably right, but beyond the schmaltz can be a form of magic, a generational bond, formed from memories and happy times that can help to get you through the less happy ones. Ultimately, if that makes you feel “better”, if it supports your mental state and improves your well being then it can’t be a bad thing. It’s better than doing drugs, although a lot more expensive.

Till the next time…..

The 1973.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

I’m not a great fan of nostalgia.

On Facebook, the local community pages just seem to be a load of boomers mooning over photos from the old days when rickets and 10-year-old chimney sweeps were a thing, yearning for a return to those golden times.

“Oh look how full our town centre was and how many great shops there were,” they say before going to the door to collect their 4th Amazon delivery that week.

I can enjoy memories of the past without always thinking that today is bobbins and yesterday was always better because it wasn’t.

Having said that I am a bit of a sucker for some WDW nostalgia and this week some was sent to me that I feel compelled to share. As you know I am on close personal terms with all the high-ups at Disney, and they all read my blogs you know, and every now and again a Disney Imagineer that I know through a friend will send me some good stuff. I don’t know how much I can say about this Imagineer but I will tell you he was heavily involved in the recent project to design and build that real lightsaber you may have seen showcased at a recent D23. It is annoying that he seems to have the job I would like. It’s only a lack of relevant qualifications, experience, and about 4,500 miles that stand in my way.

Anyway, this week I received this gem from him of WDW in 1973.

It’s funny how some things look unchanged and some unrecognisable and that I suppose is the sweet spot for WDW to achieve. I was 3 when this was filmed, and aside from most of the people in the film now being dead of course, I wonder what they would have made of how things are now.

Have a watch if you can spare the time. It’s like being wrapped in a warm blanket.

This video, as lovely as it is, has not altered our intention of not visiting any parks in November. Part of the deal of going back to Orlando was to do so on the same budget as Egypt would have been, and with WDW park ticket prices as they are, they would be a deal breaker. Honestly, though, I have no real desire to do so either. That would change the entire trip’s dynamic and “planner Craig” would kick in and I’d be setting alarms for 6.50 a.m. to secure virtual queues and Lightning Lanes and then dragging Louise from one end of the park to the other because a ride we’ve ridden six dozen times only has a twenty-minute queue.

It’s enough that our entire eating itinerary is laid out already. It’s best not to awaken that beast.

The plan remains unchanged from last week, mainly as the week just gone has been an absolute shitter at work and with the house so I haven’t had the time or mood to be looking at it. It’s probably for the best.

Next week doesn’t look to be shaping up any better. I have to be in the office for two days in a row, which post-pandemic is an absolute insult and horror show and we have (the promise of) multiple workmen being in and on top of our house too. I can’t wait.

Till the next time…..

I (Haven’t) Got A Blank Space Baby

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Our dining plans are complete!

That last night of the trip was taunting me in its blankness, sat there on my plan, goading me to book something. What do you mean I could have not booked something and just gone with the flow?

I had thought I’d book somewhere around the Boardwalk but didn’t in the end. The Edison got the nod and that last remaining blank space is filled.

I looked at a few places and really wanted to try somewhere new. The menu and experience look pretty good based on what I read and watched so it’s booked and we’ll see how it goes.

Thanks to those suggesting things last week. Whilst we didn’t book to dine there, I did discover from one suggestion that there is another Jellyrolls style dueling piano bar at City Walk, in Pat O’Briens so we’re going to try and give that a go one night when we have dining planned at City Walk.

I’m now in that countdown hinterland, where no further planning is needed and it isn’t time to go to the airport yet. This feeling is probably why the plan will change before we go but it’s all part of the experience, right?

Away from holidays, our roof is still leaky, but now we know what it may cost for it not to be so. The figure is so large I cannot speak its name. Where we live, on the edge of the moors, where rain only happens 23 hours out of every 24, and when it comes, it comes sideways, we cannot risk not having a waterproof roof. We now sacrifice things at the altar of Sarah Beeny in the hopes of bringing the roofer to our property to actually do the work. There are rumours he may be with us “mid next week”. We shall see.

Our kitchen is more battlefield/bomb site than kitchen, and we spend our days working around the carnage and trying to tempt workmen back into the house to get it progressed. If someone were to condemn me to my own personal hell this would be it.

Oh and for good measure yesterday the washing machine broke so I had to find another workman to come into my house and relieve me of some money. Of course, despite not even being two years old, it is unfixable and we have to get a new one. Kerching!

Emily had her own troubles last week, finally catching Covid after all this time. There’s a lot of it around. She’s been quite poorly with it and is only now starting to feel anywhere close to normal again, but still testing positive almost a week later. Last weekend she attended two Busted gigs in Liverpool and Manchester arenas plus the work event I told you about down in Cardiff, which was attended by around 2,000 people, so it’s almost certain she got it at one of those. She’s been too ill to leave her bedroom for most of the week so protecting Louise and me from infection has been fairly easy.

Writing about trip planning and Covid takes me right back a couple of years to when all I did was plan trips that got canceled and moan about the handling of the pandemic.

Louise and I went to see Busted with her last Sunday too in Manchester and it was very enjoyable. We got Hanson included in the price of the ticket and here they all are performing one of my favourite songs.

All is well with Rebecca, Tom and the boys. Freddie is excited about his upcoming sixth birthday to which he has invited his whole school class. Sensibly, it will be held at a local play area. Dougie, who is 18 months old now, is starting to walk which only adds to the fun of daily life for Rebecca. He is a little bit more of a handful than Freddie was!

We are off out for tea with them later, along with my Mum who is doing OK, despite feeling a bit lonely at times. Adjusting to life without your husband after so many decades together must be difficult.

So there ends a post with a nice mixture of trip planning and life updates. I feel really out of practice in writing non trip report blogs so let’s hope something (good and not expensive) happens in the next seven days to give me something to droan on about.

Till the next time…..

My Kind Of Meal Plan

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

I did chuckle at the comments and reaction to last week’s post. I wondered how many of you might get halfway through it really believing we were heading to Egypt.

To be fair, we came very, very close.

With an upcoming trip, I would usually be telling you all about all the planning I am doing, but as we aren’t doing a “WDW” holiday, although we will be in Florida and actually technically staying within the WDW resort area, I have nothing to do.

Yeah, right.

I have been booking “a few” ADRs and meals. I told you last week that I got Sanaa sorted for our first night (Day 2) there and I have done some more.

I didn’t book them in this order, but let’s go in the order we’ll do them on the trip.

Day 3 I have booked The Boathouse. It was strongly recommended to me by a regular reader/online friend (Thanks Matt) and a quick look around the internet sees many vloggers call it the best restaurant at Disney Springs, so we’re in.

Day 4, we plan to go and see Yeeha Bob at Port Orleans so we’ll probably just eat in the bar there before enjoying too many cocktails and some piano-based rowdy fun.

Day 5, (and this pledge to eat off-site isn’t going very well is it) I have booked Il Mulino at The Swan as a stomach liner before heading over to Jellyrolls. We’ve done this restaurant three times. Twice it has been outstanding and once it was just good, so we’re giving it another try.

Day 6 sees us head over to City Walk and I have booked us into The Hard Rock Cafe. We’ve been meaning to go back for about a decade. On a trip many years ago, with my Mum and Dad, we had a very memorable meal there that is one of our fondest memories of our trips. I remember the Nachos were insanely good (let’s face it, this trip is going to be a tour of the best Nachos in the Orlando area….we love a Nacho) and my Dad was blown away by the servers doing the Thriller dance routine. Anyway, for those mainly nostalgic reasons, we’re giving it a try again. It’s a Saturday so City Walk should be buzzing as we walk through it to the car park to go home to bed by 10pm!

Day 7 I have us penciled in for Romano’s Macaroni Grill at Lake Buena Vista. I always feel this place doesn’t get the love it deserves but it is one of our favourites.

Day 8, another absolute off-site fave, with us dining at The Cheesecake Factory. I think we’ve eaten here more than any other restaurant in recent visits. It really is outstanding.

Day 9 and we’re back to City Walk, for a second visit to Antojitos. We tried this Mexican for the first time in May and it was probably the best meal of our trip. Again, we do love a nacho so this should be no surprise.

Day 10, our last night and I have nothing planned just yet. I don’t know where to pick for our finale! I suspect it may be somewhere around the Boardwalk area as we do love the place and just being able to soak it in on our last night will be lovely.

Day 11 sees us come home and visit a heart and diet specialist as an emergency case.

All of this planning has been a welcome distraction (and isn’t that the whole point of these trips?) from the stressful reality of real life, which has been especially busy recently. Work is silly, and even involved working yesterday, in Cardiff! Life sometimes feels like you’re spending so much time doing stuff you’d rather not and in turn feeling guilty about all the stuff it stops you doing.

We’re having work done to the kitchen and you all know how much I love a workman in the house, alongside a very badly leaking roof timed perfectly for the worst rain we’ve seen in years. It’s made a right mess, as will the roofer’s quote to our finances, should he ever find time to relieve us of most of our earthly wealth. Nothing makes me more anxious/upset/depressed than a leaky roof. I can’t explain it, just hate water getting where it shouldn’t.

Anyway, I am holding off booking that last meal for our last evening as I am hopeful to perhaps find or have recommended that new fantastic, ideally off-site restaurant close to the Boardwalk. So, that is your mission this week. I await your suggestions!

Till the next time…..

No Telling How Pharaoh’d Go

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

As I fired up WordPress to write this week’s post, I instinctively reached for my trip report note-taking book. What do you mean you don’t have one of those?

For inexplicable reasons, I am currently using one bought on The Disney Wish for more money than I care to confess.

However, I find myself in the unusual position of not having any such notes to write from. We have been fortunate/irresponsible enough of late that I have had many trips to write up and having to go free form this week is all a bit alien.

I know many of you may be thinking I’ll be telling you about the next trip we have booked in this post. I’d hate to be so predictable.

Well, a few months ago we were discussing when we may get away again and the need for a short winter break somewhere warm. So yes, in November Louise and I are heading off for a 10-day sunshine break that will definitely not involve WDW parks!

It’s trickier than you might imagine finding somewhere to go that will be warm at that time of year that doesn’t involve a stupidly long flight for just 10 days away and doesn’t cost the earth.

Many hours were spent on the internet, researching and planning, dismissing the obvious Mediterranean spots as the temperatures were just too low and unreliable in November. The Caribbean was pricey, as of course were far-flung spots that we can only really dream of affording such as The Maldives.

Eventually, it looked like Egypt would be the winner and specifically Sharm El Sheik. I knew nothing about the place but gradually got to know the lay of the land and almost every detail of every hotel in our price range. I won’t admit to how much time I invested on Google Street View “wandering” the local area. Once you are a holiday-obsessed planner there is no turning back regardless of the destination. It seemed to have all we needed.

• Hot weather
• All-inclusive resort
• Some nightlife suitable for two tired 50-somethings

Louise would have liked to see the Pyramids but we quickly discovered they were a 5-hour drive away!

A hotel was pretty much decided upon and much time was spent obsessing over the reviews and the 1% of them that were not great, naturally ignoring the 99% that were.

This is the thing when going somewhere unfamiliar, especially on All Inclusive, as if something isn’t right you are stuck there for the duration. Due to this uncertainty, my finger continued to hover over the “Book” button rather than commit, terrified of throwing a chunk of cash at something we may have to endure rather than enjoy.

Anyway, Louise and I chatted and we went ahead and booked.

We’ll be arriving in Florida on November 13th.

Look, it was Louise’s fault. We discussed the Egypt thing and the risk of it being not all we may wish for, especially the food and potentially getting bored of the same menu every night and having to go out and eat in unknown places. At this point, Louise suggested Las Vegas, and that was the slippery slope to Florida as we were already in the right country at that point. Vegas was too far, and too expensive for what was a short winter break and that led me to pitch the idea of Florida. I wouldn’t class myself as a natural salesperson, although, inexplicably, I did support the family as one many years ago. The pitching was not too arduous before agreement was reached.

Bear with me. What we wanted was nice weather, great food, and guaranteed quality of resort and restaurants. We had no need (or real desire to be honest) to venture near any theme parks, we could just sit by a pool and then at night choose from limitless eateries, many of which we knew would be excellent. There is also suitable nightlife for us in the shape of Jellyrolls, Yeeha Bob, City Walk, Disney Springs, etc and we know where everything is. It took all the risk and worry out of what is intended to be a relaxing respite from the winter back home.

See, it made perfect sense.

Cost-wise, it would be no different from the Egypt option we were looking at. It is out of any school holiday period which keeps costs down and cheapo flights are booked in Economy with Aer Lingus. A sensible car, (and car hire prices seem to be settling finally as we got a Compact SUV for £380 for 10 days), and hotel-wise we have been very practical and pragmatic, avoiding Disney resorts despite our love of all things Yacht and Beach Club.

After a decent amount of research, I decided on the Drury Plaza Hotel near Disney Springs.

This was for a few reasons.

• Location – We can walk to Disney Springs and it is central to anywhere we may want to drive to.
• Price – It was very reasonable, especially as the price has no add-ons like resort fees and your room cost includes a free buffet breakfast and a form of happy hour in the evening where you get three free drinks per guest and some complimentary food (I suspect we won’t use the latter too much).
• Reviews – Almost all good across the board and the place is pretty new so everything should be in good condition.

So I apologise for the predictability of this post. We really did try to go somewhere else, honest! I can honestly say I have no desire to go to a WDW park on this trip. However, should we encounter a chillier day or two and not be able to sunbathe by the pool, we may go to Bush Gardens for the first time in years or even Sea World, who knows, but they don’t count!

With perfect timing for this week’s post, our ADR window opened last week and I have booked our first at Sanaa on the evening of our first full day. There is no distance too great for that bread service.

There won’t be too many ADRs made as we love so many off-site places, but we may try a few new eateries at Disney Springs with it being walkable from our hotel. If anyone has any “must-dos” there I’m all ears.

Till the next time……

Going, Going, We Keep On Going…

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

With another trip done and written up, what the hell do I write about now? Hmmm…

Well, I like to plan, you know that, and I am fairly good at it, but where I find myself now, with the perfect synchronisation of the end of my latest trip report last Sunday, leaving just one Sunday free for a blog post to confess to you all that we are going again, was pure luck.

Yep, we fly out to Orlando again on Tuesday. We booked in late February and timing it perfectly, as far as these Sunday ramblings go, I unconsciously left myself the perfect one-week window to allow you all to collectively eye-roll at the news.

We really didn’t mean to go. I don’t mean that I fell over and landed on my keyboard, pressing several “Book It” buttons all at once. It was less accidental than that, but not by much.

As we returned from the trip you’ve just read about we had some tentative, back-of-the-mind intentions to maybe go on holiday, maybe to Orlando, maybe not, just Louise and I, around September time, but there was no planning going on.

For those who actually read this stuff and pay attention, you may remember that Rebecca, Tom and the boys had booked to go this April, but for boring real-world reasons, they had to postpone/cancel that trip. Well, we got chatting and the idea of all going together (alas Emily had used all her holiday entitlement on other trips with her boyfriend) at some point came up. Initially, as we often do we looked at non-US destinations. As ever, we inevitably drifted back to Florida due to its familiarity and the guarantee of it suiting us and particularly the boys.

We started looking for Florida trips at the end of August into September and spent many minutes laughing at the prices. When did the prices for school holidays become so ludicrous? We went for years at the end of August and we were skint! Hmm, maybe that’s why we were skint.

We then started to work our way back through the summer, trying to find dates that would work for everyone. To cut a very long story short, we had limited options and it ended up being May.

To be honest, May was probably too early for us, and certainly too early for Louise and another trip to WDW, but the carrot of being able to go with Rebecca, Tom and the boys and to see Freddie and Dougie experience Florida overcame all sticks easily.

The compromise was that Louise insisted that we spend a week at a beach. This kicked off the most complex trip I have ever organised, as a week at the beach wouldn’t suit a five-year-old and one-year-old, so I began the process of planning multiple itineraries within one holiday.

Flight-wise, the lowest cost was the order of the day, so Aer Lingus won this time and we are all in economy on the 16th of May. As we have a lap sitter in our party in Dougie, I was unable to book our seats online, but their WhatsApp service was excellent and that was sorted in minutes.

The basic plan was to get a villa for most of the stay, but Louise and I would go off to the beach for a week, with Rebecca and the crew joining us there for a night or two, before they would return to Orlando for theme parking. Alas, our favourite villa was not available for our dates, so we chose what we hope is the next best thing from Airbnb.

In a strange and not to be repeated turn of events Louise chose our accommodation at the beach. I had wanted to go to Vero but hens have more teeth than they had availability, so we opted for a previous destination in Daytona, and Louise did five minutes of searching and informed me we would be staying at the Hard Rock there. Rebecca, Tom and the boys would join us for a couple of days at the beach and then return to Orlando and the villa.

Then, to finish off the trip, and to use up the three-day park passes still owed to us by Hurricane Ian, we booked to stay at our usual place, Royal Pacific at Universal.

I secured us a mini-van and would later return to the issue of how Louise and I would get back from Daytona to Orlando as Rebecca and Tom would be taking our main car back to Orlando with them.

It was about a week after sorting all this, (which I have massively over-simplified above by the way, please show some respect for my planning skills), that Louise and I chatted and thought we should invite my Mum along. Clearly, the complexity of the trip was not sufficient to test my planning expertise.

Mum took a little convincing, unsure about undertaking her first trip without my Dad, but was soon on board when we asked her what Dad would have said! It’s been a while since she has been to Florida and for her and let’s face it for all of us, who knows when that trip might be your last. They are physically demanding so making hay in the sunshine is important.

So I then went about adding Mum to the flight and messaging Aer Lingus to change all our seats again from two sets of three to a four and two, booking her a room at Daytona (she will come with us to the beach) and finally adding her onto our room at Royal Pacific. We will share for the few nights we are there to avoid huge expense.

Park tickets and then of course park reservations were bought and made for all.

One of the most complex issues now presented itself. The car.

With seven people now on the trip and with car seats and strollers and oodles of luggage, the standard seven-seater van we had reserved would not cut the mustard. With every seat taken, there was just no way we would fit all that into the thing. That kicked off a ridiculous amount of time looking at alternatives, some of which would involve me getting my HGV licence, but the answer was presented by Rebecca, who suggested I look at what car we got the last time we had 7 people on the trip.

Finally, I found a use for my obsessive trip reporting and went back to that trip and found the make and model of what we had. On that trip, we also had a stroller and all that goes with a small child so we could be fairly sure it would all fit.

Of course, none of the main car hire sites listed this 8-seater Toyota Sienna, so I reached out to Andy at Discount Florida Car Hire, who I had booked with and explained our predicament. He was incredibly helpful and located one and secured it for us via Dollar. What an 80’s pop duo are doing in the hire car business I do not know.

Hopefully, we are all sorted now as I didn’t fancy driving a 12 or 15-seater thing, especially as Tom would be driving it around for a week during his first time driving in Florida.

I have even booked the three beachgoers a car for a few days in Daytona, crucially giving us a means by which we can drive back to Orlando. For our first two days in Daytona, we will all be together with Rebecca, Tom and the boys then driving back to Orlando at the end of day two, after watching the baseball, which we have always enjoyed in the past. Once the three of us are done with Daytona a few days later, we will drive back to Orlando, drop our hire car at the WDW car centre and have Tom pick us up before heading to check in at Universal.

So, I think that’s everything?? Still with me? Complicated isn’t it?

If anyone still has any appetite whatsoever for another bloody trip report, and even I barely do, I’ll be back here in June popping another one out. I can only apologise.

As ever, the Mkingdon Facebook page is your source of any live updates during the trip and I’ll see you back here in June if you can stomach any more of the same old guff.

Till the next time……

Tiers, Tears and My Third Trip in a Year

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Hello again, it’s been a while since we had a normal, non-trip report post. Much has happened, most of it unpleasant and I won’t be going into a lot of detail about that stuff here.

All I will say is that most of it hasn’t sunk in yet I’m sure. We all feel like we are in some surreal alternative dimension with regular attacks of grief and disbelief.

We miss Mary and my Dad every single day and I think that’s all there is to say about that.

Anyway, before this gets too dark and depressing I wanted to clear something up. I was inundated with a question from one reader last week, desperate to know if the work we were having done out the back ever got completed.

Well, I could write a six thousand word post on this subject, covering the trials and tribulations we have been through, not to mention the enormous expense, but to cut to the chase, yes it is done!

We haven’t had a chance to “tart it up” yet with pleasantries like plants, flowers, lights and furniture mainly as it has rained non-stop here for about six weeks now, but you get the idea….

Before….from above…

and from below…

During (these give me PTSD)…

And after….

The journey to those three new tiers where once was grass resulted in more than three tears being shed. One of these days who knows, we may be able to remove the covers from the fire pit (top tier) and table and chairs (middle tier) that have barely been used in the two summers we have had them!

Being distracted by the declining health of our respective parents played a significant part in the job drifting a bit and the first set of workmen (yes, we eventually fired them), taking the piss a bit. The second lot were excellent, turning up every day at 8.30 on the dot, mob-handed and got the thing sorted in under two weeks. It only took them as long as two weeks because they had to undo most of what the other chancers had done and do it properly.

We are delighted with the results, just not so much the extended time to do it and added costs.

With that boxed off, I have just this one post before we go away again on another very indulgent trip to Florida. It is odd behaviour for us to go again so soon, but I suppose this is what the mortality and passing of close loved ones does. We are all definitely in a weird state and we’re just doing what feels closest to right, for right now.

The plan was pretty much sorted and dictated by another odd/new thing, the inclusion of a Disney cruise, so the rest of the schedule just fell into place around that. As tradition dictates, here is a rough outline of our plans. I am very satisfied with them, mainly as I managed to get a couple of “hen’s teeth” in at the last minute, in the shape of O’hana and a Fantasmic Dinner Package. Doesn’t it feel good to secure stuff like that when you’ve trying for weeks and weeks to get them?

If you didn’t know, the travelling party is me, Louise and Emily.

Monday 9th January

We fly tomorrow (still sounds weird and unreal), from Manchester with Virgin. We have for the first time booked Premium both ways.

We pick up our car from Alamo at the airport and drive to our first accommodation, Caribbean Beach Resort. This was chosen almost exclusively for the Skyliner option from there. We wanted to stay on-site, but didn’t want to pay for a Deluxe for the bulk of the trip and this option gives us car-free access to the Boardwalk area.

Tuesday 10th January

You know we will be in Magic Kingdom as it is our first full day. At the risk of becoming a bore, I have made a reservation at the Cheesecake Factory for 7.30pm for some Nachos.

Wednesday 11th January

Some resting, and the weather forecast looks OK with temperatures above 70 degrees, so we may be able to do some pool time in the morning. After many, many weeks of struggling to do so, over Christmas I managed to book us a Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose (I would have taken one in any of the eateries) at 3.45, just to get us into the reserved seating for Fantasmic. With it just returning, we suspect queues for it will be long and this avoids that horror.

So we will pop into the park for that meal and kill a few hours until we need to take our seats around 7.30pm.

Thursday 12th January

It’s an Epcot day, focussing on Future World. We have plans to go and see Yeeha Bob again at Port Orleans in the evening so we will be leaving the park around tea time to do so. Drink may be involved.

Friday 13th January

Not due to any superstitions about the date, we are planning a full rest day today, anticipating some mild hangovers. I do have a park reservation just in case we want to bother, but the evening sees a return to Il Mulino at The Swan and hopefully a few hours at Jellyrolls.

Saturday 14th January

A full theme park day at Hollywood Studios today. Hopefully, Emily will get to do Rise for the first time. I know a Saturday at DHS may be crowdtastic but we’ll play it by ear.

Sunday 15th January

Another park day at Animal Kingdom with a dinner reservation at Yak & Yeti. We will need to pack to leave Caribbean Beach as tomorrow…..

Monday 16th January to Friday 20th January

We board our cruise.

Friday 20th January

We leave the cruise early doors and head for our final resort of the trip, our old favourite the Yacht Club. We plan to do World Showcase in Epcot in the afternoon and evening with some fireworks to finish things off. Dinner is booked at Via Napoli.

Saturday 21st January

Hollywood Studios again today, mopping up anything the crowds have denied us thus far.

Sunday 22nd January

Magic Kingdom of course for the last full day. Along with the aforementioned Fantasmic Dinner Package booking, I was very pleased to get an elusive reservation at O’haha around 8pm.

Monday 23rd January

We check out, kill some time at Disney Springs no doubt and head to the airport for our flight home.

I do have some trepidation about the WDW parks after our experience last January, but I am hoping things are a little more settled, with less “catch up” travel following the pandemic and Genie+ having a year under its belt to sort itself out. I see that from Jan 1st, the change to only allow Genie+ bookings on the day will be in effect so that may help?

Anyway, we have much to do today, starting with me checking in for our flights as soon as I post this. Louise has been really ill this week with a flu-type thing so the packing and prep have been a struggle. Hopefully, she is through the worst now and she doesn’t forget anything of mine or there’ll be trouble!

As ever I’ll use the Mkingdon Facebook page to share stuff along the way, and I’ll see you back here in late January.

Till the next time……

Dream It, Wish It, F**k it.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

What is this madness? Two posts in one day? Often it takes a superhuman effort to squeeze out one, but we are mid-trip report, so my weekly nonsense about what is happening in life (and as ever, there is a fair bit going on) isn’t a thing. So I just wanted to share an update with you as it relates to the main reason this blog exists.

Despite only recently returning from our “couples retreat” trip in September, we have booked to return to Orlando, this time taking Emily along with us. Rebecca, Tom and the boys are already booked to go in April/May so Florida is getting its fill of Williams dollars it seems.

Oddly, I feel some sort of need to justify this ridiculous extravagance. Let me confirm, we are not very rich, just really irresponsible!

Before I share the plan, the reasons for the trip are many and include –

  1. First and foremost of course, we want to go again.
  2. Fantasmic is back and it needs watching. Or at least we need to go and try to watch it and no doubt end up disappointed.
  3. Our last trip, as much as we enjoyed it, and we really did, was beset with three days of a hurricane and of course Mary’s sad passing, so we feel like some of that trip was lost or impacted.
  4. My Dad isn’t in the best of health these days, and along with Mary’s passing, both Louise and I are firmly in the “f**k it” mindset of doing stuff we want to do whilst we are fit and able to do it. All too soon it will be too late.
  5. With one thing and another we’ve had a tough year or so and, well, as I say, f**k it.

We asked Emily if she’d like to come along as she’s not been since last January and has severe withdrawal symptoms. With saving for her own place being a priority for her now, she would be unlikely to return under her own steam for a while.

So enough apologetic justification for doing what we want to do. What is the plan?

We go on the 9th of January. We are flying with Virgin this time and managed to get Premium both ways for an acceptable price. We like Aer Lingus a lot, but they only offer Business Class as an Economy alternative and that is big money for the three of us. Premium is a decent halfway house between Economy and Business so they got our business this time.

We are staying at Caribbean Beach for seven nights to start. This resort was selected mainly due to the Skyliner, as it will enable us to visit our beloved Boardwalk of an evening without the need to drive. It’s a cheaper alternative to staying at one of the Boardwalk resorts but still allows us to do what we love to do there.

Yes, this time we are definitely going to do the WDW parks. January is not a time of year to depend on there being sunbathing weather, so the plan is to do Disney.

Even though Louise and I have three days of Universal tickets to use from our last trip, due to Hurricane Ian, we aren’t doing Universal on this trip as there isn’t time. Why you may ask?

Well for the first time ever we are doing a Disney Cruise. We move from Caribbean Beach to the Disney Wish for a four-night cruise to Nassau and Castaway Cay. Being a walking contradiction, Louise suggested/insisted we do this despite having told me for the last few decades that she would never do a cruise.

Had we added Universal to the plan then we would have been in a park every day and that way lies tiredness and a lack of enjoyment.

After the cruise, we then move back to Orlando to finish with three nights at the Yacht Club, where despite my nightly prayers, I suspect we won’t get another upgrade to Club Level. Go on Disney, you know it makes sense!

I honestly didn’t plan this but it seems if I continue to write up the last trip at the current rate, the last day will get posted the day before we go on the next trip. This is ridiculous, extravagant and at the same time awesome.

We’ve been watching a fair few Tracker vlogs recently as they now seem to live on the Disney Wish, so I feel we have a decent amount of knowledge about the cruise experience and The Wish, but as we were starting from zero knowledge, of course, if there are any cruise experts reading this, your tips and advice would be most welcome. Ditto Caribbean Beach.

So far our plans include dining at Il Mulino again, Yak & Yeti whilst in DAK and a brunch at somewhere new to us, City Works at Disney Springs. We also plan to spend another evening with Yeeha Bob.

It feels weird to be one of those folks who have multiple trips per year, but I come back to the recurring theme of this post, f**k it, you’re a long time dead.

Till the next time……

Yacht Club Or Bust.

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

This will be brief. We have so much to do that I can’t be spending too much time papping on here. As things stand, with mere hours until our flight leaves, we are going. That could change of course.

Mary was in very poor health on Thursday evening and we thought we may not be going, and for the sake of our mental health, I guess we have to stay in that frame of mind until we are airborne.

The home she will be in is absolutely equipped with everything and everyone needed for any eventuality, so it’s just a case of her remaining fit enough for us to take her in and us getting on the plane. I appreciate that might sound a little odd, but we need this break.

We’ll be dropping her off early this afternoon and have booked about six removal trucks to do so. She’s taking a fair bit of kit with her.

The last week at work has been a constant stream of meetings that I had to drag myself through. I feel like there are a million things I haven’t done, and that I am bound to forget to do something crucial like check-in for the flight online. Someone remind me!

On Thursday I went to the Post Office to grab a few dollars in cash. The least said about the exchange rate the better. It was borderline offensive.

So the plan for the rest of today is to take Mary in, stay with her for a few hours to make sure she is settled, and then meet Tom, Rebecca and the boys for some tea so we can say our goodbyes, before coming home so Louise can hoover the ceilings and re-pave the front drive, as is the tradition if we leave the country for two weeks. It is going to be a busy pre-holiday day.

Emily and her boyfriend Mikey are house and pet-sitting. With the zoo that we have this is a full-time job so please wish them good luck. With two dogs, three cats and a number of rats that I have lost track of they may have to sleep in shifts.

As ever I will be sharing stuff during our trip on the Mkingdon Facebook page so if you haven’t “Liked” that already, what on earth are you thinking? Go ahead and do that so you can see pictures of a lot of food. On our return, I will be doing some blogging around the trip of course but I’m not sure two weeks of pools and food will make for the most interesting reading. We’ll see.

If all goes to plan, in a few hours (well, a good few) we’ll be enjoying views like this, so keep your fingers crossed for us, please.

Image pinched from disneytouristblog.com

I have been watching my emails like a hawk for Aer Lingus emails, paranoid they are going to cancel the flight. I even checked availability on the Virgin flights tomorrow in case we end up in the lurch and need an alternative. As of yesterday, there were some seats left. Crazy, right?

I am reluctant to say it but it looks like we may actually be going, but I stand ready to be corrected on that.

So enough waffle, there are things to do and flights to check in to.

Till the next time……

Travel Tribulations

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Number of days remaining until holiday – Low

Stress levels – High

Confidence levels that we will get on the plane – Low to Moderate

It has been a stressful old week. Work has been ridiculous but more importantly, until late afternoon on Thursday, we had no respite care booked for Mary. If this were as easily obtainable as hen’s teeth, dipped in unicorn semen, we would have fared better. Louise has spoken to every care facility in the North West, and each one had some new and interesting reason why they could not help us, or it was a dump. We were getting worried.

Anyhow, on Thursday I got the call from Louise that her lastest and last visit to a nursing home had paid off, and Mary was booked in. With this news in the bag, I allowed the release of the suitcases from whichever dark hole they had been stashed into since January and the packing has begun, I am led to believe.

The limited belief that we might go away has risen slightly but not to any level that allows excitement to build. This may be the case until we are wheels up from the runway, at the obligatory half an hour later than the take-off time planned. How I long for a holiday that can be booked with the confidence that it will actually happen. It will be a fraught week to come, as we keep everything crossed that Mary remains in a state of health conducive to going on her holidays to the nursing home.

I am getting so paranoid about travel now that every news event is considered a potential barrier to it happening. Of course, I have persistent low-level fear that the airport will be packed and queues horrendous, and/or the airline will cancel our flight at the last minute, but yesterday when the Queen’s funeral was announced for the day we should be travelling, I spent a panic filled few minutes on google trying to figure out if some ancient custom would mean flights might be affected. I know it’s silly, but I am scarred by the last three years of uncertain plans.

These restrained levels of excitement have probably played a part in my resisting making any more ADR bookings. It is one less thing to cancel should it come to that. I would make an exception for O’hana still, as I would like to tie that in with an evening on the Poly beach watching some fireworks and maybe some Trader Sam’s, but the respite care of the North West had more availability it seems. I am getting a bit weary of having to try so hard to “do things” on Disney property. I yearn for the days when all you had to do was pay a small fortune.

In other news, Freddie completed his first week at school and enjoyed it. More importantly, Rebecca is now past the trauma of him going to school for the first time! There were tears.

Dougie rolled over for the first time and has teeth incoming, and at this rate will be at University next week, and I completed ten years of service at my current employer. I arrived home from the office on Thursday to a huge Fortnum and Masons hamper. It is a lovely place to work, assuming you have to work somewhere (and I do), and Louise was very excited, not so much by the contents of the hamper, but more the hamper itself becoming a high-class repository for our Christmas decorations for years to come.

My Dad is coping OK following his release from the hospital but isn’t in the best of health and our work of course is still not complete, with the eternal promise of “tomorrow” being the completion date. That “tomorrow” should have been Saturday and then today, but naturally is once again “tomorrow”.

We have a bit going on as you can see, and if we ever exist in a chaos-free world again, I’m not sure I would know how to deal with it.

Still, on the plus side, only one more week of this unbearable wailing in blog form to endure before we all know either way. I’m off to rock back and forwards in a corner for quite some time.

Till the next time……

Cautious Countdown

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Firstly, thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes last week. They were all read and appreciated. The day was spent at work, so it will not rank in my all-time top 10 birthdays, but I got to spend the evening with these dudes and eat some pizza, so all was not lost.

Present wise, recognising I am a bugger to buy for, I did very well. A new iWatch (my other broke a few weeks ago), a huge pack of Pick n Mix, some cash, clothes, a very posh neck pillow for the plane and some dollars for spending on our (hopefully) upcoming trip.

On that note, having endured most of 2020 and 2021 reading these posts each week where I would prattle on about a trip to Florida that wasn’t certain and usually did not happen, I can only imagine your delight that we are back there again now. At least it can only last for a few weeks this time and relies on the health of some parents and not some global pandemic inflicting grief, misery and destitution on the world.

My Dad is home from the hospital as of Friday, and Mary carries on carrying on. As we stand, the trip is on but excitement levels are low, to avoid what could be likely disappointment.

Having talked about how I was going to go with the flow and not plan anything, last week, with all of you already knowing that I was lying, I caved and booked an ADR. I would have booked two had there been any availability on any evening of our entire trip for O’hana, (what’s going on with that?) but there was not and so we just have the one, so far, at Sanaa. That bread service is like a tractor beam.

For those times when we may wish to eat on site, I have been doing some “same day booking” tests with the app. For several days I have fired it up and looked for places to eat that evening and there has been plenty to choose from. So I am trying to hold firm and not tie us to specific times if I can help it, so we can just make plans once we know when we want to eat. Then I can give Louise three hours to get ready, having lied about the actual time of a booking by at least half an hour so that we may only set off half an hour late.

You know we have many off-site places we have to go to, so our on-site culinary adventures may be limited. Having had a quick look at some options around the Swan & Dolphin and noticed that Shula’s steakhouse has a $155 steak on the menu, then it could be McDonalds for many meals!

Our off-site list, as if you haven’t seen it a million times before, will probably include…..

  • Bahama Breeze
  • Olive Garden
  • Romano’s Macaroni Grill
  • Teak
  • Applebees
  • Cowfish
  • Cheesecake Factory

The last of those probably being the standout of our January trip. We have declared them the server of the world’s best Nachos and I will not be taking questions or entering into a debate about that. As Louise is the world’s biggest lover of Nachos, it stands to reason that we return to let her sample what she missed earlier this year.

I had a number of very understandable comments on last week’s post doubting my ability to resist going to the WDW parks, particularly Epcot, as we will be staying so close for half of the trip. My resolve is strong, but of course, all I have seen in my Disney social feeds since booking this trip is how empty the WDW parks are right now and folks are being paid to go on the rides….well, not quite.

There are no plans to change our plans, as we need a relaxing break and the extra cost and complexity of us attempting the Disney stuff is just not compatible with that. I’m not saying my brain is 100% comfortable with that stance, but it’s what we’re doing!

It does feel like everything park related is going to take a good few years to settle down. Perhaps by then, we’ll have been able to ride Remy and Rise?

I was delighted to realise that many of the hoops we had to jump through in January to get on a plane are no longer a thing. Using the VeriFly app this time was much easier, simply uploading our vaccination QR codes and attesting that we had a passport and that was it.

So we’re two weeks away, don’t know if we’re going and doing much of the prep to do so at the same time. It’s the Schrodinger’s Cat of a holiday.

And of course, the work in the garden isn’t finished.

Till the next time…..

Respite Our Best Efforts

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Of course the work isn’t finished, why would you even ask? A bit of activity happened, some no shows on a few days followed due to random “issues” and we still plod on towards the inevitable end or my death, whichever comes first as a merciful release.

Anyway, this is not something I wish to focus on this week. I have news. As a side note, you should be very grateful that I do have news, otherwise this week you would be reading an endless moan about drain blockages, leaking pipes (separate incidents on consecutive days) and the enormous stress and expense of resolving them.

One day last week, I think it was Tuesday, Louise appeared in my office/conservatory having made a decision.

She had been thinking, having been confined to bed for many hours with the Covid (yes, she has been stricken but luckily I remained uninfected this time). We needed a holiday she declared, and we could not go on indefinitely without one. She would find suitable respite care for her Mum and we were to go away, immediately, if not sooner.

I was tasked with finding something suitable and again, you may think my first port of call would be a trans-Atlantic flight but it was not. I spent a little while looking at European options, such as Greece and the like and presented a few options to Louise.

To cut a long story short, (it wasn’t that long, she just turned down all the non-Florida options and told me to book Florida) she forced me to go to Florida again. This was mid-morning on Tuesday. By that evening I had researched, planned and booked everything, right down to fast lane security at Manchester and airport parking and had checked into most of the hotels online. I am very good at this.

It may be a popular misconception that our continued patronage of Florida is all my doing, but if you consult the history of our trips, you will find that Louise is often the catalyst.

This will not be our usual trip. Firstly, it will just be Louise and me. Secondly, we will not be frequenting any WDW parks. I know this may shock you, or maybe not. This holiday is mainly for relaxing and the recharging of batteries, so the concept of having to be awake at 7am to battle for things just isn’t something we want to contemplate. I know I will inevitably plan more than I should, but this will be a much more relaxed affair, with pools, going with the flow, relaxing and eating lovely food being the watchwords.

It is a double-edged sword, as I know I will miss the WDW parks when we are adjacent to them, but equally, going to them without the girls, Tom and the boys would be very strange too. We will especially miss World Showcase and I suppose we could shell out for a day ticket, but then we have to worry about getting a park reservation and it’s just a hassle we don’t need.

We are going to stay in some nice places, enjoy the resorts and sneak in some Universal Front of Line park time towards the end.

So what is the plan? Well……assuming we get to go with the health issues of Mary and my Dad, (I have made sure everything I have booked is cancellable until as late as possible)…..

We fly on the 19th of September with Aer Lingus from Manchester. Due to work stuff I could not get out of, this was the earliest date I could come up with. It gives me just over three weeks to lose four stone though.

Our first three nights are at the Yacht Club. You probably know that this is one of my favourite places on the planet and some days spent around Stormalong Bay, and strolls around the Boardwalk with some added Jellyrolls will kick off the relaxation.

Then, despite not going to any WDW parks, we head to Port Orleans Riverside for five nights. I know little of this resort, but to be frank, at this late stage there was very little still available. I consulted a couple of those DVC resort availability websites, thinking I may rent some points, but there was literally nothing available for any of our dates. I had wanted to go to Vero Beach for a few days but there was zero availability.

Anyway, Port Orleans looks lovely and has a lot of eateries and activities along with the required pool(s). There is also the boat service to Disney Springs which will come in handy too.

Then we move to Universal and another stay at the Royal Pacific Resort for three nights, to do more pool stuff and to get our park fix, with the essential Front Of Line, which means we can dip in and out as and when we like, without worrying about lines, wait times or any of the overly complex nonsense that a WDW park now requires.

We end the trip with three nights at the Dolphin. We have never stayed at this resort or the Swan, but again location is the major draw here.

We fly home on the 3rd of October.

I have promised myself and Louise that I will not over-plan this thing. I may make the odd ADR but I really just want to be able to eat when we’re hungry and not have to be looking at the time and getting stressed about Louise making us late for everything! We’ll see how that goes!!

Excitement levels are low at this stage, as we know a lot can happen between now and then, but we are past masters at not knowing if we are going on a trip until the last minute, thanks to the pandemic, but we are both very ready for the break.

I am sure it is psychological but ever since I pressed the button to book, I seem to have succumbed to absolute apathy for anything work-related. I had been hunkered down ready for the long haul through winter without a break and now I know we might be going away, I feel exhausted and can muster very little enthusiasm for anything related to what I do to pay the bills. I am a mard arse as I only went away in January, but it’s been a tough old time in many ways since. Well, that’s my excuse anyway.

It’s funny how our shortest countdown ever feels very far away right now.

Who knows by the time we get back in early October the work in the garden may be finished?

Till the next time…….

Dig, Doug, Dougie

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Apologies for the lack of blog last Sunday. We had a lot on and let’s face it, nobody cares.

I was inundated with one message asking if I was still alive, so thank you.

I doubt there are many other blogs where you can receive regular digging updates. It’s a niche market, but I’m happy to tackle it.

More digging has happened. We now have two “tiers” to complete the many other tears all this work is driving us to. To be fair, it has been relatively painless so far, for us at least. The digger driver did have a couple of interesting/terrifying moments in the smaller digger he used to do the final bits of shaping etc, as he traversed the moonscape that is currently our back garden, but the digging, at least involving the big machinery is done. Anything else will be done by hand now.

That is a relief in itself as just getting that sort of heavy machinery into position had the potential to upset the neighbours, damage property and see our field make an appearance in our kitchen.

We spent all week awaiting the delivery of all the materials so the reconstruction could begin. As with everything else in the country these days, building materials have become akin to precious metals and bugger all happened until yesterday as we awaited the delivery of rare commodities like wood and sand. The builders estimate about a week of work to get things complete once stuff arrives, so let’s say two and hope we’re somewhere close to done by the end of August. It’ll be lovely to look out at our new outdoor space through the drizzle and fog of Autumn.

The other news since we last “spoke” was our wedding anniversary on the 3rd. Twenty-six years of marriage and twenty-eight together. People often say things like “where has the time gone” in these circumstances. I know where it has gone. Mainly working, many lovely holidays and the usual mix of ups and downs. Literally, cest la vie.

In other news, and the latest “you couldn’t write it” episode of my life, one evening last week as I returned home from walking the dogs, I spotted some movement near our kitchen bin. What followed was twenty sweaty minutes of Louise and I trying to catch a mole that no doubt one of the cats had brought home and then lost or got bored with. It’s at times like these that you realise how much furniture you have, as the poor little bugger scuttles from one piece to another. Eventually, I threw some tupperware over it and took it outside to hopefully find its way home and not to another cat. We named him Doug. It felt appropriate.

To complete the Dig, Doug, Dougie trilogy, the latter has been a little unwell this week but a visit to the docs confirmed it was nothing serious. He was off his milk, which based on his track record to date, was very unusual. Anyway, he is on the mend and back to staying awake all day, smiling at everyone and eating.

With it being mid-August now, by rights I should be boring you to tears with the detailed coverage of our last-minute preparations for a WDW trip. This time of year has, more often than not, been our time of choice to visit Florida. It isn’t possible this year at this time for many reasons and for Louise and I, we just don’t know when it may be again with Mary needing the care she does. Respite care is not an option as the worry whilst away wouldn’t make for a relaxing time.

I’m not sure I’m ready to tackle WDW again yet anyway to be honest. It seems the more time that passes since our January trip, the less I feel inclined to combat the complicated mess that is visiting a WDW park. It’s like some mild form of Genie+ PTSD. Maybe it is better now? If you’ve been recently I’d welcome your feedback.

The CEO this week confirmed the one call I got right during the pandemic. The park reservation system is here to stay. As I guessed, this is just too useful to Disney in terms of their planning, cost management and ability to staff the parks, or perhaps more relevantly, limit the number of guests aligned to how many CMs they have available.

I don’t mind this too much. As someone who plans their days months in advance, mainly so we can eat where we want to, the chances of us rocking up to a park that’s full and having no reservation are slim to none. What I do object to is having to be awake and on-line around 6.30am to fight for the chance to pay extra money for Genie+ to have any chance of riding anything that resembles a headliner.

With a good number of new rides open or about to, this is only going to get worse. It may be years before folks get to ride a “new ride” even if they visit annually.

With no prospect of a holiday any time soon, the main reason I need to get one booked is that it is typically the only reason and motivation to lose a few pounds and let’s just say I should book about a dozen holidays to generate the weight loss required right now.

Let’s reconvene next Sunday with hopefully, news of a very nearly finished back garden. What could possibly go wrong?

Till the next time…..