Disney – Mkingdon's Blog

The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol – Day Four September 13th

25/10/2026 by mkingdon, posted in The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol

Here’s that rest day that should have been yesterday. I was as fresh as a daisy, but I suspect others may not have been and a request came over the group chat to go out for breakfast.

We were out by 9.45 and mainly because it looked pretty close, I chose Keke’s. On arrival, Mikey jumped out to check the wait for a table. It was a Sunday, so every breakfast place was going to be busy. He returned with tales of just a twenty minute wait so I parked up and we went in.

We went to sit outside on some benches. As with a lot places, their text service to say when you can be seated could not accommodate a UK number so I was already paranoid that we would be overlooked. It came to pass that I suspect I was correct.

It was incredibly hot outside so after about twenty minutes we retreated inside and found a seat in the lobby. Over the next twenty minutes the place got uncomfortably busy, at times bordering on chaos. Around that time I asked the host when we would be seated and if we’d been forgotten. She assured me we had not, but spookily the next party to be called was ours.

We ordered and waited about ten minutes for our food to arrive.

I had French Toast with fruit and an iced coffee.

Emily had an Omelette and a Diet Coke

Mikey had Stuffed French Toast, a coke and an inexplicable side of grits.

With our extended wait now making it almost lunch, Louise ordered a Turkey Club, a water and an Orange Juice. She ordered fries but got chips so our server brought out fries as well after another couple of minutes.

It was very good, but the long wait had coloured our judgement a bit and we wouldn’t rush back. It was $118 with tip.

Being all of four days into the trip Louise had an absolute need to go shopping today for some tops, as none of the ones she had bought for the trip and had not worn, were not suitable. This was fine. I knew that parking at Premium Outlets on a Sunday, around lunchtime would be only slightly less tricky than a moon landing and we in no way exchanged words about the situation. I did suggest we nip into the Target literally across the road from Keke’s but this suggestion was met with disdain and some google searches for divorce lawyers. As the Bare Naked Ladies suggest in their excellent song, it would be a good deal less than One Week until we found ourselves in said Target shopping for these items much more successfully.

After a 30 minute drive, we did another 20 minute drive around the car parks until we found somewhere. Ah yes, a rest day.

We toured a dozen shops with nothing purchased before driving back to the villa around 2.30. We just relaxed by our pool all afternoon.

We were very glad that this thing was on the other side of the pool guard.

We were showered and out again by 6pm. I was to have some alcohol tonight so we got an Uber up to the Beach Club for our ADR at Beaches & Cream.

I cannot over express my adoration for the Yacht and Beach Club.

We checked in at 6.45. It was at that point that we discovered that I had entered the wrong time onto the plan and we were about 90 minutes early.

Not to worry. We headed into Martha’s Vineyard for a pre-dinner drink. We found a table and studied the menu….

We had three rounds of drinks in all, of various kinds. One of mine was a Dark “n” Stormy which I would replicate in a restroom in the not too distant future.

This place is lovely, and I really loved just sitting and chatting, away from the hustle and bustle of WDW. Somewhere in the trip report archives is a photo of us in this place and Louise and I would not be too far off the ages of Emily and Mikey now. Time flies. Ah I found it…clearly Rebecca took this one….if the date on the photo is to be believed then this one was taken on the day before my 37th birthday.

Now, drinking in WDW, at a deluxe resort is an expensive hobby and we left after paying a $220 bill. Still worth it.

We went next door to Beaches & Cream around 8.40 and ordered.

Emily and Mikey both had the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Louise and I both had the Beef Dip with Tots for me and Fries for Louise. There was also a chocolate milkshake for Louise.

Once we were full, we headed out to do one of my favourite things in the world and that is walk around the Boardwalk at night. These warm evening strolls here are some of my best WDW memories.

We ended up in the Abracadabar and as we walked in, a table opened up. We were only going to have one but that turned into three. I can’t remember what we had but that was mainly due to how cold I was. It was unfathomably cold in there and all I could focus on was the sight of my breath escaping my body in a frosty mist. Ok, I exaggerate.

We got an Uber home around 11.30 and this had been a lovely evening all round.

Till the next time……

The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol – Day Three September 12th

18/10/202625/10/2026 by mkingdon, posted in The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol

Over the years I have not been shy to lecture folks on all kinds of WDW related subjects and how they should do it my way rather than the wrong way. This kind of unbending dogmatic preaching is quite endearing I’m sure.

One of those gems was that day two should *always* be a rest day. The long travel day, the jet lag and the post adrenaline crash after the excitement of the first park day (and that has to be Magic Kingdom of course) can lead to a grumpy and unsatisfactory day two.

Anyway, today we were completely ignoring my own advice as we needed a rest day tomorrow as we planned to do some drinking this evening.

Amazingly I had slept from 9 to 5, what a way to make a living. Everyone was tired this morning so we lazed around for a while and didn’t leave the house until 8.20am. Today we took Sherberth Road and discovered that Mikey cannot say that word without sounding like Christian Slater in Austin Powers.

We were all laughing a lot at this as we got to the top of Sherberth and then all of a sudden the hilarity stopped as I realised I had left my attractive bum bag on the chest of drawers in our bedroom.

There was a brief amount of time whilst I calculated if we could do without it before deciding we could not and turning around. Credit cards are pretty vital in this neck of the woods. I apologised to the group for my incompetence and spent the drive home silently berating myself for ruining the whole day, and holiday and next ten holidays. I’m not one to over react.

It cost us forty minutes in total and as we arrived at the gates of Animal Kingdom, it was rammed. This would be a theme of this trip for reasons we never really fathomed. It would often take ten to fifteen minutes to pay them $35 for parking!

As we queued today, some idiot cut us up very badly adding to my already sunny disposition. It would seem it might be one of those mornings.

We parked in Dinosaur.

As we made it to the top of the row a full tram was just pulling away. Sigh. So we took up a position at the front of the poles that denoted where the tram would pull up. A few moments later it did, but the end of the tram was about ten feet past us, leaving us with no tram to get onto.

We did manage to find some seats which allowed me to seethe a little more as we headed toward some Disney magic.

I felt guilty about the delayed start to the day so bought Lightning Lanes for the day. Our first hastily made LL was Festival of the Lion King at 10.30.

Knowing we would now have LLs today, I felt less pressured to charge around and allowed us to take onboard some breakfast. We did this at Starbucks and sat on a wall opposite the kiosk that sells that viral ice cream sandwich thing. It didn’t open until 10.30 but the queue started to form at 10.15 and from what we saw through the day never went away.

After eating we wandered towards Lion King and even took in a couple of shops before entering the queue. We would be Elephants.

As I always do I attempted and failed to take some impressive scenery shots.

This show never fails to impress, no matter how many times we have seen it, and we have seen it a lot!

Whilst in this show I also invested in some LLs for Flight of Passage. This was likely to be our one day at Animal Kingdom and the wait time was offensive. I had to do a lot of refreshing to get a time we could do and eventually one popped up for 11.30 rather than the 6pms I’d been seeing and we’d be out of the park by then.

Once the show ended we walked over to FOP via a restroom, and undertook the longest preshow on property, surely?

Again, an experience that impresses every time. There was a brief shower of rain as we exited the ride. We sheltered whilst Emily and Mikey had their Crocodile Sandwich thing as they had only had coffees earlier.

We were Everest bound for another LL.

We were off at 10.50 and being in this part of the park it seemed obvious to go and do the Nemo show that started at 11am. There were some members of the party not overly keen to do so, but I am the map, so off we went.

We sat right down at the front and everyone enjoyed it.

This song was of course the highlight.

We walked over towards Tusker House and got a couple of beers and two waters from the bar there. We had a brief sit down before heading off towards what will always be known to us as Birds of Flight for the upcoming show time. Some idiot had got the show time wrong so instead we spent twenty minutes or so watching these guys.

They were excellent.

The next bird show was now happening so we took our seats.

Despite all of our burning rage that It’s Tough To Be A Bug was no more, we were now about to witness the new Zootopia thing for the first time. Look, I know I am not the target audience for this and granted I don’t think I’ve ever seen Zootopia but this was not for me.

It just seemed like a lot of shouting and chaos without any of the charm of the old thing. I’m sure kids will love it, or younger parents with some form of connection with the film, but this feels like a downgrade.

We browsed a couple more shops before doing the safari just as the rain started.

Our driver was great and I would recommend the front seats if you can get them. The rain stopped by the time we got off. Maybe the Gods don’t hate me today after all.

It was now time to head out of the park, recognising we hadn’t done a lot of things on offer here. Alas, we had plans to see two of our favourite piano players this evening and the first of those would be in Grand Floridian lobby. We drove over to Magic Kingdom and parked in Simba. A tram and a monorail got us over to Grand Floridian, nicely circumventing the “you off site scum cannot visit resorts any more” rule.

We found some seats that were not ideal and got a drink.

This resort oozes class.

I cannot explain the dinosaur.

Michael (our fave from the Jellyrolls days) began to play shortly afterwards.

Luckily some seats opened up and Louise pounced on them like Steven Segal.

We spent a lovely couple of hours listening and having a couple of drinks.

Just before we had to leave I requested he played Wishes, which fully broke Emily, who was in floods of tears, to the extent that he came over and asked if she was OK. I think he understood.

A Lyft was summoned to take us over to Port Orleans now as we had a date with Yeeha Bob! The Lyft was a Tesla with a human in it but, as I observed being sat in the front, the whole trip was done in self drive mode. It was only mildly stressful.

At resort security it seems any kind of ride share gets you can immediate wave through and we were in. There were no seats initially but some loitering and patience saw us gradually obtain and improve our seating over the next hour or so.

We ordered some food as we were all hungry now.

It was as good as it looks and we destroyed it.

Eventually our seats were this good.

It turned out that I had left my credit card in the card reader at the bar when I got our first round of drinks when we had no table. Luckily the server spotted me as she was leaving and said she’d left it at reception. Honestly I am beginning to worry myself. I wandered over and picked it up. I wasn’t even drinking!!!

Everyone else was and they were all pretty worse for wear by the end of the night. I ordered another Lyft at 12 to take us back to the TTC. A tram got us back to the car and I got us home in one piece by about 12.40. I told you we’d need a rest day tomorrow.

In the end, this was a great day. We got a decent amount done, albeit at some expense at Animal Kingdom despite the delayed start and early departure, but the evening was really lovely. We all thought it was one of the highlights of our trip. Right now though I was very sober and very tired, so sleep was welcome.

Till the next time……

The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol – Day Two September 11th

11/10/2026 by mkingdon, posted in The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol

4am mocked me with its arrival. Sleep alluded me, but I would bed rot till 6am, We were all up and about by then, full of jet lag, last night’s fried pickles and that first morning excitement. This is typically our one shot at rope drop and I was determined to grasp it. We were rolling off the drive by 7.10am and up onto the 192. I shunned Sherberth Road, instead taking the long way round so that we could drive under the sign. It’s a first morning kinda thing. The other reason was that the left turn onto Sherberth was absolutely rammed.

We approached the entrance to the car park to be stunned by a $35 fee. For reasons unknown my credit card wouldn’t work and had I been in the cars behind me I would have been slagging me off in my trip report. Everyone writes one, don’t they?

I slid the Jeep Wrangler into Aladdin, which I suspect is illegal in 48 out of 50 US states. You know you’re early when you’re inside Aladdin.

We were of course too early and too close for a tram so we walked into the TTC and through security. There was no queue there or at the monorail. This was all going wonderfully.

It was lovely to be back amongst these familiar sights.

I was amazed to find the my Magic Band worked seamlessly after two years in a cupboard, and we were in.

The money shot.

There were tears within the group as per.

We were headed for Tron. The app showed no wait to speak of, so we could not pass up this chance to tick it off the list.

We figured out the lockers and we were on within that ten minute promise. It was a better ride than we remembered and a lovely adrenaline shot to kick off the trip. We left it feeling wide awake and very pleased that we had used our jetlag to get ahead of the game. Tron done and it was 8.30am.

At this stage I allowed the first restroom of the trip.

Space Mountain was right there, with no wait at all, so despite every fibre in my mid 50’s being screaming no, on we went. This was absolutely no smoother than I remembered. There were at least two “ooh my back” on the way round. It still wasn’t 9am.

Never has a sphincter been more clenched.

About four days previous, I had bought us Lightning Lanes. There was always a good chance we would not need them today. It was a MNSSHP so the park was likely to be quiet, but to ensure our first day was unencumbered with waits, it was worth the risk. Our first one was due now at the Haunted Mansion.

So we set off in the that direction.

It was showing the 13 minute wait that means it was quiet but it did not diminish my smugness of using the Lightning Lane queue.

With three headliners done by 9.20am, I thought it safe to allow a few minutes to eat something. And if we were going to eat, we should make it worthwhile. We mobile ordered this….

It was inhaled and if anything was even better than it looked. We tried not to have the experience diminished by the Dad on the next table constantly summoning snot and smegma up from his toes at a great volume. WDW would be all the better without other people. We sat behind the Christmas shop, which often has tables free if you find that the tables at Sleepy Hollow are full.

Breakfast was $56.

Enough of this not riding things and a consult of the app suggested that Mine Train was a five minute wait. I did not believe it but it was worth a stroll (at pace) to find out. Some weaker members of the group needed a second restroom stop already. They were on thin ice.

It was a bare faced lie.

But the other option was paying for an individual Lightning Lane so we entered hoping it would be less than that. And it was. We were on the ride in twenty minutes. As mornings at MK go, they would struggle to be more productive so far.

Our next LL (don’t make me type Lightning Lane every time please) was already due over at Tiana’s. The ping pong back and forth across the park was one of Louise’s favourite elements of this and every other trip, but needs must.

We were excited to see what looks like a new Frasier attraction in the park. Let’s see who gets that one.

We were moister than expected and Louise sang the old Splash Mountain song for most of the ride.

As we exited there was a smattering of characters going by.

Our next LL was for Buzz right about now, but I moved it to later in the afternoon to avoid another cross park walk, and it would have been Louise who was cross. Instead we did Pirates.

Louise decided to sit out as she wanted a drink. As a major sign that I had not been paying attention to WDW news in our two year gap, I handed her a $20 bill to buy that drink and I wandered off into the ride knowing I would never see any change.

On our exit, the $20 was handed back. Apparently many places are card only now, and the kindly cast member had taken pity on Louise and had given her the bottle of water anyway. I shall now go to everyone’s local Facebook group and copy and paste a 2013 post about how “they” are forcing us all to go cashless and this will somehow allow the powers that be to track Brian from Oldham’s every move, as he buys his kebab on a Saturday night.

Philharmagic was next on the list. You can tell it was a quiet day as we were stood here.

This will never not anger me.

The 4am start was kicking in a bit now and we needed some caffeine, and over priced caffeine at that. So we dutifully toddled off to worship at the temple of Starbucks. This would be the longest queue of the day.

We sat out by The Plaza and enjoyed them.

I don’t have a “go to” Starbucks and tend to choose something different every time. It was a Cold Brew today. I marvelled at how we now pay $5 to drink cold coffee. I am such a Grandad! It tasted OK.

There was no avoiding another walk across the park now as our LL for Big Thunder was throbbing in the app. This was our first ride post refurbishment.

In the queue we met Michelle, a Dibb/blog reader. Meeting anyone who knows who I am was very 2010, but we had a lovely chat about all things Disney before getting on the ride. It may all be in my mind but it felt smoother and a better ride to me.

We wandered to the hat shop near Country Bear and tried on a few before giving Mikey his first exposure to the bears.

On our exit, a parade had been laid on for us so we watched that for a bit.

Our deferred Buzz LL was up now and this was another first ride after a major refurb. Again, a big improvement although I did get half way through the ride before realising the gun could be detached from the vehicle. This adversely affected my score and I shall not be declaring it here, as it was null and void. Null and Void were a successful harmony duo in the Northern club scene many years ago.

The tiredness was driving our activity a bit now, as evidenced by us seeking out The People Mover. It stopped twice on the way round and we weren’t even mad about it.

Proximity was a big factor in us choosing Laugh Floor next, another first for Mikey, mainly as Emily would have avoided this like the plague on his earlier trips as she dreads getting selected by the camera in here. We were allowed to go in as long as we sat on the back row.

Another cross park trek to Jungle Cruise and yet another first for Mikey. Louise sat out of this one.

There was rain incoming and we were knackered so we decided to head out now. We had a reservation at The Cheesecake Factory but not for a couple of hours but we thought we’d see if they could accommodate us early. They could, but warned it may be a twenty minute wait. It was two minutes.

We were breaded up….

Then had some Mac n Cheese balls and an Egg Roll Sampler as appetisers.

Louise and I shared Nachos as our Entree.

Mikey had Fish Tacos.

Emily inconsiderately had a dish that I always struggle to spell. Fettucine Alfredo.

There was a red wine, four beers and some diet coke between us and it came to $200 including a 20% tip.

We were all stupidly full and very tired. We dragged ourselves to a Publix to stock up the fridge, with Louise waiting in the car…no, it’s fine, I’ll do the shop. We spent $150 in there and were home by 7.30 for showers and some relaxing before an early night.

Till the next time……

The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol – Day One September 10th

04/10/2026 by mkingdon, posted in The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol

It’s been two years since I had a WDW trip report to write and about ten years since I wrote a good one so let’s see if I can remember how this stuff works.

As ever the final days before the trip are a challenge. There’s all the work stuff to tie up and hand off as well as the increasingly difficult logistical struggles to rehome pets and settle in house sitters. I am led to believe that packing also needs to happen and for some reason the house has to be cleaned like it’s been a murder scene too but I try to stay out of both of those.

Anyway, somehow we found ourselves waking up today full of excitement and in my case the usual “what have I forgotten to do/bring” anxiety.

I set an alarm as I always do for these travel days but they are often redundant as Louise is always up and about well before that goes off assimilating brass band noise levels, so I was awake “nice” and early around 4.30am. Sure we weren’t flying until lunchtime but when you have to navigate the M60 to get to an airport we were already late.

The final bits were shoved into cases and then I hauled them into the back of the car and we were only a few minutes behind our “we can’t leave any later than” time when Louise announced she had to release a chocolate hostage. This led to ten minutes of tutting from me but I suspect our fellow passengers would thank us later.

As we were getting into the car and I was locking up I noticed our Ring camera had gone off line. This was less than ideal. Whilst we had a house sitter asleep upstairs, not having that online for the next two weeks was unacceptable. I fiddled with it for a few minutes, failed to fix it of course and got in the car a little more stressed than I was before.

How I laughed when a few minutes down the road Louise’s phone made that familiar Ring noise to denote someone was walking on our drive and that it had fixed itself.

Knowing how unawesome the M60 is at this time of day, based on many decades of having to battle it to get to offices I did not want to go to, I decided to take the M6 instead. This was more miles but less crawling and I patted myself on the back for this decision. As a sign of how stressed I was, mainly as work has been a maelstrom of shite for ages, my over active mind convinced me that the wash bag I had put at the side of my bed this morning never made it into the case. You know when you try to replay in your mind whether you did something or not? Well, I could not.

Once we’d pulled up at the relevant parking thing at the airport I got the cases out, opened one and immediately saw that I had indeed packed it. I was on a roll.

There was no wait at check in, mainly as nobody else was so stupid to be here this early. Louise and I availed ourselves of the Premium desk whilst Mikey and Emily used the self-serve kiosk as the economy peasants should.

We then tried to go through to security but the barrier refused us as we were just too damn early. That was indeed the exact error that flashed up on the screen. The ladies took the chance to restroom whilst Mikey and I found the Starbucks and got us all a coffee.

We tried security again at 8.45 and this time we were allowed through. It was pretty quiet and we were through quickly without any drama. I did need my brand new trainers swabbed for some reason though.

We chose to give our usual breakfastery a miss and try what looked to be a relatively new Giraffe a go instead.

We were immediately seated at a lovely window table.

Reflecting the adult nature of this trip, alcohol was involved.

Overall there were two mimosas for Emily, two margaritas for Louise and a beer for Mikey. I would be having to drive in about eleven hours so I stuck to the soft stuff.

Food wise we had –

Me and Emily – Avocado on toast with two eggs

Mikey – Eggs Royale

Louise – Eggs Benedict

That was £118 including a UK style tip.

We then set off to wander the shops and there was nothing that I could do to stop Louise buying a pair of Crocs. I do not object to Crocs, indeed a own a pair, but I do mildly object to acquiring things to wear when Louise had spent the previous month shopping.

After more unnecessary shops we set off towards the gate and got first sight of our plane, naturally at the furthest gate possible.

We Facetimed Rebecca and Willow for a chat before we set off.

Willow didn’t have too much to say but we said our goodbyes anyway.

For some reason the area around gate A12 was chaos. Every seat was taken there and at every gate nearby so we hovered until our boarding groups were called. Naturally us Premium lot were on early and I assume Mikey and Emily also got on as they were there when we landed.

As ever boarding was late and we didn’t push back on time. It was 12.40 rather than the advertised 12.05. Yes, we have been awake since 4.30am for a 12.40 flight!

Getting on the plane brings to an end one of my favourite bits of a trip like this. The morning at the airport represents the excitement and anticipation of what may lie ahead. It also means no work, although the invention of the Teams app on my phone reduces that slightly. So although I am always happy to get on our way, this phase being over is also slightly regrettable for me.

Drinks and nibbles were served. I assume economy got doused in water and thrown some scraps at some point too. This was my view for the next nine hours or so as I haven’t been allowed a window seat or an opinion for thirty years.

I don’t know why I took this one.

The meal we pre-ordered a few days prior came soon enough. It was chicken pie and absolutely edible. Spookily our house seems to have two sets of salt and pepper shakers that look exactly like that since we got home.

I felt incredibly tired at this point, due to the early start and having to work for a living since I was seventeen. I tried to fall asleep but only dozed really. I admitted defeat and watched a few episodes of The Middle which I had either never seen or I am aging more quickly than I feared.

We did have WiFi on the flight which helped. It mainly helped work pester me at 35,000 feet to be honest but it also allowed Emily to update us on the horrors of economy and how some child called Jayden, Josh or Jamarco was terrorising everyone whilst its Mum gently whispered “don’t do that” for nine hours.

As we started our descent I watched the cockpit view, which wasn’t a film, as that kind of content is frowned upon on a flight, but instead was this….

We landed eventually and for whatever reason the flight like a long one. We were off first as our elevated standing dictated and we saw a sign saying it was an eleven minute walk to baggage reclaim. Much to Louise’s displeasure we did it in nine.

I established a position at the relevant carousel and was delighted to see cases coming out almost immediately for Louise and I. Mikey and Emily weren’t even in the hall yet and it took all my self control not to leave them to it whilst we beat the crowds through immigration.

We did wait. And wait. And wait. Long after they arrived in the baggage reclaim hall there was still no sign of their bags. Eventually a barely audible tannoy announcement apologised that some bags from our flight had gone to another carousel and sure enough they were lined up next to the incorrect carousel no doubt having been there for ages.

A strike against Terminal C.

We all used the MPC app to avoid the very long immigration queue. Another Virgin flight from Heathrow had landed at the same time as us which was leading to carnage in that queue. We all took our photos and joined a seperate, albeit marginally shorter queue.

We were through in ten minutes and now we were tantalisingly close to being free and on our way. We did seem to get asked a few more questions at the immigration desk this time, but I kept my opinions on the state of the US to myself in the interests of not having to do another nine hour flight that day.

We found an elevator down to the relevant level and having done all the prep needed we headed straight out to the Alamo garage to find our car. As a surprise, I had cancelled our minivan booking some months ago and changed it to a Jeep Wrangler, knowing this had long been Emily’s dream car. As were stood near the Jeeps, Emily jokingly said shall we take one of these. Her face was a picture as I said yes and started to load the boot/trunk. She would be giving driving in the US a go for the first time this trip. This was already giving me flashbacks to the horrors of taking both girls out driving when they were learning. I still have PTSD.

It took a good few minutes at the exit barrier to process stuff but we were soon released and headed for the villa. The Waze maps thing on my phone was taking some time to start working via the Carplay but I managed to guess correctly to go right at the lights and between us all and all our phones we managed to get a working map up and running soon enough.

This journey felt simple and quick and we had a rare dry drive from the airport although there was lightning and dark clouds all around. Once we started to see the familiar WDW signage we turned off the sat nav as we were home. We’ve stayed at this villa a lot so this was now auto pilot to find our way there.

We checked in at the gatehouse and then, with only one wrong turn within the development itself parked up and went inside.

We quickly unpacked/made a mess. Look, there’s that wash bag I remembered to pack!

At this time on previous trips when we have had the small kids with us, going out to eat is always unlikely as they are understandably ready for bed. Being an all adult trip I had planned a meal at Sickies for us and we headed there now.

We started with the Spare Parts appetiser to share.

I had a Chicken Tortilla Salad as my body is a temple.

It only had about 1500 calories in it!!

Louise weirdly ordered another appetiser for her Entrée. I forget the name but it was some kind of bacon wrap thing with jalapenos.

Emily had Chicken Tenders.

Mikey had a Chicken Parm burger.

The excitement and adrenaline of having finally arrived can tend to make you slightly over rate this first meal, but it was all genuinely lovely.

Four cokes and two beers between us and the bill was $150 including a good tip. That’s around £27 per person which, despite the horror stories coming out of the US around the cost of living can’t be complained about really.

We picked up a case of waters from a gas station on the way home and collapsed into bed at 10pm, which was of course 3am UK time. As ever these travel days are brutally long. That’s a 22.5 hour day. Worth it though and writing this up now having been back at work for a week, how I yearn for this day again with all its excitement, promise and what was in store.

Till the next time…….

Touching Distance

06/09/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

All that stand between us and the airport are three days at work and roughly 3.5 million tasks and logistical challenges that we must complete. We’re almost there.

My to do list is longer than a thing that is very long and that’s just at home before I even think about the prep and angst involved at work.

The cases are out, packing has started and I’ve spent roughly half of the national debt on pet food to ensure those looking after them don’t run out whilst we are away. The dogs, Woody and Bean, are going off to separate sitters (foolish souls) whilst we have a house sitter coming here to keep the cats alive. If they don’t start eating less then next time we might not bother.

The last few stressful pre-trip days have started and whilst we complete all those tasks, we, as anyone travelling to Orlando at this time of year must do, are keeping our eyes on the weather over there hoping we can avoid a hurricane. It is looking pleasingly quiet on that front at this stage, although the weather has looked VERY wet over there recently. Bring it on. Have poncho, will endure.

The other thing I have seen on my “socials” are endless folks telling me how quiet the parks are.

I cannot bring myself to believe them. I’ve been going for too many years now to ever think the parks have quiet times anymore. I know September is comparatively quieter than most other times of year, but I just can’t allow myself to get my hopes up that we’ll be enjoying tolerable wait times on this trip.

As I said a couple of posts ago there was a lot of availability for our ADRs which is a good sign I guess, but I am taking nothing for granted.

In non holiday news, Willow is doing well, as is Rebecca, bearing in my mind she is still recovering from the operation/delivery. The boys are obsessed with their new sister, as are we all. Overall she’s been sleeping a lot and behaving herself as we all get used to the new addition to our family.

You know I don’t believe there is such a thing as “the right age” to take kids to WDW. You take them whenever you can afford to, but I think three weeks old may just be a little too soon, even if Rebecca could travel, so they will all have to stay at home this time. On this trip we will, for the first, have a girl grandchild to be buying presents for before we return. Exciting stuff.

If you want to, you can follow along as usual if I remember to post stuff to the Mkingdon Facebook page and whether you do or you don’t, I’ll see you back in a few weeks to tell you all about it.

Till the next time…..

One Day At A Time? Sweet Jesus!

30/08/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

This week’s title is one that will resonate with the kids and fans of Lena Martell. Ask your Grandad.

As tradition dictates, before any WDW trip, any planner worth their salt is required to outline their movements (bowel, optional) for every day of the holiday. I know to the handful of folks reading this, the concept is familiar and does not sound weird at all. I had a reminder this week that this is absolutely not the case for “normal people” when someone asked me about my upcoming holiday and I overshared slightly about the level of obsession and planning that goes on in this weird Disney online community. This is a safe space.

So here we go….

Day One

Travel Day. We are flying with Virgin from Manchester. Since booking, Virgin have moved our flight back one hour so we don’t take off until just after midday. I await their compensation for robbing us of sixty minutes in Orlando. This flight time now gives us a quandary. To get to Manchester airport from our house you have to navigate the M61/M60 and the infamous concrete tunnels and carnage that greet anyone daring to merge from 61 to 60 at rush hour. Then there is the 5mph crawl past the Trafford Centre.

I would say we need to be at the airport around 8.30, a good four hours ahead of the flight. In normal times that would be a 7.30 set off from our house, but in rush hour, in the first week after schools go back, we may have to leave 2-3 business days ahead of our flight. So I fear we will need to bite the bullet, be up very early and leave the house before 6.30am. It’ll be grim and I intend to scour the internet for alternative routes before the day.

We land late afternoon and I have sorted out the skip the desk Alamo thing so I am sure that will go without a hitch. Then it will inevitably be pouring with torrential rain as we try to battle the rush hour I4. The joys of a travel day.

Once at the villa, we will head out to do a supermarket run (I am mildly terrified of the costs involved for that as my social media feeds are just Americans telling me it cost them $100 for three apples and a box of “gram crackers”. Why they can’t say Graham or Craig is an eternal mystery.) We also plan to go out to eat. With no young kids on the trip this time we all may be awake enough to dine out and if so we aim to do that at Sickies on the 192. Their fried pickles are the best way to start any holiday.

Day Two

You know this is a Magic Kingdom day right? We’ll be there as early as we can be and not as early as I’d like and will be there until 6pmish when they throw us out as there is a MNSSHP on that evening. We are fairly happy this is case as crowds may be lighter and we’ll be tired by that time. We plan to eat at The Cheesecake Factory at Lake Buena Vista that evening.

It is harder to book a table from the UK than it is to do something that is very hard, as their online thing requires a US phone number. I really did not fancy the potential wait for a table on a Friday evening after an early start and a full MK day so I went old school and emailed their customer services team. It took a while but they did reply and booked us in for 7.45pm.

After our meal I suspect we will be in a food coma and ready for bed.

Day Three

The planning laws say this should be a rest day to get over the travel day after the adrenaline fuelled first day. For reasons too long to document here, mainly centred around us needing a rest day on day three as we intended to have a few drinks watching Yeeha Bob on this evening, we broke all the rules and put Animal Kingdom in here. The rule book states that should not be a rest day and instead be a theme park day, it should have been Epcot, as the parks must be visited in the order they opened, but AK closes early and we’d need to be out of the park to get over to Port Orleans.

The recent rule change around off site scum going to resorts make us now assume we will not be welcomed at POR, so instead we are going to the Grand Floridian to watch a favourite ex-Jellyrolls pianist, called Michael play in the lobby there. To get us into the place we have booked 1900 Park Fayre for dinner around 5pm. We could have booked an ADR at POR of course to get us in to see Bob’s show, but we’d planned to see Michael play at the GF *as well/first* before heading to Yeeha Bob so our ADR at the GF had already been made. So Bob lost out. That sentence wins the prize for most use of abbreviations in the world ever.

We will have a few posh drinks and watch him until we are ready for bed. Yeeha Bob will miss us as much as we will miss him.

Day Four

Here comes the rest day. Recently we had more upsetting news as we heard that Typhoon Lagoon won’t be open. That is our go to for an early trip rest day, but again we are scuppered.

We might go to Blizzard Beach but more likely we will just use the resort’s pool and clubhouse and have a relaxing pool day instead.

Emily secured us a 7pm ADR for Beaches & Cream, mainly to get us access to the Boardwalk area so we can have an evening stroll around it and may be a drink or two too.

Day Five

We are back on track and heading to Epcot. Our first visit of the trip here means we do Future World. We have the evening loosely planned at this stage. The general idea is to leave the park when we get hungry for some tea and head to Celebration.

We haven’t been for a good few years and there are at least three eateries we are interested in trying there. There’s a new brewery place, a Mexican and the 80’s themed diner. If we do leave the park and get to Celebration we will try whichever of this is available and looks the best bet.

Day Six

Now things start to get a little complex. Emily and Mikey check in at the Polynesian today for their two day 30th birthday treat for Mikey. I have a rest day planned for Louise and I so I will drop them off and head back for another pool day back at the resort.

Our dining plans for the evening are simple. With Emily being a veggie our chances to dine at The Outback for a decent steak are limited so we will do that whilst she is otherwise engaged.

Day Seven

With it just being the two of us again today I have pencilled in Hollywood Studios as it is Louise’s favourite and if we need to buy Lightning Lanes it’ll be cheaper for just the two of us!!

Our evening plans are loose again. I have an option in the plan but we’ll see how we feel. I quite fancy a place called Ole’ Red up at Icon Park. We have never been to that neck of the woods. The food there looks good and they have live country music on. Recently I have found myself inexplicably listening to Absolute Country (thank goodness for the last two letters) on my car journeys so I’d like to see some live.

Day Eight

Today sees Emily and Mikey move again, this time up to Universal to stay at the Hard Rock for that glorious Front of line access and two days in the parks there. If I am feeling generous I will pick them up from the Poly and drive them up.

We are planning another rest day today, and in the evening we will meet up with them at City Walk for a meal together at Margaritaville before they head into HHN and we have a wander around City Walk.

Day Nine

On their second Universal day we have nothing planned. We might do another rest day if that’s what we fancy or need or we might head into a park. Look at me winging it!

In the evening we will head up to City Walk again to collect Emily and Mikey and we’ve booked the four of us a meal at Cafe Tu Tu Tango on IDrive for absolutely no reason whatsoever. This is one of our “let’s try somewhere new to eat” ideas.

Day Ten

All four us are headed to Hollywood Studios today. It’s a Saturday so I suspect coughing up for LLs will be a must.

We have a late lunch/early dinner booked at Sci-Fi Diner with a Fantasmic Dinner Package just to make sure it rains hard enough to see it cancelled.

Day Eleven

Today is a food day. The only way for us to fit in a couple of our dining musts was to eat ourselves to death on one day. We have brunch booked at The Boathouse at 11am and then in the evening we are eating at Wine Bar George. Pray for us.

In between, we will either head back to the pool or hang out at Disney Springs, trying in vain to walk off some calories.

Day Twelve

We head back to Animal Kingdom. Again we are expecting an early-ish exit from the park as we have a first time dining experience booked at Homecoming back at Disney Springs. I am looking forward to this one.

Day Thirteen

Epcot of course, and our second visit typically concentrates on World Showcase. Food and Wine will be on so I just hope it isn’t too busy as it can be at times. We have an ADR booked at Via Napoli for dinner and we will be staying for the fireworks just so we can reaffirm that they are good but in no way are they any sort of comparison to Reflections Of Earth.

Day Fourteen

You know of course that the last full day is spent at Magic Kingdom. There is no alternative to this. We are booked to eat at Steakhouse 71 at the Contemporary in the late afternoon so that we can get back into MK at dusk to weep at the nostalgia, magic and sheer horror of heading home the next day. Fireworks will be watched.

Day Fifteen

A late flight home around 9pm so I suspect some packing will be done, a large breakfast somewhere and then a lot of time at Disney Springs as my depression kicks in and Louise falls out with me due to my sulking. As God intended.

So there we are. Writing that does make me think that Louise and I have too many rest days planned but we do like a pool day as you saw on our last couple of trips so who knows. The plan (whisper it) can be changed if we wish to.

If you made it to the end, bless you and I’ll see you back here next week for the final post before we go.

Till the next time…..

Home Time

23/08/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Enough of this Dominican Republic nonsense. We meet again just 17 days out from a WDW trip and in all kinds of ways it feels like quite some time since we did one. In terms of our historical frequency of visiting that part of the world then it definitely has been quite some time. It was October 2024 the last time Louise and I Disneyed, and putting to one side the persisting fear of the collapse of the US, we’re looking forward to it. Leaving it almost two years between trips has been unheard of for the last three decades so the anticipation is real, alongside the feeling that I have lost touch with all my knowledge of the place. Emily has been going consistently, so the passing of the planning baton may take an extra step this time.

I understand that our travel plans may not be the foremost thing in your minds so I shall recap the details of the trip. This time the travelling party is Louise, myself, Emily and her boyfriend Mikey. It is a proper Orlando theme park centric old school trip, leaving on September 10th from Manchester for two weeks.

We are flying with Virgin for the first time in so long I can’t remember the last time. Louise and I are in Premium, with Emily and Mikey saving their pennies by doing extra leg room seats in Economy.

We will be flying into Terminal C at MCO and picking up a car from Alamo before heading off to our usual and absolute favourite villa (thanks as ever to Matt for allowing us to rent his place).

Louise and I are sticking to Disney for the 14 days but Emily and Mikey are doing a night at Universal and will also do Halloween Horror Nights whilst there. Emily has been delighted to see the huge focus on clowns in this year’s houses. Her fear of clowns is no joke and frankly I have no idea why she puts herself through this!

To celebrate Mikey turning 30 this year Emily has also booked him two nights at Mikey’s most favourite resort, the Polynesian. They are doing two nights, club level there and I am sure that will be incredible.

With my work being so crazy, I delegated all the ADR bookings to Emily who smashed it, securing all of our first choices. I may be clutching at straws but the seemingly endless options for all our dining choices might be suggesting that the place will be quiet whilst we are there.

I will probably outline our day by day plan next week, so that’s something you can all look forward to. I just hope you can sleep with all that excitement and anticipation. We have a lot of our usual eateries on the plan but we’ve tried to sprinkle in a few new ones to expand our repertoire too.

I’ve missed the heat, I’ve missed the food and I’ve missed the familiar feeling of home we always get when we are there. I just hope we still feel all those things despite what is happening in the real world over there. I have been a little disappointed with the recent changes to off site folks visiting resorts. I get it, the folks paying to do so should absolutely be the priority, but it seems counter intuitive as those visiting will surely be tempted to book there for their next trip, and it blocking folks like us going to watch Yeeha Bob at Port Orleans is a real shame.

For years whenever anyone asked for WDW advice one of the things I always included was to visit some resorts. Sure, with an ADR you still can, but it feels like a little bit of the magic has gone.

Two more of these blogs before we leave so stay tuned for lots more detail on our plans alongside the glacial pace at which these last few days at work will go by. Some things never change.

Till the next time…..

Nice, Just A Quiet One.

28/12/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

This week’s title is homage to the only response possible when someone asks how your Christmas was. Well, maybe that’s just me, as our festivities are typically quiet and uneventful and by the time I meet any human beings again post xmas I am in no mental state to be having actual conversations whilst also dealing with the existential crisis of returning to work.

To be fair, our festive period was exactly as described, with just the four of us on the day itself, (Me, Emily, my Mum and Louise once she finished work), and I’ll be honest, the majority of hours of my xmas day were spent cooking things. But the meal was nice, despite feeling so full I might die within minutes of starting to eat, due in no small part to deciding upon the wrong starter. A whole baked camembert with bread each was perhaps not the smartest choice with a turkey dinner to follow.

The gifting theme this year was driven by Louise finding these things online. So my Mum, Emily and Mikey and Rebecca, Tom and the boys all got one of these.

Boxing Day saw the boys visit us for their round two of present opening and a Carrs pasty bonanza for tea (if you’re from Bolton, you’ll know). That was Louise’s one day off as she returned to work again on Saturday to continue her less than festive “break”. I just felt quite pleased to recognise that it was actually Saturday. There was a bin collection on the same day that had it not been for the kindness of our neighbour I would have completely missed. It was the cardboard bin too, so that would have been a disastrous post Christmas omission.

I’ve done a few decent dog walks and generally just loved not being on a Teams call for a percentage of my life I never thought possible. For as long as it lasts I intend to savour every non working moment.

Last night, we mopped up some of the remaining Stranger Things episodes whilst eating leftovers from our Christmas meal in a more peaceful house than normal as Woody is with Emily over in Liverpool. It’s amazing how much calmer the house is with just the one dog around! He likes his Liverpool weekend getaways as he gets (more) spoiled over there.

Typically, during my festive holidays my thoughts would turn to planning our inevitable WDW trip the next year, but there isn’t a great deal to do in all honesty. We are a long way from ADR territory and those dining choices are the only things that should take any real thought and those will determine and fit in with what parks we may do on each day.

If anyone has any suggestions for eateries we do always like to fit a couple of newbies in amongst the greatest hits.

Before that, we hope to get away to Mexico in April. I can’t wait to go back for all kinds of reasons but right now I am just so sick of being cold and almost always wet.

As I am now risking sending you all (both) to sleep I shall return to my Twixmas hinterland to do as much nothing as possible.

Till the next time……

Marlow and Memories

15/06/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Uncategorized

My recent tour of the UK continued last week with a couple of days in Marlow doing things considerably less fun than playing bass to people. Work required my presence and so 450 miles of driving, a night in a Travelodge and two days of meetings made up most of my week, as I was off on Monday.

I think/hope that might be it for travels until after my next proper travels to Mexico but with a couple of weeks still to go, who knows. Work is a bit like that at the moment.

My night away did afford me an expenses paid meal at a place called the Giggling Squid in Marlow which was very nice, even if the main course I chose snuck up on me with its spice. A wander down by the Thames on a summer evening did beat more recent trips of staring at a concrete tower block in London with a Tesco meal deal, but I’d still rather be at home.

My pre-holiday prep is complete with two deliveries this week. Louise has “toiletries” to procure, mainly sun cream, but it’s almost time to get the cases out. I am unusually anxious about the trip as I lack my normal levels of certainty of what is to come. Louise’s uncertainty was I suspect none existent until Friday’s Air India crash and now all of her long held fears around flying are re-surfacing.

Any last minute buying will need to be done outside of the next two weekends as she has somehow been rota-ed to work both of them. I’m at the stage now where I am scouring my work diary and counting how many really crappy things I have to endure before we go. Anyone else do that?

Aside from the mundane details of how I’ve passed the last seven days, today is Father’s Day which has been weird for me for the last couple of years of course. I think about my Dad a lot, but I suppose today is the a day when that is bound to happen more than it might normally.

I still don’t think I have fully accepted that I’ll never see him again. It’s very weird and for reasons I don’t understand I regularly play back those last few hours we spent with him in the hospital before he died. I somehow feel like I did it wrong or could have spent those more wisely even though he didn’t really know we were there.

Anyway, I love you Dad, and I miss you every day. It’s a cliché but if you’ve still got one, try to appreciate them as when they’ve gone and you think you can’t even remember their voice, you start to panic a bit and feel like you’re letting them down. Enjoy your Father’s Day and here’s mine as he would probably like to be remembered.

Till the next time……..

Oh Chino

20/04/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Usually, about now, in the standard cycle of our endless Disney trips, I would be elbow deep in all kinds of planning activities. Assuming a summer trip, once we start to see daffodils and daylight beyond tea time it normally feels like a proper sea change in daily life, everything looks literally and figuratively brighter and I undergo self imposed and unnecessary stress about where we might eat in a few months.

Do I miss it, with our plans not involving the US this year? A bit, yes. One of the big benefits of a holiday that takes more than the action of booking it is the continuing dopamine hit of doing the bits of planning that are the milestones in the countdown.

With us heading for Mexico and an all inclusive experience I have nothing to do other than ensure I have the appropriate attire for our activities that might even fit me. On Friday, not being allowed to work, I found myself in the unusual setting of a retail location and did cast my eye over some suitable long trousers for the posher restaurants at the resort which insist on such. After about twenty minutes of pushing things around racks I left with a pack of socks and nothing related to the holiday.

There’s plenty of time yet and I as ever I hold onto the hope that I will lose fourteen stone “in a daaaaay” before July and any wardrobe additions now would be wasted. Socks however, will fit me whatever shape my body is in.

Conversely, not having to keep up to date on all the happenings at our destination to understand what attractions might be closed and what format and price this week’s FastPass system may take is liberating. I’m not saying we’ll make a habit of it but this relaxed approach to going away to relax is definitely a change and in some ways welcome, especially with work being stupidly mad at the moment.

I am even thankful that our chosen resort does not operate a reservation system for their restaurants. I am an animal of extremes! The absolute extent of my pre-holiday activity has been watching the resort post on Instagram.

I really don’t want to wait four years before returning to the US so let’s hope something happens over there to return things to something approaching normality. It may just be my soft lefty liberal echo chamber on social media but I am seeing lots of articles detailing large downturns in tourism to the US. It’s a real shame that ordinary folks in the relevant industries will be affected, unless of course they voted for him, then not so much. Maybe the downturn in numbers will see some keener prices for flights and more offers from Disney and the like, but I suspect any downturn from the UK market won’t be significant enough to make that much of a difference.

So as we enter the season of bank holidays, allegedly higher temperatures (although nobody seems to have told the weather up North), power washing your flagging and unavoidably visiting DIY shops and garden centres I find myself with nothing holiday related to do. It’s different, but I’m not too sure whether that is good or bad different. I am absolutely looking forward to our change of pace and plans, mostly because I am just sick to death of being cold!

I’ll just have to spend the next few months browsing lightweight chinos online I suppose and call that holiday planning.

Till the next time…..

A&E I O U

13/04/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Another week whizzes by. Work for me was full-on in terms of hours spent, complex stuff to deal with, and having to spend an unwelcome amount of time physically in the office. Insult to injury, indeed. I’ve said it endless times before, but I will say it again: How I did that commute five days a week for decades is beyond me.

There was also a team-building night at Junk Yard Golf in Manchester, followed by a curry. Whilst always grateful to the company for spending money on stuff like that and actually enjoying it to some extent once I’m there, they are not essential for me to want to work somewhere.

Still, I came joint first at the golf and enjoyed the food, so I should probably stop moaning about it and show some gratitude.

Louise has had less fun this week. Having worked last weekend and a good number of days on the trot, she had all this week off and had lots of plans.

Instead, she’s been pretty ill, and we ended up in A&E on Friday evening after her GP sent her there to hopefully get sorted.

Fearing a couple of days in the waiting room, we did OK. She was triaged within an hour and then was given an appointment with a doctor a couple of hours later, so we were able to go home, get some food, and go back at the required time. Another hour or so and we’d seen the doctor and were on the way home with Louise reassured it was probably nothing too serious.

She did have to go back on Saturday to pick up the prescribed painkillers and other drugs as the pharmacy didn’t have them in stock, and they gave her an IOU. Ironicall,y that took longer than the previous evening as she was given duff info about the opening times and spent several hours wandering the hospital, filling out forms, and generally waiting around just to get her hands on the all-important meds.

Hopefully, with those secured, her recovery will be swift. She certainly feels better today than yesterday.

Emily has been away from home doing some house and dog sitting for a friend who has gone on holiday to Italy. This is Pablo.

If this kind of work funded trips to Disney, I think she would happily do it full-time.

I’m still a little concerned for her August Florida trip as the US continues its rapid descent into anarchy and chaos. I know I have, without doubt, over-thought and over-egged potential issues for tourists to the Sunshine State, but it’s clear I’m not the only one, as stats are starting to emerge from the US of sharp declines in tourism this year. Hopefully, that just results in smaller queues and the same trouble-free experience as we are all used to.

It doesn’t feel like this level and rate of chaos can be sustained for four years but what do I know. Often, very little indeed.

Till the next time……

Wet, Wet, Wet.

30/03/2025 by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

There’s some cosmic irony to us all losing an hour’s sleep on Mother’s Day. As if it commemorates the plight of most mothers to never properly sleep ever again. Here’s wishing all mums a lovely day and we’ll be taking mine out for tea later as tradition dictates.

Don’t worry, I can’t do another post this week about the relatively simple decision and task of changing our holiday plans. All we have left to do now is wait, anticipate and turn up at the airport which is a pretty different experience to your typical Florida trip as we all know. Oh wait, there is an app I may need to download at some point that gives me vital information about the resort so I need to make plans to reserve several minutes to do that.

I am still getting drip-fed small crumbs of planning activity for Emily’s trip, though. They are doing the full Disney and Universal experience, so there’s a lot to think about. With a couple of first-timers tagging along, Emily feels the familiar pressure of being the planner, organiser, and expert for everyone.

We were never planning to do any parks had we stuck with Florida, so I had taken my eye off any park-related news since our last trip. It seems there will be a lot of stuff closed when she goes, which is less than ideal. Stuff like Big Thunder is down for lengthy refurb, It’s Tough To Be A Bug is no more, Buzz I think is going down for a massive upgrade, Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer’s Island are gone, Astro Orbiter is not back until “late summer”, Hall Of Presidents is down, (hopefully for at least another four years) Test Track is still down, and I even think the Walt Disney Railroad is closed. I’m sure there are more than I’ve mentioned, too.

One positive, certainly for Emily, is the re-opening of Voyage Of The Little Mermaid. It will be called The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure. That has been sorely missed.

Whilst it’s of course unavoidable, having so much unavailable at once is not ideal even for a regular visitor, but for first-timers who may or may not ever return, it’s a bit of a body blow. That’s without even thinking about the whole question of value for money for your now very expensive park ticket.

They will of course have a great time regardless but it seems WDW is in another massive period of change and regeneration which is good to see I suppose. Not all change in the parks turns out well (are you listening Stitch’s Great Escape?) but it is inevitable.

Speaking of change. Some things never do. I often document the constant parade of tradespeople wandering around our house fixing stuff. If you remember back far enough we had a leaky shower about a year ago that only got finally resolved about a month back when we had to rip the whole base out and fit a new one having exhausted all other options.

Shortly afterwards, the shower in our en suite started playing up, so our plumber, once he’d returned from his round-the-world cruise, which we had funded, popped back to sort that. We’d also spotted, due to us being freezing cold every night, that a couple of radiators downstairs were only getting warm across a three-inch slither at the top, and they needed replacing. So he came to do all that on the same day a couple of weeks ago.

All was well, we were warmer and they even looked nicer as we’d moved from the standard white things to the anthracite column ones to better suit the period of the house.

Anyway, yesterday I made a rare visit to our downstairs loo which is in a room we don’t use that often. As I opened the door and walked in there was an unusual and unwelcome squelch. I looked behind me to see perfect footprints in the carpet.

Panic set in as this was the same room which suffered badly from all our roofing woes a couple of years ago so I was initially desperately looking upwards for signs of water ingress. With nothing to see my attention turned to other sources of water and I soon discovered that the pipe leading into the new readiator was leaking pretty badly.

An hour of trying to vax up the water from the carpet and fruitlessly tinerking with a spanner and some connections on the radiator saw little difference and I resorted to piling towels near the source of the leak and trying to get hold of our plumber. Being 5pm on a Saturday I was not hopeful.

To his enormous credit, he was with us within the hour, made what turned out to be some simple adjustments, fixed the issue and left us dry again and with no charge for his services. I may gold plate him. Perhaps that was a perk of our titanium reward card recognising our levels of spend with him in recent times?

Anyway, today I shall be vaxxing furiously again, trying to turn the sponge on our floor back into a carpet.

Of course, you will know that upon discovering the issue, seeing the state of the carpet and becoming instantly furstrated at my inability to fix the problem, I was in a right strop threatening to either move or torch the house to the ground. Turns out that may have been another slight over reaction as ten minutes of a spanner in the right hands was all that was needed, aside from maybe a new carpet if it cannot be saved.

There’s a lesson there somewhere that I absolutely will not learn.

Till the next time……

Still Wrestling…

09/03/2025 by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

I appreciate that many of both of my readers will not have slept well all week, waiting on the next crucial update in my self-inflicted dilemma of where to spend two weeks on holiday. I’ve done nothing but turn down interviews with major news outlets, conscious that I should only be giving updates here.

The news from Virgin Arlantic was as expected. We could cancel but at sizeable cost. So our options if we wish to not use the flights we have booked are –

Amend them to somewhere else that Virgin fly to ideally from Manchester for £500
Cancel for £700

Whilst not life changing in the overall context of the cost of any trip we may end up going on, those amounts are painful enough to mean it isn’t a simple decision, especially when all this may be a ridiculous over reaction and our original trip would probably be no different to any other we’ve been on despite the absolute buffonery and malice coming out of the White House.

All the signs point to the usual cycle with this orange idiot. Something is announced, the news is dominated by it for days and then it gets walked back due to the consequences or reaction or it was never going to happen anyway and, in the example of tariffs on Canada and Mexico it just facilitates some nice insider trading for the billionaire’s club who were able to watch the stock market crash for a bit, buy a load of cheap stocks and then make immediate paper profit once the tariffs are “postponed” and the markets recover.

So we haven’t made a decision is what I’m saying. There has been fairly extensive searching for alternatives and once again I’ve come across the ususal TripAdvsior issues where any place we think looks nice then has too many reviews talking about the kind of stuff we hate on holiday.

6am sunbed reserving
Poor food selection/choice/quality
Butlin’s style “entertainment squads” round the pool

Maybe I’m just looking wrong, but these are not cheap package deals.

The best thing to do of course is go off personal reccomendation and a friend and colleague of mine has just returned from a work incentive prize trip to Mauritius. It was incredible and I’ve even been looking at the hotel they all stayed at. For roughly the same all up cost of the Orlando trip, once we count spends etc, we could do that, although I suspect it would end up being a little more as it’s only Half Board, not All Inclusive, but the blocker here is the travel.

Flight options are either a gruelling 24 hour marathon indirect from Manchester via somewhere like Istanbul or direct via Gatwick. For Northern monkeys like us that is pretty challenging. Getting the train to Manchester can be hard enough, never mind from our local station, to Manchester, to Euston, then two tubes to Gatwick, with cases and hand luggage. That doesn’t sound like fun, especially on the way back on the wrong end of a 12 hour night flight.

The resort (Sugar Beach) does look stunning though.

So for now, even I’m bored of hearing about it so we’re sitting tight for a bit. We don’t need to really do anything until May when we have to start paying balances for stuff like the hire car. Perhaps if I just decide not to watch the news for a bit I can just be oblivious to the seemingly intentional journey into war and global recession and just go and enjoy brunch at Wine Bar George as the good lord intended.

Sticking with the plan would certainly be the easier option as the thought of going through the hoopla of cancelling with Virgin, waiting for the refund etc and then starting again with a place I know little about sounds like a time sponge.

I shall draw a close to this post so you can all give your eyeballs a rest from the constant rolling they must understandably be driven to do reading this stuff. Enjoy your Sundays.

Till the next time……

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

09/02/2025 by mkingdon, posted in The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024

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

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

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

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

OK, I lie…

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

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

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

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

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

And we took a lap around the park….

Before being foolish mortals.

And then the camera died….

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

And we were done.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time…..

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

02/02/2025 by mkingdon, posted in The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024

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

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

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

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

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

I then rode with Freddie.

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

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

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

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

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

My selfie game is not strong.

Another very good guide and lots to see.

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

Freddie just played it cool….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A prize was secured.

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

Everyone rode apart from Louise and Dougie.

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

So I took pointless photos to commemorate the moment.

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

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

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

As did Louise.

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

Till the next time…….

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Twelve Saturday 26th October

26/01/2025 by mkingdon, posted in The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024

It’s a rest day folks. By jove we needed one at this point. Our usual day two at Typhoon Lagoon (if you can remember that far back) was scuppered by some cooler weather so here it is now on day twelve.

Despite the tiredness, I was awake at 7am. There were showers and clothes put on and everyone was ready to go before we needed to. We got to the park at 10.25 and were through the gates at about 10.26. Volcano Bay could learn from that.

We had to pause at one of the shops as Freddie needed some new swimming shorts and whilst that was being done I impulsively went to see if any cabanas were left. In a rare stroke of good fortune that meant I could throw another few hundred dollars away, I got the last one and the folks behind me in the queue were very upset about that.

We were shown to our base camp by Ashlee who would be looking after us and we all settled in.

We filled up our refillables, dodging the customary swarm of wasps at the filling station. Louise and I relaxed while everyone else went off into the water. The weather was stunning today and it was lovely to do not much. It got so warm that Louise and I ventured into the lazy river for a lap to cool off.

That was pretty much the morning done until hunger brought everyone back to camp around 1pm.

We looked over the menu for lunch options and spectacularly over-ordered.

We went for the pizza and the chicken strips platter.

Both very, very tasty and we tried our best to clear as much as possible.

Once food was done, essential things were done to the little folks….

to allow a return to the water.

Louise took up a spot outside the cabana in the sun whilst I remained in the shade. Everyone else was off doing slides and stuff.

I took a brief dip in the wave pool to cool off and when I returned I found Rebecca and Dougie back with us. With it being nap time and Dougie’s need being slightly greater than mine I took him for a walk around the park in his stroller to get him to sleep.

Once he was away we went back to base and didn’t do a lot for the rest of the day. It was lovely.

Louise had a cocktail from Ashlee and around 5pm with the park closing everyone returned and dried off so that we could leave.

The journey home was weird. The Waze sat nav took us home through roads I had never seen in over forty years of going to Florida. The traffic was bobbins on almost all of them and it took an hour to get back to the villa. The route eventually brought us out onto the 192 up near Lindfields so I can only assume it was trying to spare us from some gruesome traffic on the 192.

There were more showers for all and more clothes before leaving again at 7.45 for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. As we drove along Funie Steed Road on our way to the 192 and then I4 I had to undertake an emergency stop for a rabbit that was skipping about in the middle of all the traffic. Doing that in a vehicle the size and weight of the thing we were in was no small feat and by some miracle, I managed to avoid the poor thing.

We double-checked on the way home when it was much quieter on the roads and there was no squished anything in that spot so it definitely got away.

It took 40 minutes to get to Lake Buena Vista and of course the restaurant was very busy.

We had a reservation though and we waited about ten minutes to be seated on an inside table. We started to read the menu and the bread service arrived and then the seater returned to explain we’d been put at the wrong table and would we mind moving?

We didn’t really but we’d just got Dougie into his high chair so it was a minor pain in the arse. The whole place was a bit chaotic this evening and the service overall suffered slightly because of that and this was an indication of that.

We were taken to a table outside which we didn’t mind at all having said at check-in we would take either.

Louise and I started with a Cheese and Spinach Dip

Tom and Rebecca a blurry Egg Roll Sampler

For Entrees, the boys had sliders

Louise and I shared the Nachos appetiser as our mains.

Rebecca had Orange Chicken

Tom, the Spicy Chicken Sandwich

There were a couple of milkshakes and wines and a slice of cheesecake to go (not each!) and it was a fairly pricey $240 for an off-site eatery. It was all fantastic food but as I said not the best service we’ve experienced here.

We called at Walgreens on the way home to restock on plasters and dressings for the injured feet amongst us and we were home and in bed by 11.30.

Till the next time……

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Eleven Friday 25th October

19/01/202519/01/2025 by mkingdon, posted in The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024

We were all definitely feeling the effects of two full-on park days, but there was no plan or time to rest. We had a date with some 90’s pop stars in Epcot.

I did allow a very late start though and it wasn’t until 10.30am that we rolled off the drive. We also had some (barely) walking wounded with both Tom and Louise suffering with their feet.

To add to the fun I had been up for most of the night with middle-aged man acid reflux. I cannot think how I could possibly have brought that on. I had been eating so lightly and healthily recently.

Anyway, in our varying states of decay, we set off for Epcot. We stopped for gas on the way, and it was about halfway there that I noticed that Louise did not have her magic band on. Two days at Universal, and she forgets all her training. There was no way I was turning back, so we’d have to figure it out when we arrived.

We parked up in Rocket 612 and trammed in. The hat was back, alongside those sunglasses from last night.

One of those K9 units that stand close to the entrance took a real interest in Tom, Rebecca and Freddie as we walked to the entrance. I think it could just sense that Tom’s feet were about to fall off.

Just as we were about to finally get into the park Rebecca went to the restroom.

After entering, with Louise being given a normal ticket in lieu of her magic band, Louise and I took the boys into the queue for Spaceship Earth but Rebecca and Tom got delayed/seperated as they tried to park the stroller so they ended up not coming on, for which I think Tom’s feet were grateful.

I got to ride with Dougie again.

The ride stopped five times in total, meaning it took an age to get through it.

By this time it was coming up on our Eat To The Beat dining package reservation at Garden Grill. Rebecca and Tom had walked there to wait for us and we walked quickly over there as we were a bit late. We checked in at 12.55 for our 12.45 ADR.

We were seated and then served by the excellent Bob.

Our package included an alcoholic drink each so we all had a cold brew martini. It was the strongest drink we had all holiday and potentially of all time. It was taking the enamel off my teeth but I drank it all the same.

Soon some food and characters came.

It was a family-style affair, with food just brought out until you say enough or vomit.

The character interaction was almost constant and very good. The boys really enjoyed it. The adults no longer cared as those martinis had rendered us unconscious.

The food was excellent by the way, with some of the best mash any of us had ever had.

I can’t describe how full I was but some of this still went down.

This is Bob. He was funny, attentive and just full of joy all through the meal.

It wasn’t too far off Freddie’s birthday so we got a cake.

We left vowing never to eat again and wandered up to Figment.

Dougie was fortunate enough to be able to nap now. The rest of us had to battle through the food coma in a waking state.

We tried to get into the Seas pavilion but as we arrived they were closing the building down for some reason. Maybe there was some poisson in the water?

Instead, we walked over to Mission Space, one of Freddie’s favourites. Rebecca won the lottery to sit out with Dougie.

As we waited to enter our pods thing there was a longish delay with CMs rushing about with items that suggested somebody had lost their lunch. I was pretty sure I may follow.

Thankfully my ageing body managed to keep hold of the huge amount of food and alcohol I had taken onboard and we now headed to the other side of the park to ride Soarin’.

We waited in line for about half an hour with Louise sitting out with a still-sleeping Dougie.

We had a clash now. We needed to go to the American pavilion for our reserved seats at the Eat To The Beat concert at which Hanson were appearing. The Virtual Queue we had secured at 1pm for Guardians was also about to be called. I stopped at one of the blue umbrella guest services to ask if anything could be done. They assured us that the virtual queue thing would be good all day so we could ride that at any point.

That walk up to World Showcase certainly did not help anyone’s struggling feet.

I love watching live music and Hanson were very good.

We completed the loop around World Showcase by walking through France and back towards Guardians via Canada. Freddie was now suffering with aching legs and so Tom and I took turns carrying him for parts of that journey.

We set up rider swap and Louise sat out with Dougie whilst everyone else rode.

Freddie passed the time in the queue watching some videos and I tried to push my lungs back inside my body after having to carry him for a few yards.

It took over 40 minutes to ride and then Louise rode with Freddie whilst the rest of us walked over to Nemo and Friends with Dougie.

After the ride, we watched some fish….

Naturally after that lunch, there was turtle head.

As you know I can go into a lot of detail in these reports, but that’s because I don’t wish to shrimp on the information.

We met Louise and Freddie at the exit around 8pm and the tram and car took us over to the Beach Club where we had a Beaches and Cream reservation. I dropped everyone off at the door and then self-parked and walked back in a vain attempt to generate some appetite.

When I went to check in there was no sign of our reservation. Eventually, they did find us on the hard copy print out but it turned out we were no longer showing on the computer as some other family had taken our table and reservation. They had a similar last name so somehow they had managed to check in and get seated. A manager was summoned, she went to the table and the offending family and had a stern word with them as they had clearly had no reservation and just winged it.

We were found a table anyway and we all gave that family very evil passive-aggressive stares as we passed them.

This may or may not have been them.

I forced down some Chilli Cheese Tots.

Rebecca – Chicken Sandwich

Freddie – Cheeseburger

Dougie – Hot Dog

Everyone else had the French Dip

Of course, we had to get a Kitchen Sink too. You don’t come all this way and not.

We all chipped in but Tom pretty much cleared it by himself.

We were all knackered and it was a quiet journey home and bed by 11.30.

Till the next time…..

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Ten Thursday 24th October

12/01/2025 by mkingdon, posted in The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024

We “slept in” until 8.30am today and as we were a boat ride from the action and had Express passes, I cared not one jot. We even took some time to have breakfast at the Tuc Tuc shop again.

Most of us had stuff that looked like this.

For reasons I cannot now remember I felt it important you saw the reception area at this point.

We headed to the water taxi….

Dougie was still very delighted with his Grinch…

After our boat ride, we entered Universal Studios at 9.30, after forcing Freddie to do the traditional “blinded by the sun” Universal ball photo.

Our first ride was to be the new Minions shooter thing, where Shrek used to be.

I barely knew of this ride’s existence, never mind what it entailed so we went in blind.

For anyone wondering what the ride is, think of Buzz Lightyear at MK, but you stand up on a moving conveyor belt. The technology is slightly more advanced than Buzz’s, and it is really good fun and something everyone can enjoy. They even have smaller guns for folks who are Dougie’s size.

With that done we crossed the street to the other Minions attraction. There was a huge standby queue and the Express looked pretty grim too. We were on in about 15 minutes. Tom had to sit with Dougie on a static seat due to his size…Dougie’s, not Tom’s.

With every passing day, my resemblance to this painting increases.

It was now time for Rip Ride Rocket, which, much like my resemblance to the painting above, my disliking of it increases with every passing year. In my younger days, there was genuine unfettered enjoyment of this thing, but more recently it is becoming an endurance test and an exercise in clenching. I was not too upset to hear it won’t be around much longer.

The riders were Freddie, Tom and me, with everyone else using Dougie as an excuse not to have to go through it. With Freddie along for this ride, I was not only concerned for my own safety but his as well. Anyway, he spent the ride with his hands up laughing whilst I was bearing down like someone in childbirth and screaming into the void as my body collected bruises.

Tom and Freddie went round to ride again and I absolutely did not, finding the others instead.

We had a look in Bake My Day (a bakery) and got Dougie some popcorn. With everyone back from riding, Louise and I took Freddie on the Mummy as Tom needed medical attention. This was not Rip Ride Rocket related. As often tends to happen with Tom’s feet on these trips he had blisters that were resembling World War 1 trench foot and he was really struggling. There were scenes when he was trying to take his socks off that I cannot describe here.

After riding and running repairs, we all met up and walked over to Diagon Alley. I cannot tell you how much this trip cost, but when Freddie walks up alongside you and grabs your hand, it really doesn’t matter too much.

I have a similar photo deep in the trip report vaults of one of the girls doing this down Main Street. It’s lovely.

We stopped for some more traditional photos along the way.

Louise and I sat out with Dougie whilst everyone else rode Gringotts.

He really enjoyed getting his photo taken on this bike, so much so that it proved very tricky to get him off it to let others have a go.

Before the second riding of Gringotts, we wandered to get some food which turned out to be a “pasty” (Diagon Alley is clearly nowhere near Bolton, the pasty capital of the world as they were not really pasties) and a drink.

Then me, Louise, Tom and Freddie rode Gringotts. It really is an impressive ride, and queue for that matter but for goodness sake I wish they could improve the audio. I’ve ridden it a lot now and never once heard more than a few words from the Potter characters.

Rebecca and Dougie were over near Men In Black so we walked that way.

There was a need for food so we walked over to a pizza place near ET. I ordered a random selection of pizza slices and bao buns and had another wrestle with one of those fancy drinks machines, eventually managing to get some liquids in cups.

Once done with the food we all went onto ET. It is a genuine mystery that this ride has remained open and untouched since day one (I think). There are rumours that Spielberg only agreed to the ride with a clause that said as long as he was alive the ride had to stay. It is clearly very dated now and has no relevance to the younger folks so it’s all a bit weird. They still take your name as you enter which does nothing for the queue, but the boys enjoyed it for what it was.

Louise and I sat on a wall in the sun whilst everyone else explored the new kids area, riding Trollercoaster.

Next, we did Men In Black, (not a euphemism) with Louise staying out with Dougie.

With four of us riding we were seated in two rows that normally accommodate three people. When this happens I try to shoot two guns at once to improve my scoring but it just seems to make me twice as bad. This is a great ride and clever idea, but I just wish there was more “feedback” when you actually hit something. It all feels a bit random. Maybe the competitive Dad in me is over thinking this!

Across to the Simpsons now, with Louise again volunteering to sit out. The wait with Express was longer than it should have been but the queue areas here are always fun.

It was coming to the end of the day now, so Louise and I walked with Dougie back to the exit giving Rebecca, Tom and Freddie a chance to quickly do their favourites again. They rode The Mummy and Rip Ride before meeting us at the exit.

Whilst we waited I was doing some plan juggling for the last few days, changing some dining reservations and activities to balance out the changes we’d made so far and hopefully get the most out of our remaining time.

We got the water taxi back to RPR, picked up our luggage and drove directly to CVS, having abandoned them for a full 48 hours. Tom needed ongoing blister care stuff and my notes as ever say we got bits, but whatever they were it cost $90!

We drove directly to Teak Neighbourhood Grill for dinner.

We ordered some appetisers “for the table” which were Mozzarella Sticks/Circles and Spring Rolls.

For entrees….

Louise – French Dip

Freddie – Grilled Cheese

Me – I had a Brazillian, which would really chafe over the next few days

Rebecca- Quesadilla Burger

Tom – Donut Burger

Dougie had Nuggies

There was a very odd vending machine in the corner which did mystery packets of random stuff. Freddie’s sunglasses you see there were included but there were also old newspaper clippings and games etc. Very odd but it kept the boys amused for a bit.

The food was excellent and with a decent tip, it was $170 all in.

We were home within 40 minutes and in bed shortly after 10. A couple of very good Universal days.

Till the next time……

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Nine Wednesday 23rd October

05/01/2025 by mkingdon, posted in The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024

I think today was our earliest get up, so please be suitably impressed as we reverse off the drive at 8am, Universal bound.

Of course, it took almost an hour to get up the I4 and arrive at Royal Pacific. We self-parked, grabbed the stuff we needed for the park and headed into reception to check in.

I’ve walked past these frogs a lot over the years but have only now noticed they seem to have “their lipstick out”.

The ladies and kids took a seat whilst Tom and I went to check-in. It always seems to take longer than it probably should to do that here. The queue was small but the level of faff and keyboard tapping does seem excessive. Having given all the info when booking, it does seem odd that I am now writing names and email addresses on scraps of paper.

Anyway, after some real confusion about who was in which room, we were done, had our Express passes and popped into the shop for breakfast.

With food on board, we walked down to the water taxi.

Just outside the gates we did a quick check of Freddie’s height and he was so close to being able to ride the Hulk, but not quite there yet.

I had hoped to have us stepping foot into the park by 10am. It was 11am as we did so.

Having chosen Islands of Adventure for today we headed straight for Suess Landing whilst Dougie was still awake and onto Cat In The Hat.

There was no queue but we still used our Express to get our money’s worth!

Dougie loved it in much the same way the girls had at his age. It is a banger for the two year olds. Hit followed hit as we went straight onto the Carousel now, and Louise and I recognised a bit of a special moment as we clearly remembered taking the girls on this at very similar ages.

There was much concern, sorry I mean hilarity as Louise took about five minutes to dismount. I know that sounds like an exaggeration but she was in this position for many minutes and we were unable to help as we concentrated on not wetting ourselves laughing and in my case also making sure I got it on camera.

Naturally, One Fish, Two Fish was next. Louise and I rode together and I was the perfect gentleman by making sure I sat on the inside of the fish and had full control of our height. Louise was very grateful for the cooling effect of the water I subjected her to.

As we wandered now towards the Circus McGurgus thing, The Grinch appeared, preceded by his helper/host…

This was very fortunate as Dougie is obsessed with The Grinch. It played out perfectly as after a brief little show with Thing 1 and 2, he took up a position for a meet and greet right in front of us and we were first in line.

and this happened….

and he stayed like that for many minutes….

He was in heaven and it took some persuading for Dougie to let go and let somebody else have a photo.

Once that was done, we rode.

Staying at one of the Universal hotels that give you Express is expensive, so it feels hypocritical to praise it after moaning about Disney’s Multipass stuff, but the experience is excellent. It takes away all the stress about crowds and also doesn’t require military planning and constant app use and juggling of reservations. Universal for us is typically a couple of days maximum so it’s a different kettle of fish to our Disney park touring, and it works brilliantly. Right now, the Disney experience is complicated, expensive (as we want to go to their parks roughly ten days in a 2 week stay) and stressful.

Onwards we marched to the Potter stuff.

It was busy in Hogsmeade but not the crazy crowd levels we have encountered in the past so we did get some chance to take in the theming rather than just concentrating on avoiding other bodies.

After a quick Butterbeer everyone went on the Hippogriff so that Dougie could ride another coaster before succumbing to his impending nap.

Next everyone apart from me and Dougie went on the Hogwart’s ride. I took a long walk around the park until Dougie fell asleep.

Upon my return, I rode with Louise, but Freddie turned down a second ride, not being too keen on what he’d experienced. Upon riding it, I could appreciate why a six year old may not be its biggest fan.

Now, it was time for….

Louise sat out with Dougie and the rest of used the Express line, which still took 30 minutes to ride. Freddie was understandably excited and nervous as we waited, as this would certainly be his most intense coaster to date. It was not helped by the ride going down for about ten minutes.

I have ridden this before a few times but for some reason this trip it seemed more terrifying than I can recall. Sure it’s fast and has all the loops and twists but never have I ever experienced the feeling of coming out of my seat as I did on this coaster. I was genuinely scared for my life. I am sure it has been tested and it is no doubt physically impossible to fall out but good grief I did not believe that as I gripped for dear life and screamed.

With that in mind, it made perfect sense that I rode again immediately, this time with Louise, Freddie, and Tom. It was no less scary.

In need of some blood pressure soothing, we chose to ride the Jurassic Park River thing next. It was a walk on with or without Express.

After riding it was time for some snacks, so I bought a random selection of whatever the closest booth had to offer.

I didn’t know what that one above was but it turned out to be a very lovely sweet pastry type thing. I was more shocked to discover the one below was savoury after taking a large bite. It was potato and meat and Freddie also had a taste, loved it and devoured the rest.

Whilst I was busy eating, fiddling little fingers seized the camera.

On to Kong now and it was mildly surprising to find that Dougie could ride it. We bypassed a pleasing standby queue with our Expressness and rode. Despite the very gory and gruesome content of this ride Dougie was fine. It probably isn’t ideal for little ones to be honest.

We chose to bypass the water rides, as we were soon to be sat in a restaurant and did not want to be freezing to death in wet clothes in brutal AC. So we carried on walking through the park, to get back to the Spider Man and Hulk rides.

We were devastated to see that Spiderman was down for maintenance and would not be open during our visit. Meeting Temu Wolverine was not really compensation for that fact.

It was my turn to sit with Dougie now as everyone went off to ride Dr Doom. Despite us being minutes away from our dining reservation, like all good grandparents, I got him a huge lollipop from the shops.

He approved of my decision….

When everyone got back, I was delighted to hear that Louise had not ridden, and had sat out on a bench near the ride entrance and I could have ridden after all.

Next, we all rode the Storm Force waltzer thingy.

Louise and I had Dougie in with us so could avoid the excessive spinning that was going on in the other cup by Tom and Freddie.

We had time to repeat Cat In The Hat and One Fish Two Fish on our way to eat at Mythos….

Upon arriving at Mythos it was not busy and we were seated immediately. It is heavily themed around Mythos type things, if anyone has a clue what that is.

Rebecca and Tom had a milkshake and Louise a wine, with everyone else on soft drinks.

I started with a Mezze Platter….

Louise had a “dipping thing” according to my ever reliable notes.

Tom had meatballs….

and Rebecca had Hummus

They were all lovely. This Mediterranean style of dippy stuff and breads is right up my street.

For mains, I had Chicken Kebab with Cous and Cous.

Rebecca Lamb Burger

Both of the boys had pizza and Louise had a Grilled Cheese in Soup

Tom had Pad Thai, but a plaster and some talc would probably sort that right out.

The boys finished with a shared banana split and there was a creme brulee that a few of us dipped into. It was all very delicious with very good service but of course came at an elevated price which was to be expected when dining in the parks. It was around $400 including tip.

It was dark now. Freddie wanted to do Velocicoaster again, so Tom took him off to do that. We strolled over to the water rides, picking up a Grinch for Dougie…

as that was the plan after the boys returned but Popeye’s Bilge Rats had closed at 7. We waited for quite some time on a bench near Dudley’s as it turned out that Velocicoaster had gone down and it was taking them a long while to ride. As Rebecca had Tom’s phone to save him the bother of the locker nonsense, we had no way to get in touch like it was the 90’s or something.

Eventually, we decided to walk to the park exit in case they had gone there a different way and the park was closing now anyway. Louise took Dougie off to the boat whilst Rebecca and I waited for Tom and Freddie. Once we’d found them we set off to the boat to find Louise and Dougie sat on the one just leaving as we arrived.

The next boat was about ten minutes later and we thankfully got on board and headed for bed. We had done well over 20,000 steps today and were absolutely exhausted.

Till the next time…..

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Eight Tuesday 22nd October

29/12/2024 by mkingdon, posted in The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024

It’s rare to report on a first these days when it comes to a Florida trip but here we are. The plan hath not decreed it so but with the earlier changes due to the weather, more flexibility was required today and we moved our Volcano Bay day to today. For Louise and I, one of those rare firsts.

I didn’t get up until 8.45 am, which was right around the time we probably should have been parking up at Universal but I’d been up in the night and had not slept well so it was as unavoidable as it was undesirable.

This resulted in a very poor 10am departure and once again our journey was blighted with traffic that was less than ideal. It was bad enough that the drive took 45 minutes, but what added insult to that injury was as we pulled up to the toll booths where you pay for your parking for Volcano Bay, I don’t know why, but there was a huge queue that was just not moving at all.

My frustration and anger (mostly at myself for the late start) started to build and the 30-minute wait just to pay for parking was not improving our start to the day.

Once parked up, we had to board a bus to the water park itself. This was relatively painless, but my mood had darkened sufficiently to see this as a problem too.

Once off the bus, there was a sizeable walk to get somewhere close to any water. At this point I was wondering if Volcano Bay actually existed or if it did, I suspected it was located in one of the Carolinas.

I had to go to guest services to sort our tickets and then we were given a Tapu thing and finally, we were in. It was midday.

You can imagine that the availability of sunbeds and shade was not abundant at this time so there was a long, hot, frustrating trek around the park trying to source some. It was made so much easier with us having a stroller, which of course always work well on sand.

I spotted a set of beds large enough to accommodate us all and we made camp. It felt like very hard work indeed to just get into the park. The day was to get better but the herding cattle approach to getting folks into the park was not something I liked. Compare it to Typhoon Lagoon where you park about six feet from the entrance and stroll in and I would say it could be simpler.

Suncream was applied….

then everyone apart from Louise was off into the water, thankful to now be able to have some fun.

Being in unfamiliar surroundings, I felt unsettled, which probably should be added to my “reasons I need therapy” list and says a lot more about me than I would probably like it to. There’s a reason we keep returning to Florida. After a dip in the main pool, I returned to Louise as everyone else went off to do some slides.

I rested a bit until everyone returned around 1.30. We mobile ordered lunch and then went off to eat it.

Me and Rebecca – Turkey Wrap

Louise – Pulled Pork Sandwich

Tom, Freddie and Dougie – Pizza

Picking up the food was fine but I had a falling out with the drinks machine and had to go back and get another cup as the fanfangled machine just spat syrup all over the first one and me.

Some escaped Lays were appreciated by the wildlife.

Now fed, Louise and I returned to our encampment. Tom, Rebecca and Freddie went off for more rides and I walked Dougie around in his stroller until he fell asleep. That was a good way for me to get a good tour of the park anyway.

With him napping, I went for a couple of loops around the lazy river, finding a very comfortable position on a double-ring thing, which I believe is also the name of a film. I was dangerously close to falling asleep on a few occasions, but the tactically placed ice-cold drips and sprays kept me alert at the appropriate times.

I wandered back to the beds to find everyone had returned and Freddie was keen for me to go on the Crazy (not Lazy) River now so off we went. The fact that you have to wear a life vest to go on this may suggest how fast this thing goes, but it was really good fun.

We did four laps in total before being thrown out as the park was closing.

My view on Volcano Bay improved throughout the day and to be honest I am not worth listening to when it comes to any sort of review on a water park. I don’t do the slides (more issues for my imaginary therapist to unpick) due to some bad experiences on dodgy water parks in the Med in my younger days, so I couldn’t tell you if the slides here are better or worse than anywhere else. For me, as somewhere to just rest and relax it’s simply easier to get to and into Typhoon Lagoon so I would probably stick with that in future, although the Crazy River was excellent. I would say that our long drawn-out entry experience this morning was very likely largely down to our own very late start and the weird 30-minute wait to pay for parking, which oddly cleared as soon as we were through.

We got dried and dressed and made our way out. Getting out and back to the car was a good deal easier than the earlier shenanigans.

However, the traffic was not, and it took over an hour to get home. I guess it was rush hour, with nobody rushing anywhere on the I4, of course.

Dinner tonight would be just Louise and I as Rebecca wanted to give the boys an early night and get packed for our Universal stay tomorrow. So after showers, we set off. Having not planned for this turn of events, we just set off down the 192 looking for inspiration and, driven by growing hunger, opted for the next thing we saw which was…

It was not busy at all.

We started with some kind of fried pickle type thing (my notes are poor and seem to get poorer from here on, as at this stage, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t bother writing this trip up, but here we are.)

I reached for the camera well into our eating of it.

Our entrees were a dipping beef sandwich thing….

with Louise opting for her “go to” cheesy pasta thing

The food was tasty and the service fine, but this was not a life-changing dining experience and we probably would not return. With it being a slow weekday the atmosphere was probably not at its best either with just a few tables occupied. It’s odd how that can make such a difference to a dining experience. The place being so busy you can’t get a table or decent service is of course no good, but when a place is as empty as this was, it gives the whole experience a bit of weird “vibe” and I’m sure we can all agree that I am far too old to be using words like vibe.

We drove home, did some packing for Universal, which was no doubt a lot easier than Rebecca’s and went to bed.

Till the next time……

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