Tag: Disney

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Seven Monday 21st October

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

As shining examples of how to get stuff done early in the parks we are not that psycho blonde woman with four kids who keeps infecting my Instagram feed with her 4am wake ups and Stepford vibes. If you know, you know.

Today was probably the exact opposite of that but we were tired to it was a much later start. I had booked Multipass and stacked our LLs for the afternoon so we took our time and benefitted from the extra cash outlay, but not as much as Disney would.

It was 10.30 when we left the house. Less than half an hour later we parked in Mickey 312 and we trammed in.

I can’t say for certain that Dougie didn’t sleep in that hat.

We had a Fantasmic Dinner Package booked for this evening which involved lunch at the Sci-Fi Diner so we had no ride plans before that. We had a stroll of the shops and just took things in.

We checked in at the restaurant at 12.20 and were seated within 5 minutes.

We all ordered a milkshake which would count as dessert on our FDP thing, which was fine by us. And they were fine.

We paid extra(!) for an appetiser of Fried Pickles and then….

Me – Chicken Salad

Louise – A blurry chicken sandwich

Everyone else had burgers, which proved impossible to photograph as we were all sat in a car.

It was another pricey affair, as expected, but it did give us a “Fastpass” for Fantasmic later.

Our first ride of the day was Mickey’s Runaway Railway and everyone except Louise endured the 30 minute standby wait for that.

It’ll never be the Great Movie Ride, but it’s clever, and I suspect it takes a lot fewer CMs to run it than the previous ride here.

Next, it was time for our LL for Rise of the Resistance. As often seems to be the case, as we arrived the ride had just come back up which meant that even the LL queue was bedlam. The standby was at 3 hours, and that would rise to 4 as we queued. Tom stayed out with Dougie and it took the rest of us 45 minutes to ride.

I suppose this ride’s impressiveness and complexity lead to it going down a lot.

It truly is an incredible spectacle and feat of Imagineering but its instability means that idiots like us who paid to ride it get upset at still having to spend an hour doing so.

Tom and Freddie then rode much more quickly as the initial surge after re-opening had calmed down.

The rest of us walked to Tower of Terror for our next LL, and we knew at this point that Tom and Freddie would be late for our slot on that ride. I went to one of the Guest Services blue umbrellas and explained the Rise-induced delay to our plans and they kindly made our LL for Tower of Terror open-ended for any time today.

We took a seat and had a drink whilst we waited for the Rise riders to return.

With Dougie napping, Rebecca, Tom and Freddie rose TOT, then with Dougie awake again, Tom took Freddie on Rock n Rollercoaster whilst the rest of us took Dougie to see Beauty and The Beast.

Keeping Dougie entertained whilst we waited in the scandalous and persistent absence of Four For A Dollar, involved him having a go on the camera.

Once the show started, I took over on camera.

With that show enjoyed Louise and I took our turn to ride TOT. Everyone else headed back to Galaxy’s Edge where we were to meet them for our Smuggler’s Run LL. We were half an hour beyond our time slot, which stressed me out no end, but as we beeped our bands Mickey turned green and we were in after more very persistent measuring of Dougie, which he once again passed.

Dougie, much like myself had no clue what was going on, but enjoyed it nevertheless.

We wandered Galaxy’s Edge for a bit, catching a bit of a live show involving Kylo Ren.

Rebecca and Tom did a great job of resisting Freddie’s persistent urging to buy some form of very expensive plastic tat and then we set off for Toy Story Land and our Mania LL. This time I rode with Louise. Different competitor, same result. A bruising defeat for Louise.

We completed our rides for the day with the Holy Grail of LLs, Slinky Dog, and as a bonus, it was just going dark which makes most rides better in my opinion.

Dougie loved it. A great coaster, perfect in its intensity so that everyone can ride and enjoy it.

As we now made our way towards Fantasmic, the boys were bought the inevitable light-up toys and as we entered the stadium we stopped for snacks of drinks and popcorn before taking our seats.

This show continues to be one of the best experiences on WDW property. That finale gets me every time. It’s amazing what music can do to you. Rebecca was in tears and I wasn’t far off. Do not miss this show.

It was an easy exit and we made our way back to the car.

Having given Disney far too much of our money on food and LLs recently we headed off-site to eat at the cheap and cheerful Olive Garden. We arrived at 9.20 and were seated within about 15 minutes.

You know what we had to start….

I had the Tour of Italy, as usual.

Freddie had meatballs and spaghetti.

Both Tom and Rebecca had Lasagne

Louise, Five Cheese Ziti

Dougie had Pizza

With wines, iced coffees, sodas and tip, it was a wallet-soothing $160. It was all pretty good, although my entree could have been warmer. We do find this place to be quite hit and miss in recent years, but overall it’s decent quality food for a good price when your bank balance needs a break from WDW prices.

We were home by 11.15, with a great day in the bag, despite the late start.

Till the next time…..

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Six Sunday 20th October

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

Rest days are the habitual practice of seasoned travellers to WDW who love to recharge their batteries….

Parklife!

But once that’s done and the rides start calling again all you can do is make your return to hustle and bustle of …

Parklife!

So with a 6.55am alarm waking me so that I could book us all a virtual queue for Guardians, the day began. My notes remind that I felt rough this morning with a headache and nausea. It was either last night’s cold spud or I was pregnant.

Despite the 7am alarm, we were not out of the house until 9am and it took about 25 minutes to drive to Epcot’s gate. Another $30 exchanged hands and we parked in Rocket 602.

The tram took us in, (since when were they red?) and coffee and donuts were served from Joffries for those who didn’t feel like vomiting.

I stood strong today and refused to book the Multipass, so the day started with a 20-minute queue for Spaceship Earth.

I had the genuine pleasure of riding with Dougie, who despite several very annoying stops for several minutes was incredibly well behaved.

Next, we restroomed.

With our virtual queue time approaching it made sense to head in that direction and ride Mission Space. I declined the chance to ride as I needed no further encouragement to be making pavement pizzas so Louise and I sat out with Dougie and had a drink.

Once everyone was back from space we had been summoned to Guardians. After setting up rider swap, Me, Louise, Rebecca and Freddie rode.

This is THE best ride on property and I will not be entering into any debate on the subject.

It had been raining a little all morning and as Tom an Freddie rode Guardians it really came down. We needed to get to a restroom and by the time we did it felt like we had been swimming.

While waiting for Tom and Freddie to return we stood under the canopy outside Connections and Club Cool.

Dougie had been kept out of it with his pram hood and a poncho.

With no sign of the boys and our ADR at Space 220 imminent, we messaged them to say meet us there and set off to get a little bit wetter. I explained to the check-in host that we were waiting for two who were riding, and it was fine when we eventually got everyone there and checked in at 1:30 for our 1.10 ADR. As soon as we did that, the rain stopped.

We entered the lift ensuring the boys could get up to the rail to see the “lift” take us up to space. It was quite full so I could see bugger all standing against the back wall.

I dangled the camera from my outstretched arm and got….

Once we arrived in space as you would imagine, the theming was just excellent.

There were novelty fizzy drinks with glowing things and popping space rock….

Even though Dougie wasn’t having that particular special drink off the menu our server was smart enough to make sure his apple juice also glowed.

and those rocks really popped….

Food wise we had

Me and Tom – Shrimp Tacos and the burger

Louise – Cauliflower starter and the burger

Rebecca – Caesar salad and burger

Boys – Nuggets and a dome pudding.

Some adult desserts were had too….

Louise had some wines and most of us finished with a coffee.

Many of you will know that this isn’t a cheap experience, and there’s nothing to be gained by saying how much this meal was, so I won’t. The experience was very good, the food was better than expected and the boys really enjoyed the theming. It was chilly, but that was because we arrived drenched in cold water. I also got a better view in the lift on the way back to earth.

Dougie was in desperate need of a nap so I volunteered to walk him round until he caught one. I ended up doing a full loop of World Showcase and met up with everyone over at Journey Into Imagination.

Louise and I stayed out with Dougie.

Due to our evening plans, we had about 30 minutes left now to ride something before we had to go and Freddie chose Mission Space and insisted I rode too.

I survived with my expensive lunch intact.

The weather had perked up too.

What I’m doing here, I have no clue.

Something tells me a younger camera operator was holding the camera….

It was time to leave now so we made our way to the exit. Dougie was back from his nap.

But only just….

That’s better.

We trammed to the car…

and I captured evidence of someone’s battle with the overhead speaker….

Sometimes being bald can be a blessing.

We were heading for City Walk, as tonight Tom and Rebecca were going to Halloween Horror Nights whilst we took the boys for some tea and then home to bed.

The traffic was of course horrific all the way up the I4 but the cherry on top was the 35-minute wait on the off-ramp to get to Universal parking. This, we soon found out was caused by a combo of Horror Nights traffic plus a Chase Atlantic gig at The Hard Rock. After parking the car security was also carnage but we made it in around 6.15 and Rebecca and Tom went off to be horrified, mainly by the prices and wait times.

The fringe-filled emo-fest that was the queue for the gig at the Hard Rock was a flashback to the teenage years of the girls.

Louise and I sat with the boys on those big steps for a bit, people-watching until it was time to head to Toothsome for our reservation. No, we were not hungry at all.

We were seated immediately and started to ponder what someone who isn’t hungry at all orders.

Louise went for French Onion Soup.

I went sweet with a Banana Fosters Waffle, you know, because I was full.

The boys, who were hungry, went for burgers.

We had a few minutes of interaction at our table with the two characters.

Then the boys shared the S’Mores, barely making a dent in them and I was in no position to help.

We wandered City Walk, and after looking for all kinds of plastic tat to get for the boys, Dougie showed no interest in anything and Freddie ended up getting two airbrush tattoos. It was bedtime, for Louise and me, so the boys had to come home too. We had walked all the way back to the car when Freddie announced he needed a wee, so I had to walk him all the way back to security to the closest restroom.

Despite having the sat nav on I managed to take a few wrong turns on the way home and one of them saw us divert through some sort of military base entrance. Bizarre.

We were home for 11 and got the boys in bed. I waited up downstairs just in case Dougie woke up and then fell into bed as soon as Rebecca and Tom got home around 1am, I think.

Till the next time……

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Four Friday 18th October

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

With a bedtime of 9.30 last night, a rise of 6am was not too surprising. I was also awake.

Louise slept on, so sadly I took the chance to reply to a couple of work things on the phone before going downstairs at 7am to make myself some cereal and toast. It’s always fun trying to find something to watch on American TV for those few minutes whilst eating breakfast. I’m never sure which new channel isn’t crammed with right-wing propaganda and if you can avoid an advert it’s either very large men talking about a style of football I do not understand or a rerun of some very old sitcom. I was yearning for the Applicances Direct ad to be honest.

Louise wasn’t up until after 8 a.m., so it was a later start after everyone had showered and readied. I wasn’t too stressed, as I had already squandered yet more dollars on multipass for today. It does feel like the standard park experience is broken for the most part. I know everyone has different views and experiences here, but it feels like now you have to pay extra to get what was standard a few years ago.

We left the house at 8.30 and parked up at 8.45am. We trammed in from Dinosaur 225 only for Rebecca to go for an entry denying wee.

Does anyone else have an uncontrollable and undeniable reflex to smile at all dogs?

Once we were in, It’s Tough To Be A Bug was the obvious first choice due to our LLs not starting until 12, (the offsite scum cruse strikes again) its proximity and lack of wait time.

Freddie couldn’t be-leaf this was a person and not a tree. He just didn’t twig. I had to root out my camera and capture the moment as I’m a bit of a sap. Enough!

Freddie was not the most impressed he would be all holiday with this attraction. There was no fear or aversion to the creatures “leaving!” the theatre. It just didn’t go very fast and/or upside down.

At this point, coffee was desirable, so we headed over to Starbucks, and Rebecca and I went in to gather essentials for everyone. Even though I ordered I gave Rebecca’s name to avoid a Cregg moment.

We sat on a wall whilst everyone destroyed the various types of coffee and cake.

Wees were had before we headed all the way over to the rapids. If we were to get wet, it would be early to give the sun time to work its magic.

We didn’t fare too badly wetness-wise on the way around, but then got soaked by the squirting elephants at the end of the ride whilst we waited to disembark.

Freddie and Tom rode again as the standby said 25 minutes but it turned out to be closer to 45. The rest of us sat watching the monkeys for that amount of time.

We’d missed a Lion King show I had my eye on due to the longer ride time, so instead we ate. Yak & Yeti was closest so that was an easy choice.

Once again the camera fell into younger hands.

Our next LL was due for the safari which, yes, you spotted it, was all the way back across the park. We had an excellent driver/guide and saw lots of interesting stuff.

After locating the stroller among the plethora of others in the parking lot, we walked across to Pandora. We had a 2.30 LL for Flights of Passage. We set up a rider swap so that Freddie could ride twice. Louise and I sat out with a napping Dougie and face-timed Emily back home for a bit whilst the others rode.

Louise and I then rode again with Freddie. His excitement to do so was not dampened by just having ridden it.

He once again needed a wee but thankfully the wait was short and he managed to wait until we could rush him to the restroom upon our exit.

We met everyone else and were greeted with a drink.

The LLs were coming thick and fast now, with Everest the next. Yep, that was at the other side of the park again.

With a rider swap set up, Louise, Freddie, Rebecca, and I rode first, with Tom and Freddie going second.

Having taken this same picture every year since this ride opened, here is this year’s version.

and this one

We strolled to Dinoland whilst Tom and Freddie rode, with Rebecca taking Dougie for a spin. I can’t spell Triceratops.

Once everyone was back together we went to Dinosaur. We just about made it within our LL slot giving us the pleasure of walking past that queue.

We had set up the customary rider swap but Freddie was not keen enough on the experience to want to do it a second time.

Louise and I opted to sit down and have a drink whilst everyone else went off to the rapids again which had a short standby. Whilst we waited for them I wandered off to the shop to pick up something Dougie had expressed a lot of interest in (as much as a 2-year-old can), but he loves a hat and had been shouting “Duck” every time he saw Donald so….

Of course, you can’t get one child something without the other…..

We were heading out now…

So here’s an example of the added expense of Multipass affecting our decisions. Almost without exception over the years a day at DAK meant an ADR for Yak and Yeti. It is one of our favourites and a lovely way to wrap up the day at this park. With all the extra dollars going on getting on rides, today we were headed off-site for what would be a considerably cheaper meal. We were headed for Applebees and I had chosen the one at Celebration and the hat was never coming off.

I have to admit that I wasn’t that hungry. My way of addressing that was to “only order two appetisers”.

We’ll get to that when that photo appears, but here is Freddie’s Corn Dog.

I realised the error in my theory when my pretzels arrived.

I had also ordered the Chicken Wontons. Not being that hungry I of course demolished the lot.

Dougie had pizza.

Rebecca also went for the same approach as me with Pretzels and Wings

Quesedeia (another word I can’t spell) Burger for Tom.

Louise had a steak which she declared wonderful.

With a few shakes, wines and drinks all round it was $170 including a good tip. Our server, Dalton, was excellent.

Once again full and tired we headed for home and once again did not make it past 9.30.

Till the next time…..

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Three Thursday 17th October

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

I slept solidly until 2am and then again until 4am. When I woke again at 7.30 there were questions about what the plan for today was. Sure, I’d had a plan in place for months but the weather looked like scuppering that as it was looking too chilly for the planned visit to Typhoon Lagoon.

The preference seemed to be Hollywood Studios so with it already being too late to be getting there, never mind trying to plan a day that wouldn’t involve riding Star Tours and watching the Muppets (RIP) seventeen times I had work to do.

There was no choice but to buy Multipass again, so I did before showering and getting dressed. I did OK with the first LL, securing Rock n Rollercoaster, Star Tours and Alien Swirling Saucers.

We were out of the house by 8.30 and in the park just after 9am. Not bad. My heart sank seeing huge queues at the entrance but I was hopeful that was driven by incompetence rather than attendance.

Our first LL wasn’t until 12.30 so I was on the app trying to find a tolerable standby wait. Toy Story Mania promised a twenty-minute wait so off we went.

We entered the queue full of excitement about the day ahead, with Freddie particularly looking forward to Rock n Rollercoaster.

After about five minutes of queueing a cast member entered the area and shouted that currently, of the the three tracks available, two were down and the new estimated wait time was 70 minutes, but the other tracks may come up at any time.

A lot of folks left so we figured we’d give it a bit of a wait and see what happened.

After about 15 minutes Freddie was clearly desperate for a wee. I took him out, and asked a cast member could I rejoin our party afterwards. They said of course so all was well and it was easy to find everyone as they had not moved.

We were now trapped in the quandry of having committed almost an hour to the ride that leaving would inevitably see everything open back up and us kick ourselves. We were indeed just about to give up and we were looking for the easiest way out of the queue when things began to move. After 30 minutes in the same spot we were seated on the ride in about five, having waited, spookily for 70 minutes. All the tracks were now open though.

For the second day running the first ride of the day had let us down with its wait time. I have to admit that during that long wait and reflecting on yesterday’s experience of lots of rides being down, I was getting a bit fed up and sulky about our Disney experience so far.

I rode with Rebecca and won convincingly of course.

We had obviously missed our next LL slot at Star Tours as we didn’t get off Toy Story Mania until 11.15. That ride had availability all day so I just moved that to later and we headed in the direction of Sunset Boulevard. It was time for lunch, having had no breakfast, before our next ride.

We mobile ordered at Rosa’s Canteen.

The usual array of hot dogs, burgers and nuggets with some universally disappointing dessert options.

With that tucked away it was time for Rock n Rollercoaster and we set up child swap at the entrance, meaning that Freddie could ride it twice, with Tom who sat out with Dougie.

As we waited for the few minutes our LL afforded us, Freddie was that lovely mix of fear and excitement. He literally could not stand still.

He loved it despite what his face was saying on the photo.

We walked over to Star Tours whilst he and Tom rode again.

It was my turn to sit out with a now-sleeping Dougie.

I did some LL faffing on the app and got us a LL for Frozen sing a long at 3.

With Star Tours done Louise and I went for a drink at the Tap House whilst everyone else went to do Tower of Terror which looked to have an inoffensive standby wait.

I got some of the sweet and spicy almonds which were about three times more addictive than crack.

We all met at Frozen at 2.45 and were immediately annoyed that the LL time of 3 p.m. was for a 3.30 show. So we wandered down to the Star Wars Launch Bay for a look around.

Dougie was awake again.

The boys met Chewbacca with Dougie really not sure how he felt about that.

Now, it was actually time for Frozen!

We wondered if it would hold Dougie’s interest, but he loved it.

We made our way over to Galaxy’s Edge now, stopping off on the way to watch The Muppets. I am nothing if not prescient with all things Disney. In my notes for this day I wrote that this was half empty and had no wait all day and wondered if its days were numbered. At this point, I am going to start invoicing Bob Iger for consultancy.

We walked right through Galaxy’s Edge, having a look at various stuff…

and we stopped for what I think qualifies as a coffee.

Freddie was delighted with his coke.

We were soon out the other side and where we needed to be for our next LL on Alien Saucers.

Everyone enjoyed that one and with no options available beyond what we already had booked, we had an hour to kill before our next LL on Smuggler’s Run. Knowing we would have to do some queuing at this point we decided to go and do standby for Smuggler’s and then ride it again with our LL.

The posted wait time said 45 minutes. Dougie was measured, a lot, and got on by a whisker.

As we got to about 20 minutes into the queue, Freddie started his now familiar dance indicating he needed a wee. With no real way out we knew we were in trouble. We either abandoned our wait or maybe there was another way.

Rebecca downed the contents of a water bottle in their backpack and we devised a cunning plan. The queue was quite slow moving, so at the agreed time, I knelt down pretending to tie my shoelace, holding up the queue behind us and Tom and Rebecca crowded around Freddie whilst he did what he needed to do in that bottle. It worked a treat, with even a wet wipe available to wash his hands afterwards. The bottle was jettisoned at the next bin. Luckily at six years old, it takes about five seconds to have a wee, not the hour or so it can at my age.

Dougie had no clue what was going on either time we rode but he loved it all the same. Riding it twice like that did give me at least a fighting chance of trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

It was about 7pm now and time to go.

We walked out and back to the car and headed for Sickies on the 192, which was in the plan and staying there despite us changing things for today.

It took about 20 minutes to get there.

We were told there would be a 30 minute wait for a table but we were seated in 10.

We shared the Spare Parts to start.

Weirdly I was craving a salad. My body does this as a reaction to abuse from time to time, so I had the Avocado Salad, as did Rebecca.

Louise had a chicken fajita salad.

Tom had the Hot Beef Sandwich, also known as the “CVS have a cream for that”.

The boys had Mini Corn Dogs and Tots and a Cheeseburger.

Everything was delicious. The service was great even though a good number of the servers were giving off Wentworh Detention Centre vibes.

With several shakes, wines and drinks it was $170 including a good tip.

We were all exhausted, but not too tired to enjoy another tour of CVS on our way back to the villa for some bite cream and moisturiser. We were home by 9.30, again having to endure several pockets of really crap traffic even at this time.

Till the next time……

The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Two Wednesday 16th October

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

We did a decent job with the body clocks. Well, Louise and I did. I think Dougie made a very early appearance so Tom was in the pool at some unreasonable hour. It was 5.45pm for us and we finished unpacking and showered.

It looked like I was being a kind and wonderful husband by making Louise some coffee and toast and taking it upstairs to her while she got ready, but it was really just a selfish attempt to hurry things along and get us out of the house at an hour to benefit from the first day’s early rise.

I dressed in my smallest T-shirt knowing it may never fit again this trip.

At 7 a.m. on the dot, I was on the Disney app securing a virtual queue for Tiana. This was a pleasing start. Three days earlier in the UK, I had secured us Multipasses, hoping to make the first day go smoothly. As we were off-site, there were slim pickings in terms of times for our first of the day, so they pretty much only started from lunchtime.

We left the house at 8 am, which was right around the time I would have liked to have been waiting at the turnstiles to get into Magic Kingdom. It took 25 minutes to get there and we parked in Peter Pan 25. I had passed Rebecca the camera, not needing to explain what was required of her.

It felt a little cool this morning and we were surrounded by folks in several layers of fleece and long pants. The early start may have been catching up with some of us already.

We arrived at the tram stop as one was pulling away but that was because there was another right behind it. Tom, as would happen every day, got pulled for a manual bag check but we were getting closer!

The monorail looked stacked with a queue stretching right down the ramp, so we opted for the ferry. Of course, as we got very close to the entrance they closed the gate and it left. We could see another one coming in over the water.

We boarded after a few minutes and with being close to the front of the waiting guests we got a seat too. I hung over the side taking some more pictures.

These trips are often just a long stream of decisions about which line might move the quickest and typically me getting most of them wrong. Here was the next.

We were behind the usual collection of goons trying to use Blockbuster membership cards to get in, but finally, we made it.

I fired up the app looking for some guidance on which ride to head for first which wouldn’t have a long standby line. Three rides were currently down which was a bit shit and it proved to have a significant knock-on effect until our lightning lanes kicked in later.

Pirates, Jungle Cruise, and one other, which I forget were down. These big crowd soakers not being available meant that other rides were already mobbed. Buzz said it was ten minutes so we headed there and joined the queue which looked suspiciously longer than ten minutes.

The fact that we were queuing outside pointed towards a much longer wait and that we were able to see some local wildlife. Everyone thought this was a frog, but I toad them it wasn’t.

It took 45 minutes to get on the ride which was in danger of squashing the magical joy of that first-day arrival in Magic Kingdom. Still, everyone enjoyed the ride. We exited, immediately needing food. It was 10 am after all.

Options were slim I have to say. We settled on Friar’s Nook after seeing a longer queue at Gaston’s place for the Creme Brulee Croissant than we went through for Buzz. I mobile ordered and we made our way over. Tom and I waited whilst everyone else walked over to Pinocchio Haus to get a table. We waited for what felt like an age, but it was at least 20 minutes.

The boys had Hot Dogs and the adults all had these tot bowl things.

Our first LL was due now over at Barnstormer so we walked that way.

Thinking we might not fit in the same carriage, Louise and I sat this one out and had a tactical wee. Dougie absolutely loved what was his first rollercoaster ride.

Our virtual queue for Tiana was called. Louise volunteered to stay with Dougie and took him off for a walk to get him to have a nap. The rest of us walked up through Frontierland.

The wait in the virtual queue was about 40 minutes. It did feel odd that it wasn’t Splash Mountain, which was laced with so many memories for us, but it’s a good ride and Freddie loved it.

We were behind Go Pro guy….

.

As we left the ride, I did what I would do upon leaving and/or entering every attraction. I fired up the app to plan our next move or the move after the next three moves in most cases. I noticed that more rides were down and tried to take a picture of the app to show you all but, well…..

Second time lucky.

Obviously, this meant the wait times for anything still open were getting a bit silly.

We secured some of the Tiana “Beg Nets”, as Freddie called them and met up with Louise and a sleeping Dougie. Next, we used our LL for Big Thunder, with Louise and I riding second after sitting with Dougie.

Coffee was required now so we made our way right over to Tomorrowland and the Joffries there. This sort of summed up our experience today really.

That took half an hour only for me to then spill half of my (thankfully cold) coffee over myself when putting my straw in.

Dougie was back with us…

and Freddie was in heaven.

Because we are not stupid, Louise and I sat out with our coffees whilst everyone else rode Astro Orbiter. I took the chance to “fiddle with my fastpasses” in the app and managed to move some stuff around to better suit us. It is a full-time job these days.

Philharmagic next for everyone.

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.

.

Look how fresh and happy Dougie is after a good nap. During this trip I had a couple of “million-dollar ideas” and I hereby copyright them.

The first was Disney adding the concept of “Nap Pods” into their parks. They would be similar to the sleep pods in Japan…

You hire one for a couple of hours. They are air-conditioned and soundproof and allow you to catch some sleep before emerging looking as happy as Dougie did.

The second idea was that Disney should sell (much cheaper) dummy magic bands that kids under 3 wear. They beep when scanned but obviously don’t need to work for real. Dougie felt so left out as we all scanned into parks and rides, constantly lifting up his naked wrist to the scanner.

We were first into the theatre and I can confirm we moved all the way to the end of our row to avoid the cast members having to harass us as they did all the idiots sitting down in the middle with a full theatre trying to get in. Both of the boys really enjoyed the show.

We walked straight over to Small World for our LL there.

It was a big hit with Dougie.

Safe to say Freddie enjoys the faster rides these days.

It was time now to make our way out of the park and over to Wilderness Lodge for our Whispering Canyon ADR. The park was rammed and I think we all were welcoming the prospect of some quiet time.

We caught the boat over….

It didn’t take us as long as I expected to get there and we were pretty early for our 5 pm reservation. So we chilled in the lobby for a bit. There are worse places to be.

The camera once again fell into tiny hands.

Freddie then had a go with impressive results.

Mainly….

I had checked in via the app and as soon as they opened at 5 we were seated. Everyone ordered the unlimited skillet apart from Louise who had the Nachos.

Dougie being told no, he can’t have the camera again….

The food was so delicious and we had far more than we should have, getting our skillet refilled a few times. Beyond the odd shout for ketchup, I have to say there are no signs of any of the “shenanigans” that made this place legendary in years gone by. Go for the food as it is delightful, but from our last few visits don’t expect the fun and interaction there may have been in the past. Tom made the most of the bottomless milkshakes on offer here and all up it was $236 including an already-added 18% tip. This was due to our party size.

We waddled back to the boat and sailed back to Magic Kingdom. Golden hour was upon us.

It was getting a little chilly again, so Ryan was raided for Louise’s cardigan and the boys felt the benefit.

The resort monorail and a tram got us back to the car.

The traffic was horrific trying to join the 192. It does appear to be broken. You know of course that around this time we would make our first visit to CVS for vital things we needed but did not bring. We were home by 8 and all soon very much asleep.

As first days go, not our best. We had fun of course, but with so many rides being down it really buggered up the park today and if this were our first experience of Magic Kingdom it would not have been a favourable one. Even getting food and drinks proved troublesome which we have never really seen before. The Multipass thing did save the day I suppose at vast expense, but it’s pretty poor for off-site guests as by three days out there isn’t much left for the headliners and everything else has very few early slots available. You need your first LL to be as soon as you get in the park so that you can use that to then free up the ability to book another tier 1 ride. It’s complicated, expensive and needs constant attention throughout the day. Disney, please change this.

Till the next time…..

Bu Bye

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Here we are then. Just one workday stands between me and all the fun of the fair and as expected, last week surpassed itself with its length, drudgery and amount of pride-swallowing, ego-enduring nonsense that work can often be. The trick now is to try to push that and the stuff I know I’ll be returning to from my mind for a couple of weeks to make the most of what will be a hard-earned break. Yeah I know we take loads of holidays but in between we really work for them.

On Saturday I bought us Multi Pass for the first day, which, as the law dictates will be Magic Kingdom. I know that you know that I think this, but the cost of that at $29 each plus tax is just a piss-take. It really is and even for someone as dyed in the wool a Disney fan as I am, it really does impact my propensity to do their parks in future. We shall definitely be using that system only as a necessity as it just has such a huge impact on the budget. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, for us at least it just means we spend less time and money in their parks. Knowing that extra cost will happen we plan to eat off-site more than we would and I will be less likely to splurge on merchandise.

Anyway, with a bit of playing around with the original selections and times presented to us, I have what I think is a solid base for the first day. Being off-site scum of course we joined the party very late, just three days before our visit so despite only having the crumbs from the table of availability, I would give that a 7 out of 10. I have already begun to mentally come to terms with the fact that we will not get on Tiana’s new thing.

We hope very much that Dougie will make it on to Branstormer. He is soooo close to the height requirement, we just have to cross our fingers that he can do his first Disney coaster.

So as I type everyone else is out doing and buying those last-minute things you need (I’m told) for such a trip. Louise has us pretty much packed and she finished work on Friday so is now free to prep us to death.

The weather post-Milton looks glorious, at least for the next week or so, with nothing currently of any concern forming out to sea so we hope that continues. There was a brief concern about a “cold front” predicted for next Thursday, but context is important as that for Floridians means it will drop into the nasty mid-seventies (if you are young, don’t ask me what temperature that really is….just use the correct method for temperatures instead!). Such temperatures here have half the population shirtless and two out of three households holding mandatory barbeques, so I think we’ll be OK.

The last bit of planning I had to do was my “airport Dad” approach to what time we need to leave the house to get to the airport. This is not as simple as you may think. Since we moved house a few years ago we are a little further away from the airport and with this being a weekday departure and the M60 not being fit for purpose, it is hard to negotiate the journey without us being ridiculously early or late. With a flight at 11.25, our journey to the airport is right in the middle of the armageddon of rush hour so planning is crucial.

So my plan is to leave the house at 6.15ish, which even with the catastrophic traffic getting off the M61 onto the M60 and then battling that across Barton Bridge past the Trafford Centre, we should be getting to the airport I think around 7.30. I thought everyone worked from home these days, but the motorways of the North West tell a different story.

That gives us time to park the car. This will take a little longer as our usual place was full and we have to do a meet and greet option which I don’t really like as you have to figure out dropping your keys off at an “automated” set of lockers and it’s all a bit faffy. Once that is done that should get us to 8am or so and that is when check in opens. Being posh Premium superstars we should be escorted through that by our own personal valet within seconds and into security.

I don’t want to jinx it but when we did this last May the experience had undergone a big upgrade and improvement with seemingly new technology making the whole thing a breeze.

With that behind us, we have access to The Escape Lounge from 8.30 and all should be well. That’s just the journey to the airport which goes to prove that these holidays don’t just happen you know. From there it’s just a matter of surviving nine hours in a tube with a very rumbunctious Dougie. Wish us luck.

As ever, from time to time I’ll share as we go on the Mkingdon Facebook page. So give that a Like if you haven’t already.

Other than that, I think we’re done and we’ll see you back here in November!

Till the next time…..

Helene Going Back

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

Emily is home. She arrived back in the UK on Friday morning. If it is possible to experience the end of a WDW trip sadness by proxy, I did on Thursday watching their last day unfold in the WhatsApp group.

Knowing what an incredible time they had just made me genuinely sad for them that it was ending. Some spice was added to the end of their trip with Hurricane Helene’s arrival, and her impact coincided almost exactly with their flight departure. Thankfully for them and Orlando, she stayed off the coast but some of the scenes from the west coast of Florida were heartbreaking.

Having stayed at Siesta Key a few years ago, this was a shocking sight.

Orlando again seemed to miss the worst of things and we have every appendage crossed that nothing forms in the coming weeks to impact our trip. How selfish does that sound when thousands of folks lost their homes a few days ago?

You may already know this, but for anyone with Florida plans that may involve hurricane season, I have long followed Denis Phillips who gives incredibly regular, sensible and accurate updates whenever anything is heading to Florida. If you don’t already, he’s worth following to avoid trying to get info from all kinds of sources when it matters.

Anyway, within 12 hours of touching down on UK soil, Emily had done the sensible thing and booked again for next year. They will be going back with another couple, more first-timers, and it will be Emily’s 30th next year so it all made sense that a trip would be taken to mark that occasion.

They are staying at the All Stars again, but have to go in August as one of the other couple is a teacher, so flight costs will be horrific and with the hotel and tickets in the bag, their quest will be to source a flight for less than a family car.

I have two weeks (and one day) left at work before we go and, as ever, I am more than ready for it. It has been a hectic and demanding time at work and I feel pretty burnt out, despite having had a lovely holiday back in May. Louise feels the same but she’s a nurse so she deserves to much more than the desk-based, work-from-home most of the time Nancy boy I am.

I purchased some dollars last week, well, I loaded my Caxton card with some and was delighted to get a rate of 1.31. That delight is relative to the recent years of atrocious rates of course and I’d be much more delighted with the 1.5s or 1.6s that were the norm for so many years.

Rebecca’s ankle is improving rapidly, with the boot now mostly off and a lot of mobility back which is great news. She did have to return to A&E last week to have her elbow checked out as it was getting more and more painful and less useful with each passing day. Thankfully, again no broken bones just ligament damage and bruising causing the pain.

The decision was taken last week to cancel Halloween Horror Nights by Rebecca and Tom. Emily’s experience and comments on my blogs and other vlogs and blogs just made the whole expense and effort not seem worthwhile. They will find another evening to have some kid-free time I’m sure.

Hopefully, Louise and I can do similar and find an evening where we can do Jellyrolls. We really enjoyed the several nights we spent there last November on our park-free solo trip staying at Drury Plaza. We must do that trip again sometime.

It goes without saying that as we approach another trip I am desperately trying to trim a few pounds so I only come back as fat as I normally am. With every passing year it seems to get harder and at some point, I am just going to have to put up with being chunky and adorable. I’m a handful of pounds down from my heaviest, so if I can follow that with another handful or so in the next two weeks I may have myself some runway to eat what I like for a couple of weeks. My metabolism is a cruel mistress.

Two more of these posts before departure. You can get excited about that if nothing else.

Till the next time…….

Trouble Afoot

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

The “highlight” of this week was a stomach-churning panic on Wednesday afternoon with a tearful phone call whilst I was at work (Rebecca was the one in tears, but if I’m at work there’s always a chance I am too) saying she had just fallen down some steps and broken her ankle!

I left the meeting I was in the middle of without explanation and flew homeward. Tom had got home to her first, so we arranged to meet at the hospital so I could take the boys home while they were seen in A&E.

When I looked at her ankle, I was sure it was broken. While waiting for them to arrive at A&E, I had already done some extensive googling on whether you could fly with a broken limb. It seemed to be the case that you could, but of course, doing WDW with a broken ankle would not be ideal.

A few hours later they returned home with the news that it was not actually broken, but there was severe tendon/ligament damage. She was in a boot and on crutches but relieved.

Of course, there is the small matter of managing everyday life on one leg with two young kids for the next few weeks but at least the holiday was not badly affected!

Just 24 hours later the huge swelling was much reduced so we are very hopeful she will be ambulatory by the time we fly. It was around this time that all the other injuries she had picked up all over her body started to hurt with the pain in her ankle subsiding a little. It was a heck of a fall.

The other daughter continues to have the best time ever over in Orlando. We receive a steady stream of food and drink pictures which is always welcome and not quite as painful as it might be if we were not headed there very soon. I feel very conflicted that I never want their trip to end as I know how much they are loving it, but it has to if ours is ever to get here.

Emily wept uncontrollably at Fantasmic as did most of us just watching the video she sent. There is something about that finale music in that show that just gets me.

On Wednesday they did Halloween Horror Nights and were, to be honest, a little underwhelmed, mainly due to the huge wait times for everything. Only one house was done as every house had wait times of well over an hour and even the food trucks had similar queues.

They made the most of it by attending the show, scare zones, and riding the rides, which did have low wait times. It seems you need Express, but the cost for that is huge/frankly ridiculous so now Rebecca and Tom are considering whether to bother or not on our trip as with the tickets and Express for those few hours would cost close to £500. That is tough to justify and seems a mad way to operate the event.

Why not double the cost of the entry ticket but sell half as many so those going can actually do some of the things they want to?

Amongst other things, they’ve also done Beaches & Cream, a load more walking and are generally living their best lives. Feedback from Mikey the first-timer is that he is blown away, already addicted and plans for next year are being hatched.

In my own planning, I have picked up the remaining reservations in and around Universal that I was looking for. The first at Toothsome on the night Rebecca and Tom are/were planning to do HHN. I’ve booked the meal for us all just in case they decide not to go and I can always amend it if they do go after all. If they don’t we’ll just have a night at City Walk.

The others are Cowfish and on our day in IOA I have booked us into Mythos. Despite me seeming to remember it has a very good reputation I think we have only ever done it once. It being within the park makes it handy, with us not having to come all the way out to City Walk to eat. We are booked at 5.30pm, so should we wish to do more in the park after that, we don’t have walk all that way back in.

I ticked off another milestone yesterday, getting a work event out of the way that always looks better in the rearview mirror. Three weeks left at work now. I’m hunkering down for the final push.

Till the next time…..

No Sleep Till Delray.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

As predicted it’s been a busy old week, with work scaling new heights in ways to keep me occupied for more hours than it should. Battered, bruised and breathless I fell over the finishing line on Friday. My task now is to try and come down from the adrenaline and stress of work life so that I can actually relax and enjoy not working for a bit. Look, I know I’m not pulling babies from burning buildings but it has its moments.

As a parting gift, the UK graced us with 48 hours of continuous pouring rain, just to confirm that our decision to go somewhere else for a bit was correct. Also, how cold has it been? It’s ridiculous for late May.

Having eliminated the pouring water inside the house last week, this week it was (mainly) outside. The biggest challenge has been convincing the dogs to actually step foot outside to do their business. Hey and guess what? We have another leak. Whilst Emily was showering on Friday I could hear a dripping noise and yep water was coming down through the kitchen ceiling and probably has been for a while from time to time as there is a faint brown patch around that area. This house hates me. Well, that can wait till we get back and Emily can use our shower until then and the plumber can return, no doubt to cut more holes into this money pit.

Louise finished on Thursday and has been in prep mode since then. There will not be a shop unvisited before departure and somewhere in between all that and me doing two Pink gigs this weekend, we’ll leave the house at some point early on Tuesday with a couple of cases full of what we need, purely down to Louise getting us all packed on Saturday. The bank holiday Monday is well-timed.

Today I have to break my golden rule of never going to the tip at weekend as needs must so we do not leave Emily with a house full of rubbish that has somehow appeared asa result of holiday prep. No I don’t understand that either.

I should probably report in with you all on the weight loss front. It’s been a fairly strict and well-behaved four weeks and depending on what mood the scales are in of a morning it looks like I have shed something like 8 to 10 pounds. It sounds like a good effort but the injustice of that small number compared to the huge effort and time taken is heartbreaking. It also brings home how horrendous I must have looked at my heaviest as even in my new svelte form I will still be scaring folks on the beach.

Let’s see how the calorie sponge that is my body responds to ten days of holiday eating and you can all make your own bets as to whether all of that goes back on.

So we leave on Tuesday morning, so you can expect the usual “I’m at the airport” post on Facebook just to make you all feel happy for me. Right?

Anyway, we have a busy day ahead so I must leave you. As ever, feel free to follow the trip “live-ish” on the Mkingdon Facebook page and you can all look forward to another trip report about sitting in the sun most days followed by what we had for tea (dinner). You lucky, lucky folks.

Till the next time…..

Hollywood Smile

by mkingdon, posted in Uncategorized

I don’t know how your week went, but as mine ended, I had to endure the dentists. I’d been for my check-up a few weeks ago and was told that as I am old and closing in on death, my gums are giving up and all my teeth will imminently fall out.

OK, I may be exaggerating but whatever they said it resulted in me sitting in the chair whilst the hygenist did unspeakable things to my mouth. I wouldn’t say it was painful as such. In fact, I could endure pain more easily and for longer than the feeling of raw sensitivity that whatever they do delivers. Within seconds I had my eyes screwed tightly closed and a sweat on.

I had told her that due to a savage dentist in my formative years, I had an irrational fear of dentists. Still, her empathy was lower than my pain threshold and she raked, scraped and jet-washed stuff with a determination and gusto reserved for mossy block paving.

I escaped with less money than when I went in and the promise of two further sessions in June where she will really get into the nitty-gritty apparently, so much so that I will need a local anaesthetic. I did ask, but apparently, a general is not available. Well, I’ll look forward to that then. The price I pay for that Hollywood smile.

I had root canal work back in my forties and honestly, I do not know how I got through that.

Anyway, enough unpleasantness. Last week I declared the start of my pre-holiday diet and it has gone OK. I never trust our scales as I can be many pounds different from one day to another even when I’m not trying to lose weight, but it seems I may have lost about four pounds.

I’ll need to keep going though as I can put that back on at the airport.

The other thing I mentioned last week was Hollywood Studios and that I had thoughts on it and the current state of it but that would be a whole other post. With that park celebrating its 35th birthday this week, it looks like this is a good time for me to talk about it in my usually ill-informed way.

On our last two trips to WDW, post Genie+ and the pandemic, DHS has been a problem child and has presented the worst symptoms of the fallout of both in my view. Let’s start with the problem before I tell Bob Iger how to fix it.

In simple terms, the park suffers from a lack of crowd soakers. By that I mean, things that can occupy people. That ratio is off, with Galaxy’s Edge drawing large crowds, but there not being enough other stuff to keep them busy whilst they inevitably cannot get on stuff in GE.

If you look back in history, the park was, I believe, envisaged as a half-day park, hence its smaller size etc but I think that was abandoned as the additions of Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land recently have shown. It can’t be a half-day park nowadays as it can take you that long to ride one ride if you’re in standby for Slinky.

Anyway, I digress. Years ago you had things like the Back Lot Tour that would scoop up hundreds of guests and occupy them for half an hour or so at least. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was another crowd soaker up, alongside the Animation Tour and of course, the stunt show was a big crowd sponge. I’m old enough to remember the Hunchback of Notre Dame show that was there too, another one to have a large number of guests out of circulation for the other attractions.

Alongside those types of attractions, you also had a lot of street performers who would delay and distract guests from looking for the next ride.

In summary, I think the issue now is that there is very little like that so all guests seem to do is queue extensively for the handful of attractions on offer.

Having undertaken my usual ten seconds of research, attendance is not the issue. Visitor numbers, up to 2022 at least, are down on pre-Covid levels.

This supports my theory that the guest experience is worse than it used to be, due to the lack of attractions.

It’ll help to get the Little Mermaid back up and running as that will take a few hundred guests out of circulation for a while, but what we found on recent trips was that if you did not have Genie+ you had two choices.

  1. Wait in line for upwards of 90 minutes for anything you want to do
  2. Ride Star Tours and The Muppets all day with a couple of long pit stops at the Tap House, which is no fun for the kids.

We would literally sit refreshing the app in a depressed, stunned silence looking for anything that the kids could tolerate queuing for.

So what to do about it? As if I have a clue…..but there are some options I can dream up unencumbered by finances, reality and a great deal of the facts that I don’t possess.

The first is the one most deeply rooted in fantasy.

I have long wondered why WDW and all theme parks don’t just make all the queues virtual. Sure there will be technology challenges but they already exist for some rides. Why Disney and Universal want people to stand in lines for hours of their day I do not understand, as whilst they do, they cannot spend any money.

Do the parks literally not have the space to accommodate all the guests if nobody is waiting in line? It would make the guest experience better right? In DHS specifically, space may be an issue as it is one of the smaller parks, but WDW does not lack land to grow into.

I also think they should reinstate a lot of the “ad hoc” street entertainment to entertain folks as they wait to ride, who would be walking around instead of being contained in a queue but that would not be enough on its own, virtual queues or not. Those entertainers were also a large part of the magic of this park.

Adding stuff similar to long-since-gone, big-crowd attractions such as the ones I mentioned earlier would be ideal. I’m not saying on the scale of Fantasmic, but some attractions, like Indiana Jones, that can take thousands of guests out of circulation for a period of time. As a paying punter, I just want to feel that there is something to do for most of the day without queuing for over an hour and ideally without paying extra to avoid doing that.

Whether we will ever get virtual queues for all or most attractions aside, there is, in my view a fundamental issue at DHS and as it turns 35 it feels like it is having a mid-life crisis of sorts. It has lost its original reason for being as it is no longer a working studio, which was a huge part of its appeal and ethos and now only tips its hat to the film industry.

It may sound silly with the relatively recent additions of Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land to say the park needs actual expansion, but the addition of those two lands alongside the removal of all the stuff I mentioned earlier is actually making the problem worse. Surely a constant wait time of over 90 minutes for Slinky Dog should be a clear sign that something in the park isn’t working as it should.

I don’t think our recent experiences have been unique but of course, we could have just been unlucky. Of all the parks in WDW, it is the one that I gird my loins most for in terms of actually getting much done, and that can’t be a good thing.

With an expansion recently announced at Magic Kingdom my hopes for another at DHS are low, but something needs to be done or it will get to the stage where people will vote with their feet and spend less time there which ironically would help to solve the issue at that park, but make it worse at the other three!

As ever, your thoughts and ridicule are welcome.

Till the next time…..

I Predict A Diet

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

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

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

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

Take for example….

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

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

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

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

Epcot – Guardians

Hollywood Studios – Rise of the Resistance

Animal Kingdom – Flights of Passage

Magic Kingdom – Tron and Seven Dwarves

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

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

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

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

I’d be interested in your views of course.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time…..

A Swift Change?

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If anyone suggests Coldplay I will burn the ride down.

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

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

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

Till the next time…..

Weather To Plan

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See, no planning to be done at all.

Till the next time….

More Questions Than Answers.

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to queue-times.com for the graph.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time….

First Laid Plans.

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Credit to Disney Food Blog for this pic…..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hopefully you lot can help me along the way too!

Till the next time…….

A Bog Standard Blog

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dougie and I undertook a more sedate outdoor activity.

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

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

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

This is my favourite so far –

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

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

That point is not now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are staying at Crane’s Beach House.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time…..

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Fifteen Monday 27th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

As Shania Twain once said, looks like we made it.

The end of this trip, an extended trip at that and one besmirched by shite weather for the majority of it. That’s all relative of course as we would not have been lying outside in our shorts back home at this time, but you go to Florida so you can.

Anyway, this last day started like most of the others with an awakening around 7am. For some reason I noted that I frequented the “bathroom” a good few times this morning. Maybe a delayed reaction to the gallons of Espresso Martinis on this holiday?

We did the dreaded packing and were out of the room by 10.40 with the car pointed at Disney Springs for one last visit. We parked in Lime and left all the bags in the car, in which was the camera, so I only have a few phone shots for you today.

Despite thinking we had finished gift shopping we were still looking for ways to spoil the grandkids, so we found ourselves in the Harley Davidson shop debating whether to spend a silly amount of money on a leather jacket for Freddie. In the end, we decided against it as he would grow out of it in about six minutes.

We wandered into World of Disney, still desperate to hand over more dollars and having done that we needed some lunch. Today would be the day we finally tried the Polite Pig.

It was only 11.30 but packing had meant no breakfast and hey, we were still on holiday.

We got a platter for two and it was absolutely delicious. As you can see it wasn’t a huge amount of food for two people but maybe that is just us fat knackers. It was $55ish. I hadn’t realised this was a counter service place rather than being served at your table so I share that in case you didn’t either.

With that devoured, we headed over to Starbucks and got a couple of coffees and something sweet in the form of a cookie and a blueberry scone. We found a bench to eat them on whilst “enjoying” what seemed to be a school band on the stage.

You can enjoy them too….

I think the term, “bless them” covers that sufficiently. As a very average musician myself I tip my hat to these youngsters and their abilities that already outstrip mine.

Once they were finished we found a little wall to sit on and people watch for a few minutes soaking up the last bits of warmth before making the final walk back to the car. We filled it up at the Gas station opposite the Springs for $28 and set off towards MCO. Terminal C still has the feeling of not quite being open. Everything feels empty, which is no bad thing.

We were too early to check in, so after a painless car drop-off and standing in the queue for too long, it finally opened at 2pm. Security also was a bit shit but we finally made it through and made our way to Gate 238 by 3pm.

As ever my notes dry up here. I did note that we were sat in the extra legroom seats, near the emergency exit and therefore had one of the flight crew sitting opposite us for take-off and at times during the flight. She was lovely and really helped Louise who as you may know is a nervous flyer. She explained every noise, bump and wobble and was generally just excellent.

As is customary on a return to the UK, you have to be reminded what a mess things are by waiting over 90 (yes, 90) minutes to have the cases appear on the carousel. Every time!

We finally got our luggage, walked to the car and made our way back to reality.

So it’s time to sum up this one. In summary, here are my takes if anyone cares.

I know I’ve moaned about the weather throughout this trip and I have been justified in doing so. It did not ruin the holiday for us but it certainly affected it. It made us extend the trip if nothing else.

Aer Lingus took us there and back and were absolutely fine. There were no issues, edible food and despite being in economy, albeit with extra legroom on the way back, comfortable enough. We find their entertainment choice a bit dated/limited, but in the scheme of things, you just need that big tube thing with wings to get you there and back safely and economically and they do the job very well.

The Drury Plaza Hotel is excellent. It is new so all the facilities are just that. The rooms are large and spacious and most with nice views. It has so many extra perks compared to other hotels and if you can get the free parking offer (I think via Travel Republic, if it still exists) that will save you a lot too. Free breakfast, the early evening kickback (which we never used) free coffee in the lobby, buses to the parks, early entry and a superb location make it a no-brainer. We will definitely consider it when we want to do a similar trip in the future.

Recently, we seem to have created a new kind of Florida trip. New for us anyway. This adults only, no parks, doing what would be a holiday to the Med but in Florida thing, and it really works for us.

We’ve loved this trip and similar previous ones and we will do it again. It gives us all the familiar Florida stuff we love –

  • Guaranteed quality of food and accommodation
  • Endless options for dining and drinks at Disney Springs and the resorts
  • Not having to figure out a new place with only a precious few days to spend there.
  • None of the stress, planning and crowds involved with going to the parks

I know for many, that endless discovery of new places is exactly what is sought but with holiday time being so precious (and expensive) this works for us. I would thoroughly recommend it. We did not miss the parks at all; honestly, it was as if they did not exist.

I should say, there is no falling out of love with the parks. We will be back soon enough for a full-on theme park commando dawn till dusk ride fest. It was just not on the agenda for this trip.

We thought going to Florida would guarantee the weather too but we’ve just had some really crappy luck there. Our stay at Daytona last May was badly affected by unusually terrible weather so if and when we ever return we surely are due some proper old-school Florida sun.

Don’t get me wrong we adore going to Florida with as many family members as we can muster and we will definitely do that again ASAP, but the freedom of being just the two of us makes it what we hoped and that is a stress-free relaxing break. I think I have had more alcohol on this trip than in the last ten years, but variety is the spice of life as they say and a little bit of excess in moderation doesn’t hurt.

Thanks again for enduring, especially this one which was literally us sitting by a pool or moaning that we couldn’t, followed by an evening meal and maybe some drinks. For those who did endure, thank you.

Till the next time……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Eleven Thursday 23rd November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

Thankful to be feeling better after last night’s weirdness, we lay in a bit, and breakfast could not tempt Louise out of bed so I went down alone today, of course at around 9.55am. The staff continued to love me for doing that.

Bagels with PB and J, accompanied by a tiny bowl of cereal won’t be winning any culinary awards but they did the trick to get my day started once again.

Alas, the weather forecast for today was not stellar so we had made plans that did not rely upon warmth and sunshine. We also had to pack up to move to our new room today, which was a bit of a pain but not as much as packing to go home would have been. Louise had made a start by the time I got back from breakfast and we took our cases out to the car until we could “check in” later.

It was around 10.40 when we set off towards Fantasia mini golf. We parked up and found a spot to wait out the thirty minutes or so we’d been told it would be before we could start.

Yep, the weather looked fine after all didn’t it.

We were called after about twenty minutes and the whooping of all whoopings that I inflicted on Louise could begin.

It took a while to get around as were we behind a couple of families with very small kids. There were tantrums and sulking when the ball wouldn’t go in the hole and the kids in the party in front of us weren’t much better either. We weren’t in any rush so we just took a seat and watched them until it was our turn.

It wasn’t even close despite Louise fluking a hole-in-one on the 8th.

Note how I was pleasingly under par. What do you mean I am overly competitive?

After the game, we took the chance to have a wander around the Swan Reserve which is in the car park for the golf or vice versa. It is a lovely place with a very intimate feel for a Disney resort. It feels very boutique-y.

It has a very adult feel and by that, I don’t mean saucy films are being made there.

We set off back to the hotel, stopping off briefly at Disney Springs to spend over $100 on a pair of sunglasses for Louise despite just having a few days left on this trip.

The Sunglasses place was rammed with other idiots spending too much but we did get 30% off with it being Black Friday week. Yep, I know that doesn’t make sense, but we’d just blown $100 on some glasses that were probably made in a sweatshop for £2.50, so making sense was not the order of today.

You will have noticed that the weather was glorious so we headed back to the pool to make the most of the incorrectness of the forecast we had believed.

We managed about three glorious hours in perfect conditions.

Once 4pm rolled around I took a break from the sunbed to get the cases from the car and check into our new room. We were put in room 503 in the Cypress Tower. It was much the same as the other one but without a balcony which we could tolerate for a few nights!

After showers and stuff, we got a Lyft to Disney Springs around 6.30. There was a different band on tonight so we watched them for a while.

We then walked through a very busy Springs to find a drink. We managed to get the last two available stools at the bar in Wine Bar George, ignored the huge choice of wine, and ordered two “Wake Up Calls” which were Espresso Martinis. These were the best yet and remained our favourites of the trip.

We had a semi-serious conversation about buying one of those coffee drip/distillery things you can see in the background so we could make these at home.

I think we had two rounds and left after paying the $85 including the tip bill.

Tonight we had a new place to try for dinner. Because by rights we should have been flying home right now I had been forced to make some emergency plans and with it being Thanksgiving availability was scarce.

I had secured us a table at Terralina and even with that, we had a fifteen-minute wait to be seated. Whilst we waited walk-ups were being quoted a ninety-minute wait.

I had stuffed rice balls, which was probably something I picked up in the pool.

Louise had Bruschetta.

I followed up with Chicken Parm…

Louise had Lasagne.

It was all very delicious and I was glad we tried somewhere I would never normally have tried to book.

After our very strenuous sporting day, we were of course very tired as soon as the food hit our expanding bellies and we immediately walked back to the Lyft area to get taken home to bed.

It was an impressive 10.30 by the time we went to sleep.

Till the next time……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Six Saturday 18th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

The weather seemed to be behaving itself now. We awoke to much more acceptable fare, or at least the promise of it and we celebrated by getting down to breakfast with more than three minutes to spare before they closed.

After another very acceptable free brekkie we were out by the pool at 10am and here, captured by my excellent photography skills was the very moment we first saw the sun on this trip. It was quite emotional.

I know that modest glow actually being the sun is debatable but after the last few days, we were getting desperate. Yes, it was cloudy, but crucially it was dry and warm. We embraced this opportunity and did little else but read and relax until a break for another average poolside lunch at 1pm.

Louise had a Quesadilla and I had Tacos. They did not justify a photo.

More resting and reading followed lunch and even what had previously been an unthinkable dip in the pool happened.

We were back up in our room at 4.30 for showers and general readying for our trip out for tea. I couldn’t help but capture the unusually glorious weather a few times. I had forgotten what shadows were!

We were seeing things from the balcony that had been up until now concealed.

No Lyft was summoned tonight as we were headed to Universal, so I was driving.

This was the view from the window by the lifts on our way down to the car. Florida can be pretty when it’s not pissing down with rain.

It took about 20 minutes to travel up the I4 and park at City Walk. We arrived at the car park at 5.55 to see a load of cars pulled over to the side and not going through the payment booth things. We soon realised why, as parking became free at 6pm.

It was about 5.58 when we were next in line to pay the $30 when we saw the team member in the booth get on the phone and then immediately close up. What joyous luck hath been bestowed upon us? We were the first “free” car through and that $30 saving made all the difference in our overall budget for this trip.

We parked in ET and took the long walk into City Walk itself.

We browsed a shop or two, perpetually on the lookout for suitable gifts for those at home. Then we took up a table at the Palm Lounge (near the plane) for a pre-dinner drinkie. It was waitress service…literally, there was one waitress on, so after a little wait we had a beer and a wine.

We then made our way round to the Hard Rock for our reservation.

We were seated immediately and in the decade or two since we last visited we had forgotten how noisy it was in here.

Of course, we shared Nachos to start.

I followed that with a very large piece of meat, which was just OK, to be honest.

Louise ordered Fajitas and the “fixings” arrived about five minutes ahead of the sizzling platter of meat so she had to ask for new fixings as her tortillas were now cold and hard.

I had ordered a milkshake about twenty minutes ago and it now arrived.

Overall, the experience was just about acceptable. The service was patchy and the food was just OK. It may be another decade or two before we return.

As we made our way out Louise did wonder why they had a painting of David Baddiel hanging at the top of the stairs.

The bill was a slightly painful $155 all things considered.

You may guess that at this point, all we wanted was sleep, so was walked back to the car, drove home and let all that food add to our fat collections nicely as we immediately slept.

Till the next time……

The Adults Only Tour 2015 – Day Nineteen

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Day Nineteen – 14th September

Who knew that a holiday that started on the 27th of August 2015 would last all the way until mid-February? In more ways than I could ever describe, it has been one heck of a journey.

No matter how hard I try, our last day and our journey home never have any decent notes recorded. It isn’t intentional, I just can’t seem to bring myself to record this day. So I’ll do my best with the half a page I do have and the handful of photos, but your reading may be brief today.

I had another fitful night’s sleep before the alarm woke me at 7am. The next couple of hours saw the traditional Tazmanian Devil impression as we dash around the villa trying to get everything into our cases. Inevitably this involves the purchase of an extra case, which I nipped to CVS to do before we were able to finish and leave the villa at 9.45. It took an act of God to fit everything into the car and Grandad and I were a little hot and sweaty as we reversed off the drive.

A huge breakfast was now required, so we drove up to the 192 and I decided upon the Perkins, mainly as it was the first place we saw.

We were seated and ordered orange juice, coffees and in some cases chocolate milks.

I didn’t record what everyone had but you’ll get the idea from these photos.

We paid $103 plus a large tip made up mainly of all the change I wanted to get rid of. They didn’t seem to mind.

Next on the list was a trip up to Lake Buena Vista, where, being the coward I am, I put $10 of fuel in the car. With everything else going on today I wasn’t mentally ready for a game of Russian roulette with the fuel gauge.

Just when we thought that the car was about to burst at the seams we stopped off at Publix near Emily’s apartment to stock her up one last time before she would be left to fend for herself. The mood today was sombre as you can imagine. Not only were we going home, but of course one of us was staying behind and after knowing this day would come for many months it wasn’t making it any easier. It didn’t feel real.

Anyway, as we started wandering the aisles of Publix Louise had to nip to their loo. She found us again afterwards and on we went with the shop. A few minutes later she stopped in her tracks with a look of panic on her face. It would appear she had lost her phone. She dashed back to the loos to see if it was there. She knew she had it as we entered the store and so it MUST be in there right?

Wrong!

She went to Customer Services to see if it had been handed in there but it hadn’t.

I started to incur huge data roaming charges on my own phone now trying to contact Vodafone to block the thing and report it lost. This was, pretty much, the last thing we needed amongst everything else that was going on.

It was about this time that Louise realised that she hadn’t lost her phone at all and that it had been stuffed down her bra the whole time.

How we laughed.

Already emotionally spent, we took all Emily’s food and her new iron back to the car and somehow packed it in with everything and everyone else. As we set off for The Commons we all knew we were coming to the time we had all been dreading. We were about to drop Emily off for the last time.

I won’t document this in great detail. I have a history of over sharing our stuff all over the internet so let’s not and just say that it was difficult, and it isn’t something I want to experience again.

Despite my $10 investment we still coasted into the airport on fumes with my heart racing. Maybe that wasn’t due to the low fuel?

Having booked Premium Economy for the home leg we checked in quickly and easily, got through security and then monorailed out to gate 81. Louise, Rebecca, Sarah and I got a table in the Outback. We weren’t hungry but fancied a sit down for a drink. To be polite we ordered some cheesey fries too.

With this done I wandered off to the restroom to put my long pants on. This is a symbolic event every year and denotes the end of the fun. Today it felt more sombre than usual.

We wandered duty free for a bit and then as we eventually went to board the plane which had been delayed for half an hour it struck me very hard that I had three passports in my hand and not the usual four. My stomach churned.

I know I’m over egging this upset malarkey, and even looking back now I sound like a big girl even to myself, but at the time, this was how we felt and so I’m reporting it as such.

My notes end here. I will openly admit that Louise and I cried like babies as the wheels left the tarmac of Orlando. It felt strangely symbolic and the last twenty years flashed before our eyes. All the holidays, all the times we’ve flown home together and all the challenges Emily would now have to face on her own. Sure, she was twenty, but a young twenty and it was our job to look after her, both then and forever.

We eventually gathered ourselves somewhere above the Atlantic and the flight happened. We landed, waited an age for our cases and got ourselves home.

So there we are, the end, in many ways.

It’s been a blast over sharing these adventures with you all over the years. Our return home this time was an arrival into a whole new world. Louise and I returned to an empty nest, with Emily in the US and Rebecca and her boyfriend Tom getting their first place together. Both of those departures had been a long time in the planning so we knew it was coming. It didn’t make it any easier and I think we’ve both taken a while to get used to the idea.

So at this ending of an era, I suspect there won’t be any further trip reports. It feels that way anyway, mainly as there probably won’t be any more holidays of this nature. The days of the four of us going away will now be forever captured in these reports. Any future Disney trips will be very different I’m sure and not for some time and that weirdly feels OK to be honest.

We’ve been through some huge changes and challenges as a family in the last year or two with more to come no doubt.

So now, I need to thank you for reading this one and any of the others if you have. Writing these has been a huge part of our, or certainly my, enjoyment of these holidays. Louise, Emily and Rebecca, I thank you for letting me write them, tolerating the note writing and photo taking along with allowing me to share things you’d rather I didn’t with a load of strangers on the internet.

Girls, at least when you have kids of your own, you can look back on these trip reports and let your kids know how many knob gags their Grandad knows!  I’m waffling now as, to be honest, I don’t know how to end this. Bringing well over a decade of reports to a close isn’t something I know how to do, so how about a few memories from them?

It’s been a blast.

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Till the next time?