family – Mkingdon's Blog

The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol – Day Five September 14th

01/11/2026 by mkingdon, posted in The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part Two Sponsored by Tylenol

Just a note about a couple of comments recently about images not showing up. I *think* that happens if you try to read the post via Facebook on your phone. As Meta are terrified that my blog is going to absorb all their worldwide traffic, they try to show my blog post within Facebook rather than take you to the site itself. They are also limiting the number of links I can share and as the photos are links to Photobucket that is likely to be the issue. Just make sure you click through to or navigate to mkingdon.com and all should be well.

I was awake at 7am despite the wild night of debauchery last night. Once ready, I sorted our LLs from the couch and we arrived into the Epcot car park around 8.30am. A good result all things considered.

Louise had a need to contact our GP back home and had been struggling to do so via non verbal methods so she had to bite the bullet this morning. We left her in that queue, near the restrooms to the left of Spaceship Earth whilst we navigated a much smaller queue to ride it. There was just a five minute wait, which sadly could not be said for the telephone queue at our doctors.

After riding, Louise was still waiting…..and seething. She advised we went to do something else as she wanted to harm somebody and as I had the credit cards it was probably best it was not me.

We sought out some breakfast over in the Land pavilion.

That was $56 and tasty.

After food, we wandered into and around the new Moana water thing. My first time. It was pretty busy in there but it’s a decent addition and a nice way to spend fifteen minutes or so, especially on a hot day.

Louise, by this point had got through to the GP, narrowly avoided arrest and blacklisting from every medical professional in the North West of England whilst still expressing her frustration at how many different ways and times it had taken to actually talk to someone.

To calm her down we went for a Starbucks.

I chose yet another random concoction still searching for my go to drink. Having said that, I never go to Starbucks back home so that seems a little pointless.

To the Seas next and if there is one thing sure to calm the soul it is watching the Manatees for a bit. So we did that and had a general wander around the sea bed.

I know how stupid this sounds, cos we’re in WDW right, but it did seem that on this trip there were more screaming kids than usual. As we waited the full fifteen minutes to get into Turtle Talk we had one who had the stamina of an Olympic athlete and the lungs of Jacques Cousteau (ask your Grandad).

Crush was good fun as always.

We had a LL now for Mission Space, or at least us youngsters did. Louise sat out in the sun as the elderly tend to do for this ride. We did the Orange side and I absolutely was completely fine with that decision.

At this point I shall just point out that another whole trip went by without riding Test Track. It always seems to be under refurb, broken or have a queue way beyond our tolerance. It must be our least ridden ride on property.

I missed Gary Sinise as I tend to do but enjoyed the ride, retaining ownership of my breakfast sandwich too.

Luckily now, we got to walk all the way across the park to Soarin’. It was tolerable as this is an absolute favourite and we had a LL. After a restroom, we entered, still waiting a good ten minutes to board.

Once seated I pulled out my phone and Facetimed my Mum. This has always been her favourite ride so I decided to take her with us. She cried.

We chatted to her as walked outside and then sat on the wall outside the land eating a huge pickle. It’s funny the sentences you end up writing in these things.

We had a wander and browsed some shops at this point.

We were still in the “we’ll get that next time we’re here” stage of the trip so purchases were largely avoided.

We headed up to World Showcase next, and as this was not our official World Showcase day I allowed us to start on the right hand side, mainly as we were headed for our Remy LL.

Mikey bought Emily a large Remy and then we rode. I trotted out my catch phrase of “how will you get that home” and we all felt better for that.

I have no doubt not seen Ratatouille enough to understand the motorbike outside the ride.

Next we went round to the shops and we got some champers from the upsettingly attractive young men in the shop there.

It was declared delicious (Tattinger, the cheapest on the menu, I’m not an idiot) and we sat in the sun for a bit, doing some people watching.

We walked back to the UK pavilion hoping to see the band. They weren’t on for a while, so we decided to walk all the way back to Living With The Land. Louise declined and said she would sit in the sun near the bandstand instead.

Very pleasingly we got back to the UK just as the band came on.

We enjoyed their set and then started our hike all the way over to Guardians. My tolerance for paying for LLs was exhausted so we decided to bite the bullet and join what was posted as a 75 minute wait. This is testament to how good we think this ride is.

It took 55 minutes and that included the ride going down for ten minutes. We got Tears for Fears, which had been the tune Mikey had been crossing his fingers for so he was delighted. What a ride this is.

It was time to leave the park now and we walked out to the car in some light rain.

We headed back to the villa to shower and change before setting off at 8pm for Celebration. We had a few options of where to eat and once we were parked up we had a look around. The 80’s diner was closed, the new Brewery was a good ten minute walk and so we defaulted to Avocado, the Mexican restaurant near the hotel and what a piece of luck that would be.

It had been a while since we were here so we reacquainted ourselves with its lovelieness.

We sat outside and for some reason took a sideways photo of the menu.

That’s better….

We over ordered of course, with Mikey and Emily going for Chips and Guac and us two idiots ordered Nachos, as we seem to do wherever we go.

As I said….idiots…..

Emily had Chimichanga, which CVS have lots of ointments for I think.

I had something called Birra Tacos which turned out to be one of the best things to ever enter my body.

There were so good they deserved two photos….

Louise had Chicken Fajitas….

and Mikey had Firecracker Tacos.

This was such a lucky find and one of the best meals we had on this trip. It looks to be family owned and run and everything was fresh and delicious. Go, tell them I sent you and they will look at you as if you are an idiot as they have no clue who I am.

The bill was $150. I almost added a tip to that before noticing they had already added 20%. I thought that was a bit naughty. I would have tipped that amount but I bet a good few folks tip on top of that if they don’t read the bill.

We had a stroll around Celebration….

Taking very average photos….

Before heading back to the villa and into bed by 11pm.

Till the next time……

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We parked in Dinosaur.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were Everest bound for another LL.

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

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

This song was of course the highlight.

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

They were excellent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This resort oozes class.

I cannot explain the dinosaur.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We ordered some food as we were all hungry now.

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

Eventually our seats were this good.

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

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

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

Till the next time……

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was lovely to be back amongst these familiar sights.

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

The money shot.

There were tears within the group as per.

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

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

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

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

Never has a sphincter been more clenched.

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

So we set off in the that direction.

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

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

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

Breakfast was $56.

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

It was a bare faced lie.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This will never not anger me.

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

We sat out by The Plaza and enjoyed them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were breaded up….

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

Louise and I shared Nachos as our Entree.

Mikey had Fish Tacos.

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

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

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

Till the next time……

The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part One Sponsored by Amoxicillin – Day Ten May 3rd

12/07/2026 by mkingdon, posted in The Anniversary Adventure 2026

I secured our cabana around 9. I say secured, but there was never any pressure or rush to get beds of any kind which was right up there with my favourite things about this resort.

I bagged a different one today looking for more shade having returned to the room yesterday more pink than I may have liked.

My big toe was at extreme risk here.

I know this looks lovely, and that is because it was.

I had dragged a spare brolly alongside the cabana for extra, extra shade today.

No breakfast as such today. However, we did devour some Pringles instead. During our time round the pool yesterday a member of staff came round surveying guests, asking what they could do to improve our stay. We said it’s be handy to have some cover from the rain on top floor balconies, but didn’t expect them to do that immediately at least. We did mention that at the other Secrets we had been too we loved having snacks in the room and the lady made a note. About an hour later I went back to the room for a bodily function and there were a load of snacks waiting for us. Excellent service.

During the morning I watched some football on my phone and Louise lay in the pool. We ordered a beer each which was soon delivered and then we went for lunch at the Seaside Grill. Chicken burritos and salad for both. Fruit platter to finish.

Back to our beds and some time in the pool. At some point I had a micro nap and generally did very little. I nipped back to the to room for more functions of the body and a maintenance man came to fix a broken bath plug I had reported via the app a few hours earlier. Turns out it wasn’t broken and we are idiots who cannot operate basic applicanes.

Some loud Americans came to play volleyball, loudly, in the quiet pool. They were very loud with one especially vocal person sounding just like a loud Seth Rogen. Did I mention that they were loud.

Up to room at 5.45, readied and out at 7.30. We tried did the other Italian tonight. Chicken soup for me caprese salad for Louise.

Steak and Lasagne which were both decent.

The Piano bar was far too busy so went to lobby bar for one drink and then to the amphitheatre for the Rock show. To bed after that as we, well mainly I, are massive lightweights.

Till the next time……

The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part One Sponsored by Amoxicillin – Day Nine May 2nd

05/07/2026 by mkingdon, posted in The Anniversary Adventure 2026

I was awake around 8. I readied and went down to get a cabana, and I was sulking about huge weight gains. You will know that over the years my weight has often featured in all my posts. Having been a very fat kid, there is no doubt some deep lying psychological damage at play, and when I do manage to shift a few pounds, I do get very tetchy when my body betrays me and adds some pounds back after eating and drinking shite.

One of the things I really appreciated about both Secrets resorts so far was the fact that they had scales in the bathroom. I know that sounds counter intuitive but believe me, my mind will convince itself that I have gained thirteen stone in a daaaaayyy, and then usually when I get home I find it’s nowhere as bad as I thought, and I could have enjoyed myself a lot more.

So being able to keep a daily eye on things was a good thing for me. Apart from today when for some reason several pounds had come from nowhere and I had a cob on. They would come off again and go on again a few times during the trip with me returning home just a couple up on my pre departure fighting weight. However, today I was still in a mood about it.

So I had no breakfast and instead went for a huge walk around 11.20 all the way to the end of the bay.

It was a hell of a walk taking about an hour each way.

To put it in context, that tip of land you can see out to sea is our resort.

I was a big ball of sweat when I got as far as I was going to walk. So I stripped down to my shorts and went for a welcome dip in the sea.

I could have carried on this way….

But I turned for home, noticing a brand new resort being built at this end of the cove.

Once I got back to our resort I had clocked 7.5k in total. What do you mean I have a mild eating disorder?

We immediately went for lunch at the Seaside Grill. Chicken Burrito starters (oddly with chips) and a Cuban sandwich for both of us. Very good and filling.

After lunch there was lots of resting and reading. At around 4.30 we went into the main pool and its bar, for drinks. We watched some volleyball taking place on the beach and then returned to our cabana.

There was more golden hour action as we watched sun go down behind one of the hotel buildings.

Once the sun had left us we went back to our room at 6.15. We watched a couple of weddings from our balcony.

We didn’t make it out till after 8. Tonight we were going to give the buffet a try at the World Café. Whilst everything was fine, this was not a standout meal of the trip. It was a little but “buffet slop” of the kind that had for years put us off all inclusive trips.

It was all freshly made and of decent quality but just not “five star”.

I do take full responsibility for my very poor plate presentation skills here which does not reflect the food in the best light!

We ended the night in the piano bar after waiting for a seat as it was very busy tonight. We felt sorry for the poor piano player. There were far too many people with main character syndrome who would not leave him alone to perform and constantly badgered him to let them join in etc. In the end he hardly got to play but to his credit he didn’t glass anyone. We left, frustrated at having to listen to amateurs murder some classics. Bed at midnight.

Till the next time……

The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part One Sponsored by Amoxicillin – Day Six April 29th

14/06/2026 by mkingdon, posted in The Anniversary Adventure 2026, Uncategorized

For those worried about my oral situation, things were starting to improve and my gum was starting to look a little less space hopper and the pain was only like routine child birth. An improvement on just a couple of days ago.

Forty years of getting up for work once again forced my body into waking up at an hour I did not appreciate but I used it to wander out to secure some breakfast from the coffee shop and then a cabana by the quiet pool.

This is the coffee shop and it was an upsetting 7.29am.

The early hour did mean I had my choice of all the cabanas. There was absolutely no sun bed reserving at this resort. We were glad as that is one of my pet hates that has put us off “non WDW” holidays for years.

By 9.25 the early morning cloud was clearing nicely and the relentless sun would char our bodies for most of the day.

At 10.30 I went for a walk up the beach.

My need to “earn” calories does not take a holiday.

Today I had turned left to see what lay in the other direction and it was a little more populated, with a large mainly French resort not too far away and then lots of very interesting little coves.

At times the terrain got a little too “natural” for my liking and all I could imagine were the headlines of “Fat Northern Bloke Dies Due to Stupidity on Nice Beach”.

So I headed back to safety.

See, lots of nature and danger…..

No idea what was going on here….

I was ready for lunch on my return to so I ordered some stuff from the same café/grill as yesterday, and a kind man brought it to our cabana.

Breaking every rule in the book, we went in the pool immediately after eating, but fear not, there was no swimming, just too much Tequila. By too much, I mean one. We did also have two Margaritas though so that exceeded my alcohol intake in one day for the about the past thirty years.

We saw that there was rain forecast from around 3pm, so we left the pool just before that and went to sit on the balcony until it arrived.

It was 4.30 before it finally did so we went inside then and started to get ready. It was raining when we set off for food, armed with umbrellas, but a nice man in a golf cart drove by and stopped to pick us up. He dropped us off outside our restaurant.

Dominican tonight….

I had some slightly odd crisp bread with Avocado mousse to start….

Louise’s Ricotta Balls persisted….

We were hungry so also had a soup each before my main which was Chicken and Rice…

and Beef Tenderloin for Louise.

This was one of our better meals of the trip.

We got a comfy couch in the piano bar and listened to a piano and violin duo for a bit who were somewhere over there.

We gave up after one drink and went to bed after another tiring day.

Till the next time…….

The Anniversary Adventure 2026 Part One Sponsored by Amoxicillin – Day One April 24th

10/05/202610/05/2026 by mkingdon, posted in The Anniversary Adventure 2026

Welcome to day one, part one of our financially irresponsible double trip year to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. Sure, I know I don’t look old enough, but somehow here we are.

After a false start involving Mexico, cartels and some stressful rearranging , we found ourselves waking up today bound for the Dominican Republic for the first time. Louise told me that she was awake at 2am. I only woke up at 4am when a video she clicked on her phone played at full blast. That saved me the trouble of switching off my alarm an hour later at 5am, when I actually needed to be awake. I did try to get back to sleep only for Louise to do the same thing again about ten minutes later.

Defeated, I rose, attended to dog’s toilet needs and showered. Once dressed the packing was completed and we left around 6.10am after saying goodbye to Emily and the dogs. The cats did not require one.

The traffic was pleasing and we pulled into our parking at 7am, which again was nice and quiet. Premium check in/bag drop with Tui was deserted too and being special Premium people we also got a free go on the security fast track lane. All in all a very quick and painless start to the day.

Terminal 2 at Manchester is undergoing some major changes so the layout is all different with lots of construction walls up hiding stuff so we were a little disorientated but our noses led us to the lounge soon enough. That for some reason was very busy, mainly it seemed with people who had not pre-booked and were waiting in line only to be turned away. Our pre-booked asses were waved through quickly and I was soon at the buffet.

Juice, coffee and a plate of the breakfast stuff followed and once we’d lined out stomachs, the drinking began (and ended for me).

We did some shop wandering and smelled very nice after it. There was a stop at Boots and then Starbucks before the long walk down to gate A6.

Our Premium specialness saw us board early and being a nervous flyer Louise picked up that the song playing in the cabin as we sat down included the lyrics, “Kiss me like we die tonight”. Still better than Jess Glynne but an odd choice.

The Prosecco/Juice was not offered until we were airborne, and that was quickly followed by the drinks service and some crisps. Once the meal arrived (I had buttered chicken) I watched a Robert De Niro gangster film. I know that doesn’t narrow it down too much but I can’t remember the title.

I did try to have a sleep and I think dozed for a bit. Next thing I knew more drinks were being offered and we had three hours to go (of the 8 and a half in total).

I watched another film, Black Bag, which again was decent. When that ended we were pretty much starting our descent. Somewhere in the Premium cabin, someone was whistling. Not constantly, just the odd little phrase of music every now and again. After about forty minutes of this, Louise was ready to eject them from the plane. To be fair everyone was getting annoyed with it, even the crew, and we did eventually spot who was doing it. A bloke sat with his headphones on, a bit worse for wear and thankfully he stopped before anyone had to be arrested.

There was a bus from plane to terminal.

We waited in a ten minute queue to get through the passport bit and then much, much longer for the bags to start arriving.

I’m sure it was just tiredness, but I too then wanted to commit acts of harm to a young chap who wandered right in front of all of us stood behind the yellow safety line at the carousel to position himself in front of us all, despite us being there for about twenty minutes. I really dislike people an alarming amount of the time.

Once we had the bags we survived the Hunger Games of getting from the terminal to our coach whilst being hunted by hundreds of locals trying to wheel our cases for us. I managed it all the way to the back of the van, where I handed my cases to what I thought was our driver, only to find I then owed some random guy a tip for lifting my two cases into the van. Two dollars lighter I got onto the minivan and we waited about twenty minutes for the eight other people to do the same and then we set off.

It was a long 90 minute journey. Once we arrived, check in was smooth. I did fall for the upgrade spiel, being offered a “very special” discount due it being our anniversary for a premium room over looking the ocean. In all such deals I will of course have been the loser but, wait for the view, for the few quid a day extra we felt it was worth it.

We were then golf carted over to our room.

And here is the view I teased….

And the view from the side of the balcony back towards reception.

Some of the room itself….

We unpacked, showered and headed out for food.

We wandered to the Asian restaurant, having enjoyed that the most at the other Secrets we went to in Mexico last year. By the way, this resort is the Secrets Esmerelda Playa.

We both started with Spring Rolls.

I had Shrimp Pad Thai.

Louise, Sweet and Sour Chicken.

Too full for desserts we paid (oh no, we didn’t need to!), and strolled to the Lobby for a night cap.

It was 9pm local time, so 2am in the UK meaning we’d been awake for 22 and 24 hours respectively. Sleep came easily.

Till the next time……

Return of The Crap

21/12/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Is this thing on? Testing, 1, 2…testing.

Hello again. Turns out I’ve had, and needed, a little break from the weekly blogging so apologies to anyone….anyone??? who missed these on the last few Sundays. It wasn’t really planned and just happened but it was very much required and unavoidable.

I return today unable to promise a weekly delivery but for now, mainly as I’m off work until the new year, we blog again.

Over the years I know I have regularly moaned about work being busy, but I was a young naïve fool, as only now do I feel justified in claiming that. In the late summer I was asked to take on some new responsibilities at work as well as my real job and it’s been carnage ever since. It’s involved some travel too with visits in recent weeks to London (a few times), Southampton, Birmingham, Leeds and of course our Manchester office which, with the commute as it, is qualifying as a trip all on its own.

I can’t say I am deliriously happy at work, but that’s not really related to the silly levels of busy, but more the over arching landscape since a new boss and some changes came around during this last year. Everything will pass I guess and when you’ve been there as long as I have, these Johnny come latelys don’t seem to stick around for the long haul so hopefully this is a temporary thing as I could do without having to find another job at my time of life.

So that work stuff meant that for the last few months I really haven’t had a minute to think about much else, and the prospect of sitting back at the laptop at the weekend to write this nonsense did not appeal. I’ve already been spending good chunks of evenings and weekends either working or travelling for work so I decided to not spend whatever free time I did have typing these posts for a bit.

How’s everyone doing? Well, Louise keeps on nursing despite not really wanting to, Emily still works with me and Rebecca, Tom and the boys are all good, with Rebecca now working part time in a local nursery.

Yesterday we went to see my Mum to commemorate what would have been her and my Dad’s 67th wedding anniversary had he still been with us. She’s doing well, is fit and healthy for someone in their mid 80s and she’ll be joining us for Christmas Day next week. Louise is once again working on the day itself and for a lot of the festive period, such is the life of a Community Nurse and she tends to volunteer to do/get stuck with Christmas Day as many of her colleagues still have young children and they want to be there for the big present unwrap.

Both of my readers may have been wondering if we have any holiday plans for 2026. Well, next year is a significant anniversary for Louise and I, as we will hit 30 years of marriage, so we are hoping to gift each other not one, but two holidays, if funds allow.

We have hopes of a return to Mexico and Secrets Akumal in April. We’ve paid a low deposit to secure our dates and have to decide by February if we’re going. It ain’t cheap so we’ll make a call then as to whether it is wise to once again blow all our available funds on overseas travel rather than more sensible uses. Our house continues to conspire against us financially so we’ll see what major bills hit between now and then before inevitable saying sod it we’re going anyway.

However, our main trip next year is a, perhaps surprisingly a Disney one.

In September we have booked to return to Florida, this time with Emily and her boyfriend. It’ll be an off-site affair in our usual villa, flying with Virgin and that’s about all we know at this point. Our boycott of the US was not an easy thing to lift, but after Emily went last year and found that inside the WDW bubble all was well, we decided we didn’t want the orange turd dictating our holiday plans for the next three years so we’re going despite our strong objections to current events over there.

So let’s see how long I can keep this blogging up, and I’d like to as I do like to look back on these things many years later, and to do that, I suppose I have to write them first!

Till the next time……

Woody Worries

01/06/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Another four day week leaves me wondering why we splurge them all at this time of year. I suppose it gives us all a chance to enjoy the lovely weather, unless, like last week, we reverted to mid winter up in the frozen north anyway.

With four weeks to go until our holiday our minds have turned to preparing a bit, and at least thinking about what we need to take from a clothes perspective as our needs will be different to a Florida trip to some extent.

I already actually wrote down in words my trouser buying experience a few weeks ago, so believe me when I say I shall also detail other irrelevant and uninteresting details about my wardrobe.

I did a “try on” yesterday, digging out the summer stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day since our last trip. I have a lot of holiday clothes. That may not to be too surprising I suppose, but having managed to drop a few pounds in my usual pre-hols preparation I do have slightly more options than otherwise I might.

So thankfully my need to go out and do any actual shopping is limited to stuff I can buy online like some shoes, a new cap and some socks. Yes, I am actually spending time writing this stuff down on the internet.

Louise enjoys the madness of a real shop so her buying started this week with a couple of dresses and some shorts.

The rest of the week was of course dominated by work as it always is. However, there was a mild drama on Friday afternoon. I was, as ever, on a Teams call with the doors open as the temperatures had recovered to at least double figures and the dogs were pottering about in the garden. All of a sudden I heard Woody yelp in pain and he came running to the door feeling very sorry for himself. It took a few minutes for him to stop crying and I got him inside and up onto the couch in the conservatory where he literally flaked out.

He was worryingly limp and his eyes glazed over. For a few minutes I was genuinely worried about him. I comforted him for a bit until he started to come round and after half an hour or so he was up and about again.

He’s been fine since so whether he was stung or stood on something, we have no idea. There was no sign of any damage and he wasn’t paying particular attention to any part of his body so it was a mystery. He took himself upstairs to his proper bed for an hour or so and then seemed to be fully recovered. We went out for a decent walk yesterday and he was absolutely fine. It was all a bit strange.

He’s now gone over to Liverpool with Emily to spend the rest of the weekend there at Mikey’s where as you can see he struggles to settle!

Emily’s prep for her August WDW and Universal trip continues. They have booked Mickey’s Not So Scary and have what looks like an action packed and fun plan.

They are taking some first timers with them who of course are listening to almost all of Emily’s advice. However, she did share some shocking news this week. Apparently the newbie couple have bought new trainers for the trip but are refusing to wear them until they get there despite Emily’s advice and pleadings to wear them in. Is this the most rookie of rookie mistakes for a WDW newcomer? It’ll end in tears.

Till the next time……..

Wet, Wet, Wet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Ten Wednesday 22nd November

11/02/2024 by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

It’s only when you write these trips up that you start to realise what dreadfully predictable creatures of habit we are. Trying to find an original way to say we woke up and went to breakfast just before ten is proving too much for my limited writing skills. Anyway. that’s what we did.

Having laid out a load of cash to stay a few extra days to enjoy some of the lovely weather we were denied on our first few days, we were a little perturbed to see the forecast predicting a little more shit weather today.

We went to the pool anyway, as if to defy the weather Gods and we Facetimed Rebecca and the boys. Today we watched a man cut some grass. Who says you need to go to the theme parks in Florida to enjoy yourself?

The weather turned around 1pm and we retreated to the covered area and had some chips and dips for a rare proper lunch.

There was no sign of the weather getting better so I drove to a Target on the 192 to collect that doll for Louise’s friend that I told you about some time ago. I finally worked out how to get the Target website to take a payment method registered in the UK but could only seem to do so if I collected. So I drove for over an hour to get a doll I knew nothing of before this trip for the child of someone I did not know.

The traffic was bobbins, matching the weather, with the rain tipping down for the whole journey. Still, apparently, I made some little girl’s Christmas so I’ll count this as my good deed for this lifetime.

Once back at the hotel, I watched more Two and a Half Men whilst Louise got ready. We made it out around 6.30 and got a Lyft to Disney Springs. It was a mercifully short journey, as when the driver set off from our hotel, she made the sign of the cross and kissed her crucifix, which was mildly concerning for a journey that would take about four minutes.

We arrived in one piece and made our way to the stage outside World of Disney, got a cocktail from one of the little drinks places nearby, and watched a band for a bit. It was now not raining.

It was no espresso Martini but it was OK.

We then made our way over to The Edison for our reservation.

The Spings were very busy tonight but we were seated immediately upstairs. There was a very cool retro three-piece band on the stage below us.

We of course ordered the bacon thing to start and in all the excitement it escaped a photo.

I ordered the Edison Burger.

Louise, the Soup and Grilled Cheese.

Louise had wine and I had of course….

We shared a Lemon meringue for dessert.

Overall, we were not blown away by The Edison. The theming is fantastic and the live music a real bonus, but the service was a little slow and whilst all the food was good, nothing blew our socks off enough to have us wanting to go back any time soon.

My mood may have been tainted by my health at this point. I was completely full of snot. I don’t know what the bill was, but I remember it of course being fairly pricey for what was nothing fancy. As we walked back to catch our Lyft home, I was feeling dreadful. I was short of breath, dizzy and really felt out of it.

Once home I went straight to sleep. I did wonder if that first cocktail we had as we watched the band had something in it that I had a reaction to. It was a very “fruity” cocktail and I may be way off the mark, but I can’t think what else it was, as I was right as rain the next morning.

On the plus side, had we not extended our stay we would have been flying home in the morning. Sadly, for you, that means a few more of these rinse-and-repeat blogs!!

Till the next time……

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