florida – 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 Four September 13th

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

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

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

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

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

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

I had French Toast with fruit and an iced coffee.

Emily had an Omelette and a Diet Coke

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Emily and Mikey both had the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

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

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

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

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

Till the next time……

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We parked in Dinosaur.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were Everest bound for another LL.

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

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

This song was of course the highlight.

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

They were excellent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This resort oozes class.

I cannot explain the dinosaur.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We ordered some food as we were all hungry now.

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

Eventually our seats were this good.

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

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

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

Till the next time……

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was lovely to be back amongst these familiar sights.

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

The money shot.

There were tears within the group as per.

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

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

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

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

Never has a sphincter been more clenched.

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

So we set off in the that direction.

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

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

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

Breakfast was $56.

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

It was a bare faced lie.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This will never not anger me.

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

We sat out by The Plaza and enjoyed them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were breaded up….

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

Louise and I shared Nachos as our Entree.

Mikey had Fish Tacos.

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

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

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

Till the next time……

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were immediately seated at a lovely window table.

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

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

Food wise we had –

Me and Emily – Avocado on toast with two eggs

Mikey – Eggs Royale

Louise – Eggs Benedict

That was £118 including a UK style tip.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I don’t know why I took this one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A strike against Terminal C.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We started with the Spare Parts appetiser to share.

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

It only had about 1500 calories in it!!

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

Emily had Chicken Tenders.

Mikey had a Chicken Parm burger.

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

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

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

Till the next time…….

Touching Distance

06/09/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time…..

One Day At A Time? Sweet Jesus!

30/08/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

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

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

So here we go….

Day One

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

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

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

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

Day Two

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

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

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

Day Three

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

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

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

Day Four

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

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

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

Day Five

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

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

Day Six

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

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

Day Seven

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

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

Day Eight

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

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

Day Nine

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

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

Day Ten

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

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

Day Eleven

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

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

Day Twelve

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

Day Thirteen

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

Day Fourteen

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

Day Fifteen

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

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

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

Till the next time…..

Home Time

23/08/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time…..

I Got The Music Adjacent To Me

29/03/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Uncategorized

I didn’t post last week as we had the boys staying with us so time for other stuff was short.

Honestly my weeks are just a blur of travel, hotels and a varying degrees of crisis management so there isn’t a great deal to document anyway. Next week looks similar but I am having a week off the work related travel the week after as it’s just getting silly now.

I know that usually the core content of these posts has traditionally been Disney holiday related but even with one theoretically in the barrel for September my desire to plan is low as I don’t trust the US to behave itself sufficiently to make that trip a reality. I suppose once we get our other trip out of the way and we get into the warmer summer months assuming there isn’t a world war, civil war or global economic apocalypse then I can get my head in the game.

So whilst I can’t share any WDW specific content I can try to hide the content vacuum by posting some stuff I’ve been up to in my other hobby in the hope that nobody notices that I’m posting about nothing.

Many weeks ago in one of my posts I mentioned that I’d been filming a new promo video for one of the bands I’m in and I threatened to share that once complete. It’s taken much longer than it should but that video for the Pink tribute is below alongside another less produced and polished video shot by our singer Emily at a recent wedding with Mustard.

Enjoy/endure at your leisure.

Till the next time….

The Harmless Globetrotter

08/02/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Last week saw us pay the balance off for our Mexico trip in April. We’d been debating whether to go ahead with this one since we put down the low deposit.

As ever, should we have been sensible and not spent that money on a holiday? Of course. Have we ever done that at any point in the last three decades? You know the answer.

We shall find a way as we always do and cross our fingers that no major unexpected expense bites us on the arse this year. Nothing ever goes wrong with our house or anything so we should be fine.

Our plans for later in the year to visit WDW remain in pencil and will do until balances are due and we see what state the US is in. Hopefully a better one than it is today.

So we are pleased to at least know we are headed back to Secrets Akumal if only for eight nights this time. It is such a lovely place and experience we are both very much looking forward to it.

We are trying to keep travel costs down in this double holiday year to celebrate our 30th anniversary if we can but that did not stop Louise moaning that I have not upgraded us to private transfers from the airport to the resort and back. The provided transfers by TUI look to take about ten minutes longer and it’s not as if 100 people are all going to our resort so it may even be a minibus anyway rather than a packed coach. That £150 may make all the difference. 😏 We shall see how long I can withstand the whinging.

Away from holidays I undertook a less pleasurable hotel stay in London as I was down there for work for three days. The Travelodge around the corner from our office is not quite up to the same standards as Secrets and that was confirmed by what looked like a murder scene popping up outside it on my first night there.

The road was taped off for two days with a police guard. I’ve not been able to find anything online about what happened. It was near Spitalfields and Aldgate tube station if anyone knows?

Last weekend we did a great gig with the 80s tribute band in Brighouse. A great new venue has opened at the Civic Hall there and we had a good night and a packed room.

With a lot venues closing it’s lovely to see such a great place opening and from what we could see being successful. We are looking forward to going back.

I’m in London again next week but just for one day/night this time. Hopefully my stay can be murder free unless one more person asks me to reach out, jump on a call or action something. Then all bets are off.

One blog covering Mexico, Brighouse and London. I am just so jet set.

Till the next time…..

Nice, Just A Quiet One.

28/12/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time……

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……

Marlow and Memories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time……..

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……..

A Post About Not Posting.

25/05/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Sorry there has been no time today for a post even though you are now reading one.

I’ve been out at a music festival with my band mates. Not to worry I thought, I will take some photos and videos of the day to post instead. Then I forgot as things are always hectic when getting set up and ready to play in the very short time afforded for such things.

All I managed was this brief backstage clip ….

We just did half an hour of 80s tunes and it went pretty well. It was a charity festival for Cancer charities. The weather could have been kinder of course but it was dry if a little windy and chilly as bank holidays tend to be.

Now I’m planted on the couch watching Liverpool and waiting for them to lift the Premier League trophy. Add to that not being in work tomorrow and I’ve had worse Sundays.

So apologies for the size and quality of this micro blog and enjoy your Monday off if you get one.

Till the next time…..

99 LuftBallons

18/05/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Thankfully no tales of work travel this week.

The main thing of note to share from the past few days was our gig last night, which was our first public outing as the Neon Vortex, our 80s tribute band.

We had rehearsed on Wednesday and felt completely unready for public performance, mainly due to a lack of rehearsal time due to our collective busy lives. Anyway, that fear drove us all to do enough homework before last night for it to go off almost mistake free.

It was pleasing to see this new show go down so well with the audience and hopefully things can only get better from here on in.

Earlier in the week something a bit odd happened. I started to get alerts that my blog was getting large volumes of traffic. Now, those days are long gone so it felt weird and certainly unexpected and I wondered if someone had uncovered my secret scandalous life of drug abuse and crime, but no. After a bit of digging into the stats and the source of the traffic almost all of it was coming from Facebook but in Germany.

Of course I have legions of readers all over the world as you would expect but the sheer volume was off the scale of even the height of my relevance and readership.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, mainly as I stopped researching it as soon as I figured it out, it would appear that I am not the only one who can’t type kingdom. A typo decades ago on The Dis saw me create a username of mkingdon rather than mkingdom and here we are. Still, it made buying the domain cheaper and easier.

At some point during last week something happened in German politics which saw a group or party get banned or something and they were called Kingdom of Germany. I have no idea how, but it seemed folks searching for that somehow then led them to click through to my blog.

I can only chuckle at the bizarre and surreal experience my new German visitors had when trying to make sense of the absolute trivial nonsense I pump out here when they were looking for some insightful information on whatever these Kingdom folks said, did or had done to them.

I only hope they used Google translate on my posts to see what it was all about and suffered whatever Google made of my drivel. If any of my German friends have stuck around, literally all I can say to you is Ich mochte ein stuck shwarzwalderkirschtorte bitte.

Two years of German study in the mid 80s has not gone to waste.

Ironically, one of the songs we did last night was Nena’s “classic” Neunundneunzig Luft Ballon. We did however take the easy option and do the English version. It’s spooky how different themes collide or at least how I can desperately mash them together in an attempt to churn out a few hundred words every week.

At this point doing these posts is solely driven by my “completion complex” (not a euphemism). I’ve been posting nearly every week since 2009 and every cell in my body rejects the idea of stopping now, and of course once I pop my clogs, all this inane crap will be a fitting testament to my time on the planet. Take from that what you will.

Till the next time……

Oh Chino

20/04/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time…..

A&E I O U

13/04/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time……

Video, Vloggers, and Very Little Else

06/04/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Sunday again. Another post to come up with when it was only about six and a half minutes since the last one. Clichés are clichés for a reason and the one about time going by too quickly once you are of a certain age certainly rings true.

At least that brings July closer more quickly and our two weeks away from the work routine and for me a break from ” can you see my screen”, “jumping on a call” and “circling back” to things I didn’t want to deal with the first time round. I’m not doing anything manual or even important but at times it really does burn you out.

For Louise, it’ll be a break from things much more gruesome, somber and depressing of course, but that has never stopped me bemoaning my comfortable office based first world problems.

Aside from work taking up far too high a percentage of last week than I’d like, we also took delivery of the previously teased band video for Mustard. Yeah, another bloody video to inflict upon you. It’s the first with our new singer and we’re pretty pleased with the results. Do not fear, I shall only put you through the short one-minute version. If you want to see the full six-minute marathon you can seek it out.

This weekend has been an uneventful one as Louise is working both days. It has just been me and Bean, our elderly cocker spaniel, as Woody, the sausage dog, has gone with Emily to her boyfriend’s in Liverpool where he has been barking at anything and anyone daring to invade his space as is his way.

Emily often takes him off for weekend adventures and for such a little thing, you wouldn’t believe how much calmer the house is when he’s not around.

Bean. bless her, is getting on a bit now. She’s lost a few teeth and is going a bit grey around the edges but she’s still pretty sprightly and long may that continue. She loves the one-on-one attention when Woody is out of the way too.

My plans for today are not very expansive. I have a few songs to learn for a band rehearsal this evening and a football match to watch, which as a Liverpool fan is equal parts exciting and terrifying in equal measure at the moment, as I want to believe we’re going to win the league but daren’t allow myself to just yet. Bean and I will venture out for a wander at some point too.

In other news, I have seen a fair bit of content online about Epic Universe. Well, to be accurate, I have seen the exact same footage from about a dozen vloggers. I have to admit to being pretty ignorant about the whole thing at this point, having no parks in our foreseeable future. The bits I have seen look impressive, even if I don’t know exactly who some of the characters are. I’m sure we’ll make plans to go at some point, although, if I understand it correctly, the Express thing you get from on-site stays do not apply here which makes it a little less appealing. Once the initial crowds (50% of which seem to be content creators) die away, it’ll be on our list, I’m sure.

If anyone goes in the near future I’d love to hear your take of course.

I shall go and do my chores, learn my songs, walk my dog, and watch my football. Enjoy your Sundays.

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……

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