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.
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.
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.
We “slept in” until 8.30am today and as we were a boat ride from the action and had Express passes, I cared not one jot. We even took some time to have breakfast at the Tuc Tuc shop again.
Most of us had stuff that looked like this.
For reasons I cannot now remember I felt it important you saw the reception area at this point.
We headed to the water taxi….
Dougie was still very delighted with his Grinch…
After our boat ride, we entered Universal Studios at 9.30, after forcing Freddie to do the traditional “blinded by the sun” Universal ball photo.
Our first ride was to be the new Minions shooter thing, where Shrek used to be.
I barely knew of this ride’s existence, never mind what it entailed so we went in blind.
For anyone wondering what the ride is, think of Buzz Lightyear at MK, but you stand up on a moving conveyor belt. The technology is slightly more advanced than Buzz’s, and it is really good fun and something everyone can enjoy. They even have smaller guns for folks who are Dougie’s size.
With that done we crossed the street to the other Minions attraction. There was a huge standby queue and the Express looked pretty grim too. We were on in about 15 minutes. Tom had to sit with Dougie on a static seat due to his size…Dougie’s, not Tom’s.
With every passing day, my resemblance to this painting increases.
It was now time for Rip Ride Rocket, which, much like my resemblance to the painting above, my disliking of it increases with every passing year. In my younger days, there was genuine unfettered enjoyment of this thing, but more recently it is becoming an endurance test and an exercise in clenching. I was not too upset to hear it won’t be around much longer.
The riders were Freddie, Tom and me, with everyone else using Dougie as an excuse not to have to go through it. With Freddie along for this ride, I was not only concerned for my own safety but his as well. Anyway, he spent the ride with his hands up laughing whilst I was bearing down like someone in childbirth and screaming into the void as my body collected bruises.
Tom and Freddie went round to ride again and I absolutely did not, finding the others instead.
We had a look in Bake My Day (a bakery) and got Dougie some popcorn. With everyone back from riding, Louise and I took Freddie on the Mummy as Tom needed medical attention. This was not Rip Ride Rocket related. As often tends to happen with Tom’s feet on these trips he had blisters that were resembling World War 1 trench foot and he was really struggling. There were scenes when he was trying to take his socks off that I cannot describe here.
After riding and running repairs, we all met up and walked over to Diagon Alley. I cannot tell you how much this trip cost, but when Freddie walks up alongside you and grabs your hand, it really doesn’t matter too much.
I have a similar photo deep in the trip report vaults of one of the girls doing this down Main Street. It’s lovely.
We stopped for some more traditional photos along the way.
Louise and I sat out with Dougie whilst everyone else rode Gringotts.
He really enjoyed getting his photo taken on this bike, so much so that it proved very tricky to get him off it to let others have a go.
Before the second riding of Gringotts, we wandered to get some food which turned out to be a “pasty” (Diagon Alley is clearly nowhere near Bolton, the pasty capital of the world as they were not really pasties) and a drink.
Then me, Louise, Tom and Freddie rode Gringotts. It really is an impressive ride, and queue for that matter but for goodness sake I wish they could improve the audio. I’ve ridden it a lot now and never once heard more than a few words from the Potter characters.
Rebecca and Dougie were over near Men In Black so we walked that way.
There was a need for food so we walked over to a pizza place near ET. I ordered a random selection of pizza slices and bao buns and had another wrestle with one of those fancy drinks machines, eventually managing to get some liquids in cups.
Once done with the food we all went onto ET. It is a genuine mystery that this ride has remained open and untouched since day one (I think). There are rumours that Spielberg only agreed to the ride with a clause that said as long as he was alive the ride had to stay. It is clearly very dated now and has no relevance to the younger folks so it’s all a bit weird. They still take your name as you enter which does nothing for the queue, but the boys enjoyed it for what it was.
Louise and I sat on a wall in the sun whilst everyone else explored the new kids area, riding Trollercoaster.
Next, we did Men In Black, (not a euphemism) with Louise staying out with Dougie.
With four of us riding we were seated in two rows that normally accommodate three people. When this happens I try to shoot two guns at once to improve my scoring but it just seems to make me twice as bad. This is a great ride and clever idea, but I just wish there was more “feedback” when you actually hit something. It all feels a bit random. Maybe the competitive Dad in me is over thinking this!
Across to the Simpsons now, with Louise again volunteering to sit out. The wait with Express was longer than it should have been but the queue areas here are always fun.
It was coming to the end of the day now, so Louise and I walked with Dougie back to the exit giving Rebecca, Tom and Freddie a chance to quickly do their favourites again. They rode The Mummy and Rip Ride before meeting us at the exit.
Whilst we waited I was doing some plan juggling for the last few days, changing some dining reservations and activities to balance out the changes we’d made so far and hopefully get the most out of our remaining time.
We got the water taxi back to RPR, picked up our luggage and drove directly to CVS, having abandoned them for a full 48 hours. Tom needed ongoing blister care stuff and my notes as ever say we got bits, but whatever they were it cost $90!
We drove directly to Teak Neighbourhood Grill for dinner.
We ordered some appetisers “for the table” which were Mozzarella Sticks/Circles and Spring Rolls.
For entrees….
Louise – French Dip
Freddie – Grilled Cheese
Me – I had a Brazillian, which would really chafe over the next few days
Rebecca- Quesadilla Burger
Tom – Donut Burger
Dougie had Nuggies
There was a very odd vending machine in the corner which did mystery packets of random stuff. Freddie’s sunglasses you see there were included but there were also old newspaper clippings and games etc. Very odd but it kept the boys amused for a bit.
The food was excellent and with a decent tip, it was $170 all in.
We were home within 40 minutes and in bed shortly after 10. A couple of very good Universal days.
I think today was our earliest get up, so please be suitably impressed as we reverse off the drive at 8am, Universal bound.
Of course, it took almost an hour to get up the I4 and arrive at Royal Pacific. We self-parked, grabbed the stuff we needed for the park and headed into reception to check in.
I’ve walked past these frogs a lot over the years but have only now noticed they seem to have “their lipstick out”.
The ladies and kids took a seat whilst Tom and I went to check-in. It always seems to take longer than it probably should to do that here. The queue was small but the level of faff and keyboard tapping does seem excessive. Having given all the info when booking, it does seem odd that I am now writing names and email addresses on scraps of paper.
Anyway, after some real confusion about who was in which room, we were done, had our Express passes and popped into the shop for breakfast.
With food on board, we walked down to the water taxi.
Just outside the gates we did a quick check of Freddie’s height and he was so close to being able to ride the Hulk, but not quite there yet.
I had hoped to have us stepping foot into the park by 10am. It was 11am as we did so.
Having chosen Islands of Adventure for today we headed straight for Suess Landing whilst Dougie was still awake and onto Cat In The Hat.
There was no queue but we still used our Express to get our money’s worth!
Dougie loved it in much the same way the girls had at his age. It is a banger for the two year olds. Hit followed hit as we went straight onto the Carousel now, and Louise and I recognised a bit of a special moment as we clearly remembered taking the girls on this at very similar ages.
There was much concern, sorry I mean hilarity as Louise took about five minutes to dismount. I know that sounds like an exaggeration but she was in this position for many minutes and we were unable to help as we concentrated on not wetting ourselves laughing and in my case also making sure I got it on camera.
Naturally, One Fish, Two Fish was next. Louise and I rode together and I was the perfect gentleman by making sure I sat on the inside of the fish and had full control of our height. Louise was very grateful for the cooling effect of the water I subjected her to.
As we wandered now towards the Circus McGurgus thing, The Grinch appeared, preceded by his helper/host…
This was very fortunate as Dougie is obsessed with The Grinch. It played out perfectly as after a brief little show with Thing 1 and 2, he took up a position for a meet and greet right in front of us and we were first in line.
and this happened….
and he stayed like that for many minutes….
He was in heaven and it took some persuading for Dougie to let go and let somebody else have a photo.
Once that was done, we rode.
Staying at one of the Universal hotels that give you Express is expensive, so it feels hypocritical to praise it after moaning about Disney’s Multipass stuff, but the experience is excellent. It takes away all the stress about crowds and also doesn’t require military planning and constant app use and juggling of reservations. Universal for us is typically a couple of days maximum so it’s a different kettle of fish to our Disney park touring, and it works brilliantly. Right now, the Disney experience is complicated, expensive (as we want to go to their parks roughly ten days in a 2 week stay) and stressful.
Onwards we marched to the Potter stuff.
It was busy in Hogsmeade but not the crazy crowd levels we have encountered in the past so we did get some chance to take in the theming rather than just concentrating on avoiding other bodies.
After a quick Butterbeer everyone went on the Hippogriff so that Dougie could ride another coaster before succumbing to his impending nap.
Next everyone apart from me and Dougie went on the Hogwart’s ride. I took a long walk around the park until Dougie fell asleep.
Upon my return, I rode with Louise, but Freddie turned down a second ride, not being too keen on what he’d experienced. Upon riding it, I could appreciate why a six year old may not be its biggest fan.
Now, it was time for….
Louise sat out with Dougie and the rest of used the Express line, which still took 30 minutes to ride. Freddie was understandably excited and nervous as we waited, as this would certainly be his most intense coaster to date. It was not helped by the ride going down for about ten minutes.
I have ridden this before a few times but for some reason this trip it seemed more terrifying than I can recall. Sure it’s fast and has all the loops and twists but never have I ever experienced the feeling of coming out of my seat as I did on this coaster. I was genuinely scared for my life. I am sure it has been tested and it is no doubt physically impossible to fall out but good grief I did not believe that as I gripped for dear life and screamed.
With that in mind, it made perfect sense that I rode again immediately, this time with Louise, Freddie, and Tom. It was no less scary.
In need of some blood pressure soothing, we chose to ride the Jurassic Park River thing next. It was a walk on with or without Express.
After riding it was time for some snacks, so I bought a random selection of whatever the closest booth had to offer.
I didn’t know what that one above was but it turned out to be a very lovely sweet pastry type thing. I was more shocked to discover the one below was savoury after taking a large bite. It was potato and meat and Freddie also had a taste, loved it and devoured the rest.
Whilst I was busy eating, fiddling little fingers seized the camera.
On to Kong now and it was mildly surprising to find that Dougie could ride it. We bypassed a pleasing standby queue with our Expressness and rode. Despite the very gory and gruesome content of this ride Dougie was fine. It probably isn’t ideal for little ones to be honest.
We chose to bypass the water rides, as we were soon to be sat in a restaurant and did not want to be freezing to death in wet clothes in brutal AC. So we carried on walking through the park, to get back to the Spider Man and Hulk rides.
We were devastated to see that Spiderman was down for maintenance and would not be open during our visit. Meeting Temu Wolverine was not really compensation for that fact.
It was my turn to sit with Dougie now as everyone went off to ride Dr Doom. Despite us being minutes away from our dining reservation, like all good grandparents, I got him a huge lollipop from the shops.
He approved of my decision….
When everyone got back, I was delighted to hear that Louise had not ridden, and had sat out on a bench near the ride entrance and I could have ridden after all.
Next, we all rode the Storm Force waltzer thingy.
Louise and I had Dougie in with us so could avoid the excessive spinning that was going on in the other cup by Tom and Freddie.
We had time to repeat Cat In The Hat and One Fish Two Fish on our way to eat at Mythos….
Upon arriving at Mythos it was not busy and we were seated immediately. It is heavily themed around Mythos type things, if anyone has a clue what that is.
Rebecca and Tom had a milkshake and Louise a wine, with everyone else on soft drinks.
I started with a Mezze Platter….
Louise had a “dipping thing” according to my ever reliable notes.
Tom had meatballs….
and Rebecca had Hummus
They were all lovely. This Mediterranean style of dippy stuff and breads is right up my street.
For mains, I had Chicken Kebab with Cous and Cous.
Rebecca Lamb Burger
Both of the boys had pizza and Louise had a Grilled Cheese in Soup
Tom had Pad Thai, but a plaster and some talc would probably sort that right out.
The boys finished with a shared banana split and there was a creme brulee that a few of us dipped into. It was all very delicious with very good service but of course came at an elevated price which was to be expected when dining in the parks. It was around $400 including tip.
It was dark now. Freddie wanted to do Velocicoaster again, so Tom took him off to do that. We strolled over to the water rides, picking up a Grinch for Dougie…
as that was the plan after the boys returned but Popeye’s Bilge Rats had closed at 7. We waited for quite some time on a bench near Dudley’s as it turned out that Velocicoaster had gone down and it was taking them a long while to ride. As Rebecca had Tom’s phone to save him the bother of the locker nonsense, we had no way to get in touch like it was the 90’s or something.
Eventually, we decided to walk to the park exit in case they had gone there a different way and the park was closing now anyway. Louise took Dougie off to the boat whilst Rebecca and I waited for Tom and Freddie. Once we’d found them we set off to the boat to find Louise and Dougie sat on the one just leaving as we arrived.
The next boat was about ten minutes later and we thankfully got on board and headed for bed. We had done well over 20,000 steps today and were absolutely exhausted.
It’s rare to report on a first these days when it comes to a Florida trip but here we are. The plan hath not decreed it so but with the earlier changes due to the weather, more flexibility was required today and we moved our Volcano Bay day to today. For Louise and I, one of those rare firsts.
I didn’t get up until 8.45 am, which was right around the time we probably should have been parking up at Universal but I’d been up in the night and had not slept well so it was as unavoidable as it was undesirable.
This resulted in a very poor 10am departure and once again our journey was blighted with traffic that was less than ideal. It was bad enough that the drive took 45 minutes, but what added insult to that injury was as we pulled up to the toll booths where you pay for your parking for Volcano Bay, I don’t know why, but there was a huge queue that was just not moving at all.
My frustration and anger (mostly at myself for the late start) started to build and the 30-minute wait just to pay for parking was not improving our start to the day.
Once parked up, we had to board a bus to the water park itself. This was relatively painless, but my mood had darkened sufficiently to see this as a problem too.
Once off the bus, there was a sizeable walk to get somewhere close to any water. At this point I was wondering if Volcano Bay actually existed or if it did, I suspected it was located in one of the Carolinas.
I had to go to guest services to sort our tickets and then we were given a Tapu thing and finally, we were in. It was midday.
You can imagine that the availability of sunbeds and shade was not abundant at this time so there was a long, hot, frustrating trek around the park trying to source some. It was made so much easier with us having a stroller, which of course always work well on sand.
I spotted a set of beds large enough to accommodate us all and we made camp. It felt like very hard work indeed to just get into the park. The day was to get better but the herding cattle approach to getting folks into the park was not something I liked. Compare it to Typhoon Lagoon where you park about six feet from the entrance and stroll in and I would say it could be simpler.
Suncream was applied….
then everyone apart from Louise was off into the water, thankful to now be able to have some fun.
Being in unfamiliar surroundings, I felt unsettled, which probably should be added to my “reasons I need therapy” list and says a lot more about me than I would probably like it to. There’s a reason we keep returning to Florida. After a dip in the main pool, I returned to Louise as everyone else went off to do some slides.
I rested a bit until everyone returned around 1.30. We mobile ordered lunch and then went off to eat it.
Me and Rebecca – Turkey Wrap
Louise – Pulled Pork Sandwich
Tom, Freddie and Dougie – Pizza
Picking up the food was fine but I had a falling out with the drinks machine and had to go back and get another cup as the fanfangled machine just spat syrup all over the first one and me.
Some escaped Lays were appreciated by the wildlife.
Now fed, Louise and I returned to our encampment. Tom, Rebecca and Freddie went off for more rides and I walked Dougie around in his stroller until he fell asleep. That was a good way for me to get a good tour of the park anyway.
With him napping, I went for a couple of loops around the lazy river, finding a very comfortable position on a double-ring thing, which I believe is also the name of a film. I was dangerously close to falling asleep on a few occasions, but the tactically placed ice-cold drips and sprays kept me alert at the appropriate times.
I wandered back to the beds to find everyone had returned and Freddie was keen for me to go on the Crazy (not Lazy) River now so off we went. The fact that you have to wear a life vest to go on this may suggest how fast this thing goes, but it was really good fun.
We did four laps in total before being thrown out as the park was closing.
My view on Volcano Bay improved throughout the day and to be honest I am not worth listening to when it comes to any sort of review on a water park. I don’t do the slides (more issues for my imaginary therapist to unpick) due to some bad experiences on dodgy water parks in the Med in my younger days, so I couldn’t tell you if the slides here are better or worse than anywhere else. For me, as somewhere to just rest and relax it’s simply easier to get to and into Typhoon Lagoon so I would probably stick with that in future, although the Crazy River was excellent. I would say that our long drawn-out entry experience this morning was very likely largely down to our own very late start and the weird 30-minute wait to pay for parking, which oddly cleared as soon as we were through.
We got dried and dressed and made our way out. Getting out and back to the car was a good deal easier than the earlier shenanigans.
However, the traffic was not, and it took over an hour to get home. I guess it was rush hour, with nobody rushing anywhere on the I4, of course.
Dinner tonight would be just Louise and I as Rebecca wanted to give the boys an early night and get packed for our Universal stay tomorrow. So after showers, we set off. Having not planned for this turn of events, we just set off down the 192 looking for inspiration and, driven by growing hunger, opted for the next thing we saw which was…
It was not busy at all.
We started with some kind of fried pickle type thing (my notes are poor and seem to get poorer from here on, as at this stage, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t bother writing this trip up, but here we are.)
I reached for the camera well into our eating of it.
Our entrees were a dipping beef sandwich thing….
with Louise opting for her “go to” cheesy pasta thing
The food was tasty and the service fine, but this was not a life-changing dining experience and we probably would not return. With it being a slow weekday the atmosphere was probably not at its best either with just a few tables occupied. It’s odd how that can make such a difference to a dining experience. The place being so busy you can’t get a table or decent service is of course no good, but when a place is as empty as this was, it gives the whole experience a bit of weird “vibe” and I’m sure we can all agree that I am far too old to be using words like vibe.
We drove home, did some packing for Universal, which was no doubt a lot easier than Rebecca’s and went to bed.
Rest days are the habitual practice of seasoned travellers to WDW who love to recharge their batteries….
Parklife!
But once that’s done and the rides start calling again all you can do is make your return to hustle and bustle of …
Parklife!
So with a 6.55am alarm waking me so that I could book us all a virtual queue for Guardians, the day began. My notes remind that I felt rough this morning with a headache and nausea. It was either last night’s cold spud or I was pregnant.
Despite the 7am alarm, we were not out of the house until 9am and it took about 25 minutes to drive to Epcot’s gate. Another $30 exchanged hands and we parked in Rocket 602.
The tram took us in, (since when were they red?) and coffee and donuts were served from Joffries for those who didn’t feel like vomiting.
I stood strong today and refused to book the Multipass, so the day started with a 20-minute queue for Spaceship Earth.
I had the genuine pleasure of riding with Dougie, who despite several very annoying stops for several minutes was incredibly well behaved.
Next, we restroomed.
With our virtual queue time approaching it made sense to head in that direction and ride Mission Space. I declined the chance to ride as I needed no further encouragement to be making pavement pizzas so Louise and I sat out with Dougie and had a drink.
Once everyone was back from space we had been summoned to Guardians. After setting up rider swap, Me, Louise, Rebecca and Freddie rode.
This is THE best ride on property and I will not be entering into any debate on the subject.
It had been raining a little all morning and as Tom an Freddie rode Guardians it really came down. We needed to get to a restroom and by the time we did it felt like we had been swimming.
While waiting for Tom and Freddie to return we stood under the canopy outside Connections and Club Cool.
Dougie had been kept out of it with his pram hood and a poncho.
With no sign of the boys and our ADR at Space 220 imminent, we messaged them to say meet us there and set off to get a little bit wetter. I explained to the check-in host that we were waiting for two who were riding, and it was fine when we eventually got everyone there and checked in at 1:30 for our 1.10 ADR. As soon as we did that, the rain stopped.
We entered the lift ensuring the boys could get up to the rail to see the “lift” take us up to space. It was quite full so I could see bugger all standing against the back wall.
I dangled the camera from my outstretched arm and got….
Once we arrived in space as you would imagine, the theming was just excellent.
There were novelty fizzy drinks with glowing things and popping space rock….
Even though Dougie wasn’t having that particular special drink off the menu our server was smart enough to make sure his apple juice also glowed.
and those rocks really popped….
Food wise we had
Me and Tom – Shrimp Tacos and the burger
Louise – Cauliflower starter and the burger
Rebecca – Caesar salad and burger
Boys – Nuggets and a dome pudding.
Some adult desserts were had too….
Louise had some wines and most of us finished with a coffee.
Many of you will know that this isn’t a cheap experience, and there’s nothing to be gained by saying how much this meal was, so I won’t. The experience was very good, the food was better than expected and the boys really enjoyed the theming. It was chilly, but that was because we arrived drenched in cold water. I also got a better view in the lift on the way back to earth.
Dougie was in desperate need of a nap so I volunteered to walk him round until he caught one. I ended up doing a full loop of World Showcase and met up with everyone over at Journey Into Imagination.
Louise and I stayed out with Dougie.
Due to our evening plans, we had about 30 minutes left now to ride something before we had to go and Freddie chose Mission Space and insisted I rode too.
I survived with my expensive lunch intact.
The weather had perked up too.
What I’m doing here, I have no clue.
Something tells me a younger camera operator was holding the camera….
It was time to leave now so we made our way to the exit. Dougie was back from his nap.
But only just….
That’s better.
We trammed to the car…
and I captured evidence of someone’s battle with the overhead speaker….
Sometimes being bald can be a blessing.
We were heading for City Walk, as tonight Tom and Rebecca were going to Halloween Horror Nights whilst we took the boys for some tea and then home to bed.
The traffic was of course horrific all the way up the I4 but the cherry on top was the 35-minute wait on the off-ramp to get to Universal parking. This, we soon found out was caused by a combo of Horror Nights traffic plus a Chase Atlantic gig at The Hard Rock. After parking the car security was also carnage but we made it in around 6.15 and Rebecca and Tom went off to be horrified, mainly by the prices and wait times.
The fringe-filled emo-fest that was the queue for the gig at the Hard Rock was a flashback to the teenage years of the girls.
Louise and I sat with the boys on those big steps for a bit, people-watching until it was time to head to Toothsome for our reservation. No, we were not hungry at all.
We were seated immediately and started to ponder what someone who isn’t hungry at all orders.
Louise went for French Onion Soup.
I went sweet with a Banana Fosters Waffle, you know, because I was full.
The boys, who were hungry, went for burgers.
We had a few minutes of interaction at our table with the two characters.
Then the boys shared the S’Mores, barely making a dent in them and I was in no position to help.
We wandered City Walk, and after looking for all kinds of plastic tat to get for the boys, Dougie showed no interest in anything and Freddie ended up getting two airbrush tattoos. It was bedtime, for Louise and me, so the boys had to come home too. We had walked all the way back to the car when Freddie announced he needed a wee, so I had to walk him all the way back to security to the closest restroom.
Despite having the sat nav on I managed to take a few wrong turns on the way home and one of them saw us divert through some sort of military base entrance. Bizarre.
We were home for 11 and got the boys in bed. I waited up downstairs just in case Dougie woke up and then fell into bed as soon as Rebecca and Tom got home around 1am, I think.
The “highlight” of this week was a stomach-churning panic on Wednesday afternoon with a tearful phone call whilst I was at work (Rebecca was the one in tears, but if I’m at work there’s always a chance I am too) saying she had just fallen down some steps and broken her ankle!
I left the meeting I was in the middle of without explanation and flew homeward. Tom had got home to her first, so we arranged to meet at the hospital so I could take the boys home while they were seen in A&E.
When I looked at her ankle, I was sure it was broken. While waiting for them to arrive at A&E, I had already done some extensive googling on whether you could fly with a broken limb. It seemed to be the case that you could, but of course, doing WDW with a broken ankle would not be ideal.
A few hours later they returned home with the news that it was not actually broken, but there was severe tendon/ligament damage. She was in a boot and on crutches but relieved.
Of course, there is the small matter of managing everyday life on one leg with two young kids for the next few weeks but at least the holiday was not badly affected!
Just 24 hours later the huge swelling was much reduced so we are very hopeful she will be ambulatory by the time we fly. It was around this time that all the other injuries she had picked up all over her body started to hurt with the pain in her ankle subsiding a little. It was a heck of a fall.
The other daughter continues to have the best time ever over in Orlando. We receive a steady stream of food and drink pictures which is always welcome and not quite as painful as it might be if we were not headed there very soon. I feel very conflicted that I never want their trip to end as I know how much they are loving it, but it has to if ours is ever to get here.
Emily wept uncontrollably at Fantasmic as did most of us just watching the video she sent. There is something about that finale music in that show that just gets me.
On Wednesday they did Halloween Horror Nights and were, to be honest, a little underwhelmed, mainly due to the huge wait times for everything. Only one house was done as every house had wait times of well over an hour and even the food trucks had similar queues.
They made the most of it by attending the show, scare zones, and riding the rides, which did have low wait times. It seems you need Express, but the cost for that is huge/frankly ridiculous so now Rebecca and Tom are considering whether to bother or not on our trip as with the tickets and Express for those few hours would cost close to £500. That is tough to justify and seems a mad way to operate the event.
Why not double the cost of the entry ticket but sell half as many so those going can actually do some of the things they want to?
Amongst other things, they’ve also done Beaches & Cream, a load more walking and are generally living their best lives. Feedback from Mikey the first-timer is that he is blown away, already addicted and plans for next year are being hatched.
In my own planning, I have picked up the remaining reservations in and around Universal that I was looking for. The first at Toothsome on the night Rebecca and Tom are/were planning to do HHN. I’ve booked the meal for us all just in case they decide not to go and I can always amend it if they do go after all. If they don’t we’ll just have a night at City Walk.
The others are Cowfish and on our day in IOA I have booked us into Mythos. Despite me seeming to remember it has a very good reputation I think we have only ever done it once. It being within the park makes it handy, with us not having to come all the way out to City Walk to eat. We are booked at 5.30pm, so should we wish to do more in the park after that, we don’t have walk all that way back in.
I ticked off another milestone yesterday, getting a work event out of the way that always looks better in the rearview mirror. Three weeks left at work now. I’m hunkering down for the final push.
Thanks for all the interest and feedback on the “big plan” post last week. As much as I really appreciate those who persisted with the non-Disney content I have been posting, it’s clear from the views and visitor numbers last week that most of you really have more interest in WDW, which I am totally on board with!
For those who asked about Emily’s trip, if you want to follow along with her, your best bet would be to follow her on Instagram here. She will without doubt be posting there throughout. She leaves on Thursday. She also does some blogging if you wanted to follow that too.
I was due to take her to the airport but as it often does, work has gotten in the way of things I want to do, insisting I am down south on that day, so she has a friend taking her instead. Sure she’s 29, sure she’s been to WDW countless times, sure she lived there, but there is still some low level of worry when waving your offspring off to travel that distance.
After all the fun and games of the planning, based on having secured everything with low deposits, we are now at the stage where the pain hits and to quote a WDW vlogger, “and now it’s time to pay the price”.
I have just paid off all the balances, including the theme park tickets, villa and car. I’m not gonna lie, parting with that level of pound notes hurts no matter what the reason. Still, of all things I could spend money on this is one of the better ones. On the plus side, it’s a real sign that this trip is almost here.
It may shock you to learn that nothing has changed in the plan since last week. We are probably getting too close now for that to happen. In a couple of weeks, I have two meals to book at Citywalk (they only seem to offer slots a month in advance). Those will be Toothsome and Cowfish.
I still have low-level anxiety/PTSD from our more recent WDW trips as the state of the parks in terms of crowds, wait times and general post-pandemic recovery are fresh in my mind. I don’t know if this is reality but the park activity I see on social media seems to vary between “there is literally only me in this theme park today” to “do not even try to enter Orlando as it is full”.
With a better “FastPass” system in place, I am hoping things will be better. We are also visiting outside of any UK school holidays and when I look at the various crowd-level tools online most seem to be scoring most of our time there around the 6 out of 10 mark with slightly busier times predicted towards the end of our trip as we get close to Halloween (the day itself, not the season which starts in early August at WDW of course).
With lower crowd levels the quandary of course is should I book the multi-pass thing three days in advance (being off-site scum) or wait and see how the park looks that morning? I suspect I shall play it safe and book it for our first MK day to remove any stress/waiting on that special first day and then see how it goes. The natural exception to that, I think, will be Hollywood Studios, and I’ll probably cave and book the multi-pass for that park without hesitation, having had horrifying experiences there on the last couple of trips.
For anyone who has been and done it with the new system, I would be keen to hear feedback and experiences of the new thing.
I am girding my loins now for the final push at work. I’ve got a daunting couple of weeks with many things in the diary that I would rather not do (I refer you to the section above about these trips costing a lot of money to understand why I have to do them), but if my many years on this spinning rock have taught me anything it is that I will always be fatter than I want to be and everything passes. Typically even the most horrifying things in your future are survivable.
I am being over dramatic as my “things” are just a couple of days at Head Office next week and then a work conference/event the weekend after. I am not pulling babies from burning buildings but imposter syndrome is a bugger.
This time next week it’ll be a month until we go and just another milestone on the countdown ticked off. Of course, that just means I have five weeks to lose four stone. Seems doable?
With all that sunbathing nonsense out of the way, let’s get down to the serious business of getting ready for a holiday I think we can all understand and get behind.
We are just 44 days away from our Orlando theme park bonanza folks and whilst you’ve all been snoozing/trudging through endless blogs about sand and food, I’ve been busy planning our October trip.
There’s a lot to get through and rather than be sensible and eek that content out over the next few weeks, I’ll no doubt just shoot my shot this week and worry about next week when I’m staring at the blank page in a week’s time.
The first thing to report is that whilst we were all “at” Delray Beach, once again, Bob Iger has taken on board my feedback from this blog and scrapped Genie+. Good lad Bob, but you missed the bit about not charging for this stuff on top of the sky-high theme park tickets, but we’ll take a win where we can get it.
I approve of the change in general but of course, it came with some baggage.
Why does it cost money?
Why are off-site guests penalised? (I know the answer and I only care as we’ll be off-site this time)
Why are International visitors massively penalised unless you spend enough time reading WDW internet content to come across the fairly simple workaround? The workaround of setting the country of your address in the app to the US is so easily preventable that I strongly suspect Disney has left that in intentionally to mitigate a problem they couldn’t solve properly. (Isn’t the issue something about card payments for non-US folks?) My day job involves developing stuff for online products and it smells of a handy “oops we didn’t realise that was possible”. I applaud it.
Being weeks behind the release of this change I won’t go on about it anymore as I’m sure every angle has already been covered. I look forward to being able to secure some rides before we arrive in the parks again.
Moving on to our personal plan, one of the first things I did after getting home from our Delray trip was upgrade to Premium. I think it was about £150 each to do so and having experienced the economy seats, we were keen not to again, especially with two small kids who we will definitely want to go to sleep on the way back. The slightly enhanced room in Premium will be worth that investment and, much to my surprise (I am blissfully unaware lots of the time) until Rebecca told me, that entitles us to Lounge access and a free breakfast at Manchester airport so we’ve already made some of the £150 each back. Add the same sort of thing on the return journey and we’ll be close to a profit.
I’m under no illusions that we’ll be lying down in some sort of Business Class bed-seat, as we sat just behind the magic curtain of Premium on our last trip with TUI and could see the forbidden fruits clearly, but we’ll take the larger seat, slightly better food, more luggage allowance and hopefully getting our cases off more quickly.
This past week has been ADR time and as ever, the success has not been as complete as I may have liked. Overall though, I’ve done OK. Of course, I had sworn that we would eat off-site almost all the time and I have then caved and made more ADRs than I first intended, but we will still be dining off-site a fair bit.
With a two-year-old with us, all dining plans live and die with him, so there are a fair few early meal slots booked and only the odd late one, where that was the only availability, which will be in the lap of the toddler Gods.
To once again demonstrate my masterful planning skills, with the plan pretty much locked and loaded, including our ADRs, a last-minute decision to add in a trip to Universal just last week may have flummoxed other less awesome planners, but no. A ten-minute conversation with Rebecca, whilst staring at the plan, along with some swift internet interrogation saw us expertly evaluate options and then move stuff around with minimal disruption, ADR cancellation or pain. If only I were this good at my day job.
So let’s take a trot through our plans, shall we? I will say that after a few trips where we have not done a great deal and bored you to death with beaches and pools, this trip is hard-core, jam-packed and will probably kill us. Being (even if I say so myself) an elite-level WDW trip planner I recognise and embrace this and should we need to amend stuff on the hoof due to exhaustion and/or killing each other with our bare hands, then I shall rise to that challenge with ease. This is nobody’s first rodeo and we go into the plan with eyes wide open and loins girded.
Day One
As you now know we fly Premium out of Manchester with TUI on October 15th. Airport parking has been secured (which is getting a bit pricey these days I must say) and we are scheduled to be wheels up at 11.25 so we should be in the air at around 1pm if things go to form.
We arrive in Melbourne mid-afternoon and have a suitable vehicle awaiting us courtesy of Discount Florida Car Hire again. An unwelcome but necessary 90 minutes in the car should see us pull up outside our favourite villa on Amelia Downs Trail in Kissimmee and we shall unpack, do a shop and eat no doubt. The boys will be in the pool if they are still awake I’m sure.
Day Two
It goes without saying that this is a Magic Kingdom day. Who knows what time Dougie might be awake so it could be a short or long one. Eating wise, we have gone for an old favourite and a regular tactic on our first park day in Whispering Canyon Cafe at 5.20, as it seems these days that all the shenanigans and fun are back after their suspension for the pandemic and for Tom’s benefit they still offer unlimited refills on milkshakes so he intends to bankrupt them. I suspect we’ll be done at that point and will head home.
Day Three
A rest day but with a twist. On recent theme park trips, we have done Typhoon Lagoon on day two which works really well, offering rest for the oldies and slides and stuff for the youngsters. We will eat off-site that evening at Sickies on the 192.
Day Four
Unusually it is Animal Kingdom today. Typically we would visit the parks in the correct order, which is the order in which they opened, and today would be Epcot, but for reasons I cannot now remember we will be at DAK, for what might be our one and only day here. The second day had to be sacrificed recently to squeeze the two Universal parks in.
Day Five
A rest day, and we plan to spend it at the villa and most likely at the large resort pool on offer. We may go for a sit-down breakfast at a new place I have seen online called @The Diner. Then we will do our best to be hungry again for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory at LBV.
Day Six
Ah Epcot, there you are. This will be our Future World day and after some skilful manoeuvres on my part with ADR bookings, I managed to secure us the “hen’s teeth” booking of Space 220 for lunch. Freddie is incredibly keen to go here so that was pleasing.
Then in the evening Rebecca and Tom will activate their built-in babysitters and allow us to watch the boys whilst they head up to experience Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. We will probably drive us all up there and drop them off and then Louise and I will eat with the boys on City Walk, maybe Toothsome. Rebecca and Tom will get a Lyft back home when they are done.
Day Seven
Hollywood Studios, our nemesis from recent trips, delivering THE worst theme park experience from a “getting on things” perspective consistently, driven by the recently deceased Genie+ nonsense. We hope things will be better now. Knowing from past experiences that whenever we want to do Fantasmic it will be rained off, we have taken the earliest opportunity possible to book a Fantasmic Dining Package, choosing the SciFi Diner for lunch.
Day Eight
A much-needed pool day again. We may again avail ourselves of a sit-down breakfast and possibly return to a real favourite of ours in Hash House A Go Go. Then after some serious lying down in the sun, we shall visit The Outback and I will without doubt have a large steak. It takes some real skills to make yourself hungry enough to dine out twice in one day but it is a challenge we intend to rise to.
Day Nine
We head to Universal and a one-night stay at Royal Pacific to get the Front Of Line access. We shall get there as early as possible, check in and head over to IOA first (I think). With this being very fresh into the plan, there are no firm dining plans for that evening but City Walk is our lobster so that will get firmed up shortly.
Day Ten
Universal Studios of course. And should stamina and timings permit, then we will return to Teak Neighbourhood Grill for dinner. It’s been a while since we dined here. I think our last visit was on the trip amid all the Covid restrictions and the experience wasn’t perfect. The menu looks great and hopefully, everything is back as it should be with the service so it’s definitely worth another try.
Day Eleven
Epcot again today with a likely focus on World Showcase. A huge stroke of fortune came our way in the shape of the Eat To The Beat concert series. A few months ago when the lineup was announced it was the usual mix of the odd famous person or band amidst a load of artists we at least had no idea about. Anyway, it turned out that during our trip, Hanson would be performing. We saw them recently supporting Busted and have liked them ever since the one song everyone knows them for back in the 90’s. So I have booked lunch at Garden Grill as part of the Eat To The Beat package which secures us a seat in their 5.30 show.
I wanted to get us into Beaches and Cream for our evening meal and did so but the only slot available by the time I’d sorted the Garden Grill booking was at 9.15pm. We will just see how everyone is doing by that time and play it by ear. I think leaving Epcot in the early evening for a Boardwalk stroll will be on the cards either way. There’s a Banana Bread Espresso Martini at The Boardwalk Bellevue Lounge that I have my eye on.
Day Twelve
Day two at Hollywood Studios and lunch is to be at the Rodeo Roundup place in Toy Story Land.
Thanks to Disney Food Blog for that photo
Nothing is booked for tea/dinner so we may head off-site and try to help the budget by going to Olive Garden. If energy permits, then we might head to Disney Springs for a stroll and with a following wind, one of the Espresso Martinis from Wine Bar George.
Day Thirteen
With one day left on our three-day Universal tickets, we will use that up today at Volcano Bay. A first for Louise and I and I suspect this will be a welcome break from the parks and a chance to rest up a little bit for those who want to.
Dinner is pencilled in for Cowfish at City Walk.
Day Fourteen
The emotional last full day and of course that means Magic Kingdom for the farewell lap of honour. Having, much to our surprise, thoroughly enjoyed our unplanned visit there on our last trip to the parks, I have booked us in at The Liberty Tree for a 5.40pm ADR.
Fireworks and tears will be experienced as we leave the park for the final time.
Day Fifteen
The usual mix of packing, a visit to Disney Springs, some food, perhaps at The Polite Pig and then the longer-than-usual drive back to the airport. We don’t fly until 7pm so that should work out OK.
So there you have it. It’s a humdinger and no doubt some of that won’t happen, but he who dares wins. As ever, the thinking is that despite the last few decades telling me otherwise, who knows if and when any of us may get to return.
In other news, Emily and her boyfriend go to WDW on September 12th for a long-awaited trip they booked well before we booked ours. It is Mikey’s first visit and they are both ridiculously excited. They are staying at the All-Stars and flying Aer Lingus. I can’t wait to hear all about it. You can’t beat a first-time visit, especially when an experienced guide is with you to show you the ropes.
Another week gone and another week of seemingly endless posts on Facebook WDW groups of crowds that look biblical in proportion. Sure, it’s Spring Break, and for balance, there were some posts and blog posts about a really quiet week in the parks last month but overall, I have to say I am very trepidacious about our trip in October.
Nothing ruins a trip like overly busy parks and not being able to get on anything.
Having been out of the loop park-wise for some time, or at least it feels like I have, what is going on?
Is it social media over-egging the issue? Are we still in some kind of post-pandemic bounce back or have we reached a point where the existing parks just cannot accommodate the number of guests attending? Are there actually more guests and Genie+ (or some other factor) is playing a part in creating longer lines from that same number?
A minute’s worth of research suggests that the latter or something like it may be the case.
Thanks to queue-times.com for the graph.
Pre-pandemic attendance at MK was higher and this is replicated at all four parks, with only DHS almost back to pre-Covid attendance. Of course, we don’t yet have 2023 or 2024 data so that may show a sudden spike?
Are there still shortages of CMs? Are there other factors I am not considering (there definitely will be!).
So what is going so wrong in the parks that wait times of over an hour for most rides are the norm? Do Disney care? Is that bad for business or not?
I recognise I am asking lots of questions and not many answers. My opinion is tainted by my hatred of Genie+ I guess. Sure, I really resent the extra money it requires but it just doesn’t look to be working as well as the old system. We’ve had good days using it, with an afternoon/evening stacked with ride after ride despite the park being busy but is that causing a lot of pain in the standby lines? Why aren’t Disney offering virtual queues for all rides and attractions so guests can be free to roam the park spending money?
There has been a clamour for a fifth gate for almost as long as I can remember and with Universal taking the bull by the horns and opening new stuff, are we at a point where Disney need to or will respond?
Will they be reluctant to do so when seemingly at war with the state governor who seems to be intent on biting the hand that feeds him?
If overall attendance is still not back to 2019 levels will they want to create a fifth park or just continue to expand what they have? There has been talk of a significant MK expansion recently.
As well as offering more capacity it would also deliver a draw to get guests to return. Nothing mobilises the Disney faithful like a new thing. There are four-hour queues for a popcorn bucket. Add to that the benefit to guests of spreading themselves out over five parks and not four, and the whole experience may improve and return visits would increase perhaps.
If nothing else, the Disney vlogging community would definitely thank them!
Of course, that new park brings a lot of investment and cost to build and run it but I suspect Disney are not short of a few bob.
As we are now some 30 years since WDW opened a new park it feels like time to do so, and as ever the healthy competition of Universal being in Florida and doing just that may be the catalyst for Disney to finally announce this.
As you know, I have a direct line to Bob Iger, so I will be passing on my thoughts to him via this post. He is always the first to read them as you know.
Ultimately, I am looking to be reassured that we won’t be pissing away thousands of quid in October to stare at the app and not see a wait time under 90 minutes. If Bob could pull his finger out and announce and build that fifth gate by then that would be lovely.
Dig in folks, we are now at the “last full day”. Once we get this one out of the way there’s just the brief and sulky travel day to endure and then we can all move on with our lives.
After a late and boozy night, there was no rush at all to get up this morning. My dislike of the weather continued as it looked to be cloudy AF (I am down with kids) again.
It was a solo breakfast once more this morning but I did take a hungover Louise some coffee and sweet things on my return.
With no sun to speak of, we jumped in the car and headed up the I4 to City Walk to do some final gift shopping. We parked up and headed on in.
We initially stopped off in the gift shop at Bubba Gump’s. Louise bought too much stuff. It wasn’t a financial concern, well it was a bit, but I was very worried about our lack of luggage space for the return leg. We were pretty much at our limit on the way out and we had already accumulated many gifts to return with.
We strolled on and did a full loop around the water.
We stopped in most of the shops along the way and did manage to get everyone who merited one, a present.
Having spent a handful of calories walking, the sensible thing to do would be to nip into Toothsome for a Freak Shake, so we did.
I had the Red Velvet and Louise the Espresso Buzz. They were glorious of course and being stupid we kept the plastic cup things and somehow managed to bring them back across the Atlantic so they could sit in our cupboard never to be used again.
We completed our loop, stopping in more shops and Bubba Gumps again to use their restroom on our way back to the car. The forecast said there may be some sun to come so we were headed back to the pool all full of hope and expectation.
Naturally, pretty much as soon as we lay down by the pool the drizzle started.
You can have that footshot for free.
We moved under cover on the patio area and hoped to wait out the fleeting shower. It did not fleet and just got worse so we eventually gave up and returned to the room. We read and rested for a bit before getting ready to go out for dinner (tea).
Our destination was Olive Garden just around the corner and we got there around 8pm. We were seated immediately.
You will know what happened first.
We both opted for the Tour Of Italy…
We both had Diet Coke too, having had enough of alcohol last night.
The bill was a very reasonable $70 including a good tip and after what had been some rocky ground here since Covid this felt like a return to form for Olive Garden and I was glad we hadn’t given up on it.
We went straight back to the hotel, having neither the desire nor stamina to do any drinking or revelling this evening. We watched The Hunger Games in bed and went to sleep around 11pm. Hardly a glorious finale to our trip but it’s what we felt like doing and isn’t that what holidays are all about?
There was no change to our routine this morning. Awake early and yet down to breakfast with just a few minutes to spare as ever.
Louise took up our position by the pool whilst I nipped out to Walgreens for another book. It’s amazing how much I can read when I don’t have to do unpleasant things like work for a living.
I also got some more sun cream and deodorant (there had been complaints!)
Things were looking lovely back at the pool.
We did undertake a fair amount of judgemental eye-rolling throughout the morning as we heard the names of some of the kids playing….
Jagger, Maverick, Ace and Landry were having fun though.
I spent a silly amount of time watching these big birds hunting for fish by the lake next to the hotel.
The weather was glorious today, and after another lunch of Lays, we were really feeling a little hard done by with the weather for the first few days after we arrived. With this being a shorter trip anyway, our over-privileged arses were feeling very sorry for themselves.
With our flight home just a couple of days away now, we both felt that we were only just getting going and I jokingly mentioned that we should stay a few more days. To cut a not-very-long story a little shorter, we had an opportunity to move our flight by a few days…..so I sprang into action on getting a room at the hotel…..and extending our car hire….and adjusting our airport parking….and making sure Emily back home could manage a bit longer….and talking to work, who were very understanding.
I’m pretty good at all this trip-related stuff, so with about half an hour or so on the phone and a few quid spent, we were now going to do the full two weeks and not go home until next Monday. We felt a mixture of luck, relief, and guilt.
I spoke to reception in the hotel about extending our stay but they gave me a price about 25% higher than what I could see online so I opted for the latter.
It turned out that the hardest element to amend was the airport parking due to the Holiday Extras app being a doom loop of not being able to amend anything or contact anybody. In the end, I just made a new booking for the extra days and crossed my fingers.
As the afternoon ended we went back to the room and I watched some Two and A Half Men whilst Louise got ready. I did pop down to the laundry to wash some clothes as we were now here for a few more days.
We set off up the gnarly I4 at 6.30 heading for Universal. We parked up around 7pm.
I took this to find the car later but I’ll share it anyway.
We walked through City Walk, picking up some gifts and having a drink from one of the kiosks not far from Voodoo Doughnuts.
We made our way to Antojitos for our 8.15 reservation and were seated after five minutes.
There is something just lovely about Florida of an evening.
We were brought the usual mountain of chips and salsa whilst we browsed the menu.
Of course, there were Nachos to start. These are a contender for the best we’ve ever had.
Louise had Fajitas.
I had something called The Trio. I didn’t really know from the menu what it included but it was very nice with a snot-inducing spicy kick in a couple of mouthfuls.
We walked up to Pat O’Briens as we had heard it had a dueling piano bar. I think we stayed for all of thirty seconds due to a mixture of not being able to find a clean table and the two piano players being woeful. I don’t seem to have recorded the cost of this meal but whatever it was, it was worth it.
We set the car in the direction of Jellyrolls and all was well with the world again.
We got there at 10.30 and once we had secured a table I nipped out to the ATM near The Boardwalk Inn so we could make some requests. We got three songs played tonight, this being one of our favourite songs, played by our favourite Jellyroller.
The other two were Pinball Wizard and If I Had A Million Dollars by Bare Naked Ladies.
It was quieter tonight being mid-week but we stayed till 1.20 before driving home and falling into bed at 2am.
The weather seemed to be behaving itself now. We awoke to much more acceptable fare, or at least the promise of it and we celebrated by getting down to breakfast with more than three minutes to spare before they closed.
After another very acceptable free brekkie we were out by the pool at 10am and here, captured by my excellent photography skills was the very moment we first saw the sun on this trip. It was quite emotional.
I know that modest glow actually being the sun is debatable but after the last few days, we were getting desperate. Yes, it was cloudy, but crucially it was dry and warm. We embraced this opportunity and did little else but read and relax until a break for another average poolside lunch at 1pm.
Louise had a Quesadilla and I had Tacos. They did not justify a photo.
More resting and reading followed lunch and even what had previously been an unthinkable dip in the pool happened.
We were back up in our room at 4.30 for showers and general readying for our trip out for tea. I couldn’t help but capture the unusually glorious weather a few times. I had forgotten what shadows were!
We were seeing things from the balcony that had been up until now concealed.
No Lyft was summoned tonight as we were headed to Universal, so I was driving.
This was the view from the window by the lifts on our way down to the car. Florida can be pretty when it’s not pissing down with rain.
It took about 20 minutes to travel up the I4 and park at City Walk. We arrived at the car park at 5.55 to see a load of cars pulled over to the side and not going through the payment booth things. We soon realised why, as parking became free at 6pm.
It was about 5.58 when we were next in line to pay the $30 when we saw the team member in the booth get on the phone and then immediately close up. What joyous luck hath been bestowed upon us? We were the first “free” car through and that $30 saving made all the difference in our overall budget for this trip.
We parked in ET and took the long walk into City Walk itself.
We browsed a shop or two, perpetually on the lookout for suitable gifts for those at home. Then we took up a table at the Palm Lounge (near the plane) for a pre-dinner drinkie. It was waitress service…literally, there was one waitress on, so after a little wait we had a beer and a wine.
We then made our way round to the Hard Rock for our reservation.
We were seated immediately and in the decade or two since we last visited we had forgotten how noisy it was in here.
Of course, we shared Nachos to start.
I followed that with a very large piece of meat, which was just OK, to be honest.
Louise ordered Fajitas and the “fixings” arrived about five minutes ahead of the sizzling platter of meat so she had to ask for new fixings as her tortillas were now cold and hard.
I had ordered a milkshake about twenty minutes ago and it now arrived.
Overall, the experience was just about acceptable. The service was patchy and the food was just OK. It may be another decade or two before we return.
As we made our way out Louise did wonder why they had a painting of David Baddiel hanging at the top of the stairs.
The bill was a slightly painful $155 all things considered.
You may guess that at this point, all we wanted was sleep, so was walked back to the car, drove home and let all that food add to our fat collections nicely as we immediately slept.
Writing about a travel day back to the UK is only marginally less crap than enduring one. In an attempt to make it a little more tolerable on the day we went for a ridiculous breakfast at Hash House A Go Go.
We’d been up at 8, showered, dressed and packed before leaving the room(s) to check out. Thankfully this did not have to entail another half an hour watching someone tap a keyboard at reception.
With the cases split nicely between two cars now we drove the short distance to our date with density.
Juice and coffee all round for the adults and then we ordered.
Me – Snickers Flapjacks
Mum – French Toast of course
Louise – A scramble skillet thing
Tom – Ham and Eggs
Rebecca – Chocolate Chip Flapjacks
Freddie and Dougie both had Pancakes of their own, rather than be sensible and have them share some of ours.
The food here is outstanding and of course huge. I am slightly ashamed to say I did not struggle too much to clear the lot!
The bill was $216.
As tradition dictates, Disney Springs gets a visit on our travel day home for gifts etc. World of Disney took a hammering first and with all gifts literally in the bag we browsed Basin to get clean hands and then Trend D and The Marketplace.
The boys and Tom enjoyed the last ride of the trip.
We left at 2, after inexplicably buying a candle to take across the Atlantic.
With our toll pass in the car Tom was driving, I set our Sat Nav to avoid tolls and it no doubt added a few minutes to the journey but we had plenty of time. The payback was that Rebecca and Tom had to take their car back to Terminal A to return the toll pass whereas we could drop at C.
So we waited quite some time for them to do that and make the arduous trek over to Terminal C. There had clearly been stress involved!
The sooner the toll pass folks get a booth in all terminals the better.
Check-in was quick and easy. One definite sign that you’ve perhaps done too many tips recently is when you recognise the check-in staff.
There was a brief kerfuffle as Tom remembered he’d put Freddie’s Switch in a case where it shouldn’t be but it was soon retrieved and we headed to security. It wasn’t too bad but security with two kids five and under is never easy. We were all glad to get through into the shops and snack up for the flight home. Rebecca had a minor stress-induced incident, but felt better once we’d got through security, found some milk for Dougie in a shop, and settled in until we were called to board.
We all took turns to wander off to the loos to adorn our UK clothing and there dear reader is where I could no longer be arsed taking notes. Nothing springs to mind of any note about the rest of the journey. The plane was fuller alas, than on the way out and the arrival back into the UK was smooth enough for me not to remember anything about it. Ah yes, I do remember we had to wait for our cases for an hour. That is no exaggeration. It was bobbins.
Tom and I were standing next to an American lady, worried about her connecting flight up to Glasgow. She asked if it was always like this in the UK. I told her to refer to my Twitter feed for a good synopsis of the root causes.
And with that, we are done. A complicated trip in many ways, but on the whole successful. Nobody wanted to kill anybody during the whole trip and for a multi-generational party that can only be classed as a win. These trips are tiring, hot and stressful so to get through with no arguments or bickering was a big plus. Let’s not pretend it’s always magical eh?
Mum did brilliantly, coping with the walking and ECVing when required.
We are all very glad she was able to come along and experience everything again, especially with the boys. It can be so easy to forget the details of these trips (unless like an idiot you write about every day in detail) but just skimming back through the photos now, you literally cannot buy that, although of course we did at sizeable expense.
We remembered Dad of course at the appropriate times, with our fireworks viewing in Magic Kingdom being particularly tearful. Ten months on it still doesn’t seem real that he isn’t here. He would have loved this trip!
The boys were great. Freddie was, as ever, incredibly well-behaved. Dougie is “more challenging” but even he, despite his age, the heat, time difference and fairly relentless pace, did well.
As mentioned when we left Daytona, we probably would not return. Vero is always our go-to beach choice but it was full and we chose the familiarity of Daytona rather than risk somewhere new like Clearwater or St. Pete’s. It is looking a bit run down and I fear for its viability in light of all the competition.
Our villa was lovely and a very good stand-in for our regular place, but we will return to that as and when it is possible. Royal Pacific, again, very good and we will return there I’m sure.
So with yet another trip documented, what we all need right now is a decent break before any such nonsense happens again right? OK.
See you here next week for a rare non-trip report blog post. What will I find to talk about?
Our last full day of what feels like the 17th trip report on the bounce. I have writer’s fatigue so I can’t imagine what you are going through. Probably because today didn’t involve Magic Kingdom, there didn’t seem to be as much emotion attached to it. It’s funny how the different parks affect you.
We decided on a hearty breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, relaxed in the knowledge that our Front of Line would see us right no matter what time we strolled into the park.
There was about a fifteen-minute wait for a table and we all chose to have the buffet. No surprise there. We all made numerous visits and as buffets go it was nothing spectacular but is there such a thing as a bad buffet?
The servers must love it as they basically give you some spiel, point you at food, and then get a tip for topping up your coffee. The bill was $200 and it took longer than I would have liked for the server to reappear and sort the bill so he lost a percentage point or two.
We went directly to the water taxi and headed out to IOA. It was 11.30 by now.
An ECV and a stroller were secured before we made our way in. I also had to buy a new can of sun tan spray which to me was ridiculous with one day to go but apparently, skin cancer doesn’t know that so there goes another $20.
The first ride of the day was Spiderman…
but I had a pressing appointment with stall 3 so I left everyone else to it. With both things completed, I then took Freddie on again so Rebecca and Tom could ride the Hulk which was still above Freddie’s ever-increasing height.
Whilst we waited for them to return we got Freddie’s face painted.
Next, we rode Cat In The Hat in another “Where has the last 20 years gone” moment as it was only last week were taking the girls on this at a similar age to Freddie.
Then we walked all the way over to the Potter stuff. We all rode the ride in Hogwarts (why can I never remember what it’s called?).
I say all, of course, Dougie could not and Mum sat out with him.
We left the ride, happily avoiding the locker carnage having left Mum to mind every bag, and got some butter beers.
It was really, really busy in this part of the park as it always seems to be, and whilst Tom spent a fortune on a wand for Freddie.
The excessive heat and the crowds got a bit much for Rebecca at this point and she had a bit of a wobble and we just needed to get out of there. It was so crowded that Mum insisted I rode her ECV out as it was almost impossible not to mow folks down. We were very glad to emerge out into the seemingly fresh air of the “normal” park.
We made our way over to Velocicoaster and I was delighted to see that you could now use Express passes on it. There was no such delight at the remaining complexity of using lockers. It’s just all a bit stressful with staff shouting instructions at you as you try not to hold anyone else up.
I had a mild panic when I realised I had left my park ticket in my bumbag, now sat with Mum outside, and wondered how I would use a locker without it. Luckily, the Express Pass I was clutching worked too.
We still waited 30 minutes to ride but by Jingo it is worth it. It was Louise’s first time on it and she entertained the park guests and no doubt the staff watching the CCTV with her boobs falling out of her top halfway round with no way to put them back in until the ride ended.
Jurassic Park next and it was an uneventful affair until the wet drop at the end. Freddie was in tears, not due to any fear but because the water had ruined his face paint! He was consoled and wiped clean before we moved on to Kong. Mum, Louise and Dougie sat out in the hot sun like mad folks. The ride was more violent than I remembered, more in terms of the video footage of folks being eaten and Freddie seemed a little taken aback.
As we left someone close by described it as Fast and Furious in the jungle and ruined the ride forever, as F&F is the worst ride ever to exist.
Tom and Freddie invested in ponchos and decided to do the water rides. Everyone else declined/chickened out and sat on a bench with a drink instead. The prospect of sitting all moist in a restaurant in a bit was a deterrent enough.
The boys returned a little more than moist having had a lot of fun and by then it was time to head out to City Walk as we had a reservation at Cowfish.
We checked in and sat on the only available bench in the scorching sunshine.
We were seated bang on our reservation time upstairs on the top floor.
I cannot express to you how bloody cold it was in this restaurant. It came close to ruining the whole experience. At one point I was sat with napkins covering my arms to try and fight off hypothermia.
Food-wise, we had appetisers of Fried Pickles and Loaded Truffle Fries.
Shakes for some, which was foolish in that temperature.
Freddie had Tenders…
Tom had a double Elvis Has Left The Building Burger and I had the single version.
Louise had Cheeseburgerooshi
Mum had a Longhorn burger
Rebecca had whatever this was. You can see Mum here trying to get warm with napkins.
The bill was $268 including tip, and the food was glorious. I would have paid double to have the heating on.
After the meal, some shopping happened for gifts etc whilst Tom took Freddie back into the parks for the last rides before home. Once we had finished shopping we sat enjoying the evening warmth for a bit waiting for the boys to return.
Rebecca had removed her trainers to rest her feet and saw a spider walking across one of them. She lovingly threw it at Louise, knowing her mortal fear of spiders and Louise panicked and threw the trainer away, hitting a poor lady who sat not too far away. Louise spent almost as long apologising as Rebecca did laughing.
With no sign of Tom and Freddie, Rebecca said she would walk Dougie in his stroller towards the parks to get him to sleep and the rest of us got the taxi back to the hotel. There was a lengthy wait to do so but we were all tucked up in bed by 10pm.
I can’t say that I had a bad night’s sleep, as that would mean I actually got some. Anyway, I got up eventually at 10am having got some minutes post-dawn.
Rebecca, Tom and the boys were of course already up and down by the pool at that point and we joined them with our breakfast from Tuk Tuk, the market thing in the hotel. Different hotel, but the same breakfast choices were made. Granola/Parfaits etc.
It was very hot today.
I was a bit unsettled as there was no firm plan for today, a scenario in which I do not thrive. There had been talk of heading to a park in the afternoon, but with our late start, after a chat, we decided to remain by the pool until our meal this evening. With that sorted, I went back up to the room to change into my swimming gear and I multi-tasked, taking Dougie with me in his stroller in the hope he would fall asleep for his nap.
On my return, there was swimming and resting for all.
With our late arrival, shade was tricky to find and Mum retreated over there to snap up a spare bed and umbrella.
Mid-afternoon Rebecca and Tom took the boys back to the room for a break from the heat. They had plans to head over to City Walk but never made it. Instead, we met them at around 4.30 by the water taxi as were headed out to Antojitos for our evening meal.
We sat briefly in reception…
Before being seated.
As we arrived at the table a huge bowl and chips and salsa was deposited and we started to eat too many of those.
For the appetisers we ordered, can you guess? Yes, Nachos and the handmade Guacamole that is created at your table. You get asked how you’d like it and what you may want extra or less of. We guessed at some things and ended up with a bowl of tasty green stuff.
The Nachos were awesome.
Mum had Beef Burrito
I had a Tostada, right there in public.
Tom had Quesedillas
Louise had Steak Fajitas
Freddie whatever this is….
Rebecca a Chicken Burrito
If you think that food looked fab, it was. One of the best meals of our trip and we will return for sure. It was $225 including an already added 18% tip.
After eating we strolled over to Studios as Freddie wanted to ride Mummy to show he wasn’t scared of it anymore.
Once we got into the park I volunteered to stay off with Dougie and my overly full belly. Mum sat out too.
Next, we rode Fallon minus Mum and Dougie.
With Freddie in charge of the plans, we rode Mummy again next and I could not avoid it this time.
I did draw the line at Rip Ride Rockit though and just Rebecca and Tom did that one. We waited on a bench here.
I am almost ashamed to admit that sweet snacks were had. Well, we did not have dessert in the restaurant I suppose. Some of us had pineapple and some a Mango Ice push-up.
Louise sat with a sleeping Dougie whilst the rest of us walked over to ride The Simpsons. Freddie enjoyed that one and by the time we exited it was going dark.
With the it now being a few minutes before park close we walked briskly over to ET to squeeze that in.
It is of course very dated now and I’m not sure what five-year-old Freddie made of it all.
We walked back to Louise and Dougie and slowly made our way over to the water taxi. It was a fifteen-minute wait for one to fit us on and get us back to the hotel. Louise and I went to the Sushi Bar place fo a couple of drinks and I tried a couple of cocktails.
No idea what that one was…
But this Espresso Martini was delicious
We grabbed some waters from Tuk Tuk and were in bed by 12.
I was up and about around 8.30 and for Louise and I there was little packing to do as we did all that yesterday. It was a different matter for Rebecca of course. Anyone with young kids will know and understand the horrors of packing for a day out, never mind a two-week holiday, so they had a lot on this morning.
I did Dad things like emptying the bin and the fridge before playing with the boys so Rebecca and Tom could literally get their shit together.
We successfully left the villa bang on 10am and got into the car. It was then Louise realised she had left her phone inside so it was 10.01 before we left, for a second time.
Breakfast was required so we headed up to the 192 and a Perkins. It was a weekend so it was busy. I ran in to make sure we could get a table before everyone else went to the trouble of leaving their vehicles and we were in luck. We were seated immediately and literally just beat a rush of folks coming in who then had to watch us order and eat for quite some time before they were seated.
Whilst we browsed the menu a balloon artist approached the table and we commissioned a piece of his art. I don’t know how we do it, but not one of us had any cash to tip him, but we somehow found a few dollars to avoid embarrassment.
I had Brioche French Toast.
Louise, quite some distance away, had Omelette and Pancakes.
I think Tom and Rebecca had the same thing. I just don’t know what it was called.
Mum had a strawberry pancake thing which seems to have escaped my camera, as did Freddie’s Rainbow Pancakes.
Here’s Dougie basking in the afterglow of Tom’s sunburn.
The service was a bit slow and surly but the food was great and a reasonable $113 plus tip.
We dragged our fullness back to the car and set off towards the Royal Pacific at Universal. The I4 was busy and about ten minutes out from our destination, Louise informed us that this would be about 9 minutes and 30 seconds too late for her to find a toilet. Somehow she managed to contain herself and I managed to get us there a bit quicker, but she had to roll out from our moving vehicle as we approached the hotel entrance and sprint for a restroom.
The rest of us drove off to self-park and managed all the cases without her.
I like this hotel a lot, but check-in always takes an age. I don’t know why, as every piece of information they could possibly want or need is provided by me when I book. Regardless, Tom and I stood at the desk for over twenty minutes whilst the receptionist tapped away at endless stuff on their computer.
On the plus side, our rooms were ready and next to each other so we headed up to 2611 and 2613.
As you will see, I splurged to upgrade to the “tree view” option.
After just a few minutes of dumping cases, we were out again and heading to the water taxi.
Not the first turtle head that had been experienced today of course.
Technically these may be terrapins, but that wouldn’t work as well for attempted comedic effect.
We needed to head to Guest Services to sort out tickets for Louise and me. We had to redeem our Hurricane Ian affected tickets rolled over from last time.
We queued up for a bit before getting to a window and being sorted relatively painlessly.
As we were already there we decided to do Studios first.
Getting in was a bit faff filled. With our tickets split between my phone and physical ones for Louise and me, I had to stand at the gate and call folks forward when I swiped to their ticket. Some worked the first time and some didn’t. Anyway, we finally got in…nope, then Tom was stopped for a survey.
Ok, now we can start.
We selected the first thing we saw as our first ride.
I fell on my sword and stayed out with Dougie. A move my Mum would curse me for as she did not enjoy the shaking about she took on Minions.
Dougie and I strolled the shop enjoying the AC for about 30 minutes whilst the others Expressed and rode.
Between crowds coming out of the ride, I snuck us in for a quick meet and greet.
Next, we intended to ride Rip Ride Rockit without upsetting Freddie further who was gutted he could not do so. Good old bribery was our plan, but could not find an ice cream with which to do so anywhere. Anyway, Louise and Mum did not want to ride so they took the boys off whilst the rest of us did.
See how the weather is now glorious as soon as we leave the beach?
This is one heck of a ride, but now, at my age, it’s just pain and screaming. Thankfully it was over quickly and we returned to the others. We were heading for The Mummy, a ride Freddie was very keen to try.
We finally found ice cream in the shape of a Haagen Dazs shop and we all had too much.
Everyone apart from Mum and Dougie went off to ride, and to confirm the locker thing is still a confusing mess. Eventually, we figured it out. I of course locked my theme park ticket inside the locker, which was in my bum bag, but thankfully I had taken photos of them and had retained my phone in my zipped pocket (a must for any visit to Universal – Pro-Tip!) so would use those to unlock it once we had ridden. Pro-tip number 2!
We went through the blurry Express queue reasonably quickly.
Freddie was not too sure about it as we exited. I think it had taken him by surprise, but after giving it some thought over the next few hours, he wanted to and did ride it again and loved it.
We found Mum and Dougie on a bench watching some dancing.
We watched the end of that whilst Rebecca and Tom took the boys off to the loo/nappy change.
Transformers next.
A firm Freddie favourite. For me, it’s one of too many simulators at Universal and as I always say, it’s Spiderman with a different film. I know that’s dismissive of what was no doubt millions of dollars of development, but it is!
Over to Diagon Alley now. In all the years we’ve done Diagon Alley we’ve never really been able to have a good look around the shops as they are just too busy. This year was no different, especially with a stroller.
So we found Mum somewhere shady to sit and headed into Gringott’s.
Ross Kemp has let himself go.
There’s still a fair amount of queue even with Express.
But eventually, we got there.
Again, at the risk of dismissing an incredible feat of engineering. The ride is thrilling but can anyone hear what any of the characters are saying? The entire storyline is lost on me other than some things are trying to get us and the good guys save us (spoiler alert). Maybe that’s just me as I am too busy bracing my entire body against the painful jolts.
We took a moment after this ride and got some drinks. We found a bench and rested.
Most of us then walked around to Men in Black.
It was Freddie and me in the front row and with a spare seat next to me, I did what any competitive Dad/Grandad would do and grabbed two guns. It didn’t make the impact I may have hoped for on the scores but our car won at least.
Returning to those not riding, we decided we were all knackered and should head out for food. There were zero plans for dining this evening so we were now searching out dining options on a busy Saturday night at City Walk. Easy right?
I was walking and app surfing to no avail. I walked ahead of the group, stopping off at restaurants hoping to snag a walk-up for seven. What could possibly go wrong?
The only place that could take us was the Bob Marley place. Somewhere we have never considered, but any port in a hungry storm. I told everyone where I was and waited for them to catch up before we were seated.
Christ, the music was loud. I know, by definition this is a music-centric venue but they had a proper DJ on and the volume was rattling my teeth and preventing any kind of conversation.
I had Beef Patties, but it was probably just chaffing from all the walking.
Tom and Rebecca – Jerk Chicken Sandwich
Louise – Stuffed Peppers
Mum – Jerk Chicken Salad
Freddie had Tenders.
It was all very nice. Not somewhere we would choose again as the menu was pretty limited and it did make us deaf. It was £169 including an 18% tip.
We strolled back to the water taxi and waited 15 minutes for one to turn up.
We were back in our rooms soon after and I was to suffer a horrendous night of heartburn/acid reflux, with no sleep until about 5am. I blame that DJ.
With another trip done and written up, what the hell do I write about now? Hmmm…
Well, I like to plan, you know that, and I am fairly good at it, but where I find myself now, with the perfect synchronisation of the end of my latest trip report last Sunday, leaving just one Sunday free for a blog post to confess to you all that we are going again, was pure luck.
Yep, we fly out to Orlando again on Tuesday. We booked in late February and timing it perfectly, as far as these Sunday ramblings go, I unconsciously left myself the perfect one-week window to allow you all to collectively eye-roll at the news.
We really didn’t mean to go. I don’t mean that I fell over and landed on my keyboard, pressing several “Book It” buttons all at once. It was less accidental than that, but not by much.
As we returned from the trip you’ve just read about we had some tentative, back-of-the-mind intentions to maybe go on holiday, maybe to Orlando, maybe not, just Louise and I, around September time, but there was no planning going on.
For those who actually read this stuff and pay attention, you may remember that Rebecca, Tom and the boys had booked to go this April, but for boring real-world reasons, they had to postpone/cancel that trip. Well, we got chatting and the idea of all going together (alas Emily had used all her holiday entitlement on other trips with her boyfriend) at some point came up. Initially, as we often do we looked at non-US destinations. As ever, we inevitably drifted back to Florida due to its familiarity and the guarantee of it suiting us and particularly the boys.
We started looking for Florida trips at the end of August into September and spent many minutes laughing at the prices. When did the prices for school holidays become so ludicrous? We went for years at the end of August and we were skint! Hmm, maybe that’s why we were skint.
We then started to work our way back through the summer, trying to find dates that would work for everyone. To cut a very long story short, we had limited options and it ended up being May.
To be honest, May was probably too early for us, and certainly too early for Louise and another trip to WDW, but the carrot of being able to go with Rebecca, Tom and the boys and to see Freddie and Dougie experience Florida overcame all sticks easily.
The compromise was that Louise insisted that we spend a week at a beach. This kicked off the most complex trip I have ever organised, as a week at the beach wouldn’t suit a five-year-old and one-year-old, so I began the process of planning multiple itineraries within one holiday.
Flight-wise, the lowest cost was the order of the day, so Aer Lingus won this time and we are all in economy on the 16th of May. As we have a lap sitter in our party in Dougie, I was unable to book our seats online, but their WhatsApp service was excellent and that was sorted in minutes.
The basic plan was to get a villa for most of the stay, but Louise and I would go off to the beach for a week, with Rebecca and the crew joining us there for a night or two, before they would return to Orlando for theme parking. Alas, our favourite villa was not available for our dates, so we chose what we hope is the next best thing from Airbnb.
In a strange and not to be repeated turn of events Louise chose our accommodation at the beach. I had wanted to go to Vero but hens have more teeth than they had availability, so we opted for a previous destination in Daytona, and Louise did five minutes of searching and informed me we would be staying at the Hard Rock there. Rebecca, Tom and the boys would join us for a couple of days at the beach and then return to Orlando and the villa.
Then, to finish off the trip, and to use up the three-day park passes still owed to us by Hurricane Ian, we booked to stay at our usual place, Royal Pacific at Universal.
I secured us a mini-van and would later return to the issue of how Louise and I would get back from Daytona to Orlando as Rebecca and Tom would be taking our main car back to Orlando with them.
It was about a week after sorting all this, (which I have massively over-simplified above by the way, please show some respect for my planning skills), that Louise and I chatted and thought we should invite my Mum along. Clearly, the complexity of the trip was not sufficient to test my planning expertise.
Mum took a little convincing, unsure about undertaking her first trip without my Dad, but was soon on board when we asked her what Dad would have said! It’s been a while since she has been to Florida and for her and let’s face it for all of us, who knows when that trip might be your last. They are physically demanding so making hay in the sunshine is important.
So I then went about adding Mum to the flight and messaging Aer Lingus to change all our seats again from two sets of three to a four and two, booking her a room at Daytona (she will come with us to the beach) and finally adding her onto our room at Royal Pacific. We will share for the few nights we are there to avoid huge expense.
Park tickets and then of course park reservations were bought and made for all.
One of the most complex issues now presented itself. The car.
With seven people now on the trip and with car seats and strollers and oodles of luggage, the standard seven-seater van we had reserved would not cut the mustard. With every seat taken, there was just no way we would fit all that into the thing. That kicked off a ridiculous amount of time looking at alternatives, some of which would involve me getting my HGV licence, but the answer was presented by Rebecca, who suggested I look at what car we got the last time we had 7 people on the trip.
Finally, I found a use for my obsessive trip reporting and went back to that trip and found the make and model of what we had. On that trip, we also had a stroller and all that goes with a small child so we could be fairly sure it would all fit.
Of course, none of the main car hire sites listed this 8-seater Toyota Sienna, so I reached out to Andy at Discount Florida Car Hire, who I had booked with and explained our predicament. He was incredibly helpful and located one and secured it for us via Dollar. What an 80’s pop duo are doing in the hire car business I do not know.
Hopefully, we are all sorted now as I didn’t fancy driving a 12 or 15-seater thing, especially as Tom would be driving it around for a week during his first time driving in Florida.
I have even booked the three beachgoers a car for a few days in Daytona, crucially giving us a means by which we can drive back to Orlando. For our first two days in Daytona, we will all be together with Rebecca, Tom and the boys then driving back to Orlando at the end of day two, after watching the baseball, which we have always enjoyed in the past. Once the three of us are done with Daytona a few days later, we will drive back to Orlando, drop our hire car at the WDW car centre and have Tom pick us up before heading to check in at Universal.
So, I think that’s everything?? Still with me? Complicated isn’t it?
If anyone still has any appetite whatsoever for another bloody trip report, and even I barely do, I’ll be back here in June popping another one out. I can only apologise.
As ever, the Mkingdon Facebook page is your source of any live updates during the trip and I’ll see you back here in June if you can stomach any more of the same old guff.
It won’t be too shocking to you to hear that Louise didn’t really sleep too well. She was up most of the night and I rose at my now regular time of around 6am.
We watched a bit of TV for a while and then got up, got ready and finished packing. I nipped down to Fuel again and got some coffee and breakfast. I had some overnight oats which I suspect are one of those things that are portrayed as healthy but probably have more calories in them than a Christmas dinner.
I had a look at our hotel bill on our TV and it was completely unfathomable. I am a man of moderate intelligence but the endless litany of debits and credits just made no sense whatsoever. I was in no mood to be picking over it, so I just clicked “Checkout” and thought any issues could be dealt with later.
We were out of the room a whole five minutes before the 11am deadline. By the time we arrived in the lobby I had already realised that I had left our keycard in the room and now had no means by which to get us out of the car park. So I had to go to reception and tell them this tale that they no doubt hear about 112 times a day.
Once in the car with all the luggage, with my freshly issued key card between my lips, I was delighted to see the barrier just rise automatically making my ten-minute wait in the queue at reception all the more worthwhile.
Of course, we needed an extra case as we couldn’t fit everything into the two we came with, so our first stop was Premium Outlet Malls to find one. We quickly found the Samsonite shop and discovered that the Premium in Premium Outlet Malls stands for the prices. $199 lighter, we left with an unremarkable averagely-sized case. Again, shopping around for a cheaper option was not something either of us felt like doing today.
Back at the car, we shoved the extra stuff currently loose in our trunk/boot into the case.
Our pre-airport meal was to be another visit to the Nachos capital of the world, the Cheesecake Factory. On the way, I stopped to fill the car up and a real sign of the economic times saw a $50 pre-payment not fill the tank from just under half full.
The place was empty but it was barely noon on a Monday.
Having learned our lesson on the last visit, we were just going to have some Nachos today, and possibly a slither of cheesecake too. We would play it by ear!
Isn’t that a magnificent sight? These were again all kinds of awesome and we cleared the lot.
With our return to the UK now imminent and a good deal of upset and unpleasantness in our immediate future, we battled on and got some cheesecake down us.
Mine was called an Old Basque for reasons that escaped me.
Louise had the Banana Cream Pie one. Can anyone say that without hearing Fozzy’s voice?
It was 1.15 now and having failed to fill the tank up on the first attempt, I stopped again for fuel and put another $10 in. The needle still didn’t look to be all the way to the top but that would have to do.
There was nothing left to do now and no time left to do it, so we headed for the airport. We arrived at 1.40 and returned the car with no fuss in car return B. I remembered to drop off the toll pass thing in one of the bins provided and we now had a bit of an adventure getting to the very newly opened Terminal C.
There’s a sign for Terminal C which says you can take the monorail and it will take five minutes or you can walk there in twenty. Unless you are running sub-four-minute miles this is nonsense. It is bloody miles to Terminal C. Even when you get off the monorail there was an enormous trek up and down multiple levels to get to the check-in area. I’m sure all this will improve over time but it was a real faff.
We waited about twenty minutes for check-in to open and we were headed home in Business Class. Aer Lingus invited me to bid for an upgrade before we left the UK and I did, bidding the lowest amount they would permit and we got it. We endured a large family group with many children making a load of noise as we waited. They were those parents who speak to their kids in a way that makes it clear they want everyone around to hear, and know what fun parents they are and how “entertaining” their kids are. Many of the party had those entirely amusing pink Stetsons on that you may see on a Blackpool hen do. Sure, I can be a snob when I want to be.
My tolerance for other people’s kids can be low at the best of times. Right now, it was not abundant.
Anyway, soon enough a camp man with an impressive tan opened up our check-in and we got a glimpse into what it is like to travel like wealthy people. I liked it. He really looked after us. He had a passing resemblance to Emperor Ming (ask your elderly relatives).
Security was empty and we were through to the new terminal. Most of it, not quite open.
I got changed into UK clothing in a loo before we checked into the Business Class lounge. That too was a bit makeshift, but we got free drinks and some seats in a quieter area behind some curtains.
To top the trip off we’d been hearing from Rebecca that Freddie was in the hospital! So we chatted to her to get updates and crossed our fingers that by the time we landed all would be better. In the weeks to come, he would be back in the hospital to undergo a scheduled operation to remove his tonsils as they were the root cause of an endless stream of infections and illnesses. Touch wood, he has been fine since!
We boarded at 5.30.
There was fizzy stuff and juice as we sat down and overall the experience was a good one. The food was a clear step up from the economy stuff. We had a very acceptable bit of steak.
The seat was able to go all the way down pretty much but neither of us managed much sleep as it just wasn’t that comfy, but that is churlish as the comfort levels compared to these night flights in economy was obviously much better.
The flight went pretty quickly thanks to a tail-wind and I have no clue what happened next as my notes finish there.
To say this was an odd trip would be an understatement. It was the first time Louise and I had been on our own and I have to say I really enjoyed the more relaxed, easier to plan and decide what to do element of that. Of course, I also enjoy the large family group trips too. They each have their merits. It was also just nice to have time for just us two.
Clearly though the trip was over-shadowed by firstly the hurricane and the now, in the context of later events, seemingly inconsequential disruption that brought upon us. Throughout the trip, we had the over-arching worry at all times about Mary and her respite care and of course, the worst happened so close to the end of the trip. Having cared for her at home for nine months prior to the trip, it was heartbreaking to lose her whilst away for just two weeks.
We returned home to arrangement-making, putting affairs in order and generally sorting stuff out for Mary. We weren’t to know that within two months my Dad would pass too. He had been a long-time prostate cancer sufferer and the bloody thing got him after 13 years, helped by Covid and a fall that meant he had to have a hip operation. He never came out of the hospital following that operation and his decline was shockingly quick. We are all still trying to process what we’ve been through this year.
It was that rapid decline of my Dad added to Mary’s passing that inspired us to return to Florida so quickly after this trip. We were very much in a “F*ck it, we have to do it whilst we are young and fit enough” mood, driven by what we had seen with our respective parents.
So almost immediately after getting this trip written up, we go again, this time with Emily along for the ride(s). Hopefully, we can enjoy a less stressful trip with no weather disruption and without the concern around Mary’s care and condition on our minds.
If you’ve not had more than enough already, it’ll be here for you to endure soon enough.
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