writing – Mkingdon's Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

We sought out some breakfast over in the Land pavilion.

That was $56 and tasty.

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

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

To calm her down we went for a Starbucks.

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

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

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

Crush was good fun as always.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s better….

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

As I said….idiots…..

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

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

There were so good they deserved two photos….

Louise had Chicken Fajitas….

and Mikey had Firecracker Tacos.

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

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

We had a stroll around Celebration….

Taking very average photos….

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

Till the next time……

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I had French Toast with fruit and an iced coffee.

Emily had an Omelette and a Diet Coke

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Emily and Mikey both had the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

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

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

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

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

Till the next time……

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was lovely to be back amongst these familiar sights.

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

The money shot.

There were tears within the group as per.

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

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

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

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

Never has a sphincter been more clenched.

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

So we set off in the that direction.

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

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

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

Breakfast was $56.

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

It was a bare faced lie.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This will never not anger me.

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

We sat out by The Plaza and enjoyed them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were breaded up….

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

Louise and I shared Nachos as our Entree.

Mikey had Fish Tacos.

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

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

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

Till the next time……

Touching Distance

06/09/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time…..

The Whole Tooths

19/04/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Despite the chaos and unending drama around the world, with just a few days to go before we are due to fly, it does seem that we may be able to go on holiday. This is good news. Today was the official “get the cases out” day and we have a spare bedroom filled with clothes in varying stages of ironed-ness and over the coming days the packing fairies will place them into my case ready for the off on Friday.

I have been to the Post Office and ordered some dollars for tipping, with everything in low denominations as I am notoriously cheap and will not be tipping anyone in tens and twenties. We are all inclusive after all. I can pick those up on Wednesday if all goes to plan.

I am both relieved and terrified to be stepping away from work for two weeks. I am desperately in need of some time away from Teams and the daily drama and chaos of my current working life, but I am equally terrified of the plates and balls that will get dropped without me constantly fretting about them on a minute by minute basis.

What narcissism to think that I am that vital to anything.

I have been ordering the seemingly endless pet supplies that Emily will need for the time we are away. It is only at times like that that I fully understand the huge financial drain these furry shits are. I refer mostly to the cats of course.

Speaking of furry shits (and no I do not have a rare stomach condition with those symptoms) poor Bean has had a bit of a week. We’ve been battling tooth and gum issues with her for a long while but it came to a head last week and we had to admit defeat and get her to the vets for some intervention. It was clear that things were not getting better and we did not want her suffering, especially when we are away.

To cut a long story short, as expected she needed an operation to remove the offending teeth that were causing all the issues, pain and smells. Bless her, she had thirteen teeth out in total and has of course been drowsy and recovering all week. Getting her painkillers down her when she is not that keen to eat right now has been a challenge but already we can smell an immediate improvement in her breath and I’m sure she will be better for it in the long term. On that note, and you knew I couldn’t resist moaning about the costs, she now needs to live for another couple decades to make that financial investment in her well being worthwhile.

With Bean out of the house for a full day for her op and then for a good few hours on other days for check ups, we have also suffered at the hands and paws of Woody who has revealed just how much he relies on Bean for emotional support! He cried the entire time she was out, either because he was missing her or assumed she’d gone on some fun adventure without him. If he only knew how much better off he was ruining my Teams calls with his non stop moaning.

Pre op

Immediately Post OP

She looks more like herself now of course with the drugs out of her system, but bless her.

In other tooth news, in a not uncommon bit of play fighting this week, Tom suffered his own dental drama. With the rough housing getting a little too extreme, Freddie accidentally connected foot to tooth and now Tom has an appointment at the dentist tomorrow to see what can be done. Boys will be boys!

All this makes my dental visit last Monday seem pretty calm, despite me having a filling without an injection. It is common knowledge that I have a real fear of dental procedures but I trusted the dentist who assured me all would be well and it was surprisingly pain free and she sorted my own chipped tooth issue out brilliantly. So in the dental wars of this week I feel like I have been the winner.

Four days of work chaos to go and then we fly…..I cannot wait.

Till the next time…….

Some Reality From The Past.

25/01/202625/01/2026 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Not a great deal to report this week, or at least nothing too different to last week.

Work was a never ending stream of problems, emergencies and issues sprinkled in between a million meetings and a Friday trip to London. That was fun.

However on the train back from London I received a message from my friend Paul who I have known since I was 18. It contained a video that I thought had long since been lost to landfill as when it was recorded, the internet and the cloud did not exist. The VHS tape on which it existed was as far as I knew now no longer in existence.

It seems not. Somehow Paul had come across it and it has been uploaded to the internet where it can now live forever. Whether it should or not.

Way back in the late 80s and early 90s I was in several bands with Paul. We were hoping for pop stardom and for a few years we gigged a lot locally, gaining a decent local following and even got onto local radio at one point.

Of course, just like our hairlines those dreams went away but we all carried on getting enjoyment from music and we stay in touch from time to time.

As toe curlingly embarrassing as this video is, it genuinely made my day. It was so lovely to see something that only existed before the internet as so much of what we did in these bands is now lost.

Anyway, here is a video we shot in Paul’s dining room to send off to some TV competition for unsigned bands. The song is called New Foundation which you would quickly realise if you can make it beyond the early parts of the video where we do a terrible job of trying to do some kind of cool band intro.

The hair, fresh faces and fun we had reflected how much we all enjoyed being in bands with people you genuinely like and get on with. That is still the case today. For anyone that showed any interest in the book I did a while back, my experiences in bands at this time formed much of the “research” done for it. Write about what you know and all that.

Enjoy??

Till the next time…….

Return of The Crap

21/12/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time……

99 LuftBallons

18/05/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Thankfully no tales of work travel this week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time……

Video, Vloggers, and Very Little Else

06/04/2025 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till the next time…….

The Long Trousers

23/03/2025 by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

A week on from making the decision to change our holiday destination and it still feels like we made the right call. We’ve watched a lot of content about our new destination and we’re both excited about the trip now.

Our decision seemed to get endorsed a little during the week with the UK updating the travel advice for the US, albeit, just to be extra careful with your paperwork but I suspect those things aren’t done lightly.

I absolutely understand the sentiment that I see in many WDW Facebook groups that nothing has really changed, and lots of folks will, of course, still go ahead as planned, and I’m sure they will be fine. I think if we’d been at the peak of our (my) WDW obsession we would have made the same call.

I’m really hopeful that is the case, mainly because Emily is going in August and has no plans to change that. As worried as I may be about that, as Louise pointed out, she’s 30 in July and has been a gabillion times so I’m probably more concerned than I should be.

They are traveling with another couple who are first-timers and they have already had the lecture about how to behave at immigration. It always does depend on the agent you get as to how much interaction you could have but these days, with tales of them taking your phone to look for anti-Trump content, this is not the year to mess about it seems. If that was the case I would not make it past baggage reclaim.

Anyway, this year, for us, it didn’t feel right and let’s face it, we’re overdue a change in holiday destination so we’ve made the change and feel comfy with that decision.

Whilst it is very likely that those going to WDW will benefit from the Disney bubble effect and will not notice very much difference from any other year, it’s clear something is going on in the US that does not look great. Fingers crossed it results in nothing too nasty. We do very much want to return to our usual holiday destination and would rather not have to wait until the current administration is no more.

Since changing our booking, we’ve watched a couple of resort tours of Secrets Akumal on YouTube, and we’re delighted with our choice. It’s a bit posh, and one slightly annoying thing (the firstest of first-world problems) is that for many of the restaurants there, a slightly more formal dress code than I would normally like on holiday exists. This means that I shall have to wear long trousers on some evenings. Indeed, it means I shall have to acquire some long trousers suitable for warmer nights. There has never been the need to cover my knees of an evening in Florida and Mexico shall be denied the thrill of my legs after dark.

One thing that we are especially pleased with is the range and variety of cuisines from the restaurants at the resort. There are nine different eateries, including Italian, Mexican, French, Asian and your more general stuff. An additional plus is that there is no need to book a table, which seems odd for someone like me to say when I am usually online at 7am 90 days before a dining experience making sure we bag a table. But this is a different kind of trip and having to try and secure slots to eat that are not a buffet on a lie-down and do-nothing trip is one of the things that had put us off all all-inclusive trips previously.

From all the stuff we’ve watched the place never looks packed, there are sunbeds available with nobody up at 6am throwing towels down and you can walk up to any restaurant and be accommodated. Let’s hope it turns out that way.

The sunbed reservation thing is actively prevented it seems, with the staff insisting that even if you have beds and are going elsewhere for more than an hour or so, you take your stuff with you to allow others to use the beds.

Whilst everyone will of course make their own call on whether to travel or not, already it seems there has been a significant downturn in tourism to the US. Canada seems to be the main reason for this up until now. It’ll be interesting to see what all this costs the US in the end and you again have to wonder why the President would undertake anything to damage their own economy intentionally.

Whilst he will be OK of course due to the numerous ways in which his term will enrich him, it’s the folks who work in tourism who will be hit, hopefully resulting in fewer votes for his party in future, should there be any future elections!

Over dramatic? Probably. All I will say is that we’ve started re-watching the Handmaid’s Tale in preparation for the final season which should be out soon. Whilst we’ve always loved it, on this second time of watching there are elements more akin to documentary than drama.

And on that bombshell, I shall leave you to your Sundays.

Till the next time……

Chat WTF

02/03/2025 by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

You join me live, as I sit in the Virgin Atlantic chat queue, trying to find out how punitive the terms would be should we cancel our flights for July. As uncomfortable as we would be giving the current US administration our hard earned and as outraged as we are at the horrific state of affiars there, we are not rich enough to wave goodbye to many thousands of pounds on that principle. I’m not sure if that makes us tight, amoral or a bit wishy washy but it is what it is.

Another week passes where a new low is found by the orange piss ant and at the speed at which things are going to hell in a hand cart, who knows what we may be flying to in July. It is time at least to understand all of our options and if cancelling gives us any better scenarios than changing to a new destination for at least £500.

If we could cancel it would at least give us a wider choice of alternatives not bound by where VA fly to from Manchester. We could of course just take any refund we may be afforded and bank that and save the money, but, well you’ve been reading this stuff for too long to know how likely that is.

I do strongly suspect that the terms of the booking will mean we would lose pretty much everything and having shelled out for Premium, that’s a high price to pay for principles and maybe an overblown concern that any of what is happening would affect a holiday.

I should know the terms of course, as I accepted them when booking. What was weird is that post booking I didn’t get any form of confirmation email from Virgin, in which I would expect to find said terms. I can see the booking on their website and in the app but what happens if I cancel seems to be buried so deep I have yet been able to uncover it.

It is of course very unlikely that I will have my answer before I finish typing up this week’s note of despair. Covid aside it would have been impossible to imagine having reservations about visiting what has been our second home for decades just a few short weeks ago. I’ve always at least tried to keep politics out of this blog but at this point there is no balance or other point of view to consider, so if I lose a reader or two it’ll be for the best.

I have no clue what Trump’s end game is really, other than to destroy everything so badly that he can somehow justify declaring martial law and suspend elections. Anything else makes little sense.

With a low expectation of getting any money back I haven’t really considered alternatives too strongly yet. Somewhere hot, with that elusive mix of being peaceful yet with enough stuff going on, with a direct flight and if at all possible without the hellscape that is a coach transfer from the airport of multiple hours and with no sign of any Agadoo style “entertainment” staff telling me how to have fun.

You can see why we keep returning to Florida!

I continue to wait for someone at Virgin to talk to me, so I shall leave you to shake your head in disbelief at how ridiculously seriously I take holidays and can over react in the most impressive way.

Till the next time……

So much writing it’s wrong

08/07/201208/07/2012 by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

I’ve done a lot of writing this week, which is a symptom of being able to concentrate on anything for more than ten minutes again. Which is nice!

As well as last week’s blog of course, I took the time to pen the pre trip report for our upcoming holiday. I have mentioned that we’re going on holiday haven’t I? If you have read it, thank you, and if you left a nice comment even more of a thank you.

It was a bit of a long one, and came a little bit early. There you go, I am limbering up nicely for this year. My innuendo muscle is responding nicely to the training.

I also made a long overdue return to the WDW Dads, and posted an article there. I’d been asked to consider the main differences when planning what our US friends consider to be “very long” trips to WDW. Funny that, as every holiday I’ve been on there seems to flash past in about three days.

Somehow I also seemed to make time to write a guest blog for Lucy over at her Disneyroobs blog. I believe she is having a series of guest writers in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for those. I won’t spoil things by saying what my post is about, but I doubt it will be a massive surprise to any of you! I don’t know exactly when mine will be used, but don’t worry I will shamelessly publicise when it is.

So I haven’t had much time to do anything else really. I did collect my new car on Tuesday, so I have been getting used to that. It may be a little smaller than my last car (but let’s face it, most cars are) but it still gets the job done!

The other main task of this week has been the appointing of a builder to sort the loft out. As I’ve mentioned, this is to be Emily’s bedroom. It is a fully fledged room already, as the house was originally built with it as a room. However, I don’t think it had been touched very much since. So after two weeks of demo, we are ready for the builders.

The quote was of course much higher than we were hoping, but if we are to do it, we may as well do it properly and not cut any corners.

It is always hard to show a room off on photos, but in the spirit of a before shot, here is what we currently have.

We are using the same chaps that did our garage conversion at the old house, and they reckon within a week they will be done and we can start decorating. Now there is something to look forward to!

We hope to have the whole thing done before Nana and Granddad go to France in early August as Emily is currently sleeping at their house, and she wouldn’t be keen on doing so on her own!

This morning I moved all the boxes we’d shoved up into the loft when we moved in, so that the builders can start work. They are all currently rammed into our ensuite bathroom, so going to the loo in there takes a certain talent and a very good aim for the next week or so.

With that and a bit of house tidying done, I took Emily to the Trafford Centre so that she could get some more holiday clothes for her two, yes two, upcoming holidays.

She is off to Spain with her friend in late July. Her friend’s grandparents have a villa there, and she has been invited along for a week. We took Nana shopping too so that she could step in whenever I wanted to strangle Emily. She is officially the worst and most frustrating shopper in the world.

We returned without violence, and she got herself a load of stuff so that was good. Whilst I was out Louise wallpapered Rebecca’s bedroom. Well, one wall of it anyway. Most of her walls are covered in fitted wardrobes and drawers, but she wanted the wall behind her bed doing in a specially selected (about three months ago) vintage look wallpaper. You see, I would rather go to the Trafford Centre than do DIY!

There is nothing so tiring as walking around a large shopping place. I’m sure they pipe mogadon through the air con. I had that familiar shopping foot ache, and a thirst that could not be quenched.

Emily found it tough going too.

To be fair that was more a result of me watching the end of the tennis. Emily declared it “even more boring than football”. High praise indeed.

After Murray’s inevitable defeat, I made tea, ate it and that leads us right up to now as I sit writing this.

Before I leave you I should say that I am really enjoying the live updates from our friend Gordon, as he tweets and Instagrams his way around WDW. Make sure you find him on a social media site near you, where he is invariably called The_Finkelstein.

He will back all too soon, and I ask you that you all support him at that terrible time. From the look of things he is having an absolute ball, and the back to reality crash may be a big one.

I on the other hand will be deep into my final countdown and I shall be rubbing that in at every opportunity.

Till the next time…….

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