And It's Over....

We had to be up and out of the villa by 10.00am, with our flight from Orlando International to Atlanta, not departing until 14.30pm.

It became evident when finishing packing that we did not have enough space in the suitcases. In fact we had a problem in closing a couple of them.

So like a previous visit to Orlando, on the trip to the airport we had to stop and buy another suitcase. After we had filled the suitcase with our extra luggage we headed for the airport.

Not sure why, but we seemed to take an odd route to the airport, which in hindsight I can only put down to selecting the wrong option, when asked via toll roads or not. I thought I had selected yes to toll roads but reflecting back on the journey I must have chosen the other option.

Anyway, with the car safely dropped off, we headed to check in for our flight to Atlanta. There was some confusion over whether we should head for Delta or Virgin, given we had different flight numbers (but the same time). Something to do with the flight being a code-share...

We plumped for Delta and checked in for our flight to Atlanta, although they had no record of our onward trip to London Heathrow. After seeking assistance they managed to check our bags through to London but were not able to provide boarding passes for the second leg.

The flight into Atlanta was non-eventful and on arrival we went to the Delta desk to query our next flight. After several phone calls they suggested we go straight to the desk and talk to Virgin, which is what we did.

After catching the tram we found the Virgin desk and got checked in, only to be told that our flight time had changed. No one had told us and we were advised that boarding would be taking place in 10 minutes. Thank goodness we hadn't gone shopping in Duty Free or we would have ended up missing our flight home.

Not sure how I feel about indirect flights... Yes it certainly saved us money and that was the main attraction, and yes it does split the flights up. The flight from Orlando to Atlanta was only 1 hour 4 minutes, with the remaining leg being 7 hours 30 minutes. However the transfer times and waiting around... Hmm.. The jury's still out....

Anyway we arrived back at home at 11.40am yesterday morning, having stopped at Fleet for breakfast and coffee. Can't believe how cold and miserable it is... Will have to get planning for next year. And before you all ask, no it will not be going back to Orlando. At least that is the current position.

Farewell Universal

So as mentioned yesterday, there was little surprise where we ended up today. It had to be Universal.

First up was the Minions, a cracker of a ride but whether it is worth the wait time is another question. We were in the park just after 9 and the queue time was already 55 minutes. The actual time was somewhat longer unfortunately - but at least we got to do it.

We ticked off our key rides at Universal, with some multiple attempts before heading to Moe's Tavern in Springfield for lunch.

We then travelled by Hogwarts Express to Islands of Adventure to continue riding.

Each direction on the train has a different story so well worth riding it twice.

I have some pics that I will add when we get home. The photo below is from inside Gringotts Bank within Universal Studios.

After a swim and a shower we paid a farewell visit to Super Target to buy some items to bring home. Many of them because they are unavailable in the UK.

After shopping we went for a meal at the Outback Steak Restaurant before returning to the villa to complete our packing.

We need to be out of the villa by 10, with our first flight hopefully leaving at 14.30pm US time.

May blog tomorrow depending on WiFi and news.

See you all really soon...

Farewell Disney

For any of you that followed us last year probably already knew the routine. Not to say we are creatures of habit...

Apologies for the lack of photos. This is due to ongoing problems with my phone and the WiFi in the villa. It's definitely time for a new phone.

Anyway this morning we visited Animal Kingdom. I know I keep saying this, but it was a scorcher...

At 10am this morning the temperature was showing as 94... And it only got hotter... Not complaining, just saying.

We completed our 3 fast passes and headed off to our final ADR, which was our first repeat meal, at the Rainforest Cafe.

It's a family fave and the atmosphere is brill.

So that was farewell to Animal Kingdom so there was only one place left as far as Disney is concerned, the Magic Kingdom.

As mentioned yesterday, our first destination was the Snow White Mine Train. The wait time was showing as 80 minutes, which was a bit of an under estimate. In addition we were being given warnings that due to nearby weather conditions the ride may need to close. Not what you want to hear when you have been queuing for an hour.

The bad weather didn't materialise and we got to ride it. It's not a bad ride - very smooth but not worth the wait.

We then queued for Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain, with queue times of 55 minutes and 40 minutes respectively. When it's your last day at Disney and no fast passes left.

So back in the villa exhausted at 9pm. One more full on day before we start our journey home. We've even started packing - very organised this year.

You already know what the plan is for tomorrow but pop back if you're interested.

The Start of Goodbye Part 1

So with only a few days left it was time to ratchet it up a level - 'go hard or go home' - so this morning we headed back to Hollywood Studios.

We rode all the favourites and queued up for Toy Story. We were determined to do this ride regardless of the queue time. When we arrived and started queuing, the wait time was showing as 80 minutes. Thankfully it didn't take that long.

I don't believe it was over 30 minutes so result, plus I high scored :)

Lunch was at Pizza Planet as requested by Miss B. Its become a bit of a tradition that we tried to break today, but failed.

After lunch and a quick Great Movie Ride, we headed to Epcot to explore the World Showcase.

We spent an enjoyable 4 hours exploring the worlds before heading back to the villa for a swim.

Mrs J and I popped to the shops whilst the girls showered and then we headed out for tea.

We arrived at the Outback Steak House around 8pm to be told it was an hour wait. Thankfully it was nowhere near this.

It's 10.15 as I type this, so apologies that this is short today.

You can probably guess what we are up to tomorrow, so pop back to see if you are correct...

It's Universal...

The plan for today was to head back to Universal for the day. We were parked up by 9.30am and heading for the park.

Which one I hear you ask? It had to be Isle of Adventures as Miss B and Miss H wanted to ride the Hulk. I'm not going to list all the rides, suffice to say we rode all the favourites.

We had lunch at Mythos, which is a restaurant in IoA. It has won the best theme park restaurant for the last 6 years. Don't ask me who else was judged, I just know it is always busy and the food is fab.

After lunch we boarded the Hogwarts Express to take us to Kings Cross in Universal Studios.

Again we did the key rides and left the park before heading out to eat. The thunderstorms were rolling in.

We headed out to International Drive, very close to where we stayed when we first brought the girls to the States. A lot has changed but at the same time we recognised some familiar sights.

Tea was at Coopers Hawk Winery and Restaurant. A very nice eatery, but well priced. On the way home we were treated to an amazing lightning show.

I liken driving along International Drive akin to driving in Central London - absolute carnage.

We arrived home over 12 hours after we left this morning. A great day but very exhausting.

I will leave you with a picture I took this morning as I waited for everyone to get ready.

That's all for today... Pop back tomorrow if you feel inclined for an update.

Off on Safari

So today we returned to Animal Kingdom. We had our fast passes booked. First up was Kali River Rapids. Miss B sat this one out. Before we left the villa we offered Miss H a poncho but she declined.

She seriously regretted that decision... The people to the left of us escaped virtually dry but not Miss H. I think she suffered by sitting next to me and getting the run off from my poncho.

It really does depend where the raft is positioned when it goes over the drop.

The rest of the raft who weren't wearing ponchos were drenched. After removing my poncho I allowed myself a smug smile at those who ridiculed my attire.

Next up was our favourite ride of the park - Expedition Everest. Even Mrs J is enjoying it now and in the photos can be seen smiling.

We then sneaked in a quick ride on Dinosaur. We had also planned to ride Prime Evil Whirl but this has now closed. We are all really glad we rode it earlier in the holiday. I know it's more of a fairground ride but it is really fun.

Our final Fast Pass was the Safari. When we did this previously we didn't see any giraffes but this time was different and we got to see 5 giraffes, including 3 young ones.

It was now lunch time and we had booked an ADR (advanced dinner reservation) at...

The food was great, essentially Chinese, which made a refreshing change from chips - sorry I mean fries, as chips are crisps here. A single language?

Next was the inevitable question... What are we going to do now? After a lengthy discussion the majority decision was more shopping.

We headed for the other Premium Outlet at Vineland. We hadn't been here before but knew that it was fairly similar to its sister mall.

After a few hours it was time to head back to the villa. It was now raining so that ruled out a swim.

We headed out to Publix for essentials and filled up the car with gas...

We will review the plans for our remaining days to make sure we do everything that we want to.

Who knows where we will be tomorrow? I don't... Pop back and find out...

Off to Celebrate...

So one place we had promised ourselves we would visit was Celebration. It's a community town that Disney established - think Prince Charles and Poundbury. You get the idea.

It's a very charming, picturesque and tranquil place. We spent a couple of hours wandering around and taking in the town. As well as quaint artisan stores it has a Starbucks which we frequented for my daily coffee fix.

After this we had ice cream in a cup. Sea salted caramel, cookis and cream and chocolate fudge brownie in case you are interested.

We also tried and bought some home made macaroons. Not sure they will remain on my 'keep' list.

With the time rushing by we headed off to the Magic Kingdom as Mr J had booked Fast Passes.

The temperature soared again today to circa 40 with a 40% chance of thunderstorms around 3pm.

We had passes for Splash and Thunder Mountain, which both had wait times well over an hour.

After watching the parade we used our final pass, which was a meet and photo opportunity with Mickey Mouse.

It was then time to head home for a swim. As we travelled back it started to rain, so that worked out OK.

By the time we arrived home the rain had stopped.

We headed out after our swim to go gift shopping before heading to Publix.

We are eating in tonight ahead of our next day out.

Check back tomorrow...

The Result is in...

Firstly can I say that they take their mini golf very seriously at Disney. Our tickets allow us to play a free round as long as we tee off before four. No problem there then.

You are then allocated a tee off time. We had a wait of 30 minutes before being called to the tee.

Just over an hour and a quarter in blistering heat, the champion was displaced with yours truly claiming the win. The celebrations were so low key; they were non existent but I know :)

Shortly after we finished our round they closed the course because of impending lightning.

We headed back to the villa for a swim and despite a few rumbles of thunder, there was no rain.

After a shower it was off to Super Target for a few essentials, followed by tea at the Olive Garden.

Thought I would share a picture of the front of my car. It's classed by Avis as a full size car and is a Chevrolet Impala.

Pop back tomorrow if you want to see what we got up to...

Off to the Lagoon

As we have been experiencing storms mid to late afternoon, we decided as we were all up early to head for Typhoon Lagoon.

But as it was still early we decided to stop en-route for breakfast. There was only really one contender and that had to be IHOP.

The picture above was my breakfast treat and mighty fine it was. Miss H had the same minutes the eggs.

Made good time to Typhoon Lagoon and spent a good four plus hours enjoying the water park.

No one was very hungry as we had breakfast so we decided to skip lunch and do something else.

It was that time... Each year we play mini golf for bragging rights of the holiday. Reigning champ Mrs J agreed that today would be the time for this year's battle.

The venue for Mrs J's first defence would be Disney's Fantasia Gardens...

To be continued...

Isle of Adventures

An early start this morning as we wanted to be at Universal as near to rope drop as we could. We made good time and were parked and heading to City Walk before 9.30am.

We had popped into IoA earlier this trip, but this time wanted to ride as many of the attractions as we could.

Miss B and Miss H started with the Hulk as it had a standby time of 10 minutes.

Next up was Jurassic Park. It's a standing joke at home that this is on the telly on some channel every week and we watch it on a Sunday. Miss B decided to sit this one out. It's a great ride that kicks off with the gates opening to the title music. A great story and scenery leading up to the inevitable drop. Everyone is now a certainty to be soaked and Mrs J wore her poncho with pride.

Suffice to say that Miss H and I were a little damp. Not to be perturbed by this Miss H and I headed off to do the two remaining water rides Ripsaw Falls and Bilge Rat Barges.

We have to be honest and say that for these we donned our ponchos. We knew we would get soaked anyway but the ponchos would provide some protection... Miss H and I squelched round the park and even 9 hours later we still hasn't dried out, but how we laughed....

Next up was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The standby time was 30 minutes so we decided to queue up and experience the full ride. As we came off we requeued as single riders which took about 10 minutes.

Next up was a family fave Spiderman en route to lunch.

In all our previous visits we have managed to miss the restaurant in the Simpsons land. We corrected that omission today and went to Krusty Burger for lunch.

After lunch we managed the Simpsons, Gringotts and the Mummy before calling it a day and heading back to the villa for a swim.

There was a bit of a mix up with the queues at Gringotts and we somehow managed to end up in the Express Pass queue which meant we only had a wait of 15 minutes. We took this as Karma for our 3 hour wait last year.

We popped out for a lovely meal at Miller's Ale House and am writing this at the villa with a cold beer in hand. This is the life...

Pop back tomorrow for a further update.

Off to The Springs

So after a short discussion the plan for today was sorted.

We headed off to Downtown Disney, which is undergoing a massive reconstruction, before being relaunched as Disney Springs.

After arriving and easily parking, we headed to Starbucks for a morning coffee. We didn't bring any with us and haven't bought any at the shop - so this was a real treat.

After our coffee pit stop we browsed the shops and generally just people watched.

On our way round we made a lunch reservation and continued shopping.

Lunch was at Trex, it's owned by the same company behind the Rainforest Cafe but dinosaur themed.

Every 15 minutes or so there is a meteor storm and all the dinosaurs come to life and other effects kick in. The Ice Room changes colour for example. We have not eaten here before so this was a new experience and my favourite burger of the trip so far.

When we left the restaurant we spotted the weather warning. The tethered balloon ride was closed due to lightning and thunder being in the vicinity.

So we headed to Disney Quest. Not sure why but this was our first visit in 3 trips, 5 for Mrs J and me.

We had free admission included in our tickets. The normal daily admission cost is $45 per person. First up was the Buzz Lightyear ride. Essentially imagine enclosed bumper cars that hoover up footballs that arrive in the car for you to load in a cannon and fire at enemy cars. If you hit the target on the car it spins round for 10 - 15 seconds.

Miss B and I, 3 - Mrs J and Miss H 0.

Next up was human pinball where you stood on a platform and tilted and rocked it to control your ball. I top scored out of our family.

Next up was my favourite of the day - CyberSpace Mountain. You get to design your own roller coaster. I teamed up with Mrs J and we created an extremely fast and loopy roller coaster.

What Mrs J didn't realise is that you then ride the roller coaster. If your design loops, you loop. Before we were strapped in, we were advised that our ride had 7 loops. You should have seen Mrs J's face... But credit where it is due, she rode it regardless. You could buy the DVD but we decided to spare her.

After this we donned virtual reality helmets and rode magic carpets collecting gems and battling demons.

Our penultimate ride was in an inflatable raft on airbags that simulated the turns, waves and drops, whilst we needed to paddle to choose the direction.

Last up we donned 3D glasses and boarded a pirate ship to do battle with other pirates to collect treasure.

What can I say... A fab way to spend a couple of hours with everyone throwing themselves into the games. Great to see then running from one side of the ship to the other to fire the cannons.

As we left the rain descended so we headed for the car.

It's nearly two hours later and the thunder and lightning is still going. We have the lights on in the villa and the girls have changed into warmer clothes.

We have a shopping list prepared so will wait to see if it eases up, otherwise we will need to brave it.

Come back tomorrow to see what we've been up to.

Change of Plans...

Apologies but the weather dictated a change in plans. Not sure looking at the forecast whether we will get a chance to fit this in now...

So we decided to head to the Mall at Millennia to finish our essential shopping.

It's a very impressive Mall with all the top designer brands and had two real draws, firstly a store named after a fruit and secondly The Cheesecake Factory. Yes Grandad you are now the proud owner of an iPad.

The cheesecakes above were eaten by Mrs J, Miss H and myself. Miss B has a photo of hers which I will add once I have it.

Very indulgent but well worth a visit.

We then headed back to the villa for lunch before heading to Hollywood Studios. As we hadn't planned on visiting this park today, I took the liberty of booking some Fast Passes whilst I was waiting outside the shops.

Whilst we were riding Star Tours the rains descended accompanied by lightning and thunder. It was so bad we were prevented from exiting the ride. That has to be a first for us...

Left the park at around 7.30pm, stopping at Public for a quick shop.

Not sure of the plans for tomorrow, we had planned to go shopping but given the last two days, that is not going to happen...

On Safari

It was a big day for Miss B today as AS results were out. We'll leave it to Miss B to share the news, but we all wore 'We're Celebrating' badges today at the park.

Today we headed for Animal Kingdom, with our first fast pass at 9.30am, which was Kilimanjaro Safari. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any giraffes...

The Fast Passes were close together today, so next up was Dinosaur - great ride and story and once again made us jump.

Final Fast Pass was Expedition Everest which is awesome. Mrs J tackled the ride without her usual margerita for Dutch courage. At the top of the climb you can see the progression of the Avatar land.

After a few more rides it was time for lunch and we had pre-booked a table at The Rainforest Cafe. Miss B and Miss H both kept up their tradition of buying a T-shirt. Better still, they were in the sale. In the words of Miss B - Nice...

Before we headed in to eat it started raining and continued after we exited the restaurant. It was then I heard the words I dread... Let's go shopping... 

We headed to the Premium Outlet at the top of International Drive. Miss B and Miss H managed to leave Victoria's Secrets after about an hour, which is about a 100% improvement on last year.

I won't bore you with all the grizzly details, but we got back to the villa at 20.40pm - you do the maths...

Tomorrow is a new adventure, we are heading somewhere we haven't been before. You know the drill...

Speed Demons...

It's fair to say that this mornings park isn't one of Miss B or Miss H's favourites, which is a shame as I think it is really underated. So this year we have split things up doing it in half days.

So this morning we did our 3 fast passes and 3 additional attractions before calling it a day.

Spaceship Earth was up first, an enjoyable sedate tour through History.

First up on the Fast Pass choices was Test Track. Miss B and I teamed up against Mrs J and Miss H.

We went for a speed demon - nothing but raw power whilst the competition appeared to just build a pretty pink car.  No need to state who won...

We absolutely love this ride - the acceleration and the ovetall speed is a blast.

Our second Fast Pass was a character meet. We went and had our photos taken with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto. When in Rome...

Before our final Fast Pass, we visited the Land and rode Living With The Land and watched The Circle of Life. The girls really enjoyed this... Not...

Our final ride and Fast Pass was Mission Space Orange. Mrs J sat this one out. It's understandable given the g force involved. At take off you can't lift your arms - it's a really weird feeling.

So having tortured our daughters for the morning we headed off to Typhoon Lagoon.

Whilst the girls tackled the rides I headed for the Lazy River and proceeded to bob round and round, watching the world pass me by.

Two hours into our visit the sirens sounded for everyone to vacate the pools and whilst it wasn't raining, it seemed like rain had stopped play for the day. So we headed home via Super Target and Dollar Tree, to jump in the pool.

Before we could enter Super Target the rain arrived and we had a thirty minute down pour.

After messing around in the pool and showering we headed out to eat. We had booked a table at Bahama Breeze, one of our must go to restaurants. Alas, we didn't have a great meal. Mrs J had to send her meal back as it was cold.

Unlike Longhorns at least they re-cooked the dish, the problem was that by the time it arrived, the rest of us had finished. The waiter was fan and got the Manager over, who apologised and took the meal off the bill.

Bit of a shame, as it dampened the mood.

I will leave you with a couple of pictures, our wheels and the pool. Pop back tomorrow...

It's A Hard Rock Life...

Everyone was up early this morning, so the plan was to get to Universal Studios for 9.30am. That was wishful thinking, as everyone else had the same idea.

The last two miles to the park was absolute gridlock and so we didn't make it to the car park until 9.50am and then it took a further 20 minutes waiting to enter the car park. 

Not quite sure what the problem was, as all that is required is to roll down your window, handover $17 and take the receipt. 

Obviously this was a real challenge for the drivers in the cars ahead of us in our row.

So the big decision - which park first? We decided it needed to be Universal Studios, with our first ride being either The Minions or Grungott's Bank.

Given that the queue for the Minions was 90 minutes, we headed for Diagon Alley to find Gringotts.

The queue time was showing as 30 minutes so we headed in. It's fair to say we were undecided last year on this ride. It might have had something to do with the 3 hour wait to experience the ride. Ok it was raining really heavily and the ride broke down multiple times. As we came off we were all a bit meh...

It was a much better ride this time but personally it's not one of my favourites, I think it tries too hard and is neither one thing or another.

So onto the next ride which was Men In Black, which had a single rider queue. We were onboard within 10 minutes. I was top scorer by a country mile and managed for the first time to spin the other car, which was fab.

No guesses for where we headed next... Yes, it was off to the Simpsons.

As you can see from the photo, the weather has been lousy... Not.

We never tire of the Simpsons ride and we all come off the ride smiling.

There was just time for one more ride before lunch and it was a special request from Mrs J. Not one of the girls favourite s - ET.

So you have probably guessed where we went to lunch by the title of this post. Yes, you are correct, we went to The Hard Rock Cafe.

We've never had a bad meal at The Hard Rock Cafe - hope that's not tempting fate.

I went for the limited edition Tropical Burger which was sensational. I will try and look up the description and paste it below if I find it.

After lunch we took in Twister. I have to confess that I am a fan of this movie so this attraction is right up my street. Managed to stand in the wrong spot again, like last year, and got drenched. Oh well...

Miss B and Miss H wanted to ride the Rip Ride Rocket and Mrs J wanted to do some gift shopping so I went and grabbed a Starbucks and sat outside and watched the world go by.

Once we regrouped we planned to catch the Hogwarts Express to the Island of Adventure, but with a queue time of 90 minutes we decided to walk.

It was a really hot day today - one of the hottest we have experienced in Orlando. Would have loved to see the RealFeel temperature.

First up in IoA was The Hulk which Miss B and Miss H rode twice whilst Mrs J was getting some iced water.

A quick ride on Dr Fear's Free Fall before finishing off the day on the Spiderman ride.

On the way back to the villa for a swim we stopped off at Public to get some food for tea. Public is compared with Waitrose for the quality of the food. Will let you know what we think but it certainly looks good.

Stop by tomorrow to see what we got up to...

Frozen Studios

Everyone was up early again and today we had a job to do before visiting the park. We had to check in with the management company that services the villa. The form stated that we needed to visit the office, and it didn't open until 9, so we decided to head down there anyway. It was about a 20 minute drive down the 192.

We made good time and handed in the completed form only to be told we could have phoned it in... Oh well never mind.

So having completed our task it was off to the theme park and today's choice was Hollywood Studios.

This has two of our favourite rides but a lot has changed since our visit last year. Mickey's Sorcerer Hat has gone, together with the Back lot Studio Tour and the Art of Animation.

As alluded to in the title the park is heavily focussing on Frozen. If you are not a fan of the film...

Our first Fass Pass was Star Tours which is a great ride but dependent on which mission you get.

Next up was Twilight Tower of Terror, although Mrs J sat this one out.

This is my favourite ride at this park as each ride is different, and is such a rush. Plus this year, as well as a ride photo, you get a video....

We then decided to tackle the Aerosmith Rock n Roll coaster as single riders. It certainly cut down the queue time, which was at 40 minutes. Such a great ride which flips you upside down a few times in the dark, accompanied by Aerosmith classic tunes.

It was lunch next, we had made a reservation at the Sci Fi Dine In Theatre.

Imagine you have gone to a drive in movie at night. You sit in a car in two or three rows of two, watching sci fi clips while eating. A really enjoyable experience, really immersive... I'm really glad we chose to do this.

After lunch was one of Mrs J's favourite - The Great Movie Ride and as we came out, the line to meet Donald Duck was really short, so this had to be done.

Last up was our final Fast Pass was a re-run of the Rock n Roll coaster. With the clouds rolling in we decided to head back to the villa. The clouds didn't come to anything and we spent a great hour or so larking about in the pool.

We had one more activity before tea. As readers of our blog will know, we are great advocates of Super Target. Having said that the girls wanted to visit a Walmart Super Centre. There was one about 30 minutes away so we went for a visit. The store was the over side of the Kissimmee county line and had very few tourists. It was an experience and we are glad to have crossed it off our list.

We were back at the villa and had unpacked by 7.30pm.

So what is the plan for tomorrow? You know the drill...

At The House of Mouse

On our last two visits we have opened our Disney account with a visit to Hollywood Studios, so this year we (or rather I) decided to do something different.

We were all up reasonably early but not in time for rope drop, which was 9am. We arrived before 9:30, so not too shabby.

So today we chose The Magic Kingdom. We had already selected our Fast Passes - which were the trilogy of Mountains... You know the ones, Space, Big Thunder and Splash...

We started with the Buzz Light year ride which we hadn't done before, probably because of the standby time... We will definitely go back as it became very competitive, with Miss B taking the crown.

Next up was Space Mountain - we had a fast pass for this but the standby time was so short, we thought why not. If only we could obtain the audio from Mrs J's ride - it was absolutely priceless...

Following this we rode the People Mover, which has certainly changed over the years. Certain parts of the ride are much faster, not a thrill ride but quite different.

We then revisited the Speedway Raceway - Mrs J and I are still traumatised from our last experience being driven around by Miss B and Miss H. I have to be honest, this time round was fab but Miss B needs to be checking her mirrors more frequently - only joking...

Next was our first Fast Pass which was Big Thunder Mountain, one of our personal faves. Who doesn't like a runaway train ride...

After this we were all starting to get hungry so it was off to Cosmic Ray's Starlight cafe for burgers all round.

After lunch we decided to ride the teacups, it was a bit of a squeeze but we managed it, plus Miss B has a great video of us... Powered by Mr J the teacup was a-spinning!

It was then time for our second Fast Pass, Space Mountain, another great ride.

The Carousel was next but I sat that one out with Mrs J. We then went on two attractions we hadn't done before - Monster's Inc Laugh Floor and Stitch's Great Escape.

Suffice to say we now know why we hadn't riden these attractions before and won't be doing them again.

Mickey's Philha Magic was next up, which was fab.

Our final two rides were the Haunted House, followed by a re-run of Big Thunder Mountain.

The weather had been all sun today but by 6 it had started raining. We had already planned to leave and so this worked in our favour as the Heavens opened and we had thunder and lightning for about an hour.

A quick turnaround at the villa and it was off to Longhorn's for a meal. It didn't turn out great as Miss B's dish was firstly not as ordered and secondly undercooked. Miss B suggested it could be revived...Not good when her burger was requested to be well done.

When it returned the fries were awful - suspect they had visited the popty ping. That's Welsh for microwave. We raised this with our waitress who arranged for the meal to be deducted from the bill.

We won't be going back anytime soon, which is a shame as I had really been looking forward to it.

After our meal we popped back to Super Target for some essential shopping before returning to the villa.

We have our very first ADR tomorrow (Advanced Dining Reservation). If you want to know where and what we did... You know the drill...

It's Orlando Time

So it was an early start for our trip to London Heathrow Terminal 3. The alarms were set for 4 am and we were on the road by 4.30 as everyone was very excited.

We made excellent time and arrived at Purple Parking at just before 6.30, having stopped at Fleet.

It took us around 30 minutes to transfer to T3. A lot of that time was waiting for the minibus to fill up.

On arriving to collect our boarding passes we were informed that the flight was overbooked. We were asked if we would change flights...

We weren't sure but when they offered us a free upgrade to Premium Economy and some vouchers we decided to take them up on their offer.

So instead of flying via Atlanta we were now going via Detroit... So much for my pre-travel planning...

In some ways it worked out well as the first leg was 7 hrs 30 mins followed by a 2 hr 2 mins flight. Despite leaving 40 minutes later than we would have, we arrived into Orlando as originally scheduled. Result...

What's more was that we had the last row in PE so no one behind us.

So I can add Detroit to that growing list of cities I have only experienced from the airport. Go Lions..

We had some problems sorting the hire car out. Firstly the queue...Secondly the car wasn't ready and thirdly when we went to find it, it wasn't in the space it should have been.

After playing hide and seek with a car that didn't want to be found, we were allocated a different car and headed for the villa. 30 minutes and 3 tolls later we had arrived at our destination, tired but safe and sound.

After dropping off the bags it was a quick trip to Super Target for some shopping. I'm writing this at 3am UK time - 10pm US time so that's all for tonight folks...

What have we got planned for tomorrow? Come back and see...

Pre-Trip Planning Complete

So just another quick update... Realising that the countdown has sped up and it is only 13 days until we go it was time to complete the remaining tasks. on my To Do list.

First up was Memory Maker.

This was great for us last year and now includes videos of certain rides. Bought and linked to our MyDisneyExperience account and hopefully our tickets and magic bands. Will need to check this in advance or upon arrival to ensure we are all good to go...

Finally it was the car rental. If only I had booked it when I started looking... Like all things in life I waited and followed the pack. Everyone was saying it would get cheaper but it didn't. Then people said the price would reduce. I don't need to tell you the rest, and I did check nearly every day.

In a moment of inspiration I checked to see how many Avios points I had amassed with British Airways and decided to use these against a car booking. This has resulted in a saving of £85 over the Alamo quoted price and for a full size car as opposed to an Intermediate one. Result!

Oohh Dole Whip... That's Going Straight Into My Basket...

I'm sure this isn't the only thing we've not tried when we've been Stateside, but it's now on our to-do list. We will let you know if it lives up to its reputation.

For those of you who don't know, a dole whip is a pineapple flavoured, soft serve frozen desert only sold at certain Disney venues.

Within the Magic Kingdom, the Dole Whip is available at the Aloha Island stand within Adventureland.

Weeks Not Months

So in terms of the preparation for the holiday we are nearly there. I've paid the balance on the villa (gulp...) Fortunately the dollar has recovered against the pound, which means my projected spend on the villa is about spot on.

I'm also making our Fast Pass selections. As we are staying off-site we need to wait until we are 30 days out and log on each day and choose our selections.  If you are staying at a Disney Resort, you get the ability to do this at 60 days out.

You need to have a My Disney Experience account and have added all party members to the account, with the final task being assigning your tickets to each family member.

It sounds really involved but trust me it really isn't. You just need to follow the instructions...

As I write this we have 17 days to go, and I have to be honest I am now counting down my working days - it's 9 days, in case you're interested.

So what is the status of my to do list? I only have a couple of items remaining. The first is Memory Maker, this is great and has been improved for this trip. Essentially if you have any photos taken in the parks by Cast Members, or ride attractions that capture photos, you get all of these to download for free - aside from the one off purchase price of course...

That goes for the waterparks as well. Basically anytime you have your photo taken by a Disney Cast Member.

Even if you opt for the single rider queue and are on different carriages, or not even on the same ride, as our Magic Bands are all linked - it just works. Amazing!

Magic Bands are RFID (Radio Frequency Identification - to save you looking it up, if you didn't know) enabled devices and once you have linked these to your ticket allow you access within the parks and entrance to rides when your Fast Pass times are available. Essentially the same technology as contactless debit cards, if you have one?

You even get videos of certain rides which creates even more opportunities for staged performances.

Plus I return home with actual proof that I was actually in Orlando. Lovely family photos for the memories.

The final item is booking the car. I've almost decided what to do, so this is nearly done and once I have completed this I will update you.

I've Got 99 Problems But The Holiday Ain't One...

So a bonus point for everyone who spotted the play on a well known Jay Z song title...

Looking back it's really difficult to explain where the time has gone! When we booked the holiday it was over 250 days until Orlando... Well as you can see from the countdown we are nearly into double digits...

So first up here's an update on the planning...

Villa - check.
Flights - check.
Travel insurance - check.
Parking at airport - check.
Theme Park tickets - check.
Car Hire - to do. Watching the prices but they are not moving at the moment...
Memory Maker - to do. Can leave this to just before we leave, so no immediate rush.
Itinerary - check. Yes I know... Done already I hear you say?

Although I didn't mention it on my earlier post you need to apply for your ESTA unless you already have one and are within the two year coverage. In addition you need to complete your APIS information with the airline before travelling. I'm sure you knew that anyway but wanted to call it out if you didn't.

On a positive note the exchange rate is now moving in the right direction. At the time of going to press the exchange rate is 1.5432. Let's hope it keeps moving in the right direction...

The Dibb - A Great Resource

Just a quick post today as I forgot to mention this site in my DIY post yesterday. If you're not already aware of this site you must absolutely check it out. I've been a frequent viewer for a couple of years now and am still amazed at the information and tips you can pick up.

Whenever we start planning our trip I regularly check out the forums and use the vacation planner to create our itinerary for our Orlando stay. It also includes a countdown clock!

The forums can be found at:- The Dibb which will open in a separate window.

Happy reading and planning...

It's All In The Planning...

Last year we travelled to Orlando on a package deal with Monarch, so when we decided to return this year the first place to start was to contact them again.

The quote we obtained from them was so much higher than last year and they could not accommodate our plans for 16 nights. So after looking around at other websites and being horrified at the costs, we decided to take things into our own hands.

It's not as daunting as it first appears, but does require a fair amount of time and effort - not to mention the planning.

So I thought I would post about how we went about booking our DIY holiday this year.

I started by creating a spreadsheet that broke down all the costs from last year so I could use as a basis for comparison. You don't need to go to this extreme, I just find it easier than paper and pen, and it's easy to find in future years.

More importantly, you don't want to go through all that effort and realise it would have been cheaper and easier to book a package deal!

So where to start? It turned out to be like that great imponderable - which came first the chicken or the egg? Flights or villa? I'm not sure I did it the right way as I went for the villa first.

I know, I know, I can hear you shouting already...  book the flights... but given that we couldn't change the dates I'm not really sure it made any difference... There are four of us going and having to target the school summer holidays and get holiday agreed by three other organisations is a bit of a challenge.

So based on that we already had our dates sorted. Booking the villa was fairly straight forward, at least for Windsor Palms it was. The villa owners have a web site which you can use to make booking enquiries. You select the number of bedrooms you need and your dates, and this request goes to all the owners with a villa to match, for them to respond.

I guess I should probably say that I have no links with Windsor Palms and that other gated communities are available...

Why Windsor Palms again? It's just that we really loved the location. It's really close to the major attractions and there are loads of restaurants and takeaways really conveniently located... not to mention a huge Super Target.

So back to the villa hunt. Having looked at all the responses and the villas we made our choice and after contacting the owner to confirm the dates we received a deposit request via HomeAway.

So accommodation - check.

Next up was flights... after the ease of booking the villa this was a bit of a challenge. So after a bit of research I decided to use the following sites, Momondo, Adioso and KAYAK. As previously stated other... you know the rest.

As we had no flexibility on our dates, direct flights were ruled out immediately due to the cost. We also discounted everything that had more than one stop. I know each to their own but this was our choice. We then ruled out any stopover that involved flying in the wrong direction. What I mean by that is, we could fly from London to Frankfurt and then direct to Orlando. It may have been cheaper but it just feels wrong to me...

To cut a long story short, there should really be an investigation into flight bookings... You select your flights and it warns you at the beginning that there are only, let's say 6 seats left. You get all the way to the end and then it tells you there are no seats available at this price. You can have the same seats and pay another thousand pounds plus... We also had the situation that we could have three tickets but would have to pay an obscene amount of money for the final ticket which they managed to conjure up from somewhere...

Anyway we finally received our confirmation and are flying from Heathrow to Atlanta and then onto Orlando International (with the same return route), on the dates we wanted, with only a wait of 1hr 55mins to get through immigration, through security and onto our domestic flight to MCO.

Flight - check.

So there you have it... The two key items checked off our list.

Villa - check.
Flights - check.
Travel insurance - to do.
Parking at airport - to do.
Theme Park tickets - to do.
Car Hire - to do.
Memory Maker - to do.

2015 Holiday Destination

So I'm sure you are all wondering about our plans for 2015? We all need something to look forward to, and as a family we have had numerous conversations about our destination for 2015.

It didn't take too much discussion to reach agreement, mainly due to the fact that we had such a blast last year. As you have probably guessed from the title of the blog and the banner, we are heading back to Orlando... 

I'm going to post about how we went about booking it in a follow up post, but in the meantime, let me answer those questions that you might have?

Where are you going to stay? We're going back to the same location, but a different villa this time - Windsor Palms - a very nice gated community close to Disney and conveniently located to lots of restaurants and shops...

So are you going to do the theme parks again? Yes, we're going back to both Disney and Universal. Theme park tickets ordered today.

Hire car, shuttle or public transport? We've going to hire a car again, so convenient. It's one of the items on my to do list. At the moment just keeping an eye on the prices.

What is a must do item on your list for this year? We absolutely have to return to the Cheesecake Factory.

OK so are there any differences from your holiday last year?

Yes, we're going for 16 nights.

We've organised it ourselves this time - thanks Mr J.

We're planning to go to Clearwater for the day and to watch the sunset.

We're going to try to not eat at the same restaurant twice. Not sure we will achieve this, but at least it will make ourselves try new places. 

We would like to get to Celebration for a visit.

We want to see the show at Epcot -IllumiNations.

We don't have a direct flight. Will explain why in the next post.

We are not flying with Monarch or leaving from Gatwick.