Tuesday, 4 June 2019

Alton Towers May 2019

It's been soooo long since I wrote a blog post! The time has flown since our last Disney trip and unfortunately life got in the way of me finishing my trip report.  BUT the full trip of vlogs are now available to watch on our You Tube channel.

In April, we decided to become Merlin Premium Annual Passholders and we've had lots of fun at several of the parks around the UK over the past month.  We've visited Chessington World of Adventure, Warwick Castle, the National Sealife Centre, Legoland, and most recently, we spent yesterday at Alton Towers, so I thought I'd do a little trip report of our day. 

My Daughter's school was closed so it could be used as a polling station so we took it as a sign that we should have a Merlin day out! We hadn't been to Alton Towers for over 12 years, and this was to be our Daughter, Amelia's first trip. 

We drove the 1:45 hr journey from Northampton and arrived at about 9:25am and queued for the monorail. We were worried that we wouldn't make it in time for early entry but we needn't have, as the queue moved fairly quickly and we got straight in. We declined the photo they now take at the front of the park and hot-footed straight to Wickerman where we walked right on. It was fantastic! Although I screamed a lot! Amelia was lucky to have eardrums by the end of the ride!







 I suggested going on again before the park opened, but my husband, Paul, and Amelia wanted to go on Thirteen, so we hurried over there and again, it was a walk on. I had heard people say that this was a bit like Expedition Everest (at Disney's Animal Kingdom) which is one of my favourite rides in Disney World. 
I didn't watch any POV's or anything, however, Paul did, and said there were a few surprises which made me nervous, to say the least. I love rollercoasters but HATE vertical drops and weightlessness, so for him to say that led me to believe I was in for both! I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't ridden on it, but I was certainly surprised!! In a good way though! So much so that we went back for round 2! Amelia is a little daredevil and loves coasters and wanted to ride it again in the front seats with Paul, so we got back in the queue and it was a walk-on once again. They managed to get the second row and I sat behind them. The second time, I knew what to expect, so I managed to hold the screaming in!

From there, we stumbled across Cloud Cuckoo Land and at first, thought it was closed as it was so quiet. Amelia did the driving school with a couple of other kids, then she went on the froghopper, which they kept on a total of three times! Amelia's 9 and getting a bit old for these sorts of rides, but I think she liked them more than she let on! After that, she went on the carousel and was the only one on there!




From there we went on Hex, which again, was a walk-on. Amelia was pretty scared whilst watching the back story video at the beginning but was OK on the actual ride itself. Much like Haunted House at Legoland, only with a branch in the middle instead of a Lego feast! It did make me feel slightly queasy though I have to admit. 

We made our way over to Smiler which was a 30-minute wait. I really didn't want to go on but urged Paul to go on his own as I know how much he wanted to ride it. Amelia and I sat and waited for him in a little area in front of the ride. She was getting sulky, as is becoming a common occurrence on Merlin days out when we're doing something that isn't for her ðŸ˜¡. I put it down to getting hangry and cracked open the packet of custard creams that we'd bought with us and tried unsuccessfully to lighten the mood. As soon as he came off she cheered up a bit. We went over to the kiosk at Oblivion and refilled our blue merlin cups that we'd bought with us. There was nothing on the outside to suggest they refill the cups there, but they do. You just have to ask. 








It was 12pm now and we were all feeling hungry. We'd had breakfast at home just after 6am, so we were definitely ready for lunch. We decided to have a picnic in the gardens and found a bench in between the orangeries where we enjoyed our packed lunch. We then took a walk around the gardens and I took some photos. It really is beautiful there. I'd love to know more about the history, and who lived there back in the day.






From there we went on Duel (those lasers are blimmin heavy aren't they?) and then Congo river rapids which were a 10-minute wait. Had it been any longer I would have been disappointed as none of us got wet - not that I wanted to! But isn't that the whole point of rapids? The waterfalls were turned off and it was just a pretty smooth boat ride, to be honest. Not a patch on the rapids in Florida. 

After that, we went over to the Runaway Mine Train. Despite it being a walk-on, we were held up 5-10 minutes as a little boy followed his teacher's instructions (she'd obviously ignored the signs) and threw his bag across the tracks to the other side, only it didn't make it and fell through the track seconds before the train pulled into the station. The poor boy was only about 5 and was sobbing his heart out, bless him. The teacher didn't console him or anything and I was more annoyed at that than having to wait. I just wanted to give him a cuddle! He cheered up when they retrieved his bag and I'm sure he was fine after he got on the train. The mine train was great fun and I loved how it went around twice. Disney could learn a thing or two there, particularly on Goofy's Barnstormer (shortest ride ever!)! Choo Choo!

After the mine train, Amelia went on a downer again as Paul and I wanted to go on Nemesis. I first went to Alton Towers when I was about 12 and this was my first ever rollercoaster. I absolutely love it and just had to ride it again, especially as it was advertised as a 10-minute wait (which actually turned out to be a walk-on). Amelia was upset that she was too small to go on (she's just over 1.3m) and was almost crying when we got to the front. The ride operator let Paul go to the other side at the exit with her while I rode first and then we swapped when I got off. 
We wanted to do Galactica as well (formerly called Air), but it was a 30-minute wait and we thought it would be a bit unfair to queue that long and her to get off at the other end, so we saved that for another day. 



Amelia wanted to go on Blade which Paul refused to go on. He hates pirate ships. I hadn't been on one since I was a kid, so volunteered to take her on. Never again! I felt so sick! I can see why Paul doesn't like them now! 

We got some more drinks and Paul and Amelia wanted to go back over to Thirteen for a last ride of the day. She declared it was her new favourite ride. I begrudgingly trekked all the way back over there with them, only to discover that all the rides were closed. The park actually closed at 4pm and not 5pm as we'd thought. To be honest, I was glad as I'd just about had enough now. My feet were killing me and I felt exhausted. I'd also became aware that my arms were really itchy. It wasn't until we used the toilets on the way out of the park that I realised how sunburnt my arms were. Before we'd left home the weather said it would be cloudy and 14 degrees but it was full sun all day and in the 20s. 

We had a quick look around the towers and the garden before trudging all the way back to the entrance, Amelia whining all the way about how much her feet hurt, and obviously hard done by that Thirteen was closed and she had to hold her own drink. God, I hate the 9-year-old whining phrase! To be fair though, my Fitbit read that I'd walked over 22,000 steps, so she must have done more than that with her little legs. All in all, we had a great day. The weather was perfect, it was quiet, chilled and we got on everything we wanted to do with little or no wait. It should be a polling day more often!  If you'd like to come along with us and watch our day on YouTube, please click the pic below 








Monday, 8 January 2018

Fourth Family Floriday - Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

FOURTH FAMILY FLORIDAY
CURSE OF THE NO SEE-UMS
3RD OCTOBER 2017
DAY 1 – MAGIC KINGDOM

Apologies for the three month delay in getting this up! Life and Christmas took over! I hope it is worth the wait. Today is over 3300 words, but looking at it uploaded onto the Blog, it looks more photo heavy than actual text!

I was awoken at 4am this morning by the voice of Amelia, asking if it was time to get up. I told her it was far too early yet and to go back to sleep.
4:10am came around and a repeat conversation ensued. This went on every 10 minutes until 5am when I admitted defeat and I got out of bed. She quickly took my place in our bed while I made tea which was an agonizing process using the in-room coffee machine. I quickly concluded that I wouldn’t be drinking much tea while we’re away as, not only did it take forever to make a cup, it tasted bloody awful. I had bought my own tea bags and sweetener, so I could only assume it was the water that made it taste so bad.

We opened the patio doors and could hear the strangest animal sounds coming from the savannah. It was still dark, but we could just about see a few giraffes out there. Amelia thought that’s where the sound was coming from, but it was more like the cross between a peacock and a goose! It sounded too loud to be a flamingo but must have been a big bird of some kind. I know who I’m putting my money on…




We all got showered and dressed and at 6:40am we were almost ready to go! Paul took the kids down to The Mara to get some drinks while I finished putting my make-up on and came back a little while later declaring that Amelia needed to change her shoes as they kept falling off every two seconds! Waste of money they were!


The sun was now up and we could finally see our savannah view which was pretty perfect to say the least. 


With shoes changed, backpacks loaded and magic bands double checked, we were ready to go and we took a slow walk down to the bus stop via the savannah to have a quick look around. The bus stop was easily accessible; you just turn left out of the main entrance and walk down a small sloping walkway and the bus stops are at the bottom. Screens lined the walk way so you can see when the next bus is due.




We got to the bus stop at 7:41am, and the bus was waiting for us! It was completely empty for the whole journey aside from us. It took 20 minutes which went fairly quickly and wasn’t a bad journey at all.  


With Animal Kingdom Lodge being the furthest resort away from the parks, using Disney transport was the one thing I was worried about staying there. I needn’t have worried though. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were with the buses. For the first few days they were either already waiting, or would arrive within 1 minute of us reaching a bus stop.
We went through bag search and I was the chosen one to go through a metal detector, which didn’t bother me in the slightest. If it’s keeping guests safe, then I’m all for a bit of extra security. We took some photos of the pumpkins while Paul ran off to the loo, and then we all went through the magic band scanners without a problem, and entered the happiest place on earth. The park didn’t open for muggles until 9am this morning, but as we had an ADR for 8:30am, they let us in no problem. To be honest I didn’t notice if other people were going in yet. I was too caught up in the magic and was choking back tears. I couldn’t believe we were finally here! 




We picked up a few maps, not to read, as I’m pretty sure I know where everything is now, but for souvenirs, and took obligatory castle photos. There were lots of Main Street vehicles coming through and I managed to take this photo which is one of my favourites from this trip.


We waited a minute or so for our turn with a photo pass photographer, but wished we had chosen one further up Main street as there was an ugly scrim covering Disney Clothiers which kind of ruined the photos. I made it my mission to have more taken later on, but we never did get around to it. 


We took a slow walk up Main Street, stopping to vlog and take photos of all the vehicles. It was really windy today and my ears kept blowing off! When we reached the hub, I had just finished taking some photos of the castle and we turned to make our way towards Crystal Palace when I heard someone calling out “PRINCESS! WAIT UP!” A rather stocky cast member came running over to us and said that he’d been calling us from way back, but we hadn’t seen or heard him! He told Amelia that he wanted her to go to Buckingham Palace and tell the guards to get out of the way and then tell the Princess to leave because a new princess was moving in (her) and then she has to marry the prince. Amelia wasn’t keen on the marriage bit! Apparently, she’s never getting married! The CM was so sweet and I was so pleased I managed to get it all on camera for the vlog. Unfortunately, after spending a small fortune on camera equipment, including a skinny muffler (to block out wind noise), I managed to leave it back at the resort! Boooo! So excuse the wind noise if you watch it after reading this. The CM gave her some stickers and we made our way over to Crystal Palace for our breakfast reservation. She was on cloud 9. 


We checked in and only waited 3 or 4 minutes to be called. As we walked through the restaurant, our greeter walked us towards a table which was covered in celebration confetti. I suddenly had a flashback to the phone call I had with Disney earlier in the year who said he was going to make a note on the system to make sure EVERYONE knows it’s our anniversary (actually 10 years since we met). But luckily, the greeter kept on walking and showed us to a little table by the window which was lovely. Although it would have been nice, the idea of being ‘celebrated’ every time we went for a meal set me on edge. As it happened, throughout the entire trip, the only people to say happy anniversary was the CM on reception who gave us our ’10 ears’ buttons when we checked in at AKL, a CM at the entrance to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and two servers at Akershus and Via Napoli. Luckily no cakes or singing ensued like on our last trip though! 
This was our third time having breakfast at Crystal Palace, and on previous trips we’ve always been a party of 7, so it was nice having a cosy little table to ourselves. 


Our view!

Our server, Samy, came over and was lovely. She must have been in her late 60’s and was very flirty with Paul and kept him constantly topped up with coffee. We all filled our plates with the mickey waffles, pooh puffed French toast, bacon, sausage and scrambled egg which we’d been craving since we returned from our last trip. It was as amazing as I remember.  


Amelia’s plate


Mine!


The characters were great as always. Eeyore and Piglet gave lots of hugs, Tigger was a bit of a love and shove (see video!), although Amelia didn’t notice and he made up for it in kisses. He also held her hand and went on a parade around the restaurant which she loved and he tickled Paul in the ribs! Sadly, Pooh never came round to our table. This was a real shame as, since the second she saw him at the first parade, Amelia has been smitten with Pooh. We were in there almost two hours and couldn’t hang on for him any longer. 










Thank heavens for the dining plan!

There was a bit of a wait for the receipt for our meal and Amelia was getting restless, so Paul and Oliver hung on and waited for Samy to bring it out, while Amelia and I went outside to take (more) photos! 


You only had to walk out and in a straight line to find us, so 20 minutes later, when there was still no sign of them, we were getting pretty fed up. They eventually came waltzing up to us with big grins on their faces, claiming Paul had just met Mary Poppins! You what? We stand here waiting for ages while you’re swanning off meeting Mary P? Apparently, they’d turned left out of Crystal Palace and stumbled across her meet n Greet which had no line. He took us over to where he’d seen her and we saw her through the bushes, and the CM that was with her was waving at us and motioning for us to go over! There was no one in line to see her, and Mary walked down to the bottom of the path and met us, took Amelia’s hand and walked back up to her post. I have to admit, I got a bit choked up. They spoke for ages about what they would put in a carpet bag – or rather Mary did. Amelia was awestruck! 


From there, we made our way over to Adventureland where we made our first pin purchase of the holiday. Paul didn’t have a lanyard, but loves Oswald, so he bought some Oswald and Steamboat Willie pins. I also got a 2017 pin and Amelia got a Tinkerbell pin. 

Our first Fastpass of the holiday was Jungle Cruise so we made our way there next. Our skipper was fantastic. I vlogged the whole thing, so no photos unfortunately. From there we went on The Magic Carpet of Aladdin which was only a 10 minute wait. I was with Amelia in the front who kept jerking the carpet up and down and it was making me feel sick!

Next up was the attraction that everyone loves to hate, the Tiki room. This was the first time we had ever been in here, and after listening to so many Disney podcasts over the past year, I got the sense that it was a classic, and we must go and see what it’s about. And I’m glad we did. I have to say, I loved it! We all loved the catchy song, and the cheesiness, and it is a true Disney classic! 
“In the tiki tiki tiki tiki room, in the tiki tiki tiki tiki room….”

Our next Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain wasn’t until 12:20, but it was showing a 10 minute wait on the MDE app, so we headed over to Frontierland. On our last trip in 2014, Amelia didn’t like the dark bits, but she LOVED it this time and screamed the whole way round! She was ecstatic when we said we could ride it again later.

After BTMR, we made our way over to Pirates of the Caribbean but the wait time was showing 35 minutes which was over my 20 minute limit! We decided that we’d go and get refreshments while Paul went to find a smoking area. Amelia was starting to flag a bit, and after the many choices of food and drinks I kept firing at her, she just wanted a bottle of water which was very unlike her. We headed over to Aloha Isle where I got her one. Oliver got a dole whip float, and I got a Dole whip cup (soft serve ice cream). I tried to get a decent picture of it, but it started to melt within seconds!




We’d only been sitting down for a couple of minutes when Paul arrived back and got himself the same as me. Amelia refused to try any of ours and I was starting to worry that she was getting ill or something. I think the tiredness was the main cause after her hideously early morning, but she perked up a bit when I checked my the MDE app and saw that POTC was now showing 10 minutes, so we finished our ice creams, wiped ourselves down with wet wipes (they were so sticky) and hurried over there. Paul and Amelia hadn’t been on it before, and Oliver and I hadn’t been on it since 2012, so it took us a bit by surprise! I won’t spoil it for anyone by telling you which bits! We all loved it though. Oliver’s face in this photo cracks me up! He looks terrified!


Back in Frontierland, we rode BTMR for the second time with our fastpass which was loved again by all and Amelia seemed much better afterwards. We picked up some popcorn and as we were walking towards Fantasyland, she caught sight of It’s a Small World and gave me a knowing look, before grabbing Paul’s hand and yanking him towards it! She knows it’s his least favourite ride, and we always play the song in the car to wind him up. She thought getting him to go on it was hilarious! There was a service dog getting in one of the boats when we were in the queue

It was coming up to 1:15pm after our second ride. We had ridden everything we wanted to, and we weren’t particularly hungry, so we skipped the fruit waffle at Sleepy Hollow Refreshments that I had in my plans and decided we would make a slow walk towards to exit via Town Hall for our last fast pass of the day which was Mickey Mouse at 2:20pm. We walked through the castle which ticked off an item on Amelia’s bucket list. We’ve done it several times before, but she couldn’t remember.




It was starting to get cloudy now, and as we reached the hub, it started to bucket it down. Amelia and I ran for cover, with Paul and Oliver close behind. We took shelter in the Emporium and after a good look around, we ended up buying the Pumpkin tea light holder which I had on my list of purchases, and a red polka dot cap with ears for Amelia which kept the post of her bunkbed warm for the entirety of the trip as she wouldn’t wear it until our second from last day! 


The rain eased off a bit, so we headed down Main street to the Town Square theatre. I had hoped to catch the Festival of Fantasy parade which was due at 2pm, but there was still no sign of it starting, which I guess was due to the rain, so we headed inside and waited in line for Mickey. The CM on the door loved Amelia’s skirt and was talking to us for a bit before we went in. 

Then came the golden moment when Mickey gave her a hug and then said to her:

“Say, can you help me with a magic trick?” to which Amelia replied:
“Can you help me with a magic trick?”

I think she took “say” a little too literally!

Mickey did the exact same magic trick that he had done with her on our last trip which was a little disappointing, but she didn’t mind.  
After meeting Mickey, we came outside to find the parade was just starting to come down Main street. We were right inbetween the two staircases and couldn’t see much, then this lovely American couple saw Amelia and motioned for her to stand in between them at the front. I pushed her through and was standing just behind her, but they motioned me to go right to the front too which gave us THE BEST view. I was so grateful to them. I felt a little bad for Paul and Oliver, but they could still see over the top of everyone’s heads, and wasn’t bothered about watching it anyway, so I don’t think they minded much. Sadly, because we were so close, the possibility of getting any decent photos were diminished and I ended up with lots and lots of blurred shots. These were the best of a bad bunch. I have to say, I did fall out with my DSLR a bit on this trip, and after today, it remained in its case in the wardrobe at the resort for the rest of the holiday and I just used the Canon G7X.












We took the bus back to AKL which drops off at Kidani before Jambo House (except for around 5pm when, in our experience, it seemed to go to Jambo first).

There is an outside entrance to Zawadi, the resort’s shop, three quarters of the way up the slope from the buses to the resort entrance, so we popped in there where I bought a pair of binoculars for Amelia to look at the giraffes on the savannah. 




When we got back to the room, Mousekeeping had been in to make the beds and had arranged Amelia’s toys on ours with a little note, thanking us for the dollars and Freddo bar. 


We hung out for a bit. Amelia spilt chocolate milk down her T-shirt at breakfast this morning which we covered up with a sticker from this morning’s cast member to hide it! So we freshened up and got her changed and at around 5pm, we went to The Mara for dinner. Apologies for the lack of photos here. I’ll try and do better! I had oven roasted rotisserie chicken with mash, Paul had the same but with fries, Oliver had a pepperoni flatbread and Amelia had a kid’s turkey sandwich. For desserts I think Paul, Oliver and I all had Oreo cheesecakes and Amelia had a fruit bag with the BIGGEST grapes I’ve ever seen! We took our resort mugs with us and filled them up, and took the drinks that came with our meals back to the room for another day.


Such a poser!


Paul and the kids wanted to go for a swim after dinner. Although I could have quite happily stayed in the room and gone to sleep, I thought I’d better go with them. I put my cozzy on, but wussed out of getting in the water when I saw how cold they were in there. No thank you very much! They soon changed their minds about swimming and we all decided to go for a Jacuzzi instead which was blissfully warm. I could have stayed in there all night. 


When we started to get shriveled, we got dried and picked up some muffins and hot drinks to take back to the room. We watched TV, Amelia went to bed and later on, Paul and I spotted this little guy on the balcony ceiling! He was so cute!


I spent the rest of the evening uploading the photos and footage onto my hard drive. Despite my best efforts, I think I must have fallen asleep at about 9pm (with the laptop still on my lap)! I think I woke up a few hours later and Paul had done the same as the TV was still on. I turned it off and put the laptop and cameras on the floor and fell back to sleep again in an instant.


*********************
TODAYS SPENDS
Crystal Palace
4 table service credits | Tax & Gratuity $ 21.96
Would have cost $151.89 out of pocket (OOP)
B’Wana Bob’s Pin cart
5 pins $53.20 incl. tax
Amelia’s pin $9.58 incl. tax
Aloha Isle
4 Snack credits
Would have cost $18.51 OOP
Popcorn Cart
Regular popcorn
1 snack credit (would have been $4.25 OOP)
The Emporium
Minnie cap $21.99
Mickey pumpkin tea light holder $16.99
Total $41.52 incl tax
Zawadi Market Place
Binoculars $8 incl. tax
The Mara
4 Quick service credits
would have cost £54.95 OOP

TOTAL SPENT TODAY
$134.26

Steps today: 13,960 (4.8 miles)
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TODAY'S VLOG: