Fourth Family Floriday - Travel Day Part 1

Fourth Family Floriday ~ Curse of the No-See-Ums!

I had planned on writing more about our Disney planning on my blog, but I never got around to it, other than a couple of posts early on in the planning stages. I did write quite a bit on The Dibb, so if you wanted to read about our full planning journey leading up to our holiday, you can see my waffle on my pre-trippie (link below). 

After 18 months of planning our trip to the happiest place on earth, I cannot believe that I'm now sitting here writing about it.  The holiday went so quickly, although when we were there, it seemed like we had been there longer than we had. Which can only be a good thing. The title of this report is made up of the fact that it was my fourth trip to my happy place, and the latter part will become clear as you read in a few days. 

If you read my pre-trip report or previous trippies, you'll be familiar with who we are, but for those of you who are reading one of my blogs for the first time, here's a quick introduction…

I am Aimie. 36 years young. Avid Disney enthusiast, planner-holic, list writer, photographer on all of our trips and also a videographer this time around.

Travelling with me is my Husband, Paul, 41. We met 10 years ago on the Saturday while we were away and have been married for eight of those years. When he isn't hangry or craving a cigarette, he's pretty laid back. Although he is very time conscious and detests lateness. I am the opposite on this part which tends to irritate him!≈ This is his 6th time visiting Orlando.

On the left is my Son, Oliver. He's 17 years old (almost 18) and proud member of team wimp, although he did give Everest a go on this trip which I'm proud of him for! Oliver hates physical activity and other than walking to college four days a week, the most exercise he gets is moving his fingers on his keyboard. He is studying Games design at college and eats, sleeps and breathes gaming. He also likes comedy, watching Suits, films and going to the cinema. This was his fourth time visiting Orlando.

And that leaves our Daughter, Amelia at the front there. She's 7 years old and is a little dare-devil. No ride is too tall or scary for her. She was desperate to ride Hulk on our last trip when she was four. She also loves Disney as much as me and has grown up watching Disney movies since she was a toddler. She likes the Princesses, but not avidly. She prefers Moana over Frozen and LOVES animals. She will try to pet any living thing with fur that passes her. She loves school, reading, writing and crafting and has also inherited my list-writing habit. This was Amelia’s third trip to Orlando.

Since booking this trip in April 2016, we have kept it a secret from Amelia. We did hide it from Oliver too for a good few months until he got a part-time job and had to book holiday, so we let him in on the secret.≈ This was good as he was able to save up his money and managed to save $650 by the time we went.
Keeping a secret this big was incredibly hard. As a family, we talk about Disney World all the time though, so if we did slip up occasionally, it was pretty easy to cover up, and we told the kids we were going back in 2018, so if we did talk about it, it was always "oh, we could eat here next year", or "when you're 8, are you going to go on Expedition Everest?". Amelia was none the wiser. 

So when the time came to start packing, we sent her off to my Mum and Dad's for the day and she also had a rare sleepover there. And this is where my report will begin…

Friday 29th September

I took Amelia to school this morning, came back and cleaned the house from top to bottom. While we’re away, we’re having a new bathroom fitted and our landlord would be popping in to check over things, as well as my parents who would be feeding our cat, Luna. I pushed all the furniture back against the wall in the conservatory so the plumber could put the new bath, shower, etc in there to give him some space. At 10:30am my Sister came over to do my nails. She’s a lady of many talents; a nail technician by trade and has also completed a course in dog grooming, so she gave our dog, Jacob a haircut while she was there too! He was due to go to Paul’s Sister’s for two weeks while we’re away, so I wanted him looking (and smelling) nice for her. They don’t have any pets but occasionally look after their friend's dog. Jacob is 12 years old, as placid as anything, get on great with kids and sleeps all day, so we knew he would be a good boy for them.

Jacob

I made Tracy lunch and she left at about 2pm. I changed the beds and then went to collect Amelia from school. I sneakily gave her teacher a letter telling her she would be away for the next 12 days and thankfully Amelia didn’t even notice. It was another child’s birthday and sweets were being handed out, so she was otherwise occupied! As I mentioned in my pre-trip report, I did inform the school office that she would be taking time out, but they didn’t put it on the system in case it came up on the register and something was said in class that would have spoiled the surprise.

Our hairdresser arrived at 4:30pm to give the kids and I holiday haircuts! Dinner was eaten when she’d gone and then I packed Amelia’s over-night bag. We told her she was staying at my mum’s because the bathroom was being fitted at the weekend and they needed to put the new bathroom suite in her room. I hated lying to her!

An early bedtime was had, and I held an online market night on my website at 9pm which was thankfully a success. Everything sold out in under an hour, so I had time to wrap up all the parcels ready to post in the morning. This took me until about 1am!
I put all the parcels, overnight bag and Amelia’s swimming kit by the front door ready for the morning and went to bed.


Pre-Travel Day – Saturday 30th September 2017

Today was another busy one! We woke up at the usual time for a Saturday at 7:30am. Paul was playing postman this morning and took all of my parcels to the drop and go counter at the post office for me as soon as they opened at 9am. Then he went to my mums as our hairdresser was cutting her hair at 9:30am this morning and he needed his doing as he was at work when she came to ours last night. Amelia has swimming lessons at 10:15am on Saturday mornings, so he left her over-night bag there, took her swimming and then dropped her back with my Mum and Dad where she stayed the night. They had lots of fun doing craft activities so I’m told! 

Paul did a few more errands; filled the car up with petrol, etc and then came home to get Jacob and take him to his Sister’s. All the while this was going on, I was packing, and as everything was already in storage hampers, it was just a case of putting everything in suitcases, so it didn’t take me too long and I was almost finished when he arrived home. He had picked up some rolls and bits for lunch on his way home which we ate and then continued packing and cleaning out the fridge, etc.  
It wasn’t long after that Paul received a phone call from my Brother-in-law to say that Jacob wasn’t getting on too well with our niece and could we come and pick him up. We did find this hard to believe as he is the most placid dog in the world. However, we didn’t want him to be somewhere where he wasn’t wanted so agreed to collect him. This is where panic set in. After ringing around a few places, we found that we literally knew no one else that would be able to have him. Most people had cats or were away themselves. Paul thought it would be a good idea for me to take a break from packing for a while, so we went to pick Jacob up, all the while calling people to see if they could look after Jacob. My sister could have him for the first week but not the second. Then by a stroke of luck, Paul called his friend who lives locally to us and they agreed to look after him. We were SO grateful for their help. They have two dogs who he got on great with when we were away, and it sounds as though he was very spoilt on his little holiday.

So with a huge sigh of relief, we dropped him home and then nipped into town to exchange some money into dollars. We arrived at the currency exchange place where we exchanged Oliver’s money a few weeks back at 4:10pm and they closed at 4pm which was frustrating. We decided to head to the other side of town to Tesco where we could exchange the money and also check the oil in the car, fill up the screen wash, check the tyres and take it through a car wash. 

With all of those jobs completed and ticked off on my Wunderlist app, we went home, finished the last few bits of packing, Paul dropped Jacob at his friends while I had a tidy up and he picked up a Chinese on his way home. We always go to New Sunrise and as usual, it didn’t disappoint. It has to be the best Chinese in Northampton.

We went to bed excited but exhausted, and I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow. We were going to Disney World tomorrow! Eeeek!

Day 1 – Travel Day Part 1
Sunday 1st October 2017
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My alarm went off at 7am, but I lay there unable to move for a while. Paul was up before me and brought me up a cup of tea and then Luna got on the bed for a cuddle. She seemed a bit upset and I reckon she knew something was going on. I hated the thought of leaving her at home for two weeks but knew my mum and dad would look after her while we were away. 

I got up and we all had showers and got dressed. Toast was eaten and Paul took all the luggage downstairs and put it together in the dining room while I packed my make-up into my hand luggage. Oliver emptied the bins and soon enough, it was 11am. Paul and I did a quick vlog and then he went outside for a cigarette (much to my annoyance as I wanted to get going) as it would be the last one he could have for hours apparently. This is the same person who declared 18 months ago that he would give up before we went on holiday. I did another quick video while Oliver played on his phone and soon enough, Paul was back and it was time to load up the car.  

We live on a terraced road and I didn’t want everyone knowing we were going away, so we took the luggage into the garage at the bottom of the garden and then took the car around the back of the garages and loaded up the boot. At 11:25am we were pulling away, bang on schedule which is unlike us! Anyone would think we were excited to be going on holiday!  
Oliver wanted to run into work and collect his wages, so we did that and then went to pick up my Nan who wanted to be there for Amelia’s reveal. She only lives 5 minutes from my Mum’s house.

When we arrived at my Mum’s, I was disappointed to find that Amelia wasn’t there! She had gone to get some rolls and sausages for lunch with my Dad. We made tea and they arrived back about 5 minutes later. My Dad said Amelia had asked him if they could get some stuff for her packed lunch tomorrow, but he told her he’d pick her some up in the morning.  
I wanted to give her the reveal bag after lunch, but the excitement inside me was about to erupt, so I set up my camera at the dining room table and she opened her gift bag while we had tea, and the sausages and bacon cooked under the grill.
The video below is her reveal. However, I also have a video of the whole day and the reveal is also in that video, so if you want to watch the whole day, skip to the video at the end of this report.

The fact that we could finally talk about it was such a relief! Amelia was so excited and was bouncing around like a loony! She LOVED her model aeroplane and didn’t let it go and her ears headband remained on her head all day. She declared that she was going to sleep in them but I took them off of her when she went to bed. I took her out to the car and gave her her new Daisy jacket, travel journal and booklet to tell her where we’re going. Then we ate our sausage and bacon rolls, called my sister who was in London for the day and then left for Gatwick at 2pm.

She journey was pretty smooth. It was incredibly foggy and there was a bit of traffic at one point on the M25, but it soon cleared and we arrived at Gatwick at 4:30pm. 

We did somehow manage to get in the wrong lane when trying to get to the valet parking area. We had to go right out of the airport and back in again. If you’re using valet parking at north terminal, be sure to keep to the left when entering. 
Valet parking was a breeze. It was pretty empty too and we seemed to be the only ones getting out of the car at that time. There were only a few other cars in the car park. We emptied the boot of luggage, all but Amelia’s Ariel flight pillow. She didn’t want to use it in the car and I was positive the same would happen on the plane, so I knew it was a waste of time bringing it. I’m sure we left it in the boot and not in one of the 40 odd compartments in our car, but when we arrived back in the UK, it was gone and we haven’t seen it since. 

We headed over to the check-in desk which is in a little room. The kids and I waited outside while Paul took in the paperwork and handed in the keys. 

The guy inside asked why we were so late. I think Paul must have given him a blank look. Then the guy said that the paperwork says our arrival was at 6am. I remember Paul pointing this out when we were going through the paperwork this morning, and I said to him that I’m sure it will be fine and it’s probably just the time they opened in the morning, as at no point when we booked were we asked our arrival and departure times. As it happened, it was no problem, but he did ask what time we would be collecting the car as it had 6pm on the paperwork. Paul explained that our flight lands at 8am-ish on 16th October, so we could collect the car around 9:30am. The guy said that it was a good job we told him, as we would probably have had to wait hours and hours, most likely until 6pm for our car to be brought back as it’s parked offsite and they bring it back to North terminal a few hours before the arrival time. Now that we’d changed it to the correct time, it would be waiting for us on our arrival back into the UK. Phew.

With that done, we took the two-minute walk to the terminal, and we found Premier Inn right in front of us. Paul waited with the luggage while I took the kids to check in. I was directed to go up to one of the empty machines and proceeded to enter my details. All was going well until I came to the part where I could add on breakfasts. It would let me add on two adult breakfasts and one child, but not a third adult for Oliver. I asked a member of staff who told me it’s because he’s over 15 and classed as an adult and you’re not allowed three adults in a room. I asked her what she suggests I do then and she said that could book another room. Thinking it would be an adjoining room, and might not be so bad, I asked how much it would be and she said that today’s prices were £101 per room per night. There was absolutely no way that I was going to pay that when I only paid £86 for the family room. I argued with her that I had booked through Booking.com and there was no mention of this on the website and that I would not be putting a 17-year-old in a room on his own and she backed down a bit and told me just to add on the three breakfasts and then pay for Oliver’s in the morning, which we did. We were allocated room number 624 on the 6th floor, overlooking the terminal. It was much smaller than the room we had on our last trip at the other Premier Inn around the corner, but it was only for one night.

We dropped our bags off and did a quick video tour off the room and then remembered poor Paul was still waiting downstairs, so we hurried on back down to him and went into North terminal, directly opposite to do twilight check in. 

I was pleased to see there were only two families in front of us, and when we were second in line, they opened up another desk and called us over! Result! Check-in was pain-less. I got my e-ticket out but was told that I didn’t need to show it as she could get my booking just through our passports. All suitcases were around 16kg each and after about 10 minutes we were done and were free to go off and find some dinner. I was expecting it to take much longer than that. It was only just after 5pm. Before we went away Paul and I decided to wait and see how long it takes. If it got to 6-7pm, then we’d just go back to Premier Inn and have dinner at the Thyme restaurant, but if we were finished earlier, we’d have mooch over to south terminal to kill some time as we didn’t want the four of us stuck in one room all night from early on in the evening. So that’s what we did. As luck would have it, a monorail pulled up the second we got to the end of the platform just as we got there. Something that continued to happen throughout the holiday. We took our first ride of the holiday; the monorail to south terminal. We had a look in Wetherspoons Beehive to see if there were any tables near the window so we could watch the planes coming in to land, like we did on our 2012 trip, but they were all occupied, so we headed over to Giraffe instead. Amelia was looking forward to watching the planes and started to play up saying she wanted to stay in there, but as soon as I said she could have a plastic giraffe in her drink like last time, she was easily persuaded. Giraffe is adjacent to Wetherspoons, and really quiet, although it was still quite early. It did get busier while we were in there. We were shown to a booth table at the back of the restaurant on the left and Amelia set about colouring in the menu she was given while the rest of us looked over ours. 

I just fancied a cheese and bacon burger but there wasn’t one on the menu. When I asked if I could add bacon to a classic, he told me just to order a Smokey joe’s burger. I was sure that had BBQ sauce or something on it to make it “smokey” but didn’t like to question his judgement, so I went with his recommendation which coincidentally, Paul and Oliver were also having. 

Amelia ordered a chicken wrap and our drinks were delivered promptly (plastic giraffe included), followed shortly by our food, literally 5-6 minutes after ordering! That place is so fast! Paul took one bite into a fry (I’m starting the American lingo now since we’re technically on our first day!) and declared it was still frozen. He told her server who took them away and replaced the bowl with new fries seconds later. The new ones were hot and he was happy. Our food was devoured and was really nice. My suspicions on the smokey joe were correct as it did have a dressing of some description which had a bit of a kick to it. Not too much that I couldn’t eat it. I don’t like anything remotely spicy or peppery, but this was quite nice. It was very flavourful. Oliver said his burger was perfect. Paul said it was just OK, but he likes to moan, so don’t take his word for it. 

Amelia also enjoyed her chicken wrap.

I was stuffed from the massive burger but needed something sweet, so Paul said he’d share a hot chocolate fudge brownie with me. Amelia wanted cherry ice cream, and Oliver was also stuffed and didn’t want anything else, but he did finish Amelia’s ice cream when she couldn’t. The brownie was delicious and just the right size.

We paid the bill, which from memory was about £65 (sorry, I can’t find the receipt!) and headed back over to the north terminal and back to our room at Premier Inn.

I bought a pack of biscuits with us and Amelia really wanted some milk with them, so Paul went back over to the airport and bought a pint in M&S. I think it was only about 7:30pm, but I got in my pyjamas for some reason, as did Amelia. It didn’t feel right sitting on the bed in my clothes I’d been travelling all day in. As I was getting ready for bed I noticed there was smeared blood over the front of the toilet bowl which I found disgusting. I was already in my pyjamas at this point and our stuff was all over the room. The thought of changing rooms filled me with dread, so I cleaned it off myself and scrubbed my hands about three times! The fact that it hadn’t been cleaned properly was disgusting and I worried if our beds had even been changed. They seemed OK on inspection.

Amelia put the TV on and X factor was on, although we weren’t really watching it. Oliver sat on his phone again (surprise surprise) and played on his DS. He got a new Pokemon game before we came away and had been dying to play it. We did some more vlogging and then had tea, milk, and biscuits and had a few games of Uno which I’d packed. Then the funniest thing happened. I had just put my camera away and as I looked up I saw Amelia disappear head first in-between the two beds! We were all crying with laughter and even though she was still standing on her head between the beds, she was in hysterics too and we could just see her legs shaking with laughter! It was the funniest thing and I’m gutted I didn’t catch it on the camera! 

Amelia was still full of beans but I tried to get her to sleep at 9pm. We turned all the lights off and all was quiet in the room and she wasn’t making a sound, so I thought she was asleep. Paul and I were just scrolling through Facebook until there was nothing left to look at. He announced he was bored and wanted me to go down to the bar with him. I really couldn’t be bothered. I was shattered and in my pyjamas, and I didn’t feel too great after eating so much at dinner, but didn’t want him to have to drink on his own, so I put my clothes back on and told Oliver we were just nipping downstairs and to keep an eye on Amelia and let her know we’ll be back in a minute, should she wake up. He could text/call us if she did wake up.
We headed down to the Thyme at 9:50pm and Paul had a pint of Carling (£4.00). I didn’t have anything as I thought it would make my stomach feel worse. 

We were sitting there and then realised that they had roped off the area we were sitting in. There was one other man in there on his own by the window, who left after Paul had finished his first pint. We waited 10 minutes, and when he didn’t come back, we moved to his table by the window overlooking the airport and Paul got another drink. We just sat there, people watching and then I realised that the man was back, but now sat in the corner. I felt really bad that we’d pinched his table! Ooops.
As we sat there looking out, I spotted a man dressed in dark clothes with his hood up, holding a white package-like envelope. He looked a bit shifty and seemed to be watching this group of girls who looked as though they were waiting for taxi. We continued to watch them as if waiting for something to happen. He looked so dodgy that I even took my phone out and took some pictures as I was convinced he'd be on crime watch or something the following week! The girls filtered off into taxis and he still stood there. He appeared to be waiting for someone and moved from shadow to shadow. After 10 minutes or so, Oliver text to say Amelia was awake and asking where we were. We watched for another 3 or 4 minutes and he moved into the stairwell of the carpark opposite. Something was DEFINITELY suspicious about him. It looked as if he was either dealing drugs or trying to buy some. An airport though? Not the best place to commit a crime is it?!

Paul finished his second pint and we made our way back upstairs. I got ready for bed for the second time, took off my make-up and got into bed. Amelia went back to sleep and Paul and I tried to sleep but tossed and turned all night. He must have got up for a wee about 4 times throughout the night and woke me up every time. The last time he got up, he left the light on, which reflected off the mirror, right into my face. In the end, I got up and turned the light off and checked the time, thinking it was about 6am and agreeing with myself that I’d get up and have a shower. I was annoyed to find it was only 3:40am! I tried to get back to sleep, and reckon I must have got about 3 hours in the end. The beds were fine and comfortable, although I could have done with a second pillow.

Apart from the blip with the room, we had such a stress-free travel day and would definitely recommend valet parking. The location of Premier Inn is brilliant if you’re flying from north terminal. Just be sure to check your room has been cleaned properly!