12 years

Shortest day of the year today, so it must be our anniversary! In celebration, Nicky and I went for lunch at The Swan in West Malling. The food there is absolutely divine. My favourite was the Brioche "Pain Perdu" pudding with custard and jam!
For our anniversary I bought Nicky a Swarovski necklace. Rather worryingly, my gift was a DIY manual, but also a new scarf, and two Thorntons chocolates for traditional reasons!
Christmas holidays have well and truly started now - no more work for a couple of weeks. And, not that I'm wishing our Christmas holidays away, but it's only eight weeks today until our next Orlando trip. I phoned WDW Dine last night and made some reservations. We got our first choices, which was a bit of a surprise as we booked earlier last time and still had to be flexible. Perhaps this is a sign of the credit crunch impacting the parks - either there are fewer people going, or they'll all be taking a packed lunch! We've booked for lunches at Teppan Edo (the other one in Japan at Epcot), the Whispering Canyon Cafe, and Le Cellier.

Already there

Yes, so we did watch the X Factor final on Saturday evening, and we got the 1-2-3 in the right order. JLS did a song called "Already There" which I hadn't heard before which sounded rather nice. A quick bit of research showed that it had previously been done by Westlife, but of course, shameless cover artists that they are (You Raise Me Up) it wasn't their song originally. It looks like it is a Lonestar song. There is a great video on Youtube which, irrespective of what you might think of recent American (and British) military campaigns brings a lump to the throat. Unfortunately embedding is disabled on that video, so here's one with the same music but duller pictures!

Avenue Q

Yesterday Nicky and I went to see Avenue Q in London at the Noel Coward theatre. Nicky had spotted a special offer on Ticketmaster a while ago and had booked for the 5 o'clock show. We did what is becoming our regular thing of driving up to the O2 and getting on the Jubilee line there. Despite it being close to Christmas there were still spaces in the car park, and even better someone who was leaving gave us their parking ticket so we didn't have to pay the £3 parking charge! We arrived a little early and so found a Starbucks near to the theatre for a coffee and a cake before going in.

The show was great! Lots of fun, good puppets, good jokes and an excellent cast. We didn't buy the CD but may have to get it sometime. Mind you, definitely not one to listen to with either parents or children!

I'm sat by the side of the pool at the moment. No Rebecca again today, but Jake is happy with Adam. We've got John and Margaret coming for roast pork today. They were supposed to be going to Yorkshire today but John isn't very well so they've decided to postpone.

Inspirational reading

Back in July I wrote a post on the way home on the train, because I'd just read the obituary of Randy Pausch. I'd heard about the Last Lecture, but didn't really know very much about it. Then, I bought the book at the airport on the way to Orlando last month, and read a bit of it whilst on holiday.

I finished it off last night, as the box of tissues sat by the bed proves! Knowing how the story ended, so to speak, made it pretty hard going towards the end, as he turned to thoughts of family - his wife and his three young children. There was a lot in his experiences that I could relate to (not least being a big Disney fan!), and as always with these things, just so much to make you stop for a minute and think about your priorities in life. It would be great to think that I could maintain such a positive, life-affirming attitude in the face of such adversity, but I'm not sure that I'd manage it.

Now that I've read the book, I really must watch the lecture some time soon.


Listening to the news today on the way to work, there were two anniversaries of note. If it "all started with a mouse" then it all started 80 years ago today, when Steamboat Willie was released, so the Mouse has been celebrating today. Also on the radio this morning was a programme about Alistair Cooke, as he would have been 100 this week. Listening to his voice is another one of those Radio 4 sounds that takes me straight back to my childhood! I must dig out my copy of his book and read some more of his letters.

Swim blog

Sunday morning swim blog again, bashed out on the iPod touch screen to sync when we get home. No Rebecca today, so Jake is having his lesson with Adam. He didn't seem to be too bothered. If anything he might be doing a bit more swimming and a bit less chat!

Went shopping in Maidstone yesterday morning after dropping Jake off at Tyland Barn for his Cub event. Bought a couple of birthday presents for Nicky. Worryingly she's at home now and she knows my hiding place ...!! I've got a few more ideas of things to get, and Jake and I will have more shopping opportunities next weekend whilst Nicky is away with Mum.

Quiz evening was ok last night - just could have done with being a bit shorter! Still, it was a learning experience - Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. When we got back Jake, Samuel and Joshua were all fast asleep in Jake's bed. I have a photo to prove it, but they probably wouldn't thank me for posting it here!

Sent from my iPod

Disney Links

Oh my goodness, I have found the Disney Links website, and if I'm not careful I could loose whole days in a clicking daze. Must stop and come back later. Must go to bed ... !!

Sunday swimming

I'm sat by the side of the pool at the Math watching Jake have his swimming lesson with Rebecca. She's trying to get him to swim with his head in the water and breathe to the side. Progress is being made, and this definitely qualifies as more advanced swimming than I can manage. I'm sure that Jake would be amused to hear stories of my attempts to swim in this pool when I was 11. I was in the bottom group and was hopeless - trying to hop across while no-one was looking!

Holiday history

Trying to remember where our holidays have been over the years. Here's a start, to be updated further ...

2008

October - 8 nights Orlando - Animal Kingdom Lodge - Miff, Nicky, Jake, John, Margaret

August - 1 week Isle of Wight - Middleton Cottage - Miff, Nicky, Jake, John, Margaret, Mum, Dad

May - 3 nights Disney Paris - Newport Bay Club - Miff, Nicky, Jake



2007

December - 1 week Orlando and 1 week cruise - Port Orleans and Carnival Glory - Miff, Nicky, Jake, John, Margaret

November / December - 3 nights Singapore - Fullerton Hotel - Miff, Nicky

August - 4 nights Nice - Radisson Hotel - Miff, Nicky

July / August - 1 week Scarborough - Oscar - Miff, Nicky, Jake, John, Margaret

April - 1 week Port Aventura - El Paso Hotel - Miff, Nicky, Jake



2006

December - 3 nights Manchester - Lowry Hotel - Miff, Nicky

July / August - 2 weeks Med cruise - Legend of the Seas - Miff, Nicky, Jake, John, Margaret

June - 2 nights Disney Paris - Sequioia Lodge - Miff, Nicky, Jake



2005

December - 17 nights Orlando - Port Orleans - Miff, Nicky, Jake

October - 1 weeks Scarborough - Oscar - Miff, Nicky, Jake, John, Margaret



2004

September - 1 week Mallorca - Cala Pi apartments - Miff, Nicky, Jake, Mum, Dad

July / August - 2 nights Oxford - Belfry Hotel - Miff, Nicky

June - 1 week Orlando - Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista - Miff, Nicky, Jake



2003

December - 2 weeks Orlando - Sheraton Vistana - Miff, Nicky, Jake, John, Margaret

August - 1 week Dorset - Inside Park camping - Miff, Nicky, Jake, John, Margaret



2002

October - 1 week Lake District - Borrowdale Gates - Miff, Nicky, Jake, Mum, Dad

August - 1 week Devon - Farmhouse - Miff, Nicky, Jake, Mum, Dad, Bec, Mark, Harry, Oliver

March - 3 nights Boston - Radisson hotel - Miff, Nicky



2001

February - 2 nights New York - Sheraton Hotel & Towers - Miff, Nicky



2000

December - 2 weeks Orlando - Quality Inn International - Miff, Nicky, Jake, John, Margaret

April - 4 nights Cotswolds - Cotswolds Water Park self catering - Miff, Nicky, Kate, Phil



1999

December - 1 week Las Vegas - Imperial Palace - Miff, Nicky

August - 1 week Guernsey - camping - Miff, Nicky

April - 8 nights Orlando - Quality Inn International - Miff, Nicky, John, Margaret, Heather



1998

August - 1 week Dorset - Inside Park camping - Miff, Nicky



1997

October / November - 1 week Lake District - Borrowdale Gates - Miff, Nicky, Mum, Dad

August - Paris - Miff, Nicky



1996

December - 2 weeks Orlando Honeymoon - Holiday Inn International - Miff, Nicky

Day 9 - MK and home

Well I’m sat at MCO waiting for our flight, and thought that I could do a bit of offline blogging to kill a bit of time. According to the computer there are a number of unsecured wireless networks here, but I’m not sure about connecting to any of them, so thought that I would stay offline and then cut and paste this in when we get home.
The whole process of checking out of hotel and checking in to flight has gone smoothly. I called the front desk at the hotel yesterday evening and confirmed that we would like the express check out facility, which meant that our bill was delivered to the room this morning, automatically charged to our credit card, and there was no need to go to reception. We even get to keep our key cards as a souvenir! My chief nerd status was confirmed when I checked the bill against my records and was only $1 out - caused by misremembering the cost of wine and crème brulee from a cart in Epcot when we were waiting for Illuminations.
We’d also checked yesterday with Virgin and discovered that the Downtown Disney check in facility is not operating at the moment. In a way, I actually think that this has worked out better, although I suppose that it does mean that we needed to be at the airport a little earlier than would otherwise have been the case. On the plus side, there was no need to rush to leave the hotel this morning. The check out policy is a refreshingly late 11am, and we made it out of the door at about half past ten. Jake didn’t get to sleep very early last night, and so it was good not to have to rush him (or ourselves) up and out this morning.
We called down to the front desk and arranged for someone to come and collect our bags and to bring our car round. One of the things that I dislike most about travelling is the luggage, and it has been extremely pleasant today. We’ve hardly touched our bags since we packed them in our rooms. They were collected at the hotel and loaded into the car for us, there was a porter waiting at the rental car drop off point to take them when we got to the airport, and there was even another porter to move them from the check in desk to the security scanner. Marvellous!
I’ve also really appreciated the valet parking privileges that come with being a DVC member. We get free valet parking at all of the DVC resorts, and it has been so nice just to drive up to the front door of the hotel at the end of each day, and to have our car brought round for us when we’ve gone out. Normally it costs $10 per day for valet parking, so that has been a perk worth having. I hope that I’ve been tipping at about the going rate - I’ve been handing over $2 each time we’ve picked up our car.
By being annual passholders, DVC members, and “Tables In Wonderland” cardholders we’ve actually saved a fairly large amount of money during the holiday. I know that each of them comes with large, larger, or enormous outlays in the first place, but it’s nice to see some of the benefits coming back our way. By no means an exhaustive list, we’ve benefited from:

• $25 off buying the TIW card in the first place
  
• Approx. $100 off the meals we had at Jiko and at Le Cellier
  
• Free valet parking every day rather than paying $10 per day
  
• Free high speed internet access every day rather than paying $10 per day
  
• $10 off Lego Batman sets in the Lego store
  
• $16 off our big shop at World of Disney
  
• $5 of CD purchases at the Virgin store
  
• $30 off crazy golf at Winter Summerland.

All good stuff, and even better is the fact that we will have all of the same discounts available to us when we return in February without having to pay another penny, and we will be able to get another week of use from our annual passes.
Back to today, and having loaded up at the hotel this morning, and being very glad that we had spread our luggage over 4 bags on the way out when we could have managed with three (otherwise it would have been three holidays in a row where we bought another bag to get everything home) we set off for the Magic Kingdom, munching biscuits and granola bars from our remaining groceries on the way. Our maid will have had a fairly good haul today, as we couldn’t manage to finish off all of our food. The most annoying is the fact that when we went to Publix, the smallest pack of coffee filters we could find was 200, and we must have just left about 190 of them behind. I was only half joking when I suggested we put them in a bag and bring them back in February, but at about $1 per pack, it doesn’t really seem worth it.
Driving up World Drive, we decided to be sneaky again and not park in the main car park, but to park at the Contemporary Resort which is much closer to the Magic Kingdom. The only challenge with doing this is spinning a yarn to the security attendants to get them to let you in. My story (may I be forgiven) was that we were going to be having an early dinner at the California Grill and that we had decided to come and have a look at the resort and then go to MK for lunch. The security attendant was all for getting us to go back to the main parking lot, but through persistence we managed to get her to issue us with a three hour parking pass. This was good enough for us, as when we got into the car park there was a fair amount of space, and we figured that we would only be a bit more than three hours anyway.
I don’t have a good track record with the parking attendants at the Contemporary Resort. Last time, when we really were coming for dinner at the California Grill, they asked to see some ID when we arrived (as well as our parking pass from our resort and our room card) and I didn’t have any with me. I then got a stern lecture from the attendant about how it was illegal not to have your driving licence with you at all times in America - retired police officer methinks! I was annoyed at the time, but in fairness, I’ve had it in my bum bag all throughout this holiday!
We parked near to the Bay Lake Towers construction site. The construction of the main building looks to be nearly complete, and I presume that they are onto fit out now, although they still have a way to go with the connecting bridge. When we were talking with Nikki last week, she said that about 20% of the rooms will have views over the Magic Kingdom, so it will be possible to watch the fireworks from your own balcony. Apparently one of the TV channels will have the music playing so it will be possible to watch with the right music playing in your room!
We had a very quick look around the shops in the Contemporary, but then it was onto the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. The resort monorail runs clockwise around Seven Seas Lagoon, so we had stops at the TTC, the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian before arriving at the park.

Walking down Main Street, it was clear that a show was about to begin on the castle stage, so we watched the Dream Along with Mickey show (well Jake watched all of it apart from the parts with the Princes and Princesses) before deciding what ride to do first. The original plan had been to go to MK in order to ride on Big Thunder Mountain, but Jake decided that he’d save that one for next time, and off we went to Tomorrowland for a ride on Buzz Lightyear, where the wait was posted as 15 minutes but seemed to be less to me. Jake rode with me again, and Nicky went on her own, and did a good job of discounting her score before revealing it to Jake in the interests of family harmony.
Time for lunch by now, so we went to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. Jake and I had the bacon double cheeseburger - we’ve had enough of these over the course of our holiday to sink a battleship. Nicky was obviously all cheeseburger -ed out and so had a turkey and bacon wrap. It was fairly full inside, so we sat at one of the outside tables and got pestered by the birds.
After lunch Nicky went over to Adventureland to the Pirates shop, as we’d been told at Arribas yesterday that they had some of the charms that she was looking for. The rest of us stayed in Tomorrowland and went on TTA. Jake and I shared a “car” and so did Nanny and Grandad. I took a photo of Nanny and Grandad recreating the picture taken on a previous holiday where it looked as though I was strangling Nanny (I was actually hugging her because it was cold, but it didn’t come out looking like that!)





Jake was keen to ride on the Indy Speedway again, having enjoyed it when we went to the Halloween party. This ride is known for having a slow-moving line, and when we went in it was posted as 30 minutes, but again it was much shorter - probably a little less than twenty. Jake noticed that he is tall enough to ride by himself, but in the end decided that we should go together. I agreed not to touch the controls - pedal or steering wheel, and to let Jake do it all by himself. We only nudged the car in front once, just as we were coming back in at the end, and I think that Jake now definitely has the confidence to go by himself when we come back in February. I think that he wants us to ride in separate lanes so that we can race next time!






Whilst we’d been in the queue for the Indy Speedway, Nicky had returned so had passed the radio back to us. This meant that when we got off we could wander towards Main Street and radio to find out where the others were. We met up with them in front of the castle and walked through it to Sir Mickey’s on the other side to look for a scarf. Nicky had bought a scarf earlier in the day, but it had been the last one in the shop and Margaret wanted one the same, so we were on a hunt, but to not avail at that point.
We decided that there was time for one more ride, and Pirates of the Caribbean was voted for, so off we went to Adventureland for one final time, before making our way back down Main Street, me going into photo taking overdrive as we headed for the exit and the resort monorail which took us directly back to the Contemporary hotel.
Time for another look in the Contemporary shops, and this time we were successful in finding the scarf. Jake chose a mystery pin set in which you get two pins for $12, but you don’t know which ones out of a selection of ten or twelve, until you open the pack. After some deliberation between the ride-themed ones and the good vs. evil characters ones, we went for the rides, and Jake got pins of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and of Expedition Everest.
Unable to prolong it any further, we made our way back to the car. We’d only outstayed our welcome by twenty minutes or so. Even though we arrived at a few minutes past eleven, our parking pass said 11:30 as our arrival time, and it was about ten to three now. Not that it made any difference. No-one checked our pass on the way out, and as always it was simply a case of driving up to the barrier which then opened automatically.
We drove back down towards World Drive, and I had forgotten that the rode sends you off to the left past Fort Wilderness and thought that it was necessary to make a left turn, so I ended up driving up to the entrance to the Wilderness Lodge hotel and had to make a u-turn. Getting back on the road we found our way fine, and drove past Port Orleans for old times sake (!) and then left onto Vacation Club Way to go past Saratoga Springs, where we will be staying in February.
Leaving the world, we stopped for some petrol before getting onto I-4. The payment machine at the pump wouldn't take my credit card, as it wanted me to put in my zip code, which obviously I don't have. John went in to ask, and they said that we could fill up and then pay. We tried that, but the pump wouldn't dispense, so after pressing the call button we got a fairly terse answer through the speaker that we did need to pay first after all. This time I went inside, and was asked how much petrol I was going to put in, to which I answered that I had no idea, as it was a rental car and we needed to fill it up before taking it back. So, I had to leave $40 of cash with the cashier, go back and fill up (which turned out to be just over $34) and then go back in again to collect my change. What a performance!
Whilst we'd been driving down from the Magic Kingdom, Nicky had phoned Virgin to check on flight times, which I meant to do before we left the hotel in the morning. Unfortunately it turned out that there was a 2 hour delay on our flight. Had we found this out earlier, we might have stayed a bit longer in the park, but we decided to stick with our plans and go to the airport, as we hadn't checked in and we wanted to make sure that we got the seats that we wanted.
Returned the car at the airport with no problems. As always it is dead easy, as they have a hand held scanner which checks you back in and provides your receipt - $294 for 8 days of minivan hire seems like a good deal to me.
It was here that we commandeered a porter to take our bags to the check in desk. Check in was similarly quick and easy, and we settled in to the seating area at the airport and took turns to have a wander around the shops. (It was around this time that I started typing this entry. By now it's actually Friday evening and I'm back home!) Last minute airport purchases included a book for Jake and a Universal (Bart Simpson) pin, as well as some hand cream from L-Occitane for Nicky.
We had dinner from Nathan's in the food court, which is next door to McDonald's and had a considerably shorter line. Food was good (fish 'n' chips, nuggets, chicken sandwich ...) and we followed it with a trip to Krispy Kreme for a quick donut. Donuts there are considerably cheaper than in the UK outlets - 99c for a single donut or $9.99 for a dozen.
Soon afterwards (after a last minute hunt in the shops for some flight socks for Margaret) we went through security, and onto the train to Gate 83. I think that we all managed at least some sleep on the plane on the way home, and as always, the longest wait was to collect our bags from the baggage reclaim at Gatwick.
According to the counter, only 107 days until we're back for a week at Saratoga Springs!

Day 8 - Shopping and golf

Today we took a trip to I-Drive and to the Prime outlets, which are where Belz used to be, and certainly considerably nicer. We had a good look around, albeit that our only purchases were in the Disney Character Warehouse. I got a long sleeve t-shirt for $5.99 - always the bargain hunter! It was fairly cold out of the sunshine, and we seriously considered buying jumpers just to keep warm!
Afterwards we went to the IHOP near the top of I-Drive. Nicky and John had the carafe of orange juice as always, and Jake enjoyed his pancakes.
Next up was the Winter Summerland crazy golf near to our hotel (with 50% off thanks to DVC perks). Jake won as always - "we'll call that a two" !!






A quick stop off at the hotel and then off to Downtown for some serious shopping. Jake collected a couple more Lego Batman sets, and we had our traditional blowout at World of Disney.
Back at the hotel we collected some food from Mara for dinner, and finally went to find the night vision savannah viewing, as this was our last opportunity.
Nicky took a few photos around our rooms and the hotel, and now sadly it is time to pack.

Day 7 - Le Cellier and MK Extra Magic

Off to Epcot late morning. We valet parked at the Beach Club (temporarily confusing the assistant there who didn't realise that DVC members get free valet at all DVC resorts). Beach Club is lovely, and so close to Epcot, we really must stay there some time.





Into Epcot through the International Gateway and had a little look around the UK pavilion (selling UK goodies including a pack of digestive biscuits for $6!) before going to Canada for our midday reservation at Le Cellier. It was worth waiting for. The cheddar cheese soup was yummy. Everyone else had steak, but I had a prime rib sandwich. Jake and I shared ice cream and chocolate "moose" for pudding.





A little wander around that corner of Epcot after lunch, and then back to the hotel. The Larkowski's came over for a visit in the afternoon and Jake and Simon played in the arcade and had a dip in the pool.





In the evening, Nicky and I went to Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom whilst Nanny, Grandad and Jake stayed at the hotel and enjoyed storytime. At the MK we arrived just as Spectromagic was going down Main Street so we watched a bit of that whilst browsing through the shops. Then to the Jungle Cruise before watching the fireworks from Liberty Square. For the rest of the evening we just enjoyed having a wander around the park - we only went on a couple more rides - Pirates and Stitches Great Escape.





Back to the hotel just before eleven - just after Jake had gone to sleep!

Day 6 - AK and Epcot

A slow start to the day on day 6 with breakfast in our room and a bit of debate as to what to do with the day. Jake wasn't ready to face the world, and so Nanny and Grandad decided that they fancied a trip to Downtown and headed off to get the bus. We set off at about 11 o'clock and made our way over to the Animal Kingdom.
We weren't quite in time for the half past eleven showing of the Nemo Musical, so at Jake's suggestion we went into Dinoland to play some of the fairground games. The first one we tried was the water shooter, and we were rather worried about our chances given that we occupied 3 of the 14 seats, and there was only one empty chair. So we needed to beat 10 opponents to win a prize. Nicky and I were concentrating so intently on our aim, that we were taken aback when the bell rang and the host announced that seat 1 was the winner. Sitting in seat 1 was Jake !! What a sure-shooter he is !!





Flushed with success we had a go at a ball throwing game, but no luck there, so we went for the trusty ball rolling horse (or in this case dino) racing. Needless to say we came first second and third, and added to our haul.





Next up we decided that a fastpass trip on the safari was in order, followed by a return to the 1:45 Nemo showing. This did mean something of a route march across to the other side of the park and back, but hey, we're made of sterner theme park stuff. We enjoyed the safari very much, although for the first time in our experience the lions were a no show. Still we did very well, seeing hippo, crocs, elephants, giraffe, rhino and more.







We got off the safari at about one o'clock, and marched back over to the Nemo show, stopping off for some quick fries along the way. We only just snuck in at the back and the theatre was packed, but the show was fantastic.
Time to leave AK now and come back to the hotel. Nicky was commenting that it is a shame that there is no direct link between AK and AK Lodge - you have to go by car or bus along with everyone else. There really should be a little train or a series of safari jeeps that can ferry you from park to hotel. After all, all of the other deluxe resorts have either monorail or boat services to at least one park.
Back at the hotel we waited for John and Margaret to return to Downtown. They got back just before four, and so we turned them around and marched them straight back out and into the car to go to Epcot, as we were a little worried that all of the fastpasses for the day might have been distributed at both Soarin' and Test Track. (Even though our special fastpasses got us instant access, once all of the fastpasses for the day have been given out, they close the machines.)
When we got to Epcot we discovered that the fastpass return times for both rides were indeed worryingly late, so Nicky grabbed passes for Test Track whilst I ran across to the Land to get passes for Soarin'. When I got there, somewhat out of breath, the passes had 8:30 return times with the ride closing at nine, and only one machine still giving them out. When I got to the front of the line, the machine wouldn't accept my cards. Aaargh! Spoke to the attendant, and he sent me across to the desk, where, eventually, they temporarily uncovered another machine and managed to get five fastpasses issued.
I went back over to Test Track, slightly slower, and we went on, leaving Nanny looking after the bags, as she'd decided not to ride. I sat in the front with Jake, and he enjoyed the ride, although did squeeze my hand quite tightly at times. We were able to get our on ride photo added to our photopass at the end, so should be able to look at it after we get home.
Collected up Nanny on the way out, and then back over to the Land again and onto Soarin'. We were in the middle row this time (still on the right had side) so went up a little higher than last time.
Having managed to use up 10 more of our passes, we still had 10 left, but decided that we'd call it a day on the big rides. Nicky did try later on to give away our unused passes, but by that time either the fastpass distributions were closed or the lines were short enough that it didn't matter getting a fastpass anyway!
For the rest of our afternoon and evening in Epcot we:

• went on Living with the Land
• rode the Nemo ride in the Seas pavilion
• enjoyed Turtle Talk with Crush - "radical dude"!
• had dinner at the Electric Umbrella
• staked out a spot to watch illuminations and had drinks and choc creme brulee and funnel cake
• watched illuminations - not a dry eye in the house!

Worn out, we walked back to the front of the park, onto the tram back to the parking lot - Create 49, drove back to the hotel, picked up our packages from the previous day at the Studios, collected drinks from Mara, and clambered into bed.

Day 5 again - Jiko and pictures

We had a fantastic meal at Jiko, and here are some pictures to prove it!







We shared some starters - flatbread, breads and a beef dish that I will need to check the menu to remember! Then for main course we all had the Oak Fired Filet Mignon on macaroni cheese, apart from John who had halibut. Then for dessert I had the chocolate cheesecake, whilst Nicky had lemon curd and John and Margaret had the pistachio creme brulee. Jake had steak and then ice cream which came with a Mickey Mouse puzzle made out of chocolate.
Here are some photos from earlier in the day.

Day 5 - Studios and Swimming

As I type this, I can look across to my right, over our balcony onto the savannah, where I can see several animals, including a couple of giraffes. We've taken tons more photos, and I will upload some later on. We've also rediscovered the still photo facility on the video camera, which will take photos with considerably more zoom applied! Not sure what the quality is like, but given the number that we've taken, the law of averages says that there must be at least a couple of decent ones.
I thought that I would sneak in a quick post now, as people are getting ready for dinner at Jiko - we have a reservation for 7:40. We've had a thoroughly enjoyable day, despite a slightly rocky night last night. Jake was saying that he wasn't feeling too good when we went to bed, and we just put it down to tiredness, but bless him he was thoroughly unwell during the night. Still, once he'd got it out of his system, he seemed to be fine. Nicky slept with him on the sofabed just in case, but all was well, and he seems to have been perfectly OK today. Jake has decided that it was some dodgy waffle fries at the T-Rex cafe!
Anyway, we were up and out at a reasonable time today, and got to the Studios at about 10am. Straight to the Toy Story ride, where the Fastpasses were being distributed with return times after 6pm! We took great pleasure in putting some of our special passes from Nikki into the machines and were given passes with return times of right now! We enjoyed the ride again - Jake was pleased to have beaten both his grandparents, but Nicky seems to be the one who has really got the hang of it, scoring over 150,000.
After Toy Story Jake decided that it would be a good idea to go to the Muppet Vision 3D show, so off we went. Lots of fun as always. Having done that, we decided that an early lunch was in order, as we'd only grazed on biscuits / granola for breakfast, so we went to the Starring Roles cafe, and waited a couple of minutes for it to open at 11:30. Being there at opening time definitely makes getting served considerably quicker, and as an extra bonus we get a 10% DVC / annual passholder discount. We enjoyed the pulled pork sub, and Jake tucked in to some chicken, grapes, crisps and a cookie. An odd combination, but it seemed to go down well.
Jake was keen to go back to another showing of the Indiana Jones stunt show, so Nanny and Grandad took him there whilst Nicky and I had a look around the shops, and then used another couple of the special fastpasses to ride the Rock 'n' Roller coaster. We have the official photo to prove it!
Met up with the others and watched a bit of the High School Musical street performance, had a browse in the stores, and watched some of the very funny street performers before heading out of the park. The day had started wet and overcast, but by this point the sun was out and it was getting very warm. According to the forecasts we should have seen the last of the rain now and it should be sunny for the rest of our time here.
Back to the hotel and lazed about, snoozed, watched telly, built lego for a while, and then at about four o'clock went down to the pool. We all went in, but I was the only one brave enough to go down the slide! Nicky found a couple of water squirters in the shop which were the source of much fun, and I also got some goggles so Jake and I can be underwater swimmers together.
That pretty much brings us up to date. We're back in our room now and have been enjoying watching the animals on the savannah. Nicky is currently trying to persuade Jake to get out of the jacuzzi bath so that we can get him dressed in time to go downstairs for dinner!

Day 4 - Shopping and Downtown

As expected we had a fairly slow start to the day today, and bimbled around the villa for most of the morning. During the morning I put in a call to DVC Member Services and have arranged our accommodation for February. We will be staying in a 1-bed villa at Saratoga Springs. Unfortunately they didn't have availability for our first night, so we have been put on a waitlist for that. The good news was that it seems as though we've managed to get our Developer points allocated to our current holiday, so even after our next trip in February, we will still have a decent number of next year's points left.
We headed out from our villa just before lunch and went over to the Premium Outlets for a shop. Jake did very well, getting lots of new clothes. I got a CD, and Nicky got some plate holders for the Gourmet Chef!
Then we went to Downtown and met up with the Larkowski family, and went to the new T-Rex Restaurant with them. As suspected it is very much a Rainforest copy but with dinosaurs, and is extremely loud! After dinner we had a look around Downtown (Jake got some Batman Lego) and had drinks and ice cream at Ghiradelli's.
Must use some of those Fastpasses tomorrow!

Day 3 part two - Halloween party

Well we're back from the Halloween party, and a good time was had by all!
Picking up where we left off, a DVC van came to pick us up just after four o'clock, and we went to see Nikki. She was helpful as always, and we enjoyed looking at the model rooms for Bay Lake Towers - looks like somewhere else to add to the list of "must visits". Nikki also very kindly gave us a grand total of 30 Fastpasses to use between the five of us. They are on special cards which we can insert into the Faspass machines rather than putting our park tickets in. The best bit is that irrespective of what the Fastpass return time says, we will get Fastpasses which will be active almost straight away. The only downside is that they are expire at the end of Sunday, so we could be having a busy few days!
We got back from Saratoga at about half past five, and came in deliberately loudly just to make sure that Jake was waking up! We had some bagels / sandwiches / fruit for tea, and then headed to the Magic Kingdom for the Halloween party.
In summary, the party was great! We had a nervy moment whilst waiting for the parade, thinking that Jake was going to run out of steam, but we were wrong, and he kept going admirably, and we left the park at about 11:30. The rain started during the evening, and was pretty hard by the time we left, but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm.
During our time at the Magic Kingdom we managed to:

• go on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
• see a show at the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
• collect about a hundred-weight of candy during the evening
• watch the Boo-to-You parade
• visit the Haunted Mansion
• watch the Hallowishes fireworks
• see Mickey's PhilharMagic
• go on It's a Small World
• go to Alice and the Mad Hatter's Treat Party (lots of candy collecting)
• drive around the Indy Speedway
• ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority
• have another go on Buzz Lightyear.

No wonder we're rather tired now. I don't think we'll be having a very early start tomorrow morning!

Day 3 so far - Hollywood Studios

Posting rather early today, as we're off to the "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party" at the Magic Kingdom tonight, and I doubt whether I'll still be in blogging mode after that!
We were up a little later this morning (or at least I was) and had a breakfast of toast and doughnuts in our room before heading off to Disney's Hollywood Studios, or MGM as was.





Our first stop had to be collecting fast passes for the new Toy Story ride, and it seemed that everyone else in the park was doing the same thing. We arrived at about half past nine, and there was a fifteen minute wait just to collect the passes. While I waited, everyone else went over to the Jedi Academy to stake out a place near the front.
By the time I got there the show was just starting, and the selection of academy students had just begun. Despite our shouts and waves, unfortunately Jake didn't get picked, but we enjoyed watching the show anyway.





At least, we did until at the end Jake said that he was feeling sick, and so we beat a hasty retreat to the restrooms. After a comfort stop and a drink of water we decided that the best idea would be to go to the Indiana Jones stunt show as it was in a shady, undercover arena with lots of fans blowing cool air around. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough and Jake was a little "unwell" just before the show started. On reflection, we put it down to a combination of factors - tiredness, jet-lag, and standing in the heat to watch the Jedi Academy show. Still, he seemed to perk up and thoroughly enjoyed the Indiana Jones show.





Afterwards, there was some debate as to whether we should give up at least some of our fastpasses so that one of us could bring Jake back to the hotel. Jake seemed keen on coming "home" but equally didn't want to miss out on the Toy Story ride. In the end, a compromise was reached whereby I would go back to the car and fetch Jake's DS from the glove compartment so that he could play on it whilst waiting for our fastpass time slot to come around at 1pm.
When I returned from the car park, a table had been claimed at the dining area on Sunset Boulevard, and so Jake played Lego Batman on his DS whilst John and I queued for some inappropriately named "fast" food. Still, this meant that by the time we'd had lunch we were able to head over to the Toy Story ride. We were glad of the Fastpasses when we saw that the standby queue was showing a wait of 100 minutes, as our wait in the Faspass line was only about ten or so.
The ride is excellent, and got a thumbs up from all of us. Scores ranged from 30,000 to just over 100,000, and I will spare people's blushes and not say what order they came in!




Having enjoyed the ride, it was definitely time to come back to the hotel for a bit of a rest. Jake has perked up a bit, and is currently watching a bit of telly (or if we are lucky having a bit of a snooze) and fingers crossed he will be OK for the Halloween party tonight.
Nicky had a call from Nikki at DVC whilst we were at the Studios, and so we're popping over to Saratoga to see her in an hour or so (she is sending one of the DVC minibuses to pick us up).
Looking forward to the Halloween party, we just hope that a certain young man is feeling alright and has the stamina to enjoy it!

Day 2 - Epcot

As predicted, we were up extremely early this morning, and waited impatiently for it to get light (which it did just after 7am) so that we could take some photos from our balcony. We got some good photos of the animals on the Savannah, but decided that we were doing the right thing to move rooms given the overall view.








We headed out at about half past eight, having packed up the few things we'd unpacked, and left our bags in our room to be sorted out by bell services. We drove over to the Boardwalk (by a very circular route due to my not being used to starting off from AKL!) and went to Epcot via the International Gateway, which was a cunning plan of Nicky's to avoid queues at ticket booths. It worked a treat, and we were able to sort out 3 annual passes plus 2 8-day passes in no time at all.





Our first stop in Epcot was Soarin', closely followed by Spaceship Earth, before walking back around the World Showcase to Japan where we had booked for lunch at Tokyo Dining. Tempura was enjoyed by all, and Jake had his meal served in a Bullet Train!






After lunch, Jake made a beeline for the Japanese department store to buy up some Pokemon cards, before we took in the "American Adventure" show. Epcot is currently running a Food and Wine festival, and we studied some of the carts on the way round, and will definitely have to go back later in our stay and sample lots of them. We nearly managed to get Nicky past all of the wine stands!





By this point we were all flagging somewhat, as a result of the early start, and so we made our way back to the hotel and sorted out our room change. Unfortunately the hotel had mucked up, and after promising us a particular room were unable to deliver, and we are now in room 5202 which is directly above reception, and which looks out over "Sunset Savannah". I'm sure that it is just as nice as the room we'd been promised (and it is ideally located to be close to the amenities) but the way the process was handled by the hotel staff can be described as poor at best, and this combined with our weariness did lead to a temporary sense of humour failure!

We came upstairs and our bags arrived a few minutes later, so we were able to settle in and unpack. The savannah view still isn't perfect (but then, truth be told, I suspect that none of them are perfect, and we were probably expecting too much) and as you can see from the photos below, we can still see some of the building work, but it is definitely an improvement from the last one.






Once we were settled in, I took Jake to the arcade and loaded up a game card with some credits. Jake beat me at hover hockey, as well as having a go on driving, bowling, basketball, skateboarding, and so on. Once we'd had our fill (for today at least) of arcade gaming, Jake stayed at the hotel with Nanny and Grandad whilst Nicky and I headed off to do some shopping. Following the advice of one of the valet parking staff, we went to find a shopping area called the Loop, and went to a very new Publix supermarket to stock up on groceries, as well as to an Electrical store to buy a new DS charger for Jake (due to a mini crisis arising when it turned out that his UK charger wouldn't work here) along with a purchase from Carolyn's shopping list!

Nicky and I had a quick tea at Perkins before coming back to the hotel and hearing all about Jake trying out the swimming pool whilst we were out, although he hasn't been down the slide yet.

Plan for tomorrow is to go to the Studios in the morning, and then have a reasonably quiet and restful afternoon, as we have tickets for the Halloween party at the Magic Kingdom tomorrow night.