Well we have safely arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas, and I am writing this from villa 5374!
Our flight went smoothly, the only annoyance being the unruly children on the row in front of ours. Jake was brilliant, and happily passed the time watching movies, listening to music, and playing on his DS. Virgin service seems to be slipping a little - when it came to time for tea, the fare on offer wasn't particularly appealing. For the adults there was a cheese and pickle roll (one small slice of cheese, no butter, and a vague stain of pickle) whilst the children had sandwiches, mini cheddars or some raisins, and yes, it really was "or", so Jake had some mini cheddars for tea. Thanks Carolyn for the bag of sweets, they were much appreciated at this point.
(In another slight annoyance with Virgin, when we arrived to drop off our bags at Gatwick, I was told that as a silver Flying Club member, I could use the special drop off line, with a much shorter queue, but I could only invite one guest with and the rest of my party would have to wait with everyone else. Now what exactly is the point of that. This letter that Nicky is planning to write to Mr Branson is just going to be getting longer and longer!)
We touched down at MCO at 6pm local time (11pm UK time) and we had the smoothest run through the airport that we've ever had, and we were out and on our way by about half past seven. The idea of Nicky and I going on ahead to the Budget desk was a success - there was no queue at all, and John and Margaret arrived with the bags just as we had finished with the car paperwork.
Our van seems nice, although I haven't had a chance to study it fully yet. It gets a thumbs up from Jake as it comes with a DVD player, and has one of the automatically closing sliding doors! No doubt we will have to buy a cheap DVD like last time, just so that we can have the pleasure of watching telly in the car!
We had one brief concern when the car display seemed to be saying that one of the doors was ajar, but having called one of the attendants over, we agreed that it was just a glitch and we were on our way.
Arrived at the hotel and took full advantage of the valet parking and bell services! We've been allocated room 5374 (and the adjoining 5372) which is right around to the left hand end of the horseshoe. Given that it is quite a trek from reception, and that the restaurants and pool are all on the other side, and given that we overlook one of the people pens and the new construction, we have applied Nicky and Miff's first rule of American hotel rooms, and not accepted the first room that we have been allocated. The only slight snag is that we can't move until tomorrow, but hopefully we are getting a room on the other side, closer to reception, and overlooking the "Uzima Savannah" (where, we are told, the baby giraffes are) and we should be able to move tomorrow.
This has given us an excellent excuse not to unpack, and so we've had a little explore of the hotel, a bite to eat, a quick trip to the shop (Jake has his first pin) and now it is definitely time for bed. It may only be 10:20 here, but that's nearly half past three at home which means we've been up for 22 hours!
No photos yet, but hopefully lots tomorrow!