Yippee I hear you cry; a blog to read at last! I’ll get on with it then and our journey begins with a very long flight from Manchester: 9 hours 40 mins in total. We were about an hour late leaving too as there had been a delay to the incoming flight. It’s was actually the Gatwick flight (as always) but they seemed to swap our planes so we can’t seem to avoid the dreaded Gatwick curse no matter how we try. The flight was ok. The new Premium seats are comfy enough and after no queue at check in we managed to get moved to the front row with oodles of leg room. This also meant we got stand alone foot stools which were pretty cool too. The cabin was half empty and the crew we really good (a tad northern so there were lots of “love”, “darlin” and “duck” as they addressed us but definitely very friendly and helpful). The food was a bit grim. We are not used to the tightly packed tray of square plastic containers and foil covered muck, and missed our china plated course by course service. There was a very nice Lilly O’Brian’s desert though and some cheese and crackers to fill up on. Afternoon tea was cheese and onion finger sandwiches and a scone. Not a warmed scone with your choice of fruit or plain but a cold dry one so Paul proceeded to pick out his fruit as I picked the onion from my sandwiches. Have we become too fussy and spoiled do you think??
The flight itself was relatively smooth. Landing was bumpy but other than that no seat belt signs. Paul amused himself with a very macabre foreign film (The Skin I Live In) that we were amazed was shown on a flight. I did lots of puzzles, read lots of magazines and had a snooze I must confess.
We landed at about 3:30 local time and made it off the plane, through security and into our hire car in under an hour. Virgin do excel at priority baggage it had to be said. The airport was very quiet. We made our way directly to the Mall at Millenia, parked outside Neiman Marcus (creatures of habit that we are) and headed to Tiffany’s. We did stop briefly at Jimmy Choo and the Sony store en route. We picked up my bracelets (plain silver with an open heart and starfish charm on them) then had a brief look in L’Occitane and Swarovski before heading back to the car. It was rush hour traffic so I4 was heaving as made our way back to the 192 and into TGI’s for some food. Paul had Jack Daniels sesame chicken bites and I had Jack Daniels chicken breast. Great food as ever and needed after the inflight servings. We made a final stop at Publix for some essentials before checking into the Bahama Bay resort.
Our apartment is good. Great location over looking the lake, quiet and sunny outlook and given the price (35 quid a night) awesome value. The ordinary double bed was a bit of a shame as we like a king and the child upstairs is annoying as he/she runs up and down their apartment. The wifi is slow and the tub is small but despite those niggles it’s extremely pleasant as I sit on our balcony and type this.
Today we we up about 8. I think Paul was earlier so I made the most of having all of the double bed. We left about 9:15 and went for breakfast at the McDonalds on Osceola Parkway in Disney. Even at that time in the morning as the sun shone down on us it was really warm. We ate brecky in t-shirts outside in January. As Paul tweeted this morning, this is why we’d rather be in Florida at this time of year than Blighty.
After breakfast we made our way to Downtown Disney, Marketplace. It was really warm and sunny. We wandered around the shops and made a few purchases (well it is me after all). I got a top (blue with red lip shapes on it) and a case for my camera (so that Paul could have my existing one). It was actually an iPhone case but fits my camera perfectly and being purple with Tinkerbell on it is right up my street. Being an iPhone case it came with a hard shell for the iPhone so Paul now proudly displays the WDW Cinderella castle on the back of his phone.
We also bought a large white Mickey Vinylmation that we intend to get signed by the characters on our cruise. Apparently you can give any item to a cast member to get signed so we’ll find out later if that’s true. If not then look on eBay for the Vinylmation ;-).
Paul also bought a Disney book with photography ideas and we each bought an insulated mug for our morning tea on the way to work. Our purchases allowed us to get some items on offer so we now also own a Disney tote bag and a fleece throw with the castle on it.
We left Downtown and headed over to the Florida Mall. The traffic was pretty good so we made good time. The Mall was reasonably quiet. Local weekend folk but nothing too busy. Purchases included some Pandora beads for my bracelet (which retail at the same amount in dollars as pounds back home), some nail products (incl a purple lacquer), some Yankee candles (gingerbread mmmmm), a Tinkerbell shower gel and body lotion set (from the Disney store) and a very cool PanAm flight bag, authentic as carried by those in the recent TV show. We also got the ‘Sharpies’ for the character sigs I mentioned. All this expense better not be in vein. We managed to use vouchers and save about $50 in all as well as getting some freebies incl shampoo and lipgloss samples.
We returned to the apartment about 4pm and had a cuppa on the balcony. We are now going to freshen up before going to Kobe for dinner. We are going to meal share as the supplement still makes it cheaper. We are coupon and savings aficionado’s now!!
Hope you enjoyed reading again…