Setting off...solo

I'm currently sitting at the gate, waiting for boarding to start. It's a weird feeling flying solo - I don't think I've ever done it. 

I was dropped off at the airport just over 3 hours before the flight, and it was the quietest I've ever seen it. 2 people ahead of me at check-in, 1 person ahead of me at security, and then this new weird immigration thing where there was no-one ahead of me, but you didn't actually talk to anyone. 

I had to scan my passport, walk forward and stand on the feet decal, then look at the camera. Then the automated voice told me to take off my glasses. Ok then. That done I got to walk through and place my departing passenger card in a box. 

I think it will be interesting to see what experience Wayne and the kids have next week. Clearly any photo recognition software will not match James' 3 yo face with the photo of an 8 month old on his passport. I did notice a couple of immigration officers (emigration officers when leaving?) off to the side, so I guess people travelling with kids get to see them? 

The gate is starting to fill up now, it has been very peaceful being here so early. I suspect it might not be a totally full flight though. I'm looking forward to my chicken salad dinner that I pre-ordered (another new-to-me travel perk), and then sleep before my short layover at Dubai. 

See you all on the flip side!!!

Oops....

Guess we never finished the last blog did we. Suffice to say, the cruises were AMAZING. So fantastic to see countries all over the world, but also to spend time on what is fast becoming our preferred home away from home.

When we had to leave James wanted to get straight back on again - yes, even after 29 nights he didn't want to get off. (Secretly, neither did Michelle!)

Anyway, just getting this started again to hopefully take some more notes for this trip and keep everyone up-to-date. This is an exciting trip...Charlotte is doing some dance performances and workshops at various places in LA, including Disneyland! Her current dream is to be a musical theatre performer for Disney, so the fact that she's not only getting to dance at Disney, but to participate in an Audition Workshop there is just brilliant.

Looking forward to sharing the journey with you!

Cruising the seas

Whilst it was sad to be leaving DisneyWorld, it was exciting to be heading off on our cruises. Our luggage was collected at 8:30, and we had not much to do until the bus meeting time of 11:00. So lots of Disney Jr on the TV it was.

We met up with all the others at Jambo House and were soon on our way. We had a quick stop to pick up some more people at the Pop hotel and then it was full steam ahead to the port. 

Check in was painless, Charlotte was registered with the kids club, and we were then walking through the big ears to get our embarkation photo taken. Photo done, and we were being announced onto the ship to the applause of the crew. Yay! 

Important things first - Wayne, Joy, Charlotte, and James headed off for food, Michelle headed off to stand in line for tickets. The line was fairly long, but eventually she had tickets for meet and greets with the princesses, Anna and Elsa, and the Marvel characters in her hands. Then she, too, could go and eat. 

We found our stateroom after lunch and met our room host for the next 15 nights - Glenlyss. Then it was off to the Facebook group meet-up to collect pre-ordered tshirts, lanyards, and pins, and to meet the people we'd been talking to for the last several months. 

After the meet-up it was time for the lifeboat drill and then the Adventures Away deck party. This is when you REALLY feel like you're on holidays - the music is pumping, the characters come on stage to party, and then you do a big count down...5...4...3...2...1, and the horn plays the first 7 notes of When You Wish Upon A Star. The music keeps going, and all of a sudden you realise that the ship is moving, and you're off!!!

2 days before the cruise Disney announced that they were changing our itinerary for the Transatlantic cruise. Originally the ports had been New York, St John's, Reykjavik, Oslo, and Copenhagen. Unfortunately there was too much ice in the harbour at St John's,  so we were unable to call in there. Disney decided to switch their Canadian port to Halifax instead. The other side effect of the ice was that, in order to sail around it, we wouldn't have enough time to call at Reykjavik. Instead Disney decided to  replace that port with Stavenger in Norway. Whilst it was disappointing that we wouldn't get to those places, it was better than ending up like the Titanic (which wasn't that far from St John's when it sunk!)

Anyway...no matter what ports we were heading to, we were off and sailing. WooHoo! 

Our luggage had finally arrived in our stateroom by this time, so Michelle started unpacking - much easier to live out of drawers for 2 weeks than suitcases! Then we were soon headed off to dinner in Cariocas. 

Disney has 3 main dining rooms - all Disney  themed of course. Lumiere's is French, and inspired by Beauty and the Beast, Animator's Palate (or Palace, as Wayne keeps calling it) is based on the drawings and cartoons of Disney, and has screens all around the room which they use for great effect, and Cariocas is Brazilian themed - although I'm not sure which Disney link that is. 

As well as the three main dining rooms they have Palo - an Italian adults only restaurant, and Cabanas - a buffet for breakfast and lunch, and a sit down venue for dinner. There is also room service 24 hours a day, and tons of snacks up on deck - burgers, pizza, soup, wraps, ice cream, etc. 

Anyway, we headed up to dinner to meet our servers for the next 15 days. Bojan from Croatia was our server, and Maria from Brazil was our assistant server. Our dining room head server was Ronald from India. Dinner was yummy, as usual - a 4 course meal every night? We can do that!

After dinner we decided to skip the show and wandered around for a bit - checked out the Promenade Lounge where music was playing and a toddler play area was set up, looked at some characters, Charlotte went to the kids club, and then we eventually headed back to our rooms.

Charlotte was sharing a room with Joy for this cruise, and was very excited as she got to sleep in a bunk bed! It pulls down from the ceiling in the room. James was in our room on the sofa converted to a bed. We had a beautiful towel animal on our bed, and yummy chocolates for turn down. The chocolates have a picture of Sleepy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on it :).

Michelle continued unpacking, and then eventually our first day on the ship had to come to a close - looking forward to more to come!

Last day at DisneyWorld :(

All good things must come to an end right? 

Today started with Wayne deciding that the cold he'd had for the last few days had finally got the better of him, so he decided to stay in bed while the rest of us headed to the Magic Kingdom. 

Today was Joy's first day at Magic Kingdom, so we had planned to revisit some of the kids' favourite rides with her. But first, Michelle and Charlotte had a date with Space Mountain! While they were on that Joy took James for a walk and watched the main stage show. 

We then all headed off to the Little Mermaid ride, followed by a ride on Winnie the Pooh. James loved Winnie the Pooh and kept saying "again, again" when he got off. 

We headed towards the parade, but stopped to watch the main stage show on the way - Charlotte had been asking to see it all week, and this was our last chance. 

Once that was over I t was almost time for the parade, and Wayne had arrived in the park. So he took James off to ride Winnie the Pooh again while Michelle, Charlotte, and Joy watched the parade. We didn't have the magical pixie dust this time, but it was still amazing. Disney do entertainment so well. 

Prefe over and it was time for Charlotte's favourite ride - Splash Mountain. Joy had said she would go on it, but wasn't fantastically keen :). Still, she went on, and even smiled for the camera when Charlotte told her to. 

It was almost time for our final dinner reservation, so we slowly made our way out of the park for the final time :(. 

Dinner was at the Grand Floridian hotel - dinner with Cinderella and the rest of the family - Prince Charming, Lady Tremayne, Drizella, and Anastasia. 

We headed back via the Magic Kingdom to get one last look at it all lit up, then on the bus to the hotel and the final packing up. Tomorrow - cruise time!!!

Enjoy, you will

The Today was a very early start. We had breakfast reservations for 8:30 at the Sci-Fi Diner at Hollywood Studios. But rope drop was at 8:00 for guests staying on Disney property, and we wanted to get there right on opening. 

So we jumped on the bus and headed off - getting there about 5 minutes to 8. Our first rope drop of the trip!

Once the gates opened we headed inside and lined up for tickets to...well, you'll find out later :). Once that was done we headed off for breakfast. 

In mid to late May, Hollywood Studios run special Star Wars weekends. So throughout May they offer special character meals. You can have dinner with the Disney characters dressed as Star Wars characters (eg Minnie Princess Leia, Mickey Luke Skywalker, etc.) or you can have breakfast with some of the "baddies".

We walked in and got a photo with Darth Vader and Bobba Fett, then were shown to our table. At the Sci-Fi Diner all the tables are in cars, like a drive-in movie, with a big screen at the front. The screen was playing clips from various Star Wars movies, clips of interviews with directors etc., and the new Star Wars trailer.

While we are our breakfast we had some visitors - Greedo, some Storm Troopers, and some Jawas. Charlotte was a little scared of the Storm Troopers, but finally warmed up to them at the end. 

Breakfast over, we headed off to the Tower of Terror. Michelle and Charlotte headed on first. While they were in the queue the ride malfunctioned, so it took a little longer than planned to get on it. Once on Charlotte got very scared of the intro (a Twilight Zone type movie), and by the time they got to the top of the walk had decided she was too scared to go on the ride. Michelle and the woman in front of them in line convinced her that it wasn't scary any more, the scary bit was over, and she reluctantly got on. 

It was definitely the right move, as she loved it. She couldn't wait to go on it again with Wayne, but the delay meant that had to wait. We headed off to our next event - the tickets we'd queued for in the morning. 

Charlotte went to Jedi training! She was given a robe and a light saber and taken on a stage with a Jedi Master to learn how to be a Jedi. Half way through training though, Darth Vader appeared!!! All the trainees lined up on the side of the stage and took turns fighting Darth Vader. Charlotte was a little hesitant to go forward when it was her turn, but eventually fought him. Finally Darth Vader was defeated, and all the trainees were granted Padawan status! Yay Charlotte!!!

(Photos and video will come when I have proper internet connection.)

We split up from Joy at this point and the 4 of us headed off to Toy Story Midway Mania. Everyone loved this ride - including James. 

We then went to our last fastpass for the day - a Frozen singalong. A stage show where everyone got to sing with Anna and Elsa - and it even snowed at the end!!!

After that we decided that since it was so hot we'd be better off going back to the hotel for a swim before dinner. Wayne took Charlotte and James down while Michelle made a sort of attempt at packing. While swimming they played games with the staff, and Charlotte and James each won a little toy monkey. 

Dinner that night was at Boma, the African buffet at Jambo House. The food was beautiful, and we were all totally stuffed at the end. 

 

Epcot

Epcot is the park that we really weren't sure about - in the past it's been the one that we didn't have a lot to do in, but we still wanted to do some of the rides, so we headed over this morning, leaving Joy to nap a bit longer. 

We had organised most of our rides in the morning so we could park hop if we wanted, so we quickly got going on the main rides. 

Charlotte's favourite was Test Track, where you got to design your own car and then race round a track while it lets you know how your car is going in terms of performance, speed, etc. Michelle and Charlotte went first, is anyone surprised that the car was pink? Charlotte was quite disappointed when she realised that they didn't actually build a real version of her computer design to ride around the track in. On the other hand, it cheered her up when her car came first overall of all the virtual cars in that group. 

That took a long time, and Joy had arrived by this time, so we went and grabbed some Mexican for lunch.

After lunch it started to rain, so Wayne and Charlotte thought it would be a good time to do their run on Test Track. Michelle, James, and Joy headed off to walk around the country pavilions and look at some of the topiaries that were out for the Flower and Garden show there. 

About halfway round they came across an A Capella concert, so stopped to watch it. James loved it so much that Michelle and James stayed there to wait for the next show while Joy kept walking.

After that they headed round to the main fountain to find Wayne and Charlotte. After they had finished Test Track (again, a pink car!) they started heading towards the concert but got sidetracked by a water play area. Given how hot it was that day, it was a nice place to cool down. 

After we all met up again the 4 of us headed back to the hotel for dinner back at the African cafe while Joy wandered off to keep looking around and use her fastpass for Soarin'. 

Harry Potter World!

WooHoo! It's Harry Potter day. 

We got up, ate some breakfast in our room, and headed on the shuttle bus to the other Animal Kingdom resort - Jambo House - to wait for our shuttle to Universal Studios. 

We headed in and went straight to the most important (only important?) part of Universal - Harry Potter World. We did get a bit sidetracked on the way though. 

We stopped at a ride called ??? (Disaster?) and jumped in the queue. It turned out to be a ride which had an interactive part at the start - and Charlotte was the first volunteer. We were all moved into a room where they were filming a new disaster movie - the director was Christopher Walken, well a hologram of him anyway. The director told us about the movie and then we moved onto filming. 

As everyone say and watched Charlotte and the other actors had to film their pieces. Charlotte went first. She had to stand on a ledge and stare up at a large rock hanging from the ceiling - they called that staring at the rock. Then she had to jump from the ledge and land on a large mat. The jump was about 3 inches - not high at all. 

After the others finished their filming we headed onto the ride itself - a train inside a subway station. Inside the train were tv screens and as the ride went and fire and water invaded the subway station, we saw the movie. 

Charlotte was jumping from a burning building - into the arms of The Rock - Dwayne Johnson! He then made sure she was ok - as she stared at him. Ha ha - staring at The Rock!

We then headed off to England - London to be precise. Or even more precisely, 12 Grimwauld Place and Diagon Alley. 

Diagon Alley was awesome. We had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, where Michelle had a Butterbeer - yum!

We purchased an interactive Hermoine wand which allowed you to spells at various portals around both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Some were quite clever, but many were hard to make work :(. 

We went and jumped in line next for the Gringott's Bank roller coaster ride. Michelle and Charlotte got all the way to the front when Charlotte realised it was 3D and didn't want to ride. Michelle convinced her she could close her eyes at the scary bit, and she eventually went on. She enjoyed the ride itself, but not the graphics. Once Michelle and Charlotte were off Wayne jumped in the single rider line and rode it too. 

Then it was time for the much anticipated Hogwarts Express ride. You sit in tiny train carriages and travel between the 2 Universal parks. Along the way you get to look out the window at the English countryside - and hear and see others having conversations in the train corridors. It was pretty awesome! 

We headed off to the main Harry Pottwr ride, walking through Hogwarts in the queue. Charlotte was too small to ride, but she and James loved the rider switch area where they got to watch Harry Potter movies. We then went on the dragon roller coasters - another one Charlotte loved. James could have ridden it, but after his experience on the Seven Dwarfs Mountain Ride where he cried almost the whole way through, we thought we wouldn't subject him to it. :)

We headed off to the lolly shop, as Charlotte had Wizard money to spend (you could exchange money at the bank in Diagon Alley), and bought some chocolate frogs and a massive lollipop. Then it was time to say goodbye to Harry Potter World (unfortunately, without the return train journey, which has different views) and we just had enough time to do a few rides on The Cat in the Hat. 

We then caught our bus back to the hotel and headed to the restaurant to eat. Charlotte was excited by the build your own cookie desserts - plain cookies with frosting, M&Ms, sprinkles, etc which you decorated yourself. James was just excited by the M&Ms. 

It was then time for bed for the kids, with another big day ahead tomorrow...and a special visitor!

Michelle's Mum, Joy, arrived about 10:00 that night. It was good to see her, but as everyone was tired it was pretty much lights out immediately.