Doodle & Peg Finally Do Disney: Travel Day

So, we recently returned from a relatively short trip to the most magical place on earth to take part in the WDW marathon weekend. I decided not to blog whilst there for two main reasons:

1. So many people we know had Christmas/ New Year ruined due to COVID, and it felt incredibly insensitive to me to be posting pictures of us lording it up in Florida whilst they were at home in isolation (we didn’t even post on our own social media),

and

• After being away so long we wanted to soak up every second. Whilst I do tend to blog waiting for buses/ in ride queues etc it still does take time away from Steve and the girls, so I decided that even though I would write up what we got up to, I’d do it after the event. Turns out I wouldn’t have had time to blog as the queues/ buses/ usual down time parts of the trip were the bits where we were most anxious about the COVID factor so found ourselves constantly on guard.

Anyway, although things may get a bit jumbled up, I hope you still enjoy reading all about our trip.

I was planning on just including travel day with Day 1 of our trip as I didn’t think there was much to say about it. Turns out that I forgot I have the typing equivalent of verbal diarrhoea (is there a word for that? Literal diarrhoea maybe? Who knows!) Anyway, as it’s so long I’ll give it it’s own special post although photos may be a little lacking!

We didn’t tell the girls about it in advance. The original plan was for Santa and Mrs Claus (the actual Disney Santa) to reveal it to them in a video call on Christmas Day, but as the date got nearer and things became more uncertain because Mr Omicron came to town, accompanied by the fact that the girls didn’t finish school until 22^nd December meaning there was no way to isolate beforehand, we decided to tell them on Christmas Eve in a very low key way, making sure they understood that we had to test and if we were positive that we wouldn’t be going, whilst also giving Winnie time to adjust to the idea as she finds change very difficult. Ernie the elf bought a box of Disney goodies for them to open whilst we explained everything. They were incredibly excited and a fashion show of the new outfits I had secretly sewed for them quickly ensued (not the most pleasant as it was straight after our family Christmas Eve Santa run so hot sticky bods were in out in full force) but they also came up with a great back up plan of exciting things to do in case we didn’t get to go (they are definitely mine as I’m known for having back up plans for back up plans!!)

We then agreed to put the trip to the back of our minds and enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which we definitely did! I’m really glad we didn’t wait until Christmas Day to tell them as it spread the excitement out.

We did our fit to fly antigen test using a supervised video call with Project Screen by Prenetics. It was £27 each and really straightforwards (I changed the dates/ times a few times as restrictions changed and it was never a problem). The lady just watched us do the tests, and then we uploaded photos of the results after 15 minutes. As soon as we had the certificates it was action stations on the packing front. We never take the full amount of luggage as I will only take what we can get up the escalator ourselves (I’m still scarred from a monster 3 hour wait for the 2^nd carousel at Orlando airport when the girls were little) so it’s always a squash and a squeeze. I’m also paranoid about cases going missing so end up packing 5 days of outfits as well as a swimsuit into the hand luggage! Anyway, it all got sorted after some minor stressing, and we were all set.

We decided to travel to the airport early. Although you can verify adult vaccination and test status on the app, you can’t do it for children, so we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. We had also decided to ask about an upgrade seeing as we had waited so long for the trip, and as the flights were booked through Virgin Holidays rather than Virgin Atlantic, so we didn’t get the option to upgrade on the website beforehand. When we arrived (after the rather long hike through the new terminal 2 at Manchester) the airport was pretty deserted as it was only 6am, and our test results and vaccination status was checked immediately in the queue. Steve then asked about an upgrade and was told we could use our points even though there were no reward seats showing on the website. We all have loads of points as reward flights from Manchester are very rare in school holidays, but it turned out that they couldn’t use the girls’ points because of some tax regulation. Anyway, the man sorting it out was really good and managed to do a work around to redistribute our points so we ended up upgrading from economy to first class with only the flight tax to pay (which was still around £150 each but still much cheaper than it would have been to pay out of pocket) We  were all so excited. We’ve been lucky enough to fly home first class by booking a seemingly incorrectly priced indirect flight, but never travelled out that way.

With upper class you get fast track security (although I’d already paid for it with the parking anyway!) but it wasn’t really necessary as it was still seemingly very quiet. As usual, we ended up being stuck behind the group with 87 electronic/ liquid items spilt between 35 different bags who took forever to get organised, but we made it through to the other side and I finally felt like I could breathe. We headed straight for the lounge that you get with Upper Class (the time we flew home we completely forgot about that being an option and ended up sat at Burger King in Orlando airport!! We aren’t good at being posh!) and the girls tucked into a full English whilst Steve started on the first of many cups of holiday coffee.

The plane was on time. The only seats we could get were split on either side of the wall but a nice couple switched with us so we all ended up together. It was lovely having space to relax (I managed to watch 3 films, the other 3 all had a log nap in the beds!) and nice food to eat, and we arrived in Orlando slightly ahead of time relaxed and ready to start the holiday.

Immigration was a breeze. We were the only plane in at that time and were literally straight to the front, and after the usual photos/ questions we were at the baggage carousel where the bags were already spinning! Off across to the main terminal and on the Magical Express for one last ride in 30 minutes which I do believe is a new record (or a post-Christmas miracle!) This stay was split into 3; the first 5 nights in a value DVC studio at Animal Kingdom Lodge followed by 4 nights in a 1-bedroom value villa at the same resort before moving to Yacht Club for the last 3 nights to make it easier (later) for us to get up to watch Steve run the 10k. I had checked in online and got a message to say our room was ready so as soon as we arrived at the resort we headed straight there and were so excited to see that we had a partial savannah view with loads of animals visible (there always seem to be more animals in the evenings anyway, but especially so when it’s a bit cooler).

The girls decided to go for a quick swim before we grabbed some tea from the Mara and settled in for an early night. With knowing we need to get up crazy early on race days, we decided that we would stick to early nights, early mornings this trip. We had requested a topper for the sofa bed and the girls said it was really comfy (although very squeaky!!) and slept like little logs, and Steve managed his first Disney sleep (ie sleeping for the same length of time as the girls!) for a long time.

Magic Kingdom, we’re coming to get you tomorrow!