Orlando 2017 - The Beginning

I hadn't actually realised how long  it had been since I last posted, I guess life has just been too busy. But having just returned from Florida, it seemed a good time to reprise Thru the Looking Glass.

As with all good stories, I should start with the beginning. Our holiday started on Feb 3rd, having left work at lunch time, we were able to set off for Manchester. Traffic was terrible, but we finally arrived at the Mercure in Hale. My friend Cheryl came to meet us, it was great to have a coffee and a catch up. What a lovely way to start the holidays. After dinner at the hotel, we decided to call it a night. The following morning we got a taxi to the airport, dropped the bags off and headed to the V-Room. Its the first time we've used one of the lounges, it was brilliant. Lovely surroundings, unlimited food and coffee, what more can you ask for. It was great to just chill out in comfort, till one of the Virgin peeps came and told us it was time to head to the boarding gate. All very civilised!

The flight was long, but pleasant enough. I watched a few movies, wrote a letter and counted the minutes till we landed. And finally we did!! We caught our shuttle to the hotel, checked in and called my friend Robin to let her know we had arrived. It was great to see Robin again, we went out to dinner together, and then hit Walmart. And so, our holiday in Orlando had commenced.

We stayed at the Rosen Inn International, the same hotel we've stayed at many times before. I was disappointed that they couldn't accommodate my request for a room near the fountain. In fact, they put us in a room about as far from the fountain as you could get! It was actually an ok location, but still disappointing. Generally we felt like standards had dropped, which is such a shame. However there are plenty of other hotels on I-Drive if we go back.

It was so good to be back, the weather was lovely. Maybe a little too warm for me, having left cold damp foggy days behind in the UK the 80 degrees plus temperatures were a little too much for me. Especially when running around the theme parks. It was wonderful to see sunshine again though.

Our first day saw us heading to the Magic Kingdom with Robin. I love the place, the rides, the shows - they're all so much fun! I have to say though, how much busier the parks were this year. More so than I have ever known. There were long queues, even at Small World, now that was a surprise. In the past we've been able to pretty much walk on a lot of the rides with minimum wait time. Not so this time, and we were thankful for Robin arranging a few Fast Passes.

We took one of the boats over to The Grand Floridian for lunch that was a lot of fun, and it was nice to have a break from the parks. In the afternoon we headed back to do some of the shows etc. When we left the Magic Kingdom, we headed to Disney Springs, its almost unrecognisable from what used to be Downtown Disney.  It was fun to look around all the new shops etc. The highlight of the day though was seeing Nova Era perform. I've loved them for 19 years, and was thrilled to see them again. After the performance we stayed to speak to Marie Luisa, who actually remembered us. She's a lovely person, and it was good to chat with her.

We had dinner at a new place called Blaze - excellent Pizza! Finally we stopped to listen to some more live music. I so wished we lived near somewhere like Disney Springs, it would be so cool to go listen to live music, or just sit outside and have a drink.

Our first day was over, and I sure was ready for bed!