A Whole New World 30/10/12

[joolz1910]

30th October

We woke up early for our ADR at Crystal Palace at 8.10. It was COLD! I had stocked up on fleeces (just in case) before we travelled and we needed them this morning. I was determined that I would not be beaten by the weather, so teamed my fleece with shorts and fitflops. We caught the bus to MK and waited for the CM's to open up the turnstiles.

Once inside I bought the girls their autograph books and we made our way up Main Street. I love Main Street - it's my favourite part of the park! I know that sounds odd but I like the nostalgic feel, the sight and the smells. We wandered up towards the Crystal Palace, taking in the sop window displays and the Halloween decorations. There, in front of us was the
Castle.


I checked us in for our ADR and we had a little bit of time to take some photos.


Crystal Palace

We were quickly seated by our server and I loved the airy, open feel of the restaurant. I had worn my birthday badge and so received a birthday cupcake and signed card.


The food was very good - lots of variety. Kev embarked on his first 'Man V Food' mission of the holiday. I honestly don't know where he puts it. All was well until the first character (Pooh) was spotted by Emilia. She was terrified and tearful. I must point out that I had her sitting on my knee throughout the whole meal and I didn't take her out of the restaurant as she wasn't being noisy or upsetting anyone else. I realised that this fur-phobia might be a problem as I had booked several character meals!

We got lots of photos with the characters, you might notice that it is only Olivia and Jess...





I told Emilia that Piglet was very shy and we had our first breakthrough when she gave Piglet a very tentative wave from the safety of my lap. Piglet blew her a kiss, and although she wasn't 'cured', she definitely warmed to Piglet.

The Park

To my surprise, the girls wanted to head to Adventureland first, so off we went. And who should we find riding the Magic Carpets?

It was our first ride of the holiday and our first photo with face-characters.


We toured around MK, going on quite a few rides including Big Thunder Mountain (Emilia's favourite) and Peter Pan (my favourite). By the time we had got round to Tomorrow Land, everyone was feeling pretty tired, so we headed back to OKW.

By the time we got back, it was almost time to go and collect the hire car from Alamo, so we booked the mini bus to take us back to MK (I know, I know) and grabbed our refillable mugs while we waited.

The Car

We had booked an intermediate SUV through Alamo and went to pick it up. The process was stress-free with no hard sell. The car was great - much nicer than my own lol. I had never driven an automatic before and I am a nervous driver, so I wasn't looking forward to this part of the day. After a little bit of trial and error, I managed to crawl around the carpark several times and then declare that I was ready for the open road!!

We had a map (no satnav) and we were off. I was quite proud of myself and relaxed into driving, relying on Kev to navigate. That was my first mistake. At home, Kev has an innate sense of direction; yet here he seemed to have lost his inner compass. We sailed past the turn-off for OKW and to my horror I saw the exit for Disney World in my rear-view mirror.

I nearly had a heart-attack.

The atmosphere in the car was somewhat tense as I fought back tears. I was so scared that we would become hopelessly lost - I know this might seem like an over-reaction but I was genuinely shaking. I turned into a petrol station and we were pointed in the right direction. We headed back and it wasn't too long before were were back on prperty and looking for familiar signs.

It took us several days to work out that we should just head towards DTD signs, rather than searching for OKW signs - it was soooo much easier when we did this.

It took me quite a few days to convince the reast of my family to get back in the car with me.

The trauma-mobile:


After all of the excitement of the day, I am pretty sure we decided to stay at OKW and chill out and have an early night.

However, this was not the end of the 'excitement' as Olivia woke me up at 3am as she had sickness and diarrhoea. It was a long night.

[Chilly]

Sorry to hear about the sickness, hope it didn't last long

[jockey]

Lovely day..sorry to hear about your dd

[Cyrano]

Looking forward to the character phobia reducing

Another great report

[joolz1910]

Originally Posted by Cyrano

Looking forward to the character phobia reducing

Another great report

You will have to wait quite a while lol.

[irongirlof12]

You are so brave driving in Orlando without a Sat nav, we got lost our first time of having a car and it really freaked me out, I feel for you. Love the character photos

[Nubbedy]

Scary experience getting lost - my DHs map reading skills suck in the US too, so I feel your pain.

[joolz1910]

Originally Posted by irongirlof12

You are so brave driving in Orlando without a Sat nav, we got lost our first time of having a car and it really freaked me out, I feel for you. Love the character photos

I freak out badly enough if we get lost over here, so I was really panic-stricken over there!

Originally Posted by Nubbedy

Scary experience getting lost - my DHs map reading skills suck in the US too, so I feel your pain.

I would drive over there again but only with a sat-nav - would never trust DH again lol.

[Ware Bears]

We got horribly lost after our first full day in Orlando - it was dark and we couldn't see any other sign of life. We seemed to be driving for ever and all three girls were quiet as church mice, you could have heard a pin drop in the back of our car! I could see us having to spend the night sleeping in the car and I decided I was going home on the first plane the next day!! Then we came upon civilisation (!) got put on the right road and were soon back at the hotel. We laugh about it now and although we've got lost lots of times since we never worry now that we've sussed the US road system but it was so scary at the time!