Quicker to walk perhaps!

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Wandered down to the gate half a hour before boarding. 90 minutes later, we were still sitting there.
We had a passenger on a stretcher who needed to be set up in his own set of seats first. This accounted for most of the delay.

Once we did get on board, the pilot moved us away from the terminal only to then say that he was having trouble starting his number 4 engine. Another 20 minutes later, we are moved back to the terminal to allow the engineers better access to see where the problem might be.

They finally find that the starting motor on engine 4 is seized and needs replacing. Cue a further hour's delay whilst a replacement part is found and the necessary engineers are brought over.

We finally took off just over 3 hours late.

Journey back was quite rough as we flew along the east coast of the US. They are experiencing severe ice and snow storms there at the moment and I guess we were getting the edge of it.

Still, unlike the flight out, the inward flight was 150 minutes shorter due to the jet stream.

Poor guy waiting for us at Gatwick (with our lost door key!) had been there since 7:30 that morning. We got to him just before 1pm.

Time to pack!

We cannot wait to get back to the cold of the UK. I know, lets get up in the middle of the night and start packing !!!!!

We need to be checked out by 7.30 to allow us time to get to our last character breakfact & combined checkout meeting. So as I type this, Linda is nearly finished with all our last minute packing.

We plan to spend the remainder of the day in MGM before returning to the UK this evening.

Can't wait :/ ;)

Epcot

The afternoon saw us in EPCOT. We had a meal package that also allowed guaranteed seating into the Christmas Candlelight Procession festival. This is a sort of carol concert with lots of singers and a 40 piece orchestra. There is also a guest speaker who narrates the Nativity story.
Our speaker was the actress Andie McDowell.
We were glad that we had booked the package in the end. The queue for the reserverd seating was about 3-400 people long. However, the standby queue was even longer! It would be possible to watch from the pathway at the back, but it was far more comfortable on the benches (although not by much!)

All-together a very festive way to end the holiday.

Something different

The temperature was still high today, but the humidity had really rocketed up. Therefore, we wanted a change from the hectic parks this morning.o after breakfast we drove over to I-drive and had a round of golf on one of the many themed crazy golf parks here.This course is themed with Pirates and it is quite easy to lose your ball in the water. Coupled with tunnels and rope bridges, it made an interesting hour's play.After a long struggle I emerged victorious!

Bit o' Shoppin'

Today was our last totally clear day. We decided to spend a couple of hours in the shops.
I was still looking for a couple of Wii games - Guitar hero III and Link's Zapper. Both of which were finally found in Toys 'r' us thanks to a tip from Jason. Just need to get them home now!

Came back for a hour or so in the late afternoon before venturing out again for a meal (TGI Fridays) and then having a wander through Downtown Disney.

Talk to the hand

Despite my attempts to convince her otherwise, Linda insisted on doing the Rapids ride at Animal Kingdom complete with poncho. Needless to say she got some 'chicken' taunts as we queued up from people coming off the ride wet. We did the ride three times, back to back. I, being a man, didn't bother with a poncho. We rode at 11am. My shorts were still damp the next morning!

Ahoy there!

Decided to start the day a little differently this time. We wandered down to the dock at the edge of the hotel and hired a small launch to wander around the lakes in front on WDW.
On our way back in we caught sight of a sign advertising the Segway off-road tour. Sadly though, they are now all booked for the mornings we still have spare (it's not a 7 day thing). Next time, perhaps.

Happy Holidays Party

The remainder of the day was spent at the Magic Kingdom again. We had tickets for the Happy Holidays after-hours party.

Before we started, that though, we had a booked meal at the Crystal Palace in MK. Pooh and friends were there to visit the tables. Again, we had been there before in 2005, that time for breakfast, but this time the meal and general atmosphere were much better. we even got two visits from Eeyore which pleased a certain person no end.

Once the park officially closed, we managed to get on all the rides we planned for. The place seemed busy, but wait times were no longer than 10 minutes on most rides and 5 mins on quite a few.

I got the spotlight on me, literally, in the Laugh floor show. It's an interactive computer comedy show. It's quite odd having a computer monster talk directly to you!

The remainder of the party contained extra festive shows, a second (much better) firework show, complimentary cookies and coco and to keep Linda happy, special festive merchandise.

We've ended up with an extra guest on the flight home!

Ice

Today started with a visit to the Ice show at the Gaylord Palms Hotel near Disney. We had been there back in 2005 so we thought it was worth a revisit.

We both like the sculptures although it certainly seemed a lot colder in there than last time. My hands were certainly starting to go numb by the end!

They also had a skating rink there this time. We both gave it a go, but to be honest, didn't get any farther than the edge of the ice as neither of could really skate (Linda's first time and my first in 20 years!!) and we didn't want to spend the rest of the holiday in hospital!

Back to Universal

After our Chef Mickey visit, we went to Universal Studios, Island of Adventures


As you can see, the wait times are much better! Managed to ride Hulk a couple of times (including front row) and gave myself a slight headache for the rest of the afternoon :/
I countered it by a couple of water rides - got soaked, got wet, got splashed in that order.
Luckily, the weather is still very warm and after 3 hours I was dry again.

Chef Mickey

Although I'd tried a few times to book into the Chef Mickeys breakfast, I'd had no luck - they were fully booked. So once in the hotel, I asked the concierge whether there were any cancellations. Luckily for us, the guy bent the rules a little and got us in as a table of three. "I think one of your party will be unwell soon" he advised. What great guy!
So this morning we took the boat launch over to the Contemporary Hotel (only a couple of minutes away) for our breakfast.


Food was fine and the characters were all on top form!

The Contemporary is one of the older hotels and was built around the monorail. In fact the trains were running about 20 feet above where we were sitting.

Our car

Finally got a chance to photograph our rental car - it's a Chrysler 300 tourer. It's good in that it holds all our luggage (but only just) - but I think I prefer driving the Mustang convertable we had in April.

MGM

We continued our visits to the Disney parks today.

It was MGM's turn this afternoon - we'd stopped off at the factory outlet shops first.

MGM had quite a Christmassy feel to it. The place was still busy (it being a weekend still) but we also managed to stay in the park longer as we are staying in a Disney hotel. These 'Extra magic hours' give us three extra hours in the park after closing time.

Places we saw today was the Harlem Gospel Choir. Lots of very good singing with a festive theme.
We also had a meal booked at MGM - booked a few months ago - we were almost the last to leave as we had a very late booking (but at least we got in!)

MGM hi-light for us is the Osborne Christmas lights. This time they were all computer controlled so that they couldbe turned off and on in time of the music being played.

There was supposed to be around 5 million lights in the show. There was the fake snow of course. It's too warm here for the real stuff - it's been a constant 80' highs this week - still forecasting this until the end of the weekend.

Magic Kingdom

We went into Magic Kingdom by boat this afternoon. The service was actually fairly good. The trip was only 10 minutes from dockside to landing at the MK entrance.

Being a Saturday, it was very busy with the weekend visitors. We did a couple of rides - and then only after the crowds began to diminish after the fireworks display.

Even though MK was open until midnight, we were flagging by 11pm so made our way back to the hotel - again by the boat.

18 Days before Christmas - SALE TIME !

Seems odd that the shops are all running sales over here before Christmas. Still, with places like JCP and Macys offering one day sales, the offers were too good (for Linda) to miss.

So Saturday morning was spent in the Florida Mall. Picked up a couple of good bargains. Hope they fit into the cases!

The colour of fun is Blue

Fantastic fun this evening at the Blue Man Group. Well, I loved it and Linda seemed to enjoy it to a certain exteny, even if it's not really her thing.

We followed this with a late dinner. Not home again until gone midnight hence no update last night.

Up up and away !

We were up at 4am again this morning to do our balloon flight. First time for both of us, of course. It was a beautiful morning. Almost totally still and slightly misty.


The balloon held 17 of us - including the two pilots. We floated over a surreal landscape of misty cyprus trees and marsh land. The trip lasted over a hour. Very enjoyable. The landing was quite gentle. No injuries! We helped pack the balloon away then returned for a breakfast.

Later we visited Universal Studios. Beautiful weather for a change - low 80's - normally it's cloudy when we visit Universal.

The Christmas celebrations included the Macys Day parade. Lots of colourful floats and costumes and included the lighting of the tree.


The lights and decorations all added to the festive fun, despite the balmy temperatury.

Something to do on Saturday

Saturday is empty on our calendar. However, we've just seen two things on the TV that has given us a full day's worth.

Space Shuttle Atlantis has been delayed on it's launch from yesterday for 48 hours, as I had hoped. It's now due on Saturday.

Also, Macys has a 1 day sale!

Up Early.

4am here. :/

We're up early to enure you good readers have something to read this morning! Oh, and we're offfor a 6am balloon ride too. The early morning rise is not too bad as we're still on UK time to an extent.

Last night we went for a walk around the hotel. What we could see, the place looks very nice. We'll no doubt do it again in the light.

We heard the fireworks from Magic Kingdom, but sadly are on the opposite side of the hotel from the show, so no balcoy views. It's better from the lakeside anyway.

quick picture - the tree in the hotel lobby - taken from the 5th floor.

Made it...finally !

Due to bad weather, we took off almost at around 12:30pm. We travelled up towards Manchester and then over Greenland. This also added a further hour to our journey. Coupled with imigration checks and collecting the car, it was gone 8pm before we were in our hotel room.

Room looks nice. Cant say about the view, even though we are onthe 5th floor, we can't see anything as it's pretty much pitch black our there at the moment. Once unpacked we're going to find something to eat.

Balloon ride has been confirmed for tomorrow! :)

Oi ! Come back !!

This is a shot of the car that took us to Gatwick. We normally put up with the Gatwick Flyer, but Virgin offer a car pickup for return customers, so hey! why not :) Only took us a hour door to door - about 45 minutes faster than the GF and free to boot.

I grabbed this shot as the car pulled off. Little did I realise, that the car also still contained my keys! I noticed they were missing just before we entered security in Gatwick. Many frantic phone calls later (thank you Shirley for checking our house in the pouring rain!) and Halmark cars discovered the keys in the back of the Volvo. Pheeew!

Sitting in the Servisair lounge waiting for the flight. It's posting almost a hour late in leaving. Still, than gives us more time to stock up on Oaty biscuits and get more use of this 24 hour tmobile internet credit. At lease I managed to bag a table with an electric plug nearby so no battery worries whilst we wait.

Linda's toddled off to the shops of course. Nothing ever changes ;)