Our Big DVC Anniversary Trip-Report September 13 *completed*

He does! They work together too, though I don't think Sy was too happy when one of the guys at work asked if they were brothers hahaha

I know! I got way too upset over something so trivial, I could see myself doing it but I couldn't seem to stop lol thanks re the nails, they were okay, I just was hoping for something a bit more professional...

Such a pretty room isn't it?! It was a bit if a trek from reception but so worth it

Awww thank you, I soon got over it the next day xxxx

Awwwww! That makes me so happy I do always try to make people laugh with my writing glad you enjoy reading them

I got it from Matalan, it's a brand called IT and it's marketed as 'worlds lightest suitcase' I mean, I could lift the biggest up over my head with one hand and throw it up in the air! It's that light.

Travel day

We woke up when the alarm went off at 9:30. Usually the night before I spend the night looking at the clock willing it to move faster but for once, I actually slept all night long! We got up and got ready and headed over to the terminal at 10 - it was so easy I definitely want to stay at the Hilton again

We joined the special assistance queue behind one other family, I kept myself occupied by taking pictures, first of Sy and then of our bags with the disney tags I made on them lol

We were soon called up though and it took AGES to get us all properly checked in with the scooter. The lady who checked us in was very nice though. Once we were done we went straight through to security, we were directed to the special assistance queue again and the huge was mahoooooosive! About 30 mins later we managed to get through though, shame the guys on security were so miserable I think it must be in the job description

The plan had been to get a Mcdonalds for breakfast, but by the time we had got through check in and security it was 11:15 past breakfast time. Ah well, we decided to head to Frankie and Benny's instead. This is where the plan goes even further downhill! I don't know why we didn't learn from last time when we had rubbish food and overly priced at that but I would have taken just rubbish food today, what we had was worse

We were seated in the window and then nothing. No one came over, we tried waving at people and we were about to leave when someone finally came to take our drinks order, we also asked to make our food order as were in a rush.

I took a few pics while we were waiting for the food to come.

I was getting *really* panicky by now but finally our food came, I forgot to take pics till we had started. Sy had tuna melt and I had a chicken wrap (no more breakfast after 11).

We actually asked for the bill when they brought our food and we ate as fast as we could, in fact I ate too fast and made myself ill what with eating too fast and panicking, not a good combination! We then had no time to do the shopping I had saved money for I needed some new perfume and face powder from Clarins but no time to get them... No Clarins for me then awwww Sy needed some contact lens solution so he had to dash off to get that from boots while I went to the bathroom. We then had to rush to the gate where someone was waiting for me and seemed a bit annoyed that we weren't there before they had started boarding (we hadn't been told to be but apparently we should have been), he proceeded to walk us down to the plane, making everyone else that was queuing to get on the plane move out of the way for me, so embarrassing! He was nice enough once he had told us off but I hate everyone looking at me and so hated that journey down to the plane. Awkward!

We were soon in our seats though, the last row in front of the toilets (I think it might have been row 35?). I thought, Great! I can recline and not have to worry about the people behind moaning at me! But as the flight went on I thought 'OMG the smell!' hahaha. Oh well, cant have it all I guess

We put on our flight socks and settled down for the flight and I took my travel sickness pills. I started to watch a movie when the crew came round with drinks and some pretzels. I was feeling decidedly dodgy after breakfast so I didn't eat them, and I just had a non alcoholic drink. Sy had the special cocktail and ate both packets, gutsy! Lol

Before long they were bringing round the food, we both had chicken curry. It was okay, it was plane food so you cant expect too much really

We were then brought a Gu cheesecake, unfortunately for me it was lemon so I couldn't eat it (I cant have citrus fruit) Sy ate his though and said it was yummy.

About 3 hours into the flight I started to get REALLY bored! When I hear other peoples experiences they usually say its the last few hours that drag, but not for me, mine is about 3 hours in, you feel like you've been on there for ages and yet there's STILL 6 hours to go?! I tried to get a bit of sleep and watched some Monsters University. The crew brought round a chocolate ice cream thing but we both declined, neither of us are keen on chocolate* (I know, we are strange!)

*you might find this statement hard to believe later in the trip when you see a picture of me with a mahoosive chocolate Mickey in my mouth hahaha

Afternoon tea was equally disappointing, a dry old cheese and pickle sandwich, which one of mine had zero filling in it :S and a banoffee cupcake, we both don't like banana so they went to waste sadly.

(this was Sy's as I had already opened mine when I remembered to take a picture)

I didn't do too well on the plane food, the plan had been to get me a meal deal from boots so I could at least have something to eat later in the flight if I needed it but as Frankie and Benny's had taken so long..... oh well.

Before long we were making our decent. Can I just say how much I love being about to watch the movies right up until you get off?! Takes the stress out of landing for people who are nervous or if you are like us, you can catch the last 5 mins of the film so you know how it ends!

I asked the stewardess what we should do about the scooter and she said we could get off with everyone else or wait till the end, either way it would be waiting for me once I got off. We let a lot of people get off before getting off ourselves and sure enough it was there waiting for me, unfortunately it was facing the wrong way and not enough room to turn it round so I had to reverse it all the way back up the tunnel.

We were directed to a separate queue at immigration and we were through in a few minutes, even better was that Sy wasn't taken away for further screening this time! This is the first time that's ever happened We picked up our bags and went on our way, we didn't do second bag drop as we could pile lots of the bags up on me, just call me a donkey

Once through customs we were taken with someone from the ground staff up in the lift to the monorail, he was really sweet. Love the American customer service!

We hopped on the monorail with big smiles on our faces Ahhhhh, We're home!

We had hired a car with Alamo and done savetime so we were told to go straight to the garage... when we got to the garage we were told we needed to go back inside to the desk, so not so savetime really! I'm not sure if we did something wrong or not, but it wasnt obvious if we did. We didnt go to the desk though as I was sick of the hard sell, we used the machines to get all the paperwork printed off. We went back out to the garage and were told which row to go to. I let Sy choose the car (well you gotta give the guy something as I choose and plan everything else ) we ended up with a red one! Yay! LOL this is why Sy gets to choose I did have 1 stipulation though, no white cars as it was lovebug season (they love light colours). I'd booked an intermediate SUV to fit the scooter in the back and it was big enough to just wheel it in when the back seats were down, so that's all that mattered really.

We were soon out of the airport and on our way home to AKL I had my purse in hand for the tolls, think we were there in under 30 mins. I really do love not having that long old drive from Sanford

We dropped the car off with Valet and decided to take our own cases in, I wanted to unpack right away and not have to wait for a bellboy to bring them up We went inand waited at the online check in desk. We had to wait a little while for someone to become free, AKL was one of the testing resorts for magic bands and this seemed to take a lot of extra explaining We were soon called forward and given our room keys and the lady went off to get our bands... she came back with..... 2 bands, both in my name, one pink and one gray that's not right! Oh dear, this was only the beginning where the bands are concerned, believe me she went off to get a supervisor and soon we had 1 band with my name on, and a stock band for Sy in yellow (as that's all they had other than grey), they were soon linked up with our room and our tickets (apparently!) though technically the pink one was Sy's and had his annual pass on and the yellow had mine on... We were then off to find our roon, not before we were given a badge and a rose each as we were celebrating our wedding anniversary

Our room was as far away from reception as you could get, bar 1. room 5553. I didn't care though as this was the view from our 'Standard view' balcony...

I then took a million pics of our room...

I unpacked while Sy facetimed his mum as she was waiting up for us to let her know we had got there safely. I think it was just a good excuse for him to make me do all the unpacking (I did get my own back once he was off the phone though and made him doing all the rubbish jobs like hanging stuff up )

We both showered the plane off - side note, does anyone else have to do this as soon as they get off the plane? I always feel a bit grubby like a need to wash it off lol - and we headed out in search of some food as I was now absolutely famished!

We couldnt decide where to go as I was really tired too, I didnt really want a sit down meal as I knew as soon as I ate I was gonna crash, so we decided to get a taco bell take out and bring it back to the room. I had a chicken quesedilla while sy had a stuffed burito. It was ok, it did the job and that was the main thing

I was right, as soon as I had some food inside me all I wanted to do was sleep. At about 10:30pm Sy went down to the Mara to get us some drinks for in the night, by the time he got back I was dead to the world. It was 3:30am for us by now though so I think I could be forgiven

Boy it felt good to be home

Tomorrow, 1900 Park Fare, Magic Kingdom and 'Ohana

Day 1

I woke up today at 9am which I thought was *amazing* as usually I'm up early on the first day. I started to surf the net on my ipad and generally think about getting up when I noticed how dark it was " how good are the curtains in AKL I thought?! Oh dear, you can tell where this is going cant you? I made the mistake of relying on my phone for the time, and I hadnt reset the timezone so it was actually 4am Oops! Rookie error! I tried to doze off again for a while and finally got up at 7am. I managed to get Sy out of bed and ready to go by about 8am, I was to discover that this was in record time during the rest of the trip... We headed over to the Grand Floridian for our breakfast ADR at 1900 Park Fare. The reservation wasnt till 9am but I thought we would hope for the best by getting there early. We valet parked the car and headed in for our ADR. We walked through the very empty lobby and headed in to check in for our reservation. We were asked if we wanted our picture taken, erm no ta. I don't want to be bothered while having breakfast by someone showing a picture that I didnt want taken in the first place who tries to get us to buy it Maybe if I had the photopass+ I would do it. We didnt have to wait at all, we were taken right through to a half empty room. I had read a few mixed reviews for this place, the downsides were that it was noisy and busy, neither of which it was when we were there so we were very chuffed! Our server was very perky, I don't remember her name though, she brought Sy some of the signature juice and me a diet coke. I was sad I couldnt have any of the juice as it makes me ill so she gave me a small glass so I could at least have a little try It was lush! We both went to fill our plates while there were no characters nearby. The food was really fresh and looked appealing, one of the things I hated so much about chef Mickey's was that it was a bit like a free for all.

There was a single guy on the table next to us so we took it in turns taking pictures of each other with the characters The Mad Hatter freaked me out slightly, he was crazy! I refused to have a picture and made Sy have one on his own LOL

Alice was a bit weird too, all of a sudden she was there and the things she said were odd too...

I love Mary Poppins though

I was very pleased to see tigger, I got a special picture of me and tigger together for my aunt as she's a HUGE tigger fan, her house is a tigger shrine and just before we came away we found out that she has stage 3 ovarian cancer so this pic was for her...

I knew there was one thing I had to try here, the strawberry soup! I couldnt find it but Sy did. I really wasnt sure what it was going to be like, I made Sy try it first as he would know if I would like it or not (I'm such a child making him try it first hahaha), he liked it and thought I would so I gave it a go... and well, I did quite like it. It didnt taste how I thought it would, I thought it was taste like that fake strawberry flavour but you could definitely tell that it was made from real strawberries. I couldnt manage much of it though, it was quite sickly. I was glad to try it though and I would have it again another time, I'd just make sure I had a small amount.

We got pictures with all of the characters apart from Pooh who skipped us out weirdly, it didnt matter though as he was the character we were least excited to see. He did then come back at the end so I dunno if he just realised he'd missed us or what.

We paid our bill and headed out, feeling full and happy. I would definitely return to 1900 park fare

As we had valet parked we decided to leave the car at GF and get the monorail over to MK, we did need to get the car back to get the scooter out of the boot though (I had left it in there to see how I felt after breakfast, each day I tried not to use it if I could help it).

We sailed through bag check and over to gates, this is where we run into more band trouble... Both of our annual passes are attached to my band. Luckily I have our annual pass cards with me so we use these to get in and head straight over to the Band help-desk inside the photopass centre. A lovely girl tries to help us, she end up on the phone for an hour with the avengers (I kid you not, that's what the team are called hehehe!) but basically, our reservation is 'so screwed up' (her words) that we need to go back to our hotel and have them cancel and rebook our whole reservation. She does give us a voucher for a dole whip float each for our trouble as we had been there for so long. We were in good spirits about it, its not exactly her fault is it? But one of the other guys working there commented on how she always got the nice guests and he got the grumpy ones Well there's no point in getting grumpy about it, its just one of those things... Once the band saga was sorted (ish) we headed back out onto main street, we were a bit flustered with how the day started that we forgot to ride the train round the park! It usually our first ride of the holiday but today we headed right for Tomorrowland. First we rode the People Mover, it was lovely to be up there in the breeze, it felt really hot today but compared to the UK anything could feel hot

The light was on inside space mountain too!

We then rode Buzz...

I totally whooped Sy's ass Look at that score...!

Don't ask how I did it, I have no idea lol.

It was then time for my favourite attraction - Monsters inc Laugh Floor. Love the new addition of Monsters University.

I had made the mistake of making a lunchtime fastpass at Be Our Guest but its the only day I could make it for. We *so* weren't ready for more food but we headed over that way anyway as it was the only chance we would get to go inside the castle, my holiday time is too precious to spend an hour or longer queuing for lunch

We were a little early so we decided to ride the Little Mermaid first.

We checked in at the podium at Be Our Guest but they couldnt find us on the list, I'm not sure if they eventually found us or not but they sent us through! We ordered our food on the machines and went to find a seat. We decided to sit down in the west wing, and as soon as we had put our bums on the seats our food was there, it was obviously made previous and just send out when people ordered it. The food was, well. Honestly? It was pants. It was cold. I had the croque Monsieur and the bread was horrid, there was way too much ham in there for me and the cheese wasnt melted! Sy tried mine and didnt like it either. Sy had the steak baguette and he loved the taste but wished it had been hot. Both of our fries were cold. I did however have the passion fruit puff which was amazing. The place was so beautiful, there's no getting away from that. I'd go back again and make a special request on the food so it was made to order to save getting cold food. In hindsight I should have sent the food back but as we weren't that hungry anyway I couldnt be bothered to complain.

A few Pics from lunch...

Sy looks wonky eye'd in this one... LOL

We then made our way to find Hayley & Gareth. We managed to spot them near Country Bears Jamboree. Sy was feeling a bit dodgy from too much food so wanted to sit down for a bit and Hayley hates water rides so Gareth and I decided to head off to Splash mountain, poor Gareth hadnt been on it yet even though he'd been there over a week!

Picture fail...

We didnt get too wet as we weren't in the front, I did get stuck beside the waterfall near the end though so I was nicely splashed When we got back the others didnt believe we had only been on it once... its a long ride, what can I say We then went to ride Pirates all together this time (hayley didnt mind this one as you don't get wet ) It was nearing time for the parade now so we got a spot and watched it from near the Christmas shop. The boys went off in search of a drink. They came back after being wished happy anniversary more than once (Sy was wearing his anniversary button), they said one guy looked like he didnt believe them when they said it wasnt the 2 of them as a couple celebrating teehee!

We then went to ride Buzz again, I cant remember who won, I'm sure it was one of the boys.

I totally failed on our picture, I thought our picture had already been taken so now it just look like Hayley is trying to lick my ear! Sorry Hayley!!

We then went to ride on the People mover again, Hayley and I got in 1 carriage and didnt realise that the one behinde had a cone in it so the boys ended up 2 carriages behind. I took off my anniversay badge and knowing Sy had his on, we told the girl working there that it was their anniversary! She made a fuss over them while we giggled ourselves silly.

Sy kinda looks like he's picking his nose in this one, but hes just sliding up his glasses, he assures me....

That's better...

We then went to ride Carousel of Progress. They were just letting one group on, a girl was stood letting them in one door and another girl stood behind a desk there avoiding our eye contact, I guessed we would be riding the next show. The girl who was stood letting the other people in shouted to her and motioned to her to let us in as well so she walked slowly over to up and opened the chain without saying a word or looking at us. I didnt know if we were going in or waiting for the next show as she had let us in the opposite side to the other people so I asked where she wanted me to go (as I was on the scooter) and she told me hurry up... so I went forward and waited by the next chain (where the doors were) and she came over and opened it. I didnt know what she wanted me to do with the scooter so I was waiting for her to explain when she shouted 'QUICKLY' at me! I didnt know where to put the scooter, whether I had to get out of it or if I could stay in it. She closed the chain and off she went. :S She really made me feel like a second class citizen as she couldnt be bothered to speak to me I was upset, but Hayley was LIVID. I think I saw steam coming from her ears. None of us really enjoyed the ride, I spent most of it holding tears back. On the way out we asked the other girl what the name was of the girl who let us in, it was Amanda (we did think it was but wanted to be sure) and we then headed to city hall to explain what had just happened. The girl who served us was horrified and went to call the manager while we were there. The manager knew who it was and said that she would be spoken to. The girl who was serving us tried to give us some fastpasses but I said not to worry as we had a GAC. She took down the details of where we were staying though for the form she was filling in.

We had a reservation at 'Ohana for the 4 of us at 5:30 so we got the monorail over to the Poly. We checked in and were given a pager but it went off pretty much right away and we were led inside to our table, right by the entrance (note, not a great place to sit as the smell of toilet wafted over everytime anyone opened the door). Our server was good, he kept bringing me chicken as Hayley told them it was the only meat I would be eating. We weren't given any bread to begin with though, we had to ask for it.

I just **love** this pic of Gareth!

And this one....

The food was all yummy as usual. We totally skipped on dessert as none of us could eat any more, we were all so full. I really feel like we didnt make a dent in the food tonight, not like we had in May anyway (anyone remember that shrimp plate?!). We paid our bill and headed back up to the Monorail to grab our car. We agreed to head over to Kidani to see Hayley and Gareth once we had been to try and sort out our magic bands. They had a bit of trouble sorting them out so we left it with them and headed back to the room to freshen up and grab the teat bags for Hayley and Gareth. When we came back to the front desk we had to stand for ages longer with them trying to sort it, Hayley sent me a text to see if we had got lost lol! Eventually though we were sorted with yet another new band for Sy (3rd so far) we headed over to Kidani.

We had told H&G about our band trouble and they had an email while we were trying to sort out our room to say that more of their DVC points had been taken. We were staying in DVC with their points. Urgh!! Why is nothing ever easy?! My patience was running thin now with these sodding bands, and I could see why people were getting annoyed about them. We stayed and chatted for an hour or so before heading back to our room at about 10pm, we were seriously feeling the jet lag by now and almost falling asleep on their sofas. We parked the car and walked the 10 mins it took to get to our room, by now I was totally shattered and just wanted my bed, so of course our bands wouldn't work to open the door... and we hadnt been re issued with room keys after the mess up from the cancelled/rebooked room. So we walked the 10 mins back to reception and stood there for another 30 mins with them fiddling with the bands, they had to get the manager Alyssa over in the end to try and get them working. I also asked what was going on with the DVC points as Hayley and Gareth were now out 2 sets of points, she said they first set will go back to them and that member services will sort it out... We finally got into our room at 11pm, an hour after we left Kidani (and we were only in Jambo!). I was totally falling out of love with those damn bands...

I'm lying in bed, just falling asleep while Sy's playing on his phone, he then turns to me and says 'why does my annual pass now say its expired on my Disney experience?'

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Me too Mandy, I guess its cause he was with me in the wheelchair

Things so got better, how could it not? We were in DISNEY! hehehe

Def not bad for a standard worth the walk from reception!!

We were in Jambo this trip though I think I've decided I prefer Kidani.

Believe me, if I hadn't cried I would have stamped my feet but I was too emotional to fight my own corner! Grrr emotional wreck that I am lol

Day 1 added now

Yeah things did get better, and we still had a great time despite the troubles, there are more problem to come though....

It did get better but tbh, we didn't let the bad bits spoil our fun at all. We still had a great trip!

Well I hope she was just having a bad day... Who knows though

Day 2

Friday the 13th

Some people are superstitious about this day, but as i'm not one of those people I decided to book Parasailing for today....

Even though we didn't get to bed till after 11pm last night I was still up by 6:30am, damn jet lag!

We woke up to the loveliest view....

We decided to get dressed and head to Mara for some breakfast. I wanted something light as I had butterflies in my tummy, it didnt even occur to me that I might be nervous about doing the parasailing but turns out I was lol. Sy grabbed a bagel and some fruit loops while I got a croissant. We then made our way over to the Contemporary resort. We had made plans to meet Hayley and Gareth about half an hour before our flight as Gareth was doing it with me (well we were going one after the other but we were both going up anyway). I was panicking like mad and shouting at Sy for making us late, I'll blame it on the nerves but we needn't have worried as they got there shortly after us. We all had to sign a waiver, even Sy and Hayley who were just going out on the boat. They were running a little late so we waited around for a little while in the shade, it was HOT today.

Gareth and I had decided that we were going to do the 600ft sail, we could have gone for a 450ft for slightly less time but hey, if we are going to do it, we may as well do it right!

We were taken out on the boat and asked who wanted to go first, I kindly volunteered Gareth hahaha. They got him ready and in his harness and before we knew it he was up and away...

My goodness he went miles away! I don't think I realised just how far away it would be and how high up... Gulp... He went up so far he looked tiny up in the air. While he was up in the air the guys got me ready in my harness and talked me through.

After Gareth had been up about 10 mins it was my turn to go up. I'm not ashamed to say I was absolutely PETRIFIED up there. All I could think of was that I was only kept up there by 2 little clips (they were very strong clips and I was totally safe but all rational thought went right out the window!) and boy I felt like I was going to puke up there, it didnt enter my head that I might be a bit motion sick up there, it got so bad that I had a plan on how I was going to be sick so I didnt get it on me hahaha. That being said, it was AMAZING up there! I could see for miles and miles! I was way too nervous to take a camera up there, I wanted my hands to be holding on and not thinking about my camera so no pictures from the air but here are a few that Hayley and Sy took for me.

Once I was back down they took us all back in again and we thanked them with a tip and went on our way. We grabbed a seat in the Contemporary for 10 mins as I was still green lol Sy went off to find me some water and as soon as I was feeling a bit better we headed out to the car. We decided to then head for a wander round Walmart as we hadn't been yet and needed some supplies for the room (ie; drinks and snacks!), Hayley and Gareth also wanted a wander round so we headed back to AKL and swapped to 1 car.

We had a good look round Walmart, I got a few nail varnishes (am I the only girl who searches for new nail varnishes when hey go abroad? They have different colours to ones I see all the time in the local chemist!), we also got some bagels and cereals for breakfast along with milk, butter, soft drinks and a case of 6 beers for Sy, Sy did want more than 1 case but I made the point that he never drinks them all and we end up bringing them home... Well suffice to say I packed all 6 beers in the suitcase the day we left...

We paid up and headed out into the wall of heat outside. We were all feeling hungry now as we had spent aaaaaaaages in Walmart so we decided to go to Longhorns so Sy could try one of the legendary steaks. We didn't really know what to do with our cold stuff so we decided to take it in with us as its gotta be cooler inside there than it would be outside in the car. Longhorns was almost empty so we were seated right away and our server on seeing our bags asked if we would like her to put them in the fridge out the back? Yes please! How's that for service?! She got an extra big tip for that, though she was awesome anyway to be honest.

Ah, young love's dream....

I had the chicken tenders to eat - I know, shock horror! I had some chicken!

The other 3 all had the same thing though, the Outlaw Ribeye, O.M.G the size of that slab of meat on their plates... really has to be seen to be believed....

That's a bit ol piece of meat isn't it?

There was something weird going on with Sy's knife and fork, they seemed to be magnetic...

Probably not surprisingly after all that meat, no one wanted dessert so we paid our bill and headed back out to the car (once we had asked for the shopping). Hayley wanted to get something from the Dollar Tree and as it was right next door she and I went in and left the guys outside in the car. We soon found the things she was after and headed to the check out to pay. I still had my anniversary badge on and the old lady who was being served in front of us wished me a happy anniversary... Well after the fun we had winding the guys up about it being their anniversary yesterday, I decided that I would wind Hayley up so I said to the lady 'Thank you very much, its been 4 years.... hasn't it darling?' said as I turned to Hayley and stroked her arm lovingly... Hayley, not to be outdone replied with 'yes dear, 4 loooong years'.... Well by this point I had my back to the lady so I didn't see her reaction but Hayley did, she was completely gobsmacked and didn't know where to look, she then practically ran out of the shop! Hehehehehehehehe Sorry lady, It was only a joke! By this point Hayley and I are completely wetting ourselves at the check out and the check out lady then wishes us a happy anniversary! By the time we get out and into the car we are laughing so much we can hardly speak and the boys look at us like we are mental patients who has escaped the ward! Once we explain they are then in fits of giggles too.

We head back to the hotel and decide that we should all go for a swim, as we are all DVC members we could use either pool at the Animal Kingdom hotels so we decide on Kidani. Hayley and Gareth drop us off at Jambo with our shopping and we decide to head over to Kidani via the bus that runs between the 2 hotels all day. We dropped the shopping off at our room first and quickly got changed.

We head to Hayley and Gareth's room, they have a 'pool view' which is actually just a 'tree view' as the pool is surrounded by trees so its not far to wander over to the pool area from there. Us girls are straight in the water while the boys play some table tennis.

After a long dip and splash around we head out of the pool and back to the room to get dressed. Tonight is Villains tonight so we wanted to get there with plenty of time. We decided to drive our car as Hayley & Gareth drove earlier. We picked them up and headed out towards HS.... 90 minutes later we had moved about 100 meters and we decided it was best to give up. When we got back later that evening we saw online that everyone was having similar problems. It was total chaos. I think we made the right decision on reading the reports online, so many people were walking by the side of the road who had given up and got off buses etc. Disney, sort it out!

So what could we do with out evening as we had decided that HS was a bust? What could we do that wasn't Disney as all of the roads were a no-go? Well, we did the only thing we could do, we went to Steak and Shake of course! (it must be time for some more food right?!)

Now, Hayley's parents were in Orlando just before us and said they had a really bad meal in here, the food was okay but the service was horrendous. Unfortunately, we were about the receive some of that service... We were shown to a table in the half empty restaurant next to a huge family who were very loud, they were only having a good time but it might have been nicer to sit a but further away, I guess this was our fault though as we should have said something at the time but it didn't register till after we had sat down... We place our order, Sy and I have soft drinks while Hayley and Gareth have shakes, they both asked for them to be without the cherry (as they don't like them which I agree, yuk!) but when they came, Hayley's obviously had the cherry on it but they had picked it off and tried to cover it up with more cream to hide the red residue. That in itself is bad as they didn't know the reason they asked for them without, they could have been allergic!

I think Hayley's face says it all here....

hehehe! One of the servers took it away and said he was making a new one. Unfortunately that didn't come till we had all pretty much *finished* our meals! It came about 20 mins after sending it back. The service was pretty shocking throughout our whole meal honestly, like they couldn't be bothered serving us it really impacted our enjoyment of the meal.

Speaking of which, I had chicken tenders (again!) with cheese and bacon fries while Sy had some sort of burger haha (he says it was a triple steak burger)

The food was okay but certainly not amazing. But it was better than sitting in the car for another 2 hours...

When we finished and paid our bill we decide to try and head back through downtown Disney to see what the roads are like, to maybe try and get to Villains Tonight again but we were greeted with a lot more traffic I'm sure it was Sy's idea to go that way... Ah sod it, lets blame him anyway

After what feels like forever in the car we get back to AKL and drop off Hayley & Gareth at Kidani and head back home to Jambo. Once we got the our room we are greeted with a note on the table saying there's a little something from the front desk in our fridge! Ooooh! Sy got it out and I took a few pictures...

Now something tells me this could have had something to do with either the band trouble or the CM incident from yesterday as we had declined the fastpasses. Whatever the reason, thank you very much! We ate the whole thing just as we were about to start eating we could hear big bangs outside so we headed out to the balcony, we could see the fireworks from Villains Tonight playing in the distance, it wasn't quite the same without the music though. They looked pretty impressive though! Just a shame we missed it

We finally fell into bed at about midnight after watching some TV.

I so ate the giraffe lol that's what went first

Day 3

IoA!

Woke up at the much more reasonable time of 9am, we had planned to go to head to islands of adventure together but Hayley text me to say that she wasn't feeling too good Poor Hayley! We just pottered about in the room for a bit and had some breakfast consisting of bagels and cereal sitting out on the balcony...

We started to think about what we would do that day and got dressed, then Hayley text to say she was feeling better and would we still like to head to IOA? Sounds good to me We drove over to pick them up and just Gareth was outside waiting, he got in the car and said Hayley had changed her mind again as she wasn't well enough! But he was on a wind-up, she had just gone to get something I totally fell for it though and offered to stay home with her...

We headed over to IoA in our car as we had the scooter in the back. We stopped at Popeye's on the way over for some lunch as it was after 12 when we left AKL, I just had something small. Hayley and Gareth had never been before but they decided the chicken was good but not quite as good as publix chicken

When we got to IoA we valet parked the car, (we get it free with our premier annual passes), I had the scooter with me today as its a long walk if I take ill during the day. The guys stood and watched me and Sy lift the scooter out of the back of the car while another family in another car stood back while the valet staff took the scooter out for them! Thanks very much Universal... I don't like to say its cause we were British and the other family were American but you cant help but wonder... (Gareth wanted to help but I wouldn't let him as he had just had surgery on his back).

A pic on the way in...

When we got to the park I went to get the attraction assistance card. It was another hot day so it felt pretty good being in the nice cool aircon guest services I was talking to a little girl behind me in the queue as she loved my nails (someone had to I guess!), we seemed to be in the queue for aaaaages, even though there was only 1 person in front. The guy who served me though was very nice and I was soon back out in the heat.

It was hot and sunny today so we headed to One Fish Two Fish first We didnt get too wet though

We then walked through to Jurassic Park, we didn't actually do any rides in between! None of us are that bothered by the Harry Potter ride, Gareth and I both feel sick on it, Hayley doesn't like spiders and Sy doesn't think its all that great... So today was going to be all about the water rides

Hayley didn't fancy riding so the 3 of us went on. They had put us 3 with another couple as the rows fit 5... Now not to be rude here but the other 2 people weren't tiny, and we sure as hell aren't either so I just refused to get on and waited for the next boat. There was ZERO queue, so it wasn't like we were holding anyone else up by doing this. I had to wonder why they would want to squash us all in on a quiet day? Oh well. I sat in the middle of the boys and off we went. I don't care how many times I do this ride, I always get scared that the dinosaur at the end is going to get me! When we hit the bottom we came to such an abrupt stop that Sy's glasses flew off his face and I slammed forward with both knees bashing into the chair in front! We also got totally drenched

After we got off we went round the side to get a pic of the guys when the wave of the boat went over... only we kept 'missing it' and they kept having to go back and do it again.... I think they stood there for at least 5 boats going down HAHAHAHA, we are so mean! But honestly, we were almost wetting ourselves laughing at them, even all the people around us knew what we were doing and giggling... There is even a video of us doing this to them somewhere but Hayley has that one

We then went to Rip Saw Falls, the wait time said 30 mins so off we went to ride. The universal assistance pass works that if the queue is 30 mins or less you ride right away, if its more than 30 mins they write the time down minus 30 minutes... only we got to the lady and she took the car away and wrote on it the time and said we had to come back in 15 minutes? When we queried this she called somewhere and said that she was right, she had to reduce the wait time by 15 minutes, not 30. It was only 15 mins so it wasn't like we were going to argue with it (I would happily wait the 30 mins if it meant I could wait somewhere not in the queue) so off we went to ride something else. We headed to Popeye's barges, we actually asked the guy on the queue if we could ride as I wasn't sure how it worked when we were virtually queuing for another ride but he said the woman made a mistake on there, that its the queue time minus 30 mins so technically we weren't queuing so we could ride

We went round twice as there was no one waiting when we got back from the first go Hayley didn't ride though as she didn't fancy getting too wet today. I did not have the same feeling, in fact my rule is the wetter the better! Hehehe

This isn't such a great pic... but it was a selfie so it could have been worse

This one I took just as we got wet again, so thats the reason for my weird facial expression...

We really were wet by the end! I don't think I had a dry part on me. We then went back to Rip Saw Falls. Sy didnt want to ride as he always hates trying to get out at the end, plus he wanted to keep Hayley company as she had just been on her own while we were on the last ride. The ride attendant who was allocating the people to their seats was the girl from before so I let her know that she had been wrong before, she was extremely apologetic. It didn't matter though, it wasn't like it was anything major wrong. I wasn't going to get the hump about it as lets face it, they don't have to offer any form of disabled assistance do they? I'm just very grateful to them for offering it.

If you have ever ridden this ride before, you will know what its like to get in and out. I was in the front with Gareth behind, and let say we felt a bit closer after that ride hahaha! There **may** have been a joke or 2 about Gareth's legs wrapping around me But thank god it was Gareth, I would hate to have some strangers legs either side of me! Awkward!!

I had my camera in my hand all the way round with the strap round my wrist but as we got to the top I was told to turn it off as we went down the hill, not really sure why. He didn't say put it away, just that I had to turn it off... weird!

Getting out was the joy it always was trying to winch ourselves out with straight legs.

We then made our way round to Spiderman, stopping on the way for a mandatory pic...

On the way round we saw the couple who were sat next to us on our flight! What are the chances of that? We stood and chatted for a bit before moving on to Spiderman. I decided not to ride as I had a bit of a headache coming on and was worried it might make me feel sick, so instead I went to get changed into the dry clothes I had with me I even remembered to bring dry underwear this time, last time I forgot that bit so had wet patches on my dry clothes in all the wrong places... not a good look trust me

We then walked over to Universal as Gareth really wanted to try Transformers. I decided to let everyone else ride so they could asses whether it would make me sick, that way I would know for next time. I think I would have been okay, Gareth and I have the same sort of sickness levels and he was fine. Hayley said she didn't really get any of it though as she didn't know who was good and who was bad having never seen any of the films... I would have been the same.

We then had to make a move as we were meeting Carrie and Mark for dinner at Outback

We headed back to Valet and waited for them to bring the car back, it only took about 10 mins today which was a step up from last time when it took about 30 Sy deliberately held a big tip in his hand with the valet slip in case the reason they didn't help us with the scooter this morning was cause they thought as we were British we would be lousy tippers... The guy stood and watched me and Sy lifting the scooter in and then had the cheek to ask for the ticket, having seen Sy holding it with the big tip... Sy being the nice guy he is gave it to him, with big tip. Now, had it been me, I would have been tempted to just give him the ticket! Though I have to say, the next time we pick up the car at Universal valet we don't tip at all.

We drop off Hayley & Gareth at Kidani and rush back to Jambo, it needed to be a super quick change as we were meeting Carrie and Mark about 30 minutes later.

While we are rushing around getting ready there's a knock at the door... Sy goes to answer it and there's a man stood outside with a tray for us! And what's on the tray?

WOW! Again, no idea where they came from or why they appeared, just a note that said they were from the front desk. This is going to sound soooo ungrateful, but I don't like chocolate dipped strawberries, I dunno why people think the 2 things go together cause I really don't think they do. Chocolate, yes. Strawberries, yes. Chocolate and strawberries together? No! But Sy enjoyed them so they didn't go to waste

Even with the interruption we manage to get out in time to meet Carrie and Mark. They already have a table when we get there so we go straight over and sit down

We do the usual trick of not even looking at the menu by the time the waiter comes back, whoops! We do order a blooming onion to share though and some drinks, Wallaby Darned is on offer, so of course I have to have one And then another... whoops! They had taken my favourite thing off the menu (bacon swiss chicken burger) so I had something else, I wasn't really a fan and didn't bother to eat much of it. I ate all of the jacket potato that came with it though

When our server asked if we were celebrating I kindly volunteered Hayley and Gareth, as it was their anniversary the week before... So he brought out a dessert for them to share and we all clapped, oh dear, if looks could kill, Hayley would have been a murdered right there and then! I would like to say I felt bad, but I didn't! I'm a big meanie and just laughed! Sorry Hayley! You did get a free dessert out of it though so its not all bad (I think she's just about forgiven me).

We had such a wonderful evening all together, though I stupidly forgot to bring the chocolates I'd brought over for Carrie and Mark, Hayley had forgotten the jelly babies she's brought too so we didn't do too well there. Sorry Carrie and Mark! I don't think they minded they hadn't asked for either of them, we just thought we would bring some to be nice We said goodbye outside and loosely planned to go out for dinner later in the trip and headed back to the hotel.

We were back by 8:30pm, a nice early night could have been had, instead we stayed up watching tv for ages and fell asleep about 11pm.

Tomorrow we head to Universal

I have heard that the service is a bit lacklustre in all Steak and Shakes, though being British and used to the normal European service you would think we wouldn't notice but it really was that bad this time. I think we will stick to take away from them in future.

We have always had good service before now, such a shame. That traffic was HORRENDOUS! Honestly, the stories I heard were shocking. Is Christmas at Disney like that? I've never done it as I hate crowds.

Day 4

US, HS, MK and 'the bus incident'

My notes say 'gave up trying to sleep at 6am due to Sy's snoring GRRRRR!' Sadly for my, my husband suffers from really loud snoring, when he's keeping me awake at home I kick him out of bed and send him to the spare bedroom but in a studio room that's a little difficult, I did toy with sending him out on the balcony but we saw a huge cockroach out there the night before so I decide I cant be that mean... boy was I tempted to be though

I went to sit out on the balcony myself for a while just enjoying the view. I wrote up a few notes and sent a message to each of our parents before coming back in to shower and wash my hair. Hair washing is a massive job for me as I have so much hair, plus as its so damn curly it takes forever to get a brush through it. After I've finished I wake Sy up (mainly because the noise is getting on my last nerve!) and tell him to get up and showered. I went to sit outside again by about 9am to watch the giraffes. Unfortunately there is a young girl of about 6ish playing her violin on the balcony on the opposite side to where we were. If you have ever heard someone learning to play the violin you will know its just about the worst instrument to hear, its awful! This practicing goes on for about 20 minutes and then an older girl of about 10 comes out and she starts playing her violin as well, all the time with what I assume is their mother filming them! Honestly, how inconsiderate can you get?! The rooms all around them still had their drapes shut so I can only assume that they were asleep still, or at least trying to sleep (not that they could have known this as the balconies are partitioned, but they couldn't know if people were awake or not!). I was actually aghast that people could be so inconsiderate to other people. I saw a fair few other people come out on their balconies to try and figure out where the noise was coming from. And the worst bit of all of this? The giraffes were spooked by the noise and went away We finish getting ready and head out to pick up Hayley and Gareth at about 10am (while the music is still going on).

We had decided last night to head to Bob Evans for breakfast, we had never been before but H&G had and said it was really nice. They weren't wrong! I was really impressed (so much so that we went back there later in the trip). I would describe it as an upmarket IHOP or Denny's but no more expensive (or it didn't seem it to me). The place was more than half empty and we were seated right away at a table for 4. After we had ordered I kept myself entertained by taking pictures...

Hayley was busy berating Gareth for not smiling in his photo so I tried tickling him to make him smile, to which he then replied to Hayley that he was busy 'enjoying the petting' ! OMG I laughed so hard! I think I swallowed my tonsils! I think what made it even better was that Gareth never says things like that. He's so prim and proper! Sy got that exact moment on camera, I think my reaction says it all!!

I dont remember what my breakfast was called but it was eggs any-way, hash brown or breakfast potatoes and choice of bread. I had eggs over easy, hash browns and 2 biscuits. The food was delish! We all ate every scrap

We paid our bill at the counter and headed back out to the car. We went straight to Universal Studios and valet parked again. I was feeling quite good this morning so I decided to leave the scooter in the car, plus Universal isnt exactly an all day park so I knew we wouldn't be there too long. We headed up the escalator and through bag check and made our way leisurely to the Studios.

Once inside we went straight forward, we were going to head to Despicable Me but there was a long queue so we decided to bypass it till later and head to Twister, I know this attraction gets a bad name but it holds a place in my heart as it was the first ride I ever went on when I first came to Universal. I'm sure it will be the next thing to go, and there's no denying that its showing its age now, but even so, I just love it The others, not so much They thought it was a bit dull I think, but they humoured me

After a quick bathroom break we went to ride the Mummy, Sy wasn't wearing his contacts today and didn't fancy riding in his glasses so sat outside watching the Blues Brothers while the rest of us went on. This was a new one for Hayley and Gareth which they both enjoyed I love this ride too, still cant believe I got my mother in law on it a few years ago hehehe.

We then made our way over to Disaster, sadly even doing my best efforts to volunteer the boys for the muscle men, they weren't chosen, dammit! I love this attraction, I don't like the having to act bit at the end but I love the rest of it and the humour.

When we had finished our acting debut we headed to Men in Black. Once all of our bags etc were safely placed inside a locker we headed inside. I am very proud to say I actually won this even against boys! (which never happens). We then decided to head over to Moe's tavern for a drink (and a nosey round). We took the mandatory pics with the love machine...

Poor Sy...

Mine was much better

We went to the bar while Hayley went to sit down. I left the guys at the bar ordering and went to join Hayley as a server there was moving her off the table for 4 to sit 2 people at it? She told her that she couldn't sit there without food so Hayley was telling her that we were just ordering at the bar and were about to join her. She was still told to move to another table and they then moved the reserved sign that was on the table Hayley was told to sit at. So Hayley was moved off a big booth for 2 people and was moved to the table next door which was really small. The guys came back at this point and heard the end of the conversation but the server was being really rude with the way she was speaking to us so Gareth actually had to say to her that there was no need to be so rude.

Not quite sure what went on but we sat there with our drinks while we saw other people come in and sit down with no food and stay there for the entire time we were there without food and no one said a word! This is the sort of thing that makes us think 'we're not in Disney anymore'. We have actually decided not to visit Universal next year, and this isnt the first time we have skipped out Universal due to their poor customer service.

But back to the drinks... we just had to order a Flaming Moe!

The barlady couldn't say exactly what was in it but basically if you like still orange Fanta and dry ice then you'll do well

When we had finished we headed back outside and headed over to the next ride.... ET Another old favourite, another that's showing its age too sadly I still love it though In the queue we decided to come up with some erm, interesting -read childish- names! We did all go through different queues though to be slightly less embarrassing... The names were..... Dick, Fanny, Tess & Tickle. We just wanted to hear ET call our names at the end hehehehe. He didn't read them in any order though which was slightly less fun, probably on purpose to stop silly people like us!! We had the proper giggles for ages afterward, what children we are

We stopped outside at the walking dead set for HHN (I'm told it was this by Hayley as I don't actually watch it). Hayley was very excited though

We then head to Transformers again, Hayley and I sit it out, Hayley didn't feel the need to ride again as she hadn't really understood it yesterday and I didn't see the point as I already knew I wouldn't understand it We got a spot on the benches and waited for the boys as there was only a 15 min wait, we made sure we were near some shelter as it looked like it might rain at any moment. We were lucky though and didn't get wet before the boys came out. We then made our way to what would be our last ride of the day, Despicable Me. Gareth and I took the chicken seats at the front as we were both scared of feeling sick (even though i'd been on it before I was feeling quite fragile all holiday and didnt want to sick feeling sick anymore than I had to). Afterwards we spent ages going round the shop looking for something Hayley had said she would bring back for someone, we couldn't find it though

We started to walk out of the park as it started spitting with rain, it didn't rain for long though and it wasn't the usual Orlando downpour so I think we had a lucky escape. We stopped by a few other shops on the way out to try and get the thing we couldn't find in the shop but without any luck. We had the normal wait of about 20 mins for the car at Valet (even though there was no one in the queue in front of us) and being the mean people that we are, we didn't tip them! I've never done that before, I felt really mean afterwards too.

We hopped into the car and headed over to SSR, we wanted to pick up our new DVC membership cards, they hadn't yet been delivered to our home before we left. It wasn't really like we needed them for any discounts as we had our annual Passes, we just wanted them! LOL

As we were there anyway, we decided to have a quick look at the model VGF rooms. What harm could it do? Hayley and Gareth had already bought into VGF and wanted another quick look round and as I'm nosey, I quite fancied it too. I mean, we had only just bought 320 points at AKV so we definitely didn't need anymore points, plus i'd seen the pictures online of the place and I wasn't all that impressed. Gareth joked on the way in that he wasn't going to be held responsible for us buying in... Like that was going to happen! 1, we had just bought more than enough points resale. 2, we didn't like the rooms in the pictures. 3, we could just use our AKL points in the future to stay there...

I did have to admit, the rooms were *much* nicer in the flesh than the pictures, it was very luxurious, and yes, I was tempted. Sy however was blown away, I was as ever the sensible one keeping him grounded and saying NO! We didn't need more points, we couldn't afford it, and resale was much better value anyway... (even if you haven't read about it, you can see where this is going already cant you?!).

We left SSR and decided to head to 'Ohana to try and get a walk up. We got there at about 4.30pm and left the boys to queue up while me and Hayley sat in the bar with a cocktail each Our female server was called Ryan, maybe I'm ignorant but I'm pretty damn sure that wasn't her name, we had a good chat with her so I did feel like I could ask her about it and she said her and all of her sisters had boys names... though she did say it uncomfortably so maybe I was just really rude and upset her, or maybe she had someone else's badge on and was a bit awkward on being caught out! Who knows, she was lovely though She even made me a special virgin cocktail that wasn't on the cocktail menu, as the 2 virgin cocktails had things in that I didn't like.

The boys came over after a while and success! We had a table!! YAY only seconds after being given a buzzer it went off and we were led through to the very same table as we had in May. The food was, as always, lovely! We totally got forgotten about though, people who got there at the same time as us were paying up and leaving while we still hadn't had 2 of the meats brought round! We kept having to ask for stuff which was a bit of a pain. Unfortunately the table behind us had a child who was unwell, I didn't know anything about it as I was over the other side thankfully, but the child had thrown up everywhere. No idea how I missed it. I did wonder why the mum had taken the child off and the dad was left there to pay when they had hardly eaten anything, Gareth told us on the way out, think he was the only one to spot it which was lucky for us (but unlucky for him!).

Some pics from dinner...

Still not quite as good as the May shrimp plate but a good effort...

Before we arrived in Orlando Hayley and Gareth had a bit of an incident whilst waiting for Fantasmic, they had been to speak to guest services about it who told them to come back another time for priority Fantasmic viewing. All they had to was speak to staff member at guest services the day they wanted to watch. So we decided to head over there after dinner Guest services kindly let us all go together even though we hadn't been involved. So off we went to get a seat and watch the show. Stopping on the way to get a few photopass pics

Fantasmic was awesome! Though I did miss the big boat at the end with all the characters on it, they all just appeared on stage and waved ribbons around which was a bit naff (we later found out that the boat was being refurbished). We waited around for a little bit for the auditorium to empty (not totally empty, my bum couldn't take anymore of those seats!), and while we sat there we decided we really weren't all that tired yet, and as luck would have it Magic Kingdom had EMH till 1am.... Before I knew it we were in the car! We parked up and as it had been a long day I decided that now I had better take the scooter out with me (I'd managed the whole day without it though so I was doing well!). We hopped on the monorail and made our way to MK. If you've never been to MK in the dark, you have to do it. Its so pretty with all the lights! We decided to Dumbo first, there was no queue whatsoever so we each had our own Elephant!

We then went to ride The Little Mermaid, and as we came out we met up with Matt who was going solo for EMH. We decided to ride some mountains so off we went to Big Thunder, and after we headed to Splash but it wasn't part of EMH that evening, not really sure why. We decided to ride Pirates instead not quite as much fun but still a water ride By now it was close to midnight and we were flagging so we decided to head towards the exit. Hayley and I decided to get the bus back and let the boys head to steak and shake for a late night shake and that way they could drop Matt back to his hotel, so wouldn't have to get the bus back on his own If only I could go back and change this decision...

The bus incident.

We got to the bus stop as the bus was loading 1 lady on a scooter, the person she was with held the chain open for me to go through as well, I hadn't been on a bus with the scooter before though I had seen others so I kinda knew what I had to do. I went to the bottom of the ramp and waited for the driver to get the first lady sorted. The bus driver got her sorted and then shooed me away! He didn't say anything but to shoo me backwards with his hands, this was in front of the queue of people (admittedly there were only about 15 people in the queue but even so, it made me feel like a complete idiot), the guy who was holding the chain open for me just watched on with a confused look on his face. The bus driver came out and told me that I had to go through the queue line and not the chain with the disabled sign and he walked away again, the guy who was with the woman in the scooter turned to me and said that they had come through the chain so he didn't know why I wasn't allowed to. So off we went to join the queue behind the 15 or so people while the bus driver lifted the ramp and put the bus back to normal to let everyone else on, I zig zagged up and down the almost empty queueline. The driver sat on the bus as everyone got on until we got to the front of the queue. He then stayed on the bus while we waited, not really knowing what was going on, we waited for about 5 minutes while lots of other people joined the queue and went under the barrier beside us (as they couldn't get round me). The driver then got off and spoke to us saying that from now on scooters have to go through the queueline but now we could get on, so he closed the doors and lowered the ramp again (all of which takes ages) and told all of the people sitting in the seats that needed lifting for the scooter that they had to move, they weren't impressed at all (not that I blame them!). He then told me I had to drive the scooter on.... I really didn't want to do that, people were all in the way, so he told me that I had to get up and he would steer it on. Once it was on he then told me I had to stand up all the way back as there were no seats. A bus from MK to AKL, possibly the longest bus journey in all of WDW! All I wanted to do was cry, people were looking at me, people had to leave their seats because of me, I was stood up and I wasn't actually very well. I know it probably sounds silly but I spent the whole journey trying not to cry Hayley was FUMING. I think I could see steam leaving her ears. What was worse was that there were seats that above them had little signs asking people to move from them if a handicapped person was on the bus so that they could sit down.

We stopped at Kidani and the driver let everyone off who was leaving and he was about the shut the doors when he saw Hayley looking at him, he had asked us at MK which AK resort we were getting off at and we had said then it was Kidani. He saw Hayley looking and said 'oh, are you getting off here?' and Hayley said yes to which he replied 'well you can get yourselves off cant you!'. He was joking, we knew he was joking, but now was not the time to make that joke. I think Hayley's reply was 'well then, seems like we have a comedian' but the look she gave him was far, far worse. I was scared and it wasn't even directed at me!! We got off and went inside the reception and I went to the bathroom and promptly burst into tears (I also had a horrific bad stomach from the stress of it). Hayley went to the desk and asked for the hotel manager to come over and speak to us about what had happened. When I came back out she was sat in reception so I went to join her. We waited quite a while for the manager to come over from Jambo house, this did nothing to help matters. When the manager got there Hayley asked is she would come to sit down with us so that I didn't have to peer over the reception desk on the scooter. She wasn't too keen on this but she did come and sit down.

The hotel night manager was called Gray, she was AMAZING. She totally turned things around. She listened to us explaining what had happened and she was genuinely horrified. She was horrified at it all, but the worst bit for her was that he told me that I had to stand up, apart from anything else, they have seat belts so I could have sat on the scooter (I didn't know this as I hadn't been on the bus on one before). The boys came back to Kidani and were a bit worried that we weren't back yet so messaged us to find out where we were and so told them that we were in reception and they came down. They only caught half the story at first but Sy was about to go crazy on hearing it until I gave him a look that said 'please not now, I cant take any more upset'. Gray was just amazing though, I literally cannot say enough good things about her. Not only was she sympathetic, she was upset for me, she could see that I was shaking as I had got myself so upset about it and she was genuinely really worried, she spent ages there talking to us, about our trip, about her living in Germany and London when she was younger, about her children, anything and everything. We had such a lovely chat with her that by the end, we were laughing, I wasn't shaking any more and I felt about 1000000x better. She really turned around our evening, I didn't go back to the room upset unwell, I went back much happier and I really felt like someone cared.

Before we left she said she wanted to do something to turn around the awful experience so she would like to treat us all to breakfast, I didn't really know what that meant but she asked for our room number. I thought at first she might be sending room service breakfast to us but then she mentioned trying Boma or somewhere else. To be honest, I wasn't after anything from Disney other than to tell someone how I was dealt with, and how it made me feel, so I didn't really press her for any clarity on what she meant in case she thought that was why I had called her over there. We thanked her for speaking to us and making me feel so much better and headed to Hayley and Gareth's room.

On the way to their room Gareth and Sy let slip that they didn't *just* some shakes.... All through this trip and the last Hayley has been saying she wanted to buy the 7x7 burger from Steak and Shake, but they are only available after midnight, and she can never stay up late enough so hasn't been able to have one... well the boys decided that they were going to buy her one as it was probably the only chance she would ever get, even though we had eaten masses at 'Ohana! The 7x7 burger is 7 beef patties with 7 slices of cheese, all for the bargain price of $7. Its SICK. It looked like a heart attack on a plate. Hayley opened up the now cold burger, took one pic of it and declared 'there's no way I'm eating that'. That was that then! The boys never ones to waste food, demolished it between the 2 of them. Boys are gross.

How gross is that???

Before we knew it, it was 2:30am, I had been up since 6am! We decided to head back to our hotel, Sy drove the car while I scootered my way over there. The scooter is really annoying in that the whole things has to be charged at once, not just the batteries, and it was needing a charge now so rather than lift it into the car and then out again the other end I thought it was just easier to drive it between the 2 resorts. There was a nicely lit pathway though half way back as it started dying more on the up hill bits I did start to panic slightly I wasn't going to make it. I did though luckily but by the time I reached the room the speed had dropped right down to a snail's pace.

We finally got into bed at 3am, totally shattered. It had been a looooooong day.

Tomorrow, a bit of a lazy morning, and we find out just what Gray meant by sorting us some 'Breakfast'