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Fletch
 United Kingdom
277 Posts
Joined: 12 Oct 2004
Status: offline |  Posted - 11 Feb 2005 : 22:53:59  
| Sorry for the delay for those of you who have been asking for the next instalment. Here goes:
Sunday 9 January
Woke up to a glorious day - deep blue sky, not a cloud in sight and the temperature was set to reach 80 degrees according to Channel 13 (which we tended to follow for news and weather). John, Amy and Jay decided to go to Blizzard Beach while Andrew and I spent some quality time together in the villa. Truth be known, Andrew needs some medical "attention" every 2 - 3 days which was a blessing in some ways as it made us pencil in a "quiet" day every few days in our itinerary, for which we would be mighty thankful by the end of the holiday!
After breakfast, Andrew and I waved the others off as they set off on their first venture onto Disney territory and we then went for a walk round Cumbrian Lakes community. I took Andrew to the "tot lot" and he enjoyed the slide (or rather he tolerated me trying to encourage him to enjoy the slide!). We then walked to one of the lakes in the community - it is such a pretty place, and very peaceful.
When we got back to the villa I decided to soak up some sun on the lanai while Andrew had a daily dose of "Bob the Builder" courtesy of one of the videos we bought him yesterday - what a good purchase that turned out to be! I got chatting to our neighbours who were also English and who were villa owners. They don't rent their villa out, but use it as a holiday home for themselves and their family. They were in their first week of a six week stay (GREEN with envy!!!)
After a lovely swim together, lots of games and giggles, Andrew and I settled down together to watch another of his favourites - Pingu - on the laptop and before we knew it the others were back full of tales about the fun they had had on just about everything but Summit Plummet! None of them was brave enough to try that one
We then went out to eat at Carabba’s – at least that was the intention. We had found the location on our map and were pretty pleased with ourselves when we turned off the 192 into Formosa Gardens. After driving up and down a couple of times without a sighting of Carabba’s I went into a supermarket to ask for directions. The young boy on the till looked rather blank when I asked him, and replied that he’d never heard of it.
There was an Italian restaurant called Giordano’s almost opposite the supermarket, so we decided to give it a try as we were all starving by now.
(We later found out that Carabba’s was little more than a stone’s throw away, just a little further down the 192. So either the guy in the supermarket was new to the area or he was on commission from Giordano’s)
The atmosphere in here was very relaxed and the staff were extremely friendly – they were especially attentive to Andrew without being patronising, which I was especially touched by.
We shared a platter of deep fried mozzarella sticks, mushrooms, zucchini and calamari to start with. There was enough to feed the whole restaurant and at least two-thirds of it went to waste! Jay and I had the lasagne, John had spaghetti bolognaise while Amy tried the Tropic Delight pizza. We all enjoyed our meals and despite being sorely tempted by the delicious desserts on the menu, we settled for cappuccino’s all round. The waiter, who had by now become best friends with Andrew, insisted on bringing him a huge bowl of ice cream despite my protests that he wouldn’t eat it. I always feel as if people think we are neglecting Andrew when we are out for a meal as he refuses to eat when other people are around so we have given up even trying. I usually give him his meal before we go out, but I still feel as if people think we are starving him.
Stuffed to the gills, we set off back to the villa and hit the sack early in preparation for our first Disney park tomorrow - EPCOT
Monday 10 January
We were all up early and en-route to Epcot by 8.30am – straight up Poinciana Boulevard all the way to Osceola Parkway. By 9am we were at the entrance to Epcot and after we’d gone through the security check, we were in the “Leave a Legacy” area where people can mark their visit to Epcot by buying a tile to add to the sculpture – lovely idea! Almost straight away we saw Mickey, Minnie, Mary Poppins, Pinocchio and Donald Duck greeting guests and signing autographs. We stood and watched for a little while but decided not to wait in line for any photos just yet.
We headed straight for Spaceship Earth and were very impressed with the cast members who ushered us straight to the disabled entrance, despite the fact that we hadn’t yet got a disabled pass from Guest Relations. As an introduction to the magic of Disney, we found this impressive – the animatronic figures and attention to detail are excellent.
We then headed for Guest Relations and booked a table for dinner at the Coral Reef Restaurant at 7pm, and then, in our rush to get to the main attractions we forgot to ask for a Disabled pass!
There were hundreds of people milling around everywhere we went, but somehow the place didn’t seem crowded in the least. We headed straight for Test Track (drawn by the sound of the cars whizzing round the outside of the building). Amy, Jay and John went on first while Andrew and I explored the area – we found the entrance to Mission: Space and then slowly wandered back to Test Track to wait for the others. While we were sitting enjoying the sun and soaking up the atmosphere, a group of what looked like janitors rolled up with a cart from which they unloaded some drums and proceeded to entertain us with some great drumming and a lot of wacky humour – great fun.
John must have enjoyed his Test Track experience as he was keen to go back on with me, while Amy and Jay took Andrew for a walk. They had decided to get Fastpasses for Mission Space while we were in Test Track.
I’m not into cars especially, but I was so impressed with the queueing area for this ride (something which Disney do so well in the waiting areas for all their rides, I must say). However, because the park was so quiet, we hardly had time to look at anything before we were ushered into our car. All I can say is this is more than just a high speed ride in a racing car – it is so clever and exhilarating fun too without being scary at all.
By the time we came out of Test Track, it was time for Amy and Jay to go on Mission Space. As there was only a 10 minute wait at this point, we decided not to bother getting Fastpasses. John headed off looking for a smoking area, while Andrew and I enjoyed a repeat performance of the drumming janitors!
We started walking back towards Mission Space and who should we see outside the ride entrance but Mickey and Goofy dressed as astronauts. I got a great photo of them which I will post just as soon as I download all my photos and get them to the right size.
Amy and Jay took Andrew off again while we went on Mission:Space. I was a little concerned about going on this ride initially as there was a warning sign which included advice about not going on if you suffer from vertigo. I have been suffering with occasional bouts of benign postural vertigo (sounds impressive – just means that I get dizzy if I turn my head from side to side, ie turning over in bed) so I was really worried it might bring on an attack. However, no way was I going to miss this one!
We absolutely loved this ride (I know now why they call them experiences – they are much more than rides). For those of you who have not been on this, they put you into groups of four and assign each one of you a role on a Mission to Mars. Now the filmed briefing before the ride was so realistic I started worrying that I wouldn’t carry out my role correctly and we wouldn’t make it !! I was the Engineer, John was the Commander). The simulated blast off was like nothing I have ever experienced and I soon forgot my worries about not pushing the buttons at the correct time. I needn’t have worried anyway, as the little boy who was sharing our “spaceship” with his mother forgot to push his buttons at the right time, and the system overrode it bringing us safely onto the surface of Mars. (Alright, I can hear you saying, I’m taking this way too seriously). Fun, fun, fun – don’t miss this for those of you who are yet to visit Epcot. And the bonus is that my ears have not bothered me since we got back from Florida so I guess all these rides may be the solution to my problem – shame they can’t prescribe a visit to Orlando on the NHS.
By now it was gone 11am and we decided to head for the World Showcase. We had decided that, rather than try to cram everything into the visit we would pick out our “must–sees” and leave the rest for another day. We by-passed Canada (no offence to Canadians intended) and headed straight for the United Kingdom where we got a table by the lakeside at the Rose and Crown pub and enjoyed a light lunch of soup and salad (didn’t want to spoil our appetites for our meal in the Coral Reef). However, we hadn’t bargained for the size of the salad and just couldn’t manage it all.
We then sat and watched the Beatles tribute band – the music and singing was good but they shouldn’t try to talk with Liverpudlian accents! 
We walked to France together (sounds good, doesn’t it) and then decided to split up for a while. John and I took Andrew and found a seat overlooking the lake, and enjoyed a glass of red wine. I could have sat there all day just people-watching, but hey, we had 8 more countries to visit before dinner.
Over the next hour and a half we meandered through the streets of Morocco, marvelled at the beautiful buildings in Japah and then debated whether we had time to see The American Adventure. We had arranged to meet Amy and Jay in Italy and only had 15 minutes before our agreed meeting time, so we had to give it a miss.
Once we’d met up with Amy and Jay and handed Andrew over (bless him), we explored Italy, Germany and China and then went on Maelstrom in Norway. Despite John’s concerns about getting wet, we came through pretty unscathed and thought it was cleverly done.
We doubled back to China at this point as we wanted to watch the acrobats – these young kids are absolutely amazing – wonderful entertainment.
By now, time was marching on and as we had bumped into Amy and Jay who were also watching the acrobats, we decided to bypass Mexico and headed straight for “Honey I Shrunk the Audience”. Although we didn’t put glasses on Andrew, he wasn’t very happy throughout the whole performance, and jumped every time anyone in the audience screamed or laughed – I think he though we were all mad. We all enjoyed this immensely.
We just about managed to cram in a visit to the Living Seas before our allotted mealtime at the Coral Reef. This is a strange place as all the tables are arranged so that each diner is facing the aquarium so you can watch all the fish swimming past while you are eating. We found the food was excellent – Jay and I had Boeuf Bourgignon in puff pastry with carrots, asparagus and potatoes (mine was washed down with Octopus juice – it’s a cocktail before anyone says yuk!) John had lobster with garlic mash, while Amy had steak.
We then walked briskly down to the Showcase Plaza where there was a disabled viewing area for Illuminations. Although we had forgotten to ask for a disabled pass earlier in the day, I have to say that all the cast members were very accommodating during the whole day, and we got a space in the viewing area no problem. Andrew has a “major buggy” which is a larger version of the MacLaren buggy, so they all thought it was a stroller initially, but when we explained they waved us straight through. We had about 15 minutes to wait before the start of the show, and Andrew was starting to get restless (he normally goes to bed by 8pm at the latest so he was doing very well). I wasn’t sure how he would react when the fireworks started as he has never been very keen on bonfire night parties. Sure enough, when the big bangs started he got very distressed and I had to take him a fair distance away from the lagoon to try and calm him down. It was a fantastic sight to see, but I felt very guilty at making Andrew endure what was obviously a very unpleasant experience for him.
There seemed to be tens of thousands of people heading towards the car park, but we were very impressed by the speed with which the crowd dispersed. We were out of the car park in no time and we were home within 15 minutes.
Our first Disney day had been a resounding success (apart from Andrew being upset by the fireworks). We were all in bed by 10pm, ready for our visit tomorrow to.... THE MAGIC KINGDOM!
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blott
 United Kingdom
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ORLANDO_MAGIC
 United Kingdom
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Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Status: offline | Posted - 12 Feb 2005 : 00:21:54
| Fantastic report,i feel as though i was right there with you all.
But, how could you leave the Italian restaurant without eating dessert...Tut Tut, NO excuse for that however full you were
John. |
Edited by - ORLANDO_MAGIC on 12 Feb 2005 00:24:10 | | Report this post to a moderator | goto top of page |
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LesleyB
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 Italy
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Nostromo
 United Kingdom
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Status: offline | Posted - 12 Feb 2005 : 09:16:33
| | Another Excellent report, Fletch. Glad that everything went well on the visit to Epcot, with the park being quiet. We also reserve 2 days for Epcot. Coral Reef Restaurant is good, isn't it? I like it better than the similar one in Sea World. |
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E. Cosgrove
 United Kingdom
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Ray&Sarah
 United Kingdom
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Joined: 11 Nov 2003
Status: offline | Posted - 12 Feb 2005 : 09:51:35
| Great report Fletch, my 15 year old son still enjoys watching Pingu, it was one of his favourites when he was little. Looking foward to the next report. |
Sarah
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bluebirds
 United Kingdom
274 Posts
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
Status: offline | Posted - 12 Feb 2005 : 14:39:38
| | I am so enjoying your reports. The look on Andrews face when he saw the characters must be worth everything. My autistic son is also apprehensive of the fireworks and i will feel guilt for making do something he feels uncomfortable with. I am looking forward to your next installment. | | Report this post to a moderator | goto top of page |
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LiesaAnna
 United Kingdom
11926 Posts
Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Status: offline | Posted - 12 Feb 2005 : 15:41:08
| well done Fletch, can you please not leave it so long next time, am really enjoying your report!!! glad Andrews ok, shame about the fireworks, cant have pretty things without the frightening bangs! shame, am so with you here!!!! keep it up!! |
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eagleydo
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Fletch
United Kingdom
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Joined: 12 Oct 2004
Status: offline | Posted - 12 Feb 2005 : 21:57:21
| Thanks everyone - Andrew is back to school on Monday so I aim to complete the whole trip report by the end of the week (plus photos!)
Ravtino and Liesa - no, Andrew refused to eat any ice cream. We managed to eat most of it between us. Well we couldn't let it go to waste now, could we? | | Report this post to a moderator | goto top of page |
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E. Cosgrove
United Kingdom
5932 Posts
Joined: 26 Apr 2004
Status: offline | Posted - 12 Feb 2005 : 22:04:24
| Looking forward to it Fletch, your style of writing brings it alive for mequote:
Originally posted by Fletch
Thanks everyone - Andrew is back to school on Monday so I aim to complete the whole trip report by the end of the week (plus photos!)
Ravtino and Liesa - no, Andrew refused to eat any ice cream. We managed to eat most of it between us. Well we couldn't let it go to waste now, could we?
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Liz
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Lyn
United Kingdom
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Status: offline | Posted - 13 Feb 2005 : 21:57:46
| | I agree with the other posts, great writing, feel like I am with you, hope Andrew is enjoying all the different sights, even though he doesn,t like the sounds. Looking forwar to the next report |
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daisy
 United Kingdom
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Fletch's Trip Report - Part 3
