djdigitald
29-11-2004, 17:28
Well it started on the 10th as we stayed the night in the Europa Hotel at Gatwick.
We arrived at the airport early in the morning and went straight to a check in desk!!! We had already pre-booked our seat which amazingly were still booked!! We were asked that as we had a baby would we like to change to a Bulkhead seat as there was more room, we said yes if it was near the toilets as one of our party had Crones(SP). They changed our seat accordingly and all seemed well. When we got on the plane we found that the Check In girl had completely ****ed up and put us by the Kitchen Bulkhead and no where near the Toilets, this obviously annoyed us as we had seats originally only 5 rows away from the rear toilets :(Virgin had made us very unhappy.
When we arrived in Orlando it took us nearly 2 hours to get from the plane to passport control, now we knew it may take longer but that was just rediculous.
Got to Dollar and had ordered a 12 seater which we thought would give us plenty of room!! Guess what, with 8 people and 6 cases it was no good whatsoever. There was not enough room to swing a cat. We asked if we could remove the last row of seats and they said no but we could have an eight seater which was exactly the same but without the last row. This we accepted although it was significantly cheaper than the 12 seater but we coould easily fit all our luggage in with room to swing Shamu!!!
Anyway we eventually got to our resort (Bahama Bay) and it was the highlight of our day as it was fantastic!!!
We visited most of the parks and to be honest the only one that had changed since we went 4 years ago was Sea World. MGM was a big dissapointment apart from RnR which was superb! Epcot was it's usual superb self. We wnt there twice as we wanted to do the Food and Wine exhibition and we also booked up to eat at the Rose and Crown pub on a seperate day. This was great as we had a waterside seat and could see all the fireworks which obviously made me happy [msnsmile2]. Busch Gardens was also a good day, they are doing a lot of work there and the new ride looks awesome. Universal was pretty poor as was Pleaseure Island, if we had know that we didn't have to pay to get in there we would have done it the same time as Downtown Disney. IOA was again a good park and was a very hot day. We did Typhoon Lagoon as Blizzard was closed and although this is not a good as Blizzard it was a nice relaxing day all the same(They are bulding a new ride there as well!!!). Sea World had changed so much since we were last there and having Millie with us it made the whole experience so much better.
Kaye's Brother In Law and myself bought some Golf Clubs out there and the best place and cheapest we found the Edwin Watts Clearance Shop on I Drive where the clubs we bought were $50 cheaper than elsewhere!
Food wise we ate at the following: -
Rose and Crown Epcot - Very Good food and Service
Tradewinds Bahama Bay - Very Good Food and Service
Irish Bar at Universal - Good Food and Good Service
Cracker Barrel (US27) - OK Food and Dire Service
Chinese Takeaway (Something Wok down the 192 near splendid china(It delivered as well)) - Good Food
Rain Forrest Cafe Downtown Disney - Great Food and Good Service
The Check in on the way back was all strange as we had to lug our own cases from Check In to the TSA security check which because we were there extra early wasn't a major problem but if you were there in the 4 hours before i could see it being an issue. The flight home was awful as the service was p*** poor and not what i had expected from Virgin. I have decided to write a letter of complaint to Virgin to tell them how appalled we were with there service and the attitudes of the stewardesses.
Overall we had a good holiday in Florida, it was just somewhat spoilt by the getting and leaving there :(
Overall we had a very good stay in Florida:)
We arrived at the airport early in the morning and went straight to a check in desk!!! We had already pre-booked our seat which amazingly were still booked!! We were asked that as we had a baby would we like to change to a Bulkhead seat as there was more room, we said yes if it was near the toilets as one of our party had Crones(SP). They changed our seat accordingly and all seemed well. When we got on the plane we found that the Check In girl had completely ****ed up and put us by the Kitchen Bulkhead and no where near the Toilets, this obviously annoyed us as we had seats originally only 5 rows away from the rear toilets :(Virgin had made us very unhappy.
When we arrived in Orlando it took us nearly 2 hours to get from the plane to passport control, now we knew it may take longer but that was just rediculous.
Got to Dollar and had ordered a 12 seater which we thought would give us plenty of room!! Guess what, with 8 people and 6 cases it was no good whatsoever. There was not enough room to swing a cat. We asked if we could remove the last row of seats and they said no but we could have an eight seater which was exactly the same but without the last row. This we accepted although it was significantly cheaper than the 12 seater but we coould easily fit all our luggage in with room to swing Shamu!!!
Anyway we eventually got to our resort (Bahama Bay) and it was the highlight of our day as it was fantastic!!!
We visited most of the parks and to be honest the only one that had changed since we went 4 years ago was Sea World. MGM was a big dissapointment apart from RnR which was superb! Epcot was it's usual superb self. We wnt there twice as we wanted to do the Food and Wine exhibition and we also booked up to eat at the Rose and Crown pub on a seperate day. This was great as we had a waterside seat and could see all the fireworks which obviously made me happy [msnsmile2]. Busch Gardens was also a good day, they are doing a lot of work there and the new ride looks awesome. Universal was pretty poor as was Pleaseure Island, if we had know that we didn't have to pay to get in there we would have done it the same time as Downtown Disney. IOA was again a good park and was a very hot day. We did Typhoon Lagoon as Blizzard was closed and although this is not a good as Blizzard it was a nice relaxing day all the same(They are bulding a new ride there as well!!!). Sea World had changed so much since we were last there and having Millie with us it made the whole experience so much better.
Kaye's Brother In Law and myself bought some Golf Clubs out there and the best place and cheapest we found the Edwin Watts Clearance Shop on I Drive where the clubs we bought were $50 cheaper than elsewhere!
Food wise we ate at the following: -
Rose and Crown Epcot - Very Good food and Service
Tradewinds Bahama Bay - Very Good Food and Service
Irish Bar at Universal - Good Food and Good Service
Cracker Barrel (US27) - OK Food and Dire Service
Chinese Takeaway (Something Wok down the 192 near splendid china(It delivered as well)) - Good Food
Rain Forrest Cafe Downtown Disney - Great Food and Good Service
The Check in on the way back was all strange as we had to lug our own cases from Check In to the TSA security check which because we were there extra early wasn't a major problem but if you were there in the 4 hours before i could see it being an issue. The flight home was awful as the service was p*** poor and not what i had expected from Virgin. I have decided to write a letter of complaint to Virgin to tell them how appalled we were with there service and the attitudes of the stewardesses.
Overall we had a good holiday in Florida, it was just somewhat spoilt by the getting and leaving there :(
Overall we had a very good stay in Florida:)