Day 1

Our adventure began just after 5 AM when our mini-bus arrived for the 40-minute journey from our home in Liverpool to Manchester International Airport. We arrived before the check-in desk was open but only had to wait about 10 minutes before we were 'allowed' to approach the check-in desk by the Manchester Men in Black Security Guards. "Look me in the eye Sir. Did you pack these bags yourself?" Very scary and SO serious! This is the point when we discover Rachel hasn't signed her brand new passport. (That didn't impress them much).

We were actually the first family to check in to our flight, whereupon I produced a seating plan of our plane, freshly downloaded from the American Transair web-site and asked "Can we have these seats here?" No problem was the reply. After completing the formalities and waving good-bye to our two HUGE cases, and Beth's pram, we went for breakfast at the viewing gallery café.

This was the first time we had been on a long-haul flight. I don't think anybody was over-nervous but San had nausea with excitement and could only manage a few sips of coffee. We passed the time by watching the planes, wondering how those huge things got off the ground, and colouring in Beth's Disney and Me comics, whilst sniffing the aviation fuel and marveling at the price of a cup of coffee at Manchester Airport.

After passing Beth's cuddly Piglet through the X-ray machine it was soon time to board our 9.30 flight to Orlando International Airport. The flight with American Transair was a good experience, as the cabin crew were courteous, the meals were good (Child meal of pizza and chips for Beth), and the drinks were free - which was no good to me as we were picking up our rental car at the airport when we landed.

We arrived at Gander Airport, Newfoundland, about six hours later and were told that we could get off the plane to stretch our legs for twenty minutes or so whilst the plane was refueled. Gander is a lovely little airport surrounded by tall trees and lots of lakes, (hasn't Canada got lots of trees!), but it was too cold for my liking, even in July.

We barely had enough time to get our passports stamped and queue for one of their tasty ice-cream's, when our flight was called. When we got back on to the plane we were relieved to hear that it was only a further two and a half hours to Orlando. I must have spent almost the whole two and a half hours filling out the Visa Waiver forms - four times for each of us! These forms are not difficult, I just kept on making stupid mistakes.

We landed at Orlando International about half an hour early, so we took our time getting off the plane, as we has already been warned through the Dis-boards about the double baggage system. This wasn't as bad as we had heard, (from Chris Franklin), and we quite enjoyed the shuttle ride to the main terminal. After collecting our luggage, for the second time, we made our way to the Dollar car rental point where we had the longest wait we had encountered all day, but Hey! We were in Florida.

When we finally got to the front of the queue the Dollar guy asked if we would like to upgrade from a full-size car to a seven seater van for only an extra $21.00 dollars a day as our car was being cleaned and would be about twenty minutes. Again we had been warned about this, and as we had landed early we politely declined the offer. Less than ten minutes later the same clerk called us back to the desk and asked "Would you like an upgrade for free?" Ah go on then, if you insist.

Within minutes we were at the car-park loading the luggage into the huge boot/trunk of a lovely blue Chrysler Voyager. (Doesn't the heat hit you as you come out of the airport building to cross to the car-park? The first time you experience the Florida sun without the comfort of air conditioning). I then proceeded to open the right hand door expecting to find the steering wheel. "It's on the other side you (your choice of expletive)" was San's advice. She still thinks that is so funny, but come on - it was a long flight.

When I stopped laughing and got in the right (left hand side) of the van I switched on the engine and looked for the hand-brake release. Ten minutes later I still hadn't found it, so I decided to seek the assistance of the Dollar Rep. in the car park. What made it worse was that the rep. was a woman. I felt such a fool having to ask her how to get the car to move. (They must be used to us daft Brit's though, as she didn't seem too bothered).

We followed our map on a very scary journey, (my driving, not the place), straight out onto an 8 lane highway in an unfamiliar car, but we found International Drive without any difficulty and arrived at the Quality Inn Plaza in one piece after about 40 minutes. After checking in, and checking out our room, San ordered us all to go for a swim whilst she unpacked, as Beth couldn't wait to get to the pool, which was fine with me. We had a great view of the pool from our room, and it looked like the exact position that the photo was taken from that appears in all the brochures.

Following our swim we realised that we hadn't eaten for hours so we made the mistake of trying to find Downtown Disney Marketplace in the dark. An impatient Beth also couldn't wait to get a glimpse of Disneyworld. We got lost twice and even ended up by SeaWorld where we were drenched by a water sprinkler. I had to stop in the middle of the road as I hadn't found the windscreen wipers yet.

We eventually arrived at the Marketplace at about 9 O'clock and found a parking space, after getting stuck in the stupid one-way system, and got to McDonalds just as Beth fell asleep in her pram. San had gone past being hungry and now felt sick and the rest of us were in Zombie mode. In spite of spending so long finding the Marketplace we were now too tired to look around, so after eating we got straight back into the van and very cautiously found our way back to International Drive. It threw us at first that you come out of the WDW Resort on a different road to the one that you came in on. This took a few days to get used to.

Even I was starting to fall asleep as we got back to the Quality Inn Plaza, and I was driving the van. We have learned a valuable lesson for future trips though; next time we will just try to relax on the night we arrive, and not rush around trying to do too much. This was our first trip to Florida, and was a mistake made out of inexperience.

And so to bed, to dream of our EARLY morning Character Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table.

Tomorrow: - Magic Kingdom/Breakfast in the Castle.

Photo taken by San whilst we left her to unpack!!!