T - A Smooth Flight, a Wrong Turn and a Long WalkOperation Pixie Dust

T – A Smooth Flight, a Wrong Turn and a Long Walk

After a very long and restless night I finally gave up trying to sleep at just before 7 am. While the room may have looked nice it was very warm and stuffy which meant sleep was not that easy to come by.

Instead of shelling out £14 each on the hotel breakfast we had decided to head back to the terminal to test out Frankie & Benny’s instead. By 8.30 we were waiting in reception for the bus back to the airport.

No Magical Mystery Tour today; the bus headed straight for the South Terminal, which confused the poor folks who had stayed at the Premier Inn and still hadn’t made it to their terminal lol.

Frankie & Benny’s was quite busy but the food was served quickly and was very tasty – especially the herb potatoes! Good price too with both of us eating for less than the price of one at the Marriott.

We passed through Security without too much trouble, apart from the people in front who insisted on not getting laptops and liquids out of their bags until the last possible moment and a guy who couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to take his half-drunk botttle of water with him… seriously do these people not read the signs, or the news!

We headed into the terminal to grab a couple of Upper Crust baguettes to eat on the flight because neither of us are fans of plane food… of course that UC seems to have gone the same way as the Pizza Express and was no where to be found. I settle on a ridiculously expensive ham and cheese ciabatta from Costa and Lee decided to starve.

A Smooth Flight

Before we knew it we were settled in to our lovely fire exit seats for a very long (the headwinds were blowing in the wrong direction) but a very smooth flight (only a few turbulent spots and nothing to write home about!).

Someone had a more eventful flight than us as the cabin crew called for someone with medical experience and when we landed we had to wait for the paramedics to board the flight, but we have no idea what that was all about.

Once again I managed to mess up the Customs cards, despite completing them back at Gatwick while I was still awake. I’d managed to stick two cards together and complete the front of one and the back of another card. Luckily Lee noticed while we were stood in the queue so I could fix it. Of course when we actually got to the customs guy he spotted another error and asked Lee whether he wanted to be male or female, since I omitted to fill that bit in! Luckily the guy was quite friendly and was just laughing at me when I messed up the whole finger print thing by trying to do it too quickly. At some point he asked what we did for a living and when I said I was in compliance he offered me a job

After a very long wait for our luggage we headed over to the main terminal to pick up the car. I was quite bemused by the fact that you can now take your cases onto the shuttle with you – which makes the whole process much quicker!

We are now the proud owners of a lovely white Kia Seoul for the next two weeks – it’s like driving around in a box but is very roomy and easy to spot in the car park!

A Wrong Turn

Once the cases were securely loaded into the box we headed out of the car park, and made a school boy error of following the cars in front.

As we rounded the corner we sailed straight past the sign marked ‘exit’ and instead headed out of one marked ‘employees only’. Hmm, there were lots of traffic cones around so my jet-lagged brain thought that it was a diversion.

If you’ve ridden Star Tours then you will know what I mean when I say it was just like when the Droid takes the passengers through the ‘Maintenance Only’ area as he makes a wrong turn. We found ourselves weaving in and out of various cones and corridors until eventually we ended up back in the multi-story, back where we started!

This time we decided to leave the ‘lost tourist’ behind and followed the signs out to the Greenway.

I have to admit that I was looking forward to passing through the first toll as when we travel at Halloween time they go to great efforts to decorate the trees and the booths with ghosts and pumpkins. As we drove up I was disappointed at first, until I saw a washing line strung between the trees with lots of Christmas stockings, and the booths were also decorated with Christmas banners

A Long Walk

Within about half an hour we drove through the gates of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The gate guard told us we should drive past the Lodge and round back to reach Kidani Village.

Since we had checked in online we ignored the ‘check in parking’ and headed into the self-parking garage. We parked in Zazzu since the sign said that the elevator went to the lobby.

Suitcases and bags in tow we then walked and walked and walked a bit further down the winding corridors until eventually we arrived in the lobby!

Now picture if you will a W with our car parked at the top left point and the lobby at the middle point. That’s how far we had to walk. And Yup you’ve guessed it, we’d been assigned a room at the top right point!

Let’s just say that by the time we reached our room I felt like my arms might drop off – and I wasn’t looking forward to the long walk back to rescue the car!

Our studio room is in the Pumbaa section and overlooks the Zebra savanna – of course right now it’s too dark to see any animals – but I’m sure we’ll see lots during out stay.

Right now though it’s time to head out to Perkins for some much-needed dinner and then an early night!

Tomorrow we’re off to Aquatica