Five Little Ones Take the Adults - 15 nights SSR Sept 2013 - Day 2 AK P2 - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Unfortunately, Photobucket doesn't seem to do photo resizing any longer, which is a real pain, as it used to be very quick and easy with them. VSO Image Resizer has been suggested elsewhere in another trip report in the Disneyland trip reports forum. I'm not sure, but I think the one I downloaded and use is Image Resizer for Windows and that's very simple.
Thanks Cheryl, I will look into one of these.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tdhc
Great start!
Thank you!
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Me Lisa 32, DH Phil 32, DD Madison 5 and DD Kaley 2
Five Little Ones Take the Adults Trip Report is HERE
Great start! That is quite the group. Isn't it fun to travel with the little ones? I can't imagine a 9 hour flight. I was happy to get off the plane after 3 hours and I only had a 3 1/2 year old and a 16 month old with me. You are brave.
When I talk about ‘we’ in my trip report, I am mostly talking about my family of 4. I kept notes of what we did, I am not entirely sure of what everyone else did when we weren’t together!
Pre-Travel Day, Tuesday 24 September Part One
In the UK our major roads are not the best, there are often road works, delays, etc. so we always choose to stay at a hotel at the airport the night before to avoid stress on travel day, hence the ‘pre-travel day’.
Phil and I were both off work today. We were up early as normal and got the last bits sorted, double-checked we had everything and made sure the house was tidy. We got the girls dressed then took a picture with their countdown chart.
We loaded up the car, it all fit in better than we thought it would. We went to my parents house and proceeded to unload the car as we had a few errands to run.
The four of us left to take Madison to school. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles are allowed to go into the class for an hour on a Tuesday morning to sit wth the children and see what they are learning. Michelle and I were going in this morning (Sydney goes to the same school) while Phil and Kaley were going to the local rubbish site to get rid of our recycling and wash he car and check the oil, tyres, etc.
I met Phil and Kaley in the village and we went to a coffee shop to pass some time. We went into a couple of shops to look for a car air freshener for my Dad (the things we have to do before a trip! ) then went back to my parents. We got changed into comfy travel clothes and ordered Domino’s pizza for lunch.
We had arranged to pick Madison up from school early at 1.15pm so we left just after 1pm after re-packing the car. I said earlier that I had double-checked everything before leaving. Well, as we got to the school I realised I had left Madison’s shoes at home, duh! I got her changed inside then we called in at home to pick up the forgotten shoes.
Finally we were on our way to the Premier Inn at Manchester airport, which is about a 2 hour drive.
Kaley usually has a nap in the morning but we kept her awake hoping she would sleep in the car. She did
for maybe 20 minutes! The girls were both really good though and the time passed fairly quickly. We arrived at the hotel around 3.30pm, not far behind Mum, Dad, Ryan, Bethany and Piper who had left at the same time as us but didn’t have the stop-offs we did.
The Premier Inn is a pretty basic hotel but that was all we needed. Some pics.
Close to Manchester airport is a Viewing Park which is close to the runway and you can see the planes taking off and landing. The four of us are a bit geeky when it comes to planes so we drove over.
They have a concord exhibit but they were not running tours on this day so this was the closest we got
The girls wanted to get away to play immediately
There were some obstacle course-type play areas that the girls enjoyed
Kaley really enjoyed watching the planes taking off and landing
She had a bit of an issue with the noise though!
And where to put her hands to cover her ears!
We saw quite a few planes taking off and landing while we were there
We stayed for just under an hour and got back to the hotel at around 5pm. We gave the girls a bath and got them changed. They were so excited and just a little bit crazy! I sorted out the clothes for tomorrow and we met up with the others downstairs for dinner. Michelle, Jamie, Sydney and Kori had arrived not long after us. Dan and Marie were driving up after work so didn’t arrive until 9pm-ish.
Continued in next post
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Me Lisa 32, DH Phil 32, DD Madison 5 and DD Kaley 2
Five Little Ones Take the Adults Trip Report is HERE
We met in the lobby and ate in the hotels restaurant called Thyme. Madison and Kaley shared garlic flatbread, fish goujons, fries and peas and a fruit salad. I had the 8-ounce rump steak with bearnaise sauce and fries.
Phil had the 8-ounce rump steak with peppercorn sauce and fies. No pic as the only difference was the sauce.
Phil had a chocolate sundae for dessert
I had caramel apple crumble with custard
This is my Dad’s pic, hence the ice cream instead of custard, as I forgot to take one of mine, oops!
We were back up in our room by 7.40pm. We got the girls into their pj’s and put them into bed. I had a shower and Phil sat in the dark playing on his phone in the hope that the girls would go to sleep. Nope, no such luck! We had a fair few cross works then decided that I would get into bed with Madison and Phil with Kaley and they were finally asleep by 8.40pm.
We tidied a bit, watched CSI:NY (we were a whole season behind the US) and tried to sleep. This was an epic fail for me as I was awake most of the night.
__________________
Me Lisa 32, DH Phil 32, DD Madison 5 and DD Kaley 2
Five Little Ones Take the Adults Trip Report is HERE
Great start! That is quite the group. Isn't it fun to travel with the little ones? I can't imagine a 9 hour flight. I was happy to get off the plane after 3 hours and I only had a 3 1/2 year old and a 16 month old with me. You are brave.
Thank you! It is so much fun seeing Disney through young eyes. I was 19 when I first went and my brother, who is the youngest, was 12 so I know my parents love getting to visit WDW with their grandchildren.
The flight isn't too bad when you are so excited. It is easy when there are so many other adults to help entertain too!
I love your signature picture, it is so cute.
__________________
Me Lisa 32, DH Phil 32, DD Madison 5 and DD Kaley 2
Five Little Ones Take the Adults Trip Report is HERE
Interesting to see the Premier Inn at Manchester, as we stayed at the Gatwick one for the first time a few weeks ago and we were very impressed with it for the price we paid and the restaurant was pretty good too.
I loved your comment about our roads - so true! Look on the bright side, at least you don't have to negotiate the M25 to reach your airport of choice...
I'll have to look into that Concorde exhibition, as I hadn't heard about that and my parents live near Manchester Airport... hmmmm...
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Interesting to see the Premier Inn at Manchester, as we stayed at the Gatwick one for the first time a few weeks ago and we were very impressed with it for the price we paid and the restaurant was pretty good too.
I loved your comment about our roads - so true! Look on the bright side, at least you don't have to negotiate the M25 to reach your airport of choice...
I'll have to look into that Concorde exhibition, as I hadn't heard about that and my parents live near Manchester Airport... hmmmm...
For one night they are fine to stay at I think, especially if you can get a room when the offers are on. I think we paid £35 for the night if I remember correctly.
Oh I know, that is why we went with Manchester over Gatwick, it takes about 3 hours from us but even though Gatwick was slightly cheaper, none of us wanted to do that journey.
I want to go back to see the exhibit one day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
What a nice pre-travel day! Dinner looked very delicious!
Thank you, we did have a good day. Dinner was ok, we love the food in America so always end up a little bit disappointed here!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
How cool that you can go watch planes! What a relaxing night-before-travel.
And this "And where to put her hands to cover her ears! " TOO CUTE.
I know, I wish it was closer to us as we would go every weekend I think.
I love those pictures, she does look so cute.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsblady01
more please
More will be coming soon!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russi01
Signing in to follow along.
Thank you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great day! It's almost time!!
I know, always exciting the day before!
__________________
Me Lisa 32, DH Phil 32, DD Madison 5 and DD Kaley 2
Five Little Ones Take the Adults Trip Report is HERE
I had a look on their website, and either they get booked up really early or it's not open very often. I think there was one day free in May (not the weekend we're going up to see my parents) and then nothing for June, July or August.
I'm glad you figured out the re-sizing issue because those photos of the girls are adorable. I especially like the one of Kaley covering her "ears"! A good pre-trip day. I like staying near the airport the night before.
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Look on the bright side, at least you don't have to negotiate the M25 to reach your airport of choice... 
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