Ella and Mark's "World "Tour (or are we there yet?) About This Page:

[Raven]

Cast Members- Me (Ella 30)
Mark 31

We did the "World" tour September 9th to 23rd, staying at Port Orleans French Quarter.

September 8th and 9th...
Our holiday started (kind of) on Sunday the 8th when me made our way to Gatwick Airport and booked one night at the Hilton South Terminal, as I am quite a nervous flyer at the best of times we thought we would make a special occasion of it an booked the suite. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
The train was very delayed and when we got to Gatwick it was packed, ther were no porters or luggage trolleys and trying to pull luggage through a mass of confused bodies was not the easiest thing to do. We finally arrived at our hotel and checked in looking foreword to showering and changing, when I put the card in the door (room 2138) the first thing that hit me was the smell, [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] it was like walking into a brick wall of mildew, it was gaggingly strong, when we entered we realized it was just a very plain king bedroom and looked nothing like a suite to me upon checking out the rest of the room I found it in a most horrific state (for the price we paid for it) it was filthy. extremely lived in, all it seems housekeeping did to clean it was to make the bed, even all the freebie toilitries were used and left there. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] I complained and was told the hotel was booked to capacity so we had to stay put.(I must send strongly worded letter to the Hilton Headquarters stating my disappiontment and intention to never stay on any Hilton property again) [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
The odour of the room was so strong we could not sleep so at 3am we had all but given up trying, we watched the arrival/departures channel on the telly while playing fantasy holiday with all the destinations.

We checked in at Virgin at 7am as we really had nothing else better to do, thats when I started to feel really un-well, Mark wanted to go for breakfast as supposedly it would settle my stomache but one sniff of food had my running to find the nearest bathroom. looking back now I can see that it was the combination of exaustion and nerves, I have always been nervous before flying but never felt so ill. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
Mark went to Boots the Chemist and got some milk of magnesia tablets we found a quiet spot in the airport(close to a bathroom
Mark kept on telling me that we don't have to go everytime I was running to the bathroom, as I suppose he was more concerned about my state of health then the thousands we have already spent on the holiday.
Our flight was being called as I was finally starting to feel better I just really want to get out of gatwick airport as it was like spending a day in purgatory.
We found our seats, looking around at everyone the atmosphere was contagious as everyone was so excited to be going to Orlando/WDW, there seemed to be less children then I expected and more Adults out to have some fun.
You would think that from that point on things could only get better but you would be wrong, there was still one little speed bump in the road and I wished I had been driving a car [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] His name was Jack the demon seed child and he was sitting right in front of us.
when Jack(about 4 years old)boarded the flight with his parents it became aware who wore the (little) trousers in that family. When the plane is taxiing down the runway Jack un-does his belt and decides he wants to stand, his parents do little to nothing to diffuse the situtation then jack starts kicking, punching and pulling at his parents hair all while screaming at the top of his lungs, this continues until the fasten seatbelt sign goes off and the flight attendent gives his parents a lap seat belt, they blame her and Virgin stating they should of had one all along, that was when my blood started to boil.
Drinks were brought round for all
Mark and I ordered coke(virgin cola) and the flight attendent gave us two small bottles of Jack Daniels in case we felt we needed a drink, Jack spilled his over his mother again blamed Virgin for thier incompetence in parenting by saying to each other they should have given him a childrens milkshake (they don't exist) Jack got worse, his screaming (without crying) went on for hours while his parents drank beer and read the newspapers, they seemed quite used to being slapped, punched, and bitten, when all of us around him had had enough the cracks began to show, everyone was using quite colourful language when talking about Jack and his family, Mark and I opened our Jack Daniels. There was a lynch mob forming....
I began to feel much better except for shattered eardrums from Jack screaming in that high pitched way on a child only a child or a eunuch can. The parents stopped drinking thier beer when they heard the discontented voices aroung them they they would say things like "what does Jack want to do? Jack want to colour? Then they very loudly blamed Virgin for thiers son's behaviour as the airline should have provided better entertainment for children. (for thr record virgin is fab for kids, they have thier own telly channel and a huge ammenity kit backpack full of goodies, special meals and nintendo on tap for them)
6 hours into the flight and still screaming every 3 minutes on average, another round of Jack Daniels ordered, when we were sipping our drinks she the mother stood up and announced to Jack she had a surprise for him, she was very verbal about it, almost showing off, I said in a low voice "Please let it be a sedative" the people behind my heard and laughed very loudly and so did the father who if looks could kill.....
The surprise was a brand new, bought in duty free, portable DVD player.They seemed more enthuastic about it then Jack, they put on Dumbo for him which kept him entertained for about 20 minutes before he showed his parents what he really thought of his gift by picking it up and throwing it against the inside wall of the plane breaking the cover off of it, well, I can tell you I was laughing so hard I nearly choked on my Jack Daniels, the father gave me another if looks could kill.....
To diffuse the situtation brewing the flight attendents tried to find a new space for everyone we were moved to the back of the plane where I finally fell asleep chuckling to my self over the DVD player.

FINALLY WE LANDED! after nine hours (seven with jack)and we all went through customs which was very rigorous, Mark and I were pulled aside and were searched and questioned but we had nothing to hide and they were only doing thier jobs, we were sent on our merry way to passport control to get our passport stamped and guess who is in front of us???? yep, Jack and his parents. Jack was running riot while his mother was trying to catch him, he ran out of passport control and she ran after him without showing her passport and with a long line in front of her he starts screaming again when he does not get to do what he wants, they opened up a new desk so they moved over, while showing our passports we heard a loud Army-esque voice say "madam, You will be removed if you cannot control your child, this is not a circus or a play school" and for the first time all three of them were quiet.
We took the Mears bus to Port Orleans French Quarter, check in was a breeze, everyone was so lovely and walking to our room was a joy, our hotel was beautiful, I fell instantly in love with the place.
We are CBR refugees, so I was worried about the sudden move right before we were due to leave, we faxed the hotel with requests we asked for a waterview room (which we paid for) we wanted to make sure water meant river not pool, non smoking room on a higher floor and we had the most beautiful view with the downtown Disney docks right on our doorstep. amoungst all this splendour we did not leave the room, we had pizza delivered it was gorgeous! was 9pm and I was already fast asleep.

Which sounds like a good idea as it is 11:30pm here and I am still knackered by the jet lag
hopefully tomorrow I shall do the 10th and the 11th of Sept. I hope this has not been to trying to read all of my passporter friends, and if it has been grab yourself a Jack Daniels!
Cheers! [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]
Ella

[reinstructor]

Sounds as if you had the kind of flight we had from Moscow to London two years ago. Only, we had twins to deal with. The same problem, the airline didn't "help" the mother with her children and neither did anyone else. This was a single woman travelling with twins under 3 years old on a diplomatic passport. She eventually made a really bad scene after the flight attendant told her to control her children. It was about as terrible as your experience. We were flying British Air, so you know the accomodations were nice. There were about 60 of us in our group, and we all filled in comment cards at the end of the flight to let the airline know how professional the flight attendants had been, and how terrible the woman and her children had been because we were afraid the woman would file a complaint, and we wanted the attendants' side to have support.

We were at the POFR while you were there. It sounds as if you may have been right over us or on the other side of the pool in a similar room. We were in room 2132 facing the river with the DTD boat dock just to our left.

I know your Disney experience had to be much better than you flight. Please tell me those people did not fly back with you. (But please tell me they went back to England.) [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

Wow, sorry to hear you had a rough start to your trip. I think the airlines should make special parachute accomodations for individuals like little Jack and his family! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] That must have been unbearable!

But, happy you have decided to share your trip with us, and looking forward to hearing about all of your adventures in the World! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Raven]

Hey reinstructor! it is a small world after all, we were right above you in 2230,you would remember us as we often walked around like jet lagged zombies during the first week and the second week we walked around like sunburnt beetroot. We visited alot of other Disney properties while on our holiday but none other can capture the charm or the atmosphere of POFQ.
We had nightmares of jack and his parents in the room next door to us but we did not see the little brat the whole holiday and I had visions of chucking him out of the boat on splash mountain. We did see him on the return flight, but all in good time....
Cheers!
Ella

[Bert & Sully]

So far so good! You have a wonderful wit.

Now for the rest of your trip report!