Day 1 – Orlando Trip Report, September 2018

 

As you may have gathered from my previous planning posts we headed off on our Florida holiday with a good plan in mind – by no means was each day planned out minute by minute but we did have a good idea as to what park we were heading to and roughly how long we would spend there. However, as you may have also gathered from my Disney Blues blog post – everything did not go to plan.

Today’s post will give you a brief rundown of everything we got up to on each day and the following posts will discuss specific things in more detail – so if there’s anything you’d like some more information on please leave me a comment below.

So without further ado here’s the first instalment of my trip report:

Day 1 – Tuesday 4th September 2018

We started our morning by leaving our house around 9am. We live in Northern Ireland but we were flying from Dublin with Aer Lingus. Our flight was around 3pm and for international flights the recommended arrival time is 3 hours prior to departure. Even though it was only going to take us approximately an hour and a half to get there we left in plenty of time just in case there were any delays along the way. The journey was very smooth and we arrived at the airport with plenty of time. We tried to check in using the self service kiosks but mum had been randomly selected for additional security checks meaning that we had go to a desk to get sorted, no big deal – just worth noting that if someone in your party is selected for a random check this not only means at check in but also at pre-clearance.

Pre-clearance was similar to last time. We arrived in the area, had our boarding cards and passports checked, took our shoes off and popped them along with our bags through the conveyor. This is when it got a little different. Last time as we had our ESTA’s printed and sorted all we had to do was scan them in a machine and have our pictures and fingerprints taken, then we went to a desk to have it checked over by a board official. All in all it probably took around 20 minutes form entering the area to heading towards the gate. This time however things were a little different. After the conveyor we joined a very long queue to see the boarder official and go through all the checks – from memory I believe it took close to an hour from start to finish this time around, so it’s definitely worth arriving in the area as soon as it becomes available for your flight (typically 2 hours before take off).

Our flight itself was great. Aer Lingus had a great selection of entertainment including new releases and older classics. I watched Ladybird, Avengers Infinity War, Love Simon, Blockers and some old school Drake & Josh. Non-alcoholic drinks were complimentary throughout the flight and a hot meal was provided around 2 hours into the flight. I opted for the vegetarian option which was a very yummy vegetable curry and potato wedges. We were also provided with pretzels, a small tub of ice cream, tea/coffee and a wrap throughout the flight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We landed around an hour early into Orlando International which was great and our pre-clearance meant we could breeze on through to baggage claim and car hire. I’ve never seen the Disney wall let alone taken a picture at it at the airport so this trip I did slightly seek it out to grab a picture. We hired our car from Alamo like we have done in the past because we find them to be reliable and well priced for what we need.

After picking up the car it took us around 30 minutes to get to Port Orleans French Quarter where we were met by the lovely Bonnie from Disney security who gave us a great welcome to our trip. Port Orleans French Quarter is a beautiful, small resort – we were placed in building three which is one of the furthest away from the main reception/food court/pool/shop area, however it only took us about 5 minutes (potentially even less) to walk between our room and this area. If you’re looking for a smaller, cosier resort I’d definitely recommend Port Orleans French Quarter.

After checking in, picking up our magic bands and picking up a resort pin & autograph book from the resort store we headed to Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory to pick up our resort mugs that came with our dining plan and for a traditional first Disney meal of chicken nuggets and chips. After eating we headed back to the room, unpacked, prepared for the next day and then headed off to bed around 11:30pm Orlando time.

And that was it for day one! When I originally started writing this post I planned to write at least a few days but I think it’s getting long enough as is so I’ll pause it for now and bring you the next instalment soon. How do you spend your travel days? Do you have any first night in Disney traditions? Let me know in the comments below, until next time…