Janice's Crew - Final Thoughts

Janice

Super Shopper
Joined
Aug 18, 1999
Well, here is what I regretfully think will be the last instalment of my holiday reports.

I know the holiday is over and we are back home and this is where you expect the reports to end, but we had a little fiasco that you may find amusing.

I continue where I left off on my last report, with that ever-faithful cup of tea in my hand, reliving as much as possible in the first instance to my Mum and Dad. They have been house sitting for us but would have been with us if it weren’t for my Mum’s ill health. So, she likes to sit and listen to all that happened and this is now a ritual after any of our holidays.

Chris and the crew all decide that they cannot stay awake and they all creep off the get some sleep, whilst I am determined NOT to sleep until this evening. I am sure that I will not suffer with Jet Lag if I can stay awake for most of the day.

So after several cups and a snack I start to relay the holiday – from Day 1 – to Mum and Dad. They are reliving every moment with us and as I am telling them about each day out comes the maps, the park guides, the tickets, the trinkets we bought etc. My lounge floor looks like a 3 dimensional brochure for Walt Disney World! In between the tea, putting on the washing etc. we eventually get round to finding the 7 Dwarfs at the airport.

I bring them out and Mum looks at them, oohing and aahing, as you do, when we notice that – OH MY GOD – Doc is missing!!! Now you may be laughing now, even rolling on the floor laughing, but I was not a happy bunny. I searched and searched and could not find him. I know that I bought all 7, along with Donald Duck. He was there, but no Doc. We cleared everything away, and I checked all the bags etc and still no sign of him.

I am so upset by now – but I think, when the others wake up one of them will know where he is. Emma was with me when I bought them so she would know that I put him in the bag with the others. Chris and James had double checked the lockers in the plane to make sure nothing got left behind – but the bag that the dwarfs were in was my new Disney Shopper which has a zipper right along the top, and I had got the others out of that, and had undone the zipper myself, so I know he had not fallen out.

When the others get up, no one has any idea where he is, and at one point I even thought they might be playing a joke on me – but they knew better than to do that really. This was really upsetting. I had been so happy to get the set and here I was, back home with one missing. I have not found him to this day – I have even emailed Sanford Airport to see if he was handed in to Lost Property, and have received a lovely email back from one of their personnel saying that this is not the case.

Unfortunately they cannot sell me one because it is against the law to buy in the Duty Free Shop unless you are going on a flight. She has offered to send me one, if she sees one in a shop in Orlando, which I think is a very nice, friendly gesture, but I have not heard from her recently, so maybe she cannot find one.

In short – if on your travels, you come across a very weary, tired looking Doc, who seems to be lost – point him in my direction please. I am sure he absconded because he did not want to make the transatlantic flight and become a British National. By the way, he probably will have the receipt tucked under his arm, because I could not find that either!


Now some serious thoughts – although I hope you found the above amusing – and observations about our holiday in general.

We had a fantastic time, and there is not much that I would have wanted any different. I maybe would have liked to have more meals in the parks, rather that keep popping to Perkins, but when you have a member of the party who does not like Pizza, Salads, and what I call ‘Normal’ food, it does become difficult. James unfortunately is very fussy with what he likes, and Perkins suited him with their Steak & Jacket Potatoes. I think we spent a lot of time just deciding where we would eat, looking for the ‘right’ type of menu.

I would have preferred to have spent more time in the Disney Parks, and not chased around so much, but I knew that this was going to be a trip at break neck speed because the youngsters just wanted to see it all. I am confident that they will all go back at some stage and take it at a more leisurely pace. I am also confident that Chris and I will get back to WDW, but maybe not for a couple of years. Our holidays for the last four years have all been to Orlando and Chris is now ready for a more relaxing, laid back type of holiday.

I know for sure when we do go back, we will endeavour to stay on site (Grand Floridian comes to mind!) and take the time to enjoy ALL that is on offer – not just the theme parks. I also know that I will drive more.

We have discussed maybe later in life, looking into a villa, which is something to dream about for the future.

I wished that I had bought more pins. I like the ones I did get and have displayed them on a Millennium Roots cap that Simon Veness gave to me at our mini DIS meet that we had last year. They look pretty good, and I will try to add to them when I can.

I also managed to get quite a good selection of autographs for my special little niece Amy. The pictures I have of her uncle Chris queuing, amongst little ones to get a signature from Winnie the Pooh are something I will treasure always and we have made a little video of us all as we got the characters autographs, so that is something she will be able to treasure. It will also be a special memento for her as we got quite a lot of the Masquerade 2000 characters as well.

My treasures from this holiday will be the two Limited Edition Mickey Charms that Chris bought me and the jewellery from my children for my birthday, a charming Ceramic Mickey holding a banner with 2000 on it, a Ceramic Millennium Souvenir Christmas Decoration, a Souvenir Coin, my Millennium Edition of the WDW Book, the Millennium Celebration CD, my Dwarfs, my Pins and last but not least, our Leave a Legacy Certificate.

One final note: I could not have planned this holiday with such details for my family and me without the help and input from all my friends on these boards. I thank you all for that and I thank Simon for his book. As this was our fourth trip, I thought I knew most of what we needed to know. I was so wrong.

And on that note, with a thank you to my family for putting up with me, I sign off.

Now; Anyone got any vacancies for a holiday report writer? Purely voluntarily you understand?

PPS: Just thought you might like to know that Chris and I have just booked a holiday for 14 nights in November to The Moon Palace in Cancun, Mexico! Another sort of belated Silver Wedding present to ourselves. (Anyone been?)

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2002
I have now replaced Doc - Katie's friend went to WDW and kindly brought me one home - and I was also given a lovely Doc Beanie by Dave, Valerie, Julie and Gary (Spotty dog & Family) when we met up for our wonderful Illuminations Cruise in March 2001 :) - which has pride of place in my Disney themed office :)
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top