Highs, lows and somewhere in the middle

So the joys of the holiday now seem a dim and distant memory, the cases are unpacked (well almost), there are a few presents left to deliver but aside from that we are back to normality and are already wishing our lives away thanks to emails from Virgin and Walt Disney World offering us a great deal......hmmmm

I have spent the week pondering the highs and lows, and just be different the inbetweens as this may make planning the next holiday a whole lot easier. So here we go....

Highs
- The new premier inn at the North Terminal Gatwick, we normally stay at the Hilton the night before the holiday but can highly recommend this and its so much cheaper
- The new Test Track ride, a great improvement on the last version
- Port Orleans French Quarter, a great resort which is very quiet and we love the boat transfer to Downtown Disney
- The Celebrate the Magic castle show, I loved the Magic, Memories and you and this is just as good. On the nights there is 2 night time parades there are 2 showings
- Wishes, as ever incredible
- The shopping, we got some great bargains at the outlet and you cant beat a couple of hours mooching round Walmart (I think James would have spent longer in there but I was desperate to get to Magic Kingdom)
- Being able to park hop, I love the flexibility of being able to make decisions at the drop of a hat. If MK was busy we just hopped over to Epcot
- Getting to ride TSM twice within an hour, the first time with a 15 minute wait and the second time using fastpass

The inbetweens
- Virgin twilight check in; they have changed the opening time from 1pm to 5pm, we arrived at just gone five and queued for over 45 minutes. It definitely was less stressful than checking in on the day but we are so used to only queuing for 15 minutes max
- The dining plan, we had the quick service plan again this year and although its very convenient because you don't have to think about paying for food I am still not sure if you paid for it that you would get what you had paid for and as I said before for me its way too much food
- The economy seats in the bubble, its lovely that its so quiet up there but I really don't like sitting in a row of 3 as its awkward if you want to get up

The lows
- Immigration at MCO, we came in shortly after the first Manchester flight and queued for over an hour and a half to get through customs
- The flight home, no complaints with Virgin but we had plently of turbulance and then when we arrived we had to sit on the tarmac waiting for a stand
- Baggage reclaim at Gatwick, now I am not sure if this is a downside of doing the early check in at DTD but we waited ages for our bags....seemed to be some of the last off; and there was some muppet pulling cases off before they had been round the carousel
- Never getting to do Enchanted Tales with Belle or eat in Be Our Guest, this is part of the new Fantasyland expansion. Belle always had a minimum wait time of 30 minutes but the queue was outside and not all of it is undercover....as for BOG people were queueing up for lunch at 10.30 in the morning?!?!?!?? But there is always next time

So that's about it, now I can start dreaming of when we will be going back xxxx