Wow!, what a long drawn out affair THAT was.
 
So the full story is that I wake up at 3am at the Marriot where we were staying at Manchester Airport and for some reason feel the need to check my phone. There's a message from American Airlines saying that due to weather in the NE USA, they may have to change our travel plans. Nooooooo! Anyway, tried to get back to sleep but no good at all. Received another text at 6am to say that we had now a place on a new flight going via Philadelphia and not JFK which would leave at 12pm and not the original time of 10:15am. Great, we'll get that one as our original flight was now not leaving until 2pm which would mean we would miss our connection to Orlando. So I accepted that flight (we were lucky to get it, i'm sure everyone on our original flight wanted a seat but there's only so many to go around).
 
Anyway, The Marriot was great. Upgraded to a suite and use of the executive lounge when we arrived (Thanks for that Mum and Dad :-) which got us off to a great start. Full hot english breakfast items in the morning which probably saved us about £63,265 by not getting breakfast at the airport.
 
So we load up the car and head off to the airport. Easy peasy Meet and Greet there and simple check in with all the cases underweight. Result!
 
We board the plane and BRUCIE BONUS...exit row seats! Loads of legroom. Very nice inflight meals...drinks.....service.....everything going great...........so far....
 
Land in Philadelphia and clear customs and immigration and we go grab a little lunch before we head off to Orlando.
 
We board the plane ready for a 6pm departure and taxi to the end of the runway. That's when the captain kills the engines and I think "Oh here we go, just like I experienced in April with IQ in Canada. Not good!"
 
Turns out they've stopped flights going out due to the weather and we will have to wait until we get clearance which could take about 30 minutes. Those minutes passed....then some more.....then more.... until they announce that the crew have exceeded the time they are allowed to fly that day and we will have to go back to the gate where "a customer service representative will explain the options to you" DISASTER!
 
So another 30 minutes later and back at the gate and there's a glimmer of hope. A crew is coming over from another flight and we will get to Orlando tonight!
 
Anyway, I think this is getting boring so I will cut to the chase. We land in Orlando after midnight, grab the bags and car and head off to Walt Disney World and the Polynesian. Traffic is obviously very light and we check in sometime after 2pm. The kids are exhausted but it's great to be back the excitement returns. It was a long LONG day but we're ready to go. The room is absolutely perfect and looks out over the new Oasis pool but we'll have time to explore tomorrow because it's time to sleep. KIds pass out first then it's sparko for us too.
 
It really was horrendous but we're here......let's forget it ever happened :-)