How we fell in love with WDW - Oct 1-15 2009 - Update 05/18 -Day 14 - DHS/DTD

[torsie24]

Index

Day 0 - Saying goodbye to Bella (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=34899026#post34899026)
Day 1 - Travel and arriving at AKL (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=34899152&posted=1#post34899152)
Day 2 - Part -1 - The Magic Kingdom (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=34900375#post34900375) - Part 2 - Animal Kingdom (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=34901125&posted=1#post34901125)
Day 3 - Part 1 - Hollywood Studios (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=34922836#post34922836) - Part 2 - Spectro Magic and Wishes (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=34940770#post34940770)
Day 4 -Shopping and Suites (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=34943338#post34943338)
Day 5 - Wedding Planning Day (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=34975768#post34975768)
Day 6 - Animal Kingdom and Blizzard Beach (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=35019633#post35019633)
Day 7 - Universal Studios (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=35311789&posted=1#post35311789)
Day 8 -EPCOT Part I - FW (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36241728&posted=1#post36241728) - Part II - WS (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36241810&posted=1#post36241810)
Day 9 - Part 1 - MK & WCC (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36263871#post36263871) - Part 2 - MNSSHP (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36267305#post36267305)
Day 10 - Boma and DHS (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36325045#post36325045)
Day 11 - DTD, Disneyquest & EPCOT (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36325573#post36333529)
Day 12 -Part 1 - Typhoon Lagoon (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36377107#post36377107) - Part 2 - Fantasmic (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36378932&posted=1#post36378932)
Day 13 - MK & Jiko (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36449159#post36449159)
Day 14 -Part 1 - Animal Kingdom (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36647407#post36647407) - Part 2 - DHS & DTD (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=36684685#post36684685)

[torsie24]

The Cast

In case this is the first you’ve heard of me…

Hi! I’m Victoria (or Torsie to everyone who knows me), I’m 24 and live in Surrey, England with my Fiancé Jack (also 24) and our furry cat babies Bella and Boo. Jack proposed to me in January in Disneyland Paris, and we are in the process of planning our WDW wedding, which of course needed a research trip!

Here we are on our engagement trip:

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We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for 2 weeks, (Oct 1st-15th) and met with our wedding consultant and wedding photographers during our trip. And had loads of Disney fun during the rest of our stay!


Day 0 - The Journey Begins

After a very long (and exceptionally slow) day at the office, 5 O’Clock arrived and Jack and I headed home to finish up packing the last couple of bits we needed, to tell our neighbours we were off, and to have dinner.

At 8pm I said a teary goodbye to Bella (we hadn‘t adopted Boo then, he‘s new!), and my Dad came and drove us to our hotel.

We stayed at the Travelodge at London Heathrow Airport, and for £35 ($50) we thought the room was very good. We were by a stairwell which originally I thought could cause some noise, but it didn’t at all.

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We watched some TV and I did some final Disney-forum chatting, and then at about 10.30pm we decided we ought to call it a night.

[DWGal210]

I'm here! What a great start so far!! We also stayed at AKL when we went just a few weeks ago, I'm interested to compare notes about what you thought!

Can't wait to read more!

- Katie

[torsie24]

Day 1 - It’s finally here!

I slept pretty well considering that the night before our trip to Disneyland Paris last summer I didn’t sleep a wink. And at 5.07am I woke up, and decided as the alarms was set for 5.15 I may as well get a head start on the day.

We got showered and packed up, and got a cab at 6am to Terminal 4. We flew with Delta from London to Detroit and then onto Orlando.

Although we’d checked in online the day previously, when we got to the Delta check in zone, the line for bag drop was huge, and didn’t appear to move for a good 10 minutes. Eventually we dropped our bags off, and went through security, which was very smooth and fast.

We were both starving by this time, so we headed to the first restaurant we came across, where Jack had Bacon and Scrambled Egg on toast, and I had a Cheese and Ham toasted sandwich. It was really tasty and just what we needed! Afterwards we popped into WH Smiths and I got a puzzle magazine and we got some water and some sweets.

We then hit Duty Free, where we both bought new perfume, I got one of the new D&G ones (No. 3) and Jack bought a new Bulgari one which is really lovely too.

Soon enough it was time to board the plane and in no time we had taken off.

Our seats were the best Economy I think I’ve been in, with plenty of room and good Seat back entertainment. Straight away breakfast/brunch was brought around, but all I ate was my roll and little side salad as I was still full from breakfast. I spent some time playing my new DS game (Rhythm Paradise) which is great fun, and then I watched The Proposal, which was very funny! Soon enough more food came round, a super yummy pizza and a caramel, cookie type thing.

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With about 2 hours left until landing I started to get ants in my pants, and kept looking at the sky map thingy, which is one of the best ways to make a flight feel even slower!

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But then what only felt like an hour or two after taking off we landed in Detroit 45 minutes early. And were through Customs and bag check, and re-checked in for our MCO flight within half an hour! We were both keen to stretch our legs, so we had a walk through the awesome light tunnel that connects the two halves of the McNamara Terminal. I must say it’s the best tunnel I have ever been in I think!

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Then we headed back to the main half and rode the monorail down to the far end, as I had been checking the flight stats website and knew that for the last couple of weeks our flight had been going from gates down the very far end. (The terminal is over a mile long, so the little monorail was very welcome as my hand luggage, although super cute, was super heavy!) Whilst riding the monorail I saw a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and pretty much shrieked, as when I was at UCLA I lived on Coffee Bean and thought it was only a West Coast place. So I made that our first stop once we were off the Monorail.

I ordered my Decaf Vanilla Ice blended with Soy Milk, and we headed down to gate A77 to wait for the 3 hours until our flight. About an hour later we were getting a bit hungry, and my Taco Bell deprivation was getting to a high level, plus I wanted Jack to experience it, as he has never had TB before. So I went and got us a Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme to share. Needless to say, he fell in love, and ate most of it, but I was happy to see him realise why I miss Taco Bell, and want them to open branches in the UK.

After an hour or two more, with me exploring the terminal and buying Jack his first pack of Big Red Gum (which he is also very fond of now) it was time to board our flight to MICKEY!!!!! We had a bit of a wait for take off, but were soon going at break neck speed down the runway, in a very rickety and noisy plane. The flight was pretty uneventful, and went by fast, and we were soon landed at MCO.

After waiting in a pretty unpleasant baggage collection area, we set off to find ME, and got checked in and were directed to lane 1.

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A bus was just leaving, but another pulled up right away so we went ahead and got on, and then had to wait about 20 minutes to leave, as not too many people were joining. The journey to WDW went so fast! I think it was the fun video! But before we knew it we were through the gate (I could not get a decent photo as it was night time) and our first stop was Pop (even though it wasn’t on our sign?!) where most of the people on our bus got off, next stop was CSR, which looked lovely from what we saw, and then finally our turn!

When we got off the bus the heat really hit us! It was lovely! We headed straight up and into the lobby, and as the doors opened for us an African drummer was stood there with kids all around him and they started singing and dancing as soon as we walked in, it was such amazing timing and so exciting! Rather than heading straight over to reception we stood with our mouths open for a while and took in the lobby. Wow it does just blow you away!

We checked in, and found out we’d been upgraded to a Savannah room! I was sooo excited, and then even more excited when I found out we were on the Zebra trail! And only a short walk from the lobby and the pool! We literally could not have got a better room if wed have been given the choice ourselves! We stopped off at Bell Services who had our GG order, so we asked for the to be brought up to our room, and then we hurried off to find our home for the next 2 weeks!

We were there in a flash and I was so excited to open the door! I was so impressed with the size of our room! And we had a Mickey head towel on one of the beds! Eeeee that made my day!

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Next thing I did was run to the window and open the curtains! And we were both blown away, our view was stunning, and we could not have felt luckier! To have booked standard, and to have gotten a room this good was just too much to expect! Once we sat down in the room, the 21 hours of travel really caught up with us, so we unpacked as fast as we could, and then I headed down to the Mara (Jack had a bad headache) and bought him a yogurt parfait and myself some carrots and celery with ranch dip. When I got back we each had half a bagel, some potato chips and we shared the celery and carrot. Then we gave in and went to sleep at 10.30.

[lynn71092]

Subscribingpopcorn::

[torsie24]

Day 2 - Part 1 - Magic Kingdom

I was awake at 4am (thank you jet lag) having tossed and turned most of the night, and so moved over to the spare bed and spent a couple of hours on the internet and looking out of our window. At about 5.30 I woke Jack up by shrieking very excitedly about 2 Kudu that were eating the grass outside our room, he wasn’t impressed, especially as by the time he found his glasses and pyjamas they’d both gone.

We both lazed around for another hour or so, and got to see a huge Ankola Cow come over, and then we got washed and dressed and headed out to explore the resort and get some hot chocolate in our resort mugs which I’d bought the night before. We had a paddle in the pool while we were down there, which was lovely, and looked awesome as it had all mist rolling over the top of it.

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When we got back to the room we had our breakfast on the balcony and then got ready for our fist day in the parks!

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At 8am we headed out to the bus stop (where we saw a HUGE butterfly!),

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and after a minute or two our bus arrived to the Magic Kingdom! We were there in under 15 minutes as the roads were pretty quiet, but as our driver was nice he did drop a few people off at the Contemporary, who I assume had breakfast reservations. We both agreed that BLT looks awesome. We pulled away from CR and were at the MK stop in no time. The first thing I did was run over to the side of the lagoon and get my first glimpse of the Wedding Pavilion. I was blown away by the beauty of it, and the GF next door. And Jack was too, as he just said “That’s it, I’m sold!”, we both knew we were making the right choice for our wedding, but to see how beautiful this part of WDW is in real life was just magical.

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We then headed through the gates and waited for the opening ceremony, which I just loved and we had a great view right in the centre.

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We then headed into the park, and had that magical first glimpse of the Castle!

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We stopped for some photo pass photos and then headed over into a deserted Liberty Square. We were both really impressed here with the attention to detail, a few people who are DLRP nuts like me, have said that the WDW MK isn’t as impressive as the one in Paris, but I couldn’t fault it at all, and if you add in the extra attractions and the CMs who are a million times more magical, I actually think that WDW comes out on top.

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While in Liberty Square we saw Donald was all alone, so we headed over and gave him a hug, (and I got a kiss too!) and he gave us a round of applause when he saw our engaged buttons. I love Donald so it was a little sign it was going to be a great day that he was there waiting for us.

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We then headed over into Frontierland and rode Splash Mountain, which was a walk on. We both loved this, and got very wet! I must say the final drop is a lot scarier than it looks! Afterwards we also walked onto BTM, which we were both worried wouldn’t be as fun as it’s newer French counterpart, but we had an awesome time, and thought it was just as good.

We headed through to Adventureland, had a quick bathroom break, and then went on Pirates. We loved the Davy Jones at the start, and thought the addition of Capt Jack was awesome, but the ride seemed to be over so quickly, and was our first little disappointment compared to DLRP. Considering how much older it is though, I cannot fault it at all, and it’s still an awesome attraction. It was getting really hot out by then, and I knew what I wanted! Dole whip! We walked up to Aloha Isle and I got a pineapple, and Jack got vanilla. Our server was so sweet and said loads of Congratulations to us on our Engagement badges. And then she said we could have one Dole Whip for free!! We thanked her profusely and then sat in the shade with a little lizard to keep us company, and enjoyed our treats.

When we were cooled off and rested we headed over to the Jungle Cruise, which was super funny and we had a really good skipper. And then we went on over to the Haunted Mansion. We both loved the WDW version, and though it was better than DLRPs. I loved the room with all the stairs, and I like that the Grim Grinning Ghosts have more of a part. After that it was on to Fantasyland, which was definitely the busiest section of the park! That being said none of the lines were long (except PP and Dumbo of course) and we headed over to ride Winnie the Pooh. We both thought this was great, and loved the dream sequence! How awesome is the smoke ring!! After that we walked onto Small World, which obviously shows it’s age compared to DLRP, but was just as charming and I love it just the same.

Then it was time for Philharmgic. Which to me was the best Disney attraction I have ever encountered. I just loved every second of it! It was like all of my childhood wishes of being in my favourite moves were real! And I love Disney music so much, it was like the imagineers made the ultimate show for me! If you didn’t realise already - I LOVED IT! And Jack thought it was awesome too.

Next up we hit Tomorrowland, we got some Fps for buzz, and then took a ride on the TTA.

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It was a great ride, and we got to go inside Space Mountain with the lights on! When we got off we were both starving, so we got some food in Cosmic Ray’s and sat outside with it and watched the world go by for a bit. By the time we were done it was time for Buzz. I had a hard time getting a good score on this one compared to Paris, but it was still as fun, and I liked that it was a very different layout and stuff.

It was SO hot out by this time, and we were getting pretty tired, so we headed back out to the bus stop, collecting our MNSSHP tickets on the way. Soon we were on the bus and back to AKL, it is so amazing have such a fantastic resort to come back to! And we had a little friend waiting!!

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[torsie24]

Day 2, part 2, Animal Kingdom

We spent some time at the pool, and had some food in the room while watching some animals out on the savannah.

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Then got ready and headed out for Animal Kingdom PM emh. When we arrived we had a look at some of the animals on the way into Discovery Island and then headed on into Dinoland USA.

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We rode Dinosaur first, which was very impressive and is now Jack’s all time favourite ride! He hasn’t stopped talking about it yet! We had a slow walk around the park, and headed over to Everest which was a walk on. This coaster was a lot more intense than we were expecting, but super super fun. We loved all the subtle warnigns about the Yeti around the Everest area!

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After escaping safely from the Yeti, we did some more exploring (sadly both Maharaja and Pangani were shut though) and then rode the Safari, we were so lucky with animals and saw absolutely loads.

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We both enjoyed every second and it rates super high with us! It was also exciting having just ridden Jungle Cruise for the first time the same morning, and seeing Walt’s dream come to life so well. After the ride we walked around some more and took some photos. The theming in AK is absolutely flawless, we both love it.

Before we left we watched Tough to be a Bug, which we really thought was excellent! When we got back to the resort we were absolutely wiped out. So we had a snack and watched some Disney channel before getting a much needed night’s sleep!

[McLeach]

Subscribing...

Thanks Torsie....great so far!

[TokyoDina]

Great so far Torsie!! I'm on board can't wait to read the rest you make me excited for my up coming trip!!

[torsie24]

Day 3 – Part 1 – Hollywood Studios

We were awake before 6 so still early but not too bad today!

By the time we had a bath and got sun creamed and insect repellanted up it was time to head out for the bus to DHS. We were at the gates about half an hour before opening and it was pretty busy already.

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We got through and made it almost to the front of the crowd on Hollywood Blvd and had to wait and watch a nor very amusing spiel with a film director and some other weird people. Once the rope dropped we (and everyone else) headed straight over to TSM and got into the FP line. We got some FPs for 10.45am which we thought was pretty good going, and so went of for an explore to wait for our time.

Our first ride was the Great Movie Ride, which was totally empty, and a although a little unusual we did both quite enjoy it. Our gangster wasn’t the best though, maybe she was new? After the ride we had a good walk around, and enjoyed some time on the deserted Streets of America. If you look closely you can see Jack in this photo:

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We rode Star Tours, which was really good in English as in DLRP the vast majority of the ride is French so we usually don’t know what is happening!! And Jack is a big Star Wars fan so we had a good look around that whole area. Then we headed over to the Backlot Tour, but it hadn’t opened yet, so we looked in the store nearby which is all sort of outside, and jack tried on a fetching hat:

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Then we got in line for the tour, and set off on the first one of the day. We really enjoyed it, and it is certainly a lot better than it’s Paris counterpart! The poor man and 2 women who did the water show part first though!

After the tour it was finally time for TSM. I was surprised that the FP line was still quite a wait, but boy was it worth it. What an amazing ride!!!!! Jack beat me by a lot, but we both did OK and had loads of fun.

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When we got off we looked but all the FPs had gone for the day. After that we went into One Man’s Dream, and as we are both HUGE fans of Walt we were in there for ages. I loved everything in there it is possibly the best part of DHS, we also watched the movie which was great.

After about an hour and twenty minutes we had to tear ourselves away to go to our reservation at the Sci-Fi Dine-In. We checked in at the podium and only had to wait a minute or two before being taken into the Restaurant. It was very different to how we were both imagining. It is pretty weird how you have to walk all round the backstagey bit to get to the cars! We had a really wonderful server, he was super friendly and funny. We shared the onion rings to start, and both had the burger for our main. Jack drank an Oreo milkshake and I had cherry coke. Mmmmm. Jack also had the peanut butter cake for dessert which he loved. But I was way too full!

Once we were done we waddled out with full bellies and walked back to the hat. The high school musical 3 show was on. So we watched it and sang and danced along. It was pretty awesome, but I am biased as I love HSM3. :) We then kept walking to help our burgers digest, so headed down to explore Tower of Terror, although we didn’t fancy it after such a huge meal! After a while we were in need of some AC, so went into the Art of Animation, which we loved and then waited to meet Sorcerer Mickey, who was very fond of my engagement ring and told me if it didn’t work out with Jack that I could marry him! Hee hee.

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We got a bit scared of meeting Mr and Mrs Incredible as they are HUGE, so we had a long look in the store and then headed back out into the scorching heat. There was a really awesome PP Photographer in front of the hat, so we had some fun with him:

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And then headed back to the bus stop to relax at the Resort – we had a busy evening ahead of us! We also had a really cute towel creation waiting for us this day too!

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[linnell]

Great TR - I was there the same time as you! Looking forward to reading more.

[torsie24]

Day 3 – Part 2 – Back to the Magic Kingdom!

After having a swim in the amazing pool, relaxing in the room for a while and enjoying some AKL snacks. ;)

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And watching the AKL CMs feed the animals:

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It was time to head out to the Magic Kingdom for the evening. :)

We only had a short amount of time until we needed to reserve a spot for Spectromagic and I was keen to ride the Carousel of progress so that's how will filled it. :) Jack calls it 'the longest ride ever' but I really liked it, especially the song! Hee hee. Afterwards we walked back to main Street and nabbed an awesome spot by Caseys. While there we talked to the loveliest couple who were on a trip for their anniversary, and they were excited to hear about our engagement and Disney wedding. If you guys are DISers and happen to read this then this was the 3rd October. :) I always forget to ask if people are on the DIS.

Pretty soon it was Spectro time, we loved the show!! :)

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Then it was time for one of the events I was most excited about the whole trip!! Wishes!

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It was so magical, and of course me being me I had a few Disney tears throughout. :)

Once the fireworks were over we battled through the crowds heading the opposite way to 90% of the guests and into Frontierland. I wanted to ride BTMRR in the dark! The line was 45 minutes but the FP return time was on an hour, so we got FPs and then had a walk around, and rode the Haunted mansion (we cant get enough of HM, although i still hang onto Jack every time the stretching room goes dark!) then we headed over to BTM.

We enjoyed it even more in the dark! As tempting as it was to re-ride or to go on Splash, we were getting really tired, as it had been another long, very hot day and we were still not quite on Florida time, so we headed out of the park and back to AKL where we were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

[torsie24]

Day 4 - Shopping and Suites

We didn't actually visit any parks today! Shock horror! I had wanted to go to EPCOT as we hadn't visited yet, but we didn't want yet another early start and we knew F&W would make a weekend very busy (today was a Sunday).

So instead we had a slow start, come cereal in the room, and then went to get a bus to DTD.

This is my only moan about AKL buses, it just seemed that we were always waiting agaes for DTD buses, and the journey felt SOOO long!

In any case we got to DTD, and had a good look around every shop there! I didn't buy anything on our first look though as we were comign back later in the trip. Once we'd looked around we got a cab from the parking lot over to the Premium Outlets. We weren't really blown away with the selection of stores, I got a couple of bits in Gap, we got a pair of converse each as there was a good offer on them (2 pairs for $30) and I got loads of Pins in the Disney outlet as they had packs of 4 2009 ones for $4 a pack! SO I think I bought 6 packs - it certainly covered us for lots of good trading for the rest of the trip! Oooh, and I bought a fliashing orange mickey head necklace to wear to MNSSHP later that week. :)

We weren't at the outlets long, and headed back to DTD as I was SO excited to visit Earl of Sandwich, as I read a lot of dining reports leading up to our trip and I jsut knew I'd love the hawaiian bbq sandwich! As bbq sauce, cheese and pineapple are 3 of my favourite foods! So I had the Hawaiin BBQ and Jack had the Jamaican Jerk, we were both in love with the Earl on first bite!! Jack also had a brownie which he took back and had later that evening if I recall.

At this point you may be wondering why on earth there are no photos in this installment - I found out too late that I forgot to put the battery back in the camera! :eek: Sorry!

But I did make sure not to eat any of my Goofy snacks until I was back in the room and had taken a photo for the DIS and because I was still stuffed from EoS!

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Jack wasn't as considerate and ate most of his whilst waiting for the bus back to AKL. He had the rods too, with Reeces Pieces, Peanut butter cups, and crushed oreos.

When we got back we have a lovely relaxing swim and sunbathe, we loved laying round the pool with a cold rootbeer from the Mara and reading our books. We also learnt the joys of sitting in the hot tubs. It was so hot out we;d avoided getting even hotter on the first day. But the tub was so empty and inviting that day that I tried it and we got a bit addicted to the hot tubs from then on! :rotfl: Once we stated feeling a little sunburned we returned to the room, showered and enjoyed the view for a while :) I also ate a pretzel rod as all the 'swimming' had helped the sandwich go down a little.

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After a while we wanted to stretch our legs, and I was falling so in love with AKL that I said to Jack we should ask if they have any honeymoon suites. So we walked the 10 feet to the lobby and a lovely CM called Gillian on the concierge desk said there weren't Honeymoon suite, but the Vice Presedential Suite was free, would we like to see it?! She also said she could show us a King Room and the CL Lounge, so off we went. :)

The suite was absolutely amazing!!! It had a gorgeous living room, and the bathroom was out of this world! Oooh, it was lovely. I've only been in a few suites in my time, but this one is definitely in the top two! (the other is the Suite that Catherine Zeta Jones stayed in the night before her wedding to Michael Douglas - our housekeeper was kind enough to show us the room as we started talking to her one day! The bath has a golden tap shaped like a swan!)

She then showed is a King room, and the CL lounge, and it might not surprise you to hear that we definitely be spending some of our wedding trip back at AKL! ;) Not in the $2k/night suite though sadly! She said we might be interested in seeing a 1 bedroom DVC unit, but they were all full in Jambo. She checked with Kidani and some were free, so we had a lovely (but humid) walk over to Kidani while the sun was setting, and enjoyed the little quiz about animals on the way.

We both really liked the feel of Kidani, and the 1 bedroom there was really great! I think if we buy into DVC we would definitely consider AKL, but I would choose Jambo just to have the choice of CS and because I didn't think the Kidani pool was as good. Beautiful rooms though.

After our grand tour we walked back to Jambo, but both got a bit scared when the hugest cricket was sitting on the path. We both froze with fear for a while, but mustered up enough courage to run around him! Jack has a fear of them since one jumped onto his face in Slovakia and stared him in the eye! *shudder*

We crashed in the room and watched some Hannah Montana and Suite Life with a pizza ans salad from the Mara and then headed to bed for the day I was most excited for, and the whole reason for the trip! Wedding planning day!

[torsie24]

Day 5

Today was the day that warranted the entire trip!! Wedding Planning day! :bride: :banana:

We were up bright and early as our appointment with our Wedding Co-ordinator was 9.30 at the Wedding Pavillion. So we got on a bus to the Magic Kingdom nice and early. We did a loop on the monorail, and admired to beautiful views all around Seven Seas Lagoon.

No matter how many times we saw the pavillion it was still as beautiful as the first time!
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We got off at the Floridian and still had 45 minutes to kill, so we had a good look around the resort, we loved the lobby so much, I think partly because it reminded us of our hotel in Disneyland paris (which is a copy of the floridian, lol)

Floridian:

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs209.snc1/7635_282812910083_821450083_9175833_2504968_n.jpg

Disneyland hotel (smaller, but just as wonderful):

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1978/219/66/821450083/n821450083_5824387_6133.jpg

Being on a beautiful beach does give the Floridian an extra loveliness though! :)

We enjoyed the beach, and also check out Sago Cay Point, which is the location of our wedding firework party -

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Then it was finally an acceptable time to head over to meet with our Planner.

Inside the wedding office is amazing! There is so much amazing wedding stuff to look at!! check out this HUGE cake! (It feed 250 poeple!)

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Once our meeting started we sat and chatted for a while about what we want for our big day, and went over decoration, food and transport options, and then it was time for the super fun part - location viewings!

We started at the Floridian where we saw the Whitehall Room and Patio in the Convention Centre, it really is beautiful, and wsa beign set up for a wedding that say so was great to see it decorated. :)

After that we headed over to the Contmporary and up to the California Grill private rooms. The view was breathtaking! And Jack was a little dissappointed he decided he didn't want me to make a CG ADR once he'd seen the restaurant.

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We were ages in the CG enjoying the view, it was awesome to be the only people up there too.

Following that we moved over to EPCOT, where we got to go in the staff entrance and behined the scenes! Our first stop was at the Living Seas, where we saw private room there, it was really amazing, and very odd to be in a parking lot one minute, and then pop round a fence and appear into a busy Future World. :) The Living Seas Salon was awesome, but sadly a bit too big for our wedding party.

After that we headed around to the UK Pavillion, and we were the only ones there as WS wasn't open yet. We found it really amazing that we had just suddenly appeared in the centre of EPCOT - especially as we'd not been to he park porperly yet, so all we'd seen was the entrance and interior of the Living Seas and the UK pavillion. How many people can say that. :)

We headed back to the Wedding Pavillion where I got to see the spot where I'll become a Mrs - I have seen hundreds of photo of the wedding pavillion, but going inside for real was absolutely breathtaking. I welled up immediately, and even Jack got a little misty-eyed. It is so stunning. :lovestruc

After a little while back in the office going over some menus etc. We headed back out into the heat, and caught the boat back to the MK from the Floridian. It was a hot wait but the journey was lovely, and it was great to see the Poly up close.

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We headed back to the resort for some lunch, a swim, and then a freshen up and change into smart clothes. As we had a booking with our wedding photographers for an Engagment Session at the Poly and Floridian. Back on the bus to MK we went, and then back on the Monorail round to the Poly. We had a bit of a wait in the lobby, as I'm always early everywhere I go! And as we sat the sky got greyer, and rain started to fall. The only rain of our whole trip and it was on our photo shoot afternoon! :(

Jack waiting in the Poly:

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A couple of our photos - luckily we made the rain work for us. :) And it did stop during our Grand Floridian half of the shoot.

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Once we were done with our awesome photographers (http://www.rootography.com/) we spent some time in GF store before getting the monorail once again, for another almost full loop round to the Poly. For our ADR at Kona Cafe!

The lobby was SO busy with people waiting for dinner that it was pretty hectic, but we didn't have long until our buzzer went off. We got seated (after a tour of the desserts which made my sweet-toothed-husband-to-be very glad I'd chosen this restuarant!) and browsed the menu.

As Jack was certain he was not going to miss the White Chocolate Cheesecake we decided against having a starter, for our Main I had the Miso Glazed Mahi-mahi served with soba noodles and baby bok choy, which was very tasty! And he had panko breaded shrimp and pan-seared scallops with sticky rice and ponzu, spicy guava-passion fruit and wasabi cream sauces which he absolutely raved over. I was way to full for dessert, but jack had his cheesecake,

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and I was brought a lovely surprise celebration dessert. :) (Which Jack ate most of too! He loves desserts!

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After dinner we had a wonderful walk around the resort, and got the boat back over to the MK before heading home for a good nights sleep.
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[tashybea]

What a lovely trip report so far. I'm subbing with avid interestas our honeymoon is in November and it will be our first time in WDW and DF and I are huge DLRP fans!!!
You are such a cute couple and your engagement photos are stunning! :thumbsup2

[torsie24]

What a lovely trip report so far. I'm subbing with avid interestas our honeymoon is in November and it will be our first time in WDW and DF and I are huge DLRP fans!!!
You are such a cute couple and your engagement photos are stunning! :thumbsup2
Aww, thank you so much. :) The perfect honeymoon choice!

[carps09]

Hi Torsie! I'm glad I found your TR. Remember we met on the Pangani Exploration Trail at AK? You took this picture:

http://i808.photobucket.com/albums/zz3/carps09/100_2292-1-1.jpg

I look forward to reading more of your TR and maybe you'll inspire me to finally write mine! By the way, your engagement pictures are beautiful!!! :goodvibes

[kate_wdw]

I'm really enjoying your trip report - getting the inside scoop on wedding planning at WDW is especially interesting.

Also, I really like your nickname - it's so cute. Is Torsie a common nickname for Victoria in the UK?

[torsie24]

Hi Torsie! I'm glad I found your TR. Remember we met on the Pangani Exploration Trail at AK? You took this picture:

http://i808.photobucket.com/albums/zz3/carps09/100_2292-1-1.jpg

I look forward to reading more of your TR and maybe you'll inspire me to finally write mine! By the way, your engagement pictures are beautiful!!! :goodvibes
Yes!!! I wasn't sure to put our meeting in my TR or not as I didn't have a photo, but can I add your photo in? That's the next day I'm putting up! How was the rest of your trip?

I got Scribblenauts at the Airport on the way home in the end - kept me busy on the long flight!! :)

[torsie24]

I'm really enjoying your trip report - getting the inside scoop on wedding planning at WDW is especially interesting.

Also, I really like your nickname - it's so cute. Is Torsie a common nickname for Victoria in the UK?
:) Thank you

I've never met another Torsie, my parents made it up as they didn't like 'Vicky' as a nickname for me. Everyone I know calls me it. I only get called Victoria by new people I meet or if I'm in trouble! :eek:

[carps09]

Yes!!! I wasn't sure to put our meeting in my TR or not as I didn't have a photo, but can I add your photo in? That's the next day I'm putting up! How was the rest of your trip?


You can certainly add this photo! Our trip was amazing - we had the best time! I'll have to do a TR soon. :)

[praisehisname]

Joining in! I am loving your report!!!

[torsie24]

Day 6 - Animal Kingdom and our first Water Park!

This morning was the first one that we definitely felt like we'd adjusted to the timezone for. We were up and at the bus stop close to 9am.

We got to AK a little after opening and headed into Africa where we grabbed FPs for the Safari as our previous ride had been in the afternoon so we though we might see some different animals..

It was pretty busy so we had a while to wait, and decided now was a great time to explore the Pagani trail next door.

I love the trails, and we spent a long time wandering through. The mole rats were awesome! And I also really liked the birds, we were in their for ages talking to the birdie CM as most poeple sort of rushed through, but he knew so much about them and pointed out some of the sneakier ones that were hiding in the undergrowth.

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The hippos were really amazing too! I love hippos.

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But I don't think I'd like to be too close to the jaws of a live one! It was amazing to see just how big they really are!

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We also watched the meerkats for quite a while, they are SO cute! The CM there was a little lacklustre but he did gross the kids out by telling them how the meerkats had caught and eeaten the wild rabbits that came into their enclosure!

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Look at this awesome Gorilla taking a nap in the shade, it was a super hot day!!!

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As we were nearing the end of the trail I spotted a couple in the super cute wedding hats taking photos of each other and offered to take on of them together. After I was done with the photo the gorgeous bride saw my LGMH and said she was a DISer too! Turns out it was Carps09 who I had been talking to on the DIS right up until we left!!! Yay! Dis meet! (Sorry I didn't hug you - it was very hhot and sticky! I hope you didn't think I was being rude!)

And here's the photo I took.

http://i808.photobucket.com/albums/zz3/carps09/100_2292-1-1.jpg

Once we were done with the trail it was Safari time, so we headed into the FP line which was pretty busy in itself, but we were soon on our truck and got the front row which was fun. :)

We saw loads of animals this time, I truly think you could just reride this a few times a day and always have a great time!

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After we did the safari we headed over to Kali and grabbed ourselves some FPs. Guess what we did while we waited?

Thats right! The Maharaja Jungle trek! :)

I loooove this guy! :)

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And we spent ages in with the amazing bats too!

I also made Jack watch the tigers for a long time as I really loves cats, and the bigger the better (don't tell Bella and Boo) their enclosure was just amazing too, really beautiful the way it is all like ruins. We loved it.

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It was a hot day, makes a kitty very sleepy.

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We also loved the birdies in here! And their awesome little houses!

Cutie!
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Then it was Kali time! To be honest I thought it was pretty short, and was surprised when it was over. I'm glad we used FPs as it sure had a long wait that day.

After Kali we headed over to EE, and admired the funny monkeys on the way.

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How many theme parks look this amazing?!?

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Sadly the yeti was sick (CMs words, not mine) and the ride wouldn't be re-opening until they had some yeti medicine. It had been down a while so we didn't wait and headed over to Dinosaur as Jack wanted to ride again.

We grabbed FPs as the lines were long everywhere that morning, and as we were both getting pretty hungry we spent the FP wait time in Restaurantosaurus where we shared a cheeseburger meal.

By the time we were done and cooled down plenty it was Dino time! Luckily we made it out just before the asteroid hit. Do any of you guys say "We're not gonna make it! We're not gonna make it!" as much as Jack and I do? Or is his love of the ride a little too intense? :rotfl:

The park was getting busier and EE was still shut, so we headed on out, but via our friend the giant anteater as we love him. :) A CM with a little electronic computer thingy also asked me a few survey questions.

We hopped on the bus and were back at AKL pretty soon, where we filled up our resort mugs and chilled in the AC for an hour or so. :)

-----sorry no more photos from this point :( I didn't want to take my camera to BB-------------

Once we had restored some evergy with the help of BBQ Lays we hopped on the bus to Blizzard Beach for our first water parks visit of the trip.

It was really quiet, and once we;d got our locker all sorted we hopped into the lazy river for a bit of a relax. We jumped out at the runoff rapids, doing the joint one first as it had been at least a decade since either of us had been on a water slide, and then we ran bakc up again like kids and did the inividual ones too!

We got back in the lazy river and headed around a few more stops, getting out by the wave pool where we grabbed some rings and bobbed around for a while, but it made me kinda sea sick....wierd! After the pool we walked around for a bit before getting the ski lift up the the top of the scary hill and braving...







Teamboat springs! :laughing: No way were we going on the big slides! We loved TS though. :) We had one more chill out on the river (our favourite part of the whole water park experience) and then got dried and headed back to AKL.

I'm not sure about you, but swimming pools always make me super hungry? So on the bus home we discussed trying to see if we could get into Boma as it wasn't peak dinner time yet.

When we got back I quickly showered and dried my hair, and then we headed down to Boma and asked about walk ups and they said 'no problem!' we waited about 20 minutes or so as the area was quite busy. But were soon seated.

I asked for the breakfast frunch to drink which wasn't a problem, and then we hit the buffet. :)

I really enjoyed all the food (I'm a big fan of falfel, couscous, curries, tagines etc. so it was right up my street) and also thought it was good value. I didn't try any deserts (way too much hummus and breads!) but Jack had about 3 visits and he loved them! We would definitely return. :)

After dinner we went back to our room for a while, and then out onto Arusha rock where we talked to a lovely CM who pointed out a giraffe asleep just by our room who we hadn't noticed at all! He was from Africa and had the most beautiful voice, he said he was really keen to visit England - we told him Florida was a LOT nicer! :rotfl:

We had a pretty early night as we had a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow!

[tashybea]

Yey! Can't wait for the next day. More please :goodvibes

[praisehisname]

Great animal pictures, and so cool that you met up with your DIS friend accidentally!

We love Blizzard Beach, too!

Boma sounds really good!

[carps09]

Yay! I'm excited we made it into your TR. We, too, we were upset that the Yeti was sick that day. ;) Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

[tttessa]

Hiya,

another UK Diser here.... loving the TR so far - more soon please....:goodvibes

Tessa

[carissanboys]

Hello Victoria!!! :goodvibes

I'll be back later to get caught up on your report. :thumbsup2

[Tiggerrn2]

BUMP-Torsie are you coming back soon?

[torsie24]

BUMP-Torsie are you coming back soon?
I'm here, I'm here! Will post day 7 now! :goodvibes

[torsie24]

A day offsite!

I had booked us the Dreams Unlimited tickets that included free Mears shuttle, the bus met us at the front of our hotel at about 8.50am. We waited for a while as a party was late, but then we were off (or we thought we were! :headache:)

We then headed over to the All Stars where we stopped at each resort in turn letting on more people and the driver checked off passenger names in the slowest method possible. I did get to see the big maraccas though.

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We finally arrived at Universal at about 10am, which was opening time, so we weren't far behind on time really. Plus it was pretty deserted all day! The HHN decorations were all in place, which was pretty cool.

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Once in the park we headed straight to the Rip Ride Rocket, which said a 10 minute wait. We jumped in line (after putting our stuff in a locker or course) and made it as far as the top of the staircase where you get onto the loading platform when a train came into the station and just stopped. And didn't move forward so the riders could get off.

After a few minutes the annoucements started. We decided to wait a while, but after another 10-15 minutes nothing was happening and a staff member said that it was going to be a while, but couldn't tell us how long. We decided as we'd seen absolutely nothing else of the park that it wasn;t worth waiting.

We left the queue and headed out for an explore, and over to the Simpsons ride which was a walk on except for a wait in the little holding room bit.

I enjoyed the ride, but wasn't blown away by it. It kinda gave me a sore nack as I felt I was looking up the whole time.

Next up was MIB, which I thought was awesome. The queu area was so detailed too! Really good. And I got the winning score even though Jack pushed the red button!

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Then we took the obligatory Jaws photos, I wish I had my one form when I was 7 here so I could scan it in!

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Next up was Jaws, we were the only people in line and I was really scared we'd be the only people on the boat, but luckily they waited a minute or two and a few more people got on! We both enjoyed this and thought it was good fun.

Next up the Mummy:

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There actually was abotu a 20 minute wait for this, all of this was spent with a really loud drunk couple in their 50's behind us stinking of cigarettes and drinking cocktails (it was still morning!) so I was whispering to Jack that I didn't want to be near them on he ride incase one of the threw up, and they both smelt awful, so being in line with them was pretty rough. Let alone having them screaming next to me. Luckily, they weren't allowed on the ride, which was a great relief to us and a few others around us.

We LOVED the Mummy. I think it's better than the LA version. Very fun.

Next on the Agenda was ET, as we had tried to ride it on the way to the Simpsons but it wasn't opening until 11. I though the line was pretty awesome, all through the forest. But the poor ride is really showing it's age. It was fun to hear him say our names though.

We headed back to HRRR to see if it was open, and took some photos etc on the way.

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs209.snc1/7635_287227185083_821450083_9224179_319404_n.jpg

It was still closed, so all we could do was take pictures of it. We didn;t wactually see it running again all day.

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs229.snc1/7635_287227190083_821450083_9224180_3157215_n.jpg

Jack really wanted to go inside the Monster Cafe, but it was shut too. I think it was just too quiet that day for much of the park to be open.

We headed out to IOA, past the staff who take the photos as you go in who were screaming at the top of their lungs to get you to buy your picture. No thanks. We really weren't in Disney anymore. :sad2:

We walked along to IOA, but had some photos with the globe on the way of course. (Which i can't find, so here is a much chubbier Jack with the Hollywood one) you get the idea though.

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We loved the entrance area to IOA, was really fun. :)

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First stop, for my Comic Book loving future husband was of course Marvel Island! We took a lot of photos:

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I asked Jack if he wanted to ride the Hulk, but he's not a fan of going upside down, and although I used to love big coasters I can take them or leave them now, so we headed over to Spiderman as he was very excited to ride that having read a lot of great things about it before our trip.

There was no wait at all and we were both very impressed. :)

We then headed through to Toon Lagoon, but stopped to admire these guys on the way:

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I offered Jack to follow them so he could have photos, as he passed up the chance in LA and regretted it, but he said no, so we headed into TL and went on the Barges first.......we got SOAKED.

I didn;t think we could get any wetter, so we decided we may aswell ride Ripsaw falls too as it was also a walk on.

Turns out we could get wetter!! I seriously believe if I had jumped into a swimming pool I wouldn't have been wetter than after those two rides!

We really enjoyed the barges, and thought they were a lot better than Kali, but the falls had a lot of broken effects and stuff and was very poor compared to Splash Mountain.

Next on the agenda was a drink, and then Jurassic Park. We both enjoyed the ride, but I prefer the Hollywood version, I think it has a lot more detail.

We spent a while in the Discovery Centre, and found out what I'd look like if my DNA was mixed with a Dinosaurs. It was pretty scary!

Then we played with the big dinos that you can move - they were fun.

Next up we walked around a bit more and noseyed at the HP construction:

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We were really impressed with the building for Poseidon's Fury, but it was a long wait until the next show/ride so we took some photos and carried on.

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Into Suess Landing. :) We enjoyed looking at all the crazy buildings and details here.

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I bet little kids really love it too.

We were getting pretty hungry, so decided to head for some food, but not before we rode Spiderman one more time for Jack. :)

Then we headed out to Citywalk and after looking at a few of the places we settled on Margaritaville. :)

It was pretty empty insde, but we were very glad of the A/C and it meant we were served quickly. We shared Quesadillas to start. And then I had HUGE ribs (we don't get them like that in the UK so it deserved a photo!)

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Jack had the Mexicali burger which he said was good. My ribs were very tasty and I managed well over half which I was very proud of. Jack of course got cheesecake for dessert as he can't turn down an opportunity for cheesecake.

After food we wondered whether to head back to a park, but we checked and HRRR didn't appear to be running yet, and we felt we'd done enough. SO we called Mears and let them know we'd get the bus in an hour and then browsed the shops.

I like a watch and a couple of bags, but didn't think the prices were that much better than at home, so kept my money for more Disney goodies instead. I don't think the Orlando citywalk is very good at all compared to the Hollywood one, it has far less stores and I was pretty disappointed with it. :(

Soon enough it was bus time so we headed back over the bridge, but Jack was getting a little jealous of my lanyard and the ease of which I could have FPs/KTTW on hand, so he bought himself a Venom one in the store at the car park entracey bit.

We had a little wait for our bus, but were soon aboard and heading back to WDW.

I kept my fingers crossed we wouldn't stop at Allstars first, and luckily we didn't but we did drop off at CBR and POFQ before heading home, Allstars were the last drop off I think.

We had had a pretty long day for us, and were planning a very busy one the next day, so we grabbed some burgers from the Mara and chilled out in the room and caught up with home. Before having an early night in readiness for EPCOT rope drop the next day! :)

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Love your report! Can't believe I'm only now finding it!!

[Dollyrar]

Excellent trippie Torsie! We are going on the 1st of October this year, which is the same day you went last year, so I've loved seeing what it's like at this time :)

[torsie24]

Excellent trippie Torsie! We are going on the 1st of October this year, which is the same day you went last year, so I've loved seeing what it's like at this time :)
Ooooh, I'm so jealous!!

It really was a perfect time of year, we have both agreed we'll definitely choose that time again. :)

Sorry I've got so slack with teh report! Almost done with the next installment so I'll try and do a few updates over the weekend. :goodvibes

[torsie24]

Sooooo sorry I've been such a bad trip-reporter. Between planning the wedding and booking a cruise ;) and doing boring things like working for a living I've jsut had no time!

Next installment in the next 5 minutes though. :)

[torsie24]

I started the day with my usual bus stop photo:

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Jack tutted with each one I took. But who's laughing now! I think it's a nice start to a day's photos!

We arrived at opening time and headed (just like everyone else did) straight to Soarin' although we did find time for a couple of SE photos as it was t first we'd seen it properly.

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We grabbed FPs for Soarin' (which we never did use so are now in my scrapbook) and walked straight on. We both loved the ride, but Jack doesn't think it's worth all the hype it gets. We were in the back row though, so maybe next time we'll ask for the front.

After Soarin' I was excited for Living with the Land as it had been scheduled to be closed our whole trip but had re-opened early. We both really enjoyed this ride. Lots of photos were taken!

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We then headed over to The Seas, stopping for the obligatory photos first of course!

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Oh my gosh, we LOVED the clam ride!! I literally had goosebumps from the Nemo guys swimming in there, I just thought it was so magical. Eeee I love it.

I made a beeline for the Manatees when we got in there as I'd have a very brief glimpse of them from backstage on our wedding planning day. I stood for ages watching them, they are just so amazing.

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Then we found Nemo!

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We were ages looking at all the different sea life. We loved the big turtle in the huge tank. We loved watching him swim round so peacefully. Did you know he used to be in with the dolphins, but they learned they could push him with their noses and send him whizzing round the tank, which they found great fun, but not Mr Turtle, so he got put in the other tank.

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He looks very happpy in there now.

We headed out of the Seas and onto Spaceship Earth. We didn't really know what to expect, but really enjoyed SE, especially the glimpse into our future! Hee hee.

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Next up we headed over to Test Track, but the line was pretty big and the fast pass only 45 minutes away so we grabbed a couple and decided to give Mission Space a try.

I was pretty nervous as there are a lot of threads on the DIS about people who don't like MS because of the small cabin. And I cannot handle spinning at all (teacups make me feel off for a long while) so we chose the green team. Which had a much shorter line than the orange!

I was a littler nervous, but once we were in the actual waiting room bit I'd calmed down. It's a shame I can't say that for one of our fellow rides. :sad2:

When we got put onto our 1-4 numbers we were with a dad and is son, and the son was already pretty uneasy. His Dad was saying over adn over to him "it'll be fine, it's fine" but it wasn't really helping. I gave Jack a look to say "I don't think he should go on this".

So we get on the ride and the little boy gets a bit more uneasy. Then the cabin closes and it esclates again. By the time we had blasted off we were into full on "I don't like it" screams. The poor boy was well and truly trapped now.

Jack and I tried our best to make it fun, laughing gently and never making surprised noises etc. But it was really hard worrying that this kid was hainvg a breakdown. The worst bit was he had the button that made us go hyperspeed or do something lous and shaky, so his button lit up, and his dad leant over and pushed it and the noise and shaking started and the poor little boy just started screaming "DADDY - WHY DID YOU DO THAT?"

It was a little bit funny, but the poor boy. The thing is if he hadn't been worked up befor we got on the ride really is pretty tame, so we recon that when he got off he may have re-evaluated the ride and decided he was overreacting and maybe had another go later. We jsut saw it a few times on our trip where the parents were clearly uneasy about how their kids were going to be, so started going "you'll be fine, it's not scary, you'll be fine" to them in the line, and they were always the ones who freaked out. I think they picked up on the parent's nerves.

So after our interesting flight (we did really enjoy the ride and said we'd ride it again in a hopefully quieter cabin!) we played around in the space area. And Jack modelled another fetching hat:

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We had a trip over to Club Cool as we still had some FP time to wait, you guessed it, I'm a mean fiance!

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Hee hee hee. I almost thought the Beverly was OK though, it was tonic water like I thought. We had fun trying all the flavours, I liked the Lift and Jack loved the VegitaBeta.

Then it was Test Track time! Even though we had FPs the wait was still pretty long. Once we got in our car the one in front broke down as we were going up the start ramp, so we had to sit for a while as they pulled it off the track.

We LOVED TT, here's our ride photo:

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Jack looks so calm!

Next up - World Showcase!

[torsie24]

On to World Showcase!!

We decided to take the clockwise route, so you can guess our first stop:

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We were really impressed inside the pavilion, and it was my turn for a silly hat!

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We also rode the boat ride which we enjoyed.

We were getting a little peckish by this point, so we decided to try some food and wine offerings and shared the Tostada de Pollo - we love Mexican food and this was very tasty, but could have been spicier/more flavoursome.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3LOvfBL3rc8/SsDngSGNu0I/AAAAAAAABaE/_e7JvOqj0pk/s400/IMG_8579.jpg

Next stop on the tour was of course Norway.

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We checked out the little Viking display place and then we stopped for some dessert to go with our Mexican snack, and of course I wanted a school bread!

After enjoying the shade for a minute or two we headed indoors to the ride. :lmao: It was certainly entertaining! Jack thought it was very amusing that all we learned about Norway was there are just trolls and oil rigs there. Funnily enough this was a ride that I really remembered from my visit when I was 7 - I remember being really scared we were going to go down a drop backwards at the waterfall part. Gladly it wasn’t quite as traumatising 17 years on.

Next up was China. We spent ages looking at the awesome exhibition, and then we watched the movie which we enjoyed. We really liked the gardens too.

Onto Germany where we didn’t spend a lot of time really, we checked out the shops quickly but weren’t too blown away by the pavillion, I love Germany and would happily live there as it’s such a friendly and pleasant country, but I didn’t feel the pavilion was that great. We did enjoy the miniature train village though.

On to Italy next where we ate another food and wine offering, a little ham pizza, it was pretty boring and covered in grease so we had to dab it with a few napkins to save s eating loads of oil. We browsed the shops and liked the fountain at the back of the pavilion, I really love the buildings in Italy, and as we have never been to Venice we both said how it reminded us of Vegas! :rotfl:

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Japan next, the awesome drummers were out on the pagoda so we watched and listened to them for a while before heading into the department store. Oooh I loved it. I would love to go to Japan as I think their culture and history is amazing, as well as their awesome fashion and cool gadgets so we were very happy in the store for a long while. Japan is my favourite pavilion for sure.

Morocco next which I think is the prettiest pavilion, I was sad I wasn’t hungry here as I love Moroccan food. And really enjoyed my time in the pavilion as it’s like an ideal version of Marrakech. (We visited a couple of years back and it is an amazing place, but I got E Coli and was ill for 2 months when I got home so sadly I don’t think I’d head back.)

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I also need to include Jack in his funny hat.

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France next and sadly another pavilion we were expecting more from I think, We really love Paris and I think it’s hard to do such a large, beautiful city justice. We did love the film though, and it definitely made us want to visit more of France as we’ve only been to a few parts. It could do with updating though we both agreed.

On the way out of France we spotted Marie! Before the trip I asked Jack the character he’d most like to see and he said Marie as she looks so cute in meet and greet form.

Sadly there was a huge line and it was scorching hot so we didn’t wait for her, we did manage a photo though.

She is just too cute!

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We headed out of EPCOT through International Gateway to have a nose at Sea Breeze Point wedding location and the resorts. And because we both wanted to try Beaches and Cream! We headed out and over to the Boardwalk, by the time we got to the hotel we were so hot that we went into the lobby and had a chill out in the A/C for a few minutes, and we loved looking at all the bit and pieces, especially the Elephant Hotel, that was awesome.

Once we’d cooled down we headed back out and walked along the Boardwalk looking even harder (and getting a little frustrated) for Beaches and Cream. When we still hadn’t spotted it I looked up and admired the Beach Club and realised I had to make a confession to a very hot and tired Fiancé! Luckily it wasn’t a long wait for a boat to the other side of the lake! (I always make one mistake, direction wise, on a trip so at least this wasn’t too much of a big one!) We really loved the Beach Club, and walked along the front of the resort, between the building and the amazing pool and soon found ourselves at our destination!

As everyone is we were surprised by just how little and quaint it was, but luckily it was a little bit late for lunch and a little early for dinner so we were seated right away at the table by the jukebox.

I had the grilled chicken sandwich with melon and grapes as my side. It was really delicious and just a perfect meal for me that day. J Jack had a chilli cheese dog followed by the No Way Jose. He loved every minute of it!!

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He finished it!

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We will definitely be back to B&C!!

After we had filled up and cooled down it was back to EPCOT. I will admit we were really lagging by this time, so we sort of hurried through the UK and Canada as we knew we’d be back soon. We had a leisurely stroll though FW and we picked up our first inflations along with some toys for Bella, Jack also bought the Mickey Mouse vampire T-shirt to wear the following night at MNSSHP.

We headed back to AKL where some Zebra were waiting outside our room for us. After a long day of touring the globe the pool and hot tubs were calling us so we chilled out by the pool, and read, before taking some food from the Mara up to our room and snuggling down for the evening.

Tomorrow was going to be a late night and we needed our energy!

[tttessa]

Great update - we're still here watching...... sounds like you fitted a lot into that day!!!!popcorn::

Tessa

[praisehisname]

Great update! Glad you made it to Beaches and Cream; it's so yummy there!

[Tiggerrn2]

So glad you're back!

[tashybea]

Yey!!! Another great update :thumbsup2

[torsie24]

Day 9 - Magic Kingdom, WCC & MNSSHP

We didn’t set an alarm today, but didn’t sleep in too late and were at MK by mid morning. As we arrived it was time for the mini-parade, which we both really enjoyed, especially the dance party part in the hub, it was so fun and full of energy.

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Could you ever get bored of this view? I can’t that’s why I have to take a photo from this bridge whenever I cross! :rotfl:

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First stop was the Hall of Presidents! We both really enjoyed this and definitely found it much much better than the American Adventure. We enjoyed looking in the store too, America has such a different attitude to politics! I can’t imagine anyone ever wearing a T-shirt with Gordon Brown on!

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We also enjoyed a little taste of the ‘american dream’ and a lovely CM took our photo for us.

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Next up was adventuring on Tom Sawyer Island, we really loved this and were ages going through the tunnels and in the fort, what a neat attraction.

The lines were pretty long for the big frontierland rides, so we headed into Main Street and perused the stores, Jack tried on another awesome hat:

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And I fell in love with a shiny purple witches hat with Minnie ears on, but decided to get it at the party that night. (Bad move!)

Once we were out of the hat store I wanted to find Lady & Tramps little love message near Tony’s Town Square, which I succeeded in doing.

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Then we spent some time in Exposition Hall, what a great place!

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We were getting ready for lunch by now so headed out and hopped on a boat over to the Wilderness Lodge with hopes of getting a walk up for WCC.

We admired the beautiful pool and lobby and asked the lady at the WCC counter if we could have lunch, she said no problem, it’d be a 30 minute wait, so we sat in the lobby with our buzzer. Pretty soon we were buzzed and before long Jack has what he’d been waiting for since I forced him to read the Menus online!

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He managed two skillets before admitting defeat, and for once he actually turned down dessert so he must have been full! I had the cheeseburger which was really delicious, and some of Jack’s cornbread too. I didn’t have dessert either as I knew lots of MNSSHP candy awaited me!

As an aside we had a wonderful server called Jeffro, who sat down at our table to take our order and called Jack ‘cowboy’ every time he spoke to him, we really loved him!

After lunch we walked around the resort so more, and over to the villas as we were both very keen to see Walt’s train set in the lobby.

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Time was ticking on and we wanted to be back at the MK all ready to Halloween it up in plenty of time so we went out front to get a bus back to AKL. Our original plan was to wait for an AK bus, but one didn’t come so in the end we hopped on an EPCOT one and waited there for an AKL bus. It seemed a very long journey and I think in future we’d get the boat back to MK and a bus from there! It was good to stop off at Fort Wilderness though!

When we got back to the room Jack used the bathroom and I sat out on the balcony. As I was out there I heard a rustling sound, look around and couldn’t see anybody, so assumed it was the wind, but then heard it again. Out of the bushes came this guy

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He must like sleeping in the shade! I couldn’t believe how close he was to me, and I called for Jack but he was still busy and by the time he came out my new friend was back on the savannah.

Up next: MNSSHP!!

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Great update! I just love your report!! Can't wait to see what you thought of MNSSHP! Going for the first tine this year!

Where was that Lady and the Tramp pawprint? Have never seen it, and that's my fave film ever!!

[torsie24]

Great update! I just love your report!! Can't wait to see what you thought of MNSSHP! Going for the first tine this year!

Where was that Lady and the Tramp pawprint? Have never seen it, and that's my fave film ever!!
Aww, thank you. :) Just doing the MNSSHP installment now!

[torsie24]

We returned to AKL and had a quick swim and then showered and changed into our Halloweeny gear.

We headed out to the bus stop and were soon our way back to the MK. It was the funniest bus ride ever! One little girl was wearing a full costume of the gingerbread man from Shrek, she was the best outfit we saw all night! I didn’t take a photo, but this is what she was wearing:

http://www.scavengeinc.com/images/rubies/gingerbread-man-costume.jpg

In no time at all we were pulling up to the Magic Kingdom!

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We were at the party by 5pm and it wasn’t too busy getting in. I headed straight to the Emporium to get my hat, but they had all gone!! There were loads earlier in the day. We crossed the street and went into the little store that only does hats and there weren’t any in there either!!! I was starting to give up when we saw one lonely hat sitting behind some big Goofy hats, so I snapped it up quick!

After a slow wander down Main Street we headed left into Adventureland, admiring the beautiful sky on the way:

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Our first ride of the evening was the Magic Carpets, as there wasn’t a big line and it’s a favourite of mine. 

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We had a walk through Frontierland and although we didn’t fancy getting splashed we did have a fun ride on Big Thunder, we also picked up a fastpass to use later that night. Afterwards Jack bought a light up chomping skull thing that he had seen and immediately wanted (I was sporting my light up pumpkin necklace so I don’t think he felt glowy enough!), we took the opportunity to get our first helping of candy from the trick or treat area at the Liberty Bell dock and then we moved on over the to the Haunted Mansion as there was no way we weren’t riding it during the party!

They had an awesome ghost lady sat out front moaning about how hard it was to be a ghost, there wasn’t a line at that point so we were able to stand and listen to her for a while, she was really funny and was heckling people as they went past.

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We made is safely out of the haunted mansion by which time it was finally getting dark so I took a photo of Jack and the castle now our various glowing objects could be used!

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A lovely CM saw me taking Jack’s photo and ask if we’d like one together, we said ‘Yes please’, here we are glowing together.

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Then we headed into Fantasyland the line for Peter Pan was the shortest we’d seen it so we hopped in, we waited maybe 30 minutes or so, but people were in high party spirits and the Cinderella photo area was out so we had lots to look at.

We enjoyed the ride, but didn’t think it was quite as good as the Paris version (we do appreciate the Paris ride is a lot newer though) it was still very fun and charming though. We had a wander through Fantasyland (collecting more candy along the way) and into Tomorrowland where we rode the speedway. We had fun and I drove this time as Jack had done an appauling job on the Paris version, I can’t say I did much better! Afterwards we went into the store near Auntie Gravity’s and while Jack was browsing I said I’d just go to the bathroom quick, I cut through Auntie Gravity and as I approached the restroom there Darth Vader and two Stormtroopers appeared! Jack loves Star Wars so I ran back in the store and got him so he could see them. Really awesome costumes I think they must have been very expensive as they were just like the movies. (Later on we saw them with their helmets off and they looked very sweaty indeed!)

Next up we took a ride on Astro Orbiters as they looked very fun being up so high. To be honest they made me a little dizzy and the end when they were landing wasn’t the most pleasant, I think one time is enough for me there! Of course it could have been the candy.....

It was getting close to Hallowishes time, and I wanted a good spot so we headed out of Tomorrowland and found a great spot on the bridge. We had a while to wait but filled it with taking photos.

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Spooky skull reflection:

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We didn’t take any photos of the show because we both wanted to enjoy it, and that was an awesome choice as they were amazing!!!!! (Also none of our firework photos ever come out nice enough to do them justice!)

After Hallowishes we took advantage of the fact our spot was right by a PP photoagrapher and had some halloweeny shots taken:

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And then we headed on over to Liberty Square to get a place for the parade, which I was SO excited about! Jack took a seat on a little wall opposite the Hall of Presidents and I went to get us Popcorn and a drink as all I’d eaten wince WCC was candy and I needed something savoury to even out all the sugar. I was absolutely ages waiting at the popcorn cart, and a rude man behind me kept trying to get round me to push in front, when it was finally my turn he actually stepped in front of me so I said “excuse me” really loudly, which caused him to huff and puff at me but no way was he just going to take my spot so unashamedly! I finally had my popcorn (in cute Halloween plastic souvenir cup of course ;) and headed back to Jack.

But he wasn’t there!

Luckily some furious waving caught my eye, he had been moved by a CM so he was now sitting on the curb right outside HoP which was great as the A/C came out the doors and cooled us down a bit. We were also next to a wonderful big groups of ladies and girls who were so happy and excited. Whenever a CM walked by, if they had pins they’d go “PIN MAN!” and they’d come over and trade with them, and also during the parade they really cheered for all the characters which meant they came right by us and really made it wonderful! If you were in that big group watching the 2nd Boo to You parade on October 9th outside HoP then thank you!!

After we’d enjoyed some popcorn and water it was parade time!!!!!

This is seriously the best Disney parade I’ve ever seen and I loved it!! Here are a few photos, but as ever they don’t do Disney justice!! I can’t wait to go back to MNSSHP!!!

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After the parade we had another ride on Haunted Mansion as we were right by it, it seems funner at night, I’m not sure why. It is definitely one of my favourite rides! Then we used our BTM FPs, which was awesome on the dark and with everybody’s glowing items!

Time was getting on so we headed over the the castle for the 11.15pm Mix and Mingle. This was an amazing show, even more so as not many people were watching so there was loads of space in front of the castle and everyone was jsut spread out sitting on the floor. It was so fun and relaxed. It really great way to draw the party to an end. The show was awesome!

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After the show we headed over to toontown as I wanted to see Mickey and Minnie’s houses and I was hoping that 11.30pm would be a pretty quiet time to do so! I was right and we were able to look round both as we pleased. We then walked the Alice in Wonderland candy trail and got LOADS! I think it was the end of the evening clear out time!

After that it was almost midnight so sadly time to call it a day. But we absolutely LOVED MNSSHP and wish it was on everytime we visit! We’ll definitely be back in September/October to go again!

[dismagiclover]

Just found your TR and I've had fun reading it! You are a cute couple:lovestruc I just wanted to mention that many years ago (like 1992) I did a Study Abroad in London and one of the things us students missed was Taco Bell. But then one day we found one in London. If I remember right it was by the Earl's Court Tube stop. That was a happy day for us and we'd go over once a month or so to get our fix. I wonder if it is still there. Maybe you can get Taco Bell in the UK (but you might have to go to London for it.)

[torsie24]

Just found your TR and I've had fun reading it! You are a cute couple:lovestruc I just wanted to mention that many years ago (like 1992) I did a Study Abroad in London and one of the things us students missed was Taco Bell. But then one day we found one in London. If I remember right it was by the Earl's Court Tube stop. That was a happy day for us and we'd go over once a month or so to get our fix. I wonder if it is still there. Maybe you can get Taco Bell in the UK (but you might have to go to London for it.)
Thank you Jenny.

Sadly that Taco Bell is long gone. :( We are now left with none. But Mexican food has really taken off over here (finally!) over the last couple of years so I'm ever hopeful.

Not that we need any more fast food restaurants!

[dismagiclover]

Thank you Jenny.

Sadly that Taco Bell is long gone. :( We are now left with none. But Mexican food has really taken off over here (finally!) over the last couple of years so I'm ever hopeful.

Not that we need any more fast food restaurants!

Sad news about Taco Bell. Actually these days I'm much more of a Chick Fil A fan. Did you ever try Chick Fil A when you were over here?

[torsie24]

Day 10 - A lazy morning and DHS

After not getting back until late the previous night we didn’t want a busy start this morning, so I had scheduled the latest Boma Breakfast ADR possible.

Luckily our room was less than a minute’s walk from Boma so we had plenty of time to get up slowly and get ready for the day.

We had a bit of a wait for check in as it was pretty busy (it was a Saturday after all) but nothing too bad, and were soon seated. We honestly weren’t too blown away by Boma. The food was OK, but by the time I had waited for 10 minutes at the omelette station everything else on my plate was freezing cold, which wasn’t a good start to my morning.

Our server was awful, he took forever to bring one drink and then never came to us again. I had to ask a different server for a second drink and then couldn’t find anyone to get our bill. He had completely disappeared. Our only bad service at Disney but I think a disappearing server and no replacement is pretty poor! All the tables around us were stacked with dirty plates and glasses and everyone else in our section looked just as confused!

After breakfast we took it easy by the pool with our refillable mugs and our books. We laid over near the flamingos which was a noisy (feeding time!) but fun place to be.

Once we were suitably relaxed and our breakfast had digested we headed over to DHS as we wanted to catch the parade.

My favourite photo from my ‘bus stop’ series of the trip :rotfl:

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We had time to wander around the park and then nabbed amonst all the head statues. Which was a great place to watch from! I even caught a little squishy ball! (The cats love it!)

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That’s the first time I’ve watched a parade from further back, and we really enjoyed it, we sat up on a wall, had a great view, and it was super fun!

Straight after the show it was time for:

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Weeeee! This was SO much fun! We waited in the little holding area for a while and whooped and hollered for the contestants before heading into the theatre. It was amazing, just like being at the set of the show.

We had 3 great contestants, but the man who won was awesome, he was a Dad on a trip with his wife and kids and he was a really great singer! I hope he won at the end of the day! (This was October 10th, please let me know if he did win, he deserved to!)
Our next stop was either to be Tower of Terror, or The Little Mermaid. I gave my big strong Fiance the choice so you know where we headed!

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:rotfl:

He was so sweet, I asked him which he’d like to do and he went “Oooooh, the Little Mermaid!” and then coughed and made his voice all deep and added “Because I know you want to see it!”

This is his happy face once we got in, he’s trying to hold it back but you can see he’s excited!

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You can also see the fuzzy head of the super cute baby who sat next to him, he was a lovely baby and so well behaved through the whole show, enjoying the lights and sounds and clapping to himself and blowing bubbles. Even so some meanie behind us decided to ‘tut’ when he was blowing bubbles to himself. Urgh, get a bit of the Disney spirit!

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After the Little Mermaid I was starting to feel a bit peaky, I don’t know if it was breakfast, or too much sun, but we had a sit down and I got some water and started feeling a lot better, we also watched some of the Jedi show thingy as we were over that way.

An Indiana Jones showing was about to start so we headed in to watch it, there was lots of room left so we got a pretty good seat. We enjoyed the show but both thought it could maybe do with a bit of an update.

We walked over to the Toy Story outdoor shop thingy as Jack wanted to grab some bits for his nephews and I started feeling really weird again, so I sat down while he browsed and then we headed out of the park.

When we got back to the resort we loads of animals out grazing!

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I had a lay down and Jack got some dinner from the Mara, I didn’t really fancy eating though and I’m sad to say that was a pretty boring Disney night. We watched a movie and I did some laundry, we also did some shopping in Zawadi, so all was not lost. I did feel a bit guilty though but I was fine the rest of the trip, so I think maybe I just needed to take it easy for a few hours.

[praisehisname]

Sounds like you had an awesome time at MNSSHP! Sorry you were feeling bad the next evening, but at least you got your laundry done! :thumbsup2 :rotfl:

[tttessa]

Great update - service sounded unusually bad for there though. Nice to go see the shows at the parks....

Tessa

[dismagiclover]

Sounds like a nice relaxing morning and a fun afternoon at DHS. Sorry you weren't feeling top notch. Smart to take it easy. And taking a break in your AKL room is still a pretty great choice:goodvibes

[torsie24]

After a good nights sleep we were up bright and early and ready to hit DisneyQuest!

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I always felt the bus to DTD was a long one, but we were still there before opening time and browsed the LaNouba store and the DQ store before being in the first 10 people in for the day.

I enjoyed the lift with Genie, but was kinda un-impressed with the rest of it. The first thing we did was the Magic Carpets ride/thingy and I couldn't really have fun because I was too paranoid about my nose being trapped in a hole where millions of other noses have been, I also thought it was past it's best.

Next up we did the virtual Jungle cruise which was quite good, and then finally was had a game of Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters which was probably the best thing in there.

To be hoenst is reminded me a lot of the Trocadero in London, and I was never a fan of that either!

Back out into the sunshine we went which was a much more pleasant way to spend the morning. And we had grand plans:

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There wasn't a long wait at all, so we bought a ticket and got in line, and after one more ride it was our turn to board.

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We started out over the right hand side of the baloon so had a great view over DTD and SSR:

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Then the captain came around and took a photo of each of us which I thought was nice of him to do.

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After that we got to walk around to the opposite side of the balloon so we all got to see everything. From this side we had a great view of the parks and resorts!

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Soon we were back on the ground again, we both really enjoyed our flight and said we'd definitely do the Disneyland paris one next time we're there, although we're yet to see it up in the air!

All that ballooning had made us hungry! We did contemplate trying WPE, but we both knew what we wanted, and that was another EARL! I once again had the Hawaiian BBQ - YUM and Jack had the same this time as he had liked his Jerk Chicken one previously but admitted mine was the nicer of the two.

Once we were stuffed full of sandwich we did some shopping for gifts, Jack bought one of his nephews a box of Potato Head parts as he really loves Mr P.H.! We also had a good nosey around the T-Rex store, I was tempted to build-a-dino, but resisted.

We headed back to AKL and did some chilling by the pool, before heading out to EPCOT for the evening.

Our first stop:

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I was glad to see our fellow Space travellers were both adults this time, and our ride was a lot more enjoyable without a distressed child sitting next to us. We did Green again incase you were wondering! No spinning for us!

Afterwards we headed over to ride Ellen's Energy Adventure, it passed the time, and the dinosaur bit was cool, but I am not convinced we'll be riding it again.....

Next up was SE again, we couldn't resist the pull of getting another glance into our future!

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Turns out we'll have a pretty awesome house:

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And I'll have a hologram lady to play chess with in case Jack's company gets boring on long journeys:

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And we'll go on holiday to outer space! Sweet!

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We really love SE a lot, and already can't wait to ride again on our next trip!

Soon the sun was setting and we were able to enjoy EPCOT with all the pretty lights on:

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We took the opportunity to have a PP photo taken:

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And then settled in to a spot for Illuminations, we had a great spot at the entrance to WS opposite America, this was our pre-show view:

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We had a bit of a wait ahead of us, so I went and got us some drinks and Ice-cream and then I waited for AGES for a bathroom, and then Jack waited for like 2 minutes for a bathroom (men get it so easy) and then it was time for Illuminations!

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After the show we headed back to the bus stop and didn't have too long of a wait to board a bus.

We got back to AKL and were both a bit hungry so went to the Mara and grabbed some drinks and snacks before calling it a night.

[tttessa]

Some lovely pictures there..... loved the balloon thingy - can I be cheeky and ask how much it cost??

Tessa

[torsie24]

Some lovely pictures there..... loved the balloon thingy - can I be cheeky and ask how much it cost??

Tessa
I think it was around $18 or so. We really enjoyed it and thought it was good for under $20. :)

[tashybea]

I've just caught up. What a fab update. Your illuminations pictures are beautiful.
Out of interest, we are going for the first time in November would you recommend DisneyQuest? We are undecided if we should go.

[torsie24]

I've just caught up. What a fab update. Your illuminations pictures are beautiful.
Out of interest, we are going for the first time in November would you recommend DisneyQuest? We are undecided if we should go.
Thank you :cutie:

If you're on a UK ticket and it's included for free, then maybe give in an hour one time when you're in DTD anyway, but we won't be back.

Jack says he'd maybe go again if it were just him and his friend and they could play on the video games while his wife and I shopped, but that wouldn't be a definite.

It just didn't feel 'Disney' to us, and put it this way - on our next trip we're getting free annual passes. They don't include DQ or the water parks. We're going to buy the water park APs for $106 as opposed to upgrading our APs to include them and DQ which would cost us around $130.

[torsie24]

We were up bright and early today as we were excited to go to Typhoon Lagoon, and as the DTD busses always felt a long ride, and the longest wait of all of them we wanted to be at the stop in plenty of time. It turns out we didn’t have too much of a wait that day and we were soon on our way!

We were in the park well before opening so had time to admire the view from the entrance point: (All photos on this section are from the internet, as we didn’t take a camera. I have asked for an underwater camera for Christmas this year so I can’t wait for our next water park trips!)

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Then we headed down and got a locker and got changed.

A little bit of a crowd was forming at the roped of section that lets you onto the path that heads down to Crush’n’Gusher, so we waited there. It was a very hot day already so I was glad I had my funny looking aqua shoes on!

After a little wait and me hearing the ‘boom’ of the wave machine and telling Jack that’s what it was and Jack saying “No, it wouldn’t be that loud.” We were allowed in and headed over to Crush n Gusher first. There was no wait at all, so we rode on two of the different slides, both were really fun and we had a great time. (Until we got to the bottom of each when I feared a little for my life as Jack would land on top of me! Only one time all trip did either of us manage to get to the bottom of a slide and not get completely submerged!)

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Then we decided to have a change of pace and headed over to Shark Reef. It was super quiet so we got our snorkels and had a (cold!) shower and then headed into the pool. I really loved it and now in retrospect I’m not too sure why we didn’t go around and cross again. I think we were too excited to see and do everything!

We had a ride on a couple of the Storm slides which were fun and then the next stop was a ride on Castaway Creek, we got in at the point nearest Shark Reef and stayed on until we were round the other side of the mountain near Ketchakiddee Creek. We hopped off and decided to check out the Lagoon itself!

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We came in from the left hand side of the pool, so a wave or two came while we were wading/swimming over to the main funnel part. We positioned ourselves out quite far into the waves, I’d say about here:

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Well, that was a mistake! After a little while of us bobbing around we heard the “Boom” (I told Jack it was that loud!) followed by the screams and before we knew it a massive wall of water was heading right for us! Turns out we were right in the break zone of the wave and we got completely wipe out by it! I almost lost my hair band, and got a good few pints of water up my nose! :rotfl: Next time the wave came we learnt to turn and face away from it!

We waited in the water for a while in case the big siren went off (we heard it a few times from around the park, but still don’t know what happens after it sounds) but it didn’t so we headed out and to Gangplank Falls first. This was the longest wait we had all day, (only 10-15 minutes or so) and we’d loved Teamboat Springs so we were excited to ride. Sadly it was the most disappointing ride of the trip, as it just seemed so short and uneventful.

Next stop was Mayday Falls and Keelhaul Falls. I can’t remember which was which, but we loved one and the other one (with a super bumpy floor) was Jack’s least favourite Disney experience as he gone turned around near the start and had to ride the whole thing backwards!

We hopped back into the lazy river and did a loop (can you tell they are our favourite parts of the water parks?) and then rode the last Crush n Gusher slide before sitting in the sun for a while and then getting dried and dressed.

We headed out to the bus stops, and were hoping to go to DTD (even though we’d had EoS the day before we wanted another!) but couldn’t see any buses to there, and when we asked a driver he said there was no way to get there other than getting a resort bus. (Even though all our buses from AKL went to DTD via TL when we got them.)

We got on the next AKL bus and sure enough it didn’t stop at DTD so we grabbed some lunch back at the Resort before heading out again for the afternoon.

[dismagiclover]

We've never tried the waterparks, but they look like so much fun! One of these years.

[tttessa]

Love the update - we are thinking of a water park this time too.....

Tessa

[torsie24]

Once we had had some lunch in the Mara (I had a Turkey Ciabatta with CousCous which was very yummy!) we sun-screened up and headed out to the bus stop. We headed over to EPCOT as we were yet to see the Canada and UK pavilions in full details so those were our first stop.

Canada is a very pretty pavilion, especially the gardens:

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We don’t really think the UK pavilion is amazing, but then we aren’t big fans of the UK really! :rotfl:

We headed out through the international gateway and over to the Boardwalk as I wanted to see the wedding cakes in the bakery.

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Jack, being the cake lover he is treated himself to a vanilla cupcake and he ate that outside while we waited for the boat to take us over to DHS.

Soon enough the boat arrived (luckily after Jack was finished with the cake) and then we had a lovely journey over to the Studios. Just in case we checked if there were any Toy Story mania fastpasses left – there wasn’t! So we headed over to watch Beauty and the Beast as this was one show I really wanted to see!

We got a great seat and I loved the show! It even gave me goosebumps.

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After the show we had no other option, and no more excuses(!) not to ride Tower of Terror, so we got in line!

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We both loved the ride, and I’m disappointed that even though the Paris version is newer it doesn’t have the moving forward through the twilight zone bit at the top, or the randomised drops. I thought it was great! And instantly wished I hadn’t waited until this late in the trip to ride!

We still had a while until Fantasmic, so we had a walk through the studios, I just love DHS at night, it really comes alive!

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One of the coolest things I saw all trip were the crowds of people outside of American Idol watching the finale on the big screen, people were singing along and it was so relaxed and fun, when would that happen in somewhere other than Disney?

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It was getting close to Fantasmic time (when I say ‘close’ I mean an hour and a half before :lmao: ) so we headed back on up towards the theatre, a CM was there telling people not to queue for the show yet, and that it’d be fine if we waited until 10 minutes before show time....

We decided to get some food, so we went across the street to Catalina Eddies where we shared the Hot Italian Deli Sandwich and some chips, the sandwich was really good and if the line hadn’t been so darn long we’d have probably gone and got a second one to share, but the wait was putting us off.

A crowd had started to form for Fantismic, so we joined in, and after maybe 45 minutes or so we were in the theatre. We had the perfect loction, right in the centre!

We still had a while until show time, but luckily my fiancé is an easy man to please!

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Once we’d finished our frozen lemonade it was almost showtime!!

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We loved Fantasmic and it’s another thing we wished we’d found time for earlier on as we’d have definitely gone back for a second viewing!

After the show it took us a while to leave the theatre and it was getting close to park closing. We decided to head over to TSM and see what the queue was doing.

It read a 45 minute wait, which for Toy Story is actually pretty good, so we hopped in line. I actually thought it was going to be way longer, as the line started outside of the building. (It ended up to be about 50 minutes) luckily for us Lumo came out to do his little dance before the queue went in the main building so we got to see him!

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The long wait gave me the chance to take photos in line, and for us to see Mr Potato Head for the first time! (As you can see from the photos not all of the line area was being used so I think that’s why it was only a 50 minute wait even though it started outside.)

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This time Jack beat me by quite a lot, and he got a cat prize!

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After we were finished it was well past closing time, so we headed out to the bus stops. We had quite a long wait, maybe 20 minutes, but I was kept amused as Jack realised he had sat on his sunglasses at some point in the day and one of the lenses had popped out. He popped the other out too and kept me laughing. (Partly because he looked funny and partly because I was glad to say ‘goodbye’ to those glasses.....)

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We got back to AKL quite late and snuggled up ready for another busy Disney day!

[AimKo]

Fun report! Congrats on your engagement!

We're planning on trying a waterpark on our upcoming May trip. Since you've been to both...which did you prefer? We'll only have time for one!

Thanks

Aimee

[torsie24]

Thanks for reading! :goodvibes

We actually really enjoyed both. We preferred the BB lazy river and Teamboat Springs was awesome, so if you’re going in a large group I’d say BB. But the shark swim and crush n gusher are amazing, and the wave pool is amazing at TL, so I think if we could only go to one it’d be TL.

Remember we’re too wimpy to go on Summit Plummet though, so it really depends on how brave you are! You’ll have a blast at either!

[torsie24]

Day 13

Today was meant to be 8am at CP. We set the alarm before going to sleep, and when I woke in the morning and I could see a glimpse of sun coming through the curtains my first thought was a word I can't post on this board!

It was 7.55am! :eek:

I woke up Jack with a rude word and then phoned Disney Dining to see if we could get an 8am tomorrow (our last day) No luck. :( I apologised profusely to the lady and I think she felt quite sorry for me as I was still half asleep and couldn't get my words out in the right order!

We then saw a light on our phone which meant the intercom was on, and that we had a message from a lovely lady at front desk saying our phone was engaged when stitch and mickey tried to wake us up.

Turns out when Jack set the wake up call he'd used speaker phone and it hadn't been turned off properly.

I was pretty upset but poor Jack felt guilty for hours! I knew we'd be back for the wedding soon, so it wasn't too bad, I just felt worse for not using the space when someone else might have really needed it that day!

Drama over we got up and washed and ready and headed out to the MK anyway.

We didn't arrive too late after rope drop. We checked out everything in the Emporium, and I was very amused to see the Mayor in there chatting to people, what a nice touch! I was too nervous to go say 'hi' but I wish I had!

Our first ride of the day was:

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Followed by rides on Splash and BTM and then finally onto my I-must-ride-each-tripbut-Jack-isn't-a-fan ride. The paddleboat! I'm not sure why Jack doesn't like it as much as me! I find it so charming and Disney, maybe it's because my Mum likes it so much and when she took me to DLRP when I was younger we rode everyday.

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It's funny, when you're used to the Disneyland Paris Phantom Manor:

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The first time you see Haunted Mansion you think"that's not scary looking" but it really grew on us! (As you can tell by the amount of photos we took!)

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After the boat ride we headed over to Fantasyland as I was desperate to re-ride Philharmagic. First of all we grabbed FPs for Pooh as I wanted to play with the smoke ring again! On the way over I said to Jack "we haven't got any surprise fastpasses yet" and guess what happened when we got our Pooh ones! Philharmagic FPs! I was super excited as it's my favourite ride and they are great for my scrapbook! (There wasn't a line, so we got to keep them.)

We enjoyed Philharmagic again, I could go on like 10 times a day!

Afterwards I bought a pin (each trip I buy a favourite ride pin, and a resort pin of where we stayed), we had a quick drink break, and then it was pooh time!

I was super excited as we got a hunny pot to ourselves so I could really attack that smoke ring without feeling guilty for ruing somebody elses ride enjoyment. (I know, it's weird, but for some reason I love it!) So we get to the heffalump part, I get super excited, there is the "hoof" of the ring blowy guy - but no smoke!!!! :scared1: Jack found this very amusing, and although I was slight disappointed we both had a lot of fun!

On through to Discoveryland next where I was keen to see Monsters Inc but Jack wasn't convinced. There wasn't much of a wait, so I won, and we both really loved it!

Also while in line we took the "photo of Torsie by a small door" of the trip (we do this every vacation, it started in Poland where there was a tiny door in a castle we were in and Jack found it hilarious and since we've found small doors on every trip we've taken.)

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A family in line with us obviously thought it was something from the movie as we were both so excited over the tiny door so they then all took turns posing by it!

Once we were done with the comedy we headed back to Main Street as it was getting close to parade time and we wanted a good spot.

When we got to the hub the Dream along with Mickey show was on, so we watched that for a while until. I don't like the blinky eyes!

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We headed down Main Street looking for a space, but all the ones in the shade were taken. Luckily we found two seats up in the station, which was a great spot!

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Pretty soon it was parade time!

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We thought it was a great parade, and we knew the song already so we enjoyed singing along.

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Sadly my camera ran out of battery so that was all the photos I had for the day!

Once the parade was over we headed out of the park and got the boat over to the Floridian. I wanted to see our reception location as we'd decided for certain that was the one, but sadly when we got there a convention was sing it, so we could only admire it a little from the outside. I also got to meet the super friendly, famous greeter man from the GF, but no photo! Drn camera!

I was so excited to see him and we had a great chat about the car outside. I wish we could have it as our wedding car!

We walked along to the wedding pavillion to have another look. When we got there I was happy to see no wedding were taking place that day and we popped in to Francs to ask if it was OK to go have another look. The lady on reception remembered us from our planning session and told us to take all the time we needed. Once again we weren't quite ready for how beautiful it is, I took a little video, and we both got a little choked up!

Afterwards we walked the path to the Poly and carried on walking to the TTC as I wanted to ride the EPCOT monorail through the park. We almost missed a train but the nice conductor held the doors for us and we got an entire carriage to ourselves as it was a really quiet time of day!

I saw a gator from the monorail, Jack was very jealous! And we both loved seeing Futureworld from above.

When we were done we headed over to the bus stop and waited for an AKL bus. (We like EPCOT as AKL is the first bus stop that you get to when walking!)

Pretty soon we were back at the resort and had time for a quick relax in the hottub and some Pibb Xtra before it was time to get all dressed up for our romantic meal of the trip - Jiko!

We checked in and had to wait for 5-10 minutes at the bar. Once we were seated we browsed the menus and were brought some really really delicious curried ginger soup to have while we decided. It was delicious and both us and the ladies next to us asked if we could order it, but we couldn't! I think it might have been amde for Boma, or sommething new the chef was trying?

We shared a BBQ flatbread to start, which was delicious!

For our main I had the Swahili Curry shrimp with coconut rice. Mmm, it was the best meal I'd had all trip! I love big prawns, and the veg was so fresh and lovely. It was the perfect meal for me!

Jack had the Halibut which he loved!

For once I has room for dessert!! I had the pistachio creme brulee! YUM! (I think Jack was sad I ate it all!) And as he can never turn down cheesecake, he had the Tanzanian chocolate cheesecake. His rating? Great as it's a cheesecake, but not as good as some of the other cheesecakes of the trip.

We really really enjoyed our meal, and had a lovely relaxing night. It was nice to have a slow down but still enjoy great food. Not having to leave the resort makes a real difference I think.

Up next: Our last full Disney day! :(

[tttessa]

mmmmmmmmmmmmm cheesecake - just having a Homer moment..... sounds like a fantastic day.....

tessa

[torsie24]

mmmmmmmmmmmmm cheesecake - just having a Homer moment..... sounds like a fantastic day.....

tessa
Hahaha! You sound just like Jack!!

[Hayley94]

Day 13
We enjoyed Philharmagic again, I could go on like 10 times a day!

oh i think we will on the 28th march next year!!!! :) loving the tr

:cutie: (appropriate colours me thinks! )

[torsie24]

Heehee, Hayley!!

I think March 28th 2011 should be named "Wedding Rehearsal and Philharmagic day!"

[Hayley94]

haha :-) and we get to top it off with the ultimate slumber party!!!!! oh why isn't it march 27th 2011 today?

[tashybea]

Thank you :cutie:

If you're on a UK ticket and it's included for free, then maybe give in an hour one time when you're in DTD anyway, but we won't be back.

Jack says he'd maybe go again if it were just him and his friend and they could play on the video games while his wife and I shopped, but that wouldn't be a definite.

It just didn't feel 'Disney' to us, and put it this way - on our next trip we're getting free annual passes. They don't include DQ or the water parks. We're going to buy the water park APs for $106 as opposed to upgrading our APs to include them and DQ which would cost us around $130.

Thanks, I think we may give it a miss. I find it hard enough to drag DF away from the PS3 at home, to be wasting precious disney time!!!!

[torsie24]

It had finally arrived. :scared1: Our last Disney day.

Our first stop was to be Animal Kingdom as we still hadn't explored the base of the tree and seen everyone who lives there, so that was what we decided to do!

We arrived around 10ish after deciding not to set an alarm or anything, and as you can see it wasn't a bad start queue wise:

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We headed to our destination:

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And really took our time seeing all the detail we could. There are a lot of creatures on that tree that we thought resembled Bella (we were missing her after 2 weeks!)

A cheeky Bella:

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Angry Bella:

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We came across this guy having a sunbathe. :)

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Look at the size of this lizard!!! He is going to wipe out the whole of S.America!

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We watched the porcupines for ages as we both love them.

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Then we found 2 more Bellas:

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Then we headed away from the tree, and decided to go visit the lady who sits on the little dock bit with the bug eyes (know where I mean?) as no one was with her and she looked lonely. She had some tarantulas and she taught us a bit about them. :cutie: Jack hates spiders but finds them creepily interesting, and I just think any animal is amazing, so we enjoyed seeing her.

Next up we headed over to Everest slowly, stopping on the way for an iced tea and a cinnamon roll (why hadn't we had one of these before the last day?! OMG!) and to watch the monkeys on their temple.

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See how the shrine is the same shape as the mountain range? (We learned that in our awesome Hidden WDW book)

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The wait for EE had gotten pretty long, so we grabbed some FPs and headed over to the wildlife express train, as we hadn't been to planetwatch yet.

We didn't have long to wait for the next train and were soon onboard.

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We had a walk around the conservation station and then headed outside in perfect time to see Jasper! The cutest, cleverest porcupine ever!

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After we had seen everything we headed back onto the train.

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And across to EE. Once we got to the ride we were put in the front row. And wow! There is litlerally nothing in front of you and it was really fun! I'd definitely recommend sitting there one time! It is a bit scary on the big drop though as you can't see the track below you!

We headed out of Asia and down to Dinoland following the huuuge Nemo line that had formed (we decided against joining it - we'll have to catch the show next time) and to Dinosaur for our last ride of the trip.

The line was pretty short, and we only had to wait through the indoor part, but there was a huge tour group who all pushed past us getting out of the little show room bit. Not very Disney of them.

We enjoyed the ride as much as ever, and Jack admired all the Dinosaur goodies in the shop before we headed back to AKL for a brief swim and some lunch from the Mara.

Next up: DHS and DTD

[tashybea]

Noooooooooo, not last disney day :sad2:

Your animal pics are fab.

Looking forward to the next update.

[torsie24]

So, after some time at the Resort we decided we best head out for the last time. :sad1:

All through the trip (and the weeks/months of planning) we'd assumed we'd end at the MK for Wishes, but that was a few hours away, and TGM had MK as a super busy day, we'd done everything in MK more tha once, and we were really in love with DHS, so that's where we headed!

Our first job was to buy gifts for Jack's little nephews. They love all Pixar movies so we went to the open air Pixar shop at the back over near the HISTK playground.

We had already bought the smaller one a Mr Potato Head pick'n'mix box thingy, but Laim, who's older loves Rex and we'd seen an awesome plush Rex there that we couldn't find in DTD. We picked that up for him, and also got them some of the little Pixar cars that are themed like the movie characters. We could have spent so much in there on them, we loved all the T-shirts and playsets.

Afterwards I was really keen to ride Tower of Terror again, so we headed back over via TSM (just in case there had been some miracle and there were FPs left or a line under an hour - not a chance!).

My first job was to take a photo with the haunted sign, it's really hard to get a picture in front of the paris one as people always sit in front of it.

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Then we jumped in line. It was a walk on and the first time we rode I got a little bit brave, so I put my hands in the air before the end. I felt like the bravest person in the world (yes, I'm a wimp) and was so excited that we ran round again and had another go so I could do the whole thing with my hands up. Hee hee, it's like a whole different ride when you do that.

Jack didn't put his hands up as he "had to hold the bags" (it looked like the handle to me....)

During that second ride we had the false ending where the movie starts, and that was awesome. We were now both a bit addicted to the randomised drops so we had a third ride for luck.

Suitably terrorised we headed over to Muppets 3D as Jack was keen to see it, and we'd not even stepped foot in the Muppet Area yet. We had a short wait for the show and we both agreed that for an old attraction (one of the ones I can remember from my 1993 trip) it was actually not as badly dated as we were imagining.

It was getting late now so we did our normal DHS routine of getting in the TSM line close to closing time. Again we had about a 45/50 minute wait. But off all the queues I think time just seems to go fast in that building. Mr Potato Head had taken out his ear and dropped it on the floor. Can he pick it up himself? We didn't think he would be able to.

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Jack really loved this wall, so we took a photo, it is pretty cool.

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Soon we were riding our last ride of the whole trip, but on the up side I got my highest score and finally got into the cat prize category! Jack beat me again though.

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It was after closing time by the time we were done, I needed to get gifts for my parents, they both wanted T-shirts so I stopped in one of the stores on Hollywood Blvd and bought them. I was waiting for Jack as he'd gone to a different store so I had a really long chat with the CMs as it was pretty quiet in there.

Then it was time to leave the park.

It was going to be close getting to MK in time for Wishes, and as there was no PM EMH we didn't want to cope with the post firework bus scrum. So we decided to head to DTD instead.

How to get there was the question though!

We went to the SSR bus stop and waited for ages, but no bus showed up. An Old Key West bus turned up at the stop next door, so I asked the driver if I was right in thinking that the DTD boat stopped at OKW and he said yes.

We jumped on the bus and it felt like hours before we were at OKW, and then we were even longer driving from stop to stop. We finally got to the main stop and I had a look at the resort map and could see a boat dock at all on there.

Luckily it wasn't too long until a DTD bus appeared and we were finally there.

We started in the christmas shop where I went a bit crazy buying things (i love Christmas!) and then went to World of Disney and grabbed some last minute gifts, and then finished the night, and the trip, the way it deserved it be finished!

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It was getting late so we headed back to the bus stop and back home for our last sleep. We went in through the shop, as Jack wanted to take this photo:

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:rotfl:

We did some final packing and had our last Disney sleep.

[tttessa]

Great update - shame it is all coming to the end....... sounds like you had a great trip. Thanks for sharing it with us...

Tessa

[Tinkerbell1989]

Just found your TR Torsie! Nice to find another UK DISer!
Looks like you had an amazing time!

Congratualtions on your engagement as well, and I'm very jealous about your Disney wedding plans!
I keep bugging my DBF, but he's not convinced yet :rotfl2: One day!

xxxx