Oh Dopey!! - January 2016 Trip Report & VLOGS *updated 02/21

[dancingtodisney]

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HUMANS!!!!!!

It’s time for my BRAND SPANKING NEW TRIP REPORT

Strap yourself in for a the LONG haul because we fit a whole LOT of DISNEY in and I can’t wait to share it all

First and formost let me introduce the cast

Mam and Dad

My sister Rachel

AND…… MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

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[dancingtodisney]

I HAVE A YOUTUBE CHANNEL!!!!

I started a YouTube channel with my sister Rachel so that we could not only write trip reports about our Disney adventures but also make video diaries (vlogs)!

Somethings are just better captured in a video! We actually started our first ever 'series' of vlogs for this very trip so I'll post a link here to our channel but I'll also link each of the videos back in the table of contents page. We have videos from every day of the trip including footage from each of our runs as part of the Dopey challenge.

If you like vlogs please do subscribe to our channel and keep in touch!

https://www.youtube.com/c/doublethedisney

Table of contents

Day 1 - Disney here we come!!
Part 1 - Travel Time
Part 2 - Hey Mickey
Part 3 - First meal, how Grand!
Part 4 - heigh ho


Day 2 - A Spectacle of Extra Magic and a Mouse Chef!
Part 1 - Why am I only wearing a t-shirt?
Part 2 - Cue 'the look'
Part 3 - Compliments to the Chef Mickey


Day 3 - I've got wet hair
Part 1 - What time is it?!
Part 2 - It's raining it's pouring...
Part 3 - I want a photo by myself with the princess


Day 4 - Around the world to find some ketchup!
Part 1 - Don't forget your passport
Part 2 - PASS THE KETCHUP!!!


Day 5 - Breakfast with a beast & dinner with a beauty
Part 1 - BOG Breakfast
Part 2 - Show us your dance moves!
Part 3 - Hey there Prince Charming!
Part 4 - Let's go round again


Day 6 - Aloha! It’s almost time to run!
Part 1 – Only a dope would buy EVERYTHING
Part 2 – Thanks lady!!
Part 3 – Ohana means family


Day 7 - Walt Disney World 5K
Part 1 – 3... 2... 1... GO!
Part 2 – 5k Course
Part 3 – Post race fun!
Part 4 – Tá ocras orm!


Day 8 - Walt Disney World 10K
Part 1 – Ready... Set.... GO!!
Part 2 – Walt Disney World 10K Course
Part 3 – GIANT STITCH!
Part 4 – Kona Cafe​

Day 9 - Walt Disney World Half Marathon
Part 1 – RUNNERS... ARE YOU READY?!
Part 2 – Half Marathon Course (1)
Part 3 – Half Marathon Course (2)
Part 4 – Ice Bath & Epcot


Day 10 - Walt Disney World Marathon
Part 1 – THINK OF THE BLING!
Part 2 – Walt Disney World Marathon (1)
Part 3 – Walt Disney World Marathon (2)
Part 4 – Walt Disney World Marathon (3)
Part 5 – Walt Disney World Marathon Post Race fun


Day 11 – BAD TRIP REPORTER!!
Part 1 – The whole day!

Day 12 – Universal & Sanaa
Part 1 – The moving walkway exit is approaching
Part 2 – It's all about the bread service

Day 13 – Magic Kingdom & Shopping
Part 1 – Why would he leave us?!
Part 2 – Stars of the show

Day 14 – A Breakfast Tradition & 50's Prime Time
Part 1 – Our Favourite Breakfast
Part 2 – Parents Day Out
Part 3 – Grandma's cooking

Day 15 – HS & Wishes from California Grill
Part 1 – All except YOU Jedi
Part 2 – Les Chef de France
Part 3 – Quick change of shirt & a great view of Wishes


Day 16 – Bye Bye Parents
Part 1 – HS, Pool & MK
Part 2 – Just the two of us​

Day 17 – Last Full Day
Part 1 – Extra Early EMH​

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[dancingtodisney]

Day 1 - Disney here we come!!

Friday 1st January 2016
Part 1 - Travel Time


T minus 12 hours to take off

It was New Years Eve and I was sat at home in my PJ’s back in Dublin with my family while everyone else was out boozing and celebrating I was sipping on a cup of hot chocolate Disney style

(it’s butlers hot chocolate, sooooooooooo yummy)

I was a little sad that I didn’t get to spend New Years with Prince Charming (a new character to my stories as of last summer, a native Londoner and a nice unexpected perk that came with my move!) BUT only a little because tomorrow I was going to DISNEY!!!!

My friend (also a hairdresser) had come over earlier in the day to colour and cut my hair so I was feeling extra glam in my 101 dalmations pjs!

We stayed up and watched the midnight fireworks in London and then got ourselves to bed ahead of our early start the next day!

There is a bit of a tradition with Disney trips in our house that involves me waking my sister up with a randomly selected Disney song….


I may have forgotten some words…


But who cares because DISNEY!!!

Off to the airport we went… we were flying from Dublin to London and then on to Orlando. Rachel and I were on separate flights as we booked earlier whereas my Parents were flying a little later but via New York. We decided to head to the airport together anyway as my parents booked themselves into one of the lounges.


Rachel’s ready

I’m ready…

Let’s gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


We got through security pretty quickly and with some time to kill decided to get ourselves some more hot chocolate…

YUMMY!


Before we knew it they called our flight and we were off!


Plane selfie

We had a short stopover so I was a little bit anxious about that (and by a little I mean I checked regularly to see if that same flight landed on time on other days) but we actually landed early! YAH!


Enough time for a quick stop at Mc Donalds before heading to our gate.

We went through the passport check and were in the holding area waiting to board. It was getting a bit late and I was thinking we must be delayed but then everyone stood up and we got in line to board. And then we waited… and waited… and waited… our scheduled departure time came and we hadn’t even started boarding!! Not only that but they hadn’t made any sort of announcement! I was pretty disappointed with the service from Virgin at this point and everyone around us was really frustrated. They eventually announced that our flight was delayed. ‘REALLY???! I thought we we’d already taken off?!’


We finally got on the plane and all felt right with the world again. I think our total delay was like 45mins.


We’d booked extra legroom to stretch out but also to be at the front of the plane when we arrived in Orlando and get a bit of a jump on the immigration queue.

Hmmmmmm… not as spacious as I was expecting!!!


Luckily Rachel was beside me so I could stretch out in her direction!

All settled with our blankets and of course… FREE ALCOHOL… Bit of a novelty for us to have free drinks on a flight but I only ever have one or two when I’m flying. I find it gives me a headache… maybe the lack of oxygen


Another one of our traditions is to watch a Disney movie on the plane! We had earphone splitters this time so we didn’t have a share one set of headphones! AWESOME!!


We decided to go with the exact same movie as last year…



Any guesses??



ALADDIN OF COURSE!!

It really got us in the mood!


I always find the flight over to Orlando takes AGES because I’m just SOOOOOO EXCITED but it wasn’t too bad this time.


We landed and unfortunately for us they decided to let everyone from the upper deck out ahead of us… grrrrrrrrr


Anyway… we eventually got off and joined the dreaded immigration queue. It wasn’t too bad so we guessed at maybe 40mins to get through. THEN they started letting people into this electronic passport area and as long as you have been to the US in the last 8years maybe?! Which of course we have, you could go through there and scan your passport and take your fingerprint and then just show your receipt and passport again with one of the officers in a different and far smaller queue. It saved us SO MUCH time!!


We grabbed our bags and then queued for the customs check which was about 10mins and longer than normal and finally we were heading to our first ride of the holiday…


FAKE-O-RAIL!!

This is when I get the first ‘I’m here’ moment… EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!


The airport was still decorated for Christmas… soooo pretty

Excuse the blurry photo… I was too busy making my way to our hotel transport.


The whole way there I was super giddy… I may have been singing… but people were definitely looking and mostly smiling I think as we came bounding past in an excited blur…



OMG….OMG…OMG

It’s the magical express!!! I’ve never been on the magical express and I couldn’t wait for my first trip! I’d brought an old magic band and it scanned without issue and we were off to our assigned resort bus…

I shot this out the window of the bus opposite. We waited a bit.. maybe 15 or 20mins but it felt so long because I just wanted to get to DISNEY!! Then we got moving and I was so happy to hear that Old Key West would be the first stop.


WINNING


We sailed all the way to the turn off for Disney. We were right near the front so I had my camera ready to snap a photo as we whizzed by the all-important welcome sign.


Only we didn’t

What the what???!!!


WHY so busy Disney??!!! I’d never seen traffic like this at the entrance! I think the probably was that some of the car parks had been closed as they’d reached capacity.


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGH


Here it is

Next stop Old Key West… I really didn’t know what to expect from this resort because nobody every seems to stay there. Not like actually nobody but I don’t ever read trip reports from people staying there and to be honest we only choose it because of a great offer on the UK Disney site that included free dining AND discounted room rate.

We were dropped off right at reception and quickly made our way in to collect our magic bands. There was a bit of an issue with one of our bands that meant we were delayed quite a while.

I JUST WANT TO GET TO THE PARKS PEOPLE!!!

Luckily the receptionist was really nice and when we explained that our parents flight had been delayed and that they would be rushing to make our dinner reservation so we wanted to arrange a tax she gave us a slip for a free taxi to apologise for the hassle with our magic bands.

Don't you just LOVE Disney service!!

We went to bell services to have our bags brought to our room and a very friendly CM offered to take us to our room by golf cart! YES PLEASE!

GOLF CART SELFIE

We quickly dropped our bags off and went for a bus to MK. There was a stop right outside our room and a bus came almost right away. But then it went all around the resort.... and back up to reception... note to self to walk to reception for the bus from now on!

MK HERE WE COME...


Click for next part​

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[dancingtodisney]

Day 1 - Disney here we come!!

Friday 1st January 2016
Part 2 - HEY MICKEY!

Soon we arrived at my favourite place in the whole world... The Magic Kingdom!!

We stopped to capture the magical moment right before we entered

I was so happy to finally be here!!

We had fastpasses booked for Space Mountain so we headed straight there... only to find that it was DOWN...

BUT... Actually that's not too bad because now we would get a floating fastpass and that meant that we could use it when we came back after dinner and even though it would have expired our parents could still ride too! And by parents I mean Dad because Mam doesn't do rollarcoasters!

Our second fastpass for was the one and only....

MICKEY MOUSE

He told us he was so happy we had come to see him today.

Thanks Mickey!! I'm so happy too!

And look you guys.... CHRISTMAS!!

That's all the time we had. We needed to get our buts to dinner at a certain monorail resort. The queue for the monorail was massive so we tried the boat queue. There wasn't a boat for AGES but luckily we made it on the first one. We arrived at the dock right at our restaurant for the night...

As we came around from the dock we saw two familiar faces coming towards us... OUR PARENTS!! They got the taxi alright and we were really excited to all be together to properly start our holiday.

We checked in at the restaurant and waited to be seated... Any guesses where we are eating??


Click here for next part​

 

[emilyindisney]

Hi Karen! So excited for this report!

All in all, how long was your travel time from home to Disney? Bummer that Virgin ran into a few hitches but sweet that you were able to save some time getting your passports scanned like that!

I agree- I feel like you don't ever really see trip reports with people staying at Old Key West! However, I think the pictures look AWESOME so I'm excited to hear/see what you guys thought. Might like to stay there myself one day soon!

I'm going to guess you're starting your vacation with a Grand dinner?? Hope to see soon!

 

[chelynnah]

Yay!

 

[Ariel484]

YAY!! Karen I didn't know you were doing a TR!

Let me just say...you and Rachel are looking pretty fabulous after alllllll of those hours of travelling! I love the cute tops you guys are wearing!

Looking forward to your review of OKW - I agree, it seems like that resort doesn't get a lot of love!

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Yay!! A new TR from my virtual running buddy! Can't wait to see how we did on the Dopey challenge!

Oooo! And new Prince Charming?! How exciting! We need details girl!

Okay, let's get running!!

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 1 - Disney here we come!!

Friday 1st January 2016
Part 3 - First meal, how Grand!

Did you guess right??

We were seated quickly and our server introduced himself and let us know he'd be with us shortly.

He was... and he brought bread!

AND salted butter.... yummy

Ye that didn't last long

Time to drink

We were on the dining plan and I had asked our waiter if it would be ok for us to order two dinners off our plan (2 credits each so 4 credits) and some appetizers and we would share everything. This wasn't a problem at all and we also had two drinks with our dining plan so we got smoothies

When they brought our dinner out they had very nicely split each meal onto two plates!! Disney always goes that extra mile

How good does this look

My mouth is watering

With our dining plan we got two deserts as well! We had so much food already but there is always room for desert

With our tummies full we chatted about the holiday ahead, my parents liked the look of Old Key West on their brief visit so that was a good start!

I wasn't sure if my parents would be up for heading into the park after dinner but they were on a high too so we finished up and made our way to the monorail

Gingerbread house!!!!

Disney + Christmas = all the feelings

Magic Kingdom here we come!!

Click here for next part​

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[dancingtodisney]

Day 1 - Disney here we come!!

Friday 1st January 2016
Part 4 - heigh ho

Helloooooooo Main Street USA

MK was open until midnight tonight so I'd booked fastpasses for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train from 11pm. My parents had not been to MK for years so the whole of the New Fantasyland section was a first for them.

Although my Mam is not a big rollarcoaster fan we had convinced her that this was a must do. I was lucky enough to be the one riding beside her and she LOVED it!! There was a lot of screaming but that's to be expected..

She also totally blocked my face

We then strolled to Space Mountain to use our fastpasses from earlier. We stopped along the way for a family photo

FASTPASS TIME

LOVE this ride!!

It was getting close to park close and we were pretty tired from all the traveling so we decided to head out of the park. We caught a bus back to our room, luckily stop is first on the way back!

We crashed straight away... MK was open for EMH in the morning!


Click here for next part​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Hi Karen! So excited for this report!

All in all, how long was your travel time from home to Disney? Bummer that Virgin ran into a few hitches but sweet that you were able to save some time getting your passports scanned like that!

I agree- I feel like you don't ever really see trip reports with people staying at Old Key West! However, I think the pictures look AWESOME so I'm excited to hear/see what you guys thought. Might like to stay there myself one day soon!

I'm going to guess you're starting your vacation with a Grand dinner?? Hope to see soon!

YAH!! Me too! We did so much on our trip I've SO MUCH TO SHARE!

Hmmmm... well I think our first flight was 8:30am and we landed around 5:45 so I guess about 14hrs! Ye saving time at immigration is a massive PLUS!

I was searching for some before we went and there really are rare! We're looking at booking the same deal for September 2017 so I guess that says a lot about how much we liked it!

It was Grand! haha

 

[dancingtodisney]

YAY!! Karen I didn't know you were doing a TR!

Let me just say...you and Rachel are looking pretty fabulous after alllllll of those hours of travelling! I love the cute tops you guys are wearing!

Looking forward to your review of OKW - I agree, it seems like that resort doesn't get a lot of love!

Aw thank you!!!! We were on a massive high despite being up for so many hours!!

I've got plenty of photos to come of the resort so stay tuned

 

[dancingtodisney]

Yay!! A new TR from my virtual running buddy! Can't wait to see how we did on the Dopey challenge!

Oooo! And new Prince Charming?! How exciting! We need details girl!

Okay, let's get running!!

YAH!!!! I missed you!!!

Haha... we ran SO FAR!!

He looks something like this

with a very charming London accent

 

[chelynnah]

Hmm I think Olaf is getting a little cheeky there

 

[emilyindisney]

Dinner looks great- seems like there was plenty of food with splitting the two plates. Good idea! Can't believe how long you guys have been awake at this point! Don't blame for you crashing/can't believe you'll be up and at 'em for EMH!

 

[CherieFran]

Looking forward to follow along on this report. Amazed at how much energy you had after that long day of travel!!

 

[heaven2dc]

Loved the idea of getting extra leg room on a flight! I always forget to book that especially on longer flights. Sounds like you had a great start to your first day!

 

[Kiersten]

I can't wait to read more of your trip report! It looks like fun already!

 

[dancingtodisney]

Day 2 - A Spectacle of Extra Magic and a Mouse Chef!

Saturday 2nd January 2016
Part 1 - Why am I only wearing a t-shirt?

I had not set an alarm for the next morning to allow us to sleep in should we choose to. My body clock was totally zoned in on Disney fun though and I was awake around 6am. Perfect timing to get to MK for EMH at 7am!!

I knew Rachel would wake up too and sure enough as soon as moved I hear "are we going to extra magic hours??"
We're so alike!

As we get up Dad is stirring as well so we ask if he wants to join us... He's a big kid so of course he was up for it too! Mam on the other hand was awake but happy to stay in bed and join us later on.

We got dressed and decided we were going to drive to MK because we planned to head out for grocery shopping straight from the park a bit later on. I knew from previous experience that when MK was open for morning EMH they only tend to have the boat running from the car park as most people staying on resort use the Disney transport.

We park up (in a great spot - yah for being early!) and walk to the ticket and transport centre and onto the boat.

I was really excited to get back to the parks so wanted to head right up to the front of the boat so I could see us approaching MK. It wasn't the warmest of mornings and it had just starting raining too! Right at the front of the boat we were exposed to the elements and at this point Dad looks at me and Rachel as we zip our hoodies up and cover our cold ears and says:

"why am I only wearing a t-shirt??"

I DON'T KNOW DAD!! I mean I know it's Orlando but it's clearly not summer!

This led to what is probably my favourite photo of the entire trip

I love it because it just captured our silly mood perfectly!!!

Almost there

Quick scan of the magic band and we were in!

We stopped for a photo with the Christmas decorations

WHOOOOOOP!!!! WHO NEEDS SLEEP AT DISNEY!!!!

Dad's only request when getting up at the crack of dawn was that we took him for a coffee so our first stop was Starbucks.

Ooooooh something shiny

Aaaaaaaaand he's back

The park was EMPTY!! It was so nice! I think a lot of people don't realise that during peak times Magic Kingdom sometimes opens at 8am and has EMH from 7am! Aw well.. benefits of being a obsessive planner!

Can you guess what ride we hit first??? Well of course... SPACE MOUNTAIN!!

Except I didn't go in because I also got a large coffee and there was no way I could drink mine as fast as Dad! Also I kinda wanted a moment to myself. Just to take it all in. I looked back at the photo of us on the boat and sent it on to my boyf (prince charming) which he thought was hilarious.

I had a bit of a browse around the Space Mountain store and found a Space Mountain t-shirt for our 5K run (more on that later)

While in the area we thought we'd give buzz a go. I wanted to max out as some point during the trip but I hadn't actually looked at the tips and tricks online at this point.

Hey there Buzz...

I still won... WHOOOOOOP!! #winning

I'm so NOT a humble winner

We took a stroll out towards New Fantasyland so Dad could take a look around. We jumped onto Goofy's barnstormer (shortest ride ever) and got to re-ride again straight away as there was nobody in line!

Afterwards we went on a trip under the sea...

We were singing along the whole round.... "Darling it's better down where it's wetter take it from meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

We came out and spotted a CM over by Triton striking a pose for us. He was so serious and didn't move the whole time we watched him!

Dad wanted in on the action so made his way over to pose for us too!

So funny!

Dad wanted more photos so I got another in front of the ship

What is he like??!

Now before we came to Orlando I'd been checking out Disney Haul videos on youtube (by checking out I mean I got addicted and watched them ALL THE TIME)

And... one thing that kept popping up in the videos was a special item from my favourite movie.

Lumiere

Isn't he wonderful??

And he flickers just like a real candle!

So... I figured we would head to Bonjour! Village Gifts to see if we could pick one up.

BUT HE WAS SOLD OUT PARK WIDE

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??!!!!!

The did have Cogsworth though... so I just had to buy him to stop the tears flowing....

I was planning to get Lumiere and then see how my spending went over the trip and decide on Cogsworth but oh well!!

Rachel and Dad decided to get him too between them so they could have one back home in Dublin.


I LOVE this jigsaw but it was also out of stock

Dad said he needed the loo so me and Rachel gave each other 'the look'

Time to introduce Dad to the fancy bathrooms

TA DAAAAAAAA

Needless to say he was impressed..

We were really feeling the Disney magic and weren't that bothered about getting on rides, we just wanted to walk around and soak it all up! We went into the new haunted mansion gift shop and had a bit of a mooch around

Mam had text at this point to say that she was on her way to the park so we started walking towards the entrance

On the way I popped into the emporium to get...

My first ever Alex and Ani bracelet! So pretty! I went with the Magic Kingdom one because that's where the most magic and memories are for me.

My mam text to say she was coming into the park so we decided to meet at the Christmas Tree


Click here for next part​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Dinner looks great- seems like there was plenty of food with splitting the two plates. Good idea! Can't believe how long you guys have been awake at this point! Don't blame for you crashing/can't believe you'll be up and at 'em for EMH!

No matter how tired I am on the first morning waking up in Disney I will MAKE THOSE EMH!!!

I can't wait to read more of your trip report! It looks like fun already!

Thanks for following... it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Looking forward to follow along on this report. Amazed at how much energy you had after that long day of travel!!

I think it was 5am local time by the time we got to bed so up almost a full 24hrs!