Try Everything! A Hotel Extravaganza! Updated 07/04

[BibbitybobityLu]

Welcome to my first official Trip Report!
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Our trip to the world was from Monday 5th September 2016 until Monday 3rd October 2016. Yes you did read that right, we did spend four whole weeks at WDW! Not only that but we actually stayed at 6 different Disney resorts! Plus one non Disney hotel but we ain't there yet!

It was 1 mother, 1 daughter, 4 weeks, 7 hotels and WAY too many bags! But we as we had a long trip we needed a lot of stuff which means a lot of bags...unless we went with this option:

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Not quite as practical. But really this was a fun trip. There were many firsts, a lot of trips-down-memory laneing (that is not a word), some amazing suprises and, of course, some experiences we wouldn't really want to repeat, but all together it made it one heck of a trip!

So just who is this “we” I keep mentioning?

Let's introduce our main TR cast instead shall we? Might be a good idea…

Well hey there! I'm Lu!



You might remember me from such PTRs as “Zen and The Art of PTR Maintenance” which you can read here. Why did I call my PTR that? Your guess is as good as mine! I also happen to be
you're totally inept...I mean totally talented and skilled TR author (totally fooled 'em!)


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Favourite Park: DHS (I do also love MK but I love ToT, RNRC and Toystory Mania more!)


Favourite Resort: Contemporary Restort (this may have changed after this trip...)


Favourite Restaurant: Sci-Fi Dine In


Favourite Ride: Expedition Everest


Favourite Princess: Belle


Favourite Character: Eeyore


Favourite Snack: Popcorn


Favourite Number: 8...wait what? Maybe that's enough favourites for now.



And who might this fine fellow be?



I'm just kidding! It's just my partner in crime Trish (or mum if you want to know her real name!)




Favourite Park: Animal Kingdom


Favourite Restaurant: 50’s Prime Time Cafe


Favourite Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge (this also may have changed as a result of this trip)


Favourite Ride: BTMR


Favourite Princess: Belle


Favourite Character: Sven


Favourite Snack: Churro


*Viewer Advisory Warning*
Sometimes we will look like this, but please don’t be alarmed:





I promise we can sometimes look normal:




So now you know what we look like, and if you haven't run away that is a good sign, should we get this show on the road...or should I say on the web? Ha ha!

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Well I never promised I was funny. Want to join in with me on this adventure??

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Click here for the next post

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Chapter Links! ​

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Cause who's got time for all that inbetween reading, am I right?​

Or you can read the whole thing too! You do you!

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Prologue (i.e. basically a lot of rambling..): I Fooled You!
Day 0, Part 1: Bad Moms...Are We Travelling?
Day 0, Part 2: Hey People We Fancy
Day 0, Part 3: Can We Join This Club?
Day 1, Part 1: It's Wet, It's Wild!
Day 1, Part 2: So Many Bus Rides
Day 2, Part 1: It's A Busy Day!
Day 2, Part 2: Look At All The Zebra Butts!
Day 3, Part 1: Never Smile At A Crocodile...But Hippos Don't Mind
Day 3, Part 2: Carbs Are Friends, And Food!
Day 3, Part 3: Back To The Bus Depot!
Day 4, Part 1: Hey Animal Kingdom Lodge, I'm Really Stuck On You
Day 4, Part 2: Why Don’t You Use That Fantasmic Imagination Guys!
Day 5 Part 1: Goodbye Animal Kingdom, Hello Magic Kingdom!
Day 5, Part 2: Oh Goodie! My Two Favourite Things!
Day 5, Part 3: Yeah, I’m Just Going To Live Here Now

 

[pkondz]

I'm sorry, who are you and what did you do to lu, you?


Welcome back!!

 

[pkondz]

Welcome to my first official Trip Report!

Hi!

Yes you did read that right, we did spend four whole weeks at WDW!

Is this possible?


Nah. You're pulling my leg.



I said my leg, Lu!!!!

Plus one non Disney hotel but we ain't there yet!

You ain't???

Huh. Thought you'd gone already.


Weird.

There were many firsts, a lot of trips-down-memory laneing (that is not a word),

Sure it is. I've seen it.

Just a bit above this post, actually.

of course, some experiences we wouldn't really want to repeat

Uh, oh.

Well hey there! I'm Lu!

Favourite Park: DHS (I do also love MK but I love ToT, RNRC and Toystory Mania more!)


Favourite Resort: Contemporary Restort (this may have changed after this trip...)


Favourite DISmeet: pkondz

Awww... I'm honoured you think so.

It's just my partner in crime Trish (or mum if you want to know her real name!)

Hi mum!

Sometimes we will look like this, but please don’t be alarmed:

Well I never promised I was funny. Want to join in with me on this adventure??

Most definitely!

Click here for the next post

I did! And.. nada! zip! nothing!


Seriously... so good to see you back.

 

[Ladyfish77]

Wow, I think this may be the first TR I've gotten into on the first page!!! Whoop!

 

[Sinders99]

Following from Australia

 

[smilerjones]

Following! Sounds like an exciting and eventful trip!

 

[Poohcandi]

Following.... 4 weeks / 6 hotels.... sounds amazing!

 

[buteraa]

Sounds fun! I'm in!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

.

 

[Raeven]

Following along!

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Ah! There are people here! How exciting! Lucky I’m really good at talking to people!

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I'm sorry, who are you and what did you do to lu, you?

I think the actual question is:

Welcome back!!

Thanks P-man! It's good to be back! I'm sure you missed me!

Hi!

Hi yourself!

Is this possible?

That's what she said.

Nah. You're pulling my leg.

That's what he said.

I said my leg, Lu!!!!

Ah man! You always have to ruin my fun!

You ain't???

Huh. Thought you'd gone already.


Weird.

You are right. You are in fact weird.

Oh you meant that was weird...right...my bad!

Sure it is. I've seen it.

Just a bit above this post, actually.

Well what do you know! So it is! Obviously only the complete and total truth makes it into my TR!

Uh, oh.

Uh, oh indeed! One of them was doing a DISmeet!

You KNOW I'm only joking!

Awww... I'm honoured you think so.

Wait a minute! I didn't write that!

Most definitely!

Yay!

I did! And.. nada! zip! nothing!

Ha! That was just a trap to see if you were planning on skipping my wonderful witty banter! Caught red handed!

Seriously... so good to see you back.

Wow, I think this may be the first TR I've gotten into on the first page!!! Whoop!

Thanks for joining in! I very rarely make it on the first page of TRs so I know how
coveted it is, sorry that it only happened to you on my TR!

Following from Australia

Thanks for joining in all the way from Australia! I will resist the urge to say G'day Mate! Oh wait...I guess I just did it anyway! Sorry about that!

Following! Sounds like an exciting and eventful trip!

Thanks for joining in! It really was a fun trip! Hopefully I can remember enough for it to make it through this TR!

Following.... 4 weeks / 6 hotels.... sounds amazing!

Thanks for joining in! It was an amazing trip!

Sounds fun! I'm in!

Thanks for joining in! I hope it will be fun! But as I'm writing it who knows!

Well hello there! Lovely dimples ladies, I'm excited that you are back and sharing your stories!

Yay!! It's one of my (four) PTR readers! I'm so happy you found me and are joining in!
And fun fact I only have one dimple! Just like me to be weird!

Following along!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

The One Where I Fooled You!


Ha! You thought this was going to be the start of the TR didn’t you? Welcome to my TR everyone, it’s basically just one big disappointment!

Man I know how to sell this don't I?


Okay when I started writing this post it was meant to be a quick background to our trip, how it came about and whatnot but, as you will soon discover if you are brav----errr I mean if you follow along with this TR, that I tend to ramble (this sentence for example) so feel free to skim read or heck just skip this section all together! Click here if you want to skip ahead to the actual start of this TR! I won't mind at all...

Just kidding! Skip away! Or if you are reading this before I make that link looks like you have to read it anyway!

Our last trip to the World of Walt Disney was in November 2012 (you can read about almost none of it in my PTR here!), before that trip my last visit had been in 2006 but DM (as she will now forever be known...unless I forget) hadn't been back for 16 years!

Well it was crazy amount of years like that...I have such a wonderful memory don't I? Let me back track for a quick sec, see my very first trip to WDW was when I was 2, and DM and my father (who might just be a bigger Disney nut than me!) bought into DVC...at some point...into Old Key West. So from age 2 the four of us...oh I should mention I have an older brother who doesn't like Disney (I'm also super good at this whole "details" thing), would travel to the world every year. Then DM and my father divorced and the SADDEST thing ever happened: we sold our DVC!

Oh and there all that emotional trauma and yada yada yada but mostly we our SOLD DVC! So that sorta put the kibosh on WDW for the next...ummm...number of years! That memory bro! Anyway to make a long story short...

...our trip in 2012 was a long over due return to the world! We stayed for three weeks but shock horror only two weeks at Disney! What was I thinking?! Our first week we stayed three nights (or maybe it was four? Meh you weren't there so I'm going to make it up and say three!) at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes Orlando (and ate room service every night! Rebels!) where we had our first Universal experience (let’s just say it didn’t make us wanna join the dark side!) and did Discovery Cove. The last four days we drove down (or is it up?) to St Pete’s Beach and stayed at the Tradewinds, which was a total nostalgia overload as this was like our old home resort we stayed at a bizillian times when I was a kid. Of course it was nothing like I remembered, apart from the giant chess board and the waterway filled with swans. It was all different.

Then we finally got to Disney and did 9 nights at OKW, cause memories, and five nights at CR because why the heck not! The monorail goes through the hotel what's not to love??


After this trip I got some SERIOUS PDB. There was no next trip on the horizon and I was bummed! But at the start of 2015 I started reading some TR's right here! And reading (and getting really jealous) about all the fun stuff going on around Halloween and lower crowds in September and well we all know how it goes, just for fun I priced out some dates in September 2016. You know, just for giggles. And as DM is my total Disney partner in fun, as the rest of our family DON’T UNDERSTAND DISNEY!

I ran, again totally just for fun, the number by her and BAM! She said book it.

Well okay then! Now I will say upfront that I tend to be a little bit...ahem...indecisive as a person.

I don't always find it easy to choose just one thing. So picking a hotel was a bit of a challenge. Of course this all brand new information for my small band of PTRs readers!

(who doesn’t love a little Siwon?! Anyone know what I’m talking about? No? Just me then?!)


I started off with a totally reasonable plan: one regular hotel and then OKW for the rest of the time. Little did I know that would soon turn into 5 Disney hotels, 1 other non Disney hotel (shhh its a secret) and 1 little old OKW stay...oh and the airport hotel...so 8 different hotels total. Like I said I have a teeny tiny problem making up my mind!

And so our crazy WDW adventure was born! Now, of course, you could read my PTR to see which hotels we stayed at (unless you already read it and then you already know) OR you could wait and be surprised! Trust me it will be fun! And did I mention DISmeets? Cause I had one! Or I guess two...and with DIS Royalty no less: @TheLittleKatie (who seems to be MIA too) and @pkondz ! So even if you don’t care about the parts of the trip with just me in them surely I hooked you all in with that right?! Just accept you’re fate, it’s easier that way!

Okay, well, I think I have rambled for long enough! What do you say, should shall we finally get this TR started??

Click here for next post (which will be an actual TR post! Pinkie swear!)​

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Day 0, Part 1: Bad Moms...Are We Travelling? ​

*Disclaimer* This post will by text heavy, and by text heavy I mean no photos related to the actual TR at all. So here is a cute puppy!

If you want to skip this whole travel day malarkey click here (or if I haven’t made those fancy link buttons yet...guess you have to read this post!)

Travel day posts are usually pretty boring (no offence to all you TR writers but we call all agree on that right?) but this one was slightly more eventful than I thought it would be. I will make this story as short as I can but first a little back story. We live a few hours from the airport we fly from (which is Manchester if anyone is interested, UK not...wherever Manchester is in the US) and as I hate rushing to get anywhere if I can help it, we usually take the train the night before and stay at a hotel.

We got ready to go, give our dogs cuddles and told them we would be back soon, told them to be good for my dad while we were away (like that was ever going to happen!), and we got in the car to get to the train station. This is where things started to go a little bit Pete Tong. DM started to feel sick on the car journey, which inst totally unusual as she does tend to get motion sick at times. Nothing to worry about...we hoped!

We got to the station and amazingly our train was already there! Now I should mention we were flying Upper Class with Virgin Atlantic and our baggage allowance was two checked bags, two carry on bags and a handbag each...which is a lot of bags! But we only took three checked bags, four carry-on bags and two handbags between us so it was fine!

Trying to get three large suitcases onto a small train (i.e. not a large cross country train) and into the tiny luggage racks is not a fun or easy experience. It was like the worst game of Tertis ever! While I struggled to get our bags in there proper place DM had gone to the restroom as she still wasn't feeling well. For DM and all our your sakes all I will say is that what followed involved a train door, a train window and DM...and it wasn't pretty. I of course was very helpful...

I was pretty worried whether she was going to be okay to go on the train journey let alone the flight, but after a few minutes (and two bottles of water) she was feeling better. The rest of the journey was thankfully uneventful, we arrived at Manchester Airport and caught the shuttle to the hotel. First hotel of the trip! Oh right...technically we stayed at 8 hotels if you include this one! Which I have a total of zero photos of because I am a terrible TR writer! But it was a nice hotel and it was close to the airport so it two thumbs up.

The next morning we took the shuttle back to the airport and got ready to check in. As we entered the terminal DM turned to me and said "Should I have packed my shampoo in my check bag?" Well yes DM, yes you should. In the middle of the terminal we turned into those people repacking our bags on the floor.

With the our toiletries where they should be we headed over to the Upper Class check-in desk. Neither of us have flown Upper Class before and to be honest normally I wouldn't have even looked at the prices for Upper Class but this time I was already looking at Premium Economy as a splurge and spotted a ridiculously good price for Upper Class and well...

It actually worked out CHEAPER both ways than an economy seat! But as they say if it seems too good to be true that just ain't for you Lu...okay maybe no one ever says that...when I tried to book it wouldn't work. I called Virgin Atlantic and explained I was having trouble and the agent I spoke to managed to find the same deal and got it booked for me. He did comment that he was very surprised at the price but as the deal was there and bookable they would honour it. I won’t lie I did have many nightmares about turning up for the flight and them laughing me out of the airport, but I am happy to report check-in went fine and security did not throw us out for not being posh enough to be in Upper Class! Fooled them!

When you fly Upper Class at Manchester you get to use the express line through security, which it turned out was very fortunate for us, as 1 it was hella busy and 2...well that involved DM! Remember that whole shampoo issue I mentioned before, apparently that wasn't all DM had packed in her carry-on.

We ended up throwing away a conditioner, a body wash, a face wash and a deodorant that wouldn't fit into those little plastic bags you get now. Crisis averted! Or not! I made it through fine as did my bags, DM did not. She got stopped by the security people who x-ray the bags. Turns out she had her medication (she is in remission for breast cancer) which was fine, but also a hand gel, another deodorant and a perfume still in her bag.

Have you ever watched those boarder control shows where they stop really suspicious passengers and swab all their bags for drugs and explosives? Well now DM can say she is one of those suspicious people! It’s really funny looking back but at the time...not so much. Luckily DM is neither a drug mule or a terrorist and she passed all the tests with flying colours (all be it without a hand gel, perfume and another deodorant) and we were allowed to continue with our journey!

Poor DM really still wasn’t 100% so it wasn’t totally her fault, I can say this it’s fine I’m her loving daughter! After a quick nip into Boots to replace the face and body washes, oh and get another deodorant

we made our way to the lounge to wait for our flight. And we waited, and waited, and waited. Our flight was due to depart at 10:30am and boarding was due to start at 09:15am. 9:45am rolls around and we are still in the lounge. Me being me, panic suddenly sets in and I insisted we go down to the gate just to be on the safe side. Yes, you guessed it, we should have stayed in the lounge! We ended up waiting over an hour before they finally let us on the plane!

Okay everyone! Its finally time to get this TR officially started as I have photos!!

But I'll save them for the next post...

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[HipsterPeterPan]

Hopping in to join along! As the DC of a single DM, I'm the indecisive trip planner too!

 

[HipsterPeterPan]

also, Potter AND AVPM???? new best friend!

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Day 0, Part 2: Hey People We Fancy


I left off in the last post with the promise of actually photos! No need for that imagination nonsense any-more! First up: why it’s us!!



See we really did go to Orlando and on this very plane no less! Now I had been planning on taking more photos of the Upper Class cabin but it felt really awkward once we actually got on the plane. All our fellow Upper Classeans all looked...well like they belonged there and we...did not! But I did manage to take some covert shots! Like of the onboard bar. Oh, did I forget to mention the most important feature: ONBOARD BAR!!

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It was very posh, the seat turned into a fully flat bed, with a mattress part built into the seat so at the push of a button the whole thing flipped over and turned into a bed.

I didn't try it on the flight out but I did try in it on the flight back. Also there was a table which pulled out for meals (which came in courses!) and a nice little foot stool/seat for entertaining guests. It had another little table thing for your drinks. And an entertainment centre with a TV unit thing that pulled out fully so you could watch it!

I took some photos of the rain for us to laugh at as we sunned ourselves in Orlando

...and enjoyed a free cocktail from the onboard bar!

Oh did I forget to mention the most important feature: ON BOARD BAR!!



This had...stuff in it..most importantly alcohol! I think it was a passion fruit mojito, just don’t quote me on that. Take off was smooth and I only thought we were all going to die once the whole flight!

Which is pretty good for me! I tried to watch a film (Virgin Atlantic does have a really good in-flight entertainment system) I think it was Sisters with Tina Fey but I couldn’t get into it, which surprised me as I had wanted to see it, chalk it up to being overly excited! Then it was time for lunch and look what we have here!

It's that fancy table I was talking about. And who's that?!



Oh just DM coming to join me for lunch!

Not going to lie it took quite sometime to get a somewhat decent photo of DM she was much more interested in the salt and pepper shakers! Exhibit A:



It also took a long time to for DM to figure out how to use my phone to take a photo of me, so here is my frustrated daughter face! Enjoy!



We both had the soup, which looks like it was some kind of tomato or carrot type soup. Ah those wonderful notes I took came in real handy!

And it came with bread! Which looked like this!

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The bread was nice and the soup was soup (way to be descriptive there Lu), I'm not a big fan of soup so I didn't eat much of it.

Can we just talk about how adorable these salt and pepper shakers are?! I was very tempted but I didn't actually steal them. Our main course was chicken and gnocchi.

Again I wasn't really blown away by the choices for me personally, I can be a really picky eater, but they looked lovely and DM enjoyed hers. It was so much easier have a proper space to eat and actual plates and cutlery, it felt like a restaurant rather than a plane!

Oh hey look I took a photo of part of the menu! The soup was Italian tomato and basil so there you go, now you know! Your welcome! From what I remember I didn't have dessert but there was dessert to be had...had you wanted it. Also they had afternoon snacks menu you order from that included some sliders which I partook of (you will just have to trust me as I have no photographic evidence!) and you could get crisps (chips to you American folks) and other snack items from the bar along with special cocktails and other beverages.

Hey look! Clouds!

I do remember that I watched The Boss with Melissa McCarthy and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, both were fine as plane watching films go. Finally it was time to make our descent into Orlando!!

The cabin crew gave out Love Hearts before we landed which I thought was cute.

We landed at 2:30pm and made it off the plane with the first few people. We hot footed it to security, where I of course obeyed the rules and didn't take any photos so that's the reason I have no further airport photos for you to see. As usual it took awhile to get through customs but I am happy to report that we were in fact allowed to enter the US of A!

We got our bags (all 9 of them) onto a cart and made our way out...well sort of. We handed back our bags so they could meet us at the other baggage claim near to DME as we couldn't take them up the escalator. I'm going to come clean and tell you I can’t remember if that happens before or after the Faux-norail but I'm just going make it up and say it was before. We finally made it to the other side of the airport and found the baggage claim area that we needed to get our bags from and proceeded to wait very patiently and not at all panicky waiting for the bags to arrive.

Bags collected we tried to find the DME area to get our bus and get this trip started! It took awhile but we got there all ready to check in. And nope.

The CM asked for my MB which I didn't have (stupid Disney not shipping MBs to the UK, but that is another rant for another day...) and then she asked me for my DME reference number...which I also didn't have. No one gave me one of those! Unfortunately this was one of the less than stellar CM experiences we had (luckily we only had a couple) as this CM just looked at me and said "You can’t get on a bus without a MB or reference number" and then just turned away.

Great thanks for that. I tried to explain that I had booked through Disney and only when I was reading about DME I noticed that you actually have to ask for it at the time you book, which I hadn't, so I had called and had it added to my reservation. The CM I spoke to just said it was added and that was that. The DME CM didn't care and just ignored me.

Thankfully (and just before I lost it) another CM opened another podium and she was much more helpful. She listened to what I said, took my surname, checked the system and told me where to get on the bus.

Good job she came on duty as otherwise I probably would have need to get a taxi...or maybe a police car...one or the other.

But hey! DME time! Woohoo! The bus we had was pretty empty, maybe about 15 other people on board when we set off. It was raining pretty hard as we drove but it was still so exciting knowing it was finally here! I tried to watch the on bus video but the sound was too low and besides everything I have read about it here seems to suggest it isn't worth it anyway! Before I knew it we were pulling into the first stop: Animal Kingdom Lodge! Which just happened to be our first home for the next five nights!

Click here for the next post
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[DonnaBeeGood]

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[Grumpy's Wife]

What an amazing trip. I can't even imagine being at Disney for that long.

You will be making such wonderful memories with your mom. I look forward to reading along.

 

[cinderkelly]

Yea! The Queen of Gif's is back!!! I'm going back to start reading but just wanted to say I'm so excited for this!!