A WDW & DCL First Trip - Food & Wine - Club Villain - MNSSHP - Sep 16

[Sinders99]

Welcome one and all to my very first attempt at a trip report!

I've been lurking on the pages for a while now reading everyone's reports and decided that after our September 2016 trip I should give it a go so please hang in there with me if I don't get it right first go or it's very basic in nature. It's taken me 6 months to get through the post Disney blues and now I just want to relive the magic all over again.

So let me give you some background on our 'once in a lifetime' trip.

Trip Dates: Departed Australia 2nd September 2016 & Returned 20th September 2016
Disney World Dates: Pop Century Resort 8th - 12th September & Port Orleans Riverside (Royal Room) 16th - 20th September
Disney Cruise: 4 Nights Bahamas Cruise on Disney Dream 12th September - 16th September
Travel Time Australia to Orlando: 26 hours!!

A bit about 'us'!

'US' is Adam & Jennie. We're a childless couple in our late 30's from Townsville - a regional Australian city of 220,000 people - in North Queensland Australia.



Jennie (that's me on the right) is a complete Disney nut!! I work in administration and love living a relatively quite life at home with Adam and our beautiful puppies!! I swear I'm part gypsy because every few years I get itchy feet and just have to travel overseas. Luckily not having kids (not by choice) has allowed us the freedom and funds to travel regularly. My favourite Disney character is TIGGER!!! closely followed by Belle & Ariel.

Adam (DH) likes Disney but certainly isn't the 'nut' or 'super fan' like me. DH works in IT and also loves nothing more than quite days spent at home with our little fur family. We're basically like 2 peas in a pod DH LOVES Star Wars but surprisingly on this trip I found out that Tinkerbell is his favourite classic Disney character

Our Disney history includes trips to Tokyo Disneyland pre 'us' (me in 1994 & 2009 and DH in 2005) but our first Disney trip together was to Disneyland in Christmas of 2010. That trip to Disneyland in 2010 was ultimately what lit our joint passion for all things Disney. Pretty much as soon as we returned from that 2010 Disneyland trip we began dreaming of a Disneyworld trip. It took us a while but we finally got there.

On this trip we were celebrating a few special milestones. This was our first trip to the East Coast of America, our first Disneyworld trip and a slightly early celebration for our 10th Wedding Anniversary. It was everything we'd dreamed it would be and so so much more!!

So what can you expect in our report?? MNSSHP, Club Villain, Jet Skiing, Food & Wine, Disney Cruise Line, Star Wars Desert Party - we jammed a lot in!!

 

[Sinders99]

The dreaded travel day!

And what a travel day it was. I mentioned that Townsville was a regional centre in North Queensland. Unfortunately for us our closest international airport is a 2 hour flight away (or 14 hour car ride) in Brisbane. So our travel day started at 4am to catch the flight to Brisbane. Needless to say, neither DH or I were thrilled with the upcoming transit. 26 hours in transit half way across the world is never fun but it was the excitement of getting to Orlando that kept us going. I mentioned that we have a fur family. Introducing our fur babies, Raif & Rastas, the loves of our lives. Leaving them for 2.5 weeks was hard and we thought of them every single day.

thumb_IMG_1314_1024 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Previously we've travelled to the US on Qantas, which is our national carrier, but this time we got great flight deals on Virgin Blue (thanks Mr Branson!) and I swear we'll only ever fly Virgin Blue long haul forever more!!

So after 19 hours in transit (Townsville to Brisbane - Brisbane to LA) we landed in the US and can I just say that LAX is hands down one of the worst airports in the world to come through customs!! Having done the trip once before we thought we knew what to expect but since we last travelled everyone's upgraded to those impersonal, inhuman passport scanners and the staff standing about in the customs hall were ridiculously unhelpful!! After 19 hours in transit all we wanted to see was a smiling face and someone who would actually explain what we were supposed to do with these new crazy scanning devices. The customs officer we got at the desk though was lovely!! One of the nicest we've had, so it made up for the frustration.

After finally clearing customs we again landed in the frustration zone when we tried to figure out where we were supposed to go to checkin for our domestic Orlando flight. There were no signs, no staff and a crazy number of people all doing what we were doing - wandering around dazed and confused looking for anyone to point them in the right direction. We stumbled out onto the sidewalk and stumbled our way along the multiple tax ranks through clouds of disgusting cigarette smoke and eventually found a security guard who pointed us in the right direction for Delta checkin. One thing we didn't bargain on was the labour day weekend crowds!! Going through security after checking our bags in took almost an hour. Lucky our travel agent had left us a good 3 hours between flights. We were also terribly aware that Hurricane Hermine had crossed the coast in the very early hours of 2nd September. Luckily for us and the Florida residents it was a relatively mild system which passed over without too much damage or disruption. DH & I are used to tropical storms. In the area of Australia we live in we get cyclones which are hurricanes that rotate in the opposite direction. Our last major cyclone was a record breaker named Tropical Cyclone Yasi in 2011. It was the most severe category storm (Category 5) and had wind gusts of up to 285km per hour (180mph). The size of the system was enormous covering approx 460km across.

Anyway, after a short stop over in LA we boarded our flight to Orlando and we couldn't be happier to arrive!! Can you tell by our faces?

P9030032 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

After a short car ride we checked in at our first stop, the Hilton Grand Vacation Club Orlando near Seaworld. I mentioned that we arrived on the 2nd but didn't check into Pop Century until the 8th. For the first 6 nights we explored Orlando from our Hilton base and spent a couple of days at Universal (I'm a MASSIVE Harry Potter fan) but I won't go into that in this report. All I'll say is AMAZING!!! We were so disappointed we didn't allow more time there. We've visited Universal Hollywood in 2010 and hated it!! We really didn't expect Universal Orlando to be so good. Oh well, it gives us something to go back and look forward to on our next trip. Did I mention that this was supposed to be a once in a lifetime trip?????​

 

[Sinders99]

Day 1 Part 1: Checkin At Pop Century Resort

After an early start we checked out of our Hilton digs (very nice by the way) and jumped in an Uber to Pop Century. We were finally on our way to Disneyworld and I was like a kid in a candy store. That poor uber driver must have though I was having some kind of outer body experience in the backseat. As we drove through the gates I was squealing like a 10 year old. He was very very nice and even slowed down for me so I could lean over the centre console and take a picture through the windscreen. Every single street sign was thrilling, every single Disney bus sent me into squeals of delight. Both DH & I were glued to our windows and pointing out all kinds of things to one another. That poor poor uber driver just kept smirking and laughing to himself. Clearly he'd had passengers like us heading to Disneyworld for the first time before

08.09.16 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

And HERE WE ARE!!! Hello Pop Century.

Our initial impressions were great. Walking into that lobby around 10am we loved the energy of the place. It was so fun and lively. We chose this resort because of the direct busses. I'm a podcast fanatic and had listened to a lot of podcasts, scoured the pages and realised that the direct busses were going to be a big plus for us. We booked all of our accomodation with a very lovely travel agent from Small World Vacations. Our agent was very very very patient with us. Initially we were very overwhelmed with all the choices and made a number of changes but our agent stuck with us. She even managed to get us the free quick service dining plan on this portion of our stay which we then paid an additional $20 a day per person to upgrade to the standard dining plan. A really smart move for anyone hoping to get free dining in a value resort.

Our check-in process was super easy and quick and we were quickly headed to our Preferred Room in the 60's wing. We requested a room on the 2nd floor on the opposite side of the Hippy Dippy pool. The room was basic but the real surprise for us was an amazing recorded message on our phone from Mickey & Minnie wishing us a happy anniversary!! So cute and unexpected. Our first touch of Disney magic.

After putting our bags down and having a quick look around the room we got out of there and started exploring the resort. We absolutely loved the huge icons. We'd seen pictures online but I don't think they really prepare you for the huge scale of everything.

08.09.16-7 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

08.09.16-10 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

08.09.16-4 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

After a quick look around the resort we ventured into the food court for our first disney dining experience. I ordered grilled salmon and DH ordered a very predictable pizza (he loves pizza). We were overwhelmed with choices which was great. We were a bit worried to begin with that we'd have limited food choices being a value resort but we were thrilled with all the options available. Having desert included with our QS credits was also great. The big winner for us was the refill mugs.

After all the excitement of our check-in, our resort walk around and our first disney meal we had a rest in the room before heading to our first park for the late afternoon - EPCOT!!!!​

 

[Sinders99]

Day 1 Part 2: EPCOT, Biergarten & Illuminations

After a quick rest in our room we packed up our park bag and headed to EPCOT. I can honestly say that one of the best things about POP were the direct buses. I swear we didn't wait more than 10 minutes our whole stay for a bus to the parks. We joined the queue and pretty soon we were on our magical way!!

Arriving at EPCOT we quickly made our way through security. WE WERE HERE!! I'm not ashamed to admit that seeing the EPCOT dome for the first time bought tears to my eyes. We stopped for a brief moment to soak it all in and then headed to our first ride - Mission Space!!

08.09.16-21 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

I admit to being a bit of a chicken when it comes to simulator rides so it was green all the way for us. DH is a bit of a sci-fi space nut, hence the love of Star Wars, Star Trek, NASSA and all things space related. The ride was great!! Not wanting to waste any time we headed to the character spot and had a quick meet and greet with Mickey, Minnie & Goofey.

08.09.16-35 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
08.09.16-34 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

One thing we noticed right away was that the characters kept trying to get us to show our wedding rings. We were a bit confused for the first 24 hours of our trip until a lovely waitress at 50's Prime Time Cafe pointed out that the resort had given us the wrong buttons at check-in and that to cast members it looked like we were newly married, not celebrating 10 'ears' of marriage!!

We also paid for Memory Maker as part of our trip and absolutely loved it!! I'm the photographer in the family so it was so nice to actually be in the photos for a change.

We quickly made our way to my very favourite ride, SOARIN!!

08.09.16-38 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We walked on, yes you read that right, we walked onto the ride!! We had this experience for a lot of our trip. We spent a lot of time considering travel dates for our trip and we knew crowds would be low in September but we didn't expect walk ons. Having ridden the original Soarin Over California back in 2010 I can honestly say that the new Soarin Over The World is as good. We loved seeing the Sydney Opera House & Sydney Harbour Bridge in there as well

As soon as we finished riding Soarin we jumped onto Living With The Land. A nice slow dark ride. Again it was a walk on.

By this time it was almost time for our reservation at Biergarten!! But first a stop for a photo pass photo with the EPCOT dome!!

08.09.16-97 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Biergarten was a bit of a last minute choice for us but we were so glad we booked it!! We noticed when making our ADR's that a lot of them seemed to be western food choices. DH is a creature of habit and doesn't like spicy food so we don't often step outside his comfort zone but I was surprised when he agreed to this one. I needn't have been. WE LOVED IT!!

08.09.16-51 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
08.09.16-56 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
08.09.16-60 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Dinner was fantastic!! There was something for each of us and the entertainment factor was great. We especially loved the bells show. The only thing we would have changed was our table guests. Unfortunately they barely said a word to us the whole time and had a very loud, very involved personal conversation. We actually felt quite awkward at times and were really hoping for table guests who were keen on having a bit of a laugh and a conversation but oh well, you can't win them all and we had a fantastic time none the less.

It wasn't long before we realised that Illuminations was only 20 minutes away. We quickly made our way to the Italy pavilion and found a nice spot. DH, being the ever loving man he is, ducked off to find us a glass of wine to enjoy during the fireworks. It was the perfect first night at Disneyworld!!

08.09.16-65 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

I wasn't expecting to be so moved by the whole Illuminations show but I admit to tears. Maybe it was the wine? Maybe it was the overwhelming realisation that we were finally here? Whatever it was it was a perfect night.

Once the show was over we hung back from the crowds and took the time to get some great night time photo's (low light photography is a passion of mine).

08.09.16-74 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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A perfect end to a perfect night.

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Off to bed for a big first full day at .......... HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!!!

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[Sinders99]

Day 2 Part 1: Hollywood Studios and a Step Back in Time!!

So you're all super quiet out there in Disboard land. Maybe I'm the only one reading this LOL!! Oh well, documenting it is fun none the less.

So we rose early and arrived shortly after opening at Hollywood Studios.

09.09.16-5 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

DH and I aren't breakfast people so we hit the ground running and headed straight to Tower of Terror!! Of course we stopped for the obligatory photopass photo and struck a really lovely photographer who did a little mini shoot for us. He was especially in love with our trip shirts which I designed for our trip.

09.09.16-12 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

09.09.16-21 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We found that on our first trip to Disneyland people often thought we were from the UK. I'm not sure why because to Australian's we have a very very different accent so our trip shirts were a great ice breaker and we had far less confusion about our origins this trip. We had a LOT of people comment on them and mention that travelling to Australia was on their bucket list. It's nice to hear that our country is so well thought of <3

I love Tower of Terror but was not expecting the different format at WDW! I won't spoil it for those of you who have ridden it at Disneyland (RIP Tower of Terror Disneyland) and are yet to experience it at WDW but we were shocked!! Again we strolled straight onto the ride and were lucky enough to get a front row seat.

Memory Maker-8 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

After our TOT experience we stopped by Rockin Roller Coaster. We considered riding but we're roller coaster adverse so passed but grabbed a snack from the cart just outside the ride and admired the theming.

We or course stopped for our next photo pass photo and managed to get this rather cheesy shot.

09.09.16-29 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

a fun memory none the less but it really got me thinking - what's the cheesiest Disney photo pass photo your family has ever had?? I'd love to see them if you care to share

One big thing that was a must on my Hollywood Studies list was One Mans Dream. On our way there we ran into the storm trouper march in front of the Great Movie ride/stage area. DH was beside himself!! It was like his ultimate dream come to life. I designed our touring plan to leave all things Star Wars until later in the after as we were doing the Star Wars desert party that night.

Anyway, back to one mans dream. I've always found Walt & Roy's journey fascinating and inspirational (like most of us here) and after many many rumours that it was going to close I definitely wanted to see it and I wasn't disappointed. We spent about an hour cooling off in the a/c (did I mention that it was HOT!!) and absolutely loved the movie of Walt's life.

Our fast pass for Midway Mania was quickly approaching so we made our way into........

09.09.16-39 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-41 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Midway Mania was so much fun!!! DH & I can be quite competitive so it was a great opportunity for me to show him who's boss

09.09.16-44 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-45 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Just ignore that accuracy score, it's the winning figure that matters

So it was getting pretty close to lunch time and we really hadn't made any plans for lunch. I jumped on the Disney App and managed to find a 12 noon reservation at 50's Prime Time Cafe.

09.09.16-49 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We had a wonderful uncle taking care of us and loved the decor and menu choices. We were super excited to snag a much coveted TV booth!!

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This was possibly one of our favourite dining experiences during our trip. The food was excellent. We loved the chicken soup and DH was so excited to see a coke float option (which we call a spider in Australia)!

09.09.16-56 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We had heard how big the portions were so we decided to split a tasting platter and uncle Rob brought us plates to share. The pot roast and fried chicken were my favourites but DH really loved the meatloaf. I've never cooked meatloaf (it's not really an a dish we eat in Australia) so I made a mental note to investigate recipes - if anyone out there has any please share!!

So after rolling out the door of 50's Prime Time will super full bellies we realised that the Star Wars stage show was starting. We were lucky enough to get front row seats - something which magically kept happening to us a lot on this trip. I think it had more to do with the heat and beating sun though.

09.09.16-69 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-79 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-81 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

DH & I loved the show even though it didn't really have a story line as such. Just seeing the characters was thrilling for us. DH loves Darth Vader (which I'll never understand because he's such a good guy and doesn't have an evil bone in his body - DH that is, not Darth Vader LOL!) but my favourite Star Wars characters are R2D2 & BB8!! LOVE YOU BB8!!

09.09.16-84 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

About this time of the day we were supposed to leave and head back to POP for a break but we were having too much fun .......... stay tuned for our Star Wars extravaganza!!



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[Sinders99]

Day 2 Part 2: Star Wars Overload, Trading with Jawas & an Out of This World Dessert Party

So after kicking off our afternoon with a Star Wars stage show we raced across to watch the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. I don't know what I was expecting but I wasn't a fan. DH is a big Indi fan though so it was right up his alley.

09.09.16-85 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-90 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

The biggest plus for this show was the covered seating area out of the midday sun Everything just felt a bit dated and out of touch for us.

After leaving the show we started out on our Star Wars adventure and headed straight to Star Tours. This area was unsurprisingly busy. We waited in line for about 10 minutes and we were off!! The ride was great and we lingered in the exit halls taking in the posters and movie memorabilia on the way out. And then we hit the gift store. Isn't it amazing how every ride at Disney exits into a gift store We must have spent an hour in the store looking at merchandise.

09.09.16-92 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Of course DH built his own light sabre and we each built our own droid. The disney specific parts were especially cute!! We absolutely loved this area of the studios!!

09.09.16-95 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-96 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We instantly decided on a return trip to see Star Wars land once it was complete. So much for our 'once in a lifetime trip'.

Next we were off to Star Wars Launch Bay to drool over all the exhibits and trade with some cheeky jawas!!

09.09.16-98 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Time had gotten away from us and we quickly realised that our Star Wars Dessert Party was about to start!! We made it to the party area just as the ropes were being taken down and made our way into the party. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the area set-up but it was well catered. We had soda, alcohol, bottled water, savoury snacks & hot & cold desserts on offer. The choices were excellent. Unfortunately we're not big drinkers but we did make the most of the soda on offer and the snacks and desserts were excellent!!

09.09.16-100 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-101 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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09.09.16-104 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We also had the storm troopers wander through the party to everyone's delight. They kept everyone entertained with their vocal quips and interactions with the kids.

About 10 minutes prior to the start of the fireworks we were led out of the launch bay area and frog marched through the crowd to our special roped off viewing area. Having access to this area and not having to wait on the footpath for an hour or two prior to the show was worth the cost of the party alone. As we entered the roped off area we were each handed a wookie drink stein which was a nice touch and as much bottled water as we liked.

And then the show began.

09.09.16-120 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-126 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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09.09.16-129 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

These fireworks were hands down our favourite of the entire trip closely followed by the fireworks at the MNSSHP. We both had tears and felt the dessert party was worth every cent. We'll definitely do it again on our next trip!!

That night we also had extra magic hours at Hollywood Studios so we used the time to re-enter the launch bay for meet & greets with Chewie & Kylo Ren.

Memory Maker-42 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
Memory Maker-43 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Chewie was fantastic but Kylo Ren was the single worst meet & greet we had the entire trip. He was a little too in character and a little too aggressive for both our liking. We were extremely uncomfortable and left feeling quite violated by the encounter.

09.09.16-139 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-140 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
09.09.16-141 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Our first full day at the parks was amazing and with the exception of our Kylo Ren encounter we had an amazing time.

Time to hop on a bus back to Pop and dream of our first day and rope drop at MAGIC KINGDOM!!!


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[wsssup]

Following along. Awesome pictures guys, what camera are you using? And don't worry good guys can follow the Darkside and still be good. Haha.

 

[Sinders99]

You found me @wsssup!! I was about to post the link on your thread when I started getting alerts. I took my Olympus OMD EM5 Mk 2 with me. I pretty much shot the entire trip with a 17mm f1.8 lens which was super handy because is was super compact and not in everyone's face. The camera itself is also splash proof which meant I didn't have to worry about it during downpours!! The camera and lens combined only weighed about 1kg and was super easy to carry on a neck strap without getting a sore neck or shoulders. I would highly recommend checking them out as the video is absolutely outstanding as well and I noticed you and Bec mentioned video in your trip report a few times

Glad to have you following along on this fine easter weekend!

 

[Sinders99]

Day 3 Part 1: Good Morning Good Morning!!

10.09.16-36 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Firstly, let me just say that I am a kid in an adults body. I had a childhood under difficult and tragic circumstances so Disney was always my escape from life. While most kids were going to movies I was cooking meals and cleaning a house after losing my mother at 12 years of age. It's not a pity party folks, just a bit of background on why I'm so passionate about Disney and why I turned into an instant child as soon as we pulled up at Magic Kingdom!!!

Today is going to be very picture heavy so be prepared!!

Looking back on this part of our trip I'm so glad now that I dragged us both out of bed for rope drop at Magic Kingdom. At the time we had no way of knowing that Disney were about to change the whole opening show.

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After the show we made our way to the entrance tunnel annnnddddddd

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Tears, instant tears!! I'm quite an emotional person and seeing this plaque, no matter the park, chokes me up every time. I mean really how can you not???

Seeing main street for the first time was so overwhelming!! It was beautiful and thennnnnn I see that damn crane!! Oh well, you can't win them all

10.09.16-43 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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Is there anything more beautiful than seeing this castle on a beautiful clear morning?? Let's just soak it in for a minute.

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Aahhhhhhhhh life it just better with a castle.

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10.09.16-57 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

So after pausing for some photos with our favourite castle we headed straight to fantasy land via the topiaries at the spinning tea cups.

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And onto Winnie The Pooh!! This absolutely had to be our first ride because I'm a HUGE Tigger fan. The ride was a classic and took me right back to being a small child again and I was super happy to find a HUGE Tigger mug in the gift shop as we exited the ride.

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There was already quite a queue at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (7DMT) and we had a fast pass to ride it later in the day so we decided to join Gaston & Lafou for some of their brew!!

10.09.16-63 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-65 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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This place was so amazingly themed. It was like stepping into a movie set. I really love Beauty and the Beast, so It was the perfect way to start our first Magic Kingdom day. Keeping with the Beauty & The Beast theme we finished our brew and chocolate pastry and headed to Enchanted Tales With Belle. Love love loved this experience. We had the cutest little girl in our group dressed in a super elaborate Belle costume who of course was selected to play a role but the whole time she just stood beside adult Belle and just stared up at her in absolute awe. Super super cute!!

10.09.16-72 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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10.09.16-82 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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Ahhhhh Magic Kingdom you are so beautiful!! Even with that ugly crane!

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It was only about 11am at this point but gee the heat was savage so we decided to head to an indoor attraction close by. Time for some princess meet & greets!!

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Oh my goodness, this Rapunzel had the thickest Boston accent and we could barely understand a word she was saying!! We were kind of dazed and confused by the time the photographer took the photo LOL!!

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Tiana was excellent!! I love the Princess & The Frog and she was perfectly in character and so charming.

After a lovely half hour in the air conditioning it was back out into the heat to this awesomeness!!

10.09.16-104 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-105 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

And this is where we experienced our first bit of Disney magic for the day. As we joined the fast pass queue we noticed that it was 30 minutes long (standby was 50 minutes). Luckily though the queue is pretty well shaded and as we made our way into the covered waiting area a cast member approached us, opened a gate and beckoned us to come right to the loading area!! We skipped about 20 minutes of waiting. We were so grateful and quickly scurried past trying to avoid the glaring looks of other park guests.

Memory Maker-2 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We loved this ride! Sure it was short just like everyone says but we loved the theme and the singing It's just such a shame that we only got to ride it this once though.

After leaving 7DMT we headed past the most famous toilets on disney property.

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They didn't have the automatic photo op set up when we went but people were still posing all over the place for pictures!

After making our way out of Fantasy Land we arrived at the Haunted Mansion. Of course we had to ride it. It was walk on for goodness sake!!!

10.09.16-115 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-116 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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We loved the WDW version of the Haunted Mansion. The details and queue were fantastic!! Yes I did get yelled at for taking that picture in the stretching room but it was worth it to record the experience! This ride is a classic for a reason and it never gets old. We'd be back to ride this again later in our trip at the Halloween party.

The heat outside had reached surface of the sun proportions by this stage so we needed somewhere/something to cool off. Hmmm what to do??? Walk by a lake??

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Nice, but not quite what we were after.

We headed right for splash mountain of course!! I was not expecting the WDW version of this ride. It was so much longer than Disneyland & Tokyo Disney's versions. The queue was so much better as well!!

Memory Maker-3 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Even though we were in the front row we really didn't get too wet but we certainly left with a damp dusting of cool goodness.

WOW!! This update has been a long one. I'll take a break now but join me shortly for our Crystal Palace lunch (YUM!) and a very special evening at Magi Kingdom



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[Denamac]

I'm here! Loving your report so far, so detailed and the photographs are beautiful.

I'm not a huge meatloaf fan, but I found this one recipe by The Pioneer Woman that is delicious! I do NOT do the bacon on it because I did that once and it didn't cook as crisp as my husband likes it and it kinda ruined it for him. I hope you enjoy it! Oh, and I did find I needed to cook it longer than stated. It was still pink after an hour.


INGREDIENTS

• Meatloaf:
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• 6 slices White Bread
• 2 pounds Ground Beef
• 1 cup (heaping) Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 3/4 teaspoons Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1/3 cup Minced Flat-leaf Parsley
• 4 whole Eggs, Beaten
• 10 slices Thin/regular Bacon
• Sauce:
• 1-1/2 cup Ketchup
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• Tabasco To Taste

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk over the bread slices. Allow it to soak in for several minutes.

Place the ground beef, milk-soaked bread, Parmesan, seasoned salt, salt, black pepper, and parsley in a large mixing bowl. Pour in beaten eggs.

With clean hands, mix the ingredients until well combined. Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan, which will allow the fat to drain. (Line the bottom of the pan with foil to avoid a big mess!)

Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf.

Make the sauce: add ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and hot sauce in a mixing bowl. Stir together. Pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top of the bacon. Spread with a spoon.

Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the sauce over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes. Slice and serve with remaining sauce.

 

[Sinders99]

I'm here! Loving your report so far, so detailed and the photographs are beautiful.

Thanks so much for following along Denamac! And thanks for the recipe! Am going to try cooking this next weekend!

 

[buteraa]

great report! Following

 

[Sinders99]

great report! Following

Glad to have you along for the ride

 

[Sinders99]

Day 3 Part 2: HELLO TIGGER!!

Hello to all my new followers!! I'm so glad to see you all here. I was beginning to think that I was alone on this trip

So where did we leave off? Oh yeah, we'd just jumped off Splash Mountain and realised our ADR for Crystal Palace was only 10 minutes away, so it was a power walking frenzy to get from Frontier Land to the palace on time. We made the desk on time and checked in for our ADR without too much trouble. It was a busy day and super HOT so it was a relief to cool off in the shade outside on the verandah until we were seated. We waited about 15 minutes before being called and made our way into the sweet relief of air-conditioning and friendship day madness!! This was a first for us - our first character dining experience. I was a bit worried it would be just for kids but it was a great meal and a great experience.

10.09.16-154 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-157 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Our first impression of Crystal Palace were really positive. We were seated quickly and our waiter updated us on how the whole meet & greet process worked. He told us we'd have about 10-15 minutes before the first character would be around so we quickly jumped up and grabbed a plate of food.

I was so happy to see a couple of american staples on the buffet that I really wanted to try. One was cornbread and the other was collard greens. We don't have anything like either of those in Australia so it was a thrill to finally try them. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the food but we were really happy with the food served. Everything was well cooked, there was plenty of variety and it was tasty. I really worried about whether this ADR would be a good one. I initially wanted a breakfast reservation because you can't really stuff up breakfast foods but I just couldn't get one. I scoured the internet for reviews and kept seeing a lot of mixed reviews about the food. I needn't have worried. We thought the food was great.

On the cornbread front, not really a fan It was like eating cake which was really weird for us. I always thought it was more of a savoury item but this was semi sweet and felt more like a desert item? I'm happy to report though that collard greens were a hit with us. I'll be looking forward to those when we're next in the US.

After our first plate of food we circulated through the characters in quick succession ......

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And then the big kahoona himself arrived!!

10.09.16-132 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-153 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

I was so excited to see my TIGGER!! We had great interactions with all the characters but Tigger was by far the best. I asked him to teach me how to bounce much to the delight of his handler and all the kids at the surrounding tables who quickly jumped up and joined in on a bouncing lesson. Love you TIGGER!!!

So wrapping up our first character experience we were super happy. The food was great, the characters were amazing and the venue was beautiful. The only negative was our waiter who after initially being very helpful upon seating us magically disappeared not to be seen again. After we'd met all of the characters we were looking for him to settle the cheque and go back to the resort but then the characters started coming around a second time so we just went with the flow and got to meet everyone twice!!! Great great dining experience.

Back out into the heat and boy was it HOT!! Did I mention that it was HOT??? But how could you complain when you had views like this?

10.09.16-160 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-158 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We wandered slowly down main street and out the gates to head back for an afternoon break at POP. We loved seeing these boats!! I just wish we'd jumped on one even if we just did a loop to nowhere.

10.09.16-162 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Back at the resort we jumped in the Hippy Dippy pool to cool off and then had a snooze before heading back to Magic Kingdom in the evening ...... but that's a story for another post sooooooo

TTFN!!!!
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[LindaZR]

Great report so far! Looking forward to the next post

 

[Sinders99]

Great report so far! Looking forward to the next post

Thanks for joining us

 

[Sinders99]

Day 3 Part 3: A Magical Evening!!

Great to see so many people starting to follow along!!

When we last left off we'd returned to POP for an afternoon rest.

Around 5pm we left the room to make our way back to Magic Kingdom. Again we reached the bus stop and waited only a few minutes for a bus to arrive.

We jumped onboard and were soon home again

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We absolutely loved all the Halloween / Fall decorations throughout the park. Halloween isn't really a big thing in Australia so this was our first taste of an American Halloween. We were thrilled with what we were seeing and couldn't wait for our MNSSHP on the 18th September.

As we made our way into the park we decided to stop at a number of photographers and make the most of that memory maker. I was super thrilled with some of the following shots.

10.09.16-165 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-173 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-177 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Awwww cute!!

Seeing as though were were so close to the Tinkerbell meet & greet we decided to pop in and say 'hi'!

10.09.16-182 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Tink was super cute and we loved her little fairy den! I was stunned to learn as we waited to walk in that Tinkerbell was DH's favourite classic Disney character. He'd never told me this before and I was kind of stunned!! But she was cute as a button so I can see why he likes her so much

After dropping in on Think we joined the crowd on main street and headed to Fantasy Land to ride the teacups!!

10.09.16-233 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-236 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-237 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-238 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

The teacups are so much fun!! But silly DH spun me around a bit much so I got off feeling a big scrambled!

As we made our way around Fantasy Land we passed this mad house but for some reason decided to go in and try to ride dumbo.

10.09.16-239 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-241 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-242 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We jumped in a ridiculously long line for dumbo and waited about 30 minutes but the line just wasn't moving which seemed completely crazy to us so eventually we exited without riding and settled for a photo in front of the ride instead I'm not sure what the issue was that night but a LOT of people were leaving the queue like us and walking out frustrated and mad. Oh well, something to go back and ride on our next trip

From there we passed Gastons and couldn't pass up a photo pass photo (I was determined to get my monies worth!)

10.09.16-245 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

And then we saw this!! Honestly does this place ever look bad???

10.09.16-248 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Seeing as though we were in the area we popped in to say hi to a couple of princesses and borrow some of that wonderful air conditioning.

10.09.16-252 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-255 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Cinderella was beautiful and loved that I turned up wearing 'her' ears.

We zig zagged back to Voyage of the Little Mermaid and noticed the wait was only 10 minutes (more like walk on), so in we went

10.09.16-256 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-263 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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I wasn't disappointed with this one. I love the little mermaid so this ride was a winner for me and I love the music numbers from the film so I was singing to my little hearts content!

Suddenly we realised it was approaching fireworks time so we rushed to main street and managed to snag an awesome spot diagonally across from Casey's!! We weren't disappointed with Wishes. It was a beautiful fireworks show.

10.09.16-208 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
10.09.16-212 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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10.09.16-227 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

So beautiful!! And so glad we got to see them before they left. I'm sure the new show will be just as good, if not better.

We grabbed a quick bite at Starlight Cafe before deciding to call it a night. The food was ordinary but we weren't expecting much from a burger joint as big as this place was and of course we had to sit and take in the show.

On the way out of the park for the night we stopped for another pic

10.09.16-271 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

We suddenly realised that the midnight parade was about to start so we raced up to the train station for this amazing view down main street. We weren't disappointed

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Hi Alice

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WOW!! What a night!!

We jammed so much into our first Magic Kingdom day but we were so happy. We jumped on a bus around 12:45am and headed back to POP for a well deserved sleep. Needless to say we did not rise early the next day but that's a story for tomorrow





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[Sinders99]

Day 4 Part 1: A Late Start and a Lucky Lunch Reservation

So when we got back to POP around 1:30am we knew there was no way were going to make it to our 9:30am Be Our Guest Breakfast. I have to admit that this was one meal I was devastated to be cancelling but we knew we had some time later in our trip where we could possibly try a walk up or last minute ADR. We knew going into this trip that we weren't going to be able to do it all and there were going to be times when we had to sacrifice things to get enough sleep and maintain our sanity

Anyway, after a solid nights sleep dreaming of Tigger and Wishes fireworks we woke at around 9am and started getting ready for another day at Magic Kingdom. DH headed for a shower and I thought I'd jump on the Disney App to see what might be available dining wise and to my shock there was an 11:45am ADR at Be Our Guest!!! I was so happy!! It was another magical day at Disney!

I was like a wiggly worm on the bus to Magic Kingdom that morning. I just couldn't wait to get to BOG! We arrived at the gates around 11am and made our way down main street to Fantasy Land and were greeted by this beautiful sight

11.09.16-24 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
11.09.16-22 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
11.09.16-20 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
11.09.16-26 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

This place took my breath away!! It was just absolutely stunning. It really was like walking into the movie. I've never had a dining experience like it. I was in awe.

11.09.16-3 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Everything we had read about the theming of this place was absolutely true. We spent a good 15 minutes walking around the various rooms and soaking in all the different theming and touches.

11.09.16-4 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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We eventually settled on a seat at the back of the ballroom beside the bay windows and watched the snow falling outside. It's really weird but you really do feel instantly cooler

11.09.16-8 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
11.09.16-9 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

For lunch I ordered the turkey sandwich and DH had the ham & cheese (it had some fancy french name but I can't spell it - education FAIL!) and for desert I had the lemon meringue cupcake and DH had the chocolate cream puff. The food was good. It wasn't the absolute best food ever but defiantly solid filling food in a stunning setting.

11.09.16-11 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

And then there was this ........

11.09.16-19 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

Now there's a beautiful story to go with this picture. I have a beautiful 17 year old niece, Carley, with Downes Syndrome. She shares my absolute love of Beauty & The Beast but funny enough while most girls dream of being Belle she actually loves the Beast and even dressed up as him for her disney themed 16th birthday party. When my sister in law saw this picture on my Facebook feed (we were live updating the whole trip) she instantly asked if I could do something with it for Carley. I told her I was already on it. When were returned from our trip I had this picture blown up to an 8x10" print and framed for her and gave it to her, along with a Belle, Beast & Mrs Potts Tsum Tsum for Christmas. About an hour after we gave her this on Christmas Day my sister in law came to me and said 'come and see this'. She took me to Carley's room and showed me how she'd cleared the whole shelf on her bookcase and the only thing that took pride of place on it was the framed picture I just really wish they'd had the special rose cup when we were there. We both would have loved one of those but you can't have it all

After taking one last walk around our beautiful surrounds we made our way back into the heat and came across a lovely photo pass photographer outside and had a photo with Sebastian

11.09.16-65 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

AWWWW CUTE!!!! Oh LOL!!! I just realised what a collection of buttons we'd accumulated. I think I mentioned that when we first arrived they mistakenly gave us the newly wed button because they didn't have any of the anniversary buttons left at POP. Then at 50's Prime Time the lovely hostess there gave us the anniversary button plus we had our first visit buttons. Such great souvenirs!!

Our friend Buzz was out strolling through Tomorrow Land as well so we stopped in to say hi.

11.09.16-43 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

HI BUZZ!!

So while we were in Tomorrow Land we decided to jump on the TTA. Such a nice relaxing break from the heat and a rest for the feet!! Loved going in and out of Space Mountain too!!

11.09.16-45 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
11.09.16-46 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
11.09.16-47 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr
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Oh Space Mountain HELLO!! Best we jump onboard and take a ride while we're so close.

Can I just say I loved this version! It was so much better than Disneylands. Disneyland's version was so short and really didn't have much grunt but this one almost shook my spine out of place and had me gripping that steady bar with white knuckles!! Can we see the 'holly cow batman' look on my face??

10.09.16-301 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

And to round out our afternoon in the park we stopped in for some comedy at Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. I really didn't think this was going to be very good but it was hilarious!!! SO FUNNY!! I went in quite tired and grumpy because of the crazy heat but left up beat and laughing. Such a great concept and show.

11.09.16-49 by Jennie Gardiner, on Flickr

So we made our way out of the park for a rest back at POP before a very special 10th Anniversary celebration dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse



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[buzzrelly]

Joining in, and WOW!!! Your pictures are AMAZING

I wish I could take pictures like that…I actually just googled your camera

Looking forward to reading (and seeing!) more!

 

[Stasieki]

Loving your trip report - I was in Hollywood Studios on 9/9 too! Was this MK day Saturday? That was our driving home day.