Day 4 - Well this screwed our plans but oh well! Steps 13,975
Our alarm went off at 7am as we were due to spend the day at EPCOT. I woke Luke up and he didn't even wake up I knew something was wrong. I got myself up and showered and woke him up again. He asked me to turn off the light as it hurt his eyes and had a huge migraine. It happened, it caught up with him, our first sick day. I told him to drink some water and I'll go to the shop to see what medicine they had.. I packed some ibuprofen but thought I'd see what they have there as well. I explained to the CM and she said it sounds like dehydration but she would happily call someone and get us to the medical clinic but I said I'll see how he goes in the next few hours. SO, when we went for a holiday to New Zealand a couple of years ago I had really severe dehydration and should of been in hospital. I bought a couple of Powerades, Advil and a big litre bottle of water. He wondered where I was as apparently I had been a long time (no, he just fell back asleep and didn't know what time it was). I gave him an advil and water and he said 'I'm ok, I'm ok' I was like clearly you're not so drink up and go back to sleep. He woke up around 2pm I watched a whole series of something - I think it was Pretty Little Liars? Maybe. I was going to chill by the pool but thought I rather just lie down next to him just in case he needed me. So he woke up at 2pm and felt so much better, I said to him no rides we will just go out for dinner and he agreed. We were going to EPCOT but just to have a little walk around, food and then come back as I knew we had a long day at Animal Kingdom tomorrow. Advil is absolutely amazing and totally regret not bringing back a few bottles!
Off to EPCOT we go..
We had a bit of time to walk around and we never actually made it around the whole showcase! It was also Food and Wine but we didn't try anything - partly because it was really busy and we didn't feel like it at the time..
Dinner was ok at Via Napoli, they wanted to sit us outside but it was so warm and I explained that Luke hadn't been well and I'm not sure if the server was in a mood with me requesting a different seat or if we came at the wrong time
So we got back around 8pm and literally went to sleep.. What an adventurous pair we are
Day 5 - Flying a Banshee, Escaping Dinosaurs and Going on a Safari Steps 25,840
So Luke woke up feeling much better and I thought THANK THE LORD as we were off to Animal Kingdom. We got a quick bite to eat and off we went. The bus ride wasn't that long even though it was the furthest park from Port Orleans. We had a quick look at the app and it had crashed, everyone was in panic mode! We went on the little trail at the beginning of the park and veered of towards Dinoland. There was a meet and greet for Pocahontas and only waited 10 minutes.
We scanned our magic bands to remind ourselves of the fastpass times and the CM was jealous as we had a fastpass for FOP! So our fastpasses were FOP, Everest and Kali River Rapids so we wondered over and Dinosaur was a 20 minute wait so we joined the queue. It was a really neat ride, definitely not what I was expecting! We were going to go on Primevil Whirl but Luke hates anything that spins which I only just found out. He wanted $5 do have a go on the basketball hoops and to my surprise he won a seahorse (that later became a dog toy)..
We were off to Pandora! I was so excited as I was probably one of the few that actually couldn't wait to see it. I absolutely love Avatar and can't wait for the second one to come out. It was absolutely beautiful and even though it started to rain nothing would damper my experience. We looked at the stand by for Na'vi River Journey and that was 70 minutes at 10am and FOP was way over 100 minutes. We scanned our Magic Bands and the light went green and off we went through the long, windy fastpass queue. One guy asked us how we got them and I said 60 days and it has to be the first thing you book. We were meant to come back the next day so I actually had 2 fastpasses for FOP but we decided to cancel and go back to EPCOT. I really hope whoever got them were happy
So you go through to a room and some fun stuff happens and then your seated in a motorcycle type seat. Honestly, if you think you won't fit you probably will as long as you're clicked in two or three times on the back support you're good to go. This ride was absolutely incredible, the smells, the feel of the banshee underneath, the graphics, honestly it was absolutely amazing. So we were sad to leave and everyone couldn't stop talking about it as we were going to the exit. You go into the gift shop which is themed really well. Next stop was Asia!
We had Everest in our sights and it was much bigger than we expected, our second fastpass of the day! We joined the queue and within 5 minutes the CM asked us did we want to be in the front.. YES PLEASE! It was so unbelievable scary but so glad we did. I regret not going on it again as it was probably my favourite ride with FOP but the waits were over an hour. You can truly see so much up there and the yeti projector was working! After our expedition we stopped by Flame Tree for some food and the queue was so long but we didn't wait that long.
We were feeling brave and hot so onto Kali we went. I don't know what it is about going on water rides with other families, it's quite amusing because you instantly laugh and cry when the water washes over yourselves/them. I loved the theme but felt something was missing but the drop was bigger than I imagined. We definitely got wet on this one.
We decided to go on the Maharajah Trek which dried us quickly and spotted the tiger and some stunning birds. Luke was desperate to go on the Safari but it was a 70 minute wait.. And guess who had to give in. It was good but I wish I didn't have to wait that long. Someone said there were animals on the road and that's why the standby line went up as they can't move them.
It was a great day at Animal Kingdom but didn't watch any shows which we would've done but things happen and I'm looking forward to going back. We headed back to the room to get changed as we were having dinner at Ohana later where I met a fellow Kiwi!
An EPCOT half day? Steps - I'm so annoyed that I upgraded my phone and my data didn't go with it..
Well we woke up around 8am and headed straight to the bus stop. We entered the park just after 9am and went straight to Test Track. It already looked like it was going to be a busy day with the sun shining and it being Food and Wine. We queued up with the app saying a 25 minute wait while Soarin was at 45 already but we had fastpasses for that.
We designed our car, spoiler - we actually came first!
We really enjoyed it and wanted to go back on it but the standby line wait was well over an hour throughout the day. We had a look at the other cars around the showroom when you exit, checked our photo on the MDE app and went over to Soarin for our first fastpass of the day.
We had a 5 minute wait for Soarin and it was good but I wouldn't wait more than 30 minutes for it! After we finished we had a look at the wait time for Living with the Land and that was 50 minutes! We passed on that one but knew we would go on it when we came back for another holiday. We headed over to Seas with Nemo and Friends - we waited at least 40 minutes and once we got through we didn't even go and see anything as it was manic!
We stopped by Club Cool to try all the flavours - including the Beverley.. I didn't mind the taste when I first tried it but the after taste was absolutely vile! We had a walk around and had a toilet stop. At this point we were starving and Luke still didn't feel 100% so we changed our reservation at Rose and Crown from 4pm to 12.30 so we were eating in 30 minutes! We walked over to the UK Pavilion taking some photos along the way and walked through the shops there before checking in.
We had our food and Luke asked me about Mission Space. I said there were two sides but he didn't want to go on it and I didn't want to go on my own so I cancelled our fastpasses and picked 2 up for Spaceship Earth. Maybe not the best thing after we had food as going down at the end made us feel really ill! It was nice to chill for a while though!
We headed out but not before a photopass photo and we got a quick photo with Daisy before we left for the day.
We headed back to POFQ just to refresh ourselves, got our refills and chilled watching the Disney Channel! Luke loved the boat so a bit later in the afternoon we went to Disney Springs again.
Our first stop was the Christmas shop as my mum really wanted a Christmas ornament so we found her a mickey head with snowflakes on it. I met one of the nicest CMs called Carey. He was from Hamilton in New Zealand and I told him I was from Auckland but now living in the UK! I think he was homesick as he had been there for 6 months. He was so lovely! He then said 'well I'm so nice I've given you the passholder discount!' We also met someone who's a CM at Ohana and we got chatting as she was from NZ as well.
We went into Goofys Candy Co as I really wanted a rice krispies treat.. which I didn't even finish because it was so big!
We went into the Rainforest Cafe's shop and bought my Nana a little Lion and then we headed back to the resort and somehow we had the boat to ourselves! We had a lovely chat with the skipper who was from New Jersey and got talking about all things!
We got back and got our usual pepperoni and cheese pizza, settled down for the night with my Mickey head treat and got ready for a day at Typhoon Lagoon!
Our Last Day!
So it was a Saturday and we expected it to be busy at Typhoon Lagoon but we got there just as it opened, got our seats and went straight to the rides but I really wanted to get some board shorts so I got some black ones that I still wear today so a good investment in my eyes . So first we went on Miss Adventure Falls which I really enjoyed! I've always had a bit of a panic with Water parks and slides where I'm going to fall out and hurt myself or that I'm going to do a full 360 in the slide on the way down. So I was a bit nervous but that one was really good. Next up was Crush and Gusher and Luke was in the front and I was in the back. Oh my lord I HATED it as I thought oh Thank God we are at the bottom we hit the water and we both went under the water. I'm sure the front of the raft went down so I flipped over Luke basically. It must happen as the lifeguard wasn't concerned at all! So I said to Luke I'm NEVER going on anything with you.. so he went on the Kowabunga slide which he enjoyed as he went on it a few times. Then he convinced me to go on the Storm Sliders.. I chose the easy one but wasn't very confident as I had to hold my sunglasses but I didn't flip which was a bonus!
We then went on the family raft where you have to carry it up. Jesus that was hard with the two of us! It was a neat ride and enjoyed that one. After that we went on the Lazy River which I loved, Luke fell out of his which was amusing and tried his hardest to get away from me to the amusement of people around us!
We went to the wave pool and I've heard it is really good and I've always swam in the sea since I was young and been in big waves with a body board in NZ but without one it was quite intimidating! The sound went off and Christ IT WAS HUGE. Of course I lost my sunglasses and spun a few times under the water. I had enough of the water by this point and it was only 12 so I headed for some popcorn and a Pink Donut (Snack Credit!) and sunbathed and facetimed my Mum and showed her the wave pool and had a general chit chat which was nice! Luke went back on the slides but he came back around half an hour later and we headed back to the resort as we had a late lunch reservation at Rainforest Cafe and then for our last time at Magic Kingdom.
So got the boat to Disney Springs and went to Rainforest Cafe, can't say much about the place but I enjoyed the food but we came out with a massive headache with all the noise.
We got changed and went to Magic Kingdom and it was so busy but we had fastpasses for 7DMT, POTC and Jungle Cruise. We only did these three as it was so busy and standby lines were crazy so we didn't stay for the fireworks and left around 8.
Bye WDW
We got back, I packed our stuff ready to head to Universal the next day. We woke up around 8, grabbed ourselves a danish and drinks and I ordered us a Lyft and it was there within 5 minutes.
What an absolute amazing 8 days we had even though Luke was ill we made the most of it. Lukes favourite part was meeting Pluto, POTC which to this day he still sings 'Yo ho, Yo ho, A Pirates life for me' and the boat to DS! My favourite bits were riding Everest, FOP and Jungle Cruise. The food was great and couldn't fault using the Dining Plan as it was a relief not to worry about money for food except tips and spending money.
So.. we are keeping all our fingers crossed as we are hoping to go back September 2019! Thanks for reading along and can't wait to start all this over again.. I've also started the Dining Report if you wanted to have a look and starting my Universal Trip Report soon.
Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.