Hi. I have been so busy since we returned from our hols so sorry it's a bit late.
Bit of Background We were 4 adults and my niece (13) and nephew (20), we were staying 14 nts and 7 nts cruise on Freedom of the Seas and my SIL and family 14 nts, hotel only,4 June 2014. We stayed offsite at Rosen Inn at Pointe, I Drive.
Highs.
Universal Studios.... This has always been our favourite park and our first day must do, the park was quiet with hardly any queues, perfect for our first day. We then wandered over to Hogsmeade as I couldn't wait any longer having missed the opening 4 years ago by 2 weeks. I loved FJ (30 min wait) and the whole area, everybody loved Transformers which was new for us and the Mummy.
Going with other people.....This was our first holiday to Florida with family in tow, all the planning was left up to me and I was a bit nervous about being demanding with our time. Overall everybody got on fine, we did have some later starts and I emphasised that nothing was set in stone and we had some separate evening meals. It was lovely for me to experience it all with newbies and we did have a great laugh. The highlight was at Sea World when my SIL turned to me with tears down her face saying 'I can't believe we are really here'.
Rosen Inn at Pointe.....We have stayed here on all our trips over the years and find it a good hotel in a better position on IDrive. The restaurant is great for breakfast and evening meals. It had a sports bar for my BIL and Walgreens over the road for supplies for niece and nephew, it was the best choice for our families needs as we all like different things and wouldn't hesitate to stay again. We did have rooms facing the I4 though so was a bit noisy and there were 4 of them in one room which was a bit cramped. I did have a few pangs of longing when we passed the WDW Dolphin as we loved it there in the past.
Cosmos and Monarch......We booked 3 years ago with cosmos but had to cancel due to redundancies and they were so helpful at the time so we re-booked for this year. We upgraded to premium on Monarch and it was the best flight so far for us, the food was great, seats fab, IFE was a bit hit and miss though but we just chatted most of the way there. They did weigh our hand luggage on the way home and I got stung for $100 overweight
they didn't weigh my SIL's the week before though.
Taxis....We didn't hire a car and we just got taxis outside the hotel and split the cost between us. This worked great for us as if some of the party had had enough they just went back to the hotel, not from Disney though as this would have been too expensive. It was $90 return from MK, which I thought was ok. We did use the shuttle from the hotel at the end of the holiday when there was just 2 of us and this was fine also.
Shopping....We all got some bargains and my SIL practically cleared out Tommy Hilfiger
I even got my hands on some Frozen stuff for my friends kids, it's no wonder our cases were overweight.
Freedom of the Seas....We loved, loved, loved the cruise. This was our 8th cruise on RCI over the years and our second on Freedom but we did the Eastern this time. After several holidays to Orlando we look forward to breaking it up with a cruise now. St Maarten was the best port.
Lows....Food. We were so disappointed with the food this time, we ate at Millers Ale House and the salmon was dry and my SIL's fish was frozen. The counter service food at Disney was terrible, we threw a lot of it in the bin. We ate at the italian in Epcot but it was $85 for one course and a drink each (2 of us) and wasn't great. Everybody was so sick of burgers, even my BIL and nephew who are the kings of junk food. I booked the Rainforest Cafe and this was our best Disney meal, the Rosen Inn was fine and TGI Fridays was great. I suppose if we had a car we could travel further afield to more restaurants but we were in the parks most of the time. We made up for this on the cruise
Magic Kingdom....It was so hot and too busy to do anything that we gave up and went to HS instead and went back for the evening shows. We only did Splash and BTM and all the fast passes were gone for the day, it was heaving with people. It also felt a bit 'kiddie' for us now, I know it's always been for the kids, but it's lost some magic for us somehow, my other half actually said he's done with Disney We also had a big row with some women with kids waiting for Electrical parade (we had been sat waiting for over an hour and they were behind us), it got really nasty with them and it did ruin the evening a bit. Unfortunately my SIL never made it back to MK.
Weather....Just a little moan, I really don't like the rain! We did carry on regardless in our ponchos but had to evacuate TL twice and gave up at IOA which was annoying and it got a bit tiresome every day. Will definitely go back to visiting in May instead of June.
Neither high nor low....FP+ I did book 3 days of fastpasses for our party before leaving just to have something in place. We did visit the Disney parks on those days so it was good to not have to queue all the time, this was appreciated by my BIL who was really struggling with the heat and the walking. I don't really like planning each day with military precision which FP+ is about, also it was impossible to change any on the day to a different park as they were all gone. On the plus side, after the cruise we had 3 days on our own and I just booked FP+ the day before we went to a park and got what we wanted.
Diagon Alley...Missed it opening by 2 weeks again! I suppose I will just have to go back and Frozen Summer of Fun, loads of merchandise available when I looked on the blog and the fireworks looked fantastic.
We all had a fantastic trip and loved the time we spent together, we love Epcot and HS and enjoyed AK too, we watched all the fireworks and fantasmic. We split the park time up with water parks to rest and cool down which was a great idea so went to Aquatica and TL 3 times. It was probably a one off trip together and we are so happy we went and made lots of happy memories. I have had major holiday blues since we got back and wanted to go for Christmas
but don't think we can make it happen
but we are going to Venice this weekend as my 40th birthday was in January and I am making it last a whole year.
Many thanks for reading, I'm sure I've missed loads of info out and it's not as informed as some others I've read, feel free to ask me anything. Here's to next time
Bit of Background We were 4 adults and my niece (13) and nephew (20), we were staying 14 nts and 7 nts cruise on Freedom of the Seas and my SIL and family 14 nts, hotel only,4 June 2014. We stayed offsite at Rosen Inn at Pointe, I Drive.
Highs.
Universal Studios.... This has always been our favourite park and our first day must do, the park was quiet with hardly any queues, perfect for our first day. We then wandered over to Hogsmeade as I couldn't wait any longer having missed the opening 4 years ago by 2 weeks. I loved FJ (30 min wait) and the whole area, everybody loved Transformers which was new for us and the Mummy.
Going with other people.....This was our first holiday to Florida with family in tow, all the planning was left up to me and I was a bit nervous about being demanding with our time. Overall everybody got on fine, we did have some later starts and I emphasised that nothing was set in stone and we had some separate evening meals. It was lovely for me to experience it all with newbies and we did have a great laugh. The highlight was at Sea World when my SIL turned to me with tears down her face saying 'I can't believe we are really here'.
Rosen Inn at Pointe.....We have stayed here on all our trips over the years and find it a good hotel in a better position on IDrive. The restaurant is great for breakfast and evening meals. It had a sports bar for my BIL and Walgreens over the road for supplies for niece and nephew, it was the best choice for our families needs as we all like different things and wouldn't hesitate to stay again. We did have rooms facing the I4 though so was a bit noisy and there were 4 of them in one room which was a bit cramped. I did have a few pangs of longing when we passed the WDW Dolphin as we loved it there in the past.
Cosmos and Monarch......We booked 3 years ago with cosmos but had to cancel due to redundancies and they were so helpful at the time so we re-booked for this year. We upgraded to premium on Monarch and it was the best flight so far for us, the food was great, seats fab, IFE was a bit hit and miss though but we just chatted most of the way there. They did weigh our hand luggage on the way home and I got stung for $100 overweight
they didn't weigh my SIL's the week before though.Taxis....We didn't hire a car and we just got taxis outside the hotel and split the cost between us. This worked great for us as if some of the party had had enough they just went back to the hotel, not from Disney though as this would have been too expensive. It was $90 return from MK, which I thought was ok. We did use the shuttle from the hotel at the end of the holiday when there was just 2 of us and this was fine also.
Shopping....We all got some bargains and my SIL practically cleared out Tommy Hilfiger
I even got my hands on some Frozen stuff for my friends kids, it's no wonder our cases were overweight.Freedom of the Seas....We loved, loved, loved the cruise. This was our 8th cruise on RCI over the years and our second on Freedom but we did the Eastern this time. After several holidays to Orlando we look forward to breaking it up with a cruise now. St Maarten was the best port.
Lows....Food. We were so disappointed with the food this time, we ate at Millers Ale House and the salmon was dry and my SIL's fish was frozen. The counter service food at Disney was terrible, we threw a lot of it in the bin. We ate at the italian in Epcot but it was $85 for one course and a drink each (2 of us) and wasn't great. Everybody was so sick of burgers, even my BIL and nephew who are the kings of junk food. I booked the Rainforest Cafe and this was our best Disney meal, the Rosen Inn was fine and TGI Fridays was great. I suppose if we had a car we could travel further afield to more restaurants but we were in the parks most of the time. We made up for this on the cruise
Magic Kingdom....It was so hot and too busy to do anything that we gave up and went to HS instead and went back for the evening shows. We only did Splash and BTM and all the fast passes were gone for the day, it was heaving with people. It also felt a bit 'kiddie' for us now, I know it's always been for the kids, but it's lost some magic for us somehow, my other half actually said he's done with Disney
We also had a big row with some women with kids waiting for Electrical parade (we had been sat waiting for over an hour and they were behind us), it got really nasty with them and it did ruin the evening a bit. Unfortunately my SIL never made it back to MK.Weather....Just a little moan, I really don't like the rain! We did carry on regardless in our ponchos but had to evacuate TL twice and gave up at IOA which was annoying and it got a bit tiresome every day. Will definitely go back to visiting in May instead of June.
Neither high nor low....FP+ I did book 3 days of fastpasses for our party before leaving just to have something in place. We did visit the Disney parks on those days so it was good to not have to queue all the time, this was appreciated by my BIL who was really struggling with the heat and the walking. I don't really like planning each day with military precision which FP+ is about, also it was impossible to change any on the day to a different park as they were all gone. On the plus side, after the cruise we had 3 days on our own and I just booked FP+ the day before we went to a park and got what we wanted.
Diagon Alley...Missed it opening by 2 weeks again! I suppose I will just have to go back and Frozen Summer of Fun, loads of merchandise available when I looked on the blog and the fireworks looked fantastic.
We all had a fantastic trip and loved the time we spent together, we love Epcot and HS and enjoyed AK too, we watched all the fireworks and fantasmic. We split the park time up with water parks to rest and cool down which was a great idea so went to Aquatica and TL 3 times. It was probably a one off trip together and we are so happy we went and made lots of happy memories. I have had major holiday blues since we got back and wanted to go for Christmas
but don't think we can make it happen but we are going to Venice this weekend as my 40th birthday was in January and I am making it last a whole year.Many thanks for reading, I'm sure I've missed loads of info out and it's not as informed as some others I've read, feel free to ask me anything. Here's to next time
