If I press the back button can we go to Orlando again?... last update 4/10

[petals]

Going to Florida in September and I'm overly excited and filling my head with everything disney and Universal! Person I'm going with not so much!

So far we've booked flights and hotel (off property)
We've also booked to go to Mickey's not so scary halloween party can't wait... my costume is coming together slowly for that!

Need to book tickets but not sure what our best options are
Last time we went with a troupe of dancers in 2008 so all was booked for us now we have to do it alone dunno what to choose lol and wondering if it'll be weird not meeting people we know as we go around the parks lol!

Pre-Trip/Flashback links:
Flashback to 08... Day 1 arriving in Florida
Flashback #2...Universal Studios
Pre-Trip shoes and autographs
Flashback #3... Day 1 in Seaworld
Flashback #4... We finally got to Disney
Flashback #5... First Dance Day and IoA
Flashback #6.... Hollywood Studios
Pre-Trip wonderings...anyone have the answers?
Pre-Trip stuff... I got tickets
Flashback #7.. Busch Gardens
Flashback #8... Easter, Pirates and Socks
Minnie had an accident
Flashback to Discovery Cove
Flashback #9.. Unplanned Dance day
Pre-trip countdown a month left!
Flashback #10... Honorary Cast Members
Flashback #11 part 1... Last Disney day 08
Flashback #11 continued
Flashback #12 Seaworld and home time
Pre-trip Schedule


Trip Report 2010 starts:
Day 1... We're off to Orlando
Day 2... Universal
Day 3 part 1: Florida Mall
Day 3 part 2: Magic Kingdom I'M BACK
Day 3 part 3: Boo to you it's time for MNSSHP
Day 4... unwanted visitor
Day 5 .. Seaworld
Day 6 part 1: Animal Kingdom
Day 6 part 2: Was this you?
Day 6 part 3: Grump and fighting animals!
Day 6 part 4: We missed the bus what do we do now?
Day 7: Successful shopping
Day 8 part 1: Happy Arthurs Day?
Day 8 part 2: Alot of Firsts
Day 8 part 3: More Firsts and old favourites
Day 9 part 1: Second last Disney day!
Day 9 part 2: First tears and rain
Day 9 part 3: Rained out parade
Day 9 part 4: Toontown and Fairies
Day 9 part 5: Night time fun in the Magic Kingdom
Day 10 part 1: Aloha
Day 10 part 2: Our first visit Downtown!
Day 10 part 3: Sprint around the world
Day 11 part 1: Leaving Orlando
Day 11 part 2: Searching for anything Disney
Day 12: A very wet day in the city
Day 13: A Wicked Day in New York
Day 14: Shopping and final Disney fix
Day 15: Home time... will we get there?

 

[petals]

I figured as well that as I'm bored today and slightly annoyed/upset over things at the moment to cheer me up I'll shove in a semi trip report from our last trip which was 2008!

Having a bad bad day so anything disney is bound to cheer me up right plus it's 92 days til I'm back in Florida

Ok so last time we flew over on the 12th of March 2008. I think if memory serves me correctly we flew with continental airlines which I thought were good. There was a very funny pilot speaking pirate talk with the younger dancers on the way over and he kept us amused most of the way over!
We were staying in the Holiday Inn just at the entrance to Universal Studios with the TGI fridays connected to the hotel. Rooms were nice and clean and I'd say most days we had food in TGI fridays which wasn't to bad. Plus we ended up having a voucher for dinner there one night as there was a mix up with our booking in when we got to the hotel on the 12th. There was two bus loads of dancers and parents about 40 of us arrived on one flight which was grand we got booked in no problem but then when the second lot of dancers ( 100 plus dancers and parents) arrived two hours later the hotel didn't have rooms ready as they had mixed up the dates and thought we were arriving the next day apparently! So to compensate the wait they gave the whole group a dinner voucher each.

The pic is the view of the hotel swimming pool from our room and if you look off to the left you'll see the entrance to Universal site:

 

[petals]

look at that countdown in the sig... three months exactly til Florida

Oh and finished my MNSSHP party costume last night.. Had a bit of dress drama during the week where sent three dresses to be adjusted and they all came back wrong Halloween party costume being one so I finished the adjustment myself and it's very cute!.. I'm gonna be Snow white for the night

I forgot to mention that this year we're staying in International Palms Resort.. Anyone know what it's like?

Will put up pics and details of our first day from 08 next...

Anyone joining me??

 

[petals]

Anyways on day 2 of our holiday last time we decided to go to:

Our dancing teacher had buses arranged for us to go to Disney on certain days because we were something like 45 mins drive away from it. Universal was across the road about 5 minutes walk from our hotel and we just fancied a take it easy day so we just walked around having a look at the park mainly. As we walked in we met these guys promoting their new ride which was going to open two months after we were there!

I think it was Mardi Gras while we were there as well so the parks were busy but not over packed.. I think the worse queue in Universal was 20 minutes which I didn't think was that bad considering it was Mardi Gras. It was nice as well to see the park decorated for the events:

As we walked about as well there was different music shows on the streets. Outside one cafe there was something like a grease show and then the blues brothers as well which we watched for a while. They were good:

We decided to watch some of the shows while we were in the park so first up was:

We had been in 2005 and didn't go to this show as we weren't quite sure what it was so we decided to have a look this time and we actually enjoyed it so was all good... I should say when I say we my mum and I tend to go around the parks together to get more in as the rest of the group are more into the thrill rides than we are

As we walked to our next destination we saw this guy getting off a float:

We decided not to wait for pics though because we had other plans we were headed for

Animal planet!! I love this show plus as a bonus they brought the little dog from Men In Black out at the start! When we came out of that there was a cute kids show on across from the Animal Planet venue which we watched for a while before heading for ET which had a 20 minute wait time:

I think after that mam had had enough of the sun so we headed out of the park and checked out the Van Helsing props in the waiting area for Horror make up show on our way:

Anyone joining me?

 

[petals]

80 days

 

[Nettaboo]

just stopping by to say hi!!

 

[petals]

cool welcome I'm not alone anymore

 

[crissy1974]

We're going in September too! Well, we leave on Sept. 30th. Guess you could say we're going in October, but Sept. seems soooooooooo much closer!

Can't wait to see pics of our costume!

I am still debating on MNSSHP! We did MVMCP last year and were not impressed. I don't want to spend the money on the Halloween party and walk away with the same feeling I did at Christmas. Decisions, decisions!

Your Universal trip looked fun! We haven't been there since 1999. DD4 would love it there. She loves almost all the characters at that part too. Maybe next year we'll plan a day at Universal for her!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[petals]

yay Welcome to my trip report/flash backs...
We just miss you by three days in disney
I think disney would be more magical for 4 year old atm.. Universal is good to but disney is just better for small kids (and me) I think. I'm looking forward to seeing WWOHP this year though.

so since the last time I updated which has been a while I sorted an autoraph book. I'm wondering if I'm a bit mad getting autographs again when I'm 25 but I don't care really. Found an old Ariel notebook and matching pen in our attic that I'd bought a few years ago and forgotten about so I'm using that as an autograph book...

Inside pages.. the pic came out a little darker than it should be but you get the idea..

I also did a bit of holiday shopping as I know when it comes to September none of the shops are going to have summer stuff over here plus they're selling stuff off now on sales so got a denim shorts to go with my holiday gear for day time and to cut down on shoes so I only have to bring one pair for day and then my black ones for night time I got these for 5 euro which is about 6.50 dollars or there abouts.

Figure the less I bring the more space I have for shopping plus I want to buy more trainers over there again

Oh and I also made reservations for Sci fi and a character breakfast in O'Hana so can't wait... 74 days to go

I've also been ordering pins from ebay to trade in parks. Watching out for scrappers :O

 

[petals]

and a flashback:
Day 3 last time we went to:

I didn't get alot of pictures on the first day mainly video but as we wandered around we came across this fellow outside a shop:

We missed the dolphin feeding and I really want to get to that early this year so we can get up close to Dolphin's but we went under their cave thing and got some cute pics of them from there:

Blue Horizon's the Whale and Dolphin show was our first show because in 2005 it hadn't started and only Dolphin show was the trainers showing how they were training the Dolphins for Blue Horizon's:

I got better pictures of that the second day we went into Seaworld!
We also went to Pet's Ahoy, The Sealion show and Shamu show.

I think we arrived early for the Shamu show and there was a queue to get in which I was surprised with because the other shows the Stadiums were open and you could just walk in and get you seat well in advance.

Day 4 was DISNEY

 

[crissy1974]

I love Sea World. It's another park we haven't been to in over 10 years. I have a dolphin tat on my leg (love ocean life).

The shoes look like crocs?? I just bought myself a pair of the sandal crocs. I wore them today at work (normally sit behind a desk all day). I ended up helping in our shipping department and was on my feet ALL DAY LONG. It all worked out. I found my "Disney shoes". My feet didn't bother me at all today. I'm actually thinking about getting another color. I have black. It's def good to have a great pair of shoes that are comfy.

Love the autograph book. Ariel is one of mine and Gabby's favorite Princesses!

 

[petals]

Yeah the shoes are crocs.. Was funny because one shop we went to they were 24 euro and the next shop they were 5 euro! 5 euro is about 6.50 dollars so was happy with them

Yeah Ariel is one of my fave characters as well. Got that notebook a few years back in the disney shop in Manchester when i was over there visiting family so thought I'd put it to good use now

Seaworld is brill as well. After disney it's my favourite park. We did Discovery Cove as well in 2005 which is just like a little paradise it was fab!

 

[petals]

So time for another flashback?!
Day 4 was our first Disney day...
Our dance teacher had arranged a bus or two for us all to visit the park so we all got the boat over to Magic Kingdom and then split up at the gates lol! I think there was a special Princess and Pirates event on while we were there as well *** there was some nice Princess Minnie and Pirate Mickey Toparies at the transport centre:

BTW I don't know about you but when I see this I lose a few years from my life and go back into child mode..

Love Disney sooooooo much! I also only noticed today on that picture you can see the wire Tinkerbell flies out along.. We missed Tinkerbell the last two years so must watch out for her this year!

Anyways we arrived fairly late to the park as well because the parade was just starting when we arrived so we changed first.. it had been a very cloudy morning and cold so we wore longer trousers but by the time we reached the park the sun was out and clouds gone and it was hot hot hot so we had brought shorts in case and changed before the parade so we didn't melt away Then grabbed a spot for parade and I took video and pics this time

Personally reading all the forums on disney I think my mam and I miss alot of the park in Magic Kingdom we tend to stay around Fantasyland most of the time we walked over there through Discoveryland but didn't try any of the rides there. I think there was a Monsters inc laugh floor and something to do with Stitch as well we weren't sure what they were so we didn't wait but headed for our favourite rides instead...
first Winnie the

then Snow White's Scary Adventures:

The Mickey's Philharmagic. That was another thing we hadn't done in 2005 because we didn't know what it was so we went to it this time and loved it.

After there was a choice between Small World

and Peter Pan

Peter Pan won over though. The queue was 45 minutes long or something so we said we'd get the long queue out of the way first and then do Small World on our dance day so we waited in the queue for Peter Pan. I've also learned recently that fast passes are free so next time we'll be availing of those. We thought they cost extra last time so we didn't use any but definately going to use them for the longer queues this year.
Anyway after Peter Pan it was getting late so we headed out to Main Street to pick a spot for the parade and fireworks and then we were home after so we went down close to the gate so we wouldn't have to fight our way through the crowds to get out of the park after:

Since Paddy's Day was our first Dance Day on Day 6 we just went to one of the outlets for some shopping for day 5 plus we had a dance rehearsal in our hotel as well.

 

[crissy1974]

I'm curious..........what were your thoughts on Discovery Cove??? One year I would like to go to Florida, stay off property and do Universal, Sea World, Discovery Cove and schedule 2 or 3 days at Disney (of course, one of those days being MK). Will you be posting pics of Discovery Cove? The only problem is that my boyfriend likes the convenience of staying on property. We haven't stayed off property since 1999. We did everything in 1999, but stayed on property. We even went to Old Town and strolled around. It was fun. Maybe someday!

 

[LutheranChick82]

I love your pictures!!! Makes me feel like I'm back there again. My boyfriend and I are going in November. I've already started my PTR and absolutely can't wait to get back to Disney

 

[petals]

I'm curious..........what were your thoughts on Discovery Cove??? One year I would like to go to Florida, stay off property and do Universal, Sea World, Discovery Cove and schedule 2 or 3 days at Disney (of course, one of those days being MK). Will you be posting pics of Discovery Cove? The only problem is that my boyfriend likes the convenience of staying on property. We haven't stayed off property since 1999. We did everything in 1999, but stayed on property. We even went to Old Town and strolled around. It was fun. Maybe someday!

Discovery Cove was brilliant. It was like a little paradise away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the parks. They only let a certain amount of people into the park everyday so it doesn't appear crowded and then the dolphin interaction is brilliant as well. They make sure as well that everyone gets a turn with the dolphin when they're showing the tricks and what not and then obviously everyone gets their swim. They also have people in the water to video the swim and interaction and take pictures. Obviously they cost extra can't remember how much but they were fab pics. I'm not sure what pics I have of discovery cove will look them up and stick them up in a few days when I find them most of it we got on video so might take pics off that.

I love your pictures!!! Makes me feel like I'm back there again. My boyfriend and I are going in November. I've already started my PTR and absolutely can't wait to get back to Disney

Thanks I can't wait either. Disney is best place to be.. 60 days til we're heading to Disney again
One of my family members staying at home is my dog Stitch and it's his unofficial birthday today!! We got him from the dog pound a year ago today. He was going to be put dpwn on the friday but we saw him the Tuesday before and took him home

 

[petals]

another flashback from last time
Day 6 was the first of our dance days. It was St. Patricks Day and we were performing in Citywalk Universal. I think the show was about 10am or something we went over fully dressed and for some of us that was as banshees, leprechauns or fairys while others were in Irish dance costumes. Our show was 25-30 minutes long and afterwards we got some group pictures with Universal Ball and Hard Rock cafe in the background. They also gave our dance teacher a little award type thing for us performing. (If ya want to see pics of this I can add you to my facebook)
After the show we went back to the hotel to get changed out of the costumes and make-up and put on our Irish gear then we headed back to the Universal Parks. Mam and I took a walk around Islands of Adventure as we hadn't seen it before. We didn't have a lot of time so we didn't do any rides just literally walk about to see the different areas and I took a few pics as I went along:

That night the whole group had dinner together for St. Patricks Day in the Hard Rock Cafe in Citywalk Universal and made a bit of a presentation to our dance teacher for arranging the whole trip. It was also one of the dancing daddy's birthday so Hard Rock made a bit of a fuss over him made him stand on a platform gave him a free ice cream sunady and got the whole place to sing Happy Birthday to him After that we did a mini Irish dancing performance around the cafe twice once downstairs and once upstairs. We had done this in 2005 and they went mental for us and same again in 2008 was brill!
This pic is of the downstairs bar in the cafe I think..

When we went back to the hotel we met a group of Salsa dancers so it ended up being a bit of a dance off in the Lobby they showed us some Salsa dancing and we showed them how to dance Irish style! Was definately the best St. Patricks day ever!!

 

[petals]

59 days til Holiday

Time for another Flashback to 08
I've already noticed from the various web forums etc that we miss an awful lot of things in every park and I intend to try fix that this year depending on energy levels
But anyways Day 7 last time was:

Disney's Hollywood Studios!!
We got a taxi here from our hotel and I think it cost somewhere between 35 and 70 dollars. We were as I said before staying at the entrance to Universal so a good 30-40 minutes drive from disney.
Some random pics from the park! I love this one:

We went to Voyage of the Little Mermaid and went to look at one man's dream and then took a stroll around the park and shops
We came across these guys as we walked around:

We headed to Hollywood Boulevard then to grab a good spot for the parade and were slightly annoyed to find parents apparently reserving their parade spots with strollers.. We waited about 20 minutes to see if they showed up and when they didn't just pushed the stroller over so we could sit on the kurb... When the woman came back she spent the whole parade shoving the stroller into our backs and lifted her child out onto the street! Anyways here's two of the many pics I got of the parade:

After the Parade we headed for Muppet vision

and then High School Musical 2 as it was at the time

As we came back around to head for Beauty and the beast show we met these guys:

Minnie totally spotted my camera there and waved I love it We also met Stitch and it was my first time meeting Stitch and had a fun little interaction with him.. I had a Little Miss Trouble T-shirt on and he totally played it up.. I was a big child and went running up and he jumped back with his hands on his face shocked and pointing at the t-shirt in the pic from that interaction he's pointing at the t-shirt as well!
Anyways after fun with Stitch we headed for Beauty and the Beast

After that I really wanted to wait for Fantasmic but then mam wanted to leave to get a taxi ahead of the crowds so we didn't see it Hopefully this year!

 

[petals]

Few random questions about wdw and that
When I go for character breakfast at O'Hana how does one get from O'Hana to Downtown disney after?

Also is Abu out all the time or only for MNSSHP and the Xmas party?

Oh also where abouts in HS can one meet Fantasia Mickey Mouse and the characters from UP?

Is there a MNSSHP on the 24th of Sept does anyone know because I read somewhere that Wishes wasn't going to be on that night and I had planned our Magic Kingdom day for then!

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Hi Petals! Followed you over from my PTR

Few random questions about wdw and that
When I go for character breakfast at O'Hana how does one get from O'Hana to Downtown disney after?

You can take a bus from the Polynesian Resort (where Ohana is located)

Oh also where abouts in HS can one meet Fantasia Mickey Mouse and the characters from UP?

Last time I was there, they could both be found in the Animation Academy building

Is there a MNSSHP on the 24th of Sept does anyone know because I read somewhere that Wishes wasn't going to be on that night and I had planned our Magic Kingdom day for then!

There is NOT a MNSSHP that night. I'm not sure why there wouldn't be a showing of Wishes. It is generally every night except when there is a special event. I'm wondering if maybe there is some outdated or incorrect info floating around out there.