Our Anniversary DVC Stay - Sept 2013

Day 7 - part 2

After we finished and paid our bill we headed back outside to collect the car.

It was almost time to meet our guide Tim so we made our way over to SSR to wait for him there. We weren't having a full on tour as we were already owners now, we just needed to go through the pricing for VGF and to work out how many points we would need if we chose to buy in. Tim seemed to remember exactly who we were even down to where we stayed when we were here in May, I asked him if he made notes and he admitted that he did... He was much nicer with us this time and there was no hard sell even though we had bought our AKL points via resale. We went through all the paperwork and pricing and went away to talk things through. I'm sure people don’t believe me when I say this, but it was Sy who had to talk me into buying VGF points and not the other way round! I was still humouring him at this point... He also wanted to go over to the model rooms so he could try selling it to me, which Tim thought was very funny as its usually the wives who have to talk the husbands into it! While we were inside looking at the model rooms the heavens opened to the heaviest downpour of the trip, we said goodbye to Tim and were about to run to the car but Tim gave us an umbrella from the basket by the door and said give it back to him next time we see him ;)

We decided to try heading back to BLT to see if our room was ready, sadly it still wasn't however we were told on the sly that housekeeping was in the room right now so it would be ready any moment, so we waited in reception.... 40 mins later someone from the front desk came over to say the room was ready. We were both *so* excited for our stay in BLT, we had a MK view and Hayley and popped an email over to her guide to ask for us to have a nice central view high up as we were there for our wedding anniversary. Hayley is amazing! We were in room 7918.



The room was sadly very tired :( It was still pretty and nice but just so tired in compared to AKL and this is a newer resort! Out on the balcony is was super noisy due to MK, the road and the works going on the renew the bus stops. Not the tranquil peace and quiet balcony like in AKL...











Some pics of the tiredness of the room...







We quickly unpacked and headed out for afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian, Garden View Tea Room. I booked this back in May when we were here as I wasn't able to book it online and didn’t want to call up. We got dressed up and headed over via monorail, we were a little early so we checked in and took a seat in the lobby listening to the pianist and singer. They were both fab!



Before long a waitress came to get us and showed us to a table for 2, it was half empty inside so not sure why we weren’t able to be seated early? It didn’t matter, we were happy listening to the music, I’m just nosey and wanna know why lol. We were given menus and we both decided on the Buckingham Palace Tea which included sandwiches with an onion tart, scone and jam tart followed by a choice of trifle, strawberries and cream or 2 pastries from the cake tray and your choice of tea.





I decided to go for the Mango Oolong tea and Sy the Thunderbolt Darjeeling. I really enjoyed the delicate taste of the Oolong and I was loved how it was presented - in the sweetest little chintzy, floral cups and saucers with a thick, luxurious tea cosy for the pot, soooo cute!



I didn't have the full selection of sandwiches cause of my food problems so stuck to curried chicken, Sy had the normal plate which included, curried chicken, cucumber and watercress, smoked salmon, pear and Gorgonzola and egg mayonnaise. We loved them all :) Sy often says he misses sandwiches while in Orlando as the bread just isn’t the same, however these came closer to it ;)



We were then brought out our scones and jam tart, the scones probably weren't the best I had ever eaten but they were still not bad. They came with strawberry jam, lemon curd and Devonshire cream. Sy ate both jam tarts as I don’t like them ;)

We decided that Sy would order the strawberries and cream while I ordered 2 cakes from the tray and share them both. Our server came over with a big plate full of cakes which were beautifully presented, I chose a rhubarb and plum swan and Simon chose a coconut cake. They were both very good but for me, the strawberries and cream stole the show! They came out so gorgeously presented and the cream was slightly sweetened. I was sad that I hadn't just ordered them to myself (note to self make sure I order them all for me next time!).



We had been chatting to the couple at the next table who were also English and DVC members, in fact the lady nearly wore the same dress as me to afternoon tea! That could have been awkward... Lol. We paid our server and thanked her for her help with my allergies and food problems. We then hopped back on the monorail and headed back to the resort feeling full and happy :)

We chilled out in the room for a bit and had a little nap while watching TV :) When we woke up we decided to head out and get some food, didn’t have a plan on where to go which turned out to be a mistake as we ended up driving round and round for a while before deciding to get curbside Chili's to bring back to eat on the balcony before watching Wishes. I don’t know the proper protocol of tipping at curbside however I gave the girl a few dollars and she seemed really shocked and pleased, not sure if that’s cause she isn’t normally tipped or cause we were British hahaha!

Stupidly I didn’t check the time of Wishes before we went out and it was on super early tonight at 8pm (it was 9pm, 10pm & 11pm the rest of the week) so we saw the beginning of it as we were driving into the car park. We totally legged it to the room to try and catch it from the balcony. I'm not 100% sure what had happened but we weren't back in the room till 8:15 but it was at the beginning and went on for the full time so I guess it must have started late, not sure why though, it wasn't raining or windy by now.





Even though we had seen most of it, I was really upset that we had missed the beginning of Wishes, we had paid more to be in a MK view room and we were only here for 2 nights, plus I already knew that we were going to miss it the next night as I had booked something special for our Anniversary meal :( Sy managed to jolly me out of it though and said we will book to come back again in a few years for an MK room, if the resort has a bit of TLC in the meantime.

We ate our food which wasn't too bad nor was it cold as we had left it while watching Wishes, we then vegged out on the sofa watching TV before getting an earlyish night at about 10pm.


Tomorrow, our wedding anniversary :D
 
Day 8 - part 1

Our Wedding Anniversary :D a special intimate dining experience :D

I was up at 7:30am due to Sy's snoring yet again, but being the nice hubby he is, he got up and watched TV for a few hours so that I could get some more sleep, yay! I then managed to sleep until 9:30am, those extra 2 hours made all the difference to me, I do love my sleep ;) I think I was catching up from days of little and broken sleep due to Sy's snoring...

When I was awake again I went to grab all of our cards, our lovely family and friends had given us cards to bring with us :) We opened them all in bed :) Sy then made us both some breakfast of bagels, we had quite a few to get through as Hayley and Gareth had kindly given the rest of theirs when they left (among other things, they gave us drinks, stuff for sandwiches etc, thanks guys!). We called home while eating to say hello to our parents and thank them for their cards - they had both given us some dollars to spend *awww* We are very lucky :D

We had made some loose plans to meet up with Jeff and Joe but it was quite difficult to try and arrange it as our mobile's didn't like their phone numbers :( We quickly dressed and I messaged to say we were on our way. We then hot footed it over to MK. It was *SO* hot today, it was the hottest day since we got there, and added to that, MK was PACKED. We queued to get through bag check and then queued to get in. I was in a bit of a flap as it was starting to go past the time we were supposed to meet, I did message to say we were on the way but then we were just hoping that Jeff had read the message and didn’t think we had changed our minds!

As luck would have it though, Jeff had read the message and they were waiting for us. Yay! I didn’t even have to do that awkward I'm-not-too-sure-what-you-look-like-but-I-have-to-try-and-find-you thing because Jeff spotted us as we walked over the bridge. We have the biggest hugs before getting into the queue at Aloha Isle for some Dole Whips. We were given a voucher for 2 free dole whip floats on our first day to kinda make up for the waiting around trying to fix our bands and we also wanted to buy for Jeff and Joe too as it was Jeff's special birthday (which I think he's totally lying about, there's no way he's as old as he tells me ;) ), there was a little bit of an argument on who was paying as they wanted to treat us as it was our anniversary! Teehee. We then got a spot to sit down and talk. Jeff and Joe are just the cutest couple *ever*! We chatted for aaaaaaaages, and we totally forgot to get any pictures of us all which was annoying - we were just caught up in how much fun we were having :D We did spend an awful lot of time talking about DVC and why Jeff and Joe weren’t owners yet... Sorry Joe! ;) After what felt like 5 mins but was at least 45 mins we had to say goodbye, it was getting so hot out in the heat plus the guys had somewhere to be. So we said a big goodbye and headed in the direction of the park exit.

We walked through the shops, totally buying into the whole Disney making the shops cool to entice you inside to escape the heat... and we found the perfect present for my friend Ruth who was cat sitting for us. She's a huge Disney fan and we have been to Disneyland Paris with her but she's never been to WDW, well she is a huuuuuuuuge villains fans and board-game fan, and I found a villains monopoly :D Perfect present for her :) I just had to buy it ;) I just knew she would love it though.

When we got back to the room I quickly facetimed Ruth to show her what I bought and she was THRILLED with it! She said she wanted us to come home right now so she could play it hehehe. So pleased with myself for getting her such an awesome present ;) We then rushed around getting ready for a swim, it was wayyy hot and it was so needed to cool down. I've read reports of BLT pool getting very busy, I didn’t really think it was very busy, but it was busy for sure. Still loads of sun loungers available, but more people in it than the pool at AKL.

Some pool pics









We had a dip in the pool to cool off and then I went to read a book on my ipad in the sun, I didn’t manage to read much though as the sun was so hot, so before long I was back in the pool cooling down. I really wanted to try out the water slide but I was a bit afraid of looking like a beach whale ;) if the pool had been quieter I'm sure I would have given it a go... next time ;) Once we were suitably prune-like and wrinkly we decided to call it a day and head back up to our room to get showered and changed as the plan was to hire a boat from the Contemporary boat dock.

I knew we were expecting a delivery from Disney Floral (Sy told me he had ordered something as he didn’t want me to think he hadn't got me anything as I didn’t have anything to open from him), so I wasn't too surprised to hear people in our room when we got back. I was surprised that they were being loud and jokey so I let Sy go in first. At first we opened the door to something behind it blocking it, and then lots of hushed noise and the toilet flushing?! They moved what was blocking us from entering and we could get in where we found 2 maintenance guys and a girl. They were doing something like changing a filter but I didn’t really know what it was. I wasn't impressed that we hadn’t been told that they would be coming in, we were still dripping wet and had no where to change so we ended up standing on the balcony for 10-15 mins while they finished so we didn’t get the carpet all wet. When they did leave they left mess all over the carpet from the filter!! I was really upset, we were made to feel like we were getting in the way in our own room, plus they had obviously used the bathroom. Had we been told that they needed to come in we could have made sure we were out, and we could have left underwear and valuables out (we hadn't as we knew disney floral could come in but that’s not the point!). We had pretty much dried off by now so we decided not to shower yet but to get dressed and head down to speak to someone at the front desk right away.

I took a sneaky pics of them doing the work...

 
Day 8 - Part 2

When we got to the front desk we asked if there was a manager around to speak to and a guy in a navy jacket came over and asked if he could help, his name was Mario and he was a supervisor but offered to call a manager from the Contemporary if we would like. He took us over to the DVC desk away where it was quiet and asked us what the problem was. When we explained he was very upset for us, though he did say they don’t always let guests know as its such a quick thing to do - they are usually in and out in 20 mins - which I think is rubbish, I want to know when people are entering my room! If I’m not scheduled to have housekeeping I don’t bother putting things away that I don’t want to be seen, like underwear and valuables He also was very upset that they had left a mess in the room and used the bathroom, he was going to send housekeeping up right away to clear up after them. He also spent a lot of time chatting to us and asking us how the trip was going, he also noticed on our booking (as he brought it up to arrange the housekeeping) that it was our wedding anniversary today and asked if there was anything he could do to make it up to us, to which we said no, just to pass on the feedback that we think guests should be notified, even just by a voice mail overnight, that there would be some maintenance in their room. He said he would definitely pass on that feedback and wished us a happy anniversary and we went on our way. Although we were complaining, we are certainly not the rude and angry sort of complainers, the way I see it, Mario didn’t do anything wrong so there's no point in losing the plot with him, he is far more likely to listen to us and what we have to say if we are genuine, nice people who are pointing out that something isn’t quite right. I really hate to see people shouting and screaming when something doesn’t go the right way, all that does is upset them, the person they are shouting at, and everyone else around them! There's just no need really. :)

I felt a lot better having spoken to Mario, he really made me feel like we weren't just making a fuss about nothing, which is always the possibility as something that is important to one person isn’t always that important to someone else.

So off we went over to the Contemporary marina to see about hiring one of the boats :D We walked along the water as we were there in seconds. We weren't sure which boat to go for, I knew I wanted one of the bigger boats and not one of the Sea Raycers as you have to wear your life jacket at all times on the Sea Raycers and on the bigger boats you just need to have it with you on the boat, total vanity and comfort, no one looks good in those life jackets ;) We decided to go for a Sun Tracker after some advice from the cashier - she said these are slightly more comfortable than the Boston Whaler as they are a little larger though both boats are the same price.



We had to sign a waiver and show ID for the driver, Sy. I didn't want to steer the boat and he is nautical anyway we put him down as the only driver. We were given some snazzy different coloured wristbands for driver and non-driver. We then had to go and find a life jacket each and take it over to the boat.



One of the CM's showed us how to steer and we started on our way.







We reversed out and started to move away however there was a problem with the engine so reversed back, I wouldn't have noticed a thing however as Sy knew what he was doing he realised it straight away. Back at the dock we explained to the CM and were soon sailing back out on another boat. First stop was heading over the water bridge to see the Grand Floridian Villas....hmmmm wonder why we wanted to see them.... ;)



We went round Seven Seas Lagoon before heading back over to Bay Lake and went on the lookout for the old River Country and discovery island.

Some pictures I took onboard...









Before we knew it, 45 mins had past and we were heading back into dock. When it came to pay we were only charged for 30 mins instead of 45, not sure if that was something to do with the boat problems to start with or cause we had our anniversary buttons on but we thanked them and paid with the nice 30% discount that we got from either our annual passes or DVC membership, I cant remember which! Oops! Sorry....

We then headed back inside, we were going to head up to our room but we were starving, even though I knew we had a big dinner planned we just had to go into the contemporary and visit contempo cafe. I tried really hard to convince Sy to share something with me so that we wouldn’t be too full but I couldn’t say much as I didn’t want to tell him where we were going... So we ended up having something each, I had a cheese flatbread and Sy had a sandwich. The ordering system is a bit confusing, you had to order at the counter and you were given a buzzer then go and pay, and then go back to wait by the counter. What would make more sense would be to go and sit and wait for the buzzer to go off but everyone else was waiting holding their buzzer so we guessed that was what we should do too... but maybe we were just being sheep LOL. When it was ready we took it back up to our room in BLT to eat it while watching TV.

When we got back to the room there had been a little delivery for me! EEEEEK!





I was so pleased with my lovely present :D There were 2 champagne glasses, some mickey chocolates, a mickey basket, a rose display and a balloon. It was a shame that the balloon was half deflated :S but I loved it all the same :) There was also a really cute princess charm on the vase.



Soon after there was a knock at the door, Sy went to answer and it was in room dining with a chocolate Mickey for us! OMG! We were told it was to say Happy Anniversary but I had my suspicions that a certain Mario may have had something to do with it.... ;)



Mickey was solid chocolate! He was really hard to eat though I gave it a good go...



LOL! Sy took quite a few pictures of me posing eating the Mickey but this is the only one going up as the others all look like I'm doing something rather inappropriate to poor Mickey... :O
 
Day 8 - part 3

Time was getting on so we dashed in the shower to get ready for our special meal (that Sy still didn’t know about ;) ) Shortly after I got out of the shower and while Sy was having his shower there was another knock at the door. I grabbed my towel round me sharpish, I was scared it might be someone with a key! I yelled that I was coming and ran to the door and opened it a crack. There stood Mario, he just wanted to make sure that our day had got a little better ;) I thanked him for the mickey which he played dumb and said what Mickey? Before giving a wink ;) and said he would leave us to it, I told him I was just out of the shower but I don’t know that he believed me given that it was our anniversary and wearing just a towel ;) hahaha

We were soon ready to go for dinner. As far as Sy knew, we were heading to the Grand Floridian Cafe, and heading there a little early to grab a drink in the bar and listen to the band play... little did he know ;) We walked over to the Contemporary and hopped on the monorail.





We were a little later than planned but still early for our dinner reservation yet I could already see the Butler waiting for us beside the piano so I led Sy downstairs, away from the bar much to his disgust ;) He said I was acting very strangely but it soon became clear when I walked over to the butler he realised we weren't going to be eating in the Grand Floridian Cafe... I had booked for us to have 'an intimate dining experience' or 'private dining experience' :D

The butler introduced himself as Jack and he led us to the lift for guests staying at the Grand Floridian. Jack said it was really quite windy outside but that it should die down soon. I'd been watching the weather alllll day praying for good weather so that we could eat outside, luckily the weather gods had been listening to me and decided to be kind!

Jack wasn't lying, it really was quite windy out there - the table had a couple of rose petals on it, and lots blowing around on the floor beside us... Oops! The table still looked gorgeous though with a lamp with a flameless candle inside and some beautiful flowers. Jack asked if we would like a drink from the bar and Sy said yes, a long island iced tea, I declined and just had a diet coke as alcohol often makes me unwell :( Jack poured my drink and water for us both and gave us some warm bread before going to get Sy's drink. He also asked if we would like some music to listen to, when we said yes he put on music through his cell phone and some portable speakers. Awwwww :D











The little speaker on the table...



Our View







(yes we swapped seats due to the wind and my hair)

When he came back with the long island iced tea, he brought our first course which was the soup.





Sy had French onion soup, the chef had made me a special soup of potato and leek :) I would probably run out of adjectives when describing everything that passed our lips this evening, the food was the best either of us have ever eaten - this includes Palo on the Dream last year
which before this we said was the best meal we'd ever had. That was THE best soup I have ever eaten, and I don’t even like soup! I swear I go to bed dreaming of that soup LOL
 


Day 8 - part 4

When he took away the soup he brought us our starters of lobster risotto and spring egg rolls.





Again these were super scrummy. I was trying to save room so didn’t eat all that was on my plate so when Jack came back he jokingly scolded me and made me eat the last one, I didn’t really need any encouraging - I was just trying to be good. That damn cheese flatbread was taking up too much room in my tummy!



This was Jack's little table which he put things on before serving us, it also had our drinks and water on it.



Then it was time for the salad course, Caesar for me, Tuna for Sy. I went for a bit of a curve ball on this one as Sy's came with avocado which usually he doesn’t like, but I really thought he would enjoy the rest and he could leave the avocado if he didn’t like it... I definitely made the right choice though as he LOVED it :D My salad was good too much I was starting to feel ever so full...









We did also have a little friend during our meal, a tiny frog was on the window beside us and at one point jumped into my lap and scared the life out of me! I think he felt like he was missing out on such a good night and wanted to join in on the action ;)



It was then time for our mains, chicken with mushroom sauce for me, pork chop for Sy. My main was a little strange, it was another specially made plate for me, it was chicken with a mushroom sauce and it came with asparagus and long stemmed broccoli. I ate the chicken which was beautiful, I didn’t eat the greens though as I should stay away from green with my tummy problems. Sy LOVED his main.





During our main course Wishes started so we watched the fireworks while eating. It was beautiful! How more perfect can you get?!





Then came the dessert, this was the winner of the meal for me. I loved the swans, they were the best dessert I could have ever wished for. Sy had the baked chocolate mousse which he thoroughly enjoyed however I didn’t like at all when I tasted it (but of course I don't like dark chocolate so it was no surprise really!).









When it came to the end of our meal I had to visit the ladies so Jack took me downstairs to use the restroom by Citricos, I wasn’t very well :( I cant really eat too much in one go and it was even worse on this trip, and tonight I was seriously ill, like I was in Kobe, ill :( When I could venture out of the bathroom Jack was still waiting for me, I told him I wasn’t well and asked him to get Sy to settle the bill and come and find me here. I went back into the bathroom as I was still feeling sick, when I came back Sy was there with Jack who wanted to make sure I was ok and to say goodbye. Earlier in the dinner we had talked and decided to leave Jack a bigger tip than what was included in our bill so Sy had given him an extra $30 as he really was the best server we have ever met in Disney. He was very funny and had some great stories, yet he knew when to step back to allow us time to ourselves, absolute perfect service! Also, I found out afterwards that he had bought Sy's drink for him to say happy anniversary and he had given us a white chocolate picture of the Grand Floridian, which Sy showed me once we returned to our room (which was a LOT later...)



2 Hours after I was first ill I was able to leave the bathroom without too much fear of disgracing myself. Sy being the super amazing husband that he is, had taken the monorail back by himself and gone to pick up the car to take me back to the hotel as I was petrified I was going to be sick on the monorail in front of other people, as it was he had remembered to even pick up a plastic bag just in case for me for the car. What an end to our anniversary eh? I just had to go and spoil it! Damn body!!!! Sy didn’t mind, though he was worried about me obviously, he wasn't upset that our evening had been a bit ruined (he said it hadn't bless him!).

Sy dropped me at the door to BLT and went to park the car while I went straight to the room. We finally got into bed at about midnight. A pretty amazing anniversary apart from the last couple of
hours.


Tomorrow, we check out of BLT and head back to AKL and spend some time in Epcot
 
Day 9 - part 1

Check out of BLT and back home to AKL! Plus a little bit of Epcot thrown in ;)

After the awful end to the night before we put the 'do not disturb' sign on the door to get a little bit of peace, unfortunately housekeeping had other ideas and decided to knock and wake us up anyway at 9am. I wondered if maybe the sign had come off but no, it was still there... So as we were up fairly early we decided to pack up our things and check out. We didn’t rush about, mainly cause I couldn't have if I’d tried ;) We still had a lot of stuff considering we left some at AKL a few days previous so we called bell services and asked them to give us a hand to the car, we kept our bags with us rather than have bell service move them over to AKL in the hope that our room might be ready early... So we headed straight over there to check in. We were able to check in but sadly our room wasn't ready yet :( I mean, we were pushing it as it was only lunchtime but we were ever hopeful ;) After having a huge walk to our room last time we had asked for it to be added to our reservation to be close to reception this time, but we were also told at check in that our request for an upgrade to a savannah room wasn’t accepted as they weren’t our DVC points? (we had rented these prior to owning). I told the guy on check in that we hadn’t requested that at all! I asked if maybe Gray had put it on our reservation but he just looked blankly at me as if I were speaking another language... not quite sure what happened there. But anyway we went on our merry way with a promise of an email when our room was ready...

Sy was getting hungry by this point, he had a bagel in the room at BLT but it was gone lunchtime now, I hadn’t eaten anything nor did I want to because of the state I was in the night before, but I wasn’t about to deny Sy some food so off we went in the car in search of something. We stopped at Target on the way as we'd never been in before and my American friend was going on about it and what a good store it was. We bought a couple of things in there and then headed back out to the car to decide where to eat.

We kept seeing adverts on the TV for applebee's lunchtime menu with a weird woman saying 'Boom!' in it, which consequently we kept saying all trip ;) But the advertising obviously worked as Sy wanted to head in there for a half sandwich (one of his favourite foods are sandwiches which he really misses out on in Florida) so we went into the Applebee's closest to Disney along the 192. The place was EMPTY, a bad sign I thought but it wasn't to be. We were seated right away and left to peruse the menu. I wanted to eat something as I was worried I wasn’t helping myself by not eating anything so I decided to order an appetiser while Sy had a famous half sandwich and salad, both were really good. I have been to applebee's a few times and always found them to be a bit meh, but this one was really nice and the food was fresh and hot. I'm sure we will head there again, especially for lunch given that our lunch was cheaper than a counter service lunch in the parks and much, much nicer!






(those people behind Sy were the ONLY other people in the whole place!)

Of course as soon as I had eaten I felt rough again :( I just knew it would happen. So we thought we would go back to AKL on the off chance our room would be ready, I didn’t have an email yet so I wasn't holding out too much hope but we gave it a shot, and what doyaknow, our room was ready! (I never got the email btw). So off we went to our room, 1 room away from the laundry room so right by reception, overlooking the pool. Wow. I was not expecting the room to be so different to the one we had a few days before! It was smaller for one (though it was a lock off and our last one was a dedicated) and the room was full of bugs! As soon as I went out to the balcony the noise hit me (along with loads more bugs). I was really disappointed :( But we had asked for a room near reception! What could I do about it? I could hardly go and ask for another room further away that was quieter now, could I? I didn’t have to as it was, Sy was already on the phone to reception to ask if we could possibly be moved to a quieter room, we were given practically the same room as we had before but on the other side of the hotel, so it was mile away again, but the walk was worth it for the quiet room. I felt *SO* ungrateful though, someone had gone to the effort of giving us a room close to reception because we had asked and then I go and complain about it! What an ungrateful cow I am! I did love our new room though. We called bell service to bring our bags up and unpacked again and called home before getting changed and heading out to Epcot.

When we got to Epcot we parked the head and headed inside, stopping on the way for the obligatory photopass pictures....







Our first stop was innoventions. We have only scratched the surface on here so we went to the piggy bank challenge for the first time ever! That was really cute, did you know the piggy makes a noise when you rattle him? I really loved that attraction, what a big kid I am ;)



We then decided to try and brave it on Test Track, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea with my sensitive tummy but I was ok, we kept stopping on the track inside though, not sure what was going on. We then went to club cool, Sy went in to test a few while I sat outside and moved one of our fast passes around so we could go and meet the characters at the character spot next. I have never done this before as I’ve always worried about how long the queue could be inside however with the new fastpass+ we were able to do it!
 
Day 9 - part 2

We met Mickey, Minnie and Pluto. Pluto was soooooo cute! We had a bit of a joke and a play with him and we were about to go when I told him he was my favourite and he pulled me back again for more pictures and he made a huge fuss of me! I was in total heaven, that was some of the best character interaction I've ever had, in fact it was the best right up to this point but mickey out does him on our last day ;)

There were a **lot** of pictures so I’ve tried to cut them down... I don’t know how good I was at it ;)





















Before our trip I had a list of places I wanted to try and eat at that we hadn't been to before, one of those was Katsura Grill in the Japan pavilion. Sy loves Sushi and there were a few things I fancied trying on the menu so we decided to head over there for some dinner.

When we were placing our order (Teriyaki chicken for me, sushi for Sy) I was admiring an origami bird on the till so when the girl gave us our meal she also gave me one of the origami birds! I was so happy, I still have it now. We got a table outside and ate our food, well Sy ate his, I didn’t eat mine :( there was nothing wrong with mine but I just didn’t like it. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with me feeling a bit dodgy or if its just my usual dodgy taste buds, but I just didn’t like it. Sy loved his and he ate some of mine too and said it was lovely so don’t trust my judgement ;)





Afterwards we walked back through France so I could get one of those gorgeous ice creams ;) note to anyone debating if they are big enough to share 1 between 2, they are HUGE! I couldn’t finish it and Sy was full from his dinner and half of mine so I ended up throwing half away, sacrilege!



I'm not sure the picture actually does justice to how big it was, take my word for it, it was HUGE!

It was now about time for our Soarin' fastpass+ so we rode that before heading out to the car, I was seriously flagging by this time even though it was only about 8pm.



We stopped on the way out for some more photopass pictures (gotta make the most of that photopass CD that we had pre-ordered with Hayley and Gareth ;) )





We headed back to our room and I got ready for bed, Sy insisted that I have something to eat as I hadn't really eaten much all day so he went to get me some chicken nuggets from Mara, I ate about half of them in bed before crashing about 10:30pm, Sy stayed up a bit longer watching some TV and went to be at about 11:30pm.

Tomorrow, a rather large purchase ;) AK and some shopping!
 


Day 10

After my super early night I was awake at 8:30 this morning, but thankfully I was feeling about a million times better :D We had a little breakfast in the room before getting on the bus to Kidani to meet our DVC guide, Tim... He told us he would be there this morning if we decided we wanted to add on points at the Grand Floridian... I think by now you have guessed where this is going ;)

Tim didn't know we were definitely coming but he was very good at making himself available so we could sign some papers and give him a big chunk of cash ;) I wasn't really prepared for just how long it would take, we had already bought points at AKL but that was resale so we really didn’t have a clue. Tim swapped places with a guy called Jose who went through all the paperwork with us. Unfortunately once we were half way through we realised that he had given us the wrong direct debit date and he was MOST upset that we wanted to the correct date that we had chosen, and he made sure we knew he wasn't pleased, that wasn’t quite the DVC experience we were expecting... especially as it was his own mistake! He then didn’t offer us the welcome home breakfast (we only knew about it cause Hayley and Gareth had mentioned it to us), when we asked Tim about it he said that Jose should have arranged it for us. Think that might have been payback for making him reprint the paperwork.

Once we were all signed and sorted we headed to Animal Kingdom, we had an ADR at Yak & Yeti that was coming up shortly. I have it on good authority in my notes that we drove over there, but I’m pretty sure we floated there ;) We were walking on air all day!

We had a little time before our ADR so we went to watch Its Tough To Be A Bug. I love that show, though I do move my bum forward ever so slightly at some points ;) I don’t like things poking around my bum no matter what you may have heard ;) hehehe



Afterwards we made our way over to Yak and Yeti, we didn’t have to wait at all to be taken to our table, we were seated upstairs. Sadly this is one of the few places that doesn’t accept the tables in wonderland card :( so no 20% off here but Sy was really keen to try it again after our first time. I thought my food was a bit meh whereas he really loved his so hence us coming back again. Sadly the service from our first time hadn't improved. We were left without drinks and then with empty glasses for a long time, and given our check before being offered a dessert, though we tell him to take it back as we wanted to look over the dessert menu ;)



I had the bourbon chicken and Sy has the maple tamarind chicken, I couldn’t decide between the 2 but I was soooo glad I have the one I did as I didn’t like Sy's at all. Mine was nice enough, but nothing special. I had a virgin mango daiquiri while Sy had a diet coke, and we then decided to share a mango pie which was lush and the winner of the meal hands down!









I'm not sure how soon we will be back, maybe if it was included on the TiW card we might be tempted but at the moment its just a bit too pricey and the service too slack for us to want to return anytime soon, which is a real shame as I feel like AK is already lacking in good TS places. But hey ho!

We then got a good spot to watch the parade to let our lunch go down in the warm Florida air :)







After the parade we decided to head back to the room for a nap, all that excitement takes it out of you I'll have you know ;)

Once suitably refreshed we headed back out to do a little shopping, its not like we had spent too much today or anything ;) Off to the outlets we go! I wont bore you with all the many shops we went in other than to say we booked an extra bag to fly home with ;) All bargains though ;) The outlets were mobbed, not sure if it was cause it was the weekend but there were people taking up half the shop with bags they had abandoned! Crazy shopping! We didn’t go that far, if we cant carry it, we don’t buy it ;)

After our marathon shopping sesh we decided we would get take out and head back to the room. Sy really wanted Steak and Shake however I wasn't feeling it so we just got Sy something for now, and planned to sort me out with something later on. Unfortunately Sy decided to drive home via Downtown Disney, on a Saturday evening, while all the building was going on... 40 minutes after getting his food we arrived back at AKL, luckily the studios had a microwave ;)

Sy ate his food while I went off to do some washing, stopping on the way back to get some food from Mara.

Finally hit the hay at about midnight.


Tomorrow, HS and Maya Grill
 
Day 11

Hollywood Studios and Maya Grill

I was up at 8am due to Sy's snoring again, I got ready and let him sleep a bit longer. Once I did wake him up he refused to move with any sort of a hurry and we didn’t leave the room until 10:30am, I was not impressed as I'd been up so long and been kind enough to let him sleep longer yet he wouldn get a wriggle on for me! I don’t think I would normally have been so narked but he was waking me up every morning and during the night so it was wearing thin now ;)

Considering we had been here 11 days by now and the weather was meant to be turning cooler, this was the hottest day yet, it was unseasonably warm and made me totally remember why I don’t come in the summer months ;) We launched from one shop to another for the air-con until we reached the Great Movie Ride, my favourite ride in HS :D We got the gangster experience.



Now, has anyone noticed one of the munchkins on GMR has a REALLY weird face, almost like he has had an allergic reaction to something? I managed to get a picture of him this time, he always makes us laugh! Totally rubbish picture but hopefully you can see what I mean...



Next up was of course TSM, I actually beat Sy on this one for once, if you ask him he will tell you his gun wasn't working properly, though I like to call it being a big baby cause I beat him for once!!





We then went over to Animation Studio. We watched a little show with Mushu in, the girl who was leading it was **SO** not into it, it was actually painful as there was no inflections to her voice, it was all monotone and very much going through the motions :( I've never done it before in Orlando, only in Paris but then its half in French so it was a shame not to get it in English done properly.



We then went to grab some lunch in ABC commissary, I wasn’t a huge fan of the menu but it had air-con! There's no way on a day like today that I would be eating outside ;) I had the chicken club which was very mediocre. Our lunch bill came to almost exactly what the bill came to the day before at applebee's which is where the comparison came from.





We then went to watch Muppets 3D. Has anyone ever noticed this sign?



I dunno what was up with me today but the love beads bit totally made me laugh... I mentioned it to my mum and she told me what love beads meant, unfortunately I only knew the dirty meaning... (I do wonder if they mean the same thing in America as they do in the UK??!!)

I was actually falling asleep inside the muppets so we decided we better make a swift exit, though we did make a quick stop on the way to get a take away Napoleon at starring rolls. We also managed to catch the end of Mulch Sweat and Shears.



Another weird moment, had anyone ever noticed that the guy on the keyboard looks a bit too Justin beiber in the early years to be believable in this band?? The others are all a bit alternative and rocky and he's all cleanly shaven and clean cut lol.

We got back to the hotel just in the nic of time, as a huge storm then hit which left lots of homes around Orlando without power.

I slept through most of the storm while Sy watched some tv, I woke up about 2 hours later at 6.30pm. We had to get dressed really quickly to make it for our ADR at Maya Grill. I love Mexican food and I cant find a huge amount said about this place online so I thought we would give it a go and see what it was like.

There were a LOT of people milling around, I think there must have been a conference on as there were lots of adults dressed smartly who all seemed to know each other. We zig-zagged our way through to Maya Grill to see a massive queue :( we joined it and before long we were checked in. It didn’t take us long to be called for our table.

I had nachos as a main instead of a big main while Sy had fish tacos. Both were really scrummy! It was all a bit quick, our food came almost as quickly as our drinks did. The service was excellent though and I’m sure we will head back there sometime :)









We had tossed around the idea that we might head to MK for EMH but decided that I wasn't really feeling up to it. This is a decision that I have later regretted :( You see we had friends who were in Orlando at the same time as us, we had met up with Matt earlier in the trip when he did EMH on his own and tonight his wife Sue was doing EMH on her own and we were going to head there and meet up. We didn’t actually meet up with Sue the whole trip, no real reason to it just with one thing or another it didn’t happen and a week after they returned from WDW she died :( So yeah, I really regret not going to MK now :(

We were back at the hotel and in bed by 9pm, we were both feeling a bit sleep deprived, Sy was keeping me up with his snoring and I was kicking up and waking him all night to stop him... think we need to move up to a 1 bed so I can kick him onto the sofa bed lol

Tomorrow MK!
 
Day 12 - part 1

I set an alarm before bed last night as this morning we had our 'Welcome home breakfast' over at Top of the World Lounge. I dunno if I'm the only person who does this but if I know I have got something I have to be up for I don’t sleep well as im constantly looking at the time, even if I set an alarm I do this and its super annoying! So yeah, I hadn't slept well and I was awake before the alarm went off, pfft.

We showered and got dressed before driving over to BLT, we had to show our invite (which was a huge thing themed with Ratatouille) at the gate and we were told where we had to go. We checked in downstairs and we were taken up in the lift and all the way to the door to the lounge.

Breakfast was good and plentiful! There was a LOT of food there for not that many people. We chatted to a few people in there and then we were shown an cheesy 2 min video with people enjoying themselves on holiday and new Disney shows. It was almost like they were selling DVC but the breakfast was only people who had bought in already so not sure what that was all about. It was worth the free breakfast though ;)





It was weird to get some daytime shots outside, as we have only been up here when its dark.





Once we were done we headed over to MK where it was MOBBED. It really was super busy, more so than we have ever experienced mid September. I had made some fastpasses for Character meet and greets, first up was Ariel. She was good but didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Ariel is the ultimate Princess for me you see, I was at just the right age when the film came out, it was one of the first things I ever went to see in the cinema and I watched the video so much that it burnt out, Eric was my first love and to make it even better, she had red hair like me! (I was very red as a child). So really, she didn’t stand a chance lol. I'm sure we will try again come October this year though.





We then went to watch Philharmagic and pottered about in a few shops as it was so hot. We had a bit of time to kill before the next meet and greet in the area so we didn’t want to go too far. We did catch a cute little show that I've not seen before, it was all to do with the sword in the stone. They had lots of different people trying to pull the sword from the stone until a little girl called Bella managed to pull it free. There was singing and jokes, it just summed up Disney for me. Catch it if you can :)

We still had more time before our meet and greet time so we decided to ride It's a Small World







Soon it was time to meet Aurora and Cinderella. They were both good and admired my dress :) Cinderella is another of my favs so I was very excited to meet her :) Cinderella was so beautiful and I told her, she was genuinely touched.







By now it was getting hotter and more humid by the minute, plus with the amount of people in the park I was feeling a bit overwhelmed so we decided to head back to the car, we stopped on the way to watch the Move it Shake it parade but it was cut short I think due to the impending rain, we walked behind the parade to the exit with Donald playing with me all the way back which made my day :D As we were walking back to the car the heavens opened, we managed not to get too wet which was a miracle considering the size of the raindrops!

 
Day 12 - part 2

By now it was early afternoon and we were getting a bit peckish so we decided to have a drive around and see where we fancied to eat. A friend had recommended Fudruckers to us, she said it was nicer than Steak and Shake (not really too hard for me as I don’t eat burgers lol) so we stopped at one in Lake Buena Vista. The rain was still coming down hard so we ran from the car inside. I am totally sold with Fud's, you order your food and pay for it before taking a number and grabbing a seat, when your food comes you go up to the toppings bar (makes Disney's toppings bar look rubbish) and go crazy. All different toppings and sauces! Plus the food was seriously yummy. I am putting it in the plan for next year ;)





We weren’t sure if we were supposed to tip in here as we had ordered the food ourselves and got our own drinks but then someone had brought the food to us... the table next to us didn’t leave anything but I didn’t want to do that in case it was wrong so we left a couple of $$ anyway. If anyone knows what we should have done please let me know :) I'll know for next time that way, thank you!

The rain was still coming down hard when we had finished so Sy being the lovely hubby that he is went to get the car and drive right up to the curb to pick me up. The rain didn’t look like it was going anywhere so we decided to head to Walmart to do a bit of shopping, we got a few things for Christmas presents. I think we spent about 2 hours in there! Sy doesn’t mind shopping usually but even he was losing the will to live ;)

When we headed outside it was STILL throwing it down :( We had an ADR for Tokyo Dining for that evening but we decided that it had to go as we didn’t want to get soaked heading there. Instead we decided to head over to Beaches and Cream for an ice cream :) On the gate to the Yacht club we were asked why we were there and the guy scanned our magic bands and told us we couldn’t park there for our Tokyo Dining reservation, we couldn’t cancel it yet as we don’t have Wifi out and about on our phones (well we could if we wanted very expensive bills when we got home), we did tell him that we were cancelling that cause of the rain and just heading to beaches and cream. I don’t know if he believed us (I probably wouldn’t have) but he let us in anyway...

We valet parked and headed to Beaches and Cream, we were pleasantly surprised to only have a 10 min wait! Get in! I took a picture of all the rain while we waited outside.



Not sure you can see the amount of rain there was from that picture though, there was a LOT.



This one was slightly better, the ducks were having a great time ;)

We were seated at the counter which was fab as we could watch them making all the different ice creams. We actually got talking to a girl behind there who was English and it turns out she was good friends with our friend James who works in Tony's.



Sy had a Banana Split



I had a sundae with caramel sauce and whipped cream





Sadly my ice cream got the better of me....



(the girl with the blonde hair is the one who is friends with our friend)

Someone ordered a kitchen sink while we were there so we got to watch it being made...



When we were done we picked up the car from valet and headed back to AKL. We had more washing that needed to be done so I made the most of being stuck in the hotel due to the rain.... sadly so did a few other people and I had a bit of a queue but it didn’t matter. It was just a pain as we were so far from the washing machines but hey ho. It generally went, me put the washing on, me put the washing in the driers and Sy to go collect.

Once the washing was all done we headed back out to the outlets, a few days before we had been in to the swarovski shop and seen the matching necklace to a bracelet that I had been looking for but couldn’t get, it was end of line in the UK and no one had any of them but there were a few at the shop in the outlets! Unfortunately when we went to buy it the shop had a problem with their card machine so the guy put it to one side for us to collect today instead. He was so lovely. When we got to the shop the girl on the desk told us that things cannot be held more than 24 hours, she refused to look to see if it was still there and went to pick one up from the shelf herself and rang it up. She was really snooty and I would bet money that she wanted the commission herself which is why she wouldn’t get the one from out the back as it had the guy's name who had served us on it and his details. Had he told us it could only be held for 24 hours we would have come back sooner but he didn’t... I dunno it just all sounded fishy to me. Had I not wanted the necklace really badly I would have left it just cause of her attitude but hats how it was.

We made another quick stop at the Clarins shop, I wanted to check the price of the things I used at home to compare if it was any cheaper, funnily some things were a lot cheaper and some were about the same. I bought a new face powder as it was cheaper and I needed it ;)

We then made a hasty exit before I could spend anymore and headed to............... Downtown Disney! Woohoo! Sy's wallet really was getting a hitting today ;)

We did yet more shopping at DTD, a few Christmas and birthday presents were bought before we decided that we needed something else to eat. All that spending works up an appetite don’t ya know ;) So off we head into Woolfgang Puck Express.

Sy had the meatloaf sandwich and I had a pizza, I wasn’t actually keen on it but there was nothing wrong with it, there was just something in the pizza sauce I didn’t like the taste of. They must have changed the recipe since last time as I loved it last year. The base was perfect though so I’ll probably still try it again next time.





After eating we waddled back to the car and made our way back to the hotel. It was a long walk with all those shopping bags ;) we finally hit the hay at about midnight, it had been a long day!
 
Day 13 - part 1

We woke up at a leisurely 9am this morning, obviously Sy woke me up with his snoring and I then woke him up as I wasn’t about to be the only one awake ;) We pottered about in the room getting ready, we called my mum to say hello though we didn't call Sy's parents as they were both at work.

We grabbed a quick breakfast in the room before heading out to AK, it looked like there was going to be more rain today :( The plan had been to try and get to AK and get as much done as possible before the rain started, sadly just as we got there and got out the car the rain started :( boo! So we donned the ponchos and made our way inside.



LOVE my minnie mouse poncho and got lots of compliments on it, got it from Walmart ;)

First stop was the Safari. There were a lot of animals up and about, I think cause of the rain the fact that it was slightly cooler.







We then went on the jungle trek, I have NEVER done this! How?? It was brilliant, I loved seeing all animals along the way. I cant believe that I've missed this out before now. The rain stopped while we were walking round too which was ace :)



We then decided it was time for some food so headed off towards Yak and Yeti counter service. We shared a Honey chicken, it was okay, we both said we probably wouldn’t order it again in favour of some of their other offerings. We sat nearby the dancers, I’m not sure what you would call them? Bollywood? Middle eastern? You know the ones I mean anyway, right by the Yak and Yeti Counter service. I could have watched them ALL day, they were fabulous. A true highlight for me was when they got the kids up to dance with them and gave them all the streamers on sticks (I'm sure that's the correct name for them of course ;) ), they were showing them all how to twirl them around, it was so cute! Half way through an older boy with learning difficulties came along with his family, he wanted to join in so one of the dancers gave him her sticks and was helping him, he was beaming from ear to ear and she was so kind and gentle with him, encouraging him and showing him how to do it. It brought a tear to my eye, I am even choked now just writing about it. That's Disney to me. I wished I could have found out her name to tell someone at guest services though I'm sure her rewards in heaven will be great enough :)

Once I regained composure we headed off to camp Minnie Mickey to watch Festival of the Lion King. This is my Ultimate Disney Show :D as far as I'm concerned, nothing compares. I could watch it every day and never get bored. We grabbed an ice cream outside and got in line. We were first in line which was good as the rain started to pour down but where we were stood was under shelter from at least some of it. By the time we had finished the ice cream it was time to go inside. The show was as brilliant as ever though I did have my second teary moment of the day. Near the end when the 'animals' get all the children up to dance and make music one of the zebra's took a little boy who was very disabled in a wheelchair and pushed him when they all did the conga round the centre. He had a make a wish badge on, he was giggling and smiling and it made my heart melt, that zebra made his day. I saw his parents shedding a tear watching him which made me cry too. I really was a softy today wasn't I?! (nothing new there I'm afraid!)





The rain was coming down hard now so we headed to our fastpass for Mickey and Minnie meet and greet. We only had a short wait, the family before us were so cute! Unfortunately though when it came to leaving the littlest one cried her eyes out :( she didn’t want to leave Mickey and Minnie, when we came out she was still sat outside crying bless her. It was then our turn to meet the main man and his Mrs! They were super :D Minnie was admiring my skirt as it has cats on it.







Afterwards we threw on our ponchos and made for the exit, trying not to get too wet. We decided that we hadn't spent enough money the day before so we went to the other outlets at the top of I drive, if nothing else, they have a Yankee candle shop! These are SOOOO expensive to buy in the UK, they are about double the price of the normal US price and then obviously at the outlet they are even cheaper. I bought 3 small jars and a few medium jars, baring in mind that I gotta get them home again ;) We also popped into the Disney shop and bought Sy a couple of t-shirts. We didn’t stay there too long as I’m not keen. My dad had his wallet taken from him last year while we were there and there is always talk about people following you to the car when you dump the bags off to break in while you go back to shopping and steal their shopping. The other outlets are much nicer, its a shame they don’t have a Yankee shop, if they did I don’t think I’d ever come to these ones.

We headed back to AKL to get changed ready to head our for our ADR at Grand Floridian Café. We had got a bit dressed up tonight as GFC is quite nice and we wanted to try and have another anniversary meal as I was so ill the last time :( Unfortunately our evening didn’t go any better (although I wasn’t sick so that's always a bonus!).

We were seated right away, the restaurant was more than half empty but we were sat in the middle. Our waiter was worse than useless and downright rude, he wasn’t even looking at us when he spoke yet he fell over the people at the table next to us (who weren't British, go figure). When he took our order I asked for my pasta to be cooked without peas in as I can't eat them yet he brought my main out with the peas all through it. We were brought the same bread as we had the night of our anniversary, only this time they were hard and if I hadn't known better I would have said they were day old.... we didn’t eat them. By the time my main came back out Sy had finished his, even though he had tried to take as long as possible to eat. I told him to take the main away as I don’t like to eat on my own. He left it on the bill though which I thought was a bit mean. Our bill was brought out and no dessert offered and we had to ask for refills as we were never offered. We paid using our TiW card so left the 18% tip, I know it can be taken off if asked but I was already close to tears and thought that would push me over the edge, Sy wasn't happy at all but he left it cause I asked him to. I was really disheartened about our anniversary meal take 2 :( Outside the restaurant I went to visit the ladies and low and behold Sy went to speak to the restaurant manager :-/ He text me as soon as I went in so I would know where he'd gone, which is good cause when I came out and couldn't see him I did wonder where he was. So being the big chicken that I am I grabbed a seat nearby, I was in no mood for confrontation! Sy came back shortly after and the restaurant manager had been very apologetic and said he was usually his best server... not sure if I believe that or if it was just the usual line ;) He did refund our whole meal though plus the tip and said he would have words with the server. Usually I would never do something like this and risk someone getting into trouble, you never know if someone is just having a bad day but the fact that he was so rude and dismissive of us and yet was so nice to his other tables just made me angry that he would think it would be ok to treat us like that.

I had on my new necklace that I bought the day before :)
 
Day 13 - part 2

These were before the bad service, hence the smiles lol







When Sy got back we went into the shop and to cheer me up and to celebrate our new purchase we bought some Disney artwork :D We bought 2 on this trip to go in our downstairs bathroom which is beachy themed (all of our rooms have themes or colour schemes). This is the one we bought today...



I've always admired the artwork of this painter (David Doss) so I’m over the moon to finally own some of it :D even if it is just a print lol

We mucked around taking some pictures in the Grand, just generally enjoying the whole atmosphere and music.







We then head up to the monorail to make our way over to BLT to watch Hallowishes from TOTWL. On our journey over we got talking to a couple who were celebrating their anniversary that day so we invited them up to TOTWL with us. I'm not sure this is technically allowed, I think to take people up there they have to be staying in your DVC room with you but as our room sleeps 4 anyway we figured they *could* have been staying with us... We pretty much grabbed a drink and went outside as the fireworks were about to start. We had a lovely time talking to Jennifer and Joe, they were from NY. We came inside after Hallowishes and we stayed there chatting for hours, we finally left there at 11:30pm. We said a farewell on the monorail at the Grand as they were going to MK to catch a bus back to their hotel. We picked the car up from valet and headed back to AKL. Finally our heads hit the pillow at 12:30am!

Just time for one last picture on the Balcony

 
Day 14 - part 1


I was awake allll night again to Sy's damn snoring!! GRRR!! I finally gave up sleeping at 6am. Sy got up at 9am. We had a light breakfast in the room as we were having an early lunch with Sy's imagineer friend Rob, unfortunately Rob had to cancel at the last minute though as he had an urgent meeting :( So we decided to head to DTD for a wander round, plus we wanted to get Sy and Gareth some DVC Vynalmations - they aren’t big collectors but both had spoken about owning just 1 of the DVC special additions. We were going to keep Gareth's for his birthday in December :)

We headed to D street and got the things for the boys, and the Art of Disney to get the other picture I wanted to go with the GF one.

We decided to visit Hollywood Studios for lunch, if the rumours are true then it will be leaving DTD shortly so we wanted to get in 1 last visit.

We went up the stairs and refused the photo outside which was a bit of a mission as they were quite insistent, and were seated right away as the place was half empty.

We decided to get a starter to share and went for the deep fried zuccini, it was okay but very greasy (oh boy was I going to regret eating them later, I shouldn’t eat too much grease at the best of times but at the moment with the sickness that I was having... bad idea).



Our mains were pretty good, I decided to have another starter as a main as I wouldn’t be able to eat too much, I had the Texas tostadas, which were super yummy! Sy had a burger.





I didn’t quite manage to eat all of mine as I was already starting to feel a bit icky.

We paid our bill and made our way out. I was already paying for eating all that grease so we had to go back to the hotel till I felt a bit better :(

On the way back to the room Sy signed us up for the sundown mingle.

Back in the room I had a nap and felt heaps better once I woke up again, I’m pretty rubbish when I don’t get enough sleep (and 5 & ½ hours sleep is not enough for me!) so I'm sure that didn’t help with me feeling a bit ropey before. Sy sat on the balcony while I slept, reading and surfing the internet while watching these beauts...



It was soon time for the Mingle so we headed off down there. We didn’t really know what it was all about so we went with an open mind. We were checked in and given some wristbands. Our leader was called Joy and boy was she! She was SO perky! We actually got talking to her at the end as Sy thought some of her jokes he had heard before... She is very good 'friends' with some of the monsters at the laugh floor, mainly Ella (from Sam and Ella) and Marty Wizowski ;)

We grabbed a drink and some nibbles, some of which had come from Sanaa, I recognised those samosas ;) I went for a non alcoholic punch which Sy had some of the boozy one.







If you haven’t heard of the mingle before, its just for DVC members and only at AKL. We thought there might be a little bit of selling involved but there was no mention of anything, there were a few quizzes with prizes (I got one of the questions right for knowing what Walt was originally going to call Mickey, I won a hat!).



At the end everyone's name gets put into a box and someone wins a $100 Disney gift card. Sadly we didn’t win this one but I was happy with the hat :)

After our chat with Joy we headed over to MK, I was desperate to have some park time today seeing as it was late afternoon and we hadn't been near one yet!

I had set up a few fast passes for Character Meet and Greets, first up was the main man himself, Mickey. Just as we were there reports had starting coming about him being very talkative ;) sadly though he didn’t talk with us. But we did have a great time with him anyhow, we told him that we dressed up as him and Minnie for the Halloween party and he wanted to see pictures, so I had to get my mobile out and find some to show him :D He was taking me off out the room and shooing Sy to wait there, it was so funny!









We then went to right the People mover :) I got some lovely pictures while we were on it, with the sun setting behind the castle.







We then got a spot to watch Wishes, I don’t care how many times I watch Wishes, it never fail to give me goosebumps. :D
 
Day 14 - part 2

Waiting for it to start



I never really take any pictures of Wishes, i'd rather be in the moment enjoying it :) I did manage to get one of Tinks though :)



It was then time for the second meet and greet. Rapunzel and Snow White. This meet was all about rapunzel for me, I LOVE Tangled. I don’t know if she just got how excited I was or it was coincidence but she was brilliant with us, chatting for ages! She asked if Sy was my true prince or if I needed to use a frying pan to protect myself around him LOL

I think the pictures speak for themselves ;)











Then it was time to meet Snow white who was, well, odd. She took my hand and pulled me over to her and then wouldn’t let go... so we have this awkward conversation the whole time with her holding my hand. She made me pose for the camera and I think you can tell how awkward I felt by the distance between us lol. Hayley has a theory about her, and she cant stand her, maybe she's onto something?



Here's one of the inappropriate hand holding....



We decided to head over to meet Belle afterwards, there was no queue so we had to wait about 10 mins for there to be enough people to go in and see her. I took a few pictures inside.









Unfortunately we were the last to enter the room so we ended up sitting apart on opposite sides of the room :( ah well. Belle was brilliant but not quite as amazing as she was in May, but that could have been cause it was the first time I saw it in May? Who knows!

It was getting late now so we decided to call it a night. Sy was hungry on the way back to the hotel so we drove along the 192 trying to find him something he could grab to take out, we stumbled on a Wendy's. He's now a total convert, he loved it as far as fast food goes! He's already talking about going back there on our next trip. I didn’t have anything as I wasn't hungry.

We get back to the hotel at 11pm and we are both in bed by 11:30pm.


Tomorrow, Epcot and Blizzard Beach
 
Day 15

We woke up this morning to pouring rain :( The plan was going to Blizzard Beach this morning and head to Epcot this afternoon for the Food and Wine soft opening ;) but that plan was a dud if it was going to continue raining like it was! Booooo. So we decided that we would grab on the trusty ponchos and head to Epcot this morning instead. Rain cant hold us down ;)

Just as soon as we arrived the rain stopped, but of course ;) We stopped to get a few photopass pics with the food and wine sign in the background.





We made our way straight over to World showcase where we ran into Ray and his wife who had arrived that morning, we were planning on meeting up with them anyway but this was just a chance meeting! We stood for a little while chatting but Ray had hurt his foot and needed to find some new shoes plus where we were, the sun was beating down on us. We said our goodbyes and planned to meet up again properly for some drinks round the world.

Most of the booths were open, there was the odd few that were opening later but we found a few delights to keep us happy!

First stop was to get the annoying little booklet for Sy so that he can collect stamps everywhere and then never look at it again when he gets home ;)



This was the winner for me, from Belgium a potato waffle with leeks. It was scrummy!



It was supposed to come with this bit on top but we asked for them to come separately as it was red meat and I don’t eat it.



We also stopped at Japan for some Sushi



I cant remember where this next one came from, but it was pulled pork. It may have come from USA...



The sun was getting *so* hot now so we decided to call it a day at Epcot. Is it me or does anyone else find world showcase the hottest place ever? We had been clever this morning and packed the swimming things just in case the rain stopped so we could go straight over to BB.

I always pack a higher suncream for the waterparks as there are bits of skin that come out that never usually see the light of day, and I tend to burn those bit ;) I usually put the high factor on all the white bits and the normal one on my shoulders, arms, chest and back. As I was already feeling hot from Epcot I decided to put the high factor all over today, just to be extra careful...

We got changed, creamed up and went to find some loungers to leave the towels and clothes. We didn’t actually do any of the rides, just played around in the pool and lazy river for a few hours. I love the lazy river :) I don’t like the bits of tree in there though, I always end up covered in it, yuk! We planned to stay longer and do some of the rides but I felt like I needed to get my pasty English skin out of the sun, so we threw on some clothes over our swimming stuff and head back to the hotel.









It was back at the hotel I realised just how pink I was... oh dear, oh dear....



I was hot! I hate getting burnt and am usually SO careful, but this morning I hadn't put cream on before leaving the hotel cause of the rain, my own fault really. I also hate how you can always spot the British tourists due to their white skin and bright red bits lol I like to think I’m more of a local as I'm there so often ;) My skin of course has other ideas lol

It wasn’t a good look was it? It didn’t feel too great either, the pink bits were bloody hot. I had a shower and slathered myself in aftersun to try and help.

We got dressed and headed to Walmart to get the last few bits people had asked us to bring back. We then stopped at Cracker Barrel so that I could have a quick look in the shop, I LOVE the shop there :D I got a few Christmas decorations but didn’t spend too much, Sy could rest easy ;)

I wasn't feeling in the mood for eating out as I was feeling a bit rough from the sunburn so we got a Wendy's take out and went back to the hotel to eat it in our room. Wendy's was a first for me tonight as I didn’t have anything the time before, I though it was pretty good for fast food :) wish we had that sort of quality fast food here, we have drive thru Mcdonalds, Burger King and KFC but thats it really as far as fast food goes - its all I can think of that does drive thru anyway.

We were in bed about 11pm after Sy had rubbed cream all over my burnt bits which wasn't nearly as fun as it sounds :(
 
Day 16

We totally forgot it was day 8 of the DVC cycle which meant we were due to have some housekeeping... sadly this meant we didn't put the do not disturb sign on the door the night before and thus we were woken up. Our own fault though. Once we were awake, there was no going back to sleep so we got up and had some breakfast, Sy cooked the bagels while I facetimed my mum back home. It was a beautiful day out so I made sure to put loads of suncream on ;) not making that mistake again... lol

Time for a quick picture in the room, Sy insisted on it honest lol



Housekeeping came to knock again just as we were ready so we let them in and went on our way. This morning we were heading to HS! We had an ADR at lunchtime for Sci-Fi dine in. I wasn't that keen before but after a menu change we decided to try it again. Before that though, we had some rides to do :D First up was the Backlot tour. Oh how I yearn for the old Backlot. I still do it every now and again but almost always I end up telling Sy how amazing it used to be and how I wish he could have seen it... mind you, I have a feeling it might go completely in the years to come...

It was then almost time for our ADR so we made our way over to Sci-Fi, stopping on the way to watch 'Mulch, Sweat and Shears', well thats what we are assured we were watching, but its not the Mulch, Sweat and Shears we know! Who was this woman singing? It was like an extremely poor rip off of the real band! It just didn’t work with this woman at ALL, she was even using the same jokes but she couldn’t quite pull them off... it was shocking.



Needless to say, we didn’t stop for long and we went to Sci Fi, we had to wait a min or 2 and we were then shown to the front of a car :)





I already knew I was ordering the chicken lol Sy decided to have a burger.





I really liked the sauce on the chicken, it was like a chilli mayonnaise. And who doesn't love the fat fries! They are almost as good as the ones we get back home ;)

Our server was called Britney and she was SO very perky. She was really good though :)

We paid our bill and made our way back outside. We didn’t fancy any rides too soon after dinner so we went over to One Mans Dream :D This is another thing I don’t think I could ever get bored of. I love hearing and seeing things about Walt Disney. I would love to visit the museum one day :D

We then made our way over to TSM, though we stopped on the way for Sy to get a picture with a very large green army man.



In the queue for TSM





We were a bit matchy in our colours today weren't we? Too much light pink!

Our ride experience was a bit meh, we kept stopping between games and going into 'extra' games with no points. We stopped after every single game. It did distract from the game slightly but hey ho.



Sy had the highest score of the hour though which he was very proud about ;)





Outside it was almost time for Beauty and the Beast so we hot footed it over there :D

I am kicking myself that I didn’t get a better picture of him but the beast was super hot today :D When he's a man obviously ;)





I just love this show :D I would hate to see it leave, I know some people say its out of place in HS but I just love it :)

We made our way slowly out of the park as it looked like rain was coming in again. We hadn't been to the Florida mall yet so we wanted to head there to get some shopping in ;)

Sadly we didn’t find anything worth buying other than a few bits from the Disney store for our friend's who were cat sitting. It was a bit of a bust really :( ah well. I did notice there was a lot more for adults in the Disney store though, in the UK there pretty much is nothing for adults anymore :( its very sad :( Think we will probably give Florida mall a miss next trip unless our family really want to visit. We did stop by the food court for some dinner though, we shared a Chinese which was ok, nothing special but nothing bad.

We left after we had eaten, we came back to the hotel and did a bit of washing. We got in bed at 10:30pm and watched Hocus Pocus :D Love that film :D
 
Day 17 - part 1

Magic Kingdom!

We were up nice and early this morning after our early night last night. We decided to go out for breakfast this morning. By the time we had a shower and got dressed etc it wasn't so early anymore... We went to Bob Evans again. I am really impressed with the breakfasts here, we have tried Denny's and IHOP and we both agreed that Bob Evans is much nicer for an offsite breakfast option.



By the time we had breakfast and parked the car, we walked through the gates at MK at 12pm. We might have got there late but we spent a full 12 hours there to make up for it ;)

We had skipped the traditional train ride all the way round the park on our first day so we decided to make up for it now :)



Next up was something I have never done before and was determined to try out this time... The Enchanted Tiki Room! I had no idea what it was or what happened inside... I just knew some people said it was a bit naff ;) Yeah I guess some could say its naff, and I would understand it but I really liked it! I'll def do it again next time :D





We then went to Country Bears Jamboree, another thing I've never tried. This however was AWFUL. I've never seen the film so maybe that would have helped but I just plain didn’t get it. We were falling asleep! The woman next to me was laughing so hard she was almost falling off the chair at the blood song, I didn’t even get that one! I must have no sense of humour lol







It was getting on time for the parade now so we decided to grab a spot and wait. We were both a little peckish again so Sy got a corndog while I went in search of the baked potato stall in Liberty island. I love my baked potatoes, its one of my fav foods. It was talk like a Pirate week so we got a spot nice and early to watch the pirate parade before the normal parade.





It was cute to watch but I probably wouldn’t bother making a special effort to see it again ;) It was nice to see all the children involved though. They were pleased as punch to be in the parade.

It was then time for the main show...





Annoyingly there was a big south American group that came to stand right next to us and kept standing right in front of me so I didn’t see things too well, also one of the men kept grabbing hold of the characters and not letting go so they were staying well away from us :( some people just have to ruin it for everyone else!

When the parade had finished we went over to ride the haunted mansion. I love haunted mansion, in fact the only disney dooney bag I have ever considered is the HM one but its always sold out before it even gets to the shops! I wouldn’t buy it without seeing it first, not something of that value ;)

Next was Philharmagic :)



Afterwards we went over to Tomorrowland to ride some of our old favourites, Monster's inc Laugh floor and the Peoplemover :D

We then went to watch the move it shake it parade, we got a spot by Mr Incredible, he was very funny dancing, he got all of the people who reaaaaaaalllly didn’t want to dance up and made them dance around. I made sure to stay well back LOL.



 
Day 17 - part 2

It was then almost time for our ADR at the Plaza with our friends from home Nicola and Fred. Nicola and I have knows each other since planning our weddings, we were on a wedding planning forum, and she then told me about disney forums :D we have been friends since and we have all met up a fair few times now, they are also friends with Hayley and Gareth and Matt and they were friends with Sue before she passed away :( They had only arrived a day or so before so this was our first chance to meet up.

We managed to spot each other pretty quick, though it was very busy by now. In fact I'd never seen it so busy in September before! There was a bit of a scrum at the podium to check in, but we got there in the end and were given a pager. We were so busy chatting that I have no idea how long we waited for our table. Once inside our server tried to take our order right away before we had even looked at the menu, she came back 3 times a minute or so apart to see if we were ready to order, it became a bit funny in the end! We did order and once the food came she kept coming back to see if we had finished yet lol The food was good, just a shame about the weird server!





We went outside with the idea that we would go find a spot for Wishes. O.M.G it was RAMMED.. we couldn’t move once we got outside. We ended up sitting on the tiny wall behind the stroller parking outside the Plaza, we had a tree in the way but there was just no where to go. CM's were yelling at people to keep moving and not block the walkway but there was no where for them to go. It was actually very scary for me as someone who isn’t that keen on big crowds. What then made it worse, I needed to use the bathroom :( I managed to fight my way over to the ones at the bottom of the ramp to the wishes dessert party, but then I couldn’t get back so I watched the fireworks from there. After the fireworks finished they opened up behind the shops to get people out. The park wasn’t closing yet but a lot of people were leaving, I then struggled to get back to the others. The guys were stood up chatting, they delightfully told me why... a lady came up to them with her daughter and said she's going to be sick in the bush behind them, they never moved so quick in their lives hahaha. To be fair, when you're going to be sick and there are so many people around that you cant get to a bathroom, it was the best place to do it.

Eventually we decided to make a move from where we were and head to Tomorrowland.

We went to Monster's inc laugh floor first, we were hoping to get the new show including Buddy following a how to make people laugh tutorial but getting it hopelessly wrong. Sadly we got the usual but still very funny Buddy script. We then rode Buzz. I don’t remember who won, which means it was almost definitely Sy lol





Afterwards we decided to ride Splash as we hadn't been on it since our first day! Plus Nicola and Fred had a Photopass+ so we could pull a funny pose for the camera ;) What made it even funnier was that Fred bottled the pose at the last second! When we were queuing up we decided that us girls would go together and the boys would go together however Fred and I were first in the queue and we were directed to the first 2 rows of the boat, neither of us wanted to get soaked so we sneaked into the second row before Sy and Nicola had even realised hehehehe.



We then decided to ride BTMR, I went with Nicola this time.





Time was getting on now so we decided to make our way to the exit, we stopped on the way to get a couple of fastpass pics though :)





We were out at the car by 11:50pm so just shy of 12 hours in the park ;) its surprising how quickly time goes by when you're having fun ;) We said goodbye at the car (we were only a few rows apart weirdly!) and made our way back to AKL. We were in bed by 1:30am!


Some of you may know that I have complex health difficulties and because of them Disney are very good and offer me a GAC that I use. While we were there we were still using the old GAC but we were already aware of the new DAS that was due to come in. Now because of that I wanted to try and see how I would cope without the GAC, partly for me to see how it would be and partly for people who were worrying about it from afar. I made use of the fastpass+ and yes we did visit in September which is technically out of season however it was so busy that day I refuse to count it as a low crowd day, yet we managed to ride all of those things today without using the GAC at all! I hope that might set a few minds at ease who are worrying, it can be done with some careful planning and making use of the fastpasses.


Tomorrow, our last full day! Sob
 
Day 18 - part 1

Our last full day :'(

We were woken up at 7am this morning by a child screaming blue murder outside our room, he was having a total paddy! Parents were ignoring him and letting him get on with it. As it happens I think that's the right way to handle a paddy but not when it impacts other people around! Anyway, it was just what we wanted... Luckily though, we did go back to sleep and the alarm woke us up at 9:30am

We were heading into Epcot to meet Nicola and Fred this morning, yay! We hopped out of bed and got ready, me yelling to Sy to get a move on cause he is always late, for everything!

We were soon ready and in the car, we were running a bit late and I wouldn't let Sy get breakfast in the room in case it made us even later, we did try to get a mcdonalds breakfast at the drive thru on property but the queue was too long so I wouldn't let Sy wait, I'm a big meanie! (Well if he was on time getting ready...)

We met up at the front, luckily we got there at about the same time :) we headed straight for soarin, we had synced up out fastpass+ so we could ride at the same time. We waited for the top in the middle :)

Nicola and Fred hadn't had any breakfast either so we went for an early lunch at Electric Umbrella. I had the usual chicken nuggets, Sy had the burger topped with Mac and cheese, he wasn't that keen though. My chicken nuggets were good though! lol



We chatted for ages over lunch before heading over to Test Track. I like trying to design the most hideous looking car I can lol what do you think....



We worked out our pose for the picture before we got in the queue line, we needed props ;)
We even managed it without Fred bottling it today hahaha.

I love this picture!



We spent a while in the Chevrolet bit at the end of Test Track, taking loads of the silly pictures and emailing them to ourselves...







We decided we *needed* a slushie afterwards, it was hot! we needed a drink... Any excuse ;) so off we went in search of some... We managed to find some towards Ellen's Adventure. We then grabbed a seat and got chatting to an American family for about an hour :)

Time was getting on and Nicola and Fred had places to be later in the day so we decided to head towards the exit :( we stopped to meet Pluto on the way out and got some fab photopass pics :)







 
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