Our first trip highs and lows

[halloween12]

We got back from our holiday of a life time on Thursday and ive only just gotten round to posting this.
I would like to say a massive thank you to you guys for all your help and advice before, during and after our trip.

I love my children and my new husband dearly and I never imagined that I would be able to have that kind of holiday and make those kinds of memories. I am not sure if we will ever realisistically be able to afford to go again but my kids are precious and childhood is over so quickly, we loved every minute and every experience and we took nothing for granted, we did so much but we also took lots of time out to smell the roses and we laughed a lot
We were also fortunate enough to get married there - it was truly the day of our dreams.

Highs:
My children's faces as we drove through the WDW gates

My husbands face when he saw me on our wedding day

Our beautiful 2 bed villa at OKW in building 56 just next to a lovely little pool which we pretty much had to ourselves most afternoons.

The car (which was a free upgrade - being at the back of a long rental line may seem like a drag, but it worked out well in the end)

The wedding day: on Halloween day, our favourite day of the year, having MNSSHP tickets and being able to go into MK on our wedding day in our wedding gear (and actually feeling underdressed lol there were some amazing costumes) eating dinner in cinderella's castle and riding roller coasters in my wedding dress lol and then fireworks and a parade - perfect

The Disney parks, all 4 of them had a different feel and we found things that we LOVED about each park:
Magic kingdom: the castle, the Halloween decorations, space mountain, haunted mansion, the laugh floor and MNSSHP as above
Epcot: illuminations, food and wine, walking around the world, soarin (and getting given fast passes for it from a lovely family)
Hollywood Studios: fantasmic! Tower of terror, rock and roller coaster, the stunt show
Animal kingdom: the animals, expedition Everest, yak and yeti restaurant

Wizarding world of Harry potter

Feeding sting rays and dolphins at seaworld

The whole day at discovery cove

The whole of Busch gardens, the animals and the rides were well worth the long drive and My youngest being big enough for every roller coaster in every park and us having loads of fun as a family on some of the most amazing roller coasters in the world.

The dining plan - so much food, so much!

The lovely weather

And being lucky enough to witness the Xmas decorations and the first turning on of the castle Xmas light at MK on our last night and wishes fireworks and beautiful magic night to finish off our holiday of a life time.

Lows:
The first experience of driving in America which I attempted to do without a satnav!!!! Loved driving after we bought one though

General lack of veggie options everywhere (I still put weight on thought lol)

Disney buses - we only caught them a few time to DTD (if I fancied a drink) there were always plenty of buses with plenty of room... But the amount of time it takes to load the electric scooters was ridiculous!!! Now I have a back condition myself and I work for wheelchair services so I am very tolerant of wheelchair users, but there must be a faster way of doing this?! I only caught a hand full of buses and that was enough to drive me crazy.

HHN at universal, queues were crazy - we bought express passes but they were very expensive!and we honestly didn't find it scary at all but we had a fun night - just wasn't what I was expecting

Universal studios, apart from the roller coaster... I was totally sick of putting 3D glasses on! No real rides and all very same'y - we loved island of adventure though

A queue jumper at island of adventure who got more than she bargained for when she and her other Hispanic friends got as far up the queue as us!!! The only queue jumping that we encountered anywhere though

COMING HOME - I actually cried
Hard rocker image gone out of the window lol

Thanks again guys xxx
I will come on here often to browse xxx

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

What a fantastic report - it certainly sounds like a truly magical holiday. How good to get married there - was that at WDW or somewhere else?

We too love all the parks and SW (feeding the Stingrays is great);

Thanks for posting

 

[jen_uk]

Sounds like a wonderful trip

 

[pascalstongue]

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip and a fabulous wedding day.

I would be crying on the way home too.

 

[wayneg]

Exactly the kind of post I love to read.
You possibly won't be able to afford the same holiday again but hopefully you will find a way to get back and enjoy another Orlando holiday.
Life is too short & children grow up fast, enjoy while you can.

 

[dixonsontour]

Glad you had a fantastic time - maybe do a trip report? Takes time but fantastic memory of your fab holiday.

 

[disneyholic family]

oh no about the veggie options!!
it's too late to tell you this, but you can get food that's not on the menu...
for one thing, at every table service restaurant you can always order a veggie burger even if it's not on the menu - that is always available.
and in addition they'll also make you special food to order.

the chef comes out to talk to you and prepares something special for you if there is nothing on the menu that works for you..
this is even true at the buffet meals ( for example, the chef prepared DD a huge and yummy 5 course extravaganza at the dinner buffet at 1900 park fare)...

i'm so sorry i didn't pass along this information to you before your trip!!

 

[crabbie1]

What a lovely report and extra special as you got married there. You all looked brilliant and your dress was lovely. I like the quote where you said you did not stand out on halloween night. Brill! Glad you had a lovely holiday and such a bump when it all comes crashing back to earth.

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