Our Spectacular FIRST Disney Vacation! August 2011 UK TR- OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY Mini TR

Love the report, Glad you was able to convert your family into Disney freaks, well most of them anyway! :goodvibes
 
loving the trip so far, we are going to Akershus in October so its great to hear you enjoyed it, DS 4 and DD6 are going to love it, and the food looks great, we have been to CRT and it certainly compares well. DS 4 loves the princesses and DD 6 just loves all of it! Your pictures are great BTW
 

Great report!! I wasn't able to get a Akershus breakfast in, I was traveling with my son and husband so I was totally outvoted. I was able to get the CRT in, because they thought it would be neat to eat in the castle and it was SO not worth the 2 TS credits. Next time, we'll be giving this a try instead. :)

~Zara
 
Love the report, Glad you was able to convert your family into Disney freaks, well most of them anyway! :goodvibes

Thanks for reading! Haha, I agree, now even they want to return to WDW! :cool1:

loving the trip so far, we are going to Akershus in October so its great to hear you enjoyed it, DS 4 and DD6 are going to love it, and the food looks great, we have been to CRT and it certainly compares well. DS 4 loves the princesses and DD 6 just loves all of it! Your pictures are great BTW

Awww thanks! You and your kids will love Akershus I'm sure. It's just such a great atmosphere. The princesses did a parade around the restaurant every so often with all the 'princes and princesses'. I don't know whether they do this at CRT but it looked like all the kids were having so much fun. :thumbsup2

Great report!! I wasn't able to get a Akershus breakfast in, I was traveling with my son and husband so I was totally outvoted. I was able to get the CRT in, because they thought it would be neat to eat in the castle and it was SO not worth the 2 TS credits. Next time, we'll be giving this a try instead. :)

~Zara

Such a shame you couldn't get Akershus in, at least you tried CRT. I wanted to do that but no one else wanted to because of the princesses- the only reason we settled for Akershus was because we needed a TS breakfast in Epcot. I'm sure your husband and son will like it though, as long as they are not totally against princesses ;) Hope you enjoy it! :yay:
 
Great TR so far joining in, I totally get the tiredness when you first arrive we are from Scotland, the long flight is so worth it though, look forward to reading more.
 
Hello again! Nearly time for bed (timezones really mess up my sleeping pattern!) but I decided to do one more update.

So- after we ate at Akershus, we headed over to Test Track to get a FastPass. It was about 10:45am so we could now head over to Soarin'. Even though we had FP, there was about a 10 minute wait, but boy was it worth it! I had read how some people loved it, but I just didn't know what to expect. It was so much better than I was expecting it to be. Our whole family screamed as we smelt the oranges! I just don't know how they do it, but Soarin' was just magical. Only Disney could do that, right? ;)

Then we went to Living with the Land, which had absolutely no queue. It was interesting, especially to see all of the different plants. Here are my mum, Willum and Rory enjoying the ride:

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When we got out, there was a queue! It was quite funny, we felt very lucky. Rory was in a massive strop because he was so thirsty, and yes, we had water, but no, Rory would not accept the water we had, stating water was 'gross' and demanded some coke. Seeing as we had a ton of snack credits, we all got a drink from Sunshine Seasons.

Test Track Incident
We headed over to Test Track, and William was very excited. This was the ride he was most looking forward to in the whole of WDW. But just as we were in the room watching the video prior to the show, Rory got a massive nose bleed. Daddy, in an attempt to stop it so that we would not miss TT, let Rory use his shirt as a tissue, hoping it would end quickly. Unfortunately, it just got worse. As we were in the queue, about to board a car, a really kind man offered us his hankercheif. It was so sweet! Pretty much everyone is nice at WDW, the CMs and guests! This wasn't enough to let Rorsie get on the ride though, and he started crying. Not because of his nose bleed, but because he was so distraught that he was missing Test Track!
Me, Willum and Mummy rode TT while Daddy and Rors were hurried away by cast members. Test Track was really good... far better than any of us had expected! We headed through the gift shop, and looked for Rory and my dad. They were nowhere to be seen. :confused3
We sat out by the Test Track entrance, hoping that we'd see them walk by. We were increasingly worried that we would be late for our late lunch ADR at Tutto Italia. I said "Do you think they'll have let them ride? Maybe that's why they're late."
"No, I shouldn't think so." my mum said. "He won't be let on again. We'll have to get another FastPass for him and Daddy."
Suddenly though, Rory dashed towards us from the gift shop shouting how much he'd loved Test Track. They'd let him ride again! Disney is awesome.
But that wasn't it. Because their shirts were both covered in blood, Disney gave them both a voucher entitling them to a shirt! They could choose whatever shirt they liked, and they had $30 each to spend to choose one. My dad chose one with Grumpy on and Rorsie chose one with Pluto, one of his favourite Disney characters. Disney's customer service is the best, like, ever. I mean... where else would they virtually put $60 in someone's pocket?! I guess that's why people return to Disney. I suppose they didn't want people patrolling around Epcot in shirts covered with blood- considering everything else is so clean! :laughing:
It was one of the things that made our day. We were 1/2 an hour late for our ADR at Tutto Italia, but we were still let in.

That's it for now... coming up next... Tutto Italia for lunch!
(P.s. there will be more pictures... sorry for the lack of them in this post! ;) )
 
Our 14 yr old niece will be staying with us on our Oct trip, can you let me know the 'must do' things in your opinion!
 
I'm enjoying your trip report very much. I love your dress too, so pretty.

Awww thanks! And thanks for joining in too :goodvibes

Our 14 yr old niece will be staying with us on our Oct trip, can you let me know the 'must do' things in your opinion!

Well, it depends on whether she likes Disney or not I guess. I love Disney, so I really enjoyed Wishes, the Magic, the Memories and You and Illuminations. To me they were more 'unforgettable experiences' than the rides were. But I also really enjoyed the thrill rides- Space Mountain, Expedition Everest, Test Track, Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain. Oh, she'll love Soarin'! Star Tours is a great ride too. If she's into eating and looking round places, a trip to the Grand Floridian and a meal at GFC would be awesome! :thumbsup2
If she's never been to WDW before, I would say MK is the most important park to try. IMHO, it just 'feels' more Disney than the others, and has more rides and things to do. ;)
(Oh- almost forgot- a character breakfast or meal with Mickey and Co., even my anti-Disney brother loved posing with Goofy! Meeting the characters is something that virtually everyone enjoys the first time, I think! :) )

I'm joining in! Sounds like quite a trip!

Thanks for joining in! :thumbsup2
 
So, welcome back everyone to my TR!

When I left off, we had just bought the boys shirts with the vouchers that Disney gave us, and were headed to Italy.
Rushing over to WS, we were terrified that we would not be let in because we had missed our ADR time. However, Tutto Italia was virtually empty! I was shocked, I thought pretty much all of the Disney restaurants were booked up and full, especially in August.

Lunch at Tutto Italia

We waited about five minutes in the lobby (don't really know why considering how quiet it was!) and then were called in. There were two or three other occupied tables... not many at all.

The decor is nice in here... although the paintings on the wall aren't really what they'd be like in Italy. It was one of the more upmarket places we ate at on our vacation.
(Sorry about the quality, our camera isn't very good at taking pictures in the dark!)

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Here are Willum and Rory...

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Rory enjoying himself...

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Me, Daddy and Rory (Please ignore my face, I was yawning!)...

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Me and dear old father...

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Oh dear...

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The food was good, and the service was really good. This is one of the only restaurants that we actually believed the staff deserved the tip we gave them. They really worked for it! I had the Minestrone Soup for my app, which I really liked. I would highly reccommend. I can't remember much more I'm afraid, we have lost all the photos, but I do remember my parents loving the platter full of meat.

Our Ratings for Tutto Italia-
(Sorry, I only had time to ask myself! Time for bed soon. :sad2: )

Rating- 7/10
"I really liked the decor, food and service. The appetizers were better than the entrees and desserts IMHO. I would reccommend this place if you are on the DDP, but if you aren't... it's pretty expensive for one TS credit- and I'm not sure it would be worth the full amount that we paid."

That's it for now! Our evening at Epcot coming up soon, hope to update tomorrow! :thumbsup2

Thanks for reading! :lovestruc
 
Welcome back to my Trip Report!

Now, where did we leave off?! Oh yes, we had just left Tutto Italia and had a good meal. We were exhausted, hot and sticky, and decided to go back to the hotel for a swim. Here are a few photos we took on our way back through WS!

Here's Mulan. We saw her numerous times in China and I was a little disappointed that I never got to meet her.

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And some pictures of WS...

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We loved this shop. It's where we bought the t-shirts for Rory and my dad that I mentioned in a previous post. It had so much stuff!

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HOWEVER, when we got back to SSR, a torrential downpour started, and it was obvious that we weren't going to be swimming that afternoon. Rory was grumpy about it- a few weeks prior to the holiday he had learnt to swim under water and now loves swimming. So our little 'water baby' was a bit cross that we wouldn't make it.
I literally walked into the villa and went straight to my bed for a much needed nap. When I woke up, the rain was still going, but was merely a drizzle now. We noticed the time was getting dangerously late to get to EPCOT for our ADR at R&C on time. We tried to get ready as quickly as possible... but- our family is one of those families that take ages to just get out of the door and on their way! If you're a family, you'll probably know what I mean by this. We had to get ready, cream up, pack what we were taking with us, and of course, the major distraction for Willum and Rory was the television. So as me and my parents were rushing around trying to get to R&C on time, the boys lazed around in our room without a care in the world, let alone being worried about missing an ADR. It really enfuriates you sometimes, I'm sure some of you will know what I mean! :lmao:

Well, eventually when we got out, we hurriedly drove to Epcot, we were going to be late though and we couldn't really do anything about it! Luckily, because we were late for our Tutto Italia ADR and they hadn't blinked an eyelid, we weren't as stressed that we were late this time round.

We were about 40 minutes late when we finally checked in for our meal. We had to wait for our buzzer to go off, so we decided to check out the shops in the UK while we were waiting. They didn't really represent Britain. Well, they did sell football (soccer) shirts... our country is football mad for some reason. The UK was the most boring country in Epcot IMHO, I guess that's just because I live there! The shops sold all the stereotypical British things. ;)

The Rose and Crown Pub and Dining Room!

Our buzzer went off after about 20 minutes. We were taken in and had a nice, friendly waitress from Ireland. I'm ever so sorry that we don't have any photos of this meal. :sad2:

We were quite disappointed by the food, as we had heard good things about it. I had the vegetarian sheperds pie, which I didn't like at all- but I guess that is a matter of taste. My father had the sausage and mashed potato I believe, and the potatoes were so buttery, I really liked them. I didn't realize that there was bacon in it though... and when I did, I felt sick. There was bacon in pretty much all the mashed potatoes we ate in WDW, I don't really get why, it doesn't happen much in the UK. (Which is the restaurants theme!)
I seem to remember the rest of the food was just average from what the rest of my family told me. (The scotch chocolate cake was nice though, I really enjoyed that.)

What did we think of the Rose and Crown?

Me (Megan)- 5/10
"The food wasn't very nice, with the exception of the chocolate cake at the end. The atmosphere was nice though, because of it's size. It felt more personal.

Tracey (Mum)- 7/10
"I didn't think the food was that good- certainly wasn't English. We did have good seats for Illuminations though, which made up for it." (I will explain later)

Will (Dad)- Is out at drama club, so couldn't comment.

Willum- 3/10
"They gave me the wrong stake... was too chewy."

Rory- Is in bed sleeping... sorry.... ;)

Now... we had a reservation in the Preferred Fireworks Viewing Area in Morocco. However, we were going to be late for this, and our waitress said 'You can have a table in our outdoor seating area- because of the storm earlier it's been closed off.' It was virtually empty! We got a spot right in the middle of the deck and the best view ever. Illuminations was awesome. And we were viewing it from a virtually empty deck! There were two or three other families I think. I had heard it got really busy for the fireworks so it was awesome to have that unexpected surprise. The only picture we got from the show was this...

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Our camera is rather tame in the dark. I really wish we'd have taken more pictures, or not as deleted as many!
Illuminations is really good and we all really enjoyed it. We haven't ever seen anything like it!
Here's some photos we took whilst leaving the park:

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These things were really interesting...

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Little Rorsie was in deep sleep! :thumbsup2

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What a great and magical day. And a great start to an amazing WDW trip!

Our ratings for EPCOT:

Me (Megan)
Rating- 7/10
Favourite ride- Soarin'

Will (Dad)
Rating- 6/10
Favourite ride- Soarin'

Tracey (Mum)
Rating- 7/10
Favourite ride- Soarin'

William
Rating- 5/10
Favourite ride- Test Track

Rory
Rating- 7/10
Favourite ride- Test Track

Thanks for reading! Coming up tomorrow- our day at Disney's Hollywood Studios! Bye bye! :thumbsup2
 
Great Report so far!
My first trip with my family as an adult was at SSR. I agree, its very pretty and great when it comes to having some space. Sounds like you got a pretty good deal on the trip! Don't worry about your brotehr sometimes not enjoying it- when he has a family of his own it will come full circle and mean that much more to him because he gets to share his childhood memories with his family.
looking forward to hearing more!
 
Great update! I've always wanted to try Tutto Italia. Glad to hear you had a good fireworks spot!
 
Great Report so far!
My first trip with my family as an adult was at SSR. I agree, its very pretty and great when it comes to having some space. Sounds like you got a pretty good deal on the trip! Don't worry about your brotehr sometimes not enjoying it- when he has a family of his own it will come full circle and mean that much more to him because he gets to share his childhood memories with his family.
looking forward to hearing more!

I'm glad someone else likes SSR. :goodvibes That sounds really sweet about my brother... if that happens I will be very glad! I'm sure he really does enjoy it but is too embarrassed to admit it! :laughing: Thanks for joining in!

Great update! I've always wanted to try Tutto Italia. Glad to hear you had a good fireworks spot!

You should try Tutto Italia- one of the better restaurants of our trip. Thanks for reading! :thumbsup2

Nice update! I'm actually on one of those walls.

Really? I was fascinated looking at them... and sad I couldn't have our family put on them! Some of them were empty :confused3 But we heard it was for the Millenium celebration. Thanks for reading! :thumbsup2

Nice to see a UK trip report :goodvibes

Haha, thanks! And thank you for reading! :)
 
Subscribing! I love your fresh view on the Disney vacation experience. Most of my friends, myself included, have been so many times that we forget how magical Disney truly is. Thanks for sharing your holiday with us :goodvibes
 




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