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

[meggiebeth]

Hello! Sorry I've been away for a while. We've just had half term and I've been all around the country for some reason.

We had a swim and got ready for HDDR. I was curious what it would be like, but not sure how much we'd like it.

We went to the 9pm performance and it wasn't very busy. We were seated RIGHT at the front and had an amazing view!

Of course miserable William decided this show was above him and stayed back at SSR. I think he was admittedly tired, but if we'd have paid for the dining plan, rather than getting it for free, I think my parents would be annoyed at the money that would have been lost.

Because of how ... well... un-busy it was, everyone was seated on the ground floor. We met another British family that had been staying at SSR, and they reccommended a shopping centre/mall in Orlando. We decided to check it out sometime.

Here is a photo of HDDR just as we got seated.

Here is Rory looking at the menu and thinking 'There's nothing I like here!' He is way too fussy. Turns out he loved the food in the end.

This picture is a 'fail' as William would say. However the cornbread was DELICIOUS and my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it!

My mum's half eaten salad...

Mmmm... someone's enjoying cornbread

The chef came out to speak to me about what food I would like. He basically just said 'I will cook pasta with tomato sauce' and I went with it. When it came out, it looked like there was more sauce than pasta!

When the show started... a certain little boy was absorbed. He spent the whole night chuckling away at all the funny things the actors did.

Infact this was the only meal of the week during the evening that Rory stayed awake for. That's gotta mean something!

Anyway, without further ado, here are some of the photos we took during the show!

Well that's it for now! I'll update the rest of HDDR soon. Thanks for reading!

 

[tdzaleski]

Great Review! Yea, My mom was pretty anti-Disney at first. Since she hasn't gone since she was 7 (besides our last trip) she thought it was really babyish. But, I managed to convince her through many of the disney park movies they have on netflix.

 

[meggiebeth]

Great Review! Yea, My mom was pretty anti-Disney at first. Since she hasn't gone since she was 7 (besides our last trip) she thought it was really babyish. But, I managed to convince her through many of the disney park movies they have on netflix.

Thanks! Weirdly, so was my dad. He thought it was going to be tacky, and not good value for money. You must be very convincing and persuasive, like me! At least you managed to go, and experience it all

 

[lilaurora]

I am a huge lurker and don't post very often, but wanted to let you know that you are doing a great job at your trip report. I've been to WDW 3 times in the past few years, but haven't had the gumption to do a TR myself, so kudos!

I always find it interesting to hear people from the UK say how interesting they find the states because I am really interested in the UK! My husband is originally from New England and his ancestors on both his mom and dad's sides came to the colonies back in the 1670's from England. They have been able to trace his dad's family tree all the way back to the time of William the Conqueror about 1000 years ago. (my DH is so lucky!)

For our 10th wedding anniversary, we had always dreamed of visiting the UK (England and Scotland for sure and maybe Wales, too). However, our 10th is this year and we didn't want to deal with the Olympics in London. So, we're going to go next year, probably in June once DD is out of school for summer break.

On a Disney note, I had dreamed of visiting WDW since I was pretty small. I think around 10 (and I'm 33 now) I started asking my mom to buy me guide books on WDW and I would spend so much time reading them and desigining my "dream" trip. Unfortunately, my parents never took me and I finally went on my first trip with a close cousin when I was 28! I'm taking my DD7 on a surprise mommy & me trip in June this year. It will be my 4th trip overall and I plan on having many, many more! There is no such thing as outgrowing Disney!

 

[meggiebeth]

I am a huge lurker and don't post very often, but wanted to let you know that you are doing a great job at your trip report. I've been to WDW 3 times in the past few years, but haven't had the gumption to do a TR myself, so kudos!

I always find it interesting to hear people from the UK say how interesting they find the states because I am really interested in the UK! My husband is originally from New England and his ancestors on both his mom and dad's sides came to the colonies back in the 1670's from England. They have been able to trace his dad's family tree all the way back to the time of William the Conqueror about 1000 years ago. (my DH is so lucky!)

For our 10th wedding anniversary, we had always dreamed of visiting the UK (England and Scotland for sure and maybe Wales, too). However, our 10th is this year and we didn't want to deal with the Olympics in London. So, we're going to go next year, probably in June once DD is out of school for summer break.

On a Disney note, I had dreamed of visiting WDW since I was pretty small. I think around 10 (and I'm 33 now) I started asking my mom to buy me guide books on WDW and I would spend so much time reading them and desigining my "dream" trip. Unfortunately, my parents never took me and I finally went on my first trip with a close cousin when I was 28! I'm taking my DD7 on a surprise mommy & me trip in June this year. It will be my 4th trip overall and I plan on having many, many more! There is no such thing as outgrowing Disney!

Hello! Thankyou so much! And thanks for reading! You should definately do a TR... they are such fun to do! I love writing and was missing WDW so it seemed like the perfect thing to do.

That is interesting you are interested in the UK! I think people here generally do think America is big and great. Although we speak the same language and all, since visiting the US I think we are quite different countries. That's really neat about your husband being able to trace back his family history to the medieval times! I haven't done anything like that. Won't your family history date back that far? I thought lots of American's ancestors came from Europe and the UK.

You should definately come to the UK! You're making a good decision not coming this summer. We live very near London and it's extremely busy even now because of the Olympics. The Olympic village look very impressive though! Luckily we'll be on holiday in Scotland for 2 weeks of the Olympics so we'll avoid the business.

What kind of holiday were you intending to have in the UK? You'd probably just be moving around a lot- where in England and Scotland are you planning to visit? If you need any advice feel free to ask! England is marvellous, especially London and there's a city near me... Cambridge. I'm sure you've heard of it, but that's lovely too. As for Scotland, my dad is Scottish and so we have spent quite a lot of time up there over the years- I can assure you you will have a great time there! They are very patriotic, like Americans, except the Scottish culture is VERY different. Scottish dancing is fantastic too- you have to try it! (All the men wear kilts lol.)

By the way, June is a great time to go. The weather is good by British standards and UK schools aren't on holiday yet, so it won't be nearly as busy as July and August.

That's quite sad that you didn't get to go to WDW as a child. Especially after buying guide books and planning your dream holiday! I think as long as your parents can afford it, it's good to push for a WDW holiday at least once. My parents thought it would be very tacky and awful- my dad was miserable on the flight over. But they fell in love with it, and now I don't even have to beg for another one- they are desperate to go back in 2013! I hope you have fun on your mother- daughter trip- your daughter is incredibly lucky! I wish I could see her face when you surprise her with it! Infact that's what I want to do with my brother Rory next time, the expression on his face would be priceless!

Thanks so much for reading!

 

[meggiebeth]

Hello! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in ages, I've been so busy. But back to trip reporting!

We were having great fun at the HDDR and enjoying the meal but mainly the show which was such good fun and well done!

Near the end they came out and asked a few lucky people to come up on the stage. Surprisingly Rory was asked! We all got very excited... but Rory wasn't willing to do it and was very shy. Honestly that is one of my biggest regrets of the trip. It would have been wonderful to get some photos of him up on stage. Anyway, in the end, they chose another little boy.

Each volunteer from the audience went up, and did their little thing. One of the things the boy did was get kissed by the lady in the purple dress. He cringed and went 'EWWWWW' up on stage. It was so funny and cute!

That was the reason Rory used for not going up (although he didn't know he would be kissed beforehand) but I guess he's just a little shy.

So here's some photos of the volunteers from the audience.

The little boy...

That part was very good fun. Well... the whole show was! And it was coming to an end sadly...

We were given one of these (only one per table sadly...) and Rory and my Mum were enjoying making some noise...

The show came to an end... the cast bowed...

And we left. The one thing that was awesome about this place was that no tip was expected! Everyone just left! So we left quickly, got on a bus and were soon back at our car. This was the one time (surprisingly) we used a Disney bus. It was very efficient. Disney is so well connected!

Overall I would highly reccommend HDDR. One of our favourite meals of the week! Although the food is not spectacular to us (although the cornbread was YUM) I think Americans would probably like it more. We aren't used to ribs and beans with bacon in, etc. The show was so patriotic and amazing!

I've managed to get my mum's and Rory's opinions of the show.

My mum-

"It was a very entertaining evening, great fun, didn't really want it to finish! Food was okay- not really our kind of food- but it didn't matter because the entertainment was so good!"

Rory-

"10/10. The food was good and I really liked the bit when that funny dude was saying 'put your backside in, your backside out, in out, in out and you shake it all about!' It was great! I didn't like going on the stage thing. I didn't want to get kissed by that lady on the stage."

(Sorry about Rory's strange comment, he insisted I write it... that song was honestly his favourite part of the show!)

Well I hope to update soon! Thanks for reading! The weather is getting better, it's sunny, and I can't wait for summer!

 

[coltsfanatic]

Sorry I didn't see your review!! Great update! HDDR sounds really good! Sorry the chef wasn't more accommodating, though. He could have done more than pasta and sauce. This was the one show we were going to do in 2000, but it was just too pricey for us with doing Cinderella's Castle breakfast, too.

Glad to see it's warming up in England. It's as dark and dreary here as ever! I keep dreaming of the warm sunshine in Florida! Are you thinking of going back to Disney World anytime soon?

 

[lilaurora]

Hello! Thankyou so much! And thanks for reading! You should definately do a TR... they are such fun to do! I love writing and was missing WDW so it seemed like the perfect thing to do.

That is interesting you are interested in the UK! I think people here generally do think America is big and great. Although we speak the same language and all, since visiting the US I think we are quite different countries. That's really neat about your husband being able to trace back his family history to the medieval times! I haven't done anything like that. Won't your family history date back that far? I thought lots of American's ancestors came from Europe and the UK.

You should definately come to the UK! You're making a good decision not coming this summer. We live very near London and it's extremely busy even now because of the Olympics. The Olympic village look very impressive though! Luckily we'll be on holiday in Scotland for 2 weeks of the Olympics so we'll avoid the business.

What kind of holiday were you intending to have in the UK? You'd probably just be moving around a lot- where in England and Scotland are you planning to visit? If you need any advice feel free to ask! England is marvellous, especially London and there's a city near me... Cambridge. I'm sure you've heard of it, but that's lovely too. As for Scotland, my dad is Scottish and so we have spent quite a lot of time up there over the years- I can assure you you will have a great time there! They are very patriotic, like Americans, except the Scottish culture is VERY different. Scottish dancing is fantastic too- you have to try it! (All the men wear kilts lol.)

By the way, June is a great time to go. The weather is good by British standards and UK schools aren't on holiday yet, so it won't be nearly as busy as July and August.

That's quite sad that you didn't get to go to WDW as a child. Especially after buying guide books and planning your dream holiday! I think as long as your parents can afford it, it's good to push for a WDW holiday at least once. My parents thought it would be very tacky and awful- my dad was miserable on the flight over. But they fell in love with it, and now I don't even have to beg for another one- they are desperate to go back in 2013! I hope you have fun on your mother- daughter trip- your daughter is incredibly lucky! I wish I could see her face when you surprise her with it! Infact that's what I want to do with my brother Rory next time, the expression on his face would be priceless!

Thanks so much for reading!

I may just do a trip report yet - stranger things have happened!

Sounds like our plans for June trip are going to work out well. I would love to spend a couple of days in London and do super touristy things like Stonehenge. I also am very anxious to explore Scotland. I've been reading a book series over the past several years and the first couple of books mainly revolve around the Highlands in the 1740's. The second book also has a lot of action in Edinburgh, so I would LOVE to visit there and Inverness at least. My DH also wants London and touristy locales, but he would also really like to seek out the area where his ancestors lived.

As for my family ancestry, I am adopted, so I don't have much into on my birth parents. I do know that their background (collectively) was mostly Polish, Czech, and German. My adoptive family.....their are some family members who have been able to trace my grandparents to Germany, but we only can really trace back to the generation that came to the US back in the late 1800's.

I really like your review of the HDDR. It's something that I think my DD would really enjoy. We may go, but it depends on what resort we end up at on whether or not it would be in the budget.

Can't wait to read more!!

 

[meggiebeth]

Sorry I didn't see your review!! Great update! HDDR sounds really good! Sorry the chef wasn't more accommodating, though. He could have done more than pasta and sauce. This was the one show we were going to do in 2000, but it was just too pricey for us with doing Cinderella's Castle breakfast, too.

Glad to see it's warming up in England. It's as dark and dreary here as ever! I keep dreaming of the warm sunshine in Florida! Are you thinking of going back to Disney World anytime soon?

Hi there!

Thank you! HDDR is really good fun. I'm not sure whether it's worth the price... we were on the DDP so didn't worry about that.I probably would not pay out of pocket for it. Ikr, the pasta and sauce was a little disappointing. So was the regular food- very basic, meaty and coated in some sort of sauce. I guess it's meant to be quite basic, theming wise. We drank out of jam jars.

What'd you think of Cinderella's Royal Table? We are looking at going there on our next trip.

It's a shame it's not so good weather where you are! When do things start to heat up for you? Yeah, we are determined to go back next October (2013) and are saving up as much as we can! So excited! I didn't even have to push for it this time. Are you planning to go back to WDW anytime soon then?

I may just do a trip report yet - stranger things have happened!

Sounds like our plans for June trip are going to work out well. I would love to spend a couple of days in London and do super touristy things like Stonehenge. I also am very anxious to explore Scotland. I've been reading a book series over the past several years and the first couple of books mainly revolve around the Highlands in the 1740's. The second book also has a lot of action in Edinburgh, so I would LOVE to visit there and Inverness at least. My DH also wants London and touristy locales, but he would also really like to seek out the area where his ancestors lived.

As for my family ancestry, I am adopted, so I don't have much into on my birth parents. I do know that their background (collectively) was mostly Polish, Czech, and German. My adoptive family.....their are some family members who have been able to trace my grandparents to Germany, but we only can really trace back to the generation that came to the US back in the late 1800's.

I really like your review of the HDDR. It's something that I think my DD would really enjoy. We may go, but it depends on what resort we end up at on whether or not it would be in the budget.

Can't wait to read more!!

You definately should! I would love to read it- I love reading TRs!

London is a wonderful place to go- you will love it. Have you heard of the London Eye? That is a wonderful way to see the city skyline. Also the Tower of London is a great day out- they keep all the crown jewels there. Stonehenge is great! You aren't allowed to walk through the stones anymore though, sadly. Have you considered Cambridge? It's a beautiful city- infact the universities are beautiful too. You could also look at an English Heritage property. English Heritage basically looks after lots of old buildings, mansions and palaces which the owners give up. There's one near me called Audley End House and Gardens which is fascinating.

Scotland is great- as is Edinburgh as you say. Edinburgh castle is really neat attraction. There's also Loch Ness- we are planning to go there this August. And if you're into nature Glencoe is stunning too.

I would definately look for the area your DH's ancestors lived. Has he traced which part of the UK he is from yet?

Wow- I've never met an adopted person before! That's a shame you don't know much of your origins, but fascinating to think that your ancestors lived in a place as different as Poland, Germany and the Czech Rebublic! Apparently I have some Norweigan and French in me but I'm mainly Scottish. (Although I sound very English, weirdly!)

Thank you! HDDR was great fun, one of the best meals of the week! I think your DD will LOVE it, all of our family did. I wouldn't pay for it OOP... (it seems a little too expensive even though it was very good) but if you are on the dining plan (especially if it's the free one) it's better value.

Thanks! Here comes the next update!

 

[meggiebeth]

Hallo! Welcome back to my TR!

After the late night at HDDR, we still had to get up pretty early for our ADR at Crystal Palace the next day. But... ontop of that... it was a VERY sad day

Why? We were checking out of SSR that day! I was feeling really depressed, of course we were still in Florida for a week but we fell in love with SSR and didn't want to move to an offsite resort. Also it meant EMHs, the DDP and whole Disney resort experience was coming to an end.

So we had to get up early, pack up our things, check out, say our goodbyes to our wonderful resort, and rush off to MK.

Naturally, we were a little late. William dashed off to get FPs for Splash Mountain as we queued up to check in for our ADR at CP. This is probably the first time (except for the Mama Melrose incident) that a cast member was a little rude to us during the whole time of our holiday in Florida. We got to the front of the queue, which took 20 minutes, (I guess someone had a problem at the desk and it took a while) and when we finally asked to check in, the lady said quite harshly, "You CAN'T check in until all of your party is with you! Get back in the line when you're all together!" Of course Willum was still out getting FPs for SM. So we had to rush over to get him, line up again and it took another half an hour to get seated.

Me and Rors also forgot our autograph books. We got some paper from our kind waitress and used that instead.

What a pretty restaurant! Light and airy, with good food too! We loved the Winnie the Pooh theming.

The buffet area was spacious and had quite a bit of choice, but not as much as a selection of some of the other buffets. They had a different version of the potato casserole I fell in love with at Akershus. Although I preferred the Akershus version this was still nice.

First to come round was Piglet!

After that we got some food. I got some photos of some of our plates.

My dad's plate...

And (predictably) Rory's plate...

Tigger was very good fun and bouncy!

Winnie the Pooh!

And cute little Eyore (I forgot how miserable he was until I watched the Winnie the Pooh movie the other day!)

What a pretty restaurant!

I loved the little display in the foyer of the restaurant. Beautiful!

Again, the fabulous theming...

Rory and William started messing around at the table, impatient to start exploring MK.

We said goodbye to Crystal Palace, and headed outside...

...to be greeted by this irreplacible view...

Thanks for reading! I shall update more about our final day of the first week very soon!

 

[giantstoindy]

I'm so happy you're probably going to go again in 2013!! I definitely think everyone needs to try Cinderella's at least once. The food is not the best, but the atmosphere is amazing!

I love your pictures at Crystal Palace. It is such a nice restaurant! They have a lot of veggie choices, too. Silly hostesses and their seating policies.

Sorry you had to check out of SSR, it looked really nice. But glad you had a week left!

 

[coltsfanatic]

^^Oh my goodness I'm a dork, I posted under my other username!! ^^ It's still me!
I'm Jules by the way!

 

[lilaurora]

You definately should! I would love to read it- I love reading TRs!

London is a wonderful place to go- you will love it. Have you heard of the London Eye? That is a wonderful way to see the city skyline. Also the Tower of London is a great day out- they keep all the crown jewels there. Stonehenge is great! You aren't allowed to walk through the stones anymore though, sadly. Have you considered Cambridge? It's a beautiful city- infact the universities are beautiful too. You could also look at an English Heritage property. English Heritage basically looks after lots of old buildings, mansions and palaces which the owners give up. There's one near me called Audley End House and Gardens which is fascinating.

Scotland is great- as is Edinburgh as you say. Edinburgh castle is really neat attraction. There's also Loch Ness- we are planning to go there this August. And if you're into nature Glencoe is stunning too.

I would definately look for the area your DH's ancestors lived. Has he traced which part of the UK he is from yet?

Wow- I've never met an adopted person before! That's a shame you don't know much of your origins, but fascinating to think that your ancestors lived in a place as different as Poland, Germany and the Czech Rebublic! Apparently I have some Norweigan and French in me but I'm mainly Scottish. (Although I sound very English, weirdly!)

Thank you! HDDR was great fun, one of the best meals of the week! I think your DD will LOVE it, all of our family did. I wouldn't pay for it OOP... (it seems a little too expensive even though it was very good) but if you are on the dining plan (especially if it's the free one) it's better value.

I have heard of the London Eye It looks really, really neat. And thanks for the info about English Heritage properties. I've made a note of it to inquire when we visit our travel agent to start getting our plans together. We do happen to know where my DH's ancestors came from - Dutton in Cheshire (nice when the place matches the family name). However, from what I've been able to find online, there really isn't anything there anymore, though. If I can believe Google Maps, it looks like it's not too far away from a city called Runcorn?? At the very least, it's quite a long way from Cambridge! It will be interesting on how to fit it into our itinerary.

I enjoyed reading the rest of your family's time at HDDR. DD and I will not be on the dining plan. I will plan a very few sit down meals, but want to keep our schedule pretty flexible. When we went last fall we were on the dining plan and had a great time (lots of character meals including 3 princess meals!). I might still think about it, though. I wanted to do it last time, but it didn't fit in the schedule.

Can't wait to hear more - especially what hotel your family moved to and what you all thought about it!

 

[meggiebeth]

I'm so happy you're probably going to go again in 2013!! I definitely think everyone needs to try Cinderella's at least once. The food is not the best, but the atmosphere is amazing!

I love your pictures at Crystal Palace. It is such a nice restaurant! They have a lot of veggie choices, too. Silly hostesses and their seating policies.

Sorry you had to check out of SSR, it looked really nice. But glad you had a week left!

I'm so happy about it too! Yeah... I can imagine the food not being particularly good but I think eating in the castle is something I can't pass up. We also want to do the Keys to the Kingdom tour, not sure if you've done that. I'm longing to get a peek at the utilidors underneath MK!

Yeah, there were lots of veggie options at CP. I liked all the casseroles too! I'm not sure I'd go back for the restaurant itself, but I have heard about people with an early before park opening ADR getting into an empty MK! Gotta try that!

SSR was AMAZING! At first I thought we were 'settling' for it because of the big discount we got, but we actually preferred it to AKL, WL and the Poly which I was not expecting.

^^Oh my goodness I'm a dork, I posted under my other username!! ^^ It's still me!
I'm Jules by the way!

Lol! That's funny having two accounts. You must get them confused all the time! Wow what a nice name! I've heard of the name 'Jules' but never actually met anyone with that name. I would say my name's Megan but you would probably know that from reading my TR lol.

I have heard of the London Eye It looks really, really neat. And thanks for the info about English Heritage properties. I've made a note of it to inquire when we visit our travel agent to start getting our plans together. We do happen to know where my DH's ancestors came from - Dutton in Cheshire (nice when the place matches the family name). However, from what I've been able to find online, there really isn't anything there anymore, though. If I can believe Google Maps, it looks like it's not too far away from a city called Runcorn?? At the very least, it's quite a long way from Cambridge! It will be interesting on how to fit it into our itinerary.

I enjoyed reading the rest of your family's time at HDDR. DD and I will not be on the dining plan. I will plan a very few sit down meals, but want to keep our schedule pretty flexible. When we went last fall we were on the dining plan and had a great time (lots of character meals including 3 princess meals!). I might still think about it, though. I wanted to do it last time, but it didn't fit in the schedule.

Can't wait to hear more - especially what hotel your family moved to and what you all thought about it!

Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with Cheshire- it's ages away from where I live... but it looks like Runcorn is quite close to Manchester- which my parents say is a fun city to visit. I would do some research on Runcorn and see whether it would be a nice place to stay- otherwise, you could find a nearby town to stay in and make a day trip to Dutton or Runcorn. I'm not sure how you'd want to do it- but London is pretty far from Chesire I think too, so you might have a few days in Cheshire and then move on to London.

If you're into history, some parts of England are very historical, but in a more modest way than London. Although our area is not that touristy apart from Cambridge, our nearby town has a medieval castle and all-sorts. You might want to give Cambridge a miss if you're pushed for time, but another great city to see is York. If you're planning on visiting London, you could drive from there to Cheshire and then from Cheshire to York, and then from York to Scotland. Oh and there is also Hadrian's Wall up on the border which is fascinating.

I guess I'm not really sure how I'd want to do it if I were visiting from another country. It's not a sunbathing holiday at all, so you'd probably be moving around a lot. Some day I want to do a tour of California or the East Coast of the US... they are... kind of similar.

If you want to try out HDDR and you think the price is OK, I would definately go for it! It's great fun! One thing I would advice is to get category 1 seating, if it's not too much more. You feel far more 'involved' in the show and you are very close to the stage. I can't imagine being up on the balconies... I don't think the view would be nearly as good.

We actually moved offsite. The condo was fantastic but the location and atmosphere just didn't compare to SSR. Update coming up!

 

[meggiebeth]

Hello and welcome back! Well I left off just as we had left Crystal Palace and somehow... I'm not sure how far along in the day this was... but we came across the Dream Along with Mickey Show! AMAZING as usual!

After enjoying the show we queued up for... urmmm... Splash Mountain I think.

Again, one of our favourite rides... such great theming and attention to detail!

After that, we had another go on the Haunted Mansion. Earlier in the week it was quiet but today they were JAM PACKING you into the room where the roof stretches. I'm not claustaphobic and I still found it scary. You could actually not move much, and when we moved on to lining up to get on the ride, it was like everyone was pushing in on you... AWFUL. I thought back to England and how some people were crushed to death in a packed football stadium. Okay, Megan, not the best thing to do, but I was wondering if it was safe to pack people into a small space like that. If there was a fire, like at the football stadium, it could be dangerous.

Okay, that was just me being paranoid!

Anyway... I have these two photos...

I believe that after this we got on the monorail ready to go home to our new condominium.

What resort were we staying at?.....

Reunion Resort!

Reunion is an upscale golf resort in Kissimmee. We did not book via the hotel, but with a private owner. This made it a lot cheaper (we could not have stayed here otherwise) and the condo was luxurious and brand new!

There were 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and a beautiful kitchen and living room. My parents had a room, William had his own room, and me and Rory shared a room. Although it was more upscale and bigger than SSR... there was something missing. I missed SSR quite a bit.

I'm not sure if you're allowed to do this, but here is what our condo looked like. I didn't take any photographs so here is the link to the condo.

Reunion Condo Link

We had a huge balcony with fantastic views out onto the golf course. This resort wasn't really to our taste- it was very 'adult' feeling. But the price for the condo was great value and it was a great choice for the money and quality of the place.

Of course this new condo presented us with some new problems. William, now having his own room and flat screen television for the second week was quite reluctant to come anywhere with us. But we let him stay home and relax for some of the second week- I think he was pretty exhausted from all the early mornings, long days and late nights that we had during the first week of our holiday.

Well that's it for now! I have to upload more photos to Photobucket now.

Thanks so much for reading!

 

[vdub322]

I just found your trip report and caught up on reading the entire thing. You've done a great job! I have a daughter who is a little younger than you (almost 13) and it's great reading about Disney from your perspective. Thanks for taking the time to write it even though your trip is over! And I've also enjoyed reading about your culture and traditions in the UK! Keep up the great reporting!

 

[meggiebeth]

I just found your trip report and caught up on reading the entire thing. You've done a great job! I have a daughter who is a little younger than you (almost 13) and it's great reading about Disney from your perspective. Thanks for taking the time to write it even though your trip is over! And I've also enjoyed reading about your culture and traditions in the UK! Keep up the great reporting!

Hello! Thanks for joining in!

Thank you! That's interesting- I always enjoy hearing about people who are are around my age who like Disney. I guess I love to hear their perspective on WDW too! I also find it interesting how adults find Disney. That's why I love following TRs here on the TR thread

Thanks! I love being on the Disboards for the very same reason! Learning about American culture and all the phrases that are different to what we say.

I hope to update very soon. Thanks for reading!

 

[giantstoindy]

about the stretching room at HM! It looks like a neat ride, I can't wait to try it out. Did you do the queue before you went inside the attraction?

Clicked your link and the resort looks BEAUTIFUL!!! Oh my. So nice.

It's great you still have a little time left on your trip report. I really think breaking up the vacation helps make it seem longer.

 

[meggiebeth]

about the stretching room at HM! It looks like a neat ride, I can't wait to try it out. Did you do the queue before you went inside the attraction?

Clicked your link and the resort looks BEAUTIFUL!!! Oh my. So nice.

It's great you still have a little time left on your trip report. I really think breaking up the vacation helps make it seem longer.

It's not scary at all, HM, it's just such a cute ride! Have you not ridden it before? Yeah we did- you can choose whether to go through the quick queue or the queue that enters the ride via the graveyard. Really neat! Everything is interactive.

It was pretty beautiful! Just didn't feel like 'home' like SSR. Lol.

Yeah, I think so too! I think next time I will stay offsite first and then onsite so I don't miss being in the middle of Disney afterwards. Next year we plan to have a week offsite, and then 12 nights onsite. If my parents will just go along with it.

 

[meggiebeth]

Hello and welcome back! Well here is our dinner at 'Ohana! I'm afraid the photos of our meal are awful so I'll just include a few of the 'better' ones.

Here are some of the foods we were offered:

I tried the vegetarian dish which was... well... I didn't like it at all. My first taste of tofu and EWWWWWWWW!

Here's photos of some of us...

I know 'Ohana is many people's favourite but it was one of our worst meals of the week. I'm not sure why- whether the food was bad or if it just wasn't to our tastes.

The entertainment was a little tacky for Disney. Even though we would not return to 'Ohana for dinner we loved breakfast there and cannot wait to go again!

Next up- Discovery Cove day!!!