Part Five - Where we Played

[TraceyL]

Section 1 - non-Disney Parks

... or Theme Park Heaven - Part 1 the non-Disney Parks

Where we Played – The Parks

'We' are
Me & Steve
My mam & dad
Rachelle ( 8 ) & Annabelle almost 4

We stayed from Sunday Nov 28 - Thursday Dec 10th.

Tickets – we pre-purchased (from various sources) 4-park flex tickets, 4-day hopper plus tickets for everyone except me and one SeaWorld Silver Passport (on EZpay), one Universal AP (buy one year get one year free) and one Disney AP (No special offers on that lol!) when we got there to get the hotel/food/merchandise discounts for me !

We did a lot of half days this trip – so that we could fit in more shopping!

SeaWorld – we spent two half days and one meal break here (went specifically for the Smokehous BBQ place but it was closed so went to the SeaFire Inn instead). Still love Kraken & Journey to Atlantis – Annabelle’s not tall enough for these … yet! Saw Shamu and fed the dolphins for the first time. Girls really enjoyed that and it felt a bit more affordable at only $3 for the fish with AP discount instead of $4 lol! The photos that were taken by the photographer would have been really nice except this girl kept on leaning over to touch the dolphin everytime Annabelle tried to feed it. All the pics had her in!

No Dolphin Show this time but we all enjoyed Clyde & Seymore – especially when things don’t go to plan.

Islands Of Adventure – two morning visits here. Very, very quiet – the place was deserted. Spent plenty of time on Seuss Landing

riding One Fish Two Fish,

Cat in the Hat and The CaroSeussel without queuing. Rode Jurassic Park, Spiderman and then front row on the Hulk – twice – no lines! Took Annabelle on her first rollercoaster – the Flying Unicorn – twice - she enjoyed it so much. I wasn’t sure she was going to make the 40” mark but she did with an inch to spare so that set the tone for the holiday to come.

One slight downer – Rachelle bought a Princess Fiona doll but left it in the restroom shortly after.. We had only waked about 50 yards away when she realised what she’d done but by the time we went back somebody had taken it (still in the bag with tags on) and it was never hand in to Lost & Found.

Universal Studios – One and a half morning visits. Had to do Shrek – no queue!! ET – no queue! Jaws – no queue! Rode the Woody Woodpecker Coaster front seat with Annabelle 3 times (Rachelle refused to ride it) – no queue. Saw Princess Fiona & Shrek ( Fiona was very impressed as Rachelle had a ‘Fiona’ T-shirt on) – small queue lol !

Did MiB for the first time – which I wasn’t expecting to enjoy – but I did – and we won! Caught the Blues Brothers Show which I love! Steve did The Mummy (which he said was great) and him & dad did Earthquake whilst we had the most humongous gateaux in The San Francisco Pastry Co (all with AP discount of course!) Then at last I found a ride for Rachelle ! I took her on Jimmy Neutron – fully expecting her to hate me for life afterwards but she loved it – woohoo! We had to go on it four times all together – never did like the Birdie song

 

[TraceyL]

Magic Kingdom – we spent one afternoon/evening (to see Spectro), one morning (our last day) and one evening (MVMCP) here. Apart from MVMCP MK was quiet – I think the longest we had to wait was 10 minutes for Buzz Lightyear – our new favourite family ride. I think we rode it about 5 times in all :lol I was determined to ride until I broke the 100,000 point barrier Annabelle rode Splash Mountain – and loved it !! Rachelle refused to ride anything that went faster than Cinderella’s Carousel – wimp! Everyone enjoyed PhilHarmagic, liked the Dream Come True parade

loved Spectro (which we watched on Main Street for the first time) & saw Wishes from the boat dock afterwards.

Jungle Cruise & PoC were considered as ‘too corny’ by my mam & dad. The girls loved Aladdin’s Carpets & meeting Ariel.

Belle’s Storytime nice for the kids but I was amazed at the number of adults who pushed kids out of their way to get to the few benches there are in the Garden! Christmas decorations were lovely

and I had my first funnel cake!

Disney Studios – only spent one afternoon/evening here, mainly to see the Happy Hollywood Holiday parade & the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Lights. Saw loads of characters – bit busier here so we actually had to wait n line for once!

Managed to get 2 ToT fixes in (still my fave ride ever), saw Little Mermaid Show and we actually found another ‘grown-up’ ride that Rachelle went on - Star Tours – so looks like as long as it only feels like its going fast – and not actually going anywhere she’s fine! Sat on exactly the same bench as last year to watch the parade (Annabelle actually stayed awake this time!) and had a fantastic view.

Lots of the characters and CMs stopped and said Happy Birthday to Annabelle and Bert (Mary Poppins) sang her a birthday song – in truly authentic Dick Van **** cockney!

..and of course there was the special Holiday guest !

Eventually we found way over to the Streets of America and had hot chocolate waiting for the ‘switch on’ of the Osbourne Lights. What can I say except WOW! That’s all everyone said all round us – even the girls were impressed – especially with the snow. Photos just don’t so it justice (so I didn’t take any) it was amazing – my dad said it was worth the trip just for that alone.

 

[TraceyL]

Epcot – we spent a full day here on Annabelle’s birthday (Dec 5th) We started with a 1020 breakfast PS with the Princesses (see food report) then got fastpasses for Test Track (which Rachelle had decided she wanted to go on after watching an on ride video) – but they weren’t till 4:15! Did the Universe of Energy which we all enjoyed – especially Rachelle (nice and slow for her!). Rode Figment – huge let down as I hadn’t ridden it since about 1994 and told everyone how great it was! Visited the Living Seas – again this has changed since we last ventured inside.

Had a coffee in the Land and then went for the ICS which I wasn’t overly impressed with (see food report). Now it was time for TT which we’d never ridden before. Standby line was something silly like 45 mins so I’m glad we got fastpasses. Enjoyed this but definitely not worth a long wait. The girls’ verdicts on it ?....…. Annabelle aged 4 – cried because she didn’t want to get off and wanted to go round again, Rachelle (aged 8) quote ‘don’t you EVER take me on that ride again’ We then wandered around the world showcase. Caught a bit of ‘Off Kilter’ in Canada, a street players’version of A Christmas Carol in the UK, a great mime artist (and a not-so-great glass of wine) in France, saw Jasmin & Aladdin in Morocco

and watched some of the CandleLight Processional from the pathway. This I would have loved to have seen but there was no way that the girls would have sat through it and the queues were just horrendous for the non-dinner package people. The show we watched part of was, I think, a private showing (about 5pm) as it wasn’t on the events timetable and all the guests were ushered into a fenced off section of the American Pavillion for a dinner buffet afterwards. Some of the poor people queuing during this show didn’t even make it into the next show apparently.

We watched the tree lights being switched on from the bridge and heard snippets of it mixed in with anotehr Off Kilter show lol !!

then wandered around the rest of WS pausing to watch the acrobats in China then watching the arch of lights and the fountains at the Gateway on the way out.

Illuminations we saw at the beginning of the holiday on out Illuminations Cruise (see special events & holiday happenings report – to follow) so we went back to the Villa for the obligatory swim then an Outback steak and a beautiful Publix birthday cake.

 

[KayleeUK]

What lovely pictures Thanks for sharing.