The British are Coming! An April '19 TR (Updated 09/03)

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Hakuna Matata

Next up was a must-do on my list – The Festival of the Lion King, I’ve never seen this before and really wanted to go and watch. We were sat in the giraffe zone - I didn't know giraffes made noises haha!



I really enjoyed it, I thought it was very fun and I loved watching all the circus acts, and the songs from the film too. All the performers were extremely talented. However, this sentiment wasn’t shared amongst us all, my mum and dad weren’t impressed and called it ‘a budget cirque de soleil’, but a least it was air conditioned for them.

After this it was time for our next FP – Expedition Everest! This is definitely one of my favourites, so fast and thrilling, Emily adores it too. On our way over we watched the monkeys for a bit and I got a picture of EE from my favourite spot, it makes me feel like a proper photographer haha.

We also spotted, and attempted to get a picture with, our favourite bird... Kevin!


We also spotted a photopass person so jumped on the opportunity to get some photos! They got us to do some 'special' poses such as 'act cold' - which led to my dad looking angry, and 'act like you like each other' which was pretty difficult for us to do



The theming in the queue for EE is exceptional and I wish there was more time to stop and look at everything, but the FP queue moves so quickly.
Hidden Mickey!


And of course Keith made it into the ride photo...

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Winning in Dinoland

Next is my parent’s favourite show, Nemo, the songs are great and original, it’s definitely a must-do and one of the best shows. Plus it doesn’t get too busy so you’re always guaranteed a seat in the show you queue up for.

AK have some of the best rides and shows, it’s definitely becoming one of my favourite parks. So when our next FP came up I was super excited, it was time for Dinosaur!

I never understand why this ride is so quiet, perhaps because it’s so far out of the way? It’s an excellent ride, and I laugh all the way through it. Being at the front definitely aids the experience and I like being on the end of the row too, it’s easier to see everything.




As we left the ride we spotted Chip and Dale in the cutest dinosaur costumes, they looked adorable and were on their way to a dance party. They were fun to watch and interacted with everyone in a really special way, we're not the best at character interaction so avoided them slightly

Up next is the part of the trip that I think makes me a terrible person, but that I found hilarious, albeit slightly guilty. We went to Dinoland USA and played some of the fairground games. Now, on of the rides there is Mammoth Marathon, a skee ball game, and they have one of these games at our nearby theme park and so I’ve had a lot of practice. Emily and I went up to play and there was a little boy who was also playing, when he dad saw me sit down he decided to play too, and so I was no longer gonna take it easy, in my head it was me vs this random man, and I was going to win. So we start and I aim for accuracy over points, and guess what? I won! One very excited Emily and a slightly disappointed child later, we walked away with a weird looking sloth.

Next up was the Comet crasher, a game where you had to throw balls into holes, with only some holes giving you a prize. I got the ball into a medium prize hole, so Emily got some more prizes. Next was Emily’s forte – Whack-a-Dino and she won against the same small child as earlier, I was starting to feel bad for the kid…

Then it was onto Bronto score, a basketball game, somehow I managed to get two in and got a medium prize, no idea how that happened I’m not very good at sport.

Emily now had an abundance of toys and was happy, the child was playing another game and I decided to not go play that one, and he won a toy! He then gave it to his younger brother so I felt even worse than I did before, and overly proud of myself for winning so many prizes especially as it was against a competitor over 10 years younger than myself.

Whilst sat around we shared a snack of chilli nachos to tide us through to the ADR.

Enough time had passed with us playing fairground games for lacklustre prizes that it was time for our ADR. We were eating at Yak and Yeti that night, one of our favourites, and so we hurried on over for the hearty meal waiting for us.

We were seated upstairs, which was a welcome change, it was nice to people watch out the window whilst we were waiting for our meals. The service is always excellent here and everyone is always so welcoming. My mum has a peanut, tree-nut and coconut allergy and so the chef came out to speak to her and see what she wanted to eat. He was only talking to us for about a minute and in that minute the weather outside completely changed. It went from the first picture to absolutely heaving it down in the second picture.


It was funny to watch everyone make a run for it, and it started to feel like maybe AK was the place for downpours. We were all relieved we weren’t stuck in it and felt bad for those who were!

Keith was also excited for his food!

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Yak & Yeti

The food at Yak & Yeti was incredible but they forgot all our entrées apart from my mum’s, so they gave us the extra beer and wine that my parents got, that wasn’t included on the dining plan, for free!

To start my parents got Ahi Tuna Nachos, which they loved, it's one of their favourite meals from the trip! Highly recommend them, and they could be a good sharing light-ish lunch. I also tried some of these and agreed with how delicious they were, the nachos were homemade too and came out hot (but I think that was because they were made completely fresh due to my mum's allergy), this is also why they came out separate to the tuna.


Emily and I had the Firecracker Shrimp. Again, it's delicious and definitely a must-try, but it is spicy (we love spice)!


For entrée, mum got the crab cakes that were on the specials menu. She found them really tasty and would definitely get them again.


Dad got the Mongolian Beef, this is now his new favourite and I'm sure he'll be getting it again if we ever return to WDW.


I got the Surf and Turf off of the specials menu. I probably wouldn't get it again, the steak was great and cooked perfectly but the tempura shrimp weren't that great (but that might be because I'm not a big tempura fan to begin with!). I think I chose it because I was in the mood for fish, but I wish I had had something else from the wok or something similar. I would post the picture but it's such terrible quality that there's no point.

Emily got the Honey Chicken (we think) and she liked it, she ate all her chicken, which is a feat because she's a picky eater!


Next up was desserts (yes, we were going full on)! It was included on the dining plan so we shoved it in...
Mum got the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, which she loved. She thought it was really tasty and would definitely get it again.


Dad got the Mango Pie, which he also enjoyed.


I got the Chocolate Pudding Cake. I liked this, found it tasty and definitely satisfied my sweet tooth, but it got sickly super quick.

(Sorry for the picture quality, apparently I can't take pictures of my own food).

Emily was too full and so didn't get anything.

Once we had finished eating we quickly headed over to Navi River as it was a ride we didn’t want to waste a FP on or queue up for a long time for. We walked straight on the ride and there’s no doubting that it is beautiful and peaceful, and I did personally really enjoy it, but it’s not worth waiting for a long time to ride it. Pandora at night when its all lit up is stunning, the thought and theming that went into this is incredible, definitely worth a visit to AK at night just for that.

As we left Navi there was only a few minutes until Rivers of Light was going to finish, so we hurried on out of the park to the buses. We made it onto the bus before the crowds came, but for some reason the bus left people behind despite being relatively empty.

We made it back to the hotel and went straight to sleep, missing our afternoon nap had really took its toll, but being out in the afternoon was not as bad as I expected. Mousekeeping had made some super cute towel animals, I have tried to recreate them since but they just don't look as good

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Quick Update

It’s been a while… I’m not sure what the etiquette is here for time between the trip and writing the report but it’s been about two years since my last update, and a lot has happened. I started my third year at university and that came with a lot of work and stress – so no posting there, and then in March 2020 we all know what happened. As the university closed and my exams were cancelled I decided to start working as a domiciliary carer, which at one point meant I was working 6 days a week – so no time there for the trip report! At this point Disney became a distant memory and the hope of returning was dwindling , so when I started my master’s in health psychology this trip report was all but forgotten about. But here we are and I’m back! I am about to finish my masters and am starting a PhD in September, will be moving from my small flat into a house with my boyfriend soon (who I had not met at the time of this trip) and most importantly – we have just booked a trip to WDW for April 2022!!! We're going to be staying at Coronado Springs and it's us four plus my boyfriend, Rhys, coming along (my dad thought it would be unfair to leave him behind after 9 months of me non-stop talking about the trip, we're indoctrinating him - he's never been to WDW before). So, I am very excited and back to reminisce on our last trip. I hope you don’t mind about the slight time travel to April 2019…

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

A lie in?! At Disney?!

As a family who has been to Disney so many times over the years, I would like to say that we have mastered the plan – for our family at least. Dealing with jet lag is a common problem that we have managed to solve – it always hits us on days 3 to 4 so we always plan in a relaxed day for one of these days, on this trip it was day 4. The plan was to relax all morning, visit Sanaa for lunch, and go out to EPCOT in the evening.

I woke up about 9:30am this morning, feeling relatively refreshed but definitely needing a calm day. From my notes, we just chilled at the resort, watching the animals from the balcony and having a couple of snacks from the morning until 12pm when we left and got the Disney Springs bus to Sanaa. As we were staying at AKL, all buses stopped last at the main hotel stop, except Disney Springs, which went the opposite way, stopping at Kidani Village last. This was super convenient and meant we didn’t have to walk through the heat to get there.


Sanaa was a beautiful restaurant and we loved that you could see out onto the savannah and watch all the animals as you ate. Now this is testing my memory a little because I had a slight purge of my photos last year – including getting rid of some of the food pictures!! I’m horrified at my past self. I did keep a picture of Keith though...

Anyway, from what I remember we had the bread service to start, and this was amazing – we liked all of the bread, Emily’s favourite was definitely the traditional naan and the garlic naan, actually the garlic naan was a favourite with all! The spiced naan was one of my favourites and I really enjoyed the different chutneys. It was hard not to fill ourselves up on bread!

For our mains, Emily got the tandoori chicken and whilst she liked it, she wasn’t feeling too hungry that day so mainly picked at her chicken. My parents and I got the Potjie Inspired dish where you choose one meat/seafood based curry, and one plant-based curry, and this is served with basmati rice. All I can really remember from this was that the butter chicken was amazing and definitely the best dish of them all!! We also had dessert – I got the mousse and ended up taking it back to the room as I was too full, and then I forgot to eat it… A shame but from my first taste I wasn’t too keen.

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Thank the Phoenicians!

We arrived back at the room at about 2pm, where we all fell into a post-lunch food coma and napped until 4:30ish (I told you, jet lag!). Once we had all risen, we headed on out to EPCOT, where we had to rush to our first FP (and my second favourite ride after Jungle Cruise) Spaceship Earth!


Look at those clouds, they'll be important for later Luckily we all made it and I happily quoted the whole ride as we went around – I mean, look at my shirt, I just had to!



After SE, we wandered over to see our favourite three pals (or rather, Caballeros) - Donald, Jose, and Panchito! There were some familiar looking bushes on the way...



This is definitely in my dad's top three rides!!

Next we went off to Norway and headed on our second FP, Frozen. I always severely underestimate this ride, it is actually very enjoyable and the animatronics are incredible, it’s a great water ride, and whilst I wouldn’t queue long for it, I always enjoy it a lot. Once we had been on Frozen, we wandered over to Nemo – our final FP of the night, and a ride my parents love.


(I really love this picture, been able to go to Disney with my family still makes me so happy).

Emily and I sang along (a song that has been stuck in my head since I learnt we were going to WDW again) and my parents got time to relax in a separate clam shell to us both. Obviously a ride on Nemo then means a stop off at the manatees – I could watch them swim for hours! I love cows, so it only makes sense that sea cows are also one of my favourites – they look so dumb, it’s great.



Going during the Flower & Garden Festival is great, the flowers and bushes are so incredible, I'm always amazed by what they can do with them. Here's one we liked in particular...



(Featuring some even angrier clouds... I think you know what's about to happen!)

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

It's Raining Pineapples (Hallelujah)!

At this point there were some dark clouds (as seen above) hanging over us and we were getting concerned – which we had a right to be because as we were walking back to World Showcase, the heavens opened and we had to take shelter in a shop, where we also bought some ‘just in case’ ponchos for future use.


(Now this is a look )

Once the rain had stopped we did what we love to do – wandering around world showcase and snacking! I can’t remember exactly what we had but we do it every time we go – we put aside a night or two to go to EPCOT and just walk and eat. This may have been when I found the greatest dessert I have ever eaten – a chocolate covered pineapple stick from Germany (I was like this but with pineapple sticks instead of beer). I instantly fell in love, and I am so so excited to go back and get another one next year. I mean, it’s healthy because it’s fruit but then it has the chocolate as a treat – what more could you want?

We stopped off in the UK pavilion, particularly because it feels so bizarre to us – we’re from the North-West so the old factory towns, not all these fancy buildings – it’s like a mini trip to an old part of London or somewhere in York. We also stopped and watch the band play for a little while – all Beatles songs but they weren’t too bad, it was enjoyable. It was getting late at this point so we wandered over to Japan for my ‘must-do’ of the trip – I wanted to pick a pearl! This was such a fun experience and I chose for it to be set in a moon pendant for a necklace – it came out gorgeously and I still wear it often. Whilst we waited for the pearl to set, we watched Illuminations – something we don’t usually do, and then it was EMH.



We collected the pearl and then made a sad realisation – the snack huts closed for EMH so we couldn’t do any more snacking! Defeated, my parents and Emily shared a funnel cake - I can’t stand them or anything donut-like for that matter – the only donuts I can eat are Blackpool donuts, in fact, here's me with one yesterday:


(A very zoomed selfie that I sent to my parents )

We then headed over towards mission space via some more of the flowers - which were looking very pretty in the dark, here's dad posing like Pooh (although his balloon is oddly beer-shaped ).



I refused to go on Mission Space (my motion sickness is getting worse and no one wants me throwing up next to them) so me and mum, who was relieved she too could miss this one, went on SE whilst dad and Emily went on.



It was very late at this point so we headed back to the hotel and immediately crashed – the lie in and nap definitely helped but we all needed a good nights sleep at this point!

 

[Hubie]

Dramatic Beginnings at HS

When we got to HS we noticed the new Gondolas (is that what they call them?) hanging around, they look pretty exciting but I don't think I'll ever go on them, they're terrifying!
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I love the old Hollywood feel of HS, it feels kinda magical and like stepping back in time. I swear in a past life I was a 20s Hollywood star (I must've used up all my talent back then because I certainly have none now ).
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We arrived at HS we a decent amount of time before Fantasmic! started so we decided to enjoy the scenery and do some window shopping. So far we had been looking in shops and managing to hold ourselves back from buying anything just yet. This, however, was short-lived as the first shop we entered in had the cutest Dug toys with the cone of shame, and Emily of course had to buy this.
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We did notice that a lot of the shops were closed in HS, not sure if this was due to renovations but we were pretty disappointed.

At this point it was time to get in the queue for my favourite show on property – Fantasmic! We were pretty close to the front of the line but were still queueing outside of the official line when disaster struck. A young boy, maybe three or four years old started running towards the wall next to us from where he was walking with his father. At the same time, an elderly lady in an ECV was joining the queue. The child ran in front of the lady who hit him and, in a panic, accelerated over the child and into my mum’s ankle. Emily, who was stood next to my mum, jumped backwards out of the way of the ECV and onto the arm of the child. Chaos. The child cried but the dad just quickly picked him up and whisked him off as some important looking CMs rushed over. The lady was very shook up about it all but was otherwise fine. My mum’s ankle was relatively sore but not too bad, she could put weight on it and the swelling went down after a couple days. My dad made sure that mum and Emily were okay. I had to turn round and try not to laugh (I know it’s bad but I saw the whole thing and the kid was okay, it was just one of those moments where you could see what was about to happen but couldn’t stop it).

After that disaster we were let into the show. We always choose the small benches right at the front and just hope the wind will blow the water in a different direction.
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We got some snacks whilst we waited – popcorn in one of them fancy popcorn buckets, nachos (the cheese was not good), ice cream and churros (we also didn’t like these). Like always with Fantasmic! there was a battle with the midges flying around us, once you spot them you can’t ignore them again.

My parents were kinda against me getting a popcorn bucket but I promised I would get my use out of it (and I sort of did!).
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Emily was the one who insisted on getting the churros, she was sure she would like them. I would now like to introduce you to a series of photos I have titled 'Regret'...

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I don't think we'll be getting churros again...

Pandora

Day 3 involved a lie-in, the first of the trip! It’s usually by day 3/4 that the jet lag starts to set in, so we were up at 10:30 and left the room at 12:30 to get a bus to AK. We usually like to avoid the afternoons due to the heat, but Pandora FP were hard to get, so this day was going to be a long and hot one for us. To add to this I was feeling super queasy for some unknown reason, and so was feeling slightly anxious about FOP due to the motion and immersive screens (screens like these often make the motion sickness worse, my eyes can’t seem to focus on the screen well enough – mission space is a prime example of this…).
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I thought these sculptures around the parks were super cool and thought-provoking, they were so well done too and despite being made out of rubbish, this penguin was super cute.
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Gotta get the classic Tree of Life picture. One thing we did notice was a distinct lack of photopass CMs around, this was the same in most parks and we found it odd and inconvenient - cost-cutting maybe? Although for the amount of people in the parks I'm not sure how much cost-cutting they need to do with all the money they're bringing in, oh well...

Our first thoughts of Pandora were that it was incredibly impressive. The theming was next to nothing we’ve seen before, you can seriously tell that everything has been carefully considered and placed down to the smallest plant. I sat and admired it all for a bit whilst the family investigated the toilets.
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It was time for our first FP and our first ever ride on FOP, I hadn’t read anything about this and had avoided every video so I was excited to see what it would be like. When we entered the FP queue the standby time was 85mins, the FP line took 30mins from start to exiting the ride, so pretty fast.
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This waterfall was beautiful, wish I could recreate it in the back garden haha.

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We all loved the ride; it quickly became one of our favourites and we were eager to ride again. It’s like nothing we’ve been on before and it’s extremely fun and feels like it lasted for a decent time. On the motion sickness side, it wasn’t too bad, the only point that made me feel queasy was towards the beginning when the ride takes a sharp turn and dives upwards. We all agreed that the 85minute standby queue would have been worth it for the ride.

We were feeling peckish at this point, we hadn’t really had breakfast and so were looking to get some snacks. We decided to drop into the Tiffins Nomad Lounge. We had eaten in the restaurant before and whilst the food was good, it wasn’t exceptional so we hadn’t returned. We decided to try the lounge to get out of the sun and have some cold drinks.

We ordered the sliders, which we weren’t a fan of, they looked great but tasted mediocre and not worth the price.
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We also got some skewers and poutine, again we weren’t overly fussed with these, the skewers weren’t brilliant, and the poutine felt overpriced for what they were.
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The bread service was pretty good though and probably the best thing we ordered.
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Drink-wise I didn’t enjoy my iced tea but that is wholly my fault, they let you add your vanilla to your own taste and I overestimated it and added too much, so it tasted pretty grim. Emily got a strawberry sprite, dad got the watermelon margarita and mum got a beer, which they all enjoyed. The margarita was very refreshing and tasty, definitely a highlight of the meal, although you couldn’t really taste the alcohol.
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It was great to get out of the sun and relax for a while but the food wasn’t that great so we probably wouldn’t return. Also it was quite busy in there and hard to get a table, it was solely luck that someone was about to leave as we arrived and gave us their table. We paid this forward by letting a family join us as we finished our drinks so they could have our table once we left.

Dramatic Beginnings at HS

When we got to HS we noticed the new Gondolas (is that what they call them?) hanging around, they look pretty exciting but I don't think I'll ever go on them, they're terrifying!
View attachment 429615
I love the old Hollywood feel of HS, it feels kinda magical and like stepping back in time. I swear in a past life I was a 20s Hollywood star (I must've used up all my talent back then because I certainly have none now ).
View attachment 429616

We arrived at HS we a decent amount of time before Fantasmic! started so we decided to enjoy the scenery and do some window shopping. So far we had been looking in shops and managing to hold ourselves back from buying anything just yet. This, however, was short-lived as the first shop we entered in had the cutest Dug toys with the cone of shame, and Emily of course had to buy this.
View attachment 429617

We did notice that a lot of the shops were closed in HS, not sure if this was due to renovations but we were pretty disappointed.

At this point it was time to get in the queue for my favourite show on property – Fantasmic! We were pretty close to the front of the line but were still queueing outside of the official line when disaster struck. A young boy, maybe three or four years old started running towards the wall next to us from where he was walking with his father. At the same time, an elderly lady in an ECV was joining the queue. The child ran in front of the lady who hit him and, in a panic, accelerated over the child and into my mum’s ankle. Emily, who was stood next to my mum, jumped backwards out of the way of the ECV and onto the arm of the child. Chaos. The child cried but the dad just quickly picked him up and whisked him off as some important looking CMs rushed over. The lady was very shook up about it all but was otherwise fine. My mum’s ankle was relatively sore but not too bad, she could put weight on it and the swelling went down after a couple days. My dad made sure that mum and Emily were okay. I had to turn round and try not to laugh (I know it’s bad but I saw the whole thing and the kid was okay, it was just one of those moments where you could see what was about to happen but couldn’t stop it).

After that disaster we were let into the show. We always choose the small benches right at the front and just hope the wind will blow the water in a different direction.
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We got some snacks whilst we waited – popcorn in one of them fancy popcorn buckets, nachos (the cheese was not good), ice cream and churros (we also didn’t like these). Like always with Fantasmic! there was a battle with the midges flying around us, once you spot them you can’t ignore them again.

My parents were kinda against me getting a popcorn bucket but I promised I would get my use out of it (and I sort of did!).
View attachment 429621

Emily was the one who insisted on getting the churros, she was sure she would like them. I would now like to introduce you to a series of photos I have titled 'Regret'...

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I don't think we'll be getting churros again...
[/QUOT

Really enjoying your report! The sky liner is fantastic. It's so smooth to ride and in my opinion, Disney should construct one to AKL and DS. Good that your mum's ankle survived the collision with the scooter. We've had a few close calls with them especially after dark.

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

Thank you! Ooo okay, we're very wary about it because of some of the breakdowns but I am tempted to try it when we go next year - it does seem to be super convenient, building more would be a great idea, especially around AK and AKL!

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

The Fairest of Them All

One of the things we wanted on this trip was for it to feel more relaxed – Emily and I were getting older so the need to be constantly entertained was lower, we had been to WDW many times now so had done a lot of the character experiences, and we all just wanted to have a bit of a calmer time in the mix with all the fun we were having. So on this day, Day 5, we had another lie-in – it was great and really helped again with the jet lag . Once we had all woken up at our leisure and gotten ready – about 11ish or so, we went down to the Mara for our QS lunch – this is the QS area in AKL, they had a nice selection of options and the flatbreads were tasty.

After we had all eaten we went back to our rooms to get ourselves all ready to go to Disney Springs but unfortunately at this point it started to rain , so we decided to pass this time. We were also still feeling some jet lag, so a resort day it was! We explored the resort a bit, visited the lounge for a snack or two, and just spent the day relaxing. Emily and I probably watched some Disney Channel (yes, I know I’m 19 years old in this trip report (I’m 22 now – time has flown!) but I do still like Disney Channel when I’m in WDW).




Love the animals at AKL - they make resort days even more enjoyable!

After a very relaxing day we had to get ready for our tea – today we were going to Artists Point for their Storybook Dining with Snow White.



Again, I deleted the food pictures for this but I remember it being quite nice, enjoyable overall – not the best food we’ve ever eaten but the theming was on point and it was fun to meet the characters. Snow White, Grumpy and Dopey all came to the table:




In the midst of the meal we were invited up to go and meet the Evil Queen – the Queen was such a fun character interaction, she kept yelling at me not to smile but as you can probably tell from my face, all that did was make me smile and laugh more!

Mum and Dad were very happy too because they got to meet their Dwarf counterparts (as claimed by them! I’m not being rude I promise!) - they also had pictures with them but I won't post them... this time. The Wilderness Lodge is also a really gorgeous hotel – we had a quick look in the shop and around the hotel before leaving and I love the natural vibe it has, and the waterfalls out front – it’s so calming!!

We got the boat from the Wilderness Lodge to the Contemporary and then the Monorail to Magic Kingdom – at this point I remember feeling very achey and kinda hobbling through the Contemporary. I’m constantly in the doctors being poked and prodded for what is most likely arthritis and this holiday was tricky for my knee in particular . At the end of the trip it was a big problem but luckily I pretty much held out until then!

 

[ThankingThePhoenicians]

To Infinity and Beyond… Or Not…

When we arrived at Magic Kingdom our first stop was to meet Mickey and Minnie – a must-do obviously, can’t go to WDW and not meet the main mouse himself! We had a FP for this and unfortunately I think the pictures are on Dad’s PP account (his wasn’t linked to ours for some reason) so I don’t have it saved to my laptop After this, we walked to near the Tomorrowland Speedway to watch a space launch – we must’ve stood there looking up at the sky whilst people thought we were weird for a good 30 minutes or so before Mum checked Twitter to see that it had been postponed due to clouds… Oh well!

Despite this slight disappointment, we were still raring to go so off to Mum’s favourite ride it was! The People Mover! What a ride, a family favourite, time to sit back and enjoy the show as we travel around Tomorrowland – I think Mum could stay on here all day if she was allowed. Next stop was my favourite ride – time to see some very real animals, more real than the ones on Kilimanjaro Safari, and a more comedic ride than hearing Mum scream down the place on even the small Splash Mountain dips… Yes, it was time for Jungle Cruise. I spend this entire ride laughing away to myself, I love the cheesy jokes and even managed to bag myself a ‘there it is ladies and gentleman, the backside of water’ themed water bottle later in the trip. It’s so fun and I am excited to see the updates on our next trip! Riding this at night always makes it feel a lot more immersive.


(A well-used water bottle...)

Even though jungle cruise made me smile and giggle down the rivers of Asia, Africa and South America, once we had returned to Florida and disembarked I was starting to feel rough – the acheyness had got to me a bit and I think the heat was making me feel slightly queasy, so I decided to find a nice bench and do some people watching whilst my parents and Emily took a nice stroll up Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse – they seem to enjoy it, and I do too, it’s just not too much of a ‘must-do’ for me so I wasn’t too sad sitting this one out. Once they had finished I was feeling slightly less queasy so we took a slow stroll over to POTC – air conditioning and I get to pretend I’m a cool pirate sailing the seas?! What could be better?! This time Emily and I were much more ready for the camera (kinda, I’m not sure what face Emily is pulling), Mum and Dad though? Not so much…



It was getting close to fireworks time – we weren’t planning on watching it tonight so we decided to queue up for BTMR and we luckily timed it just right – the fireworks were going off as we were riding. It felt magical! Going on one of our favourite rides and speeding through the wilderness whilst all these pretty fireworks went off – wow! Once we got off the ride we hovered around BTMR and watched the end of the fireworks before walking over to Haunted Mansion for a spooky night time ride – it does feel scarier at night.





Then it was a nice night time walk back down main street and back to the hotel for a good night’s rest.