The Dutchies first time to Orlando! *UPDATE 7/27 on pg 11; The end (with surprise!)*

[Marjol]

Well, I've been thinking a lot about whether I should write a (pre) trip report for my upcoming trip to Orlando. I'll definately write a trip report in Dutch, as usual (I do that for every big trip I make), but writing one in English is a different story!
Since I live in the Netherlands, my home language is Dutch. I learned English in High School and of course I hear a lot of English on tv, but I haven't spoken it in years (except for some small sentences on my last trip to the USA in 2006), so it has been better...
But because I love reading trip reports and writing them in Dutch, I guess I can give it a shot in English. I'll apologize in advance for all the bad mistakes I'm going to make. I'm sorry people! Please bear with me!

So, I hope you guys are also into reading trip reports from foreigners I guess it will be nice for you to see how foreigners enjoy your country and especially Disney World.

We (my boyfriend and I, I'll introduce us a little later) have our first trip to Orlando planned in may. We'll arrive may 5th woohoo and we'll be flying home may 17th sad. We'll be staying offsite, in the Courtyard by Marriott Lake Buena Vista at Vista Centre.
We bought 7 day hopper tickets with the water park & fun option for Disneyworld and we also bought tickets for the Universal Studios (we went there in Hollywood last year and loved it!) and Seaworld.

Well, it's time for some introducing now

My name is Marjol, I just turned 27 and I'm a big Disney fan. I've had nine previous visits to Disneyland Paris from 1997 untill now and I've always dreamed of going to Disneyworld. Unfortunately, I never met someone who wanted to go with me, even my boyfriend didn't want to go for years...
I work fulltime as an elementary school teacher. I currently teach 1st grade.
This is a picture of me with Pooh in Disneyland Paris last year:

My boyfriend's name is Gerbert. He's 25 and works in the IT business. He loves to travel, but he doesn't like Disney that much. He has been to Disneyland Paris twice and the last time (2003) he stated that he didn't want to go back there for at least 10 years... That's when I really gave up hope to ever go to Disneyworld with him!

But... he changed his mind...

Last year, we made a trip to the USA. We visited some of the East (New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls) and some of the West (LA, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, San Francisco) and really had a wonderful trip. When we came home we immediately started thinking about a next trip to the USA. I told him (again!) that I would really love to visit Florida so I could go to Disneyworld. He didn't give in... but I talked to him for months, showed him airfares for may (which were about half the price of what our tickets in july cost last year), showed him pictures of cool attractions in Disneyworld and let him talk to friends who are going back to Orlando and really loved it... and guess what he finally said? "Ok, lets go!"

I immediately surfed the web and booked our flight, hotel, rental car and disney tickets the same day. I guess I was too afraid that he would change his mind

So... we were are finally going to Disneyworld!!!
We started counting down when it was almost 6 months away, and now we only have two months to go! I almost can't think of anything else and have read so much about Orlando and Disneyworld that I know the parks inside out

Some pictures!
Gerbert & me together in Mexico:

And together on a boat to Newcastle, England:

I'll talk about my plans next time!

 

[Disneyanajc]

Marjol, love it so far...great beginning, great pictures...keep it coming
JC

 

[Marjol]

Thanks for your nice comments, JC

I already was afraid that nobody would read my trip report, so I'm glad I got at least one reader

 

[serendipity]

Great start! You write English wonderfully....and you and your boyfriend are such a cute couple!

 

[KimAshton]

Cannot wait to read more.

 

[Marjol]

Great start! You write English wonderfully....and you and your boyfriend are such a cute couple!

Thanks I hope you'll keep reading!

Cannot wait to read more.

Thanks again I'll try to write more next week... Still have 9 weeks to go before this trip
I see you'll be going to the World in 9 days! I hope you have a lot of fun!

 

[MA pigletfan]

great start!!
Your English is indeed terrific...I can't wait to hear all about your trip! I love hearing other people's perspectives of WDW especially visitors from other countries..i hope our "mouse house" is to your liking!!

 

[amykathleen2005]

Excellent start and your English is great! I am going at the same time, maybe I'll see you there!

 

[medicgirl911]

How exciting!!!! (I think your english is wonderful by the way, probably better than mine!) We went in may of last year and thought it was an excellent time to go, the weather was gorgeous and the crowds were not bad! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Marjol]

great start!!
Your English is indeed terrific...I can't wait to hear all about your trip! I love hearing other people's perspectives of WDW especially visitors from other countries..i hope our "mouse house" is to your liking!!

Thanks for the compliments on my English. Writing this trip report is a good practise I think I'll love your "mouse house"

Excellent start and your English is great! I am going at the same time, maybe I'll see you there!

Thanks And who knows, maybe we'll see each other (not much of a chance... but you never know!)

How exciting!!!! (I think your english is wonderful by the way, probably better than mine!) We went in may of last year and thought it was an excellent time to go, the weather was gorgeous and the crowds were not bad! Can't wait to read more!

That's good to hear! I keep hearing great things about may
Thanks for reading so far

Two months to go from today!

 

[gatormark67]

I hope you have a magical time at Disney!

My mom's side of the family (her maiden name is VanTexel) is originally from Holland, the island of Texel. My wife surprised me with a trip to Holland for my Birthday. We are in the process of planning the trip now. We are not exactly sure of the dates yet...but we are very excited and a bit nervous.

 

[isma]

Hei Marjol ,

great start to a trip report I will definitely subscribe. I also visit Disneyland Paris regularely and love it but after I found the DIS and read all the informations and wonderful TRs I am desperate to go to WDW, but this will not be happening before autumn 2008 (if then, haven`t really convinced anybody what a great idea a WDW trip is so I know how you must have felt when your DBF agreed with the trip! ) so I look forward to read about your adventures in Florida!

 

[Marjol]

I hope you have a magical time at Disney!

My mom's side of the family (her maiden name is VanTexel) is originally from Holland, the island of Texel. My wife surprised me with a trip to Holland for my Birthday. We are in the process of planning the trip now. We are not exactly sure of the dates yet...but we are very excited and a bit nervous.

That's great! Holland is a nice country, we have some nice highlights. You should definately visit my city, 's-Hertogenbosch
If you need any help planning, feel free to PM me I've just been to Texel two weeks ago by the way

Hei Marjol ,

great start to a trip report I will definitely subscribe. I also visit Disneyland Paris regularely and love it but after I found the DIS and read all the informations and wonderful TRs I am desperate to go to WDW, but this will not be happening before autumn 2008 (if then, haven`t really convinced anybody what a great idea a WDW trip is so I know how you must have felt when your DBF agreed with the trip! ) so I look forward to read about your adventures in Florida!

Thanks for reading! It's always nice to see there are also some people from other countries than the USA or UK around here
And if you can't convince anyone to go, I'll probably be ready for another trip then

 

[Marjol]

Only 57 days to go....

Time to talk about my planning

On saturday, may 5th, we'll take a 10 a.m. (local time) flight from Amsterdam to Houston with Continental Airlines. We'll arive there 10 hours and 40 minutes later at 1.40 p.m.
Our connecting flight to Orlando will depart at 4 p.m and we'll finally be in Orlando at 7.27 p.m.

We'll get our rental car at Alamo and will drive to our hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott. We chose an offsite hotel because my BF thinks he will get nuts when he's surrounded by Disney madness day & night
This hotel is pretty close to the World and looks really nice. Here are some pics

The location:

The hotel:

We'll probably fall asleep as soon as we see the bed
The real Disney (and Orlando) magic starts the next day!

Sunday, May 6: MGM (with Fantasmic)
Monday, May 7: Epcot (with Illuminations)
Tuesday, May 8: Universal Studios Island of Adventure
Wednesday, May 9: Typhoon Lagoon & shopping at the Florida Mall
Thursday, May 10: Animal Kingdom
Friday, May 11: Seaworld
Saturday, May 12: Magic Kingdom (with Spectromagic & Wishes)
Sunday, May 13: Universal Studios
Monday, May 14: Blizzard Beach & shopping at the Premium Outlets
Tuesday, May 15: Favorite things in the Disney parks & baseballgame at Disney World of Sports
Wednesday, May 16: Favorite things in the Disney parks & fav. evening show.

And after that, the magic will be over...
We'll fly back to Amsterdam on thursday May 17th. Our flight leaves at 2.55 p.m. We'll be in Houston at 4.26 p.m. The connecting flight to Amsterdam departs at 7.10 and we'll be in Amsterdam 11.50 the next day...

I think you're wondering where the ADR's are. Well, the answer is: There aren't any!

I've read a lot about dining at Disneyworld and looked at a lot of restaurants and decided we'll be perfectly happy with the Counter Service restaurants.
I know you'll probably think I've gone crazy, but although I love planning, I don't really like to have to be somewhere at an exact time, especially if I have to plan it weeks ahead...
We'll probably eat at Table Service restaurants on the days we're not at Disney. This gives us more time to do rides at Disney and it also saves us money

We also didn't plan afternoon breaks, although I read and thought about that a lot. People keep saying we'll break down around day 3 or so.. well, we see about that when it happens. We're young and healthy and have done long days of walking before, so I think we'll be OK. We can always arrange some breaks when necessary

Well, these are the plans! I hope you all agree with them

I think I'll be on the whole trip anyway

Up next: A small trip report of my last trip to Disneyland Paris

 

[Disneyanajc]

Marjol...your trip sounds magical....OoooH the long flight. We are going to be at WDW around the same time, only 59 more days for us, and we'll be at the Animal Kingdom Park on the same day May 10th Look for LGMH.
Can't wait to read more
JC

 

[Marjol]

Marjol...your trip sounds magical....OoooH the long flight. We are going to be at WDW around the same time, only 59 more days for us, and we'll be at the Animal Kingdom Park on the same day May 10th Look for LGMH.
Can't wait to read more
JC

Yeah, the flight is long, but we're used to long flights, so that's OK
Maybe we'll see you in the Animal Kingdom on may 10 th I don't know what LG MH stands for... can you tell me? I know LG is Lime Green though
Oh and thanks for reading!

 

[Disneyanajc]

Yeah, the flight is long, but we're used to long flights, so that's OK
Maybe we'll see you in the Animal Kingdom on may 10 th I don't know what LG MH stands for... can you tell me? I know LG is Lime Green though
Oh and thanks for reading!

Hi again Marjol...LG Lime Green- -MH Mickey Heads. We have a home improvement store called Home Depot and in the paint department they sell paint in Disney colors and the paint chips are in the shape of Mickey Heads.
JC

 

[Marjol]

Ah, that explains a lot! It would be great to get some! I already sent you a PM back, thanks for offering!

 

[isma]

Hei Marjol ,
your intinerary sounds great so far , and I think I would also not have planned ADRs and breaks during the day, having been to DLP before I guess you know how much walking there is at Disney and so you can take breaks whenever you feel like and just enjoy the atmosphere while resting. I always want to spend every possible minute in the parks while at Disney This is so exciting, all the things you will get to see, I am a little jealous right now
Btw: how did you buy your tickets?

 

[Marjol]

I bought my tickets on the same site I booked my hotel & rental car. It's a Dutch site, www.americanestates.nl

At the time we booked, there was a promotion; buy 5 day tickets and recieve 2 days extra. We're only planning for 6 days in the parks, but this way we can also fit in an extra evening if we want to