Neoshoegal
would rather be in Walt Disney World
- Joined
- May 19, 2005
- Messages
- 1,143
We've been back from Orlando a week now, about time I wrote a trip report.
We arrived in Orlando on 8 January, flew in VA from Manchester, no delays, all going quite smooth. Rented a car from Hertz (which isn't on the airport, didn't realise this when I booked it, so had to take a shuttle) and this was my first time driving in the US. Normally MrNeo gets to do the driving but I wanted to have a go at it too. We checked in at our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express at Universal. Nice large room (king suite) which I got for free using priority club points. Didn't do that much the rest of the day, went shopping and out for a meal before collapsing on the bed.
Day 2: in the morning we went to Islands of Adventure, managed to ride the Duelling Dragons a few times (our favourite ride there) and a few other things. Left around noon to drive down to Port Canaveral for a 3 night cruise.
The cruise: We sailed on Monarch of the Seas, to the Bahamas. It's a Royal Caribbean ship, one of their smallest ones, but it is a very lovely ship with excellent crew and very well maintained, especially considering its age and turnover. In the Bahamas, we went scuba diving. We needed to do 2 more open water dives to get our full PADI scuba diving certification. We did well and passed. MrNeo did have a rather painfull issue with a tooth squeeze on the second dive but luckily he still managed to do the diving.On the formal of that cruise we were invited to the Captain's table! Quite an honour and lots of fun, although a bit scary at first as you have to work the formalities and etiquette!
After the cruise we had a convention to go to, won't bore you with the details, except that we met someone there who's normal full time job is an imagineer at Disney World. We obviously chatted a whole lot with him about all things Disney and learned quite a few interesting things. Later on in our vacation we met up with him for lunch (his office is at the Disney Studios) and he took us around a few attractions, telling us a few insider "secrets" and little things to look out for at rides and in the park. Very interesting!!!
During the convention days we stayed at the Staybridge suites near Disney World. Again, I used priority club points for 2 free nights there. Service there was excellent, we got treated like VIPs as we're high up in the loyalty scheme. Rooms were very large and clean, with full kitchen (not that we really used it), although in some places it was showing a bit of wear, but nothing major. I'd stay there again.
We went to eat at Texas de Brazil on one of the evenings, we love that restaurant, always good quality and yummy food (sign up for offers as they often have really good deals on!)
14 January was probably the best day as we got chosen to open the park, the Disney Studios, that morning! That was so amazing. We got some honorary citizen badges, a couple of fast passes, a free photo at either the Tower of Terror or the Rock 'n Roller Coaster and we got to play a part in the opening show and ride in Walt Disney's car. It was FAB-U-LOUS! Every time we were in the Hollywood Studios after that, we looked out for the woman who chose that day and got chatting, she was so lovely and hope to see her again next time we're at Disney. Some of the other characters from the opening show remembered us too every time we went back, it was brilliant!
During our Disney portion of the vacation we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge Villas for 6 nights. We are lucky to have some friends with DVC points and they let us stay for free in the second bedroom. The Wilderness Lodge is gorgeous, no complaints there at all!
We also stayed at the Yacht Club for 3 nights. I loved the location of the Yacht Club, walking distance to Epcot and the Studios. When we checked in we got a room on the 3rd floor just above the entrance. I was rather unimpressed with the room to be honest. It smelled a bit musty and there was hardly any natural light coming into the room as there was a large tree just in front of the window. I know we paid for a standard view, but I wasn't expecting to just be able to see a few tree branches. So MrNeo went back to reception and asked if there were any other rooms available as it was a bit disappointing. We were promptly given another room on the 4th floor, no tree in front of the window there and it had a view over the lake. What a difference! In all, the Yacht Club was lovely but in my opinion not worth the premium. We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside last year and much prefer that resort.
Biggest disappointment of the trip. Artist Point. We went there on our last trip and loved it. I had the buffalo steak and was looking forward to having it again, but no buffalo steak on the menu this time. I had the cedar plank salmon instead, which was great but not exactly that extraordinary.
Flight back with VA was very smooth, arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We did the check in at Downtown Disney. We were told it's free for Virgin Holiday customers. We had booked our Yacht Club hotel with Virgin Holidays but the flight was booked directly with VA. In that case you have to pay $10pp to use the downtown check in, oh well, it was worth it.
photos part 1
photos part 2
We arrived in Orlando on 8 January, flew in VA from Manchester, no delays, all going quite smooth. Rented a car from Hertz (which isn't on the airport, didn't realise this when I booked it, so had to take a shuttle) and this was my first time driving in the US. Normally MrNeo gets to do the driving but I wanted to have a go at it too. We checked in at our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express at Universal. Nice large room (king suite) which I got for free using priority club points. Didn't do that much the rest of the day, went shopping and out for a meal before collapsing on the bed.
Day 2: in the morning we went to Islands of Adventure, managed to ride the Duelling Dragons a few times (our favourite ride there) and a few other things. Left around noon to drive down to Port Canaveral for a 3 night cruise.
The cruise: We sailed on Monarch of the Seas, to the Bahamas. It's a Royal Caribbean ship, one of their smallest ones, but it is a very lovely ship with excellent crew and very well maintained, especially considering its age and turnover. In the Bahamas, we went scuba diving. We needed to do 2 more open water dives to get our full PADI scuba diving certification. We did well and passed. MrNeo did have a rather painfull issue with a tooth squeeze on the second dive but luckily he still managed to do the diving.On the formal of that cruise we were invited to the Captain's table! Quite an honour and lots of fun, although a bit scary at first as you have to work the formalities and etiquette!
After the cruise we had a convention to go to, won't bore you with the details, except that we met someone there who's normal full time job is an imagineer at Disney World. We obviously chatted a whole lot with him about all things Disney and learned quite a few interesting things. Later on in our vacation we met up with him for lunch (his office is at the Disney Studios) and he took us around a few attractions, telling us a few insider "secrets" and little things to look out for at rides and in the park. Very interesting!!!
During the convention days we stayed at the Staybridge suites near Disney World. Again, I used priority club points for 2 free nights there. Service there was excellent, we got treated like VIPs as we're high up in the loyalty scheme. Rooms were very large and clean, with full kitchen (not that we really used it), although in some places it was showing a bit of wear, but nothing major. I'd stay there again.
We went to eat at Texas de Brazil on one of the evenings, we love that restaurant, always good quality and yummy food (sign up for offers as they often have really good deals on!)
14 January was probably the best day as we got chosen to open the park, the Disney Studios, that morning! That was so amazing. We got some honorary citizen badges, a couple of fast passes, a free photo at either the Tower of Terror or the Rock 'n Roller Coaster and we got to play a part in the opening show and ride in Walt Disney's car. It was FAB-U-LOUS! Every time we were in the Hollywood Studios after that, we looked out for the woman who chose that day and got chatting, she was so lovely and hope to see her again next time we're at Disney. Some of the other characters from the opening show remembered us too every time we went back, it was brilliant!
During our Disney portion of the vacation we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge Villas for 6 nights. We are lucky to have some friends with DVC points and they let us stay for free in the second bedroom. The Wilderness Lodge is gorgeous, no complaints there at all!
We also stayed at the Yacht Club for 3 nights. I loved the location of the Yacht Club, walking distance to Epcot and the Studios. When we checked in we got a room on the 3rd floor just above the entrance. I was rather unimpressed with the room to be honest. It smelled a bit musty and there was hardly any natural light coming into the room as there was a large tree just in front of the window. I know we paid for a standard view, but I wasn't expecting to just be able to see a few tree branches. So MrNeo went back to reception and asked if there were any other rooms available as it was a bit disappointing. We were promptly given another room on the 4th floor, no tree in front of the window there and it had a view over the lake. What a difference! In all, the Yacht Club was lovely but in my opinion not worth the premium. We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside last year and much prefer that resort.
Biggest disappointment of the trip. Artist Point. We went there on our last trip and loved it. I had the buffalo steak and was looking forward to having it again, but no buffalo steak on the menu this time. I had the cedar plank salmon instead, which was great but not exactly that extraordinary.
Flight back with VA was very smooth, arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We did the check in at Downtown Disney. We were told it's free for Virgin Holiday customers. We had booked our Yacht Club hotel with Virgin Holidays but the flight was booked directly with VA. In that case you have to pay $10pp to use the downtown check in, oh well, it was worth it.
photos part 1
photos part 2
