We're here! Back in Derby that is :-(

[DISWolves]

I like the sound of your review of Boma and return the favour by adding it to our list for next year! As you say AKL is a huge place. I also like visiting Mara lunchtime for a chicken pitta but this fills me up so I plan this when we have a late ADR.
We had our final meal last night at Narcoossee. It was the best of this years visit. Our server was Jason and his service was impeccable.

On a sad note........ each time we visit GF, we arrive early to listen to the pianist on the grand piano. The regular man Glen was not around and after enquiring, I learned he had sadly passes away. Here is a video that I took a few years ago

http://youtu.be/rTfaBZ3YdGQ

Sorry to hijack your thead Clare. Enjoy the rest of your trip and keep us posted
Well done on the driving!!!!!

 

[Clare D]

I like the sound of your review of Boma and return the favour by adding it to our list for next year! As you say AKL is a huge place. I also like visiting Mara lunchtime for a chicken pitta but this fills me up so I plan this when we have a late ADR.
We had our final meal last night at Narcoossee. It was the best of this years visit. Our server was Jason and his service was impeccable.

On a sad note........ each time we visit GF, we arrive early to listen to the pianist on the grand piano. The regular man Glen was not around and after enquiring, I learned he had sadly passes away. Here is a video that I took a few years ago

http://youtu.be/rTfaBZ3YdGQ

Sorry to hijack your thead Clare. Enjoy the rest of your trip and keep us posted
Well done on the driving!!!!!

Not at all

Oh dear that's sad. I'm sure regulars to the resort will miss him.

Have a safe trip home. We leave on Wednesday

 

[DISWolves]

Have a safe trip home. We leave on Wednesday

We do not fly back until Thursday evening, just on our way to Port Canaveral for 4 nights on the Disney Dream
You have a safe journey home. Unfortunately you will have the post Disney blues before me!
Thanks for the live updates

 

[Pegasus928]

Looking forward to reading your views on the Dream. We will be booking ours soon and torn between a 3 or 4 day.

 

[Clare D]

We do not fly back until Thursday evening, just on our way to Port Canaveral for 4 nights on the Disney Dream
You have a safe journey home. Unfortunately you will have the post Disney blues before me!

Oh very jealous. Enjoy it, looking forward to the report already

 

[Clare D]

EPCOT and Teppan Edo

Today is the last day of parks on my itinerary and we have spent all day in our favourite park, EPCOT.
We arrived for before 9am and we didn't leave until after the park closed.

As soon as we got into the park DH went off to fast pass Soarin whilst me and the kids waited outside Test Track. Test Track was a 25 minute wit but we were on within 15 minutes and this was just gone 9am. I really enjoyed the changes here, so much so we rode it again before we headed into the World Showcase.

Once we had done TT the boys and DH did the orange ride in Mission Space whilst I sat this one out. We then headed across to use our FP in Soarin and then grabbed some lunch in Sunshine Seasons.

After this we headed over to the Seas where we did the Nemo ride and Turtle Talk with crush. DH should have been sat on the carpet with the kids he was laughing so much.

After this we did Captain EO and then Journey into imagination. Once we'd done we headed back over to TT where just as we were about to get into the car they announced that due to the weather it was closed. Loads of people left but us and a few others stuck around and it reopened. It took us over an hour to ride it but we figured we would stay put as we would have it wet anyway.

Spaceship Earth was closed due to refurb but this was fine as we had already done this last week.

We then headed into the WS and the kids did Kidcot and a couple of the Perry missions in the UK and Germany. DH and I enjoyed a couple of alcoholic beverages and we also sampled the new ice cream shop in France. We watched the Candy Lady in Japan where both Ds's were asked to pick an animal. They no longer allow you to take away the creations as they are donated to the children's hospital but I would happily make a donation as they are lovely keepsake.

We finished our Kidcot just in time for our ADR in Japan. We've not eaten before at Teppan Edo but it is a real show. I had the steak and shrimp which came with udon noodles and vegetables which were onion, mushroom and courgette and a bowl of brown rice. I also had the ginger chocolate cake. We were sat with a family from California and we were happily chatting away.

By the time we left it was 9.30 and the park was nearly empty. It was lovely being able to stroll around a very quiet WS on our way home

 

[Clare D]

Rest day and Paradiso 37
A quiet day for us which we spent hanging around the Paddock pool before the heavens opened and we made a dash back to the room.

We ate at Paradiso 37. The food was ok, plenty of choice but it was only luke warm and the service was a bit hit and miss. I asked for a drinks menu and it was never delivered this won't be on our list for next year.

Magic Kingdom and Kouzinna by Cat Cora
Tuesday 27th August was our last full day we decided to head to MK today and do some of the attractions that we hadn't done this trip and repeat the ones that we all love. We headed to Space MOuntain as Owen (DS) loves this ride and then had a Starbucks. Today it was quite quiet compared to earlier in the trip and the queue was huge.
Main Street had the Halloween decorations out which was quite surreal in August.
Today we did the Bear Jamboree, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Railroad, the Hall of Presidents where I was quite emotional and then we headed to COlumbia Harbour HOuse for lunch. We then headed over to Dumbo and Goofy's Barnstormer before we got the train back to the entrance and left MK for the last time this trip.

Tonight we were off to Kouzinna by Cat Cora so we caught the bus to DHS and the caught the boat across to the Boardwalk. Whilst on the boat I spotted Lisash and her DH and DS so I had to ask if she was on the DIS thankfully it was her otherwise I would have looked quite foolish

Steve and I decided to have the set menu which was $20 extra on the dining plan but it was worth it. There was a trio of Greek starters, followed by a Greek salad, a sorbet, lamb and mashed potato and with a fish stew and then a trio of Greek deserts. This was our most expensive meal whilst on the dining plan and it was worth it. We will be back here next trip

Leaving day
After a fantastic meal last night and the joy of a transatlantic flight to look forward to ....NOT....DH hit the gym early whilst the kids were in bed. I on the other hand placed my food shopping order with Tesco online so that I didn't have to go shopping when we got back.

When Steve got back we headed to the Artist Palette for one last time and had breakfast before we packed the car up and went over to Disney Quest and Goofy's Candy Co to spend the remaining 12 snack credits and then we were off to the airport.

We arrived for our 3.08pm flight to Houston before 1pm and we just had to check our bags in as I had already done online check in. We went straight to the passport control where there was no queue at all to then be faced with a queue for security that did not move for at least 40 minutes. There was only 2 conveyors working and the queues were a joke. An American woman said hat this is becoming more and more common in the US and she said that travelling as a US citizen within Europe is easier than flying internally in the US!
Eventually we were through to only hear the final boarding call for our flight so we made a mad dash for it.
We had really good seats in PE, just a shame we didn't have these for our flights back to the UK.
We then had a wait of 4 hours at Houston. Originally we were supposed to have an hour and 25 minute layover but 2 days before we flew to the States this was changed to 42 minutes. I called United and asked if we could get an earlier flight just in case and they moved us to an earlier flight no problem.

Our flight back to Heathrow was full and was made worse by the fact that the women in front of me and DS 1 as soon as the seat belt signs were turned off fully reclined their seats and didn't lift them at meal times or when they were just sitting there watching the TV. They were in PE too so it wasn't as if they didn't have the extra room. I think the cabin crew were getting quite annoyed with them as they were grabbing them to get their attention too

By the time we were at the baggage reclaim we had been travelling for 19 hours and we still had a 2 hour trip back home thankfully I had slept most of the journey home so I was going to do most of the driving back as DH had DS 2 asleep on him all the way home. We didn't have long to wait for a bus to collect the car from the Park Inn and then we were on our way.

We got home at about 5.30pm after a stop off at Starbucks on the M1 and I then unpacked. Just before 7pm the food shopping arrived and then Steve fetched a take away pizza whilst I was sorting out washing talk about back to reality.

Back home

Well we had a great trip. I don't think we chose the best route for our first indirect trip. Next time I would look to leave from an airport closer to home and stop off at an airport on the East coast. At least this way we would be stopping en route. We enjoy staying on site and I would love to stay at the Yacht or Beach club. I think I would miss the space in the room and the car being parked so close like you get atOKW or SSR

DH also commented that this is one of the best trips we have had, I think because we had 2 weeks in Orlando we had more downtime than usual which was great for everybody.

We've had great food and we left with 5 counter service credits remaining on our dining plan. We met some lovely people who were all so interested in where we live and the new little Prince George.

All in all a fantastic trip

 

[Lisash]

Lovely trip report Clare. Was nice to meet you even if it was for just a minute. My DH still can't believe how us Disers recognise each other

 

[GerardMc]

Found you Clare D! We met you and your family at the poolside at SSR

Thanks for sign posting us to this site, it's excellent!

 

[peajay18]

Thanks for the great report - gets me excited to start looking into going next year.
Can I ask how you got such a great price in your Royal Pacific room?

 

[Clare D]

Found you Clare D! We met you and your family at the poolside at SSR

Thanks for sign posting us to this site, it's excellent!

Welcome to the Dis it was great to meet you and I hope you aren't suffering too much with jet lag and the Disney Blues

You'll find loads of hints and tips on here so I promise it will be worth it

 

[Clare D]

Thanks for the great report - gets me excited to start looking into going next year.
Can I ask how you got such a great price in your Royal Pacific room?

I booked with Thomas Cook via Quidco and it was only booked on the Sunday the week before we got checked in.

Hotel parking was $19.83 inc tax and we arrived at about 8am on the Sunday. We were given temporary room cards so that we could go to the rear of the lobby and get our resort guest express passes which were unlimited. We then left our suitcase with bell services and went off to Universal. As I mentioned we were done around there early afternoon and came back to SSR as we had forgotten to take our credit card, so easily done when using KTTK cards, ate in Earl of Sandwich using a CS credit, went back used the pool and went back into UNiversal again later and did Transformers again.

The next day though was when the EXpress pass came into their own as being able to get into Harry Potter and hour before opening was priceless.

It would have cost us £200 to pay for the Express Pass but staying on site was much better and the RPR was fine for us.

Have a great trip

 

[GerardMc]

Welcome to the Dis it was great to meet you and I hope you aren't suffering too much with jet lag and the Disney Blues

You'll find loads of hints and tips on here so I promise it will be worth it

Back to work tomorrow

We make the adjustment better than we used to

OH is pricing and planning next years trip as I type.

 

[Clare D]

Back to work tomorrow

We make the adjustment better than we used to

OH is pricing and planning next years trip as I type.

Steve is back to work tomorrow too. I'm back on Thursday, at least it will be a short week.

I've been doing exactly the same think today. I quite fancy the BC next year : don't forget Quidco if you decide to book independently

I've been checking in direct routes even though the flights aren't out yet, it will hopefully be later this month/ early October.

 

[DLPDreams]

Really enjoyed reading this - thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

You seem to have done so much, yet had quite a bit of downtime too which is great as I don't think I'll manage 2 weeks of rushing around. Whenever we've been to Disneyland Paris we've always rushed about to fit it all in, in the space of 4 days or so, so we need a break on the return . The only time I felt we took it a bit easy was the time we went for 6 days - that was luxury!

Can I ask, you clearly didn't check out of SSR when you went to Universal did you? I think we might think about this nearer the time. We are toying with staying at OKW for 3 weeks (or Disney 2 weeks, offsite 1 week), and want to do Universal for 2 days. My DD1 is a massive Harry Potter fan so I'm worried about doing the HP stuff (especially with all the new stuff by then) and having huge queues. Do you think it's worth just checking in - did you just do one night - couldn't quite work it out? I think I read you get FOLP for both days, even just staying one night? I have read the FOLP don't work on HP stuff but it seems getting in early will help with queuing if nothing else....

Was surprised to hear how much rain you had! I know it's hurricane/rain season but everyone tells me it's over so quickly and it's so warm, it doesn't matter .

Thanks again for the TR - the GF sounds lovely - reminds me of the Disneyland Hotel at Paris (although not as grand by the sounds of things).

One last thing - did you like SSR better than OKW?

 

[Clare D]

We've done quite a few trips where we have done Disney for a few days and have then stayed elsewhere I. Florida. This has been lovely but has resulted In a very jam packed holiday to the point of exhaustion.

No we didn't check out as that would be a pain with the tickets and DDP.

We arrived at RPR at about 8am and was in Universal for about 9am. It wasn't that busy but with the HP expansion I'm sure this will be a different story in the future.

When you check in they give you temporary room cards so you can pick up your FOTL cards so you are ready to go.

No they don't but getting in an hour early is a huge bonus. For one night yes you get 2 days to benefit from FOTL access.

We were lucky as we were inside for most of the torrential rain or by the pool. It is more than welcome in those temperatures.

We stayed 7 nights at OKW so didn't become as familiar with the resort as SSR. I loved how peaceful it was there and the boat to DTD is fab. The only downside is the counter service is very limited but we would just jump in the car and go to Port Orleans Riverside next door