You said you wanted to do things differently! A September 2012 TR :) Update 10/12

[flyergrad09]

That cupcake looks so good! Who would have thought, a cupcake on an airplane?!

Your suite looks awesome! And that tub is fantastic!

I don't blame you guys for not going to DTD! 11:30 PM in Orlando is what, 4:30 AM in England? Yeah, definitely bedtime!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

Immigration is a pain isn't it at MCO. That's a plus of flying indirect, we get to do it at the Airport we stopover at instead of MCO.
Glad you found your way to your hotel in the end - my Dad would get lost all the time, this is why we don't hire a car .

OMG!!! Your apartment thingy is AMAZING, it's gorgeous!!! If I ever stay offsite again, I will defo be looking at there!

I'm so excited to hear about your 1st park day.. I bet I know how excited you were missy!!

Sounds good, but it always freaks me out that they would lose my luggage if I do a stop over, I've heard too many horror stories (which are probably the minority!) it scares me too much!

Haha it's funny, everytime we've driven we've got to the hotel no problem, I think it was because it was dark and everything looks so different - that's his excuse anyways!

Thanks! I loved it! I'll be a little sad not to stay there again, it was lush. The space was incredible as well, such a good find

I know you're excited but stupid work has kept me so busy I've not been able to upload my pictures. I plan on doing that tonight so hopefully I can update

So firstly WOOPEEE

But secondly, how did I miss two updates?! Uni takes my disney life away BOOOO!!
But now for a round up of three updates!!!

We go to Frankie and Bennys at the airport also!! Its just so yuummmyyy!! That porridge looks so good, definitely trying that next time!!!

Thats SO annoying about your plane!! Of all the timesyou want to get somewhere ASAP, it has to be Disney the plane would be dodgy! So glad you got another one though! Phew!!

Hello virgin updates! Those headrests look so nice and comfy!

I am not really a fan of plane food but that meal doesn't sound too bad!! The sandwich and the cupcake sounds better though!! Cupcake looks delicious!

WOOHOO for landing!! So exciting! SO many people get lost from the Airport, im so surprised they haven't done something about the signs!!

Love the swan towels! The bathroom looks sososo nice also! That bathtub is HUGE!

Excited to see you first park update!!! AHHHH!

I will never forgive you for missing two updates haha Uni does take your life away though so I understand!

Mmmm the porridge was soooo good. I think it was a new addition to the menu, I've never seen it before. I fell in love though (is that a bit weird?!) I have such an obsession with porridge, I can't function on a work day without it!!

I know right, stupid plane! I was not amused! I was actually having panic attacks we might not get there on the day we were supposed to! I nearly cried!

Yeah the food wasn't that bad! I'm an incredibly fussy eater but I actually didn't mind half that stuff at all, I'm still craving that cheese and onion sandwich, I can't quite work out how they made it though, it wasn't cream cheese but it wasn't normal cheese either! These are the things that cross my mind! The cupcake was incredible, I did try and steal my brother's but he wasn't having any of it!

Oh.my.gosh. that bath was incredible!! We never actually used it as a bath but mum and I put our feet in there after long park days and man was it heaven! Loved it! I'm excited too because DVC villas have the same baths! Woohoo!

First park update coming up

That cupcake looks so good! Who would have thought, a cupcake on an airplane?!

Your suite looks awesome! And that tub is fantastic!

I don't blame you guys for not going to DTD! 11:30 PM in Orlando is what, 4:30 AM in England? Yeah, definitely bedtime!

The cupcake was amazing! It was the best end to that flight! I loved it, I'm actually drooling thinking of it! Lol!

Thanks, the tub was incredible! Mum and I would put our feet in it after a long day, so good!!

Yeah it was around 4.30am, we were so tired but so excited at the same time! I definitely slept so well that night though!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

3. Welcome to Hollywood!

After an amazing night's sleep – seriously, anything is better than a plane seat - it was time for our first day in Disney. Wooohooo!

We all woke up stupidly early (about 5.30am) because of the time difference and when we decided it was acceptable to get out of bed around 6.30am we wandered into the living area and were greeted with this:

And we watched it until it did this:

And then this:

After watching that for about an hour we set about grabbing breakfast and generally killing two hours (dad and I went down to see our 'holiday rep' who tried to tell us all about Orlando before we stopped her to say we had been before - we only really went down to be polite!)

After what seemed like an absolute age of waiting we were finally ready in the car, and before long, I saw this:

Yup we were off to Hollywood Studios! Yay!!

We parked up in Stage and hopped on the tram to the front of the park. I'm pretty sure we could have just walked but hello, it's a disney tram, when am I not going to get on it?

Words probably can't express how excited I was to be setting foot inside a park again, after years of living vicariously through other people's TRs and keeping my eye on every WDW fan site I could I was finally here. I was back baby!

We waited a bit while dad went to withdraw some cash so we'd actually be able to buy things. Mum and Mark sat on a bench to wait but I basically just went happily skipping off somewhere to reacquaint myself, needless to say it didn't take long.

I did come across this beauty on my travels though, it's nice to know the UK has left some part of itself in DHS!

Once dad was done we made our way up a practically empty Hollywood Boulevard, seriously, this is how empty it was:

It is probably no surprise where we were headed. We needed to get some Toy Story back in our lives, specifically in the form of a certain rootin', tootin' cowboy (and space ranger) adventure!

Although we have the wii game of TSM at home, and have spent countless Christmases cracking up over just how lame with wii controllers, we were missing the real thing. Some how pressing the button on a control pad is not the same as flipping on those glasses and pulling a cord. Plus unless we want to look really stupid, you don't move on the wii version. All in all, we were missing the real thing.

I was expecting giant lines and late fastpasses. It was 10am after all. I had planned around that, but then, I swear I almost fainted. You Disers are lucky I had enough energy to snap these, otherwise I don't think you'd have believed me...

I kid you not. The ride was practically a walk on. We grabbed some fastpasses then decided to ride standby.

This is the line:

No kidding we were in and out by 10.20am. Ah-mazing.

I did, of course, take full advantage of the amazing emptiness of the ride, and the fact that Mr Potato Head was working for the first time since we had ridden back in 2008.

Mum, a huge Toy Story fan, was besides herself. As was I. Toy Story came out when I was about 5 and it was the first movie I really remember seeing with my mum (the next one I remember seeing is a Jungle Book re-run at some point with my grandparents, Disney was definitely the way forward) and mum and I have loved the film ever since. My brother adores it too, but he's definitely a Buzz Lightyear fanatic!

Anyway, here we are, far too excited for our own good!

And us with our glasses. I love this photo, I have one of us in the same place from 2008, it's amazing how much we've all aged!!

It was a pretty high scoring ride (well for my family) considering we were all very rusty it. Unfortunately my brother won, (conveniently I can't quite remember what he got) and I put my coming second down to the fact those 'balloons' bursting in my face took me by surprise every time!

Here's my score:

After we were done we headed to the Tower of Terror, which was also a walk on.

My dad and I love this ride but my brother and mum are still very unsure about it. The ride photo cracks me up because it shows just that, my brother looks petrified and my mum is trying to smile despite it all!

Now don't hate me but I remember it being much scarier than it was this time around. I don't know if it was because it was the first time I properly rode it last time I was there or whether it's because I find the version at Disneyland Paris absolutely petrifying, but either way, I was a little "eh" with this ride. Don't get me wrong, I still love it to pieces but the build up wasn't quite as good, maybe the CMs were having an off day or something?

After we were done with the Hollywood Tower Hotel (by the way I will never get over how amazing the merchandise is afterwards, I love that the sell hotel 'products' like towels and bathrobes, amazing!) we felt the need to sample some of WDW's incredible cake offerings, so we made a beeline straight for Starring Roles.

Let me just say, mmmmm. SO GOOD! As we walked in we were hit with that incerdible smell and immediately all settled on a cinnamon roll. They are my absolute favourite things in the whole world, I couldn't say no! I had however heard amazing things about the red velvet cupcake so mum and I decided to split a cinnamon roll and one of those between us.

Needless to say, it all tasted amazing! The cinnamon roll was perfect and my mouth is watering now just thinking about it, and the cupcake. Well the cupcake. It was incredible. So so big and so so good. I am ashamed to admit though I did get a little defeated by it, I had to leave some of my topping, but mum just could not stop eating it. I think it was her favourite thing all holiday, she would not stop raving on about it!

The cinnamon roll

The cupcake

​

 

[disneyhockeymad]

When we had digested all the amazing food it was time for our TSM fastpasses so we headed on over to play game number 2 of the holiday. All within an hour and a half of arriving at the park! This time I was back on form and won with a score of 129,000 something or other! I was a little more prepared for the shots of air in my face this time!

Then it was on to the Backlot Tour. I'm so disappointed with this now, it just seems to get emptier and emptier, it's such a shame, it used to be one of my favourite rides, unfortunately as soon as they axed the live CMs to guide you we kind of knew it would be going downhill.

That being said, I loved this time around, because this happened.

That's right, that's my dad and brother (sorry it's bad quality it's taken from the video I recorded). My dad put his hand in the air when the woman asked for volunteers thinking she had said who's having a good day, his face when he realised what he had volunteered for was too funny. My response - well you wanted to do things differently!

It was the most hilarious 10 minutes of the entire trip, I have never laughed so hard at my family. My brother just fitted right in, he is such a jokester so he played the role perfectly, apparently the CM who was dealing with them said she had to keep a "special eye" on my brother because she didn't trust he wouldn't jump in the pool! She also apparently loved him and tried to encourage him to come back to every showing to do it over and over! Everybody in the crowd loved them too, they were so animated, it was just so funny!

Here are some more pictures, and the video too because pictures can't do it justice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jiWTDJrDAw&feature=youtu.be

When that was done we joined the tram - which had conveniently waited for us as Dad and Mark dried off a bit - and got on with our tour!

I love that there were people working in here, we always seem to catch it when there aren't, made me very happy!

On the way out of the ride I came across possibly the best hat in history. I wish I had bought it now, but I know my friends here would not let me live it down if I did. I fell a little bit in love with it though, I adore Mike!

We did a bit of wandering through the Streets of America

and eventually ended up at Star Tours

To Be Continued (sorry I'm not very well at the moment so there is only so long I can stare at a screen until I feel too ill to function! There will be more soon I promise!)

​

 

[marDgreen88]

TOY STORY MANIAAAAAA! Ahhhh I wish I had the wii game! Best ride ever (besides Splash of course)!!!

Even the pictures of your dad and brother are funny, I bet that was hilarious!!!

Edited to say: Oops, somehow I missed that link! Hahah, TOO funny!

 

[7165red]

I'm in, and enjoying your TR, and the photos are great.

 

[flyergrad09]

We have the Wii TSM game too (I bought it "for my Dad" but guess who actually plays it much more!) and I agree with you... it's a decent temporary substitute, but nothing compares to the real thing!

I seriously can't get over the shortness of the TSM line! Even when I've gone in the early December so-called less busy season, I've never seen it that short.

That video is so funny! My favorite part is the running around and screaming like little girls part.

 

[frankieeyre]

Hollywood studios!!!!
We always go there as our first park day! Its tradition!!!
Thats crazy that TSM was basically a walk on!! LOVE it!
THAT CUPCAKE LOOKS DIVINE! Im definitely going to try one!!
The DLP ToT scares the daylights out of me too! I think the HS one is less frightening too for sure!
Honestly I laughed so hard at your video, your brother is hilarious!!
I love that they got so into it, makes it so much funnier for everyone else!!

Cannot wait to read more!! Update ASAP!!!!

 

[luckylady]

OMG the video of your dad and brother is to funny. TSM love it glad the wait time was short and then FP prime. Great pictures. What a great place you all got to stay at. Might have to look into it. I hope your feeling better by now.