2 Big Kids in America: Aussie's take on WDW and DL! (Sept / Oct 2016) Update 9/26 Complete

[harddrive]

Day 3 - Epcot Part 1

Getting up this morning was made slightly easier by knowing that we were attending our first character dining meal of the trip! This of course was Chef Mickey’s and we had an 8:15am reservation. The buffet was fun, and it was nice to have a selection of breakfast food to choose from. Now I’m not usually much of a breakfast eater, I just don’t enjoy eating when I first get up, but I do love me some breakfast food like pancakes, bacon and eggs and waffles, especially when they are Mickey waffles! The food there wasn’t the greatest, but it was typical of a large buffet. The real reason we were there was to meet all the characters in one spot. We did a similar thing over in Disneyland which I’ll tell you about later.

So we had just sat down and who came up to meet us, none other than Mickey himself!

He was so pleased we were able to join him for breakfast, and couldn’t stop pointing out all of the food that was on offer! After he left us we went and grabbed some food before the rest of the crew came past. Unfortunately Minnie missed us both times she was making her rounds, but that was ok.

Must remind myself to teach Steve not to zoom in when taking pictures of me and characters...

Once we had decided we were definitely full it was time for us to make our way over to Epcot. We started our day there by jumping onto Test Track in the single rider line.

We both look like we are having such a great time on the ride don’t we! I need to remember to take my glasses off and hold them before a fast ride, as I’m always afraid they will fall off!

After being windswept in the lovely convertibles we made our way over to Sum of All Thrills, but it was closed, so instead we went on Ellen’s Energy Adventure. Wow Ellen is so young in those videos! By this point in the morning it was already quite warm, so it was nice to escape the heat for a while, and whilst I found the ride interesting Steve fell asleep!! I tell you, he can fall asleep anywhere!

Next we lined up for Spaceship Earth, which was another great attraction. As much as I love the roller coasters around the parks, the slower omnimover rides still do have their charm and can captivate audiences for their duration, plus it was great that you have someone like Judy Dench narrating the whole thing.

The Food and Wine Welcome Centre was our next destination which Steve was looking forward to. Steve enjoys his food and trying new things, whereas I’m the sort of person that would be happy with a simple chicken or beef dish every day. We had a good look around and eyed off a couple of gifts we could buy for people back home. We also stopped into the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company booth and loved the chocolate sculptures they had in there.

It was almost time for us to head into the World Showcase, but not before making 2 more stops. The first was into Club Cool to try some drinks, in particular Beverly. Well she was just as bad as people have said! After washing down the different tastes with some water we then headed over to Mission Space and decided to do the Orange Team. ‘How bad can it be?’, we asked ourselves... well let’s just say that I will only be riding this once and never again. Don’t know what it was about it, whether it was the small confines of the cockpit or the speed at which it moved around, but I was feeling so sick afterwards.

We decided to head to the left and walk around the showcase to try and find something for lunch. We ended up stopping at the South Korea stall and grabbed a couple of snacks to keep us going. It was then time for us to meet Anna and Elsa, as we had a bit of time to kill before our Frozen Ever After fastpass.

Both Anna and Elsa were so nice and quite chatty.

It was now time for our Frozen fastpass, and I was quite excited to see the new ride. I’ll happily admit that I’m a big Frozen fan as you will see from my costume later in the trip for the Halloween party. I loved the Olaf and Sven animatronics, but I’m still not 100% sold on the projected face animatronics for the human characters. Don’t get me wrong, the range of movement they can get out of animatronics nowadays is amazing but the projected faces just stand out a bit too much for me. Going through the fastpass line meant that you did miss quite a bit of the detailing that they have put into the line which was a shame as they have really outdone themselves.

Once we survived the icy breath of the snow monster and exited the ride, we spent some time exploring the rest of the Norway pavilion. I just love all of the detail that Disney puts into their parks!

We didn’t have anything else booked in for the rest of the afternoon until our dinner reservation, so we used the time to travel around parts of the world browsing the pavilions and shops.

 

[harddrive]

Day 3 - Epcot Part 2

So first up on our tour of the world was the China pavilion. All of the architecture and colours in there are so beautiful.

We watched Reflections of China and also wandered around the Shanghai Disneyland display. By this time the park had only been open a few months and we hadn’t really done any research into it, so seeing all of the concept art and models was great and made us want to visit it at some point.

Next we wandered past Germany. I loved looking at the model railroad and all of the buildings and scenes. The shops in Germany weren’t overly interesting for us. Neither of us are big drinkers, I don’t really drink at all, so all of the beer steins etc didn’t do anything for us.

Oh no! Watch out villagers, you are about to be overrun by giant lizards!!!

Italy was our next stop and once again I loved the architecture, statues and fountain inside the pavilion. We stopped for some gelato, which tasted delicious. We also looked around the shops inside the pavilion and came across this giant wall of masks which Steve found quite creepy.

Our next points of interest were the Voices of Liberty in the foyer of The American Adventure. Steve really enjoyed their singing and tight harmonies. After their performance ended we were lead into the auditorium for The American Adventure. Not knowing much about American history, it was really nice to be able to experience this journey and learn more about the country that we were on holiday in. It still marvels me how Disney is able to create these fantastic lands and pavilions inside their parks and you can be totally oblivious to the fact that 20 feet away from you there is a 1000 seat theatre such as this one.

We quickly made our way through the Japanese pavilion and shops before I bought anything I didn’t really need and tried to get to Morocco to meet Jasmine and Aladdin, but unfortunately we were just too late. Ah well, we will catch them tomorrow.

It was nearly time for dinner so we headed back to the Mexico pavilion and had a look around the stalls in there and went on the Grand Fiesta Tour ride before sitting down for dinner at San Angel Inn.

Unfortunately by this time I really wasn’t feeling the best, and Steve was feeling a bit under the weather too. We think it was that we were just pushing ourselves too hard and not allowing enough rest time. Steve had the Arrachera Con Chilaquiles and the Caramel Cheesecake while I went with the plainest thing on the menu, which was the Pollo a las Rajas. I ended up having to take a lot of my meal away in a doggie bag as I wasn’t feeling well enough to eat much. Our waitress was very accommodating and even gave me my desert in a takeaway cup and some soda water to help my stomach. I got quite fond of drinking soda water for the remainder of this trip!

After dinner we decided that despite not feeling the best we would hang around and wait to see Illuminations, as it was the only night that we could see it. We chose a nice piece of garden wall to sit on just in front of the Refurbishment Port and waited about an hour for the show to start. It looked like we were going to have a decent view of the show until everyone decided to stand up on another garden wall in front of us and effectively block the view of everyone behind them.

In saying this, we still got to see most of Illuminations which was a beautiful show, and then made a quick escape out of the park and back to the resort to sleep.

 

[Kiwibella88]

Hey Brenton

20 minutes is super reasonable! Baloo is my fave (as if my subtle nod via profile pic isn't enough of a giveaway ha!) so he's definitely on the must list.

Your day at Epcot looks like so much fun!! Too bad you guys were a little under the weather for a part of it . The cast member at San Angel seemed like a gem.

What vloggers have been the most helpful in your opinion? I'm loving these forums and blogs- it's helping fuel my excitement for WDW!!

Great trip report

Erin

 

[harddrive]

What vloggers have been the most helpful in your opinion?

Hey Erin!

So the vloggers that I tend to watch the most are:
Adam Hattan
This Orlando Life
TheTimTracker
Tom and Sophie

I find their vlogs quite funny and informative.

I know that Steve would have a bunch of other vloggers he could add to this list that he watches, so maybe he will chime in too

 

[harddrive]

Day 4 - Epcot Part 3

So I know its been over a month since my last update, but to be fair I have been spreading my own little bit of Disney magic at school the last few weeks for our college production of Mary Poppins!
It was a mammoth undertaking staging this show, especially when we don't actually have a proper theater to perform in, but we pulled it off and even had Mary flying on stage!

Here's a couple of pics of what I have been dedicating my life to for the last few months. I did all of the lighting and AV design as well as the set design and special effects.

Now its back to the trip report! We are only 36 days away from our next trip, so we are determined to have this trip report finished before we fly out!

After a decent night’s sleep and some more Halloween bakeoff, we were up for our second day at EPCOT feeling a bit better than the night before.

Today we wanted to do rope drop so we could cross off the rest of the attractions and meet and greets that were on our list, because we had both a lunch and dinner reservation outside of the park.

We didn’t end up making it there by rope drop but shortly after, which was ok. The crowds were busy but manageable. One of our first stops was to meet Baymax. After lining up and removing all of our badges etc so we didn’t hurt him we got to say hi. We actually thought he was just a statue until we came past later in the day and he was actually moving and interacting with people. His batteries must have been getting a bit low when we met him!

After meeting Baymax we wanted to meet Joy and Sadness, but unfortunately their line had already jumped to an hour wait so we decided to pop by a bit later and see if it was any better.

We next headed straight to The Land pavilion for our first fastpass of the day, Soarin’. We both really enjoyed the ride. All of the smells, spectacular views and even the wind effects were all just so good and really helped you believe that you were flying! I especially enjoyed the pre-show video by Patrick Warburton, or as I prefer to know him as Kronk…I may have been watching the video imagining it was Kronk telling us what to do.

After this we jumped on Living with the Land seeing it was a walk on. Even though it was still early in the morning it was nice to sit down and relax for a bit, plus it was quite interesting to see everything that they have growing in the greenhouse. Once we had finished our journey we decided to grab a couple of snacks to munch on from Sunshine Seasons. Steve had a bagel and I had a muffin. To finish off our adventures in Future World we made our way over to Nemo and Friends. It was a cute ride, and I enjoyed the little bits of the Finding Nemo songs the characters sang throughout the ride.


The World Showcase awaited us and so we decided to head right and see the last few pavilions we didn’t get to yesterday, as well as catch a few more characters before lunch. We passed Canada and the UK and headed to France to catch up with Belle. She was quite delightful and we had a great chat about Maurice’s inventions.

Next on our list was meeting Aladdin and Jasmine after just missing them yesterday. They had a very interesting queue that you get to walk through before seeing them with a whole bunch of artwork and tools that were very detailed.

Meeting these two was one of the better meet and greet opportunities that we had on the trip. They were both so engaging, not only with the kids in the groups before us, but also with us. We had a great chat about Jasmine’s royal guards and Abu.

After this we stopped into the Tangierine Café for a quick drink and to take in the surroundings. I think that Disney has really outdone itself with all of the buildings and locations around the showcase. Once you are inside each of the pavilions you really could believe that you are in that country!

We noticed that Mulan also happened to be out seeing people so we rushed all the way over to the other side of the Showcase and jumped in line to get a photo.

After this it was pretty much time to leave for our lunch reservation at Beaches and Cream. So we made our way out through the International Gateway, jumped on a boat and headed over to the Beach Club resort. One day we will save up enough to stay at a resort like this!

We both said that we should make time to have a walk along the boardwalk, but we never did…maybe something for later this year!

 

[harddrive]

Day 4 - Epcot Part 4

So at Beaches and Cream we both had something small to eat because after all the main reason for going there is for the ice cream!

We saw a Kitchen Sink being made whilst we were eating and both decided that would be too much for us to eat today, so instead Steve went for the No Way Jose Sundae (pictured below), and I built my own Old Fashioned Sundae with chocolate and choc mint ice cream, hot fudge sauce and cream. They were delicious! It would be worth a trip there just for the ice cream alone.

Once we were extremely full it was time to head back to Epcot via boat.

We then did some shopping and got a few gifts for people back home before heading back to our resort to rest for a bit, but not before seeing this on the way out of the park…is nice to see that Australia is represented by shrimp!

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for one of our dinner reservations that we were really looking forward too, the Hoop Dee Doo revue! We made our way to the TTC so that we could catch the Ferry across to Fort Wilderness and got to pass under this magic gate! We were so close and yet so far from getting to enter the Magic Kingdom at this point!

After taking a quick picture outside the restaurant, and unintentionally wearing matching clothes, we were ushered into the hall and out of the rain!

We had great seats on one of the corners of the balcony.

Before the show started we got our drinks and some corn bread! Oh my, the corn bread! I would have been quite happy just eating loaf after loaf of that bread all night, it was so delicious. The rest of the food (salad, ribs, chicken etc) was also quite tasty, not exactly my favourite type of food, but still quite enjoyable. Both Steve and I loved the show. It’s quite easy to see how this has been running for decades. The performers all have so much fun both with themselves and also with the unsuspecting audience members they choose.

Unfortunately we came to the end of the show and it was time to head back to the resort…well, maybe head back to the resort.


After looking at the time when we got out of the hall we reckoned that we might just be able to make it back to Magic Kingdom in time to catch the Main Street Electrical Parade. Of course the ferry from Fort Wilderness back to the Magic Kingdom took ages to arrive, but we made it into the park just in time to see the parade!

Although the parade may be quite old, it is still very impressive! We will definitely miss not being able to see it when we are there again this year.

Once the parade had finished there was still just enough time to fit one ride in, so we hightailed it past the castle and over to Splash Mountain and jumped in line.

Unfortunately Big Thunder Mountain was closed for refurbishment during our whole stay, so Splash was the next obvious choice.

We got absolutely soaked, but didn’t care in the slightest! It was such a great ride. On our way out of the park we caught the kiss goodnight.

It was now time to get some sleep before our crazy long day tomorrow.

 

[cinderaimee]

Wow, your Mary Poppins production looks like it was amazing! Glad you've made it back here, looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip

 

[harddrive]

Day 5 - Magic Kingdom Part 1

After not enough sleep, it was time to get up for probably our most anticipated day in the parks. Today was our first full day in Magic Kingdom, and to top it off we were also attending Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in the evening!

We were out the door nice and early and at the gates before 8am as we had a booking at Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast. Walking down Main Street and seeing the castle in front of us in daylight for the first time really was such an amazing experience. It is so big!!! By the time we got through security we were a couple of minutes late for our reservation so we didn’t get a chance to have any photos in front of the castle.

The breakfast food at the castle was actually quite tasty, but of course the real reason we were there was to meet the Princesses. First up was Cinderella herself who welcomed us to her castle and hoped that we would enjoy the meal. Up next were Aurora, Snow White, Ariel and then finally Jasmine. It was great just being inside the castle and looking around at all the decorations inside there. If you didn’t know any better you would never think that there was this big restaurant inside the castle when you look at it from the outside.

After breakfast we made our way out of the castle and there was still a bit of time before the park opened. We went over to meet Ariel again, even though we had only just seen her a few minutes ago but it seemed that Ursula’s spell had worn off as she didn’t have her human legs anymore. I quite enjoyed meeting Ariel and studying her costume as I had directed an amateur production of The Little Mermaid earlier that year and also built a lot of the costumes, so it was interesting to see how Disney created theirs.

After saying bye to Ariel it was time to go under the sea on Journey of The Little Mermaid. I love this ride! I don’t remember how many times I’ve watched ride videos on YouTube, but they really don’t do it justice at all. I love all of the animatronics throughout the ride especially Ursula. She is so huge, and so lifelike and creepy!

Once we said goodbye to Ariel, Sebastian and Scuttle we had a wander around the rest of New Fantasyland and took the opportunity to snap a few pics while it was quite deserted.

On a side note, Steve played Scuttle in The Little Mermaid that I directed. How do you think he looks as a seagull?

We decided to go and do Enchanted Tales with Belle before it got too busy. Just like the queue in Morocco yesterday, the queue for this experience is detailed so well. It was as if you had walked straight into the movie, only a little less animated!

The experience was really cute, and once again I loved looking at how they did all of the animatronics and special effects. I’m still not sold on the projected faces of the characters but the amount of movement and character they got out of Lumiere was stunning.

It must have been Steve’s year for playing Disney characters because he was chosen to be one of the guards. Unfortunately I didn’t think quick enough to get a photo of him marching, but needless to say I was quite amused by it.

Up next was Seven Dwarves Mine Train. It was a very fun ride, albeit quite short.

After finishing work for the day with the dwarves we made our way over to It’s a Small World. Now Steve didn’t find this one too interesting as he nearly fell asleep on it, but I enjoyed riding it and I also don’t mind the song.

Lunch was next for us but on our way to find something to eat we happened to bump into a friend of mine that I used to work with. We knew that our trips would overlap in Disney World for a few days but didn’t really think that we would actually run into each other. It really is such a small world!

After chatting for a bit we parted ways, and Steve and I made our way to Pinocchio’s Village Haus for lunch. I don’t remember what Steve had, but I know I had a burger and fries. To be honest, I had a burger and fries for a lot of meals on this trip, not only in Disney, but also on our New York leg of the trip. I tend to not be that adventurous with my food as I’m sure I have mentioned before, but hopefully that will change a little bit on our next trip as we have booked quite a few places where I can’t get a burger! I do remember getting the chocolate pudding for dessert with this meal and wasn’t too impressed by it, but Steve said that we don’t really have anything similar to it back home in Australia, so I guess if you have been brought up on puddings like this, then it would be ok.

Our next fastpass was for Peter Pan’s Flight. Once again another of the older original rides that we were both excited to experience. Unfortunately we never got a chance during the trip to go through the new queue, but the ride was still very nice.

Our last fastpass for the day was for Splash Mountain, and having ridden it the night before, we could not wait to go on it again! We didn’t get as wet this time which was nice. I love the dad in the front row of this pic!

It was now time for us to head back to the resort to rest for a bit and get ready for the party that evening. We had decided that we would catch the bus back so that we could keep our close car spot so at the end of the party we would hopefully be able to get back to the resort quicker. It was a good idea, but unfortunately it didn’t go quite to plan... more on that later.

 

[harddrive]

Day 5 - Magic Kingdom Part 2

Back at the resort we had a bit of a nap and then got dressed for the party. As you can see, we went quite minimal with our costumes… well not quite, for anyone that knows us, they know we don’t do anything by half! I’m sure you can guess, but Steve went as Fear and I went as Kristoff.

One of the important things for us to achieve at the party was a photo with Jack and Sally, so as soon as we got back to the park we lined up for them. We made it back into the park around 5pm and the line for them was already 1.5 hours long, so we joined it. Even though it was quite a bit of a wait, it was definitely worth it!

We wanted to grab some dinner before the first parade of the evening so we headed over to Adventureland and had some Mexican at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn. The food there was actually quite nice for a quick service.

We then staked out a spot on the footpath and waited for the Boo to You parade. For me this is my favourite parade of all time! Although we haven’t had the chance to see a lot of the Disney parades live from around the world, we have certainly watched way too many videos on YouTube of them and this one is still on top. I have the soundtrack on my iPod and listen to it regularly in the car and without fail every time we get to the chicken part it makes me laugh.

We don’t really celebrate Halloween back here in Australia, so it was great to feel the vibe in the air for a major holiday in the States. And of course you can’t celebrate Halloween without candy, so we did a couple of the trails around Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean and got our bags of candy. As a side note it was interesting trying some of the candy that we don’t have back home.

While we were wandering around we came across Jafar who was another character on our list to catch tonight, so we said hi and got a couple of pics with him. Am I the only one that thinks he looks a bit strange? There’s just something not right about his face… ah well, he was still very tall and menacing!

We made our way over to the Hub to grab a spot to view the Hocus Pocus show and Hallowishes. We ended up finding a nice spot just behind one of the short railings so didn’t have anyone in front of us which was good.

So as I mentioned before that I love the Boo to You parade, I also love the Hocus Pocus show and Hallowishes. I don’t know what it is specifically, but the soundtracks for both shows are just so good. There’s just something about villain’s songs and remixes that I can’t get enough of!

The Hocus Pocus show was full of energy! Everyone on the stage was just bursting with fantastic energy, and the Sanderson sisters that we had were top notch. I’ve watched a couple of different casts on YouTube and some of them can perform the roles well but when it comes to the vocals, they can lack a little, but these 3 sisters we saw were the best!

Once the show was over we waited around in our spot for Celebrate the Magic and then Hallowishes. Steve disappeared for a bit to grab us a drink and the cast member that served him was also from Australia!

Now neither of us have watched videos of the new Happily Ever After show at the Magic Kingdom yet, we want to keep it a surprise for us when we are there in September, so we can’t compare it with the Hallowishes show, but boy did they go all out with the fireworks for Hallowishes. There were just so many!

Once the show was over we waited for the crowds to clear a bit before hunting for the hitchhiking ghosts, which was the last photo op we wanted to get at the party! It’s always amusing striking a pose for the magic shots and not really knowing what you are going to get.

It was after this that I happened to go through my pockets and realise that the car keys were missing! The good thing was my pockets happened to have zips on them so there was no way that they would have fallen out anywhere, so we deduced that I had left them back at the resort. Now remember how we decided to take the bus back to the resort earlier today to rest before coming to the party so that we didn’t lose our close car spot? Yep, well at the time it was a great idea until I totally forgot to bring the car keys back to the park with me!

So we headed to guest relations to see if it would be ok for us to leave the car in their car park overnight as we were going to be back at the park tomorrow morning. After asking a few different CM's they suggested that we shouldn’t risk it, as where we had parked earlier that morning was where they usually store the car park trams at the end of the night and if our car was in the way it would be towed! So we caught a bus back to the resort to fetch the keys!

I know it was totally my fault, but it was so disappointing to not get to see the second Boo to You parade of the evening.

Once we got back to the resort and grabbed the keys we discovered there were no more resort busses that were heading to the Magic Kingdom as the park had just closed, so we ended up getting an Uber. Our driver didn’t really know where he was going and so we were on a route to downtown Orlando before Steve jumped in and started giving him directions to the park.

We finally made it back to the car and then to the resort by 1:30am. Needless to say, we pretty much fell straight asleep.

 

[Kiwibella88]

Hey There!!!

On the bright side, at least it gives you a good lesson/story to pass along

Thanks for the suggestions on vloggers! Loving TimTracker.

When do you and your partner fly out to WDW?

Countdown is on

Erin

 

[cinderaimee]

Oh no! That car key thing is totally something I would do! And how odd your uber driver didn't know how to get to MK! Sad that the guy from Australia has to tell him which way to go.

Love the pictures, you had a great spot for the show and fireworks! Good thinking to grab a spot where no one can stand right in front of you!

 

[harddrive]

Haha yes, the lesson definitely has been learnt! I will ensure I don't do the same thing again this year!

We fly out on Set 27th, and also land in Orlando on the 27th, so only 24 more days until Disney! To say we are a bit excited is an understatement!

We both had a bit of a laugh that we had to give him directions!

 

[harddrive]

Day 6 - Magic Kingdom Part 3

It was a bit sad getting up today, as we knew it was going to be our last full park day at Disney World. Nevertheless, we had to jump out of bed and get ready nice and early for our pre park opening breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest. Just like the day before, it was great being able to walk through the parks with little crowds, but once again we didn’t get a chance to get a photo in front of the castle. It will be a must do on our upcoming trip! Breakfast was nice, but not that memorable, although we did have great seats up the back of the Grand Ballroom.

Once we had finished breakfast we made our way to 7 Dwarves Mine Train as it was a walk on!

We then crossed to Space Mountain to use our first fastpass for the day. I love this ride! There’s always something about dark coasters that is just so exhilarating, and makes you feel like you are going much faster than you really are! Once we were done here we jumped over to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and of course I was the victor!

We didn’t have our next fastpass booked until after lunch, so in the meantime we went to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was cute and quite funny when they picked on the audience members! I was just hoping they would not come and call on me!! After this we went on one of the classics, the Carousel of Progress. Although the ride is quite dated it’s still quite nice to sit through and definitely something you need to do a least once. Also, it has air con!

From one classic to another, up next for us was a ride on the People Mover. It was great to just sit aboard it, take in the great views of the park, and people watch for a while!

We decided to grab an early lunch as we wanted to make sure we saw both the parade and stage show that arvo. We dined at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe. After battling the crowds and deciding on what to eat, I went with the chicken nuggets and Steve had a burger, we sat down and enjoyed our food while being serenaded by the man himself, Sonny Eclipse.

We decided it was time for a trek through the jungle after our lunch, so headed over to the Jungle Cruise. Fortunately we had a great skipper who kept the jokes rolling out for our whole cruise! What better way to follow a cruise with another aquatic ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. Although we had a fastpass, it felt like we were waiting in line for quite a while to get onboard.

Afterwards we still had a bit of time to kill before the parade, so we went and saw the Country Bear Jamboree. It was a day of classic attractions for us. The bears were all just a little bit creepy to watch and clearly in need of some TLC, especially the trophy heads on the wall, as you could audibly hear the animatronics working away at times over the sound of their dialogue!

Staking out a spot for the Festival of Fantasy Parade was our next job, which was quite easy to do in Frontierland. We managed to find a nice spot on the porch of one of the shops. I still find it quite amusing how people don’t seem to understand the concept of keeping walkways clear. Steve and I were very cautious to not block any of the walkway behind us while we were waiting for the parade to start, but other people would just stand right in the way or park their pram in the middle of the path despite being told to keep moving by CM’s.

The parade itself was awesome!!! It’s such a great mix of different characters and floats. I love looking at how much detail goes into not only all of the lead characters costumes, but also all of the ensembles costumes as well.

I can relate to the look this croc has! It’s me whenever there is food in front of me...

Once the parade was over we caught a showing of The Muppets: Great Moments in History. I loved this show, particularly having the chance to be able to see the puppets performed live. The Town Crier we had was great and really interacted well with the crowds, though I find it quite a bizarre place to have a show (even though I totally understand the logistics of having to have the puppets up high to allow everyone to see them, and the subject matter linking in with the Hall of Presidents).

 

[harddrive]

Day 6 - Magic Kingdom Part 4

After the Muppets it was time to head across to the Castle to catch Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire. We managed to score a spot against one of the walls nice and close to stage, and it also provided us with a tiny bit of shade. This was great as by this time of the day the sun was definitely out in full force! The show was a lot of fun, and it was great to hear some of the best musical numbers from recent movies. Having had the opportunity to work with a few animatronic costumes when I did children’s entertainment, it was great to watch how they were used in this show, and how their eyes and mouths were programmed not only to lip sync with the soundtrack, but also to allow performer visibility.

We then made our way down to the Town Square Theatre for our last fast pass of the day. As I mentioned way back near the start of our trip report, Magician Talking Mickey was one of the meet and greets that was a must do for us, and he certainly didn’t disappoint! We had a great chat with Mickey, and he even commented on our anniversary badges that we were wearing. That’s one smart mouse!

After saying bye to Mickey, we were headed over to the Haunted Mansion when the skies opened up, so we took shelter in Mickey’s Philharmagic. It’s quite a nice little attraction, and definitely one I’d see again.

After we got out the rain hadn’t quite cleared up, so we killed some time before heading over to Be Our Guest again for our dinner reservation! Yes, BOG twice in the one day. We hadn’t planned on doing it twice, but we had struggled to find a dinner reservation when we were initially making our bookings, so we booked a breakfast one instead. Luckily we managed to snag a dinner booking as we both really wanted to meet the Beast.

Dinner here was so much better than the breakfast we had earlier in the day. Even though we were seated in the same room, it just felt a lot more elegant. This could have been due to the lovely menus and the rose napkins on the table.

Our waiter either really loved his job or was new to the restaurant as he was very bubbly and slipped in Beauty and the Beast references every chance he got during conversation! It was great to just sit in here, observe everything and not feel rushed. The dinner was quite tasty and the desserts were to die for! Steve had the strawberry cupcake and I had the Grey Stuff.

Our waiter even brought us out a little anniversary cupcake after our dessert, which we both struggled to eat because we were so full! After our meal we then were lead in to meet the Beast. He is quite an imposing character when you first meet him, but he got quite excited when he saw our anniversary badges and kept pointing to them and clapping! We didn’t really expect to receive any sort of special treatment from wearing our first visit and anniversary badges (we both wore them because we felt like it, and it made us both happy), but getting that extra little bit of magic today from Mickey, the Beast, and our waiter, really made our day!

After dinner we had some time to kill before our Wishes Fireworks Dessert Party, so we went to the Enchanted Tiki Room. Like I mentioned before, it was a day of classic attractions! This attraction really does show its age, but it’s still fun and oddly charming.

The firework dessert party was quite nice. Both Steve and I were still a little full from dinner, but enjoyed the various dessert offerings they had available. Our main reason for booking this was to get a good spot to view the fireworks. Once dessert was over they lead the group down to the plaza garden viewing area, which is right in front of the castle. It was a great place to watch Celebrate the Magic and Wishes from. As Steve puts it, Wishes really was magical. It’s a shame that it’s not running anymore, but we are both looking forward to seeing the new Happily Ever After fireworks during our trip this year, and have even booked the dessert party again... although we won’t eat such a large dinner beforehand this time.

After the fireworks we were both exhausted, so made our way out of the park with the hordes of other people and back to the resort to pack up our room, and get ready for checking out the next day. And although we were checking out of our Disney accommodation, our trip was far from over!

 

[cinderaimee]

What a fun last day! It seems like you really did make the most of your time in the park!

 

[harddrive]

Day 7 and 8 - Backstage Magic and a Hurricane!

Today was a sad day…we were checking out of Pop Century! After chucking our bags in the hire car we made our way over to the Everything Pop! food court and had some breakfast. We ended up having a couple of meals from here, mainly some late night snacks after getting back from the parks.

Although we were checking out of Disney, we were not done with them for this part of the trip. Today we were both going to be going on the Backstage Magic Tour! Steve had bought us tickets for my birthday. For those who don’t know what it is, it’s a full day (almost 8 hour) tour where you get to travel across the parks and other facilities within the Disney complex. You also get a great lunch included too. The tour is a bit expensive, we paid over AU$600 for the tickets, but we found it to be well worth the cost!

I’m not going to go into full details about the tour, as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone that might be thinking about doing it in the future, but the group size is quite small, only about 20 people. You have 2 guides who take you around for the day, and you get your own Disney bus to take you to each location. On our tour we went backstage and onstage at 2 of the 4 parks, and saw a few of Disney’s other buildings and facilities including some areas where they create costumes for the parks and also where they construct and maintain various attraction elements and ride cars. The guides we had were fantastic, and were a wealth of knowledge. They were happy to answer any questions we threw at them, and believe me they got a lot of questions throughout our tour.

As I mentioned before, lunch is included as part of the tour, and today our lunch was at the Whispering Canyon Café at the Wilderness Lodge. Walking into the main atrium of this resort was breathtaking!

We were all seated across 2 giant banquet tables and had the all-you-care-to-enjoy skillet to share between us. This was really the first opportunity we had to sit down and chat with the other people on the tour, and it was great to hear a bit about where they were all from. We had quite a few shocked reactions when we said we were from Australia. Quite a lot of people couldn’t believe we had travelled all the way from Australia to come to Disney! They obviously aren’t part of the DIS and don’t realise how much people all over the world enjoy Disney!

Once the tour had concluded for the day we were supposed to be heading over to Disney Springs for a dinner reservation at the Rainforest Café, but unfortunately the weather had other ideas. This was the day that Hurricane Matthew started to pose a major threat and curfews were put in place. So we headed over to Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa to check in for the next couple of nights before we left Orlando. All of the locals who lived closer to the coast had all booked accommodation in Orlando too to try and get away from Matthew’s path. The line for check in was over 2 hours long (it actually was the longest line we had stood in for our whole trip so far)! I meant to take a picture of the reception area, but must have forgot to. The line looped around on itself and we were just so glad we had a booking, as I can imagine that they would have had no vacancies very quickly.

By the time we had checked in it was pouring outside, and we both got drenched on our run back to the car. Needless to say by the time we made it to our room we were very happy for the shelter, but in hindsight would have preferred to have stayed at our Disney accommodation. Our reason for the change in accommodation was to try and save a bit of cash, as we were planning on visiting Universal Studios for the last 2 full days of our time in Orlando. Ah well, we have learnt for next time!

We got settled into the room and made a quick trip to the onsite convenience store to stock up on supplies before the hurricane lock down. We ended up being on lockdown for about 24 hours during the worst of the hurricane. It was quite boring and draining being stuck inside the hotel room for all that time, not to mention we were both still a little sick and concerned as we had never been caught in a hurricane before, but thankfully Matthew passed (nowhere near as bad as predicted) and the lockdown was raised.

With all the guests who had come to the hotel to get away from the hurricane the onsite restaurant was swamped, so we ended up just getting some items from the convenience store to heat up in the microwave to have for dinner and lunch the next day, but once the lockdown was raised we made our way over to I-Drive for some real food at a sports bar.

Unfortunately this day of lockdown was meant to be our first day at Universal, but oh well. Weather is something that you can’t control, and you just have to go with the flow. There’s no point getting worked up and angry about something that you have no control over.

That's all for this update! We are starting to pack for our next trip to Disney as we leave in 10 days, so expect a few quickfire updates over the next week so that we can get this trip report finished before we head off!

 

[mamamelody2]

Wow, great report! Sounds like you had an amazing trip!

 

[harddrive]

Day 9 - Universal Studios

Still feeling a bit worse for wear we had a sleep in and got up around 10am, before making our way to Universal Studios.

It was nice to see a theme park that wasn’t Disney. It reminded me a lot of the theme parks we have back here in Australia up on the Gold Coast. Less fully immersive areas and more about the various rides and activities separated into various areas. Not saying that I like this more (I definitely enjoy the immersion at Disney more), but it was good to have a change of scenery.

Our first ride for the day was the Rip Ride Rock It coaster. We didn’t pay for the express pass for our days here, so we took advantage of single rider lines where we could. It didn’t take us too long to get onto the ride, which was nice.

After this we rode The Mummy. I loved this ride when I rode it at Universal Studios Singapore and it certainly didn’t disappoint here! After we got off we looked around the gift shop and I bought something for my sister back home.

We then went across to Men in Black for a spin. I found the ride to be a little dated, just like the movies are nowadays, but it was still fun.

Now the part of the park that Steve was most excited about, Diagon Alley! Steve is a big Harry Potter fan and had been waiting to get to explore the Harry Potter areas of Universal.

After looking around for a bit we decided to have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. The food here was ok, Steve had a glass of the butterbeer which he seemed to enjoy, I tasted it but did not like it. The theming both inside the restaurant, and also all along Diagon Alley, was impeccable!

After this we jumped in the single rider line for Escape from Gringotts. Steve agreed with me in that we thought the ride was overhyped. The technology in it is clever, and it was great having some physical elements that you passed by instead of just all being screens, but we didn’t think it was a good as people had made it out to be.

At this stage I was feeling really unwell, which ended up being the beginning of some bad food poisoning. I like to blame it on the fish and chips I had at the Leaky Cauldron as it didn’t taste quite right, but it was probably a mix of that and some of the microwaved food we had in the previous 24 hours while we were on lockdown. So we unfortunately decided to call it a day and bid farewell to Universal Studios Orlando. It was annoying to say the least, as we didn’t even make it over to Island of Adventure or into Hogwarts, but we knew that we would be able to see Hogwarts when we visited Universal in LA, so that made it slightly better.

We went back to the hotel and had a nap that afternoon in the hope that I would feel a bit better that evening, as we still had one more important event that neither of us wanted to miss, Club Villain at Hollywood Studios!

 

[harddrive]

Day 9 - Club Villain

We really went to town on all of the special events throughout this trip: Fireworks Dessert Party, MNSSHP, Backstage Magic Tour, and now Club Villain, and these were only the events that we had booked in Orlando. Back then we didn’t think we would be able to get back to Disney for quite a while, so we thought screw it when we were planning the trip, and just booked all of the events that took our fancy. I am so glad we did decide to book the Club Villain event though, as it was a great night.

Arriving at Hollywood Studios, we were lead around to the meeting place for Club Villain, which is the Sunset Strip, around the side of Rock n Roller Coaster. You were treated to either a champagne or water while you waited out the front after checking in. It was as this stage that everyone also received pre-signed autograph cards for the 4 ‘evil’ ladies we would be meeting throughout the night. These ladies were Malificent, The Evil Queen, The Queen of Hearts, and Cruella De Ville. You also received a card with the times for your 2 meet and greet sessions. This was done so that everyone attending the party would be able to get around and see all 4 of the stars without too much of a wait, as well as eat and enjoy the rest of the entertainment.

Once they let us into the venue we found our assigned table, and as we were only a party of 2 we were seated with another couple, as each table seated 4 people. The venue itself was decorated really well for the event. There was a huge dance floor in the middle with a giant poison apple skull disco ball above it. At the far end was the DJ’s booth, stage, as well as the 2 bars. All around the top of the room were projection screens that had video clips and other visuals playing the whole night. And then lastly were the 4 themed Meet and Greet areas. These were themed very well for each of the 4 ladies.

Dr Facilier and his club manager Kanzo started off the entertainment for the night with their back-up dancers, and from this point we knew we were in for a good night! The entertainment segments throughout the night were top notch, and Kanzo was the real star of the show. Each of the villains were introduced individually, and each made their own larger than life entrance!

The food and drinks were superb. It was all New Orleans Style with things like Creamy Polenta with Sauteed Spicy Shrimp, Herb-rubbed Strip-loin of Beef, Black Eyed Peas, Cajun Chicken Gumbo, and Sticky Pig Wings. I didn’t eat too much of the food or drink as was still feeling quite under the weather, but Steve thoroughly enjoyed it all. Each of the ‘evil’ ladies had 2 of their own specialty desserts, as well as their own cocktail, which you could get at any point throughout the evening. The event was an all you care to enjoy buffet, including the desserts and drinks.

Meeting the ladies was the highlight of the event for me. With the meet and greet part of the event structured so well, you actually got quite a bit of time to spend with each lady. Cruella and the Queen of Hearts were the most interactive, and it was great to meet the Queen as a face character, which you can’t do anywhere else in the parks!

After meeting all 4 ladies and having some food, we decided to leave the event about an hour before the official finish time as I was beginning to feel worse.

Back at the hotel we tried to get a decent night’s sleep, but my food poisoning really kicked in, so Steve had to go on an emergency late night pharmacy run.

 

[harddrive]

Day 10 and 11 - Orlando to LA

Day 10

After getting a few hours sleep, we got up the next morning and checked out of the hotel. We had planned to spend our last morning in Orlando back at the Magic Kingdom and even had a Crystal Palace breakfast reservation booked, but we decided to cancel it as I wasn’t feeling much better. It was a bit of a disappointment to not go back to the parks, but knowing that we were heading across the country to Disneyland helped cheer us up a bit.

We did go to Disney Springs for a little bit that morning to buy a couple more gifts that we had been wanting to purchase, as well as get some breakfast. After doing this and walking around for a bit we made our way back to the car and drove to the airport.

The flight over to LA was quite uneventful and we landed there around 7:30pm. We caught the Supershuttle from the airport to the Anaheim Majestic Gardens Inn, which was our home for the last part of our trip. We ordered some room service for dinner, watched some TV, and then fell asleep.

Day 11

So today was supposed to be our first rest day of the trip... yes, we know going 3 weeks without a rest day was a mistake! But hey, you live and learn! Today ended up turning into our second rest day after being on lockdown for the hurricane for 24 hours turned into our first rest day.

We both slept in quite late today, as we really needed the rest! I felt a bit better after having a good night’s sleep. We had some washing to do, so we spent the afternoon doing that, and watching TV. We also booked our transport for the next day to get to Universal Studios Hollywood!

Once we got hungry enough we took the complimentary shuttle from the hotel to Disneyland and made our way to Downtown Disney, where we had dinner at the open air Uva bar. The food was quite nice here, but nothing too memorable.

After dinner we did some window shopping to get some ideas for more gifts to purchase for people back home, and also for some more items for us

We then made our way back to the hotel via the shuttle and when we arrived at the lobby we had a great view of the Halloween party firewoks from the hotel carpark!

Once this finished we made our way back to the room and enjoyed more Halloween Wars on the Food Network, and had another early night. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.