Trip Report Finally Back in Our Happy Place. A Three Week Trip With a Cruise Included

We’ve been back for just over a week from what was a wonderful three weeks. There were a few hiccups, but for the most part Disney World was just as we remembered it.

This trip was me and my two youngest daughters, Alice (18) and Lexi (15)

We stayed at Pop Century from July 7th-20th, then sailed on the Disney Magic from July 20th-25th, then French Quarter for the last three nights, July 25th-28th. For the Pop Century part of the trip we had the UK 14 day park tickets which included the waterparks.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

This was the first parks visit for us since January 2020. I had a resort only visit after my solo transatlantic cruise in November last year but last time I set foot in any of the parks was when I was running through them during the RunDisney marathon

Very bad photo but this was mile 25

Lexi was only 10 and Alice had just turned 13.

The girls were so excited in the run up to the trip. They both grew up going every year (sometimes twice a year) since they were babies.

First character photo for Alice

And Lexi

 

[littleroo]

I am following!! The girls have definitely become young ladies. What a beautiful family!!

 

[Katiekitten]

Following along!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 7th July

Our flight from Gatwick to Orlando wasn’t until 2 pm, and since we’d stayed at an airport hotel the night before there was a lot of hanging around and waiting that day. We had all had a pretty good night's sleep though including the toys

Excited but a bit bored with the waiting. Gatwick was very busy, we were lucky to get seats together.

It was finally time to go to the gate. The plane was smaller than we were used to, when we’d flown transatlantic in the past it had been on the Boeing 747s which were huge and had an upper deck.

We took off on time and settled down to pass the time on the nineish hour flight. I definitely prefer sailing across the Atlantic to flying across it

 

[cgersic]

Oh my goodness!! How exciting and I can't wait to read alllll about it!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 7th July (cont)

We had an uneventful and on time flight and landed about 6 pm Orlando time which was about 11 pm for those of us still on UK time. Unfortunately we then had to sit on the tarmac for about 20 minutes because there was a delayed plane in our parking spot.

We were at the new to us Terminal C and unlike previous flights where we’d arrived at Terminal A and gone through immigration control before picking up our luggage, this time it was the other way around. And it seemed to take ages for our luggage to arrive, it probably felt worse because of how long a day we’d already had.

I’d booked a Mears transfer and gone back and forth about paying extra for the express version because I’d waited a long time for the bus to leave back in November. We got lucky this time though, from checking in at the Mears desk to the bus leaving was probably about ten minutes.

We got some nice photos of the sky on the way to the resort, but managed to completely miss the entrance sign that we were looking out for . I’m blaming tiredness

Before long we were pulling into the resort, we were so excited

We’d had the room ready notification on the app so were able to skip the front desk, the only request I’d made was for a high floor

We’re here

I was really pleased with the room location, it was easy access to the main building in one direction and the skyliner in the other. And we had a lovely view outside our room

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 7th July (cont)

We dropped our luggage in the room and headed straight back out to get something to eat. It was 8.30 by now (1.30 am UK time) and we were starving.

A few room photos before our suitcases exploded, this was the only time we saw the table because we had the bed down the whole time we were there. Our room was one of the newly refurbished ones.

The sunset was beautiful

A lot of our building was still being refurbished. We didn’t notice any noise or mess during our stay though

Lady and the Tramp

Bubbles on the way over

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Ah the good old holiday suitcase explosion. We have all been there.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Ah the good old holiday suitcase explosion. We have all been there.

I did take a photo of the explosion caused by Lexi’s stuff but she would be very cross with me if I posted it

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 7th July (cont)

It was while getting our food that I realised that I’d made a bit of a mess up with our booking and dining plan.

We decided to pick up our refillable mugs first and then go back to get some food. It took a while to get to the cashier, there weren’t many people in the queue so I don’t know why it was taking so long. When it was our turn I scanned my magic band and the cashier said that we weren’t entitled to free mugs. I thought this was strange, as I didn’t know there was a dining plan that didn’t include mugs. I think I must have looked a bit upset and confused because she called a manager over who scanned my magic band again. I don’t think this was the first time this had happened because she said that it was because the UK plan was different. I think she felt sorry for me and just gave me the mugs for free.

We then went back to get some food. It was a little bit chaotic at the food counters and I didn’t want to have to put through an allergy request (I’m allergic to peas and lentils) so I just got something that I thought would be safe. Looking back this was probably a bit silly of me as later on I did find a few unexpected things that had pea protein hidden in them. Luckily this time I was ok.

I had some shrimp in a cream sauce with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Lexi had the same, I can’t remember what Alice had and we didn’t take a photo. This was actually pretty good.

After I’d finished eating I was looking at the receipt and it didn’t seem to have enough meal credits left on it. This together with the mug situation started me googling the dining plan.

Now I didn’t book this holiday, my husband Darren did. Back in September he was being a bit mysterious and asking about summer school/college finishing dates for the girls and then one evening he was on his computer and just told us he’d booked it for us. At first this was just the Pop Century part, and he’d booked a whole package with flights and tickets included at quite a good price. And as a bonus he told us it included the free quick service dining plan. We were all just so excited that we didn’t think to check the dining plan part, the only quick service plan we knew about was the one that included two meals and a snack every day. As I was googling I realised to get that plan you had to book a moderate resort, if you booked a value resort all you got was one quick service meal a day, no snacks and no mug. I did feel a bit of an idiot for not actually checking beforehand but there was nothing I could do about it now. The girls were a bit upset because they’d been planning out all the snacks they wanted but I told them they could still have them. Luckily I wasn’t in a position where I was relying on everything being free, it had just seemed like a little bit of a bonus.

We were definitely ready for our beds after this, it had been a very long day. As we got back to our room we had a lovely surprise, we could see Magic Kingdom fireworks

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July

Still being on UK time a little bit, we were awake at silly o’clock in the morning. Anticipating this we had decided that this would be the best morning to rope drop Animal Kingdom.

Still loving the view

Too early for buses to any of the other parks to have started running

Happy to be back and on our way to a park

Lexi is terrible at walking with us, she claims we are too slow. Our usual view of her

This is as far as I got on my November visit

Lexi was trying to be a cool teenager but you could tell she was excited. Behind the girls you can just see our first destination of the day, the bathrooms

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

There was a bit of a queue to get in but it moved quite quickly

Our first sighting of a tour group flag. There were so many tour groups in the parks

We were all a bit emotional as we tapped into the park, we were home

Alice loves a park map, even though everything is on the app now it’s still nice to have a paper map

This bird seemed to be judging everyone

Only one side of the path was open this early

But the secret passageway was open and we were the only ones to go through. The girls loved to make the bridge bounce when they were little

A quick stop for some photos before our first ride

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

The girls enjoyed interacting with the statues, I know they’ve been there a while now but they were new for us

Most people had headed to Pandora when entering the park, but we had lightning lanes later so we walked briskly to

We were held at the rope until exactly 7.30, I could see the cm keep looking at her watch

Then some more brisk walking. “Because cool kids don’t run” became a catchphrase whenever we saw someone running where they weren’t supposed to. And we are a family of runners

I barely had time to take any photos because we walked straight through the queue area

We were in the first pre-show of the day, I would have preferred a slightly more leisurely pace but was keeping up with the girls.

I have a bit of a confession, I’m not that big a fan of Dinosaur. I don’t particularly like experiences where things pop out at you, not a fan of jump scares. And I find it a bit too jerky. But I do like the theming of it, and the girls loved it.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Tuesday 9th July (cont)

I do not look happy in our Dinosaur photo

I don’t know what I did to make the photo look like the dinosaur is zooming

I was a bit sad seeing all the construction walls up. I have lots of happy memories of taking whichever child was too small to ride Dinosaur on Triceratops Spin.

I’m with Indy on this, terrified of them

Next up was a ride I do love.

On our way

The girls were not giving me time to take photos in the queue

Lots of empty seats, the park still hadn’t officially opened

This was a lot of fun, we could have ridden again with no wait but we were getting a bit hungry so decided to go in search of a snack.

 

[littleroo]

I love how excited my "cool sons" still get when we are Disney! It truly brings out the inner child no matter what age.

The picture of the dinosaur really does look like it is moving. I love it!