Trip Report A 36 hour journey, An Engagement and everything in between! WDW 2018

I'm going to start this by apologizing.. it probably wont be well written and I will more than likely miss things out. I'm trying to recall it all but it feels like a life time ago - when really it was only 3 weeks!

Day 0 – Arriving at WDW Coronado Springs.

My Boyfriend Dan and I had a long journey to get back to WDW, a full 36 hours of travelling to be exact. We left home in Perth Australia, and took a 4 hour flight to Melbourne (on the east coast) where we had to wait 6 hours for our connecting flight to LA… Boring!
Luckily the excitement made the time go nice and quick. Back onto a plane for a 14 hour flight from Melbourne to LAX. When we hit LAX we had ANOTHER 6 hour lay over… Not so fun the second time around.

We bought Delta Sky Lounge Passes to make the wait more bearable. Showers and alcohol was our saviour!! Finally time for our last flight from LAX to Orlando… It couldn’t go quick enough. I was ready to start my holiday (or “vacation” as I quickly learnt )

Arriving at MCO was magical, as expected, even though we were exhausted, Dan and I couldn’t keep the smiles off our faces. We made our way over to the Magical Express and walked straight onto our awaiting bus. Lucky for us the first stop was Coronado Springs! It was just after Midnight when we checked in. The cast member Shannon was super lovely. She made sure we had a refurbished room in Cabanas 8A – it was near the Main Pool (dig site) and about a 5 min walk from the main building. Room was beautiful. We wanted a king room but ended up with 2 beds. It didn’t really worry us, we used the second bed to put our bags on. There was no where open to eat or even get any snacks so we ordered dominos and then feel asleep with full bellies!

Not a bad view to wake up too...

more to come...

 

[PrincessJasmyn]

Day 1 - 15/05/2018 Animal Kingdom
We had a bit of a sleep in and arrived at our first park around 11.30am. ANIMAL KINGDOM!
We had a fast pass for the Safari at 12:10-1:10pm but when we got there, the fastpass line was ridiculously long. Apparently an animal was over the path and it delayed all the trucks. We decided we would wander around taking in the sites before our lunch reservation at Yak and Yeti.

We lined up to meet Timon and then headed over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. By the time we got out there it was almost time to leave to make it back in time for our reservation. But I made sure I got a quick photo before we left.

Yak & Yeti - I cannot speak more highly of this restaurant, and was very close to being my favourite meal of the trip. We shared the Firecracker Shrimp to start along side a couple of amazing cocktails. I had the Pink Himalayan and Dan had a South Seas Traveller. I loved mined and ended up ordering a second.
Our main meals were just as great. Dan was craving sushi, so he ordered the Dragon Roll – he was very happy with it and said it helped his cravings. I ordered Bacon wrapped Shrimp. Oh My Lord! It was outstanding. I was forcing the last bites down because I couldn’t bare leave anything on the plate.

When we walked outside it was no longer sunny, the rain clouds had covered the sky and I knew it was going to pour down soon! I told Dan we should put on our ponchos and ridiculous shoe covers that we bought but he didn’t listen to me. All of a sudden the heavens opened up and we were soaked. We didn’t even get a chance to open our bags before we were completely wet. Lesson learned!
We headed to our Expedition Everest fastpass and of course we couldn’t ride that because of the storm. Brilliant. That had ruined that idea. But we waited for the weather and got to ride it before the end of our window

Our next fast pass was Avatar Flight of Passage, we headed to Pandora to take in the sites before our window opened.
I made some cute little friends to jump in puddles with. They were adorable and loved our Aussie accents. We took some photos with them and exchanged stories, before parting ways for different Pandora rides.

FOP – well, I might be the odd one out here, it wasn’t my favourite ride ever. Yes, it was good, but I think it has a massive hype around it. I mean I did really enjoy it. Its very cleaver in how its made, but for someone who gets motion sickness, I prefer the outdoor rides. I am just glad I didn’t have to wait long to ride it otherwise I think I would have been letdown. Dan on the other hand thought it was awesome and would have done it again if he could!

I forced Dan to take some photopass photos before leaving the park and heading to Epcot for dinner and to take advantage of the EMH.
As you can see, we didn’t leave Animal Kingdom looking as good as we did when we arrived… soaking wet with crazy hair – but at least we had fun!

 

[Kiwiduck]

That is a monstrously long flight! I thought I was crazy flying 12 hours from Auckland to LAX and then onto WDW!! How did the sky lounge passes work? Can you purchase individual visit passes or do you have to join up? Look forward to hearing all about it.

 

[PrincessJasmyn]

That is a monstrously long flight! I thought I was crazy flying 12 hours from Auckland to LAX and then onto WDW!! How did the sky lounge passes work? Can you purchase individual visit passes or do you have to join up? Look forward to hearing all about it.

Delta do single use lounge passes for $59 USD. It was 100% worth it for us!!

 

[KatieLVT]

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[LeighM]

I've only recently started flying to MCO rather than driving from VA. And right now the 2 hour flight is all my anxiety will allow me to do LOL. Looking forward to the rest of your report

 

[becca_]

You had me at "an engagement"

 

[Rista1313]

I'm in! Can't wait for the next installment

 

[PrincessJasmyn]

Day 1 Continued – 15/05/2018 – Epcot

We quickly left Animal Kingdom at about 4:30pm and headed back to Coronado Springs to have a shower and get changed before heading over to Epcot for our dinner reservation and to make use of the night EMH.

We took some snaps and then headed straight for Mexico where our dinner was booked at San Angel Restaurant at 6:45pm. We made it with seconds to spare and got seated almost instantly.
I loved the look and feel of this place. Being inside, but it felt 100% like we were outside.
The menu looked fantastic and we were getting ready to order drinks. This is where it went a little down hill for us. I am 25, and Dan is 31. We don’t look young, but in any case, we got asked for ID. Totally fine, we had our Australian drivers licences that we had used during the day at Animal Kingdom. They wouldn’t accept it. We got a little agitated at this point, we weren’t loud or obnoxious, just annoyed and frustrated. We couldn’t understand how we had been able to buy drinks during lunch, but not with dinner. When they put their foot down, we got up and left without ordering a thing. Not our proudest moment, as I did really want to eat there. We were now super bummed. I wanted to drink around the world tonight, but without our passports that wasn’t happening. Another lesson learned, take your passport everywhere – JUST IN CASE!
I managed to get a wine in France (with my drivers licence, go figure...) before finding some delicious quick service food in America. We were really happy with it. On the way to America I saw Snow and had to stop for a quick catch up..

From here we fort through the rain that had started to try and find @joejccva71 and watch Illuminations. It was beautiful, but it rained pretty heavily the whole time. We didn’t get a chance to take photos because of it.

After Illuminations it was EHM and our first stop was Soarin’. It was one of our favourites from Disneyland California, but we haven’t been on the Epcot one before. Even though it was the same video, on this version you also get smells too. It really added to the experience.

A quick photo while we waited in line for Soarin’ (had to steal this photo from @joejccva71 trip report!)

After Soarin' the 4 of us went to do Mission Space – only green because I am a massive sook and was scared of getting sick. I didn’t feel great coming off, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
We wanted to do Test Track, it was what I was most looking forward to at Epcot, but it was shut because of the rain, so we headed to Frozen instead. That blew my mind. It was so well done. I am still shocked that I didn’t have to scan my magic band to get the photo though… it was just on My Disney Experience app! It really is magic…. I was actually impressed, unlike the look on my face!!

After Frozen Ever After it was time to bring the night to an end. We said our goodbyes to our new American friends and headed back to Coronado Springs for some shut eye.

 

[StephK]

We recently visited from Aus too but from Sydney so 1 flight less then you guys, still a heluva trip at 27 hours though! I'm with you re FOP and so was my hubby, it made us both kind of ill. Following along

 

[The Mom]

Delta do single use lounge passes for $59 USD. It was 100% worth it for us!!

It depends upon time of day - and how many people have purchased the pass. We just passed through JFK, and the Delta lounge was MOBBED - the line for the ladies rest room was out the door, and even the men's room had a short line. My husband and I could not find 2 seats together - he finally sat outside for a while.

And it was getting worse as we left to board our 7:30 PM flight! There were actually a couple of security guards at the entrance to keep things under control. Granted, I think there had been some flight delays due to weather issues, so this may have been a unique situation - although the lounges do seem to be getting more crowded.

 

[PrincessJasmyn]

It depends upon time of day - and how many people have purchased the pass. We just passed through JFK, and the Delta lounge was MOBBED - the line for the ladies rest room was out the door, and even the men's room had a short line. My husband and I could not find 2 seats together - he finally sat outside for a while.

And it was getting worse as we left to board our 7:30 PM flight! There were actually a couple of security guards at the entrance to keep things under control. Granted, I think there had been some flight delays due to weather issues, so this may have been a unique situation - although the lounges do seem to be getting more crowded.

WOW, I guess it just depends how many people want to use it. We did get turned away from one of the lounges within LAX because they were to busy, but they advised to head over to the terminal 2 lounge as they were not busy. Worked out great and got to have some "free" drinks and food. Made the wait so much easier!!

 

[tasha ratliff]

Looking fwd to reading more

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I'm in!!! What a long flight! You guys are troopers!

 

[PrincessJasmyn]

I'm in!!! What a long flight! You guys are troopers!

Lucky it was worth the long trip haha

 

[PrincessJasmyn]

Day 2 – 16/05/2018 – Animal Kingdom
We woke up bright and early on Wednesday and headed to Animal Kingdom for the 8am EMH. This was a blessing for us. We had already ridden on FoP so we didn’t follow the crowds to that, instead we planned to head to Pandora for the Na’vi River Journey. Unfortunately our plans didn’t work out. We got to the attraction and it was having a delayed opening today due to technical complications. Fine, no worries, we will head to the Safari…. NOPE not happening. That wasn’t opening until 9am…
I had the great idea to head to Dinosaur, I knew it wouldn’t have a long line, with everyone else heading to Pandora for FoP. It was GREAT! Dinosaur was one of my favourite rides from our last trip, and it was just as good the second time. There was a 4 year old girl in front of us that was getting a bit scared but Dan convinced her it would be totally fine. She was 100% not fine and ended up crying half way through the ride. OOPS.
She’s in the middle row with us directly behind her..

She forgave him though and they got a super cute picture after the ride

From there we walked passed Primeval Whirl. There was no one waiting at all so thought this would be a silly ride to pass the time. It was actually so much fun!! Dan decided to film the whole ride and almost lost his phone a couple of times. I would have ridden it again, but Dan was feeling a little queezy now
Dan is convinced this is the best photo of him from our whole trip, and is his new Facebook profile picture…

Next off it was off to Everest! We rode this yesterday, but with only a 5 min wait time, we couldn’t walk past without going on! Again, Dan deceived to film the whole ride. I tried not to swear during the ride so we could show our nieces the video when we got home.

It was only 9am and the park was open, so headed to the safari! FINALLY! Time for my favourite attraction.
It was amazing, as usual. I could sit on the truck all day and just keep going over and over.
Here’s our giraffe friend.. he came over to say hey..

Safari was done, and I was sad. But we were off to our first fastpass which started at 9:15am (we got there about 9:25am) – Na’vi River Journey.
I personally liked this ride BETTER than FoP. Controversial opinion..
We rushed to Kali River Rapids and jumped straight on without needing to use our 10:15am fastpass, it was only about a 10 min wait, if that!
I wore my poncho on the ride because I did want to be walking around wet for the rest of the day. I was very happy I did!

Last attraction before we said farewell to Animal Kingdom…

The Lion King is probably Dan’s favourite attraction at Animal Kingdom. It was actually better than we remembered from last year. I swear there wasn’t as many acrobats last time. I was impressed!!

Its now just before lunch and we headed back to our hotel for a quick swim before MAGIC KINGDOM TIME!

 

[myhappyplace]

What an adventure so far, eagerly reading along!

 

[Gurt]

Great report, I don't understand why they wouldn't accept your driving licence we have never had a problem with our UK licences and Chris can still pass for a teenager never mind 34!

 

[PrincessJasmyn]

Great report, I don't understand why they wouldn't accept your driving licence we have never had a problem with our UK licences and Chris can still pass for a teenager never mind 34!

Its just really annoying that there is so much inconsistency between the venues. Oh well

 

[PrincessJasmyn]

Day 2 Cont – 16/06/2018 – Magic Kingdom
We headed back to our hotel and had a super quick swim to cool down. We didn’t stay long before we headed to our room to get showered and dressed.
Tonight we have a reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table. This is what I was most excited for! Dan suggested we dress up slightly because “isn’t it a fancy dinner?”
He decided to pack a dress shirt in our backpack to change into before dinner. I wore my Ariel leggings and my tiara because why not?
When we got to Magic Kingdom it was around 1pm. We headed to Tomorrowland first and did the Buzz Lightyear ride, which I didn’t think was great. I am a big fan of Toy Story Mania which is 10x better than this.
We still got super competitive though…

After Space Ranger Spin we headed to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. I wasn’t sure what this actually was. For those who were like me, it is a “Comedy Show” hosted by our good friend Mike! I wont spoil it, but if you have some time to kill and want to escape the heat for 20 mins, do yourself a favour and check it out. Its worth the laughs.
We walked past the Tomorrowland Speedway and it only had a 10 minute wait. That was the most ridiculously hard car to drive. Probably wouldn’t bother doing it again.
From there we were getting a little peckish, but didn’t want to spoil our appetites for tonight, so we each got our first ever mickey pretzel! We sat in Storybook Circus area to eat them. We never even knew this place existed so that was a nice surprise.

From there we walked through Fantasyland. We had a cute couple photo out the front of Ariels Grotto…

Then off to meet my NEW boyfriend… Gaston.

He was absolutely fantastic! He was very witty and great at improv! He even made me blush! He suggested a drink in Gastons Taven. We did as we were told and took a break from the heat in there.
Only 40mins until dinner, but what to do to kill some time? It’s A Small World…
Dan got changed into his dress shirt and we walked over to the ride.
It only had a 15 minute wait and it was right across the path from CRT. Perfect choice. Neither of us have been on it before & all we knew about it was Duff Beer episode of The Simpsons.
It was as horrible as expected and the song stayed with us all night. It gave Dan the creeps BIG TIME and he was very glad when our boat stopped and we were let off.

We got to CRT with 15 mins to spare. It was POURING with rain now, and they made us wait to go inside until our exact reservation time (7:15pm). We huddled inside the entrance to the castle with everyone else in Magic Kingdom who were trying to escape the downpour.
BUT NOW IT WAS FINALLY TIME TO SEE CINDY!
Inside we go and we line up to take some pictures before going upstairs…

And then Dan stole the show, pushing Cindy out of the way and getting down on one knee…

Cindy was impressed!

I didn’t realise that everyone was clapping and cheering. I was so caught up in the moment. We hugged Cinderella goodbye and let others have their pictures taken. We were holding everyone up.
I called my mum to let her know the good news, then it was time to go up to dinner. The cast member came over with Happily Ever After badges and took us to our table.

It wasn’t long before Ariel ran over to us.. “Are you the Australian couple who just got engaged downstairs with Cinderella…? She just told me!”
“Yes! That was us!” I replied. Ariel shrieked with excitement and gave us both a huge hug. Apart from Cinderella, she was the nicest Cast Member/Princess we met that night. I jumped up and got some photos with her then & the other Princesses as they came around. None of them was really interested about my engagement (except Ariel) and that was a little bit disappointing. Ariel and Cinderella really made it special for us, and I wish the others could have put in more effort instead of just saying “Would you like your photo taken?”

TBC (so I can add more photos)