Trip Report A Honeymoon Trip Report - September 2019

If you haven’t read my previous Trip/Pre-Trip Reports, my name is Jasmyn (27), and this is my husband Dan (32).

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Our trip was from the 11th-22nd September 2019 – we traveled from Perth Australia (which is 11,375 miles from Orlando) for our honeymoon at WDW!
Hopefully it won’t take me forever to get through this. I’m writing it at work to help me get over my Disney blues.


DAY 1 – 11th September 2019
The first leg of our 3 flights was departing for Sydney at 5:15am.
We decided, because we would need to be up at 2am anyway, we would just pull an all-nighter. We spent the night finishing off our packing, that we hadn’t had a chance to do, playing with our little kittens who are both only 5 months old (and we were going to miss terribly) and hanging out with Dan’s little brother, Liam, who was going to be house/pet sitting for us.

Pulling an all-nighter didn’t work well for me, I ended up falling asleep for about an hour, before Dan woke up me up to get ready to leave.
We ordered an Uber (the first of MANY uber rides this trip) and left for the airport at 3:15am.
When we arrived at the airport, we started check in, and ran into one of my clients who was on the same flight. I have my own business doing Hair Extensions, and found out she was heading to NYC the same day, but didn’t realise she would be on 2/3 flights with us!

We boarded our flight at 5am, and were in the air by 5:30am. The flight was a little bumpy, but nothing that had us worried. We were off that flight, and heading to our international flight by 11:45am (Sydney Time). We were seated close to the back of the plane, in the centre row of 4 seats. Dan and I were next to an older couple. The flight time to Dallas (our next stop) was predicted to be 16hours.
This flight was terrible. Terrible food, bad turbulence, and just not a whole lot of legroom! I would finally doze off to sleep, and a drop from turbulence would wake me up. I was so anxious that I was almost in tears.
I couldn’t wait to get off the flight.
Dallas airport was huge, we quickly grabbed out bags and was trying to rush through customs/immigration as we only had a 2 hours layover. I got a nice big “X” through my paperwork. The guard thought he was hilarious and all he told me was “its because women are always wrong” and let us go with a smile.
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It was a random check for further screening, this wasn’t going to help our time frame for rushing to our connecting flight.

Off we went through Dallas security with our bags in tow. All was fine and we ran to re-check our bags and board our flight. We ran to the gate, as the guard was calling “Last Call for Orlando, if you don’t run you will be missing your flight”
We were the last couple to board. As we were finding our seats we got talking to another couple heading on their Honeymoon, but they were staying at the Polynesian Resort. Unlike us who cheaped out and were only staying at All Star Movies.

The 2.5 hour flight was much easier to deal with. We had seats directly behind business class, which meant a lot extra legroom. I slept for most of the flight, and before I knew it, we were starting our decent to Orlando.

Dan and I practically jumped out of our seats when we touched down. It was now 6.30pm (still on the 11th September… even after 28 hours travelling). The Magical Express was calling our names, so we grabbed our bags, put on our old magic bands from the previous trip, and skipped over to buses.
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We arrived at All Star Movies at 7.45pm. Check in was a breeze. We picked up our new magic bands and headed to our Room – 711 in the Toy Story Building. We had a preferred room. The room had a double bed, and a pull down bed, which didn’t get used. The room size was fine for us, and by the end of the trip you almost couldn’t see the floors with how much stuff we had bought. Oops.

When we got there we had a package waiting. I had ordered a bottle of Red Wine (the same we had at CRT on the night we got engaged last year) snacks, flute glasses and some chocolates to help celebrate our honeymoon and to surprise Dan. This was meant to be to have this first night, but we decided that staying in our room WAS NOT an option on our first night at Disney.
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While Dan was having a shower, and washing that horrible “plane” feeling off him, I checked for some last minute reservations. I was shocked when a ‘Ohana reservation for 9:15pm.
I quickly showered as soon as Dan was out, and let Dan know the plan.
By 8:30pm we were ready, and in as Uber, heading to the Polynesian Resort.
We had a quick look around, taking in the amazing entrance that the Poly has, and headed up to ‘Ohana around 9pm. We we’re still a little early, and there were 2 seats free at the bar at Tambu Lounge. We each ordered a cocktail, and while we were sipping, we couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces, despite how exhausted the last 30+ hours had been.
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Our last name was called, and we were lead to our table right at 9.15pm. She rushed us through because the fireworks had already started at Magic Kingdom and we had a table with a view.
It was so magical. We weren’t seated at the closest table to the window, but still had a decent view while we ate the piles of food that kept coming to our table.
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My favourite dish was the grilled Prawns (or shrimp as we quickly learned). We had seconds, and thirds of everything. When it came to dessert, Dan and I both said “no thank you” as we were just too stuffed! The waiter didn’t listen. He came over with the ‘Ohana Bread Pudding a la mode. He said this is what people come to ‘Ohana for, and you aren’t missing out.
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WOW! I am so glad he at least made us try it. It was amazing, and one of the best desserts I’ve ever tasted!
I swear we almost rolled out of there with the amount of food we ate. I was so happy I was able to find a last minute reservation here.

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We wandered over to the Moana Mercantile shop inside the Polynesian, where Dan was able to find a cool Mickey Sweater. By this time it was almost 11pm, and now that we had a full stomach, the tiredness was really starting to creep up on us. Another Uber had us back at All Star Movies around 11:15pm and we headed into the gift shop to pick up our refillable mugs. I choose the Halloween one, and Dan choose a red Mickey Mouse Club House mug. We also got some bottles of water to have in the room, just in case 😊
The lights in our room by 11:30pm and sleep followed shortly after. I was so excited for our first day in the parks!
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
On the way to Splash, Dan stopped me on the bridge overlooking Tom Sawyer Island, where you could see the castle in the background. He thought it was the perfect spot to take some photos, especially with my castle backpack on.

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Sometimes I feel bad skipping past everyone in the regular lines for rides, this time I did not! I wasn’t waiting 70 damn minutes!

This time I refused to get wet and decided to wear my poncho.

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I’m so glad I wore my poncho, Dan got totally soaked, and my shorts were a little wet and so was my face. If I didn’t have it on, I know I would have spent the night uncomfortable.

Something that we have never experienced before is the Enchanted Tiki Room, so that was our next destination. We had no idea what to expect, as we hadn’t really heard much about it, except that it’s an original classic. We had so much fun in there! And by the end of the show we were singing along.

When we were done, we wandered over to Tomorrowland. It’s the land that we had spent the least amount of time in this trip and there was a couple of things we wanted to do. One was the Astro Orbiter. Again, we didn’t really know what it was, or what it even looked like. We were both totally lost so asked a cast member – “its right here, but its down today for maintenance!” Nooooo!! So we headed to Buzz instead as it only had a 10 minute wait.

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The People Mover was a walk on, and another attraction we hadn’t ridden before, so as soon as Dan beat me on Buzz, that’s where we headed.
We both really enjoyed it, it was really cool to ride around Tomorrowland at night. I loved that we went under other rides.

Off we hoped, it was time to exit Tomorrowland, back to Main Street, for our last event of the evening. HAPPILY EVER AFTER!
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We headed to the end of the street, working our way up to as close to the hub as we could get.
We picked a spot just off to the left, and Dan went to find me some fairy floss. Our view was almost perfect, besides from all the people holding up their phones. I tried to take as few pictures as possible so I didn’t annoy anyone behind me.

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And of course, like every time I watch HEA, I cried my eyes out.
The music, projections and the fireworks, its all just so magical. Exactly what you expect from Walt Disney World.

The park was closing, so the pair of us decided to head to Casey’s Corner, to waste some time, and skip some of the exiting crowds. I don’t know why people ever think Casey’s is a good option for food. We had the most terrible hot dogs here. I’m glad I got some Chilli Cheese Fries to go with my hotdog, because I didn’t even bother eating more than 1 bite of it. About 25 minutes after arriving at Casey’s we headed out to try and get some castle pictures. It was still way busier than I expected for so late in the evening.

This was the view looking towards the exit.

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We didn’t rush to get out of Magic Kingdom. We walked through shops, took more photos on Main Street, and really enjoyed each others company without the heat :inlove:

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It was late when we finally made our way to the exit, and over to the bus stop. Tonight reminded me why I really dislike the bus system. We still had a 20 minute wait for it. When we finally got on, we were all crammed in, which was to be expected at the end of a busy MK day. 2 girls, either late teenagers or in their early 20’s sat on the floor of the bus and spread out. Making everyone else around them squish together more, they both had headphones in and their eyes shut. Everyone on the bus was eyeballing them, so unimpressed. Dan and another Australian guy tapped them both on the shoulders and asked them to stand up, and pointed to everyone around them. They ignored them. It was so inconsiderate for everyone else.


By the end of the night, I was glad to get back to our room.
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DAY 9 – 19th September 2019 – Universal Studios


This morning we had a little bit of a sleep in before our 8:45am breakfast booking at ‘Ohana. We got up and headed to the Polynesian Resort where we met Andrew. He was waiting for us outside of the restaurant. We were led inside by a lovely host, who sat us at our table right by the window overlooking the pool, where we could see the castle in the distance. PERFECT!

The food came out nice and quickly, and I was surprised with how delicious it was. I always get sceptical at buffets or “all you care to enjoy” places, but ‘Ohana was wonderful, again! I loved the small touches on the food. Instead of Mickey waffles, we had STITCH WAFFLES! So adorable.

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Lilo was the first character we got to meet. Her huge head was a bit creepy, but we had a good laugh with her.
Andrew refused to get photos haha!

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Mickey came around, and the kids at the next table were so excited. SO WERE WE!!

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We continued to eat our breakfast, which was delicious, but different to the normal breakfast food we would have at home. We never have ham steaks, so that was strange, but all the food was great!

Stitch was the last to come around, and he took FOREVER to show up. We were finished our breakfast and were debating if we should stay or go before he comes. We asked the waiter roughly how much longer we had to wait (it had been about 20 minutes since Mickey had been to our table), and he said he shouldn’t be too much longer.

Next minute Stitch was popping his head around the corner to say hi!

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We said our goodbyes to our waiter and headed out of the Polynesian Resort, where we jumped into an Uber and headed to Universal Studios!
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Dan and I had to visit Guest Services first to pick up our tickets and unlimited express passes. We also picked up our Halloween Horror Nights tickets and express passes for later this evening. We were greeted and had our tickets printed very quickly. It was great service!

Then the 3 of us headed into Islands of Adventure to start our day at Universal.

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First ride up was up was The Hulk!

I feel like, whenever I first get to any theme park, I am super brave at the start of the day and would say yes to any ride. Its only after I’ve ridden it, and feel so sick, that the regret sinks in. The Hulk is definitely one of those rides.

Andrew, of course, asked the staff working if we could go in the front row. I could have killed him hahaha!! o_O

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Dan and I both came off this not feeling the best. Andrew, who is an absolute nutcase, rode again! We collected our stuff from the lockers while we waited. Because we all had unlimited express passes, it wasn’t long until Andrew had finished his second ride and off we went!

As we continued around Marvel Superhero Island section, the next ride that caught our attention was Spiderman. I’m not a huge fan of 3D rides, they give me a headache, but I went on and it was so much fun. I spent half the ride though seeing what it looked like without my glasses on… of course that’s when the photo was taken…

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The boys were then determined the Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls was a good option next. For me it absolutely was NOT on the cards. As much as I love Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom, you don’t get as wet on that as you do here. I gave it a miss. I didn’t want to be walking around in soggy clothes all day.

I got myself a slushy and watched on, waiting for them to get smashed with a wall of water. I think waited about 15-20 minutes before I saw them come down the huge drop.

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They were DRENCHED – head to toe!

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I was definitely not jealous of them. I’ve been on this ride once, I think it was on our first trip, and it was so much fun, but I think I’d only do it again if it was my last ride of the day, or I had a change of clothes.
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
On we went through Toon Lagoon, past Kong, and over to visit some dinosaurs!

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The Jurassic Park ride is so much fun and definitely one of my favourite rides in the Universal parks. Our express passes meant we didn’t have a long wait at all, and practically walked straight onto the next available boat.

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How does Andrew ALWAYS keep a straight face?!

I don’t like how Universal does their ride photos. I hate that they had the fake boarders, cutting off the edges of the photo. They could really improve these.

Time for the main section we were looking forward too. HARRY POTTER!
Hogsmead is so beautiful, and the attention to detail here is sensational. Even though Florida is so ridiculously hot, I couldn’t help get a chill when looking at the snow capped roofs!

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Andrew checked the liners app (which apparently had really accurate wait time from guest submitted the real time they waited). The new Hagrid’s ride had a posted time was about 70 minutes, but apparently the app said it was only about 50. Dan and I decided we would rather get some food and look around. Andrew had his heart set of the ride, so we parted ways and would catch back up with him when he was done.

Looking back, I wish we had of gone with him.

When Andrew went to see some of Hagrid’s Magical Creatures, we thought a trip into the castle would be perfect. We had about a 20 minutes wait, even with our express pass.

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Such a fun ride! But it definitely made me feel unwell. Nothing to crazy this time though which was good.
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Once we came out we went to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. We were starving, but decided to share a Fish and Chips to tie us over until we could go get food with Andrew as well, and have a moment to ourselves after rushing around all morning.

I didn’t get a photo, but the food was fine. We eat a lot of fish and chips at home, and this was very similar.

Just as we were walking out of the Three Broomsticks, Andrew messaged to say he was finished on Hagrid’s. The exit of Hagrid’s is right near The Three Broomsticks, so it didn’t take us long to find each other.

It was time to change parks, ready for the evenings adventures of Halloween Horror Nights. We wanted to get there at a decent time, to make it less of a hassle later on.. Of course the only way to swap parks is to use the Hogwarts Express, off we went to Hogsmead Station.

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This attraction (and mode of transport between parks) is absolutely amazing! It really makes you feel like you’re are on the train with the characters.
Luckily we decided to upgrade to Park to Park tickets so we were able to ride it.

We had a short walk around and headed into Knockturn Alley. I love the shop in there, but noticed the merchandise hadn’t changed much between this trip and the last, which was disappointing. Another thing Disney does so much better than Universal, they are ALWAYS updating the merchandise that’s available. Universal just sticks to the same.

It was about 3:30pm now, and Andrew was getting hungry. There wasn’t anywhere inside the park that we all really felt like eating, so out the park we went and over to City Walk. This defeated the point of heading to Universal Studios to make it easier for HHN, but Andrew was starving, and dan and I had only shared a meal, so food was a priority.

We all settled on Margaritaville. It’s such a fun restaurant (that we don’t have at home, I’d actually never heard of Jimmy Buffet until our last trip! Our waiter was really lovely, and super friendly, which Dan and I loved. The service in America, Dan and I always find amazing, I guess its because they know they have to work for their tips. In Australia, we don’t tip, ever. The servers in Australia get a very good wage and tipping is definitely not required at any establishment. I don’t think I’ve ever tipped a meal at home unless the service was EXCEPTIONAL. And even then, its only a minimal amount as an extra thank you and I think I may have only ever done that once or twice in my life. Whenever we come to the states, its always a huge adjustment to get used to, but we don’t mind 😊

As usual, I forgot to take photos of our food. Andrew got the BBQ Burger. Dan got himself a Club Sandwich, and I got the Chicken Quesadilla. The boys both got beers, and I got myself a ridiculous Strawberry Daiquiri.

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Dan’s Club Sandwich was huge!

We finished up our food, said goodbye to our waiter and headed back into Universal Studios.

RIP RIDE ROCKIT. This was probably not the best thing to ride after eating.
Both dan and I came off this so sick. Dan actually had to rush over to a bin so he wouldn’t be sick everywhere.

We decided no more rides for the evening and made our way over to Springfield where a Halloween Horror Nights holding zone was. It was about 5pm now, and we sat at a bar and got ourselves a drink. The boys got more beers and I got a Sprite.

I really don’t do Horror of any kind. I was sitting at the bar with the boys and I started working myself up SO MUCH. What was I thinking??! There’s no way I could go to Halloween horror nights!!

I ended up almost crying. Andrew tried to convince me to stay but Dan knew me better than that. He was sceptical from the beginning, but didn’t want to say anything and change my mind. He didn’t have to. I got there alllll on my own! I handed the boys my express pass, so they could go through their favourite haunted houses again without having the long wait, and headed out of the park.

We had a VIP tour booked for the next day at Universal Studios, but decided earlier in the day that it might be a bit to fast paced for us (considering how many of the rides give us motion sickness) and decided to try and cancel it.

So when I left HHN I headed to the customer service desk at the front of the park and asked if its possible to get a refund.
They were more than happy to help, as long as I had the correct credit card that I used to purchase the tour….. Oops! I didn’t have it with me! She advised me to come back first thing tomorrow morning, with the correct card, and they would refund me the full amount. I thought that was so kind of them, considering how last minute we decided to cancel.


I got myself into a Uber, and headed back to the hotel, with my head between my hands in shame (not really, but I was pretty embarrassed that I didn’t last through horror nights).
I went past the food court before going back to the room. I got myself some lasagne and fries. The lasagne was absolutely terrible, and the fries were much better. Lucky we had a few snacks in the room that I could eat while I watched Cars.

Dan rolled in around 11pm. The first thing he said was “Jas, you would have died tonight! There is no way you would have been able to do that!”

Apparently they got all the houses done super quickly with the express passes. He said that wait for the houses without it, was over 2 hours long!!! I couldn’t believe it. Why would anyone go without getting the express pass? The only time I would is if I were a local, because you have no time restrictions, but dan said there’s no way they would have been able to do them all without it. He left Andrew there with my express pass to go back and do some of the houses again, and he ubered home.


Lights out in our room not long after he arrived home. We had another full on day tomorrow…
 

SandiSmiles

Member
Once we came out we went to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. We were starving, but decided to share a Fish and Chips to tie us over until we could go get food with Andrew as well, and have a moment to ourselves after rushing around all morning.

I didn’t get a photo, but the food was fine. We eat a lot of fish and chips at home, and this was very similar.

Just as we were walking out of the Three Broomsticks, Andrew messaged to say he was finished on Hagrid’s. The exit of Hagrid’s is right near The Three Broomsticks, so it didn’t take us long to find each other.

It was time to change parks, ready for the evenings adventures of Halloween Horror Nights. We wanted to get there at a decent time, to make it less of a hassle later on.. Of course the only way to swap parks is to use the Hogwarts Express, off we went to Hogsmead Station.

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This attraction (and mode of transport between parks) is absolutely amazing! It really makes you feel like you’re are on the train with the characters.
Luckily we decided to upgrade to Park to Park tickets so we were able to ride it.

We had a short walk around and headed into Knockturn Alley. I love the shop in there, but noticed the merchandise hadn’t changed much between this trip and the last, which was disappointing. Another thing Disney does so much better than Universal, they are ALWAYS updating the merchandise that’s available. Universal just sticks to the same.

It was about 3:30pm now, and Andrew was getting hungry. There wasn’t anywhere inside the park that we all really felt like eating, so out the park we went and over to City Walk. This defeated the point of heading to Universal Studios to make it easier for HHN, but Andrew was starving, and dan and I had only shared a meal, so food was a priority.

We all settled on Margaritaville. It’s such a fun restaurant (that we don’t have at home, I’d actually never heard of Jimmy Buffet until our last trip! Our waiter was really lovely, and super friendly, which Dan and I loved. The service in America, Dan and I always find amazing, I guess its because they know they have to work for their tips. In Australia, we don’t tip, ever. The servers in Australia get a very good wage and tipping is definitely not required at any establishment. I don’t think I’ve ever tipped a meal at home unless the service was EXCEPTIONAL. And even then, its only a minimal amount as an extra thank you and I think I may have only ever done that once or twice in my life. Whenever we come to the states, its always a huge adjustment to get used to, but we don’t mind 😊

As usual, I forgot to take photos of our food. Andrew got the BBQ Burger. Dan got himself a Club Sandwich, and I got the Chicken Quesadilla. The boys both got beers, and I got myself a ridiculous Strawberry Daiquiri.

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Dan’s Club Sandwich was huge!

We finished up our food, said goodbye to our waiter and headed back into Universal Studios.

RIP RIDE ROCKIT. This was probably not the best thing to ride after eating.
Both dan and I came off this so sick. Dan actually had to rush over to a bin so he wouldn’t be sick everywhere.

We decided no more rides for the evening and made our way over to Springfield where a Halloween Horror Nights holding zone was. It was about 5pm now, and we sat at a bar and got ourselves a drink. The boys got more beers and I got a Sprite.

I really don’t do Horror of any kind. I was sitting at the bar with the boys and I started working myself up SO MUCH. What was I thinking??! There’s no way I could go to Halloween horror nights!!

I ended up almost crying. Andrew tried to convince me to stay but Dan knew me better than that. He was sceptical from the beginning, but didn’t want to say anything and change my mind. He didn’t have to. I got there alllll on my own! I handed the boys my express pass, so they could go through their favourite haunted houses again without having the long wait, and headed out of the park.

We had a VIP tour booked for the next day at Universal Studios, but decided earlier in the day that it might be a bit to fast paced for us (considering how many of the rides give us motion sickness) and decided to try and cancel it.

So when I left HHN I headed to the customer service desk at the front of the park and asked if its possible to get a refund.
They were more than happy to help, as long as I had the correct credit card that I used to purchase the tour….. Oops! I didn’t have it with me! She advised me to come back first thing tomorrow morning, with the correct card, and they would refund me the full amount. I thought that was so kind of them, considering how last minute we decided to cancel.


I got myself into a Uber, and headed back to the hotel, with my head between my hands in shame (not really, but I was pretty embarrassed that I didn’t last through horror nights).
I went past the food court before going back to the room. I got myself some lasagne and fries. The lasagne was absolutely terrible, and the fries were much better. Lucky we had a few snacks in the room that I could eat while I watched Cars.

Dan rolled in around 11pm. The first thing he said was “Jas, you would have died tonight! There is no way you would have been able to do that!”

Apparently they got all the houses done super quickly with the express passes. He said that wait for the houses without it, was over 2 hours long!!! I couldn’t believe it. Why would anyone go without getting the express pass? The only time I would is if I were a local, because you have no time restrictions, but dan said there’s no way they would have been able to do them all without it. He left Andrew there with my express pass to go back and do some of the houses again, and he ubered home.


Lights out in our room not long after he arrived home. We had another full on day tomorrow…

I absolutely LOVE Universal but there is no way I am ever doing Halloween Horror Nights! I think you made the best choice lol!
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DAY 10 – 20th September 2019 – Universal Studios

We tried to have a nice slow start this morning. Dan had a big night before, and I hadn’t slept well the whole trip, so an easy morning sounded like the perfect way to start. We headed to the food court around 9:30 am. Dan got himself some Pancakes and Bacon, and I had Mickey Waffles and Bacon! Breakfast in the food court is definitely a lot nicer than the dinners they serve. We had our refillable mugs with us and I got myself some sprite, dan got a coffee to help wake him up.

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After breakfast we went and dropped our cups back to the room, went to the bathroom, then ordered an uber which picked us up right outside our room.
We were off to Universal Studios again. This time, by ourselves. Andrew had other plans today.
We arrived at Universal Studios just after 10:30am.

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Once we arrived, we took the correct credit card to guest services and were issued with our refund for the VIP tour that we decided not to take.
I am still very impressed with Universal for this. I wouldn’t think that changing our mind would get us a refund. I thought it would be our issue and that we would have to wear the cost. But they truly were accommodating and very understanding.

We wandered in, and Shrek was the first attraction that caught our eye.

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Shrek is always great fun. I loved the movie and the attraction was just as fun!

We spent a lot of time this morning shopping and wandering around, taking in all the sights.

Our favourite place in Universal is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We are both big Harry Potter fans, so we enjoy spending as much time there as possible. There is always something new that we notice each visit!

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Today’s lunch was held at The Leaky Cauldron. I prefer this place over The Three Broomsticks that we went to the day before.

I ordered the Chicken Burger. I’m writing this part of the trip report over a year after our trip and I cant even remember eating this, but that’s what my notes say I had. Dan had the Bangers and Mash. I remember him really enjoying this and we got a photo of his food 😊

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Dan was very happy with his drink and we sat giggling and laughing all through lunch, about things that had happened on our trip.
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We tried not to rush through lunch, but once we were done we decided to head to Gringotts and see if we could escape 😉 Luckily we made it out alive!!

We headed to the “bank” and transferred some of our muggle money for bronze Knuts, silver Sickles, and golden Galleons. This was a really cool memento that we now have on display in our new home!

We were starting to get all hot and bothered, and were ready to start heading towards the front of the park to end out day at Universal.

As we slowly wandered out, we stopped into one of the lolly shops in the Harry Potter section and filled 2 massive bags of lollies. We spent WAY to much money on them, but they all looked so good and we just had to have them. We next went and got a wand for our friends daughter who’s 5th birthday it was while we were away, and who is OBSESSED with Harry Potter already. We picked the Hermione wand for her. The look on her face when we took it home was priceless. She still has it, hardly touches it because “its her REAL wand”. Adorable.

We made it over to World Expo, and decided we weren’t to hot for another ride! We popped our bags into lockers, and went to ride one of our favourites from this park, the Men In Black: Alien Attack!

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So much concentration!!

I bought myself a Universal Studios Spirit Jersey in Navy Blue and Rose Gold in the gift shop of this ride. I love it!

Our next stop was Springfield! Dan had to have a Drink at Moe’s Tavern, and we watched a group a tourists, that didn’t speak English try and order a beer. 1 didn’t have ID, and look maybe early 20’s, the other 2 did. He gave them beers then the girl without the ID tried to take it so he took them off all of them and wouldn’t serve them. We thought it was pretty amusing, but we stayed well out of it.

I could have sworn we took photos here, but I’m coming up short. We did however meet this guy and had to get a photo.

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Dan is convinced that he wants this exact thing as a tattoo – Mr Sparkle!

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We bought some Simpsons Christmas ornaments (that we have now used these past 2 christmas’) from this same shop, we also got some bacon chocolate, that I refused to try.

I was starting to get really whingy now, Dan sat me down near the exit to the parks and went and got me water. No matter how hot Australia gets, I swear it doesn’t compare to Florida Theme Park Heat. Its always next level there!

We decided that because we had finished up early and had no set plans for dinner, we could see if we could swap our Narcoossees reservation from tomorrow night to tonight instead! We were lucky to snag a late night reservation (I think it was about 9pm – I cant remember and I didn’t write it down)

After we got some water I was okay, we decided to get a couple more photos before leaving for the afternoon 😊

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We left the park with bags full of goodies and ordered an Uber back to the hotel for 4:30pm.

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Since we had a late reservation, we had time to relax before getting ready for dinner.

This dinner was one I was most looking forward to on our trip, and I’m glad I didn’t have another day to wait before going. I love seafood, I also love fine-dining. I like to pretend I am a lot fancier than I actually am haha!

We still had wine and goodies left from our gift box I had organised for our trip. I decided to open the wine and have a small snack of some pretzels and chocolate before an afternoon nap.

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(PS I absolutely love this shirt! Randomly found it when scrolling through Aliexpress one day)

We had a couple of glasses of our wine, and fell asleep for about an hour. It was so nice and relaxing not having to rush around for a change. I wish we had planned in more days like this, but when you travel over 24 hours to finally get to WDW, you don’t want to waste a second!
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
When we woke up, get slowly got ready. We decided to dress for the occasion tonight, and make it an official date night!

We arrived at the Grand Floridian, and it was the first time we had been on the grounds! What a beautiful hotel. We headed to Narcoossee’s, a lot earlier than we needed to be, because we wanted to get a drink at the bar before hand. We parked ourselves at the beautiful sunken bar inside the restaurant. We sat next to a lovely older couple who were eating there meal at the bar instead of bothering with a reservation. They were DVC members (so jealous!) and they stay at the GF often. We all got talking about our lives and our travels. I loved meeting them and having a drink with them.

The waitress came and seated us about 9:15-9:30 (from memory). We were seated 1 row back from the windows. Perfect!

Tonight was MNSSHP at MK, and we were hoping we would be able to see the fireworks. Our waitress Kersten (pronounced CHEERSTEN??) said they can hold onto our main meals and bring them out after the fireworks if we wanted.

We weren’t in a rush, so we ordered another drink and we had some yummy bread and butter brought to our table. I had this delicious blue martini thing, covered with a sugar rim, that ended up all over me from the condensation.

For Appetizers, Dan ordered the Maine Lobster Bisque, I had the Artisanal Cheeses. Both were delicious, and I’m sad I didn’t take photos of them and our drinks.

After appetizers it was time for the fireworks. We could see perfectly from our chairs, until some stupid guys stood outside right in front of our view. Normally it would be fine, but they were obviously drunk and were looking in at us, pointing and laughing that they had blocked our view.

Fine, whatever. We just took our drinks onto the balcony for a beautiful view!

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As soon as we came back inside, our mains were delivered to the table along with our next round of drinks. Dan got a bottle of red wine, and I got another crazy blue cocktail thing.

We both got the same main meal. The Surf & Turf – Sirloin Steak, Mash, Vegetables, Red Wine Demi-Glace with Lobster Tail. We both got it with a side of Garlic Butter.

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I got myself ANOTHER cocktail half way through dinner and enjoyed that while we finished our amazing food. If we ever go back to a pre-covid world and Australians are able to travel to America again, I would love to eat here again.

When the waitress cleared our plates, we got chatting about Game of Thrones for about 20 minutes with her. It was lovely. We were one of the last tables remaining, so she wasn’t rushed around and she was really happy to talk with us.

We finally left the restaurant just after midnight. We walked slowly through the quiet hotel. Dan and I concluded that as nice as it is, and as much as we would LOVE to stay there (if we could ever afford it that is) we don’t think we would. It’s a little “too fancy” for us, and we felt a bit out of place.

We got an Uber back to All Star Movies, and jumped straight into bed around 12:45pm.
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DAY 11 – 21st September 2019 – Universal Studios/Disney – Last Park Day

This morning started in a rush. We had planned to wake up around 7am to get to Universal Studios for opening to ride the new Hagrids ride – Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorcycle Adventure. We didn’t end up waking up until 8:10am (obviously we needed the sleep after a late night the night before!)

We sped around the room getting ready, having showers and brushing our teeth. We were out of the room and waiting for an uber by 8:30am. We managed to get to Universal bang on 9am for the opening and ran with the crowds of people towards Hagrids. I was shocked to see how many people were there and waiting for the same ride. The line started well outside of the Harry Potter section, near Poseidon’s Fury. We thought “Oh, this must be because the line inside the ride hasn’t started yet..” We were very wrong. The line took us a total of 110 minutes to get through.

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It’s a very immersive line. There are lots of things to look at and keep your mind occupied (once you actually get into the actual rude queue), BUT the line tricks you to think you are getting close to the ride. I couldn’t count the amount of times I was like “It must be just around this corner”.. nope… Then again when we went into the TV preview room, I thought “surely this is it”, nope. Came out and the line just keeps on going…

Keeping in mind, this was in the September just after the ride had just opened, so please don’t think this is an up to date report on the wait times haha

The ride itself was SENSATIONAL! One of the best rides I think I have ever been on across any theme park. The drop in the middle of the ride scared me so much, because it was so unexpected, that I screamed with real fear. Dan yelled a little, but he said my scream was ear piercing and made him more scared!

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I don’t think I’d ever wait that long for a ride again. I really wish we had of gone on it with Andrew a couple of days earlier, he only had a short (under 60mins) wait time. But I am definitely glad I got to ride it at least once!
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We did more shopping through the Harry Potter sections. I got an adorable Jacket for our 2 year old nephew, and a cool Hogwarts shirt for myself. We also visited Honeydukes, where we spent $86 on lolly bags!!! These lasts us for months after we got home. Considering we are both sweet tooths, it was a cool souvenir to bring home and remember our holiday when we got home.

Dan got himself a “Pumpkin Pasty” to try… said it was nice!

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We were done with our Universal Adventures for the trip. We had done and seen everything that we had came for (which was mainly Harry Potter) and spent lots of time enjoying and soaking up that immersive world.

We said our goodbyes with our lolly bags in hand, and headed out to City Walk to grab an early lunch before heading back to Disney.

We decided on Bubba Gumps for our lunch. We arrived at about 11:50am and the place wasn’t busy yet. We were seated instantly and ordered a couple of cocktails to start.

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I think dan got the Lt. Dan’s Pomegranate Punch (and if anyone recognises the first drink, please correct me if I am completely wrong haha) and I got the Strawberry Louisiana Lemonade. I love that we get keepsake glasses when we order from Bubbagumps. We don’t have one of their restaurants in Perth Australia, so I have glasses from the last few holidays to Las Vegas, and now Orlando!

For appetisers, I got the Shrimp Cocktail, and really enjoyed it. Dan has the Nets Catch!

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We ordered a couple more cocktails to have with our mains, which were absolutely fantastic. And here I was feeling tipsy before 1pm!

Our mains were great, Dan decided on the Po’Boy for his main meal, and I had ribs with grilled shrimp.
We finished up our drinks, picked up our clean keepsake glasses, and headed to the top of the car park to grab an Uber.

We got back to the hotel around 1:45pm. A little break was in order, and also some time apart to have a breather. Dan decided to watch a soccer game on his ipad in bed, and I headed to the pool (which I hadn’t really had a chance to do this trip).

Saw this cute decorated window on my walk… they must have recently checked in because it wasn’t there before!

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The pool was lovely and refreshing, and the lifeguard on duty was playing games with all the kids over the speakers. It was nice and everyone was having a great time, but it was super annoying for someone who just wanted some time to relax. I guess that’s a crazy though “relax at Disneyworld” hahah!

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It was a little overcast, but no rain and it was beautiful and warm by the pool.

I hopped in and ended up chatting to a lovely grandmother who was swimming with her 2 little grandkids, Jensen and KayKay. I ended up playing with them in the pool and talking away to the Grandmother until I left. Like everyone, they all loved my accent and it made it easy to make friends, as it always gives the other party a conversation starter!

I headed back to the room at 3pm to shower and change for our evening adventures in MK!
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We headed to the bus at about 3:30pm, we weren’t in a rush this evening so we didn’t bother taking an Uber. On the bus there was an adorable little girl around 5 who started talking to us. We asked each other their favourite rides and I told her today, my favourite ride was the Haunted Mansion and that was going to be what we went on first at MK today! She told me she has Haunted Mansion Minnie Ears at home but she had never been on it. I then spent the whole trip convincing her how fun it was. I wonder if she ever went on it?

By the time we got to MK it was almost 4:15pm and our Haunted Mansion FP time slot was about to end, so of course after a few photos, we ran straight over to meet some friendly ghosts!

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We needed to try something we had seen all over the blogs and WDW facebook pages.. It was time for a Redd’s Revenge! We headed to Adventureland and lined up at Aloha Isle, to get the perfect afternoon treat. Strawberry Dolewhip float with Strawberry Fanta and a Chocolate Pirate hat on top. It was just as good as it looked, and I’m sad I never tried it earlier in the trip. This was definitely my favourite Disney Snack!

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To go along with our amazing floats, we got a Cheeseburger Spring Roll and a Pizza Spring roll to share! These weren’t as good as we expected. We found a shady spot across from Aloha Isle to eat and enjoy some people watching.

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It was still so damn hot, gosh why does Flordia have to be SO HOT ALL THE TIME! I thought being from Australia would have prepared me for this (it definitely didn’t). We wandered around and decided to sit in the cool in Tortuga Tavern – it wasn’t opened, but we just sat in there chairs. We both felt really exhausted today and seemed to need more breaks than usual. Lucky Disney is amazing to people watch. I could never get bored just sitting around in Magic Kingdom.

As soon as our FP window opened we headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! While in line we met a young family, with a 6 year old daughter named Lilly. She was so cute and LOVED BTMRR! The whole line she was telling us stories about it, and told us to look out for the “goat on the hill”. Once on the ride, she was sitting in front of us, and as soon as we came to the “Hill” she turned around and screamed at us “SEE THERE HE IS!” it was great fun (and no, we hadn’t known he was there.)


Once the ride was over we stood chatting to the couple for about 10 minutes. They loved to hear about our lives in Australia (as did most we met haha). I gave Lilly some DVC stickers I had picked up along the trip and we parted ways.

Next stop, while we waited for our 3rd fast pass was a quick service dinner at Columbia Harbour House for Dan to finally get a Lobster Roll. He had been talking about getting one the whole trip (even talking about it back home before we left for our trip when we looked up the different menus.)

We get there, look at the menu on the wall and he decides “Na, I don’t want that any more” …..:banghead::banghead:
We both settled on the Chicken Pot Pie, Soup and a Soft Drink. It was really nice 😊 Unfortunately I forgot to take photos ☹

Our next fastpass was for another favourite ride, that we had already rode multiple times this trip.. SPLASH MOUNTAIN. It started to rain just as we got to the fast pass entrance and the listed wait time was 75 minutes! We only waited 10 and got to walk straight undercover – woohoo!

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This was a very weird ride, we made it through the first section of the ride, but when we moved onto the next, we had no music and the animatronics had stopped working. All that we could here every now and then was a character “giggle” or one of there lines that they say. It was extremely creepy. The boat we were in started singing the song while we went around the ride.

When we got to the final scene with all the characters on the big boat, the whole area smelt like an electrical fire/smoke, but we couldn’t see anything – and when we went to dismount the ride, they were no longer letting anyone else on.

It’s kinda cool that this was our last ever experience on Splash was so radically different to every other one. Especially since it will no longer be “Splash” by the time we get there next.

When we exited, they gave us a replacement fast pass (even though we didn’t ask for it which was lovely of them!) but we didn’t have time to use it, as it was time to make our way over to watch Happily Ever After for the last time.



We found a good spot in the middle of Main Street, just behind Casey’s Corner.

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It was beautiful and wonderful and magical and obviously I cried! The last night show of the trip was always going to leave me an absolute mess. 😭😭


We followed the crown out of the park and decided we really didn’t want to wait in line for the buses and though an uber would be best. We walked over to the Contemporary resort and ordered an uber from there.

When we got back to our room we started to tidy up and get our bags ready for the next day.
 

PrincessJasmyn

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DAY 12 – 22nd September 2019 – Homebound


What a miserable day to wake up too – it was home time today, and both of us woke up around 9am with a heavy feeling in our hearts. It was a slow morning of packing and repacking to make sure all the things we had purchased made their way back home to Australia with us. Together, we wandered up to put the last of our washing on, so it was one less job to do when we finally landed back in Perth in a couple of days.

While we waited for the washing, we headed to the food court to get some quick service brekky. I got the Breakfast Platter, which was really good! Dan had an omelette.

We didn’t rush while having our breakfast, and by the time we were done, so was the washing, so we headed back to change it all over to the dryers, then back to the room to keep packing.

When I went back to pick up the now cleaning bundle of clothes, I stopped by front desk and asked if we would possibly be able to get a later check out – DONE! We now didn’t have to leave until 12pm – that bought us some more time at the hotel before jetting off.

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Had showers, got ready and headed out of the room at midday. We left our suitcases and bags at bell services and we caught an uber to Disney Springs to spend the last of our holiday shopping and looking around.


We arrived and decided on Paradiso 37 for our lunch. We sat outside in the sunshine, to enjoy the last bit of Florida rays.
There was an adorable squirrel (whos name was frenchy, as the server told us) running around everywhere while we ate. Apparently he is a very frequent visitor to the restaurant, and gets very cheeky trying to steal food. We don’t have squirrels in Australia, so to us, this was amazing and super fun to watch. I guess to locals it probably wouldn’t be too amusing haha.

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For starters we ordered the Trio Of Dips. I feed some of the broken chip pieces to Frenchy.

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For mains I had Chicken Enchiladas and a mojito. Which I really enjoyed!

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Dan had the Steak with prawns and roast veggies. The steak was well over cooked, so he sent it back. The second was much better he said 😊

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We are never usually dessert people, but today we decided we definitely needed something extra after our meal. I had a hot fudge brownie, and dan had the mini icecreams. Which came out NOTHING like we expected!!

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We finished up, paid our bill, and continued walking around Disney Springs.

Dan managed to find another jumper from an America Brand that he really likes that we cant get back home, and bought that! I purchased a few little trinkets to smuggle home 😊

We headed out of Disney Springs around 3:45pm. We picked up our bags, and got straight back into an Uber to the airport.

While at the airport we spent most of the time in the Disney Store there, where I was lucky enough to pick up some beautiful mickey earrings I had been eyeing off the whole trip, I finally justified getting them!

The trip home was extremely LONG! 31 hours of travel before I got home to hug my little kittens that were waiting for me. The flights were all very uneventful, and we made it home safe and sound!

I cant remember what part of the flights this was, but these travellers had the right idea!!!

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Thanks for reading along at home. It only took me almost 2 years to complete.

I wish I had of known in 2019 that this would be our last international/WDW trip for many years! Australian borders are STILL CLOSED due to Covid. Even our interstate borders are shut.

I am very lucky to live in Perth, as we currently have no community transmission of covid and haven’t for months. The east coast of aus is a different story, and I’m so glad our borders are shut to them. I just WISH I could get back to Disney.

Hopefully by 2028 we can get back for Mickey’s 100th Birthday. Fingers Crossed!!


Jasmyn xoxo
 

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