Trip Report *COMPLETED*A 21st, a first timer, stuck on tower of terror and the never ending rain trip report!

Hi guys! Came back from my trip to Disneyworld Wednesday and decided I best start my report as soon as, considering I slacked on notes and I’m going mainly off memory

You can find my failed pre trip report here: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/a-21st-and-a-first-timer-pre-trip-report.938537/

This is my first time doing a report so go easy on me and my rubbish photograph skills!!

Who: Me and boyfriend Reece.
Why: My 21st and his first time. This is my 5th trip to Disney and was the best one yet!!
Where: Caribbean beach
8th May till 22nd!

*** EDIT It has been brought to my attention I forgot to add a photo of said boyfriend and replaced him with my dog. Here we are ***

Me forcing my dog to take photos before I leave him for two weeks.

So my travelling started a day early on the 7th which was a bank holiday over here in England. We had a few hiccups the days leading up which caused a little bit of stress. First issue we ran into was I had a prescription in the chemist which was closed until Tuesday the day we fly, so I had no chance of picking it up as we leave Monday. I rang multiple chemists open near me to see if they could help until I finally got told to ring the NHS who sent an emergency prescription over to a chemist quite far away. The pharmacist wasn’t very helpful and continuously asking me why I needed to use that service. Because I have nothing better to do on my Friday night sir .

Finally got my prescription and all is good until I pack the last bits of my suitcase and surprise it’s 5KG over! After weighing Reeces he didn’t have much extra space in suitcase but his hand luggage was empty. After chucking some things and filling his bag I was good to go.

So I pick my hand luggage up and the strap snaps off. At this point me and my dad are just staring at it with disbelief, I managed to find the screw that kept it together and we fixed it, so we thought.

Brings us to Monday morning the day we leave for the airport and it’s time to check in and choose seats. We had been monitoring the seats closely for a very long time and they was plenty left, until the last 15 minutes. EVERY single row was full with no seats together!! We were flying with Virgin Atlantic and noticed they was one row in the upstairs bubble had became free! Previously someone had booked one seat in the middle of three obviously in hope to have a row to themselves but for some reason all three seats were now available.

Not wanting to take chances we booked the two seats and paid for them. We ended up having nobody sat next to us either!

At this point I’m hoping, praying in fact nothing else goes wrong like flight delay or anything. Slowly 2pm rolled around and we departed for Manchester Airport, no traffic and everything was plain sailing. The terminal 2 long stay car park was full so we ended up booking terminal 3 and praying the awful reviews were wrong. We managed to get on the shuttle bus (managed being key word, he tried to go past us), he blazed around the corner at a ridiculous speed all the suitcases were falling and he wouldn’t stop to let people put them in the storage racks.

Finally we got to our stop and I pick up my bag and boom the handle snaps off again. It’s 27 degrees (about 80F) now I know this doesn’t sound that hot but I promise you 27 in England feels ten times hotter than 27 in Orlando. The heat was ridiculous and we had a 15 minute walk to our hotel pulling the suitcases and carrying a broken bag. We had plans to go walk the pub and watch planes but we ended up staying in the room with air conditioning full blast and ordered a dominos

We stayed in the Crowne Plaza (no photos I was too annoyed with the world) it was fine, clean and done the job. We could see planes land from our room.

As the night goes on my throat becomes raw and my nose is sniffy, in a panic I overdosed on vitamins and prayed it was allergies.

It wasn’t.

 

[DisSplash]

Loving your trip report! My husband and I were there from 18th - 23rd May and caught the rain too i was devastated to start but we didn't let it stop us and in the end it was actually better then it being SUPER hot! We are Australian and i'm wondering if yours and your boyfriends dizziness came from Jet lag, I found the first week we were in the US i would have random bouts of dizziness and nausea when i was supposed to be asleep at home, it passed after a while luckily! Excited to keep reading

I would agree on the traveling being the culprit of your nausea - I had a similar problem flying to Hawaii a number of years ago. Very dizzy, nauseated, and felt like I was going to walk into walls for the first few days. The pharmacist told me it was fairly common with air travelers who already have some congestion (something to do with the fluid in your head and the air pressure) and recommended Sudafed. It was like a magic cure! (For me, anyway)

 

[DisSplash]

Loving your trip report! Love that you get to experience Disney from a newbies eyes too! Maybe that's why we enjoyed it so much when our kids were younger ...
Your ears are so pretty, love the flowers on the band. And I LOVE that Reece took a video of the FP Mickey approval sound to rewatch when he is sad - that is totally something I would do (and have done with other things). I may have to capture this now too!

Cannot wait to read more after you are all caught up with life things!

 

[LauraRose]

Loving your trip report! Love that you get to experience Disney from a newbies eyes too! Maybe that's why we enjoyed it so much when our kids were younger ...
Your ears are so pretty, love the flowers on the band. And I LOVE that Reece took a video of the FP Mickey approval sound to rewatch when he is sad - that is totally something I would do (and have done with other things). I may have to capture this now too!

Cannot wait to read more after you are all caught up with life things!

Thank you so much, they were from Etsy! I got stopped so much about them but they’re from a UK seller!

It’s so nice seeing it through a newbies eyes but he is itching to go back and we’re discussing it right this moment! Eep! Thank you for reading! Xx

 

[LauraRose]

Goodness the past two weeks have been absolute chaos and I finally have a night where I don’t have to be up early tomorrow and can finally update, thank you all for being patient and baring with me, I never realised how much time these TR’s take!

Day 7: HS and AK

We woke up bright and early for HS opening and man it was bleak. The clouds were so dark and it was pretty cool out. The bus was like stepping into a freezer as well which made it worse. Although it was dark the rain hadn’t started yet, until the second we stepped off the bus .

It rained that heavy it took 2 seconds for me to be soaked right through. The que was massive for security and I had half a mind to run after the bus and go straight back the resort. Luckily I packed a jumper so we got in the massive que for a poncho and hoped the weather would calm down.

Being from the UK tax is always included in the price and I forget every time that in America it gets added on at the cash register. Reece had the correct money out for the two ponchos but it came to a little more, not much but we never have loose change as we leave it all and 1 dollar bills for mouse keeping. Reece went to hand the CM an extra $10 but the he said it was okay and not to worry about it. It really meant a lot just that small gesture can really make you smile.

Changed into my jumper and poncho ready we decided to make a run for RnR which was a walk on! Yay!

I actually didn’t enjoy this ride this time around, when we boarded and got our restraints down I realised the little elephant had snapped off my bag and was on the floor. I was worried it would fly out the ride and get trapped in the tracks, also my restraint wasn’t fully down and I could move a fair bit. This happened to me when I was younger and i refused to go on the ride for 5 years after it because I felt like I was falling out.

Although I knew it was close enough to keep me in, it was uncomfortable as I’m only little anyway and rides throw me about so not being 100% fastened in I kind of slam into the restaints and it hurts a lot.

Reece waved his hand and shouted to try and get a CM attention to tell them about the restraint and the elephant but she literally looked at him blankly and the ride went off. Now luckily it wasn’t a big thing, the elephant stayed safe on the floor and I didn’t fall to my death (thankfully) but it makes me think what if it was a bigger problem. As you can see from the photo nobody was behind us it was literally empty but she just looked like she couldn’t be bothered.

Moving on I rescued my elephant and hoped I didn’t have whiplash, RnR was still a walk on but we wasn’t in the mood after that ride.

We headed over to ToT which was about a 10 minute wait, it was as fun as always.

We had a walk around some of the shops next, on one of our first days I seen a pair of comfy pants I really liked but they only had a size large and I hadn’t seen them in any other shops. I thought they might be in HS as they have a lot of clothing shops but no luck!

I’m pretty sure we went on Star Tours next but not 100% sure! Reece seen the launch bay and wanted to meet Kylo Ren. I’ve seen him on videos and he scares the heebie jeebies out of me so I agreed to just watch and video his meet and greet .

He was really good and put his hand over my camera and said something to me, I don’t know what he said. I was concentrating on trying to not wet myself and run away.

Reece said he seems to only have automated responses though because he would ask him a question and he’d reply with something completely different.

Here’s a photo of Reece looking like he’s met the love of his life while I stand in the background and watch it happen. Kylo ren stole my man.

He also wanted to meet chewbacca. He doesn’t scare me so I agreed to go in for the cuddle. Kylo Ren was a 40 minute wait but chewy was a walk in!

I look pretty happy to be having a cuddle.

Reece is also clinging on rather tightly! He was so giddy meeting him. He walked in and screamed CHEWWY GIMME A HUG! Like they were old pals.

Reece didn’t get the hands on hip memo and ruined the whole aesthetic of the photo.

Next we wandered into One Mans Dream, I love it in here so much. We somehow got convinced into going to meet Star Lord from guardian of the galaxy. I’ve never seen it and had no idea who it was but they was no que and the CM was trying her best to get people to meet him so I felt a bit sorry for them and went with it.
Reece has seen the film so I let him go talk to him and I’d take photos but the guy insisted on me coming over too. He was clearly making references to the film and his character but I had no idea what he was talking about so I just laughed and nodded. He looked a lot more like Flynn from tangled than Star Lord, maybe he works as both!

Next up we headed to PizzeRizzo, we was sooo hungry I’m pretty sure I burnt my mouth eating it. We checked the wait time for TSMM but it was way over an hour and we was ready to call it quits. The rain was getting heavier, Reeces poncho had ripped in half and I was sick of having wet vans. We got a churro and off we trudged back to the bus stop.

 

[LauraRose]

Day 7 continued:

We went back the resort and had a nap and woke up to the rain settling. We had plans over at AK so off we went!

Our first FP was for Na’Vi river journey, I know not many people on this board rates this attraction but I really enjoyed it. Granted I wouldn’t wait longer than 20 minutes but I thought it was beautiful and they isn’t many attractions I’d wait long for. We walked on I’m pretty sure standby wasn’t long as the rain had sent everyone home. We got front row and told to get in with the single rider in front however she sat bang in the middle of the row and when she seen we were getting in she huffed and puffed and spent the whole ride with her arms crossed. I can’t imagine being that selfish especially for such a popular ride that has big wait times just to have a row to yourself. I noticed the Annual Pass badge on her magic band so I’m not sure why she’s so upset when she clearly comes regularly.

ANYWAY I loved Na’vi River and so did Reece, but I am a sucker for boat rides.

I do love pandora, photos will never do it justice. Next we headed to Satu’li Canteen, I was so excited to try it here after reading everyone rave about it. I got the beef bowl with rice and the herb dressing. Reece got chicken, rice, I can’t remember what dressing it was but it tasted like vinegar? We got the pandora sunrise too but I forgot a photo. I wasn’t joking when I said I’m bad with food photos.

I felt like I could of enjoyed this if it was warmer, the meat was cold and the rice was luke warm. Next time I’d get the chicken as well but it wasn’t too bad. I feel like it could of been better but I haven’t really heard anyone say their meal was cold but ours tasted like it had been left out for quite some time.

We went over to Everest which was a walk on.

So we went on again!

When we went over to scan our band the guy behind us was saying ‘look at that guy’ pointing at Reece to which he responded ‘hello I’m that guy’. He turned bright red and apologised, it was hilarious but I think he thought Reece was annoyed but he wasn’t at all .

We got a dole whip to share (Reeces first one) and had a little sit down.

I absolutely LOVE sitting in Animal Kingdom and letting the world go by. It’s so relaxing and gives me that warm feeling when you appreciate everything around you. Reece loved the dole whip and continued to talk about them the rest of the trip!

 

[LauraRose]

It had been raining on and off all night but nothing heavy, we’d gave up on the ponchos after Reece bought a second one because the first ripped and then it ripped again. He blamed the poncho but I’m pretty sure it was him as mine didn’t have so much as a tiny rip on by the end of the holiday .

We had a FP for the Safari but we didn’t really need one as they was no wait. I only seem to have s photo of a giraffe from this safari but I think it’s because it was dark out and didn’t want to use flash with the animals.

I do remember this being an amazing safari though with the sun setting it made some amazing colours and shades of pink. I’m pretty sure I tried to take a photo but it didn’t do justice so I gave up. Every time we done the safari it was absoloutely mind blowing and probably some of my favourite memories from the trip have been on the safari.

I wanted to see Pandora in the dark so we had a wander over and my goodness it was incredible! I couldn’t believe how lit up everything was, even the floor!

I was going to post this photo on Facebook until I realised it looked like we were announcing a pregnancy. As soon as we seen the photo it was a face palm moment. .

We wanted to catch the first ROL show and we made it with a minute to spare and managed to get a decent seat. As we all know I don’t really do photos of shows especially if I haven’t seen it before.

I’m torn over this show, I loved parts of it and other parts I was falling asleep. I would go to watch it again but it kind of felt like the majority of the show was the same thing just repeated. I love the message though and it was beautifully done with projections.

We had some spare time until park closing so we headed to Dinoland and on Primeval Whirl. It was a walk on and Reeces first time. He loves rides like this, although they give us headaches.

We got the the end and the CM asked if we wanted to stay on so we did, then he asked again so we did, he asked if we wanted a third time but I was nearly unconscious at this point so we headed off but thanked him for being so kind.

We were both zapped and the Park was closing so we headed for the exit after having the most perfect evening. Although the morning was a bit rough and the rain was too heavy to be able to enjoy the evening in Animal Kingdom made up for it and it really was a lovely relaxed night.

Tomorrow.. Epcot and a tiny bit of Magic Kingdom!

 

[DisSplash]

That photo is hilarious, as it does look like you are announcing a baby! So funny!! Glad you shared it here ...

 

[LauraRose]

That photo is hilarious, as it does look like you are announcing a baby! So funny!! Glad you shared it here ...

Thought somebody should enjoy it I’m just glad I realised before I posted it on social media hahaha.

 

[LauraRose]

In other news, I just seen a photo of a churro ice cream sandwich on Instagram from sleepy hollows and I really want to cry with jealousy.

 

[LauraRose]

Just booked yesterday for next May!

 

[LauraRose]

Day 8- Epcot and a bit of Magic Kingdom!

Our plans for this day was have a relaxed morning then head over to Epcot after 11 to properly explore the world showcase. We woke up and couldn’t believe the sky was blue and sun was shining! I was beginning to forget what the sun looked like. We went and had a lazy morning by the pool and just enjoyed feeling the sun.

Eventually we got ready and headed over to Epcot and hoped the sun would stay out!

Just as we walked in we spotted Daisy!

She is so sweet!
We had a stop off at club cool because I’m in love with melon frosty. I can’t remember if I mentioned it earlier in the report but I had introduced Reece to Beverley, he hated it as much as I had hoped.

Off to the world showcase!

Beautiful day!
We pretty much just had a stroll around and look at the areas. It was gettin incredibly hot at this point as it was mid day, but I was trying to make the most of it. I’m just going to add photos as they isn’t much I need to say.

 

[LauraRose]

This photopass photographer looked like he was dying from heat stroke.

I was SO excited to try this but I didn’t like it at all! And my mouth tasted really funny afterwards like metal.

We stopped off for some fish and chips, I only get the chips. They were nice but nothing like chips at home!

If people came to England after seeing the world showcase they’d be in for a shocknot many areas look this this anymore!

 

[LauraRose]

Pluto photobombed a families selfie and it was so lovely to see the reaction on their faces!

At this point it was time to go, we had been to all pavilions except Norway as we had a fastpss but not for a few hours. They was some major dark clouds coming over and a storm due so we decided to head back the resort.

Reece wasn’t handling the heat very well.
Just as we got off the bus it absoloutely poured down. The thunder and lightning was awful, we FaceTimed our family to show them. It was amusing watching all the families run from the bus to their rooms!

The blue sky was long gone.
We rested in our room and had a nap before heading back to Epcot. It had chilled down quite a lot, I ended up buying a jacket.

Have you ever seen anyone look less impressed? I promise I enjoyed it!
This was my first time on frozen, I loved it but I thought it was over quite quickly!

We wasn’t too sure what to do next as they wasn’t many fast passes. We seen a fast pass available for Space Mountain so we grabbed that and got the monorail then the boat over.

Now I have no photos or memories from this night except a video on the boat of it raining super hard. I’m pretty sure we got there and space mountain was closed along with many other rides because of the weather. I can’t remember going on anything at all and neither can Reece! I’m going to presume the night was a failure because it was thundering and we called it quits...

 

[LauraRose]

I’m just continuing with Day 9 here as it was also a wash out so I don’t have many photos. When the weather is bad I just keep my phone in my bag to avoid it getting wet.

This morning we headed over to Universal as we only done island of adventure earlier on in the week.

We rode The Mummy which is always amazing and took Reece by surprise. He knew it was a rollercoaster but I don’t think he realised how thrilling it would be. We done Shrek 3D which is just a classic, we arrived for opening but minions was already a really long wait so we backed out. We wandered around Harry Potter area (I can’t remember the name of it shoot me), Simpson’s and Transformers. I’m not a major fan of Universal but I prefer Island of Adventure. We ended up leaving as all the wait times were around a hour. I’ve wanted the unicorn teddy from despicable me for so long but always think I won’t be able to get it home. I settled for a mini key ring instead.

I am 1000% buying the big one next year, I seen a girl at the airport with him in her backpack and I was so jealous .

The sun was still out when we got back the resort so we had some pool time. It didn’t last long before the clouds came in and it poured down again.

 

[DisSplash]

I love your red Gingham outfit from your walk around the World Showcase! So super cute, and a perfectly thing to wear to the Hoop De Doo Review if you make it there on your trip! We are doing dinner there in August - can't wait!! But I have nothing as cute as that outfit tho wear ...

So was that the fruit sushi that you did not like? I have heard about it and was also thinking it sounded interesting ... maybe not!

Also, someone on these boards posted about the churro ice cream sandwich - it's in Magic Kingdom and I am on a mission to figure me it when I get there!

 

[LauraRose]

I love your red Gingham outfit from your walk around the World Showcase! So super cute, and a perfectly thing to wear to the Hoop De Doo Review if you make it there on your trip! We are doing dinner there in August - can't wait!! But I have nothing as cute as that outfit tho wear ...

So was that the fruit sushi that you did not like? I have heard about it and was also thinking it sounded interesting ... maybe not!

Also, someone on these boards posted about the churro ice cream sandwich - it's in Magic Kingdom and I am on a mission to figure me it when I get there!

Thank you so much! It’s from Forever 21! I haven’t even thought about going there I’ll have to look at menu! You’ll have to let me know how it is, I’m sure you’ll find a lovely outfit!

I didn’t like the flavour of strawberry with rice it was too much of a clash and the cream was warm. I know a lot of people do enjoy it so definitely try it but neither of us liked it!

Oo make sure to take a photo, it looks so delicious I love churros!

 

[wdwdude1]

What a wonderful trip report - made my entire day! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[LauraRose]

What a wonderful trip report - made my entire day! Thanks for sharing!!

That’s so lovely thank you

 

[LauraRose]

Now we had fast passes for 7DMT, space mountain and Splash but 7DMT and Splash was closed. They gave us one to use until the park closed but couldn’t be used on Peter Pan but we wanted to wait and hope 7DMT would re open.

First was Space Mountain. I hate this camera

At this point the rain was absoloutely bouncing so we went for a stroll around the Christmas shop and I bought my mum a tree ornament. We buy one every visit and I did want one for myself but they wasn’t any I liked that much. I ended up getting her a glass Mickey head with the castle inside.

We stood out here under a little shelter for quite some time avoiding the rain. It was amusing seeing so many people without ponchos just walking around like they were so over it, no point putting a poncho on when your already soaked!

We hadn’t been to Mickeys Philarmagic yet so we went over but was confused by people jist randomly standing around where the que is. Turned out they weren’t previewing a show because of the weather? But they were allowing people to sit inside the theatre because it was so torrential which was lovely. We sat for about half a hour and then a voice came on saying the show will start in ten minutes! I truly love philarmagic and I’m glad Reece enjoyed it as much as I do.

We made a run to Its a small world which had no wait at all. After that we decided to head into Pinocchios Village Haus and get some Tomato soup (I love the soup) and them garlic bread twists. I also had a hot chocolate Iwas that cold whilst Reece had a slushy! They are so nice from here!

After waiting around a bit I looked at wait times on the app and said Peter Pan was only 20 minutes?! WHAT?!

We practically ran as we hadn’t been on it yet as they was never a fast pass available and wait times have been super long. I originally planned to ride it first day at opening but we got there 20 minutes late due to the bus and it was already at 40 minutes when we had a dining reservation.

When we walked through the que they was lots of people sat on the floor like they’d been waiting ages. We spoke to a guy in front and he said they hadn’t moved for 15 minutes and the app was telling him a 90 minute wait! I assured him mine was saying 20 and with that the question moved and we was on within 10 minutes!

This ride is very cute, I always love when the CM sprinkles magic to close the bar! Reece loved the whole ride!

It was coming close to firework time but we decided to try and see if Thunder Mountain was open now rain had stopped and indeed it was. 7DMT was still closed so we used our fast pass for thunder instead. Just as we got to the entrance, the firework show began.

We managed to get on the ride right in the middle of the show and it truly was the best night of the whole vacation. We were back row which was perfect for thrill but seeing all the fireworks go off and the music in the background was phenomenal. The atmosphere on the ride was incredible as well and everyone was having such a magical time. We both got off ecstatic and so happy we waited out the rain. The show was coming to an end so we watched the last few bits from outside Thunder Mountain.

The wait time was practically a walk on at this point as most people had gone home with the weather. We rode TM 4 times that night and it was incredible, we also got to go on Splash!

I wasn’t leaving any room to get wet!

 

[LauraRose]

The night was over but we were filled with happiness and Disney magic. We had a lovely stroll out to Mainstreet and enjoyed looking around and taking in the sights.

We stopped off at Mainstreet bakery as I really needed a drink and we wanted some snacks. We still had so many snack credits left so we decided to use a few.

Chocolate strawberries are my favourite thing! I can’t ever resist one and these are so delicious!

I ate my strawberry and saved the rest for the next day! I loved the Rice Krispie treat!
This was one of my favourite nights and will always be special!

Day 10: Animal Kingdom and our final night in Hollywood Studios