Trip Report Everything is Satisfactual - 4 Brits do Disney!

Welcome, ladies and gents, to my brand spanking new (and first ever) trip report!

I have been so excited to write this after reading some awesome ones on here

We got back from Disney World a few days ago so, even though I am still recovering from jet lag, I have a major case of the Disney Blues! I’m hoping that this report will relieve some of those.

Let’s begin:

Who: Hello, this is us. There were 4 of us on the trip - 2 couples and 2 sisters We are all in our twenties.

From left to right:

Kit, my boyfriend. He’s Canadian but has lived in the UK for most of his life.
Me, Stevie! I have lived in London my whole life, and my family are also from here.
My younger sister, Lisa. Isn’t she a beaut?
Lisa’s boyfriend, Wing. He’s Chinese but has also lived in London since forever

Lisa & I have been to the World twice - once when I was 9 and again when I was 16. Kit and Wing had never been to WDW before (this is actually a lie - Kit went when he was 3/4, but doesn’t remember a thing about it!).

This trip actually came about because my family were reminiscing about our previous trips and remembering what a great time we had. I then had a lightbulb moment - “hey, why don’t we go again?!” - and lo and behold, this trip was booked! Luckily we had some savings, because we booked it pretty last minute (booked in April and flew in July) and it took every last penny I owned (but still so worth it!).

When: We went from July 29th - August 8th. 10 nights. Unfortunately, our jobs prevented us from going at a quieter time!

Where: We stayed at All Star Movies and all shared one room. Yep - we were on a bit of a budget. Eeek! Find out how that went down a bit later

All in all, we had a brilliant trip. It wasn’t perfect by any means, and I’ll try and write as honestly as I can. This trip report will include the good, the bad and the ugly. Since we hadn’t been to WDW for 10 years, in many ways it felt like the first time, and we had so many fresh and new experiences!

I also took a million pictures, so I’ll be posting lots of them here. They will be a mixture of iPhone, DSLR and Photopass shots!

Here’s hoping you’ll join us for the ride!

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

Love the parade photos. We didn't get to see it this year so I love seeing it through video and photos.

 

[Tiggertoo56]

Loving you report, as a fellow Brit I also buy milk and keep in the in room fridge for tea in the mornings, and admit to taking tea bags for my Mum who likes a cuppa first thing!

We do that too (another brit!). Although I do like the creamer in coffee and always put a dash in the hot choc from the beverage island!

 

[Tiggertoo56]

Love the photos and as others say you can never have too many - we've been to WDW a few times now and every time we take loads more.

 

[SleepyPuppy]

“Brilliant”

A couple of comments:

1. Tea: My grandpa taught me to drink tea with milk. He managed a foundry prior to WWI in Europe for the National Cash Register Co. which was a corporation founded in Dayton, Ohio. He must have picked up this trait then. When I order hot tea in restaurant they usually serve it with lemon. When I ask for creamer they act as if I’m not quite right. “Don’t you know we gave you fresh lemon? Use that!” Well, if you add creamer with lemon it curdles and creates a floating mass of cottage cheese type stuff in your tea cup. “Just bring some creamer and I will gladly return your citrus slice”. Another thing to be aware of is the random waitress raging through the restaurant refilling ALL coffee cups. More than once I have said “Wo, Wo, Wo I’m drinking t….. Too late. May I please have another cup of tea and this time hold the coffee”.


2. Jet Lag: Many years ago I traveled to Hawaii which is five or six time zones from Ohio, USA. I didn’t get much sleep before our flight and by the time I got settled into the hotel I was really hungry. I went to a nice place to eat and while waiting for my food a battle began within me between hunger and fatigue. Fatigue was a winner by a knockout. Your group seemed to handle the time change very well.

 

[steffib]

loving your report! as a fellow Disney a World obsessed Brit loving your take on things...!

 

[Disney-leaf]

After the Festival of Fantasy parade had finished, we decided it was definitely time to head back to the hotel for a bit! It was a long, but very successful, first day of our WDW adventure!

I love balloon shots. Ahhh. This might be one of my favourite pictures of the trip. Lots of balloons and Cinderella’s castle - what could make someone happier?

We then caught the bus back to the hotel. We were really pleased with the bus system actually. We never usually waited more than 10 mins for a bus, and on the rare occasions that we did, we just caught an All Star Music bus instead and walked over to our resort!

Once back, we either slept or watched TV for a while, and then it was time to get ready for our dinner at …

*****drumroll*****

1900 Park Fare!

Although me and Lisa had been to WDW before, we had never eaten at any of the Disney restaurants on our previous trips, so this was really exciting for me! All of my choices are based on reviews, trip reports or advice that I had gotten from people on WDWMagic.

We caught a bus back to MK and then got the boat the the Grand Floridian.

WOW, that place is nice.

I quietly consoled myself over the fact that a) I felt WAY underdressed and b) I would never be able to stay there , and then we were called in for our meal!

We felt like this was a pretty bizarre place to have a Photopass picture! What the heck, we went with it!

This restaurant was an interesting experience, to say the least!

I think it had some of the nicest food of all the restaurants we ate at (I loved the overall selection, and OMG the strawberry soup!) but I also felt like it would have been better to have pushed this a bit later into the trip.

This was because we had not met any face-to-face characters yet (apart from Gaston, but he’s a different kettle of fish!) and we had no idea how to talk to them! I think this was a mixture of 3 things: a) we hadn’t spoken to a ‘real life princess’ in over 10 years, b) we are all aged over 23, even though we are young at heart, and c) we were suffering from a case of the classic British awkwardness!

It got easier as the meal went on, though! I think you’ll be able to see from the pictures how awkward it was, haha.

I was also upset to learn that the stepsisters weren’t there! I’m not sure why - is this common? They were the main reason I booked in the first place. However, they had been replaced with Rapunzel (my favourite), so I got over it pretty quickly! She’s the best!

First up was Cinderella.

I cannot remember, for the life of me, what we said to her! Something about her pretty blue dress I think! Kit was also off chatting to the chef at this point, so he missed the photo opp! Sorry, Kit

Next up was Lady Tremaine (without her 'wonderful daughters' - so sad!). She was awesome. It was so funny, because the boys were seated on the outside, so she pulled them up first without much warning! She really stayed in character.

I look so awkward in this photo, haha! I just jumped into Lisa’s shot - I was too scared to have one on my own with her! You can also see that I was too frightened to put my arm on her back! She really stayed in character!

Up next: who else would we meet?

 

[Disney-leaf]

Absolutely love love love your report!

You can never have too many parade pics!! I'm loving your report and can't wait to read more!

Glad you shared them all.

Loved the parade pictures! Thanks for posting. Looking forward seeing more from your adventure.

Thank you for sharing all of them, we weren't sure about doing the afternoon parade but now it's on out must do list. BTW you can never have too many pics in a TR

Love the parade photos. We didn't get to see it this year so I love seeing it through video and photos.

Thank you all so much! It's really motivating to keep posting and writing when you know that people are enjoying it.

Loving you report, as a fellow Brit I also buy milk and keep in the in room fridge for tea in the mornings, and admit to taking tea bags for my Mum who likes a cuppa first thing!

I am SO doing this next time!! The only good thing about going home was having a real cuppa - it was the first thing I did!

Love the photos and as others say you can never have too many - we've been to WDW a few times now and every time we take loads more.

Oh my goodness, I wouldn't even want to check how many photos I took altogether! It's been so hard cutting them down for this report, too!

“Brilliant”

A couple of comments:

1. Tea: My grandpa taught me to drink tea with milk. He managed a foundry prior to WWI in Europe for the National Cash Register Co. which was a corporation founded in Dayton, Ohio. He must have picked up this trait then. When I order hot tea in restaurant they usually serve it with lemon. When I ask for creamer they act as if I’m not quite right. “Don’t you know we gave you fresh lemon? Use that!” Well, if you add creamer with lemon it curdles and creates a floating mass of cottage cheese type stuff in your tea cup. “Just bring some creamer and I will gladly return your citrus slice”. Another thing to be aware of is the random waitress raging through the restaurant refilling ALL coffee cups. More than once I have said “Wo, Wo, Wo I’m drinking t….. Too late. May I please have another cup of tea and this time hold the coffee”.

2. Jet Lag: Many years ago I traveled to Hawaii which is five or six time zones from Ohio, USA. I didn’t get much sleep before our flight and by the time I got settled into the hotel I was really hungry. I went to a nice place to eat and while waiting for my food a battle began within me between hunger and fatigue. Fatigue was a winner by a knockout. Your group seemed to handle the time change very well.

1. Haha, that's hilarious!! I couldn't believe how often and how quickly your drinks get refilled here! It literally is never-ending! Brits are not generous enough for that! And I can't think of anything more awful than creamer with lemon!

2. The jet lag was actually pretty fine over there, and I think going back in time made it a lot easier to adapt! It's been hard coming back though! I'm still finding myself wide awake at 2/3am, desperately wanting to go to sleep but just not feeling tired! Hopefully I'll adapt to the UK again soon! (Or maybe it's my body's way of hinting that I need to go straight back to Disney ... )

loving your report! as a fellow Disney a World obsessed Brit loving your take on things...!

Hehe, thank you! Some of the USA foods/traditions/customs feel so alien to me! It's been so interesting to discover though!

 

[FlaggNL]

WOW what a great start of your TR!! love all the pictures and your text with it!! And no problem with so many parade pictures! Off course following along and can't wait for more! It helps us a lot with the pre feelings and the counting down for October 2015. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Raven66]

Loving your trip report and pictures! Gaston was our favorite character meet from our last trip. He was so much fun. I used to take my dslr with me to the parks, but it's just too heavy. Nobody wanted to carry it. Now I just bring my point and shoot digital. It fits in my pocket. Can't wait to read more!!

 

[Disney-leaf]

The next character we met was none other than PRINCE CHARMING!

Woo hoo!

Any Sex and the City fans here? Doesn’t he look like Charlotte’s first husband Trey MacDougal?!
I can’t unsee it!

I can’t remember too much about Trey (haha), apart from the fact that he was very sweet, I felt a bit less awkward with him for some reason, and that Lisa was laughing that his trousers were way too long for him!

Would you take a look at those dashing, handsome men?

I have to say here, though it’s probably quite obvious, that the boys were NOT as excited as us about the prospect of doing a character dinner. They both enjoy their food and, really, they just wanted to eat! However, I am so pleased that they were good sports, forgot about being ‘serious’ and just really got into the whole thing - that’s what Disney is about!

This picture makes me laugh so much - the second they started eating again, they got accosted by another character … this time Snow White! Kit's face is like 'I just. want. to. eat.'

No complaints here though! Up they jumped for another picture.

Wow, this lady is so gorgeous!! She also had the high-pitched voice down perfectly!

Our last character was Rapunzel - yay! She's the best I asked her about Pascale’s whereabouts and she told me big elaborate tale of how he had been running around all day and was probably hiding in some plants on the other side of the room.

I also noticed - and I’m sure others have too - that her hair is not actually attached to her head! It’s sewn onto the dress instead. You can kind of see it in the picture above too that there is a gap between her head and her plait, haha. It’s a very clever costume design though, as most of the time it’s not very noticeable, and it must be so heavy having to carry that hair around all day!

And lastly, THE BEST PICTURE EVER. Kit said to Rapunzel: “how about we turn on the smoulder?”

And they DID!!

Sorry, guys, but Rapunzel’s smouldering beats you both by miles!

Here are a couple of food shots:

The famous strawberry soup (with a little strawberry salad on the side - also delicious!)

And some yummy desserts

I didn’t take any pictures of my main meal because I was too preoccupied with all the characters! But I really did enjoy this meal - particularly the salads, the mash potato (a huge mash potato fan over here) and the salmon.

I’m sad that strawberry soup isn’t a thing here in England. I’m gonna try and make it a thing.

 

[Disney-leaf]

WOW what a great start of your TR!! love all the pictures and your text with it!! And no problem with so many parade pictures! Off course following along and can't wait for more! It helps us a lot with the pre feelings and the counting down for October 2015. Thanks for sharing!!

Thank you so much for reading! And the lovely comments Your trip will be here before you know it!

Loving your trip report and pictures! Gaston was our favorite character meet from our last trip. He was so much fun. I used to take my dslr with me to the parks, but it's just too heavy. Nobody wanted to carry it. Now I just bring my point and shoot digital. It fits in my pocket. Can't wait to read more!!

Thank you! Gaston was awesome - I love whoever invented the idea of Gaston meet & greets! Yea, the DSLR was a bit of a pain! Luckily my boyfriend had a big backpack ... it wouldn't even fit in mine!

 

[Disney-leaf]

When we finally left 1900 Park Fare, it was extremely dark outside. We caught the boat back to MK, and watched the Electrical Water Pageant on our way.

The boat-driver (captain? helmsman?) asked us: “where can you get a better view than this?”

Anybody?

All too soon, we were back!

Our timing turned out to be pretty perfect, because 5-10 mins after we arrived, Celebrate the Magic started! It was very crowded, but we managed to get a good view. It was so breath-taking - it’s difficult to describe!

I didn’t get any pictures here - I had never seen it before, and I really wanted to watch it with my own eyes and not through a camera screen.

Then it was time for Wishes! Wow! The castle + the fireworks + the music = guaranteed tears! I took a couple of bad photos here, they do NOT do the fireworks justice.

As the crowds started to head for the gates, we decided to do a couple of rides (MK was open till 2am I believe). However, we were starting to get super tired! (Can you believe we are still on day 1?!).

We walked to Tomorrowland and did Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin:

This picture of me is awful, hahaha. I look SO bored!! I wasn’t - I promise! Kit's into it though!

 

[Disney-leaf]

And Lisa & Wing!

Then we did Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, which we all really enjoyed! Such a clever use of technology.

After that, we all agreed to head back to the hotel. It was about midnight, and we had been up since 4am! 20 hours awake! It had been a brilliant day, but we were so exhausted and so jet lagged - it was 5am back home!

We caught the Electric Light Parade on the way out, which was another bonus:

Soon enough, we were on our bus and headed back to All Star Movies. All I can remember about the journey back was that the aircon was FREEZING. I’m not sure that it’s necessary to have it blasting out at 12.30am!

I think we all must have been out cold as soon as our heads hit the pillow. Tomorrow was going to be another incredibly long day for us

.........….....

we were heading to Universal Studios!

 

[myhappyplace]

Loving your trip report!! Y'all are so fun and cute! Great pics, and never apologize for lots of pictures!!

 

[Disney-leaf]

Loving your trip report!! Y'all are so fun and cute! Great pics, and never apologize for lots of pictures!!

Thank you very much!

 

[party like it's 99]

Loving your report, definitely following along!

 

[fractal]

Great report; love the pics!

 

[Disney-leaf]

Day 2: Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure

On Day 2, we were up and out early, as we wanted to get to Universal for the opening as close as possible.

After a hearty and healthy breakfast (… ahem), we ordered an Uber and waited outside the front for it.

I use Uber all the time in London, but I wasn’t sure about how it would work out in the States, especially with the currency difference and my intermittent internet connection. I needn’t have worried - the whole experience was great!

Our driver was called Bun, and he was so friendly and knowledgeable about the area and gave us lots of tips! He arrived about 4 mins after we ordered the cab, and we paid $17 for a 30 min cab ride. Split between 4 of us, that’s pretty amazing!

It didn’t take long, and we were there! Of course, there are some standard photos that one MUST take when at Universal …

Once we got through the gates (we had already booked our tickets and brought them from home … let’s not mention that I was EXTREMELY close to leaving them in London … oops) we spoke to a very nice man about getting the Express Pass. I’d heard mixed reviews about getting them, but everyone in my group agreed that we definitely wanted to. We only had 2 days to spend in Universal, it was our first trip in 10 years, and we had no idea when we’d be back again. We wanted to make sure we got on everything!

The man was very persuasive, and soon had us shelling out an eye-watering $127 each! ON TOP of the money we’d already paid for the ticket. You’ll have to wait until the end of the post to see if I thought it was worth the money!

As soon as we’d paid the cash (and felt positively sick to our stomach’s doing so) we wanted to get on some rides!! Our first one was Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. It already had a 75 min wait, but with the Express, we were on in 15 mins. Yay! This ride is amazing, it really is. I can see why the queues are so long! It was our first taste of some of the awesome simulators that Universal has to offer.

Selfie in the queue:

Our next ride was the Rip Ride Rocket, a huge rollercoaster that allows you to pick your own song as you go around. We walked straight on.

Gulp! I chose ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams, thinking it would make the ride less terrifying. It kinda worked! Lisa chose ‘Rollin’ by Limp Bizkit, which is a perfect choice! Not sure about Wing, and Kit took too long deciding on a song so they chose one for him before we blasted off - a very random electronic one!

We all loved this ride! It made my head feel a bit funny for a couple of seconds (hard to describe the feeling), but otherwise it was fine. I was worried about Lisa, who suffers from awful motion sickness, but she’d taken some tablets so was OK!

As we came off this ride, we heard some awesome tunes played on a saxophone and realised that the Blues Brothers were performing! We ran over the join them, and had a lovely 10-15 minutes dancing and singing along in the sunshine! They also did a huge conga line which we participated in (of course! haha). It was so great! No pictures though, sadly!

We then did Twister. Lisa & I love this ride, but mainly for the nostalgia value. I remembered this ride so well from when I was 9 - especially when the cow goes flying across the set! The boys were NOT impressed with this ride at all, hahaha. They thought the pre-show was much more exciting than the actual ride (and I can’t really blame them!). I still love it, though.

We then went straight onto the Mummy, which I’d never ridden before. OMG. I LOVED this ride. I had no idea what to expect and it was just amazing! I am a fan of rides in the dark, where you have no idea what’s coming next! And the locusts! The fire! The big talking head! Just, wow.

 

[Disney-leaf]

Loving your report, definitely following along!

Great report; love the pics!

Thank you both!!

 

[Disney-leaf]

After 4 rides and dancing in the sun, it was time to refuel!

We found some shade to sit in for 20 mins (it was HOT) and consumed corn dogs (these are the strangest things ever!!), churros and icees. Yum!

We also took loads of random photos at this point - just because!

Acting our age!

Posing with some beautiful bins in the background!