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!

 

[Disney-leaf]

"Hey, I have a great idea! Let's swap hats!"

Yup, I think it works.

Icee time!

 

[12in12]

I am loving your TR. I fly out of Gatwick on Monday for my 10 nights WDW holiday. So near yet still feels far away but reading TR's helps.

 

[blreinsel]

Loving your TR so far! Your pictures are amazing!

My best friend and I were in WDW in June and also ate at 1900 Park Fare.. Like you, I booked for the stepsisters and stepmother, but we didn't get any of them. We had Cinderella, Prince Charming, and two mice (names?) It was still lots of fun and the food was great, but I was soooo disappointed that the others weren't there as I'd seen people on here posting pictures where they were present. I was surprised to see Snow White and Rapunzel at your meal.. I didn't know that they were in the rotation!

Anyway.. Following along.

 

[coachwnh]

I am loving your TR. I fly out of Gatwick on Monday for my 10 nights WDW holiday. So near yet still feels far away but reading TR's helps.

Have a great time!

 

[Disney-leaf]

I am loving your TR. I fly out of Gatwick on Monday for my 10 nights WDW holiday. So near yet still feels far away but reading TR's helps.

Ahhh, that's so exciting!! That's exactly what we did! Have the best time - I wish I could do it all again!

Loving your TR so far! Your pictures are amazing!

My best friend and I were in WDW in June and also ate at 1900 Park Fare.. Like you, I booked for the stepsisters and stepmother, but we didn't get any of them. We had Cinderella, Prince Charming, and two mice (names?) It was still lots of fun and the food was great, but I was soooo disappointed that the others weren't there as I'd seen people on here posting pictures where they were present. I was surprised to see Snow White and Rapunzel at your meal.. I didn't know that they were in the rotation!

Anyway.. Following along.

Thank you!! That's so interesting about 1900 Park Fare! Yep, I was so disappointed too!! Especially as we'd seen the Stepsisters earlier that day on the carousel, but we didn't go over to meet them because we assumed that we'd be meeting them that evening! It was a very random assortment of characters at our meal ... I wonder how they decide!

 

[Lauriepop2009]

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?

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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.

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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!

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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Up next: who else would we meet?

Can't wait to read more - We are going for Christmas! And Gaston was my first crush, so cant wit for our Be Our Guest breakfast!!

 

[Disney-leaf]

After the snacks and photos, we decided to get in the queue for Shrek 4D, because it was the closest attraction to us. This ended up being one of the longest queues we got into at Universal. Even with the Express pass, we waited 20-30 mins. We didn’t mind so much, though, because it started POURING with rain whilst we were waiting! Luckily, we were under shelter the whole time . Shrek was a cute show, with some fun effects, but there were definitely better ones at Disney!

By the time we got out, the worst of the rain was over, and it was just a bit drizzly. We were so lucky! We decided to head over to the Simpsons area, which I was really excited about. I love that show!

I caught a sneak peek of the Harry Potter area (on the other side of the bridge) on the way over, which was incredible! It took a lot of strength not to run over there and check it out! I am a HUGE HP fan.

Kings Cross Station blew my mind! I live 10 minutes walk away from this station, and it looks SO realistic! I almost felt like I was at home (and the grey weather after the rain shower made it all the more realistic ).

We decided not to go to the Wizarding World area today because of the Express Passes. You can’t use them on the two most popular HP rides, so we decided to skip that whole area today, get the most use of the passes on all the other rides, and then explore that area in more detail later in the week.

The Simpson’s area of Universal was fabulous - it was so well done! One of my favourite parts of the whole theme park actually.

We went onto the Simpson’s Ride and had about a 5-10 min wait. This ride was fantastic, but all of us felt a bit queasy after getting off !
I think it was a combination of being hot, tired and hungry, and just having a bit too much motion in a few short hours!

We decided to have a proper rest and some lunch, and where else would we go but Krusty Burger?!

This quick-service restaurant was SO busy. There was a very long queue to get anywhere near the food! However, I did feel like they had a really well-organised and efficient system - they handled the queues well, and it wasn’t TOO long before we were sitting down and eating.

I went for the classic Krusty Burger, and I thought it was delicious! It was actually one of my favourite meals from the whole holiday (which I was not expecting at all!). It was just a really nice burger - I loved the sauce - and the curly fries were perfect too! I ate the whole thing up. YUM.

After lunch, we were ready for more rides!

We did Men in Black, which was really fun. I was so impressed with the 'set'!

Then we went on ET, which was one of my absolute favourites as a child. I remember that he used to say "goodbye, Stevie" at the end of the ride and so I was curious to see if they still did that, 17 years later!

Now, here is where I'm confused! They DID ask for our names as we walked on, and I was thinking "Yay! ET's gonna say my name!!" ... but he never did! He said *something* at the end but it was unclear and I was listening very intently! So disappointing!
Does anyone know what's supposed to happen there?

Next up: I couldn't ignore Harry Potter completely! We went onto the Hogwarts Express!

 

[Figgy1]

My ds says THNX for the Simpson's pics he's so looking forward to going on our next trip to Orlando

 

[Disney-leaf]

Can't wait to read more - We are going for Christmas! And Gaston was my first crush, so cant wit for our Be Our Guest breakfast!!

Wow! I would LOVE to go for Christmas!!

My ds says THNX for the Simpson's pics he's so looking forward to going on our next trip to Orlando

He's very welcome! It's a great part of the park!

 

[jjbuster2]

On the E.T. Ride...
In June me and the daughter rode (she's 13 and overly dramatic and sarcastic) and she didn't remember the ride from before and said the alien creatures were "the stuff of her nightmares"...lol, it's just that they were funny looking and she was not familiar with the movie (she wasn't scared, just being silly). They did take our names but like you, I didn't hear anything discernible at the end...maybe the audio needs some attention.

Love your report! Universal was a good trip for us too (love Diagon Alley) but looking forward to return to WDW next time around!

 

[sheriffwoody]

Loving your report! Your dresses are adorable, and you've got me wanting to get some dresses to wear on my trip. Looking forward to the rest! Can't wait to see your photos from Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.

 

[Ciara]

LOVING your trip report! Its getting me crazy excited for my upcoming trip! I need more cant wait to read about harry potter world!

 

[Disney-leaf]

On the E.T. Ride...
In June me and the daughter rode (she's 13 and overly dramatic and sarcastic) and she didn't remember the ride from before and said the alien creatures were "the stuff of her nightmares"...lol, it's just that they were funny looking and she was not familiar with the movie (she wasn't scared, just being silly). They did take our names but like you, I didn't hear anything discernible at the end...maybe the audio needs some attention.

Love your report! Universal was a good trip for us too (love Diagon Alley) but looking forward to return to WDW next time around!

I'm glad you didn't hear anything at the end too! I was wondering if I had hearing problems I do hope they sort it out, because it was so much fun as a kid hearing ET say your name. That's funny about your daughter I can imagine it being a very strange ride if you haven't seen the movie!

Loving your report! Your dresses are adorable, and you've got me wanting to get some dresses to wear on my trip. Looking forward to the rest! Can't wait to see your photos from Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.

Thank you! I'm so glad I brought dresses, and I actually wore them most days. They were a lot cooler in the heat, they dried faster on water rides/rain showers and I always made sure I wore a pair of cycling shorts underneath (just in case!) I took so many photos from Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley - the theming is just incredible

LOVING your trip report! Its getting me crazy excited for my upcoming trip! I need more cant wait to read about harry potter world!

Thank you! I'm so jealous that you have an upcoming trip I wanna go again!!

 

[Disney Coco]

Universal Day

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.

Loving your trip report so far!

Does uber now come onto disney property? I go to disney in 5 days with my boyfriend and was trying to figure out how we were going to get to universal?

Thanks in advance xx

 

[smk]

uh oh, please don't stop, I am enjoying the report!

 

[Disney-leaf]

Loving your trip report so far!

Does uber now come onto disney property? I go to disney in 5 days with my boyfriend and was trying to figure out how we were going to get to universal?

Thanks in advance xx

Hiya, we had no problems with Uber at all on Disney property! They came right up to the front of the hotel (where the Disney Magical Express dropped us off) and drove us to the other Disney resorts, the parks and then to Universal. We also got an Uber from Universal to Animal Kingdom and he dropped us right outside the entrance of the park. I would really recommend it - especially for the price! Have a great trip!!

uh oh, please don't stop, I am enjoying the report!

Aww thank you! I'm not stopping!! Another post will be up this evening

 

[Disney-leaf]

Before I add the next instalment, I managed to get some pictures from Lisa's camera of us at Universal (I didn't take as many on this day as I would have liked!) so I wanted to add those in before moving on!

Lisa's corndog Weirdest. Things. EVER!!

Lisa & Wing in the queue for Shrek 4D:

And me & Kit:

And all of us! Can you tell we were getting a bit bored at this point?!

Walking through the Simpson's area in the drizzle!

"Rain, Rain, Go Away!" (Little did we know how much MORE rain we would experience over the next 8 days ... )

 

[Disney-leaf]

After we did ET, we realised that we'd done most of what we'd wanted to experience in Universal Studios, and that it would be a good idea to go over to Islands of Adventure. It was about 3.30pm at this point. Our original plan was to do Uni on the first day and IOA on the second, but we'd spent SO much money on the Express Pass (which covered rides in both the parks) and we knew that we wouldn't be able to spend that much again on another Express Pass for the second day, so we had to make sure we covered as many rides as humanely possible on day 1!

We had two choices. Do we walk to IOA, or take the Hogwarts Express?

Ummmm .... you can probably guess what my choice was!

We decided to walk past 'Kings Cross station', just to see what the queue times were like.

I imagined that they would be insane, but it actually said it was only 20 mins! We quickly hopped in the line! I was SO thrilled to be doing a tiny bit of the Wizarding World, even though we'd all agreed to leave it for the second day. Yay!!

Well, what can I say? It was just INCREDIBLEEEEE.

They have this amazing special effect where the people in front of you actually disappear through the wall at Platform 9 3/4! How do they do it?!

And the first time the Hogwarts Express train pulls in is just breath-taking. Wow. It was so awesome. I can still remember and feel the flutters in my tummy as we were boarding the train!

Lisa & Wing (+ my hand ) waiting to board! I still can't believe that it wasn't too busy in the middle of the day! And check out the staff member in the background Love his costume!

I'm never usually this happy and excited when waiting for a train!

Once we boarded, we were seated in a little carriage with another family. If I remember correctly, each carriage can hold 8 people. It's quite dark in there, which really adds to the whole effect.

We were seated closest to the window, which was so great because the view from the window is the best! You pull out of Kings Cross station, past the Shard (hello London!), go through some neighbourhoods, and then the countryside as you get closer and closer to Hogwarts! It really is wonderful. Whoever thought of using the Hogwarts Express to transport you between the parks is a genius!

Also, don't worry if you are seated closest to the door, because there are some surprises in store for you there too!

All too soon it was time to disembark the Hogwarts Express and enter Islands of Adventure!

Stay tuned for more adventures!

 

[Disney-leaf]

Our first ride in IOA (after the others had to drag me away from running to Hogsmeade!) was Poseidon’s Fury. I was not particularly bothered about doing this ride, but it actually turned out to be really good! Especially at the end!

Ahh, look at that view!

We then walked over to one of my absolute FAVOURITE rides at IOA: Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls! Water rides are my favourite anyway, and this one is certainly up there as one of the best! It’s crazy!

We. Got. Soaked.

Then, because we were already soaking, we decided to go on Jurassic Park River Adventure! This ride was also awesome and quickly became one of my favourites! Water rides = you rock!

We went for a walk, and bumped into our old buddy Marmaduke! Sadly, the harsh sunlight did not work in our favour with these photographs! But hey, it was fun to pose anyway

 

[bcoachable]

A few more shots from my DSLR. It was a pain to carry around all day but I'm glad I did! (Actually, Kit held it for me mostly )

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Side note: We looked for the hidden Pascales that people talk about, but could only find one! Where the heck are the rest of them?!

it haunted us that we could only find one, so we went back later just to find more... I think we ended up with 8... some where very difficult!!