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! :cry::cry::cry: I’m hoping that this report will relieve some of those.

Let’s begin:

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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 :banghead: (but still so worth it!). :D

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 :rolleyes:

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! ;)
 
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Disney-leaf

Disney-leaf

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hello hello! Huge apologies for the big gap in my TR! This is currently my life:

stress everywhere.jpg


because I am doing my teacher training course! Finding spare time to add to my TR has been like finding gold, so I am really pleased to be sitting at my laptop right now!

Anyways. On with the show.

After our awesome safari, we rushed over to Kali River Rapids to make our next FP. I don’t really want to type this next part out … it’s just too sad! One of the saddest things that happened for us at WDW. :arghh:

We got onto Kali, which we’d not been on before. We went on with two other families, and really enjoyed the ride, but all of us remarked how quickly it seemed to be over.

One of the families on Kali with us consisted of a mum, dad and daughter. This family clearly had a phobia of getting wet - especially the mum, who was wearing a long poncho, a shower cap AND carrier bags tied around her feet! o_O It was clear that she hated the ride, and she looked more and more angry every time she got splashed. Why she decided to go on a water ride, I’ll never know. :bored:

The reason I am telling you all this is that, once the ride had finished, the CM said to us “hey, do you guys want to go around again?” We just looked at him - was this really happening? :eek: Thinking he might be messing with us, I asked him “are you being serious?” and he assured us that he was.

We were so excited because the ride currently had over an hour wait, so we knew that we wouldn’t be able to go on it again. I couldn’t believe he was offering this to us! :D :D However, there was a catch.

“Everyone in the raft has to agree to ride again, though,” our lovely CM informed us.

I bet you can guess what happened next. :facepalm: Shower cap lady shook her head furiously. Nope. No way. We all stared at her with pleading eyes, willing her to agree to go round again. She was having none of it - she wanted off. Even her own daughter was looking at her sadly, but not able to change her mum’s mind.
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

We then all looked desperately to the CM, who looked sad for us and said “I’m really sorry, but everyone has to agree.” And then, with heavy hearts, we all climbed out of the raft. :cry: :cry: :cry:

I was SO sad/mad. :grumpy: I couldn’t decipher which emotion I felt more! Little did that lady know how much it was going to rain later that day, and I secretly hoped she got caught right in the middle of the downpour. Even now, over a month after our trip, I remember how gutted I was that we couldn’t ride Kali for a second time. :cry:

We never experienced a CM offering us a second ride at any other point in the trip, so I was wondering if this was common practice at WDW? I’m still curious as to why that ride was offered to us - is it because Kali is so short? The queues were super long too, which is why it surprised me even more.

Following that sad moment, we figured a snack would cheer us up. We headed over to this cute little place (no idea what it was called) and got frozen cola slushies! Kit’s had rum in it. They were so refreshing - just what we needed. :)

Then, it was time for Expedition Everest! This ride did not exist last time we were here, and it was one of the rides that I was really looking forward to riding. I had only ever read good things.

Oh my goodness, I LOVED THIS RIDE. :joyfull: It was SO much fun!!! And we just had absolutely no idea what to expect, which made it great even more! This is definitely up there as one of my favourite rides at WDW, and the other three loved it too.

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Our 3 FP’s had been used up for the day, so me and Kit walked over to the FP Kiosk to see what else they had. We picked some up for the Finding Nemo musical in a couple of hours time. Lisa and Wing were off watching some monkeys whilst this was happening.

We decided to watch Festival of the Lion King next, but had a bit of time before it started, so we ended up just wandering around, soaking up the atmosphere of the place, and I took a few pictures. To be honest, this was one of my favourite things to do. AK is such a beautifully themed park that I was just as happy walking around it as I was going on the rides. I wish we’d had more time here to really explore the whole place in depth.

I just want to be back there right now!! :cry: Reality is no fun!

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I love you, AK! :inlove: :inlove:
 
ScarletBegonias

ScarletBegonias

Well-Known Member
Disney-leaf said:
Hello hello! Huge apologies for the big gap in my TR! This is currently my life:

View attachment 111037

because I am doing my teacher training course! Finding spare time to add to my TR has been like finding gold, so I am really pleased to be sitting at my laptop right now!

Anyways. On with the show.

After our awesome safari, we rushed over to Kali River Rapids to make our next FP. I don’t really want to type this next part out … it’s just too sad! One of the saddest things that happened for us at WDW. :arghh:

We got onto Kali, which we’d not been on before. We went on with two other families, and really enjoyed the ride, but all of us remarked how quickly it seemed to be over.

One of the families on Kali with us consisted of a mum, dad and daughter. This family clearly had a phobia of getting wet - especially the mum, who was wearing a long poncho, a shower cap AND carrier bags tied around her feet! o_O It was clear that she hated the ride, and she looked more and more angry every time she got splashed. Why she decided to go on a water ride, I’ll never know. :bored:

The reason I am telling you all this is that, once the ride had finished, the CM said to us “hey, do you guys want to go around again?” We just looked at him - was this really happening? :eek: Thinking he might be messing with us, I asked him “are you being serious?” and he assured us that he was.

We were so excited because the ride currently had over an hour wait, so we knew that we wouldn’t be able to go on it again. I couldn’t believe he was offering this to us! :D :D However, there was a catch.

“Everyone in the raft has to agree to ride again, though,” our lovely CM informed us.

I bet you can guess what happened next. :facepalm: Shower cap lady shook her head furiously. Nope. No way. We all stared at her with pleading eyes, willing her to agree to go round again. She was having none of it - she wanted off. Even her own daughter was looking at her sadly, but not able to change her mum’s mind.
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

We then all looked desperately to the CM, who looked sad for us and said “I’m really sorry, but everyone has to agree.” And then, with heavy hearts, we all climbed out of the raft. :cry: :cry: :cry:

I was SO sad/mad. :grumpy: I couldn’t decipher which emotion I felt more! Little did that lady know how much it was going to rain later that day, and I secretly hoped she got caught right in the middle of the downpour. Even now, over a month after our trip, I remember how gutted I was that we couldn’t ride Kali for a second time. :cry:

We never experienced a CM offering us a second ride at any other point in the trip, so I was wondering if this was common practice at WDW? I’m still curious as to why that ride was offered to us - is it because Kali is so short? The queues were super long too, which is why it surprised me even more.

Following that sad moment, we figured a snack would cheer us up. We headed over to this cute little place (no idea what it was called) and got frozen cola slushies! Kit’s had rum in it. They were so refreshing - just what we needed. :)

Then, it was time for Expedition Everest! This ride did not exist last time we were here, and it was one of the rides that I was really looking forward to riding. I had only ever read good things.

Oh my goodness, I LOVED THIS RIDE. :joyfull: It was SO much fun!!! And we just had absolutely no idea what to expect, which made it great even more! This is definitely up there as one of my favourite rides at WDW, and the other three loved it too.

View attachment 111038

Our 3 FP’s had been used up for the day, so me and Kit walked over to the FP Kiosk to see what else they had. We picked some up for the Finding Nemo musical in a couple of hours time. Lisa and Wing were off watching some monkeys whilst this was happening.

We decided to watch Festival of the Lion King next, but had a bit of time before it started, so we ended up just wandering around, soaking up the atmosphere of the place, and I took a few pictures. To be honest, this was one of my favourite things to do. AK is such a beautifully themed park that I was just as happy walking around it as I was going on the rides. I wish we’d had more time here to really explore the whole place in depth.

I just want to be back there right now!! :cry: Reality is no fun!

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I love you, AK! :inlove: :inlove:
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I LOVED AK too!! And I would have been so mad at that lady too! Why did she even get on in the first place? She just ruined a totally magical moment for everyone else!
 
Disney-leaf

Disney-leaf

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I am SO sorry. I’ve been rubbish. We finally have a week off from school and so I can dedicate some more time to my TR! I’ve got instrumental Disney music playing in the background, Mickey on my lap and a large cup of tea next to me. Time to get going!

Before I move on with our tale, here are some more pictures that we took wandering around AK before the start of FOTLK:

(One of my favourite shots of the whole trip and my desktop background. I LOVE AK!).

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This trip = selfies galore!

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Very convincing acting there Kit!

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AK, stop being so beautiful. Just stop it!

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It was soon time to watch Festival of the Lion King! :) :)

This show was super special to me because my best friend back home was performing in the UK tour of the Lion King at the same time, so it made me really emotional! I am so proud of her. This show was absolutely stunning, and I was in tears during ‘Can you feel the love tonight?’. Breathtaking! The acrobats .. the spinning in the air … wow! :geek:

Terrible shot, but here we are!

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Thoroughly recommend FOTLK for any newbies - it’s not to be missed!

We were in the Giraffe section, and I now know what sound a giraffe makes! You learn something new every day :D

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The main man himself.

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Wonderful.

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Whilst we were being thoroughly entertained inside the Harambe Theatre, we had no idea that it had begun to rain outside. Not just a light sprinkle, but an absolute downpour. I hadn’t seen rain like that for a long time (and I live in in England!). It was sad times when we had to leave our lovely dry theatre and venture into the shower! :arghh:

Luckily, we had our beautiful ponchos to keep out the worst of it! ;)
 
Disney-leaf

Disney-leaf

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Rain, rain …. eurgh. You guys have serious weather over in Florida!
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Lisa rocking her poncho!

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Hahaha, oh gosh, this picture! I said that Kit looked a bit like the evil queen/old lady from Snow White in his poncho, and he proceeded to do the best impression EVER.

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You got that right!

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A sorry sight!

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Rain in Disney should not be allowed!

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At this point, we realised we were HUNGRY. We wanted to check out Flame Tree BBQ (which had been recommended to us on here) but we had two problems.
  1. We didn’t know where it was
  2. It was raining so hard that the map would get soaked if we opened it
Luckily, our boyfriends are pretty much geniuses, and soon found a novel way to read a map in the rain!

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Off to Flame Tree we went!
 
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Disney-leaf

Disney-leaf

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Flame Tree was good - I think everyone enjoyed their meals. :)

I got a hot tea to warm me up after the rain, and I wanted something semi-healthy and went for their watermelon and feta salad. It was good, but completely DROWNING in salad dressing! Sometimes less is more, Disney!

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We sat on the floor to eat because there were no spare tables - everyone was clambering inside to escape the rain (which was still lashing down as hard as ever!).

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This one was still fascinated by the idea of turkey legs (and pretending to be a caveman whilst eating them :p)… although I think this one might have been pork?

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After we had eaten, we walked over to Finding Nemo The Musical, which we had FP’s for. The theatre, again, was pretty full as everyone was trying to find somewhere dry to go!

This show was super cute, and the set and theming were amazing! I really enjoyed it. I loved the bubbles at the end. Another example of Disney going that extra mile to make something special! Go and see it! :D :D

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After the show, we decided to head home. The rain was showing no sign of stopping and we were getting tired!

When we got back to All Star Movies, the boys decided to go for a swim (they were wet anyway, they thought! :hilarious:) but me and Lisa opted to take a shower instead and get warm and freshened up! :angelic:

Next up:

Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge!
 
Disney-leaf

Disney-leaf

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We hopped in an Uber and were soon at AKL. Woah, this resort is NICE! Would definitely love to stay here one day. :greedy: :p

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We had a bit of time to explore before our reservation, and me and Lisa really wanted a picture on the tall bridge that hangs over the lobby. We told Kit to wait with the camera, whilst we go and explore to find the bridge. Easy, right?

Wrong. :banghead: We got lost! We got so lost, it took a good 15 minutes for us to find the bridge! :facepalm: How could we not find something so huge?! :hilarious: We’re still not sure how it happened, but we were laughing hysterically the whole time. Kit & Wing probably thought we’d been kidnapped!

Somehow, we finally stumbled upon the bridge (much to Kit’s relief) and had our picture!

Spot the sisters:

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Then, it was time for FOOD!

I really, really liked Boma! We had an awesome chef who came over to walk Kit through every item on the buffet, explaining what he could and couldn't eat (he is allergic to nuts). Major brownie points to Disney for their allergy awareness and caring! We’ve never had service like that anywhere else in the world. :):):)

I loved the theming of Boma, and the food is delicious! My only gripe would be that it is pretty expensive for a buffet, and I never normally eat enough to justify the price! But maybe I just need to train my stomach more to accept Disney-sized portions! :p

We sipped our jungle juice and enjoyed some yummy African cuisine.

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Nom.

Kit made me laugh with his meal! He was feeling so disgusted with himself after consuming so much meat during the past 3 days that he came back with a healthy plate of vegetables instead! What a waste of Boma!

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:hilarious: :hilarious: :hilarious:

And my dessert plate (of course):

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(P.S. I can only seem to add 10 photos at a time, but I’ve seen other TR’s which definitely have more! Help, someone?!)
 
Disney-leaf

Disney-leaf

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
A couple more pics (of couples!) from Boma:

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After our meal, it was time to head to Downtown Disney for Cirque du Soleil! The Cirque tickets were one of the first things I booked after booking our trip, because I knew I HAD to see it again. We had seen it on our second trip to Disney (10 years previously!) and I absolutely loved it! I was so amazed, I was in tears. :cry: :)

We had an hour and a half to get from AKL to Cirque, which I assumed would be loads of time. o_O

Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. :banghead: :arghh:

(Cue the most stressful thing that happened on our trip ….) :cry: :cry: :cry:

We got on the bus fairly quickly, and then we were off!

But we got stuck in traffic!

LOTS of traffic. :cautious:

I couldn’t believe how long it was taking to get to Downtown Disney! We could have literally walked faster!

We were not moving, and I got a bit panicked when I saw the time getting closer and closer to show time. We were eventually sat on that bus for an hour and a half, and everyone on there was getting super stressed and grumpy! :in pain: It was horrible. Thank you, roadworks! :(

When we FINALLY got to Downtown Disney, we ran for our lives. We knew we had already missed the start of the show, and I was devastated. I don’t think I have ever run so fast in my whole life! Downtown was PACKED as well, and we were literally dodging in and out of people like we were in a crazy video game. It was nuts.

We eventually got there, 15 minutes after the show started, completely out of breath and dripping with sweat, and the steward showed us to our seats. We told her about the traffic fiasco, and she said it had caused a big problem for lots of other people, too. In fact, through various intervals during the show we could see stewards leading other latecomers to their seats - no doubt also stuck in the awful traffic.

The show was absolutely amazing (as I knew it would be) and the boys were so impressed! However, we were all so exhausted from the day, the 1.5 hour bus journey and then the crazy run through Downtown Disney, that me, Kit and Wing felt ourselves nodding off at various points during the show! :eek: “Micro-sleeps”, as Kit called them! I kept scolding myself, but I couldn’t help it! :(

I am still so gutted about Cirque (as it was one of the things I was looking forward to the most) - firstly that we were late and secondly that we were too exhausted to enjoy it to its full potential!

I guess it just means that I’ll need to book another trip to Disney?! ;) ;)

Some pics we took after the show:

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Afterwards, we took a slow walk back to the bus stop. It was a very, very busy night and we were ready for our beds!

The bus, incidentally, took 20 mins to take us home instead of the 1.5 hours it took to get there! (You have to laugh, don’t you? Otherwise you’ll cry!) We went straight to sleep when we got in!

Also, random, side note, we were laughing at our bus driver, who played a very interesting selection of music on the way home! My TR notes say: strip club music mixed with Disney! :D

See ya’ll tomorrow for Blizzard Beach!! ;)
 
donaldtoo

donaldtoo

Well-Known Member
OK, I just kinda' started diggin' in to your TR, but, this looks like a total blast, and I intend on finishing it...!
Sounds like it was a total hoot! :)

Also...
Younger, more hair and different color hair (and I guess Pegg quite often wears a beard), but, has anyone ever told Kit he reminds them a bit of Simon Pegg...?!

Anyway, thanks for sharing, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest...! :)
 

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