Trip Report Finally back home. That is my WDW home.

Longers · Nov 14, 2014

Minnesota disney fan said:
Yep, we know what you guys look like, but you are at a disadvantage! So, here goes, just look for a couple who look like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie................JUST kidding, lol! We are both in our 60's. I have dark hair with white streaks about 5'6" tall, not overweight but not skinny. Hubby is 5'10" tall and wears a white camo baseball hat, most of the time. My hubby thinks we don't have much of a chance of even seeing you at POR, but will keep our eyes open. That'd be cool, wouldn't it? might even buy you guys an ice cream

Yes that would be cool and I am especially going to keep my eyes open now if there is an ice cream in it!

And I have seen the couple I sat next to on the plane twice now "it's a small world after all"

TB4244 said:
Even though we've not actually met it was great seeing you too @Longers, and what a location to finally bump into each other - the utilidors of all places. I could have spent ages exploring down there. But it looks like you were having as much of a blast as we were

We are having fun and there is still time before you leave so we may spot you again.

Longers · Nov 14, 2014

Friday 14th November

Firstly an apology, my card reader to get the photos from my SD card onto my IPAD is still not working.
So still no photo's - I asked in a shop today but they tried to sell me something that I know was wrong!
I have been googling where to go to get one but at the moment no luck!

So onto today

Chris woke up and went to get a coffee at the food court. When he came back he said it was actually not that cold out. He always gives me a weather update if he goes out as I feel the cold and have to dress appropriately.

When we did get outside to leave there was water coming off of the roof so it must be raining?
Chris said it wasn't when he went to the food court but sure enough when we reached the bottom of the stairs we had fine rain - you know the type it's not heavy but you get wet all the same and your hair goes frizzy (at least mine does. Chris doesn't have that problem!)

Probably not a bad thing that I can't post photos given the state of my hair right now!!,!,

We had planned to go back to Universal today so decided to run with it and see what happened.

The rain was continuing but hey that wasn't going to stop us.

First stop, Shrek. As it was early morning this was a walk on. I love the 4D effects of this ride.

Then MIB - but who was going to win?
We went on twice, Chris won the first one (but his did push that red button - and scored the 100,000 bonus) and I won the second one.
So it was a draw but as far as I am concerned MIB challenge this year is a win for me

We then took a walk around Diagon Alley and went back onto the Gringotts ride as this was only a 15 min queue.
I had read on here to make sure you check out every nook and cranny here so we took a bit more time to explore today.

We also went on Disaster - something that we don't do every year any more but we thought this was a lot of fun - we had a great crowd who were all very enthusiastic.

From here we took a walk to ET - I still remember watching that film as a kid and having to buy an ET - I even made it a little coat out of old material we had - aahhhhh.
So we have to go on the ride (as long as there isn't a long wait) as fate would have it - the wait was showing 15 mins so on we went.

Then we decided to head onto the Hogwarts express - we jumped through to platform 9 3/4 such a simple idea but a lot of fun (if people stay out of the way and actually realise what's going on!) I wonder how many of them had no clue as a lot of them seemed in a daze.

Once at Hogwarts the sun was out and we joined the single rider line for Harry Potter and the forbidden journey (the wait time was 30mins) - but the single rider was a virtual walk on. We were on and off in no time.
This ride seemed to tip you back more than last year and seemed to have more features working than I remember but it's still a lot of fun.

We had spent the best part of the day at Universal and we hadn't had any ice cream yet - so I went off to cold stone and ordered a chocolate sensation - (brownie, sauce, choc chips and choc ice cream) it was delicious but quite sickly.
When we went to Las Vegas earlier in the year I was disappointed that the cold stone outlets appeared to have been shut down so I had been looking forward to this ice cream since April this year. It was worth the wait.
Chris decided he was having a Cinnabon - whilst we can get these back home Chris still maintains they taste better here!

As the Prime outlets were nearby we decided to pop to the shops - the forecast for next Tuesday is 15 degrees and rain AM so I needed some longer trousers which I did manage to get along with a North face fleece - so I should be warm now if I need them (hopefully I won't whilst I am here - fingers crossed!)
It's 29 degrees on Monday so that's quite a drop in temperature if it does drop to 15 on Tuesday. I will let you know!

Shopping finished we were both hungry - Chris had only had a pretzel and Cinnabon and me just a packets of Lays and my ice cream so in the way back home we stopped at Golden Corral for dinner.
All I need to say is we are both stuffed!
And I had candy floss and ice cream with toffee sauce on for dessert. So 2 ice creams for me today........

Tomorrows plan is Epcot AM then Magic Kingdom PM with Spectromagic and Wishes tomorrow night.

Thanks for following along.

Zipadeelady · Nov 15, 2014

Missing your pictures but still enjoying your posts! Spectromagic holds special memories in my heart of our first trip so if it is really going to be showing an appearance tonight I just may hop on a plane right now so that I can see it too.

Tiggertoo56 · Nov 15, 2014

Longers said:
Tuesday 11th November

So, we were meant to be going to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom today but ........ things changed this morning!
I was up again early and started checking out the planner, I decided that as it has been busy (and today's crowd level was higher than it should be tomorrow) we should go to Universal Orlando.
We always go to Universal twice each trip (a 14 day ticket cost us £222 each that's about $355 dollars)
This year we did debate not going as the price just seems to be rising, but with the new Diagon alley the temptation was too much.

We arrive at Universal Orlando around 9am and decided to go to Universal Studios first.
First ride was Minion Mayhem. Neither of us have seen the movie but the ride was fun and quirky.
The Transormers ride was posted a 10 min wait but it was a walk on, this ride is a lot like Spider-Man but fun all the same - the big transformers freak me out though, there is normally one you can have your picture with but I would be too scared to go near it and normally give it a wide birth. (Think this has something to do with the dreams about Giants I used to have when I was younger)

We then made our way towards the Harry Potter bits
Kings cross station and Leicester Square station are great replicas of the real thing. I could have been at home, except it's way warmer here and I was having more fun.

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Before going into Diagon Alley we took a few pictures with our gorillapod messing about on the Knight bus.
We were getting comments of how much fun we were having from the passers by.
I think these photos prove it?!

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After this we entered Diagon Alley - wow this is amazing, worth the entry money to the park alone.

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I missed the fire breathing every time!

The Gringotts ride was posted at a 15 min wait (and this was at around 11am). This is a great ride - I loved it, so much so that we went round again.

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We did Universal the week before and noticed how quiet both parks were (Monday and Tuesday) - got on all rides with maximum 10 min wait time. Seems so long ago now I am back home in not so sunny UK (was sunny yesterday when we got home, but foggy today

- such a shock after 2 weeks of lovely Florida sunshine!). Loved Diagon Alley & new Minions ride too. Wonderful trip report - I kept up to date whilst we were away, but only quickly reading through - but now am really reading it all to keep me in the magical frame of mind!

Longers · Nov 15, 2014

Tiggertoo56 said:
We did Universal the week before and noticed how quiet both parks were (Monday and Tuesday) - got on all rides with maximum 10 min wait time. Seems so long ago now I am back home in not so sunny UK (was sunny yesterday when we got home, but foggy today - such a shock after 2 weeks of lovely Florida sunshine!). Loved Diagon Alley & new Minions ride too. Wonderful trip report - I kept up to date whilst we were away, but only quickly reading through - but now am really reading it all to keep me in the magical frame of mind!

It has certainly been quieter in Universal compared to Disney both times we have been.
I Have heard it's been raining a lot back home so I am making the most of the sunshine and I'm
glad I can help out with those Disney blues now you are home. Look forward to your trip report if you decide to do one?

Zipitidoda said:
Missing your pictures but still enjoying your posts! Spectromagic holds special memories in my heart of our first trip so if it is really going to be showing an appearance tonight I just may hop on a plane right now so that I can see it too.

Oh no...... Old habits and all that - no Spectromagic tonight it's MSEP
- and I am bummed re the photos - I will keep trying but if not I will post when I get home - I am really hoping though that it might miraculously work - I might have to take everything for a drive under the famous sign so some pixie dust can fall on it!!,

Longers · Nov 15, 2014

Saturday 15th November

Well we woke up to a gorgeous Florida morning. What was today going to have in store for us?

Epcot was waiting for us.......

Our first stop was Soarin followed by living with the land - I know this is only a boat ride but I always find it fascinating to listen to how the land works together in our every day lives.

We then had a date with the purple guy - "imagi nation, imagi nation" you know how the song goes.......

From here we ventured into World Showcase. We have walked around every country and taken a picure in every one with our gorillapod so you know there are going to be some classics in there don't you!
I am gutted that right now I can't share the pictures with you!

We also got one of those Phineas or Pherbs (sorry this is one bit of guess for me as my nephews sometime have it on but these 2 have never featured in my love of Disney) characters to colour in and get stamped at every country - we have never ever done this and actually had a lot of fun as we learnt how to write our names in Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. See you do learn something new every day.
And we got to colour in, now who doesn't like colouring? Chris even told me off when I went over the line and the colours merged! I felt like I was 5 again.

Off out to Magic Kingdom now - it's going to be a late one as MSEP isn't until 9pm with Wishes at 10pm - so will update on those bits tomorrow.

We're off to Animal Kingdom for 2 hours in the morning then Chris has golf again!
We are going to try to find somewhere that sells a SD converter to IPAD too - so that I can get this trip report back on track!

For now my Pirates fast pass is calling me and we have BTMR to do in the dark!

Goodbye until tomorrow ........

coachwnh · Nov 15, 2014

Longers said:
Firstly an apology, my card reader to get the photos from my SD card onto my IPAD is still not working.
So still no photo's - I asked in a shop today but they tried to sell me something that I know was wrong!
I have been googling where to go to get one but at the moment no luck!

Ask at the desk at Riverside. I has a camera issue this past summer. I asked the CM at the front desk (we were staying at AKL at the time) where to get a new camera and they comped us the cab ride roundtrip to the store. I didn't even ask for it. Maybe they can help you with a bit of Disney magic.

Longers · Nov 15, 2014

coachwnh said:
Ask at the desk at Riverside. I has a camera issue this past summer. I asked the CM at the front desk (we were staying at AKL at the time) where to get a new camera and they comped us the cab ride roundtrip to the store. I didn't even ask for it. Maybe they can help you with a bit of Disney magic.

Thanks coach I remember you putting that in one of your live reports. Think we may have found something online 4 miles away so might give that a go tomorrow at some point. I guess yours was a camera which is quite critical to a trip - me being able to upload to do a trip report might not seem quite so important

coachwnh · Nov 16, 2014

Longers said:
Thanks coach I remember you putting that in one of your live reports. Think we may have found something online 4 miles away so might give that a go tomorrow at some point. I guess yours was a camera which is quite critical to a trip - me being able to upload to do a trip report might not seem quite so important

Best of luck! Hope to see all of those pictures soon!

Longers · Nov 16, 2014

Sunday 16th November

Good morning - another change of plans this morning - we didn't go to Animal Kingdom instead we went on an outing to find a best buy so I could get a connector to be able to share my photo's as promised - now that is commitment!

Great news - mission accomplished. Photos to follow.

Chris has gone out to golf and we are meeting back up at 6pm tonight . So first things first update report and then see what time it is and where I should he'd off to......

Last Wednesday nights promised photos were ice cream and Osborne Lights so here they are

Longers · Nov 16, 2014

Thursday was our KKTK tour so here are our pictures of that day.....

First the one of Main Street before everyone was let in - I am jumping but not sure if that's what the picture looks like?

And then this one of us both.

This is the one of Anibal our tour guy - this man is great! - if you get him on a tour I know it will be good

Then our ice cream for this day

And then finally our name badges and pins given to us (sorry these pictures are a little fuzzy)

Longers · Nov 16, 2014

Friday was our Universal day

You may remember I said it was raining fine rain last Friday, well we took a few pictures of Kings Cross etc - for a moment we could really have been back home in Nov with the grey skies!

This next picture was taken looking into the Knight bus - we didn't worry about taking any other silly pictures like last time of us hanging off the back of it!

And then some more pictures of Diagon Alley

And we did manage to get THE photo that everyone waits for

The a couple of silly photos we took

And finally the cold stone ice cream and Cinnabon

Longers · Nov 16, 2014

Yesterday - yay all caught up - nearly.........

Epcot day and world showcase photos....... All taken with our gorillapod. We did have quite a lot of offers to take photos but this was a gorillapod day!

I won't post every coumtry but here are a few - well quite a few.

Longers · Nov 16, 2014

And some more from yesterday - bet you wished I hadn't gone out this morning now??.?.

Longers · Nov 16, 2014

Oops nearly forgot took this picture on the way out of Epcot that we are quite chuffed with

Saturday 15th cont......

So we had a great day in Epcot but Magic Kingdom, wishes and MSEP was calling.

We also had fast pass for Pirates, BTMR and buzz so off we went
It took ages to get to Magic Kingdom and the bus was full - clearly we all had the same idea, it had been a nice day so was a nice evening so why not go to see the fireworks

By the time we arrived we only had 10 mins until our pirates fast pass expired so we walked very quickly and arrived about 3 mins late but they let us in without battering an eye lid.....

From here it was onto BTMR - back row again and it's so cool to do this ride in the dark, as it was coming to the last bend to pull into the station there is an explosion effect that went off which was a really neat part to the ride we've never seen before.

Back onto Buzz - Chris won - so I will let him have that one but to be honest we both got very poor scores!

Then ice cream time and we had to go back to get one of these little beauties but we shared......

and then the MSEP we didn't get very good photos - we have better from previous years - sorry

We gave up on wishes pictures as I think we were too Far down Main Street so here Is one from a previous visit

Longers · Nov 16, 2014

So back to today - Sunday 16th November

By now you know that the photo situation is now sorted.
For anyone interested there is a best buy only 20 mins from POR - Weat Osceola Parkway - they have an apple section within the store so we didn't have to go far.

We filled the car up with petrol on the way - it's so different buying gas here.
In the UK you fill up and then pay - here you pay first and then the pump stops at that amount.
Just thought I would sure that bit of info.

It's now 1pm and I have 5 hours to amuse myself while Chris is at golf.
I may go to the pool for an hour

Then I might go to Hollywood Studios - decisions decisions - more later and hope you like all the photos.

Minnesota disney fan · Nov 16, 2014

Longers said:
So back to today - Sunday 16th November

By now you know that the photo situation is now sorted.
For anyone interested there is a best buy only 20 mins from POR - Weat Osceola Parkway - they have an apple section within the store so we didn't have to go far.

We filled the car up with petrol on the way - it's so different buying gas here.
In the UK you fill up and then pay - here you pay first and then the pump stops at that amount.
Just thought I would sure that bit of info.

It's now 1pm and I have 5 hours to amuse myself while Chris is at golf.
I may go to the pool for an hour

Then I might go to Hollywood Studios - decisions decisions - more later and hope you like all the photos.

Thanks for catching us up! Great pictures. The gas thing? That's only pay first in areas where there is a high rate of people driving off without paying. Most places have pump first, then pay, usually with credit card. So, we are the same with you guys on that. There must be a big problem with drive-offs in that area. We now have a day and a half, I'm counting every minute. Catching up on my packing, etc, and can't wait to get to our home away from home, POR!!!! have a great day

Longers · Nov 16, 2014

Minnesota disney fan said:
Thanks for catching us up! Great pictures. The gas thing? That's only pay first in areas where there is a high rate of people driving off without paying. Most places have pump first, then pay, usually with credit card. So, we are the same with you guys on that. There must be a big problem with drive-offs in that area. We now have a day and a half, I'm counting every minute. Catching up on my packing, etc, and can't wait to get to our home away from home, POR!!!! have a great day

Safe journey - I am off to find ice cream!

might even have to have 2 seeing as Chris isn't with me

Zipadeelady · Nov 16, 2014

Yeah!! Happy to see you have you pictures back on!!

Longers · Nov 16, 2014

Sunday 16th Nov cont......

So The last time I checked in Chris had left for golf, I had finished updating the trip report and I was thinking of going to the pool.

I did end up at the pool and got chatting to a lovely lady named Marianne from Ohio. Before I knew it the time was 3.10 and I hadn't moved and I had told Chris I would be back by 6pm

So a quick shower and change and I was on my way to the bus stop, by myself!

The bus was there as I arrived so I jumped right on.
Now for years we have got on the bus and have always sat at the front of the seat and slid Back into it. It's a bit of a Disney thing. As Chris has driven most of this holiday (as I mentioned before he loves driving here) I had my chance to do that thing!
Disappointing - the seats aren't as slippery as they used to be so it didn't quite work but I tried it anyway.

I arrived at Disney's Hollywoo (oops chopped the end off) just around 4pm - much later than planned but that's what you get when you start chatting!

My first stop was

I have said before that this is my favourite film so I like to do this show at least once every trip and I didnt think Chris would mind missing it (I think he only goes with me anyway)

I sat around 5 rows from the front....

By this point it was nearly 5pm and I figured I needed to be heading to the bus stop by 5.30 to get back so there was only one thing for it.......

Ice cream time -

a chocolate brownie sundae

It was really yummy but I couldn't eat it all - so had to leave a little bit (I am sure Chris would have helped if he was with me

So now we are off to get something to eat - we have a Test track fast pass later and will be watching illuminations.

I am not sure what we are doing tomorrow but will of course update at some point.

Thanks for sticking with me.