Trip Report Finally Back in Our Happy Place. A Three Week Trip With a Cruise Included

We’ve been back for just over a week from what was a wonderful three weeks. There were a few hiccups, but for the most part Disney World was just as we remembered it.

This trip was me and my two youngest daughters, Alice (18) and Lexi (15)

We stayed at Pop Century from July 7th-20th, then sailed on the Disney Magic from July 20th-25th, then French Quarter for the last three nights, July 25th-28th. For the Pop Century part of the trip we had the UK 14 day park tickets which included the waterparks.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

My view today

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In Southampton on the Disney Fantasy which is sailing out to Norway for seven nights. So there will be a little break in this trip report as I’ll have limited internet

Jealous.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Jealous.

Are you cruising this year

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Are you cruising this year

No cruises for the foreseeable future.
Did DLP in April and going back in October

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Back to the real world now, for a little while at least as it’s just over five weeks until my transatlantic cruise.
I had a wonderful week on the Disney Fantasy, Norway is the most stunningly beautiful country. I’m not going to write a full trip report for the cruise but I’ll add some photos at the end of this one.

Just a taster, one of the bazillion waterfalls that I saw

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 13th July (cont)

After Spaceship Earth our next LL was for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, I was very surprised that we’d been able to get a same day LL for it. This did mean some park crisscrossing, but we didn’t need to rush and just took a leisurely stroll over

I think I took this just because the flowers were purple

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 13th July (cont)

The girls were still enjoying interacting with the statues

Teeny, tiny lizard

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 13th July (cont)

I had hoped that the slightly queasy feeling that I had the first time I rode was a one off but it wasn’t. I do enjoy the ride though and I can cope with just riding the once.

We were stuck for a while at the end of the ride

More park criss cross next as we had a LL for Figment. We definitely didn’t need it, there wasn’t even anyone in the standby queue

 

[littleroo]

It is odd, of all the rides, this is the one that messes with my senses the most!! Like you, I will do it once a trip but I won't be sad if it is forgotten....
That waterfall picture is gorgeous! I am glad you loved your trip. I am looking forward to that TR, too.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 13th July (cont)

Next up was our LL for Guardians and this time we experienced the pushing and shoving in the pre-show that I’ve read other people complain about.

It worked out that we were right at the front of the room before the pre-show and around us were what I think was a big group of young adult re-riders. One of the guys to my right was trying to persuade the cm there to let him skip the pre-show but the cm wasn’t having any of his nonsense. I could hear him whining that he’d seen the show over 30 times, the cm quipped back “how many times do you think I’ve seen it?”. He was quite funny as well, telling everyone not to move until he was clear of the doorway, and kind of acting out when it would and wouldn’t be ok to move. He did a really great job of controlling the rush into the pre-show room, standing near where the re-rider group were to make sure they went in slowly. But once the pre-show finished it was a bit chaotic in the dash for the queue, we just hung back from it. I found it quite ridiculous that grown adults behaved that way, pushing in front of families all to save a few minutes and possibly spoiling what was someone’s first time riding.

It calmed down once everyone was in the queue proper and once again we absolutely loved the ride. This time our song was ‘I Ran’ which was good but I preferred ‘One Way or Another’

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 13th July (cont)

We had a LL for Misson:SPACE next but as we walked over there we saw that the ride was down. We discussed what to do next and decided that we’d rather get a good spot for fireworks rather than hang around and wait for it to reopen.

Our viewing spot

A few minutes after we got there we ended up being surrounded by one of the teenage tour groups who were very boisterous and I did have to stick out my elbows on the railings to stop one girl squashing into us. It was worth it to hold the spot though because we really enjoyed the show and it was a much better view than a few nights earlier.

We had a reasonably quick exit to the skyliner and back to the resort. We hadn’t eaten any dinner yet because we’d had our big lunch at Tiffins so we headed to the food court for some pizza.

I did mean to take more photos around the resort, but never quite got round to it just these that evening.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 14th July

This was definitely going to be our first day without LLMP, we wanted to have a lazy day at Magic Kingdom and we had a big lunch reservation.

It was nearly 9.30 by the time we got to the bus stop

Hello Cruise Line bus, we’ll see you in a few days

We all liked the Star Wars bus

First up, we needed something to eat and I wanted one of my favourites.

Still playing with the statues on the way

Our destination was Gaston’s Tavern and it was crazy busy

There was no chance of anywhere to sit so we had a little ‘trash can table time’

Alice had the crème brûlée croissant which is hiding behind the ginormous cinnamon rolls, she found it a bit too sweet and only ate about half. Lexi and I inhaled our cinnamon rolls, luckily we had diet cokes with them so we didn’t have too much sugar

 

[MinnieM123]

It was worth it to hold the spot though because we really enjoyed the show and it was a much better view than a few nights earlier.

That is an outstanding photo of the fireworks! You certainly found a great location to stake out the best camera view.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

is Sorry to hijack theis thread but it looks like Adam Hatton has a vlog series of your Norway cruise coming out on Sunday 12th October.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

That is an outstanding photo of the fireworks! You certainly found a great location to stake out the best camera view.

Thanks, although the photo is one Alice took. I was really pleased with getting such a good location

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

is Sorry to hijack theis thread but it looks like Adam Hatton has a vlog series of your Norway cruise coming out on Sunday 12th October.

I meant to mention that in my earlier post. I knew he was on the cruise because Lexi and Alice both follow him, but I didn’t see him at all. There were actually quite a few YouTubers on the ship so there might be more videos coming out

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 14th July (cont)

After our snack we wandered about a bit

We went on Little Mermaid because there wasn’t much of a wait

We browsed the shops

Lexi would have loved this when she was a toddler, Pluto has always been her favourite

Sweet treats, but I think we’d had enough sugar

It reminded me of the time when the girls were asked to help make rice crispy treats

Then a bit more wandering

We hadn’t been to any shows in MK yet so our next stop was a favourite, Mickey’s ‘Full-of-Magic’. Misheard by Alice as a small child and we’ve called it that since. We enjoyed it as usual and loved the new Coco scene.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 14th July (cont)

We decided we wanted to go on Haunted Mansion next. On the walk over we saw these guys, so cute with their matching ears

There was quite a queue before we got to the shaded portion and we were very melty waiting

Passing time while waiting

Didn’t think much of the view

But at least the water was still there at this point

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 14th July (cont)

I wasn’t enjoying the long wait and was missing having LLMP. I discovered on this trip that, even though I can walk and run for miles, if I stand in one place for too long my back starts hurting.

Distracting myself

We ended up waiting about 45 minutes for the ride and we were really glad to be in some ac after waiting that long

The ride stopped for a while, so I managed to take a photo

Lexi’s ride photo never appeared but Alice and I tried a pose this time

After the ride we browsed the shop. I liked this ornament, I found that a lot of ride and character ornaments were a bit too plain for me, I like one that has some sparkle on it.

This was just after midday. I don’t know where all the people are, the park was busy that day

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 14th July (cont)

Next up was our lunch reservation at Crystal Palace which turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the trip.

As huge Pooh and Piglet fans, Crystal Palace has always been our must do restaurant every trip. Especially as it’s now the only place to meet Piglet, I do vaguely remember there being a meet and greet in Animal Kingdom years ago. I know it’s never been fine dining but we’ve always found that the food was quite good, and we’ve done breakfasts and lunches.

It’s also been a place that we’ve spent a few birthdays at

Alice’s 6th

Lexi’s 3rd (a few days before so we didn’t have to pay for her)

I’ll start with the good.

Our server was very good, just the right amount of chatty and friendly and kept the table clear.

We all really enjoyed the character interaction

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Monday 14th July (cont)

Eeyore and Piglet