Trip Report Ice cream, BTMRR challenge and a Magical time .....Completed

Hi and welcome.

I’ve been home from our trip a week now and the cold, wet UK weather is depressing me so I’m going to get this TR started.

For those of you who have joined me before you’ll know I’m a bit mad on Disney - like everyone here I know but I literally just can’t get enough and really absorb every second of my time in the world. I also insist on ice cream every day when on holiday so expect ice cream photos along the way.

So the details.....

Myself and my husband Chris

This was our 23rd visit to the world with all stays being 14 days or more with the exception of our special bonus March trip this year. It had been 229 days since I stepped out of the world and I was so ready to go back.

We left on the UK on 7th November and were scheduled to leave America on 21st November - (more on that Later as there were a few bumps along the way)

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside (home) - all trips to Disney except my extra March trip have been here. I love Riverside, it’s just so peaceful after hectic days in the park and it had been a whole year since I had been here.

Isn’t it beautiful?

And as for the rest of the TR title those of you who follow @Tuvalu TR’s will know she tags me in the BTMRR pictures. We both have a love for the ride and I curiously asked her how many times in a year she thinks she rides. So we’ve been counting and having a friendly challenge even though I thought I would never stand a change of winning it’s going to be fun to see how it turns out.

I managed to get an additional trip in this year during March and ended that trip on 7 rides (so maybe there was hope for me to win). @Tuvalu is there now though and is currently on 18 rides for the year........ So how many did I end up at?

So let’s get this started.......

 

[Longers]

I just bought the purple ears last night!

Yes I just saw this on insta and also Megan @Doc Disney got hers too!
Lucky ladies!

 

[LisaBelle]

Tracey I apologize for being so late to the party. I have been so busy that I haven't had any time to be on the Forums. Luckily I am on Christmas break and FINALLY have time to catch up with all of my Disney pals.
I am loving your report! I want to come to WDW with you and Chris. You two have the best time! And all the ice cream. The one with the peppermint straw is right up my alley.
So many comments....
So excited to hear that your family will be joining you at WDW in 2019. I'm sure your nephews will LOVE it. How could they NOT with you and Chris as their guides?!
I love all the ears you've worn.
How exciting that you got to meet the guy behind the magic!

Trust me.....Target is WAAAAAYYYY better than Walmart!!

I am in complete agreement with @ Riverside. Give Target another chance. It is my favorite store!
Looking forward to hearing the final BTMR count and all the rest of the fun!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I love those Spaceship Earth ears too. Great trip report so far!

 

[LeighM]

I just bought the purple ears last night!

My friend and I want the purple ears so bad!! I hope they don't become a craze like the rose gold. I'm going to be there in April and hoping they have plenty in stock since I won't be going to any of the parks. Fingers crossed!!

 

[Longers]

Tracey I apologize for being so late to the party. I have been so busy that I haven't had any time to be on the Forums. Luckily I am on Christmas break and FINALLY have time to catch up with all of my Disney pals.
I am loving your report! I want to come to WDW with you and Chris. You two have the best time! And all the ice cream. The one with the peppermint straw is right up my alley.
So many comments....
So excited to hear that your family will be joining you at WDW in 2019. I'm sure your nephews will LOVE it. How could they NOT with you and Chris as their guides?!
I love all the ears you've worn.
How exciting that you got to meet the guy behind the magic!

I am in complete agreement with @ Riverside. Give Target another chance. It is my favorite store!
Looking forward to hearing the final BTMR count and all the rest of the fun!

Hi Lisa
Better late than never!
Glad you've Finally found some time to catch up.
I love that there were some new ice creams to try and the peppermint one was rather nice and very refreshing.
My nephews are a little older than I would have liked to take them now (16 and 13 when we leave) but like you say I’m sure they will have fun - they already know that Chris and I aren’t serious about anything.
And target is nearer our villa than Wallmart so maybe it will be more popular in Aug.

I love those Spaceship Earth ears too. Great trip report so far!

Thank you

My friend and I want the purple ears so bad!! I hope they don't become a craze like the rose gold. I'm going to be there in April and hoping they have plenty in stock since I won't be going to any of the parks. Fingers crossed!!

Keeping everything crossed for you. Purple is my favourite colour so they have my name on them!

 

[Longers]

Happy new year fellow WDW Magic friends - I hope you are all have a happy & healthy 2019 (with loads of WDW magic trips thrown in)

Monday 19th Nov cont........

So back to the report.

You last left us in a queue at guest relations in Epcot but why?

This is why!

I am beyond excited to say I’m an annual Passholders! I feel like I in some way own some of Disney

I am an annual Passholders! It feels so good......

Anyhow, now for the story of why it happened now.

As some of you will know we sneaked in a March trip this year which I absolutely loved! To have 2 trips in a year was amazing!

Now before we came on this holiday we knew we had the Aug one booked so I asked Virgin holidays how much just the Disney tickets were for that trip - £809 for us both just for the Disney tickets

So if I could upgrade to an annual pass for a similar amount it would be a no brainer.

We had asked earlier in the week and had been told how much in dollars for a no block out ticket but without a water park option (which our Aug ticket did include) and we assumed the price needed tax adding

We’d done the maths and decided that with some of the benefits it would be worth it and would help our Aug trip as we’re offsite and having to pay for parking etc.

So at guest relations in Epcot he quoted us the same price - I asked him how much with tax added and he said that was all in.

So in brief after payments we upgraded for an additional £782 against the £809 we would be paying - so yes it was cheaper! Albeit we don’t have water parks but as an AP we get a discount anyway on a water park ticket but we may just steer everyone to volcano bay in Universal as that’s on our ticket anyway.

We’ll also get the free parking and merchandise discounts......

Right then we were very happy people - anyone watching us must have thought we had won the lottery!
We were skipping around and went straight to Mouse gear for our magnets

Why oh why hadn’t we done it earlier though as we missed out on another magnet and chopping boards for the F&W festival. But that wasn’t going to spoil our excitement.

We took some pictures to commemorate the occasion and the. Headed back to our resort for a spot of lunch and a stroll around riverside as we’d been full on since we arrived and not really appreciate it fully.

 

[Tuvalu]

Welcome to the club!

(Warning....it’s addicting!)

 

[Longers]

Welcome to the club!

(Warning....it’s addicting!)

I have to pay a minimum of £800 before I can get there though! And that’s just the flight!
Need to find myself some bargains.........

Happy New Year

 

[Tuvalu]

I have to pay a minimum of £800 before I can get there though! And that’s just the flight!
Need to find myself some bargains.........

Happy New Year

Cheers!

(And there are typically AP room discounts....just sayin’ )

 

[Longers]

Oops - last post is slightly wrong - we headed from Epcot to Disney springs for lunch.

We were going to try to eat in the burger place and had tried to do mobile order but the meals\snacks we had were not showing - oh no, had we lost them by becoming AP?

We headed to guest relations to check but it was a 45 min wait so decided to go in AK for them to check so we didn’t have to wait

but.....

then I had a brainwave - let’s go via Ghirardelli so they can check our account.

Thankfully everything was still there - 16 meals and 30 snacks!
We breathed a sigh of relief.
We only had one last full day to go so we got 10 bars of peppermint for my brother as he loves them and this used up 2 meals

So still 14 meals and 30 snacks to go!

I don’t think the burger place does the meal plan - we’ll that’s the only explanation we have for it not working!

So then we went back to Riverside for lunch

And then we headed to AK

I love these signs as you walk towards the park mentioning elephant steps

Hello AK

And even though the other lines were empty we went through this queue - just because we could!

We headed straight to EE but the queue just to get to the FP tap in point was 17 mins!

We then stopped for Ice cream at Andalusia truck - we have snacks to use after all.

We had FP for the Safari next but the queue was really long so we decided not to go and instead wandered - look at this queue!

 

[Longers]

Cheers!

(And there are typically AP room discounts....just sayin’ )

I just mentioned the room discounts to Chris - just trying to work out how I find out the cost and booking them!

 

[Longers]

We headed to Pandora for our last goodbye for this trip.

My last night blossom

We took our last ride on FOP - I might have shed a tear.....

And we slowly walked out.....

 

[Longers]

I was appreciating all the little details - animals around the sign posts

And elephants on top of them

We headed back to our room to get ready for a full day tomorrow.
It was going to be my birthday and we were having a full day in the MK to see out our trip and to celebrate.

I opened my birthday cards as we didn’t want to spend time in the morning doing it.

My nephew made me this one! He knows me so well....

We settled in for an early night but new neighbours had arrived and it was clear there was a lot of excitement in the room - they were so noisy, we could hear every word. They ordered pizza and there’s was finally a bit of peace. I think that’s probably when we drifted off to sleep, dreaming of another day in the most magical place on Earth.

 

[Longers]

Cheers!

(And there are typically AP room discounts....just sayin’ )

Any tips for how to find them are appreciated we’re going round in circles being directed to all different web sites....

 

[Tuvalu]

Log into Disneyworld.com and scroll down to the very bottom of the page. The last column on the right is My Disney Experience. Towards the bottom of this column click on Annual Passholders. This will bring up info on the Annual Passholder Program. Under Discover Exciting Passholder Discounts click on View Resort Offers. The current room discount offer is from January 1 - April 27. Offers for late spring/summer/fall usually won’t appear until the current offer expires, but it pays to check regularly.

 

[Longers]

Log into Disneyworld.com and scroll down to the very bottom of the page. The last column on the right is My Disney Experience. Towards the bottom of this column click on Annual Passholders. This will bring up info on the Annual Passholder Program. Under Discover Exciting Passholder Discounts click on View Resort Offers. The current room discount offer is from January 1 - April 27. Offers for late spring/summer/fall usually won’t appear until the current offer expires, but it pays to check regularly.

Thanks - I was in the right place then I just couldn’t work out how they would know I am AP but I guess it’s linked to my Disney experience account somehow. And yes I am looking

 

[LisaBelle]

Yay Tracey and Chris! I am super excited for you! Being an AP holder is a dream of mine. So happy it came true for you!

 

[Longers]

Yay Tracey and Chris! I am super excited for you! Being an AP holder is a dream of mine. So happy it came true for you!

If we don’t plan any more trips than our Aug one we’re not really out of pocket anyway. That was the condition I had when purchasing it - obviously any further trips will be awesome but it’s just expensive with the flights I didn’t want to put pressure on to fit another trip in.

Never say never - dreams come true!

 

[disneypearl]

Congratulations on becoming Passholders! It’s a wonderful feeling!

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Congratulations on your AP!!!
I thought about it when we were able to go twice this year, but "passed" on it for now.
We probably won't be going next year at all, at least that's the plan for now.
But you never know if the opportunity will show itself
Love your trip report.