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]

We then headed onto FOP for our fast pass. I do enjoy this ride and when I know it’s nearly at the end I get sad - I just want it to never stop.

We exited to enjoy the beauty of Pandora it is just so beautiful I could truly sit in there all day. And every time I visit I am just in awe of what they created there. Photos truly don’t show the true beauty.

 

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More Pandora photos (sorry)

 

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Pandora and rides done we left the park and headed to Tuscan Hills villas.

We have a family holiday arranged for Aug 2019 (I know it will be hot and we are mad). But my nephews will be 13 and 16 when we go and have just watched me going to Disney year after year without having a holiday themselves and wishing they could go too. My sister went through a messy divorce and still isn’t totally free (and we wouldn’t have been allowed to take them anyway due to her ex) but she hasn’t had a holiday for 14 years either. We’ve decided to all go together 9 of us and where better to go than Disney?!
Because of all her issues I don’t think we will fully appreciate we are going until we are all on that plane together but for the time being we will continue planning.

We wanted to see how far away the villa would be so decided to do a drive over - If anyone has stayed in these villas let me know what they are like - not that we can change them now but I just hope this holiday will be good and won’t disappoint them - and I’m obviously staying offsite - my first time ever! That’s obviously not something I’m used to either but I’m prepared to make the sacrifice to support the cost for my sister. She’s had a rough few years and really just needs a good holiday.

They didn’t look too bad from the outside from what we could see but we couldn’t get right in as it’s a gated community.

Fact finding done we were back in the room for a rest with the intention of going out again but as I was still not feeling 100% I suggested to Chris we didn’t go out but instead ate at the food court and had an early night.

He did look at me with surprise but we both agreed that we would have been just going into a park for only an hour so we may as well go to bed and make the time up tomorrow.

We were off to Sea World in the morning......

 

[Tiggertoo56]

I can't believe that since EE opened I never went on it until this year - it was fantastic and I can't work out why I wouldn't ride it before. I love FOP, Navi river and the whole of Pandora too. Theming is just wonderful and am sad I won't be able to do it for a while.

Lovely to hear that you have a whole group going next year - so jealous as we won't be back for at least 3 years - aiming to go for 50th celebrations.

Enjoying your report so far, and hope you got over your cold sooner rather than later. I picked up a bug on the flight home and still not quite got rid of it.

 

[Longers]

I can't believe that since EE opened I never went on it until this year - it was fantastic and I can't work out why I wouldn't ride it before. I love FOP, Navi river and the whole of Pandora too. Theming is just wonderful and am sad I won't be able to do it for a while.

Lovely to hear that you have a whole group going next year - so jealous as we won't be back for at least 3 years - aiming to go for 50th celebrations.

Enjoying your report so far, and hope you got over your cold sober rather than later. I picked up a bug on the flight home and still not quite got rid of it.

I wouldn’t go on EE for years as it went backwards but I finally took the plunge and have been trying to ride several times since to make up for lost time.
The whole of Pandora is truly beautiful and still takes my breathe away.
My nephews hate zoos etc and say they can’t go to AK but I am just taking them - they have to ride FOP and see pandora - I’m bigging up FOP at the moment but not telling them which park it’s in - by the time they are set to go they won’t care what park it’s in - they will just want to ride it!

And hoping for a good family trip next year - my nephews might not get it as much as they would have if they would have been younger but I still think they’ll have a good time - with their crazy auntie how wouldn’t they?

My cold only lasted a couple of days whilst away so all was good - sorry you got ill on the way home - you should have picked up some American medicine - I literally bring some home with me now every trip. Hope you feel better soon

 

[Longers]

Monday 12th Nov

I slept for around 11 hours last night and woke up feeling loads better but lethargic- (think it was all that sleep.)

We headed out via Walgreens for bite relief as Chris got bitten last night and swears it’s POR food court by the windows! He is sure his been bitten there before in previous years too - but who knows.

We arrived at Sea World and were held waiting for their 10am opening watching Manta go round. (It was obviously empty at opening - this was a picture I took later in the day)

Chris headed onto the ride - I had thought this looked fun and I might ride but when Chris exited he said I wouldn’t like it.

As you face forward on the ride, when there is a loop he had ended up going backwards on his back!
Definitely not one for me!

Whilst waiting for the park to open we had looked at all the show times and were headed off to a show

On the way we passed some manatees and turtles. I love watching turtles I think they are so graceful. I used to have a terrapins when I was younger and these are just bigger versions.

 

[Longers]

Our first show was the Clyde and Seymour one (we’ll thats what we call it)

It was warm out but the it looked like it was going to rain.
As we sat down it started to rain - but it’s ok we were under cover so we huddled together and waited for the show to start.

It was a good show but not as good as the last time we were in Sea World but it meant we kept dry. The hardest part was keeping dry from everyone else coming in who clearly hadn’t seen the dark clouds and got caught in the rain. Thankfully no one sat with us anyway.
In fact one gentleman who had come in stood by the fan and dried himself off during the show.

The sun was out by the time it finished so we started to walk to our next show.

 

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Our next stop was the Shamu stadium
Whoever does the music for these shows does a great job - it truly touches you.

We found a spot up the back away from everyone to watch the show.

 

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We then headed to the wild artic

We both thought this wall or whatever you want to call it would be fake - but this was a solid piece of ice - we were both pretty impressed with that as it didn’t look like it was melting either. How do they keep that solid?

The wild artic conquered we headed out to catch our next show.

 

[Longers]

Next stop was the dolphins theatre.
I seem to think there was another shower during this day but we never got wet and it was still a lovely warm sunny day.

Show finished Chris headed to Mako and I enjoyed the sunshine

Time to stroll and just explore now all the shows were done

But first ice cream!

 

[Longers]

Ice cream fix done we started to explore

 

[Rista1313]

Ice cream fix done we started to explore

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I just love acquariums!

 

[Longers]

I can’t believe how much food these guys eat - so many people were feeding them but I guess they have some control as they much know how much food they sell.

 

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Next stop Antarctica and empire of the penguin. We saw the signs saying it was a ride or you could walk through. We weren’t really sure what type of ride it was and there was a bit of a queue so we decided to do the walk through version.

We exited into the most terrible smell - boy do penguins stink. The staff who have to stay in there all day I feel really sorry for. It was cold too (but that’s to be expected)

We took a few pictures and got out of there into some fresh air.

The ride looked pretty cool from what we saw at the end so we regretted not queuing.

 

[Longers]

We stumbled across this tank where you could take a picture - obviously I was going - I crawled on my hands and knees and stuck my head up - I couldn’t see a thing so didn’t know if Chris had taken a picture or not - this is what he took..

We had enjoyed our day at Sea World and avoided 2 rain showers and we were ready to head out.
We looked in the shops, bought a piece of fudge which never did get eaten fully as it ended up in the bin the day we left

We took this picture as we left

We were headed straight here.... we had a 5.15 FP to get too

 

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Monday 12th Nov cont...

We arrived in HS and headed straight to see Indy..

We headed out and grabbed a quick dinner and then headed for our first look at Toy story land. I didn’t take any pictures as I wanted to just take it all in, it was also really busy!

My overall thought was that it’s well themed but nothing special - sorry for those who love it. I’m not saying I don’t like it but Pandora to me is on another level.

Next stop TSMM.....

For those who have read my previous reports you’ll know that Chris just doesn’t seem to ever beat me on this ride but this time he did!

He was absolutely buzzing at his win, punching the air and cheering.
How on earth did that happen?

Still buzzing from his win I took my chance to ask if we could do VOTLM - obviously he said yes.....

I always remember taking my mum to see this back in 1998 when she took her first (and last visit to the world). I can’t wait to see this with her again next year.

It’s just a feel good show and it’s cool to feel like you’re under the sea.

 

[Longers]

Next we headed to RNRC - does anyone else say “make it happen” in everyday life and touch thumbs?
We do......

After our ride it was ice cream time!

We’d had a full day so it was time to head home....

Before we went to sleep we were looking through some of the things we’d picked up to bring home for family members and on this map - they had POR listed as Dixie Landings!

Our first trip it was called Dixie Landings so we had a chuckle, and a big grin as we went to sleep that night!

@riverside - one for you if you remember it?

 

[Songbird76]

Pandora and rides done we left the park and headed to Tuscan Hills villas.

We have a family holiday arranged for Aug 2019 (I know it will be hot and we are mad). But my nephews will be 13 and 16 when we go and have just watched me going to Disney year after year without having a holiday themselves and wishing they could go too. My sister went through a messy divorce and still isn’t totally free (and we wouldn’t have been allowed to take them anyway due to her ex) but she hasn’t had a holiday for 14 years either. We’ve decided to all go together 9 of us and where better to go than Disney?!
Because of all her issues I don’t think we will fully appreciate we are going until we are all on that plane together but for the time being we will continue planning.

We wanted to see how far away the villa would be so decided to do a drive over - If anyone has stayed in these villas let me know what they are like - not that we can change them now but I just hope this holiday will be good and won’t disappoint them - and I’m obviously staying offsite - my first time ever! That’s obviously not something I’m used to either but I’m prepared to make the sacrifice to support the cost for my sister. She’s had a rough few years and really just needs a good holiday.

They didn’t look too bad from the outside from what we could see but we couldn’t get right in as it’s a gated community.

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Fact finding done we were back in the room for a rest with the intention of going out again but as I was still not feeling 100% I suggested to Chris we didn’t go out but instead ate at the food court and had an early night.

He did look at me with surprise but we both agreed that we would have been just going into a park for only an hour so we may as well go to bed and make the time up tomorrow.

We were off to Sea World in the morning......

Oh how exciting!! When in August? We'll be be at Disney until August...3rd or 4th? And then we have a few days in Orlando to hang before going to Universal Orlando for 4 days. If our trips overlap, maybe we could grab a drink somewhere.

 

[Tiggertoo56]

Next we headed to RNRC - does anyone else say “make it happen” in everyday life and touch thumbs?
We do......

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After our ride it was ice cream time!

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We’d had a full day so it was time to head home....

Before we went to sleep we were looking through some of the things we’d picked up to bring home for family members and on this map - they had POR listed as Dixie Landings!

Our first trip it was called Dixie Landings so we had a chuckle, and a big grin as we went to sleep that night!

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@riverside - one for you if you remember it?

I remember it as Dixie Landings - our first ever trip we stayed at Carribean Beach and had to get to DL to get transport for a trip! We had a wander around the area on our return from the trip and thought we'd love to stay there at some point. By the time we did the name had changed.